Daz's amazing lootfest extravaganza

[Equinox]

Canzah, There are four places already.

Castle Blackhearth

Gaeserics Camp of Barbarians.

Stargazer Forest.

Exiled's Camp.

[TheImpossibleDream]

Not much to add at the moment other than I sometimes ponder if the reason characters have such short lifespans is the speed in which it is possible to gather vast amounts of supplies and level up.

I can't help but wonder, if it actually took some effort to get to level 6 would everyone be so keen to take risks. Now some people take too few risks and I suppose this would be detrimental to them. But there are many whom take too many risks sometimes. Leading to a lot more fighting than actual diplomacy when it comes to disputes.

I'd actually like to see leveling to at level 4+ slowed down quite a bit believe it or not but I'm doubtful such will ever happen!

[UnholyWon]

I like that certain factions are getting major love. The Targus run was awesome to watch and interact with. The Pallid Mask seems to be gathering steam. The Stewards (Shout out to the homies! Woot!) are doing their thing. The Stygians are always in the ever developing struggles of the colony and lands around them. RwG is running with the Tempus thing, which is really cool and shaking things up outside the colony (side note: RwG find out who the hell the sisters are that the Tempurian(sp?) outside the old gladiator arena always talked about, then screenie that shit! :) ). All seems to be moving wonderfully with all factions ingaging in the same turmoil in various different ways.

The DMs seem to be steering the NPCs and PCs in approriate directions, and making it fun for others. The lack of DMs is a minor, but could be improved, but we've seen the agruments about taking away from the player base and such. I understand the DMs restraint to bring in new DMs.

What bugs me... I mean this with no offense....

Gobsquat bugs the hell out of me. Goblins in no way can be made civilized, goblins are evil, evil, evil, evil. Gobsquat for me has become more of an eyes sore. Its the Jar Jar Binks of EFU:A. Here lately its served no function, nothing interesting has happened or changed in the area, aside from the suicide bomber from the docks.

What I would like to see is a group of Kozah (Talos) followers emerge and level the area with lighting bolts from above. Gobsquat has closed its gates, rarely anyone wants to pay the gold to get in. Perhaps it also reminds me of the Lower Sanctuary towards the end, like a reused plot. Here are goblins, drive the goblins into the sewers, then watch as the goblins repopulate and snatch their land back.

The Floating Island, perhaps my own imagination got in the way, but I felt disappointed.

I thought this was going to be like mountain side type lands dotted with ruined and ancient building staring out into the horizon. Walking the cobble stone streets covered in decaying underwater plants and filled with the stench of decaying underwater life. When I transitioned into the new area I was left with the feeling of "Oh... this is it?" I then learned that the rest of the area required traveling beneath the surface of the area and into the rock itself. I sort of lost interest in the area from then on out.

H'Bala seems to be the big baddy of the server, but there is rarely any activity from this NPC. What I'm saying is perhaps more showing that as time passes H'bala is growing in power, that she can reach out from her prison. Have a large band of shipwreck sailors attack the colony, or something to that effect.

The Mist has kinda disappeared, it seems like the waters between the isles are now more easily travelled and not as scary as once before. Bring the Mist back and her fickle temperment, and mystical creatures.

I think that's it, if I think of more I'll add it. Peace!

[RIPnogarD]

I know it won't happen as it's been discussed before and nix'd but I think changing the death system to loss of a Con point rather than XP loss would make for a huge differance to both RP and powergaming. People wouldn't be so willing to powerquest which would cut down on the "powerquesters have more loot" issue. This also would make people actually RP their way through a quest instead of running it. It would also slow things down enough that you might see new and more unique character concepts. It would be easier to RP being less healthy due to a loss of a constitution point than it is to RP having a skill, feat or spell one day and not the next (thats just silly IMO)... Anyway, just throwing my 2 cents into the mix.

And OH, btw!

an out door cafe' style bar perhaps?

Except for PC's chatting it up in the rain, this would be way cool.

[Gwydion]

1.  Every time I talk to DMs OOCly they are great.  I don't hang out in IRC a whole lot, but when I do get a chance to say hi and shoot the breeze its apparent that they are down to earth and very willing to listen to IG stuff.

Also, the server has been very well covered by the stretched-thin DM staff and it seems they are really doing a lot of fun things lately.  Awesome.

But. There's always a but. When I'm IG and shoot a tell to a DM to request something, most of the time there is no response.  Now I KNOW you guys are flooded at times and its impossible to process everything, but nonetheless I sometimes think my request is considered frivolous and annoying - and is being ignored as a result.  If it is, then tell me so and why if you have time.

So...should we spam the piss out of the DM channel and send "Does a DM have a minute.....does a DM have a minute....does a DM have a minute." like every five minutes or so?  Same goes for PMs.  Do mailboxes get full and they are overlooked or disappear?  

I guess maybe I'd like a DM to at least shoot a quick, "Busy" to me if they are busy.  If they don't have time, maybe a "I'll look for you tommorrow sometime."  


2.  If the DM staff would like to see more exploring of wilderness areas as a form of "risk-taking", tone down either the power or frequency of spawns or both.  If the DM staff wants to keep spawns the way they are, have more random areas pop up each reset to reward explorers.  Is there any way to make them like scripted quests in regards to party size and level range?

If you don't want a small group of PCs farming these each rest, then maybe make "random areas" a quest that only allows you to enter one.  If that's a pain in the butt to script, then make it very OOCly clear that a PC should only do 1, maybe 2 random areas each reset except by special request.  

Otherwise, its just not practical to wander around and burn supplies to get VERY little XP from killing spawns that could FD a character or two with a couple bad breaks or die rolls.

A DM can always drop a pair of ogre bandits or whatever on a PC party if the wilderness is supposed to be tough.  



3.  More short possessions of NPCs in leadership positions to talk or give advice to PCs.  Driving plots, furthering agendas.  Both in DM and PC factions (if there are NPCs in player factions), and in positions of authority to PCs outside the faction.  Players say this happens already, but I think more is better.  

I want to see an NPC steward walking around pwning spawns like Gaesseric used to in the UD.  I'd like to see Captain Drake leading a patrol into the foothills on a sweep.  I'd like to see the Black Company guard that walks from the castle to the main gates stop and take a piss or something.  I'd like to see a fence in the Docks try to sell a stolen magic ring.  An NPC cleric preaching their dogma and looking for followers and pushing an agenda.

Those little things are freakin' awesome to me.  If they are already being done, more please.

Thanks for listening DAZ and staff.

[Professor Death]

In Pnp gaming, as a DM I always supported the CON loss idea upon a character's raaise, along with an appropriate point loss perhaps to some other stat that was commensurate with the manner of death (Ooh, fireballed were you?  Okay there goes a point of charisma too).  But, with deaths being basically totally under DM control, deaths in my PnP campaigns were relatively rare and always required a raise dead spell to make a comeback.  In EFU, the randomness of the system and its technological quirks have to make me say NO!!!!!! to a Con point loss as well.  My last character died three times before even making it to its first quest (gotta love spawning in Starwood Village).  And there are plenty of random death opportunities out there that are really beyond your control (lag death, etc.) to warrant an even harsher death system.  

With that said I might support a CHANCE to lose stat points upon death, maybe only for higher level folks, or a conversation option that lets you choose to either respawn with XP loss or to take a stat point loss.

I know it won't happen as it's been discussed before and nix'd but I think changing the death system to loss of a Con point rather than XP loss would make for a huge differance to both RP and powergaming. People wouldn't be so willing to powerquest which would cut down on the "powerquesters have more potions" issue. This also would make people actually RP their way trough a quest instead of running it. It would also slow things down enough that you might see new and more unique character concepts. It would be easier to RP being less healthy due to a loss of a constitution point than it is to RP having a skill, feat or spell one day and not the next (thats just silly IMO)... Anyway, just throwing my 2 cents into the mix.

And OH, btw!

Except for PC's chatting it up in the rain, this would be way cool.

[petey512]

I would also like to see more of the mystery-factor that was in EfU. In EfU we wondered what was going on in the spellguard tower, we wondered who owned the now abandoned headquarters underneath the lower district. We wondered who the Chosen were and what the appetite was.

I understand there's stuff like this on EfU:A, but for some reason it's just not at appealing to me... There's the mist, the evil sorceress in the tower, the nightriser curse, and so on, but I find I just don't care about these that much.

On the other hand, I really am enjoying the server a lot more as of late, especially the new set up for the dock district. Good Job.

[Damien]

Two things.

1.) This server needs more serverwide affecting plots, I mean I know we've got stuff like H'bala, the Rot, larvals...but they don't affect us at all. The closest we get is walking there ourselves and fighting the spawns.

2.) More faction friction.

Both I'd say players can do but a little dm encouragement would go a long way I reckon.

Oh I'd say try and tone down the island spawns, I mean seriously when was the last time people did orcs 2?

[Egon the Monkey]

I agree with just about all of what Scruffy said, and I also like what Egon added to it.

I'm so eloquent people just assume it's me even when I haven't commented ;). That was  Ebok.

PCs don't live long enough

They do if you don't play someone with a "death before dishonour", "fear no man" or similar attitude, and you try and survive. I played Egon the Balladeer for what 6-7 months, and Ahmed Kaliwazah for about a year I think. Conflict is an important part of the server, but you *don't* have to jump in swinging and yelling warcries, you can have a PC who puts self-preservation before a cause or profit and still be involved in plots. Ahmed helped his friends out, but actually arming up and risking himself against other PCs was always the last option. The usual method was arming, equipping, informing and covertly buffing people.

Every Bugger Sits OUTSIDE the pub, not in it

A clear sign I need to play Danny more. Although even with him cajoling, I find PCs happy to stand about in the rain. People always making sendings for outside there doesn't help either. I try to vary mine a t least a bit. Unlike Sanctuary, we don't have a central plaza that most things are visible from, but a series of layers. It is a bit better in the Docks IMO as without the sendings and with a boxing ring in the Wastrel, people cluster at the pub more.

The risk/reward for exploring is terrible

Depends on the area. If I'm playing a stealth or invis capable PC, I know the areas I can zip around looking for randoms/skinnable animals/bosses/mob vs mob fights/new locations and have a minimal chance of something WTFPWNING me, and the areas to avoid. However it is really variable what you can turn up. Skinning is pretty good for rewards, but the bigger catches are hard to beat. I think the exploring  would be improved by more stuff to reward explorers and investigators, not just smashbot hunters.

• Long distance high level delivery quests (both group and solo) would rewards for travelling about more and could be done via fighting through or sneaky delivery. PC couriers could stumble across randoms because they have a reason to sneak through more risky areas. Stygians could earn their pay guarding a delivery of ore or load of rare wood. Sons could try and hijack such convoys in order to turn in the reward to somebody else.
• Rare plants that will turn up "Lasts until next reset" consumables upon a Lore/Spellcraft/Heal check and are situated in normally un-travelled areas.
• Balance spawns to have either detection or stealth. That way the stealthy things are a threat to an unsuspecting combat type crushing through an area, and the spotters exist to deny areas to stealth/invis PCs randomly. You don't get jumped by Vines on a sneak or invis runner, but you do start worrying about that group of Trueseeing mobs in plain sight.
  
• More puzzles like the Machine and Puzzle room IMO.

[eliff]

I agree with the point on server wide plots.  Sometimes it feels with the new ziggurat polictics that the real scary bad guys are just forgotten.  The CON point loss system, well i'll be frank I think it's a bad idea.  Whilst it would stop rushing quests, something like dying early on with a PC would make a lot of people give up and make a new guy. Do you really want to play on with a major disadvantage from level 4?

I think Gwydion's suggestion is cool, random NPC possesion is interesting and can easdily flow on into interesting RP.  Also perhaps there could be a quest related to the Mist somewhere?  Something like sailors taken by it and magical orbs.  This could be cool as you could have a glimpse into whats going on with it.

[Perum]

Gobsquat bugs the hell out of me. Goblins in no way can be made civilized, goblins are evil, evil, evil, evil. Gobsquat for me has become more of an eyes sore. Its the Jar Jar Binks of EFU:A. Here lately its served no function, nothing interesting has happened or changed in the area, aside from the suicide bomber from the docks.

I never played a goblin but I did play a EFU character aligned with Sewer town back when that was semi big in Underdark.
 
The truth is that while there is a nature hq, a docks hq and a zigg hq there has always been that "Other" faction. I know people do not always like the "Other" faction because A. it's usually evil B. it usually has zero pc interaction and C.it's usually not very scenic (Sewer town was not a hot spot.) The truth is for those people who dont' want to do the evil docks things, they get another option.
 
Gobsquat I don't think was ever meant to be a hub. Even if you had 5-6 goblin pcs it wouldn't be. It's just meant to be a place where exiles and low lives can hang out. The docks will always have the gangs true enough, but it's just a different vibe.
 
My two cents.

[BoomdaddyBP]

Gobsquat seemingly has come to a halt in activity and I think something needs to be done there. Granted, that something probably can come from players just as easily as dms (hint hint).

I also agree with Canzah, there certainly is no comparable places as Fort Mur or the Pyrimo.

[Howlando]

The truth is that while there is a nature hq, a docks hq and a zigg hq there has always been that "Other" faction. I know people do not always like the "Other" faction because A. it's usually evil B. it usually has zero pc interaction and C.it's usually not very scenic (Sewer town was not a hot spot.) The truth is for those people who dont' want to do the evil docks things, they get another option.

Gobsquat I don't think was ever meant to be a hub. Even if you had 5-6 goblin pcs it wouldn't be. It's just meant to be a place where exiles and low lives can hang out. The docks will always have the gangs true enough, but it's just a different vibe.

My two cents.

Perum gets it, I think. It's an area that DEFINITELY should not be a hub, or center of anything, or be particularly important, but it does provide a useful purpose for the server. We don't want it to be the center of plots and player activity. But it is nice as a place that can provide a refuge for certain kinds of PCs that are nice to have.

And yes goblins are evil but I think the place makes perfect IC sense. There is nuance in the degree of evil of things, and their capacity towards not just blindly attacking everything but being able to be kept in check.

[Capricious]

I'd like to say that short PC lifespans are really on the players, and have nothing to do with the DMs. Really, I think it's for a couple reasons.

Subtle sorts of conflict have been undervalued, for whatever reason. Spying, exchanging information, working against another character's plans to derail them, rather than just charging up and taking a swing, these sorts of things are lacking. And really, you can almost see it on IRC where people are goaded into taking a more direct route, since that will bring you the most "IRC cred"...which is really kind of ridiculous when you think about it. So I'd love to see the more subtle kinds of conflict given more weight.

Also, I feel people are far too fast to go to FD in a lot of cases. This isn't to say in every case (before people start getting all defensive) because of course there's times when it's ICly justified, but I personally think it's born of fear. If you give someone a break and let them live they'll come get you later, and kill off your character, so you need to get them first.

Sure, letting someone off the hook might mean you "lose" in the end, but in most cases you're probably contributing more to the overall stories of server, as well as creating some OOC goodwill with other players. It will allow somewhat more continuity of storylines (both DM and PC initiated) and lead to more risk-taking overall.

[Portal Rat]

My bad, both Egon and Ebok. But Egon, you're preaching to the choir. When I get in a groove with a PC, I will keep them alive for six months or more if I can help it. My problem is that other PCs drop so fast it's difficult to keep anything going for very long. PC plots tend to fall apart because of this, more than for any other reason IMO.

On the subject of new areas, I've long thought that the isles needed a smuggler's enclave full of pirate NPCs. Someplace where rumors abound of buried treasures, sunken ships loaded with gold, and maps where "X" marks the spot. It seems like a Netherese ruin would be a hot destination for thrill seekers and treasure hunters, Mist or no. Enough would take the risk to support a small population of brigands; people who would have very good reasons for avoiding the authorities of Old Port, and by extension, the Ymph Colony.

There ought to be more populated islands in general, for that matter. On the Dark Lake, there were at least 3 non-human ports of call, including a necropolis. In the Archipelago, there's just a few isolated and lonely destinations with very little in the way of merchants, quests, or other fun things to see and do. I keep finding these little clues everywhere about other islands, but I almost never see them represented. More coastlines, more underwater areas, and more islands, please!