Have fun damnit!

[Disco]

Personaly I feel like many of the "new" players here, are more focused on how their character develops in regards to other characters, making friends and the likes. Instead of seeking lore/danger/glory. Im not saying its bad or good. Its just different.

[River Walker]

Personally, I don't want more people doing the high level quests. I don't want the overall item level to inflate yet again, further widening the gap between lower and higher level PCs. I like the fact that those areas are special and difficult, and that the "endgame" content of EfU:M is still on the distant horizon.

(On a related note: I still haven't gotten bored with running the granary quest, so I really can't empathize with the feeling that it's not fun to spice it. What if some PCs went in there only to find a war breaking out between the Mole Tribe and some Urdlen gnomes? It's a bunch of holes in the ground. The possibilities are endless, and could lead to some interesting plots.)

Everything in the server is designed to make PCs gravitate toward level 7. Rather than opening the door to the higher level content, which really isn't closed to begin with, I'd like to see more quests designed for PCs who have reached that plateau of stability. That, to me, is where you put all the really high risk / high reward stuff that can either crush a PC mercilessly or get them over the hump into the high levels. If you lose level 7, it's not that big of a deal to get it back. It brings the frustration coefficient down to manageable levels and still leaves PCs with the allure of ascending to something greater.

EDIT: I'm having lots of fun, by the way. Thank you.

[prestonhunt]

Diminishing returns for quest spamming was once suggested.

[Knowledge_is_Power]

I have a different take to many of the posters here.
 
I and a friend not long ago rolled up two Oghmites with the express concept of getting out and seeking the Lore of the isle.
 
We made sending a little while back to explore the underdark (we were mostly lvl 6's with one or two lvl 7's).
 
We had a bunch of people turn up and come with us.
 
We killed a bunch of tough UD critters, got a tiny amount of xp, barely a single potion, got to the Deep Underdark slowly climbing our way down. Having "mapped" our route we came home, RP'ing all the way...
 
We had fun. But for RL getting in the way we would have done it again and gone further last weekend.
 
We will certainly be going again, and I bet we will get a bunch of people come with us, some allies, some people we barely know.

[NetherGonnaGiveYouUp]

"On efu-A the lizards quest was well known as being a fun quest to take.  Limited, or so people thought to the dominion. Pc’s often allied with  the docks pcs took this quest and met them down beneath the city,"

This is actually something I find kind of stupid, yes it's good to try the harder content but stay in character whilst doing it.  It makes very little sense for someone who despises someone else to randomly decide to assist them.

[RuinedDesires]

I dont want to sidetrack this, but thats a narrow minded view. Im not talking sons of sabuth aiding stygians here.

The core message here is, move quests to create more conflict, to make players take more risk.

[CakePlease]

To be honest. Its too easy to get to level 8 now for anyone. (despite what people might say) All you have to do is not die and survive for 1-2 weeks going on the occasional quest.  I would say the level gap on EFU:M is significantly closer then it has been in the entirety of EFU. Level 8+ is still a toughy and sometimes I am just in the mood for a quest and might go out with a group of allies or if i need some supplies but like a lot of people have said a big factor that plays into it is Withering/Location (A lot of the time i try to get groups to move quickly/run to reduce how badly affected by withering you are) Some flavourful withering reduction items could be cool on some quests like someone suggested.

EFU:M is very consumable heavy which I both welcome and dislike, but some higher end quests that have been around before EFU:M do require a little attention. My example would be Corals/Sinister Enclave are not very well balanced in my opinion with Risk/Reward ratio whereas I have found that Kants Realm the oppersite it can be far more rewarding then risk involved. Just minor tweaks really. I like the idea of quests that get repeatedly done having reduced XP but then that punishes everyone even if they do it say once in their PC's career if it was possible to limit quests per week or something that may see a few more PC's get out and look for other quests beyond the Mists.

Also someone mentioned limitations on quests, Conclave/Order/Watcher/Stargazer quest givers etc... This also means that you end up spamming a lot of the same quests. Neutral quests givers give a wider variety to the community to choose from. (My most hated one is being a foe of the Conclave and not being able to do Kants as a spellcaster)

I could proberbly go on writting about this for another few hundred pages but i expect all the points will be covered eventually.

[The Beggar]

This apparent playstyle of the collective playerbase cringing away from the harder/more interesting quests in order to dully spam the well-worn road of the less dangerous quests has got to stop.

Same thing happened in the UD. The triad of Loot / XP / Golds from a known quest train is always eventually optimized so a duo / trio of PCs can do it to maximize gains, and thus seek after Teh Epic. Got to have those consumables to spam - becuase let's face it, no one wants to be the consumable-less dead corpse in the wake of the Orog (UD) / Wild-Orc (EFUA) / Mist Bandit (EfUM) epic flood of baddies vs town.

Also, I think the current setting sort of forces casual players with limited time to hit the local quests more often. The gains from wandering farther out diminish when you don't have a cleric pal or lots of consumable drop remove curse items to combat witehring, or if you don't have 20min to get to a really cool quest (or a quest group that knows enough to get there alive)

that said, the current setting has a LOT of pros for it - much more refined a set up than the old days.

-Beggsy

[The Beggar]

Added: Cake is awesome.

[Underbard]

I enjoy the harder quests myself, even though I know it is sometimes risky.  My problem lately has been that after being gone for several months, I recently made a new nature PC.  After logging on a handful of times and doing one quest, I am almost to level 6 with no allies, and basically starting gear thanks to the game spitting out 40 xp more often than I light up a smoke.  This makes it nearly impossible to go out and try something more difficult, knowing full well I don't have the supplies to take care of myself, nor the allies to aid me along the way.

[xxWhisperingWindsxx]

(for the tl:dr ... most of what I'm about to say has already been said in one manner or another)

Part of the problem is that we are so factionally polarized.  I'll use my PC as an example.  She's a Watcher.  In general speaking terms, that means grouping up with Caermyn, Order, and Conclave are a no-no.  Depending on which side the Muster is on, is whether or not we'll play nice with them.  So that leaves Aberdenn, nature folk, Delving or the random unaffiliated PC.  Which at any given time there are few online when I am.   Well, few that ICly I would know or trust enough to do anything with.  Yes, I know the quick answer is, "well go get to know them".  Honestly, I've bent her concept quite a lot to make the IC friends I do have.  Had I stuck hard-line to my concept, I'd have retired her long ago.  So no, it's not a quick easy answer.  IMO it has to make sense ICly to do certain things.  Right now, in terms of story arc, few stay unaffiliated for long.  They are drawn into a side quickly.  Which then limits what ICly you may be willing to do.

With that being true, wandering around isn't necessarily good for your survivability.  Yes yes, the DMs want risk-takers.  What constitutes risk for one is not necessarily risk for another and vice versa.  While one player/PC might go "pfft, grow a set and stroll about withered area smashing shit to get to quests and explore places", another player/PC just can't or won't.  Be it for IC or OOC reasons. (as an aside, that attitude annoys the unholy hells out of me and really sometimes make me wonder why the less than stellar of us bother or are tolerated, but I digress).  Again, I'll use my PC as an example.  For her, for her build, and for her player, the trip out to WyldWater is a big risk.  To the other players/PCs I drag along with me, it may be a cake-walk.  But for her it's anything but.  In that scenario, I literally put my PC's life and safety in the hands of the people I'm with.  Which touches back to the problem of factional divisions.

And then we come to the Withering.  For some, it may not be anything to sweat, but for others it's a real presence that needs to be watched.  Dependent on your story, staying unwithered may be somewhat of a necessity.  Which means a relatively constant investment of resources.  Which are sometimes hard to come by, again dependent on your PC.  And as I mentioned in my other post, at one point we were told we didn't respect the Withering enough, so things were put in place so we would.  

With all that being true, it doesn't surprise me to see people huddled in Mistlocke or doing the same boring quest trains.  The risk/reward is often not worth it to go beyond that.  Or there is often times just not a reason you can make up to go to far beyond Mistlocke.

Me personally?  I'd love to see more of the server.  It's in part what my PC was made for.  But the right elements have to be in place or it's certain death.

p.s. (would you believe that after almost 5 years on the server, there's still quests I've never done in part because of the reasons mentioned above)

[Pup]

I echo some of xxWhisperingWindsxx.  I too have had to go outside my concept a bit just to have some interaction and questing.  On the few occasions this char has answered sendings from other chars I don't know ICly or OOCly, it has been disastrous.

I also accept that this is a hazard I face for my choice in character and I will continue to play him as I like.  Lus has a few humans he sort of likes but for the most part I won't dare head off into the nasty without proper company.  If I can get with a group of players/chars I/Lus can rely on, I will be all over the archipelago.

[xxWhisperingWindsxx]

I must make an addition to my post (had a bit of a "forest through the trees" moment when typing the rest of it up) ...

While everything I said is true, there is the simple fact that if I weren't having fun I wouldn't play.  Yes, I'd still love to see more of the server, and within the confines of the story I've chosen to play, I do what I can.  I do stretch her story line when I can, and because of that she's taken some dramatically different turns I would never have anticipated.  I tend to play in a manner in which I let the server affect my PC.  Which to me is at least half the fun.  It's also opened up some great stories that I wouldn't have ever known.  

When I want to do "smash, thump, grab" I fire up the PS2 or log in a wee lowbie alt to run the beginner quests for some mindless smash.

[WutWutWutWut]

People just run quests for resources. Just finished dying for a second time in an hour, back to level 4, from nearly being level 7. All this maps you want to do, is just grind until level 8, before setting foot out of Mistlocke.

That being said, the first time I died, I didn't really mind, it was kick-ass as hell, but dying due to a lack of invis, on a wizard, and being insta-gibbed by anything unless you have 32847923874923742 potions of heal/invis gets fucking stupid, after a while.

[Paha]

I have found that fear can only limit you in regards to going out there and trying things.

People often die from hubris, more so than anything else. There's always bad luck involved, timing and jolly meeting of those awful coincidences.

However, these few things I personally feel and see happening at times are what limits people:

• People do not either succeed or do not use effort or time to gather people to join them in grand expeditions
• After experiencing unfortunate event, they fear to try again. However, in every failure there's room for improvement, and it can be brought through your character as a good RP - Punish that guy who didn't want to heal you and just stood in the back idling?
• Hubris - More than often folks simply die because they get way too overconfident or ignore variety of factors that can change from usual. Those parties of two or three don't always work out, eh?

Now, there's always different situations. Some are not good mechanically, some have slower machine/bad connection, or anything in between. However, I'm sure that many of you fell down on bikes when you were younger, and majority probably got back at it after they got over the fear of falling again.

All to all - if you have hard time in something, you can try to bring it in game. You don't need to let it brew and boil in your head or outside the screen - throw it in there, through your character. Try to change the situation in character and try again.

Succeed in what you failed before by finding out what you need to do that.