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Orcs 3 exists now.  You're welcome.

It's definitely not encouraged to attack people right after they log in, and it sounds like it was an exasperating experience.  However, the scenario described sounds, from your own account, as one in which people were behaving ICly.  In-character behavior is basically the "gold standard" to refer to when judging validity of any event on EfU, though I have often advocated letting things slip a little when doing so can provide reasonable OOC courtesy.  In this case, the IC actions of the human characters sound completely justified.  While it is unfortunate that you logged into a hostile situation, it is not reasonable to expect everyone else to pay attention to you logging in.  Many players play with combat/server log disabled.  Nearly everyone uses "funky" camera angles indoors, and it's entirely reasonable for people to miss your "fade into existence" animation on initial log-in.

Mostly, you seem to have caught the wrong end of unfortunate circumstances, with no guilty party.  However, there is a notion expressed in the original post that I would like to correct.  This is relevant to many OOC conversations I have seen in my time on EfU.  The following excerpt is distressing because it bespeaks a philosophically different approach to playing Neverwinter Nights than has historically been promoted for EfU, and there are many players who share your sentiment these days.

... getting PVPed on my first minute online just turned off any desire to roleplay. (We're already lucky the roleplay part of that evening outlasted the PVP part, otherwise it felt like a reason to PVP Anduinn.)

What I want to point out here is that PVP and RP are not two separate things.  Even the term "PVP"--meaning "player vs. player"--is a misnomer, because what takes place on EFU is, in the majority of cases (and this one, specifically, from all that I see described) "character vs. character" conflict.  A character losing a fight does not imply that the player of the character lost a fight.  The player "wins" the opportunity to roleplay a victim of circumstances beyond their control, one of the archetypal everyman hero scenarios used by writers in fiction since basically forever.  Often-times, playing a loser or victim well is more impressive than playing a bravado-laden champion, and sometimes it can be just as fun.

I would encourage everyone to really put effort into their performances during and immediately following defeat in DPCRP (Direct physical conflict roleplaying, which I'm aware has zero chance of catching on as an alternative term for PVP).  You don't need to achieve Sean Bean proficiency at dying or anything, but EfU will be much more enjoyable if you approach it with the mindset that there's no such thing as losing.

While it's more enjoyable to have your character end as the result of a dramatic showdown, the invisible gank does have its place on EfU.  I've been the victim of such tactics many times, and also employed them twice.  I would say it's best to exercise caution when deciding to employ the "invis-gank" technique, if only because it's so rarely the most stylish choice.

My favorite uses of it are in situations where the perpetrator (let us refer to this character as the "gankist"):

A: Does not intend to kill.

B: Is absurdly outmatched (usually aiming for a comedic defeat after the initial panic of those surrounding their target).

C: Legitimately deserves to destroy their victim in such a ruthless manner, preferably in public.

In general, it's safest to assume you do not belong to category C.

Always keep the story in mind.  A technique commonly employed by modern authors is the "Try-Fail Sequence."  The idea is that, on their way to accomplishing a task, a protagonist should fail at least twice before succeeding.  For the purposes of EfU, this isn't always going to be the case.  Some goals, such as successfully defeating a DM quest antagonist, or obtaining a plot-related item, might be accomplished on the first attempt.  Others, such as taking down a long-standing NPC villain or building something new in the setting, will requiring an on-going struggle, replete with all manner of setbacks and even the good chance that you'll never succeed.  There are many reasons for this, but the most important has always been to preserve the significance of accomplishments.

How this relates to PVP is this: you ought to go about things in a way that promotes this kind of engaging character arc.  Overcoming obstacles doesn't always mean removing them.  I could provide a few specific examples of how to resolve inter-character conflicts in more interesting ways than "I go invisible, take your life and then your stuff, then make a forum post about it," but I think the players here have healthy enough imaginations to conjure up some excellent scenarios on their own.

If this post seems long-winded and meandering, that's because it is.  For purposes of keeping the story interesting, variety is essential, and many approaches to any given issue can become valid over time.

The scene in which you guys corrupted Claxton was great, and I was glad to be able to respond to that DM channel call for oversight.

A very cool character.  The interaction that caused her to fall from paladinhood was excellent on the part of all involved.  It was encouraging to see how you shaped the character in view of very negative things happening to her, and that sort of devotion to the story over personal accomplishment is something I would definitely love to see more of.

[Tarsakh 9th, 1382 DR]

Tarsakh 9th, 1382 DR

In the midst of a dismal evening rain, Squire Reach made her announcement that she was resigning as mayor of Mistlocke.  Emily Jacobson subsequently ordered her detainment so that she could stand trial for the murder of the late Captain Volaunt but the Squire had different plans.  Leaping from the bridge, she disappeared into the River Tear, swallowed by a murky cloud of sediment kicked up where she hit the river bottom.  Efforts to recover her corpse turned up nothing.

Perdido Street Station Is the best fantasy book I have read.  I tend to prefer science fiction.

I'd recommend A Fire Upon the Deep and Hyperion very highly for "space opera" SF.

"Losing" with grace is one of the coolest things a player can do, in my opinion.  Obviously there needs to be grace in victory as well, but it really is disheartening to see people break character just because they have been subdued.

If I see people roleplay a defeated victim well, it usually earns a substantial RP XP bonus, and definitely makes their character stand out on the rare occasions when I decide I'd like to make a thematic quest with loot potential for a PC or group of PCs.

Paha Poika's advice is really excellent and people should consider it carefully.  One of the most liberating things on EfU is to realize it doesn't matter too much if you fugue.  You can pursue most agendas easily without levels beyond five, with the obvious exception of being a badass.  Since most people do not ever have a chance to look badass just looping the same three quests over and over and occasionally emoting, "Grr, I deserve more stuff" this is probably not an issue.

You don't need to be reckless, and that's not what I'm saying, of course.  But EfU is a lot more fun when you're doing dangerous stuff.  Every single one of my PCs that succeeded did so off the back of dozens of tallies on my fugue plane punchcard (one of my PCs even had such a thing for a shortwhile, thanks to some April Fool's shenanigans).

I think there's a lot of fear of fugue visits that shouldn't really have a place on EFU.  Yeah, they're bad, but you can get back to 6 in a day anyway.

Similarly, the worst consequence of a PC permanently dying is missing out on whatever cool scene you had planned for their likely death.  Since every PC eventually dies or fades into obscurity, what people should be aiming for first and foremost is to make a memorable scene.

Ulutians are heavily inspired by native Alaskans.

I first got to know Wern8 in the Underdark days of this server, where he was the first paladin I met IG that seemed genuinely cool to me.  His roleplay was always impressive, and perhaps more importantly, he seemed to take a genuine interest in making other people's game experiences positive.  The trend continued throughout his time on EfU, and it was no surprise that he was asked to join the DM team a couple years ago, and helped conduct one of the most beloved metaplots since the transition from Sanctuary to Ymph.

As a player and as a DM, Wern8 was great to play this game with.  Rest in peace, Wern, and thanks for the adventures along the way.

Just going to contribute my two cents regarding a few of the issues brought up in this thread:

1) DM attention.  It's not uncommon at all for people to go through a phase where they believe the DM team isn't giving their character the recognition he or she deserves.  Truth be told, I had the same feeling several times as a player, but looking back I can see how my opinion was influenced by a limited perspective.  This server has a greater number of active players than I ever imagined when I was just playing PCs, and it takes longer than I suspected to set up anything beyond a very simple NPC encounter.  Add to that the fact that DMs have an avatar that can only be in one place at a time (despite the ability to teleport around and generally move much faster than PCs) and it's not at all unlikely for them to miss any given PCs moments of stellar roleplaying.  If they're online for two to three hours setting up an event that will probably only directly affect a quarter of the online characters, there's a pretty low potential for any given character to receive attention.  If they're not specifically setting something up, chances are they will be jumping around the server observing groups of PCs, looking for something to happen that they can build upon.  Speaking from experience, chances are very high that during this time, somebody will need help of some variety that is not story-related, but which would be massively inconvenient to them and detrimental to their game experience if unanswered.  There is nothing wrong with this, of course!  It's part of the DM team's job to make sure that things go smoothly for our fellow storytellers on the player side.  It's just another factor that contributes to it frequently seeming as though there's a disparity between a given player's DM interaction and the server's in general.

I've been inactive on the DM client for a few months, but prior to that there were many PCs I thoroughly enjoyed watching for whom I never ran an event or created loot.  If you're not receiving loot, events, NPC admiration (or hate), or private tell kudos from DMs, it does NOT mean you're doing something wrong, or that DMs don't enjoy the story you're telling/helping to drive.  It might just mean we think things are going along quite well without our meddling.

2. Combat difficulty.  This is a tricky one, because all sorts play here, and you're right that the difficulty of certain areas limits the ability of some players to play characters of a certain type (for example, the ineffable badass).  As somebody who was notoriously atrocious at NWN combat, I can definitely feel the pain of those who feel like they're running very fast at a brick wall when it comes to PVP or the higher-end quests.  All I can say is to persevere.  Take character deaths in stride, because they're bound to happen, especially at higher levels.  Other roleplaying games have experience caps that are overtly defined, EfU has the difficulty ramp.  The purpose, of course, is to keep story and character central to the EfU experience.  Chasing level progression forever would be fairly boring without a more dynamic combat system than NWN offers.  One of the ways NWN combat is made exciting is PVP, another is the "long odds" scenario some quests are designed to put players in.  Both are essential to a story-driven server, as every story needs conflict, and direct physical violence is a common enough manifestation of it.  However, it is far from the only possible manifestation, and some of the best conflicts have simmered for weeks without even a blow exchanged.  Occasionally, conflicts are even settled without resorting to rolling the dice of combat.  The fact that eventually every PC on EfU runs into an insurmountable challenge might seem like an imposed limit, but actually opens doors for a wider variety of stories.

3. Success.  On EfU, success means something entirely different than it means on other servers, and in other games.  There's no predefined list of achievements to unlock (thankfully), so the best course is to define your own goals on a per-character basis.  These can be as banal or as unattainable as you like.  A few of my own goals in the past have been:

*Earn a promotion in a faction.
*Recruit at least ten people to support my trading company.
*Get a significant bounty on my head.
*Defeat ever quest and create a sweet "action pose" collage of screenshots.
*Reach lvl 9.
*Commit spectacular public suicide via alchemy.
*Discover the secrets surrounding a particular prominent NPC.
*Commit destruction on a grand enough scale that toolset modification of an area is required.
*Bring about the downfall of a PC enemy without them ever knowing it was me.
*Bring about the downfall of a PC enemy by smearing them in the dirt.
*Bring about the downfall of my own PC by pissing off enough people that I can't possibly survive their wrath.
*Get my lore stat to 50.
*Earn a reputation as a "loose cannon" to the point that only other insane people or people confident enough in their own abilities would even consider including me in their dealings.
*Donate more than 50,000 gold to charity.
*Put myself in a situation where I get to swear revenge upon somebody, then later, enact said revenge.

Not all of those goals were accomplished.  Probably not even half of them, but having them definitely made my experience on EfU more fun, and allowed me to know success when I achieved it.  Some of them were mechanical, some were story-related, some were just off the wall.

In the end, it's about having fun more than anything, and the best advice I can give to anyone is to do what's fun for you.

Seemed pretty cool from what little I saw.  Wasn't around during most of her existence, unfortunately.

Fun times.  I recall surviving beholder doom alongside Mr. Tommas ages ago.

Attacking a character who is revealed by this bug is an exploit.  Same goes for any alteration of behavior based on the knowledge that they are there.  If you see somebody popping up for a second after transitioning then quickly fading, it is a bug, and their presence should be ignored.

Since it came up for discussion, so is attempting to stealth immediately after passing through a transition to escape pursuit.

Do not do either of these things.