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Well, it depends.  When it spawns about 10 spiders at once, though, I have to agree that it's a bit nuts.

... this really sort of auto-moderates itself.

If your descrip is too long, no-one reads it.  Mr Emo with a 10-page description of the exquisite inlaid artwork on his froofy vest can cry himself to sleep that no-one loves him or reads his sappy poetry.  No moderation is required.  None.  People just don't read it because there's simply no time to stop and read anything that long while you're RPing.

If you have no descrip, people don't bounce off of it for RP.  This is your choice.  You can be boring, there is nothing wrong with it.  People will react to it naturally by having nothing to say to you unless you give them something to work with.

... and I'm amazed that this thread has lasted for 3 pages.  A toast to thee, intarwebs. :)

A lack of a description doesn't mean people are going to make a point of ignoring you.  It is, however, a bit like having a low CHA score: you're going to get overlooked at first glance because there's nothing there to see at first glance.

I've actually considered giving a low CHA character a shittily insubstantial description for precisely that reason.  Colorful descriptions encourage RP.

As for the people who post their entire life story, I don't bother to read those at all.  If it's longer than 1 paragraph, chances are it's too long to read simultaneously to participating in RP.  Since you rarely have an occassion to just stand around ready novel-length descriptions without engaging in RP, they just never get read.

So many ideas for entries to write in the research notes of Maximilian Cromwell...

I'm interested, but neither Halruaa nor Tashalar sound appetizing to me, really.

That said, I'm negotiable.  I may also be playing one of my many existing PC's instead.

A potentially valid (and more interesting) solution, Joe Desu.

Regardless, I think it would improve the class/build balance for them to become more available.

It would also address the key reason why parties are finding it difficult to progress in module content right now.

Actually, come to think of it... increasing the availability of coin as a solution is a bad idea.... since one of the beauties of the new EfU:A system is that coin's scarcity has reduced the production of consumables.  We're not awash in Hold Person wands.

Looking over it, I think the clearly superior solution is to just make the healing herbs very very cheap.  They need to be cheap enough that the member of the party with the healing skill doesn't mind burning a stack of them over an adventure to keep someone else standing rather than themself.

My own experience is that this quest has been a cakewalk every time I've been on it - or at least it felt a cakewalk every time.  Sure, occassionally people die, but mostly when a squishy ends up in melee range or a front-line PC simply gets unlucky.

If you bring 8 people (which is common for how insanely popular the quest is), it's a cakewalk.

Not that that's a bad thing! :D

Personally, I think it would be more interesting to see the game world respond to our unbridled genocide of the troglodytes.

That said, we need low/mid level quests.

[PROS:]

There are things I truly love and there are things that are driving me to distraction.

The things I love I think are things that will grow with time.  The things I hate are things I hope will fade, but things I think it important to note.

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PROS:

* Exploring the wilds of the server.  This is a very well built module.  People obviously spent a lot of time on it and it shows.  There's a good bit of lore that seems to be burried around out there as well.  I'm eager to see it.

* The player-driven plot, such that it is so far.  It's been an interesting thing to take part in.  Anarchy, in all of its utter misery and confusion, has produced some interesting RP so far.  It comes in fits and starts, though.  After the heavily DM-driven plotline to close EfU, there's also some refreshing freedom to it.  That wears in time, though (as I'll cover below).

* The occassional DM spice. Rare, but it happens.  I also appreciate that the staff is busily debugging a lot of stuff right now and it's draining on time and resources.  Especially after the 'all hands on deck' period for the wrap-up of EfU, this has got to be testing the adrenaline reserves of your staff.  The fact that we see DM's on right now responding to all of the hickups you get with a new product after how much energy has already been poured into this is frankly impressive.

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CONS:

* It's starting to feel a bit like why I quit WoW and that's not why I came to EfU.  That sounds harsh and it is.  But I quit WoW the first time when I realized I had played the same dungeons over and over and over to the point where they were no longer interesting and in pursuit of a goal that seemed to remain perpetually out of reach.

Given the current state of EfU:A, most of us seem to log in... run Trogs, run Ghouls, run goblins, run nightrisers, and maybe we get through all of those before a reset.  One way or the other, on average once per two days, you are going to die to something completely random, cheesy, and outside of your control.  This will set you back a couple levels and you will start back at the same spot on the next reset.

Rinse. Repeat.

Same quests.  Same sequence.  Every reset.  Over and over.

I think this cycle has only been encouraged by two factors:

1. The pervasive feeling that without higher levels and more gear, each "side" of the various IC conflicts will be unable to face each other.  Rather than engaging in these conflicts directly, each party now seems engaged in a rinse repeat powerquesting arms race.

2. The lack of DM-driven plots.  I'm amazed that DM staff has had the energy to run such a blockbuster series of plots to wrap up EfU and yet still have the energy to launch a new server with all of its exacting demands on debugging, quest balancing, and endless complaints and requests from players without all of you becoming certifiable.  It's impressive - really.  I also know our feedback after the end-of-EfU plot was that it seemed very railroaded (and it was).  All of those are caveats to this point.

One of the results, however, is an empty space in which player-run activity is either doing well (there are cases of this) or is naturally petering out in favor of the questgrind.

The reason that's important is that you can find the sort of RP people do on quests or in predictable drama conflicts on almost any server - and most of them are vastly less frustrating to level on.  For a time, the sheer beauty and work that has gone into building EfU:A will engross you and distract you from this, but after doing the same quest over and over in a futile attempt to progress to other content, it becomes less of a dazzlingly hypnotic distraction and more of a chore.

EfU's niche is in building narratives that are compelling and vibrant.  It achieves this by making the risks and opportunities in those conflicts -real- (unlike most servers) and by providing a setting rich with compelling conflicts and stories from which those narratives are drawn.

Whether or not the party can beat the bosses of each dungeon consistently for several resets so you can gain that elusive next level without randomly or cheesily dying somewhere to something beyond your control is not a compelling conflict and does not build a compelling narrative.

Where the conflicts we've been building are really sort of dull right now, whether because they're "on hold" for the questgrinding arms race or simply formulaic and predictable to start with, there'a vacuum for something to come along and generate some real conflict.

Died twice in one trip on this quest with my last PC.

We burnt through a ton of healing.  Very little reward by comparison.

My first death was from several magic missiles in concert from the casters and I think a melee opponent.

The second death was just downright comical.... I walked out of an AT last (rest of the party already in combat) and was immediately unloaded on by 3 kobolds (who switched targets to shoot at me? not sure).  A gust of wind, 3 magic missiles, a combust, and a sneak attack later, I was dead in 2 or 3 rounds.

My overall impression was that the quest really hasn't been worth taking again.  Sure, parts of it were fun, but by all rights anyone who survived such an experience would be highly disinclined to go back, ICly or OOCly.  ICly, the sheer amount of healing burnt and the number of deaths versus the reward makes it hardly worth the effort unless there's a compelling IC reason to fight the kobolds  (which, at present, there isn't).  OOCly, losing 5,000 xp on a quest isn't the best of selling points. :)

My own suggestion would simply be to tone down the casters.  It seemed like we spawned a LOT of magic missile, gust of wind, combust spamming mages in every battle.  Typically 3 or 4 per fight.  Given how the AI operates, they seem to gang up on a target and down them pretty quickly.  With gust of wind keeping everyone down, it's pretty easy to see a lot of people dying to mage spam.

Mind you, that could be appropriate.  Kobolds are nasty buggers and perhaps we should have a place closeby in the module that you just don't go unless you accept the risk factor.  I just wouldn't expect people to brave that sort of challenge without good IC reasons to do so.  You -know- you're likely going to lose xp, gold, and healing supplies on the venture.

I'm going to echo Ommadawn.  What I've seen is flavorful, but generally pretty mediocre.  That is, in total, precisely what we should be seeing for the setting.  It adds color without adding too much power.

In terms of game balance, I'd honestly be more concerned with the consumables economy.

Given that Uthgardt tribesmen on most servers typically turn out like bad 1960s B Movie 'cave men' than they turn out like the Uthgardt, I'd personally LOVE to see someone do the concept justice.

I actually made my own Uthgardt, but he's languishing in my vault at the moment while I play other characters.

[goals]

This is actually not a "make the game easier" suggestion (though it would also result in that), but actually a class balance suggestion.

One of the stark differences between EfU and EfU:A is the availability of basic healing supplies - especially healing herbs.  The impact of this has been drastic, though not all of its impacts have been fully processed by the playerbase yet.

EfU's item distribution and economy was typified by the following:
* Little or no magical armor
* Little or no magical weaponry
* Plenty of healing supplies - especially cheap healing herbs that could provide full heals post combat

Now, in a low-magic low-level environment (excluding consumables for a moment), a barbarian is going to beat a fighter in a head-to-head engagement more often than not (I've run the numbers on this...).  Add to that EfU's rules that made (especially pure) barbarians more powerful and the class was simply superior for dueling (much less so for group engagement).  You had a higher damage output, a deeper hp pool, and the lack of magical gear meant that hp and damage (generally) mattered more than AC.  EfU, as a result, saw a lot of high-CON, high-STR 2H-wielding 'meatshields' rather than 1H-and-shield 'tanks'.  Bastard swords were popular as a midpoint.  Paladins could also manage their own unique sort of midpoint.

In PvE, where a quest (scripted or DM) is going to cause far more damage to a party than it has hit points over the course of the adventure, the real test is not hp pool (which matters more for the single fight), but damage mitigation and healing.  For EfU, there was a balance between the tank who could mitigate damage but who would have a longer combat (and take more damage over its course) and the meatshield that would obliterate his enemies while taking damage in return.

EfU:A has a very similar setup overall except that healing supplies are far far FAR rarer.  In particular, the scarcity of gold combined with the increased expense of healing herbs (in particular) means that their use is exceedingly rare where it was once exceedingly common.

The mechanics consequence of that change is that builds which are based upon damage output and hp pool rather than damage mitigation are frankly not providing value added to many questing parties.  Healing supplies are so scarce that finding healing supplies is one of the primary goals of any outing.  Without cheap healing herbs to provide a way to even the field, a party member who expends more magical healing supplies by virtue of their low AC than the party gets back in healing supplies found is eventually going to be seen as a drag on the party.  If their damage output is not so impressive as to outweigh this concern, they may not be invited on future trips.

Though recognition of this change and its impact has been slow to develop, I am now starting to see people at least come to terms with the idea that a particular barbarian or other 2H-wielder is simply sapping healing supplies with very little value added.

I see this as an inevitable development of the current item availability.  I do not, however, see it as a positive one.

This change hasn't been fully processed by the playerbase yet, but I'd project that the future would see fewer barbarians and fewer 2H builds in general - likely caused by fewer of them being invited on quests.  This may be by design, but I'm going to guess that it's not.

My own suggestion would be to make healing herbs vastly more available, whether by reducing their cost, improving the availability of coin, or some combination.

The benefit of the healing herbs is that they're almost wholly useless DURING a combat thanks to how you've scripted them.  This means that their ubiquity does not affect the balance between High AC/low hp pool and Low AC/high hp pool builds inside a combat.  It only eliminates the difference outside of the combat when considering the drain on healing supplies over the course of an adventure.

Mind you, this would also affect overall game balance, since the current scarcity of healing is proving to be the real limit on party progression through dungeons far more often than the capability of the party.  I'd expect that you'd want to look pretty hard at the potential impacts of such a change before you considered it.

Nevertheless, I'll throw it out there.