Post your bugs here.

This update has a large surface area, so please report any bugs or anything that seems out of place in the new setup.

I will be running a prelude 30ish minutes from the time of this post. A Prelude is a quest for PCs just beginning their story, which gets them involved in the gameworld in some way.

This prelude will not involve an ongoing plot, and anyone is welcome to join in.

The theme will be a slave encampment run by a monstrous race, which the PCs will try to navigate and potentially escape.

PCs may be standard playable races, or can choose to be goblins or kobolds also.

This thread briefly describes the crafting system in EFU: City of Rings.

Crafting in City of Rings will be familiar to everyone who enjoyed crafting in EFU:A and EFU:M, but with many changes.

How crafting works, in short
Crafters put items into specific crafting placeables. Those items are consumed in the process of an experiment. The results of the experiment can be good (a nice item), meh (nothing happens), or bad (monster, or spell effect). You also need to succeed on a crafting skill roll to get the nice item.

There are four crafting systems in EFU:CoR.

Alchemy – Combining the study of nature with the arcane to produce semi-magical and miraculous products.
Herbalism - Combining plant and animal parts to produce beneficial salves and concoctions, like antidotes and cures.
Cooking – Combining edible ingredients and procedures to create food and drink – simple and exotic alike.
Tinkering – Combining materials and exploiting their physical properties to create everything from everyday tools to heavy weaponry.

Crafting calculations
The calculation for skill in the crafting systems is as follows:

QuoteAlchemy skill = 1/2 Lore Skill + 1/2 Spellcraft Skill + Wizard levels + Sorcerer levels + EFUSS Alchemy
Herbalism skill = 1/2 Lore skill + 1/2 Heal skill + Druid levels + Ranger levels + EFUSS Herbalism
Cooking skill = 1/2 Lore skill + 1/2 Concentration skill + EFUSS Cooking
Tinkering skill = 1/2 Lore skill + 1/2 Craft Trap skill + Rogue levels + Wizard levels + EFUSS Tinkering

Changes to the overall crafting system

Crafting recipes are unique to each player character. No one can use the same crafting recipes between different characters. When you share in-character lore about the system, you can do it in a flavourful way, rather than talking about specific recipes.

Crafting stations are no longer portable. You need to find an in-game laboratory to do crafting. This eliminates exploits. It also means crafters need to travel to potentially dangerous areas. Some laboratories might be in far-flung places, but others will be more well-travelled than you might like. Some crafting stations even have very significant bonuses that will ensure you will almost always succeed in your rolls. NOTE: One minor exception to this is that Campfires (created by oil flasks) continue to offer cooking system access with a small negative modifier.

Monsters summoned by crafting do not go away. Monsters no longer despawn after a short while when alchemy or herbalism go awry. However, crafters often consciously decide how much risk they want to take on. I hope there will be no Balors on the streets of Ring 99.

Sundering is no more. Sundering items into elemental shards is no longer a feature of the crafting system.

Colour coded items. Effort has been taken to make the system very transparent, so it is friendlier to crafting noobs. Items that can be used in crafting are usually colour coded according to which system they belong to. Guidance is also provided in the item description.

Getting crafting items is part of the challenge. Crafting limitations are now based on item scarcity. You need to somehow supply yourself with the resources to do your crafting. There are module-wide systems of item distribution which we have put in place and can adjust to provide more or less items if we feel things are out of hand. In addition to these murky systems, you might find crafting items in some quests or explorables or stores as appropriate.

No more downward spiral of nerfing. DMs have multiple ways to adjust the system to keep things in balance. It is unlikely we will return to days of week-old alchemy masters, and DMs nerfing items in the system until it's dead.

Changes to Alchemy
There are two ways to do alchemy.

QuoteThe first way is elemental alchemy. This involves extracting, combining, and empowering the four fundamental elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water.  As well as Positive and Negative Energy. Alchemists who engage in elemental alchemy frequently seek out items linked to these elements, as well as magical fuels which can increase the risks and rewards of their experiments.

The second way is complex alchemy. This involves experimenting with rare and unique items that possess unusual alchemical properties, which can lead to discoveries considered more subtle and sophisticated than those obtained through manipulation of raw elements. However, magical fuels provide little benefit in complex alchemy, unlike their role empowering elemental alchemy.

In-game, you will find items associated with an element, or items with more complex and indefinable properties – such as troll warts, or mummy dust.

If you find something elemental, you can use magical fuels to empower your alchemy and reach into higher tiers of risk and reward.

If you find something complex, the rare item allows you to access an alchemy theme that already contains some nice items and maybe some dangers as well.

Changes to Herbalism
Herbalism is very much the same as it was. It has been expanded with new plants and new crafting themes. As usual, it works hand-in-hand with the gardening system.

Changes to the Gardening System
New plants. Several new plants are available in gardening. Old favourites will be recognisable from past chapters.
Gardening zones. In the past, gardening was an area-wide affair. In the City of Rings, there is only so much space suitable for cultivating plants. You must now plant your seeds in gardening zones. You will find some public places and some secret places to do your gardening.

Changes to Cooking
Cooking-specific changes have been minimal. Cooking was Underdark themed for EFU:R. Now it has returned to a more 'surface' flavour. Some of the more unique and interesting cooking options are now more visible and available.

Introducing Tinkering
Tinkering is the new addition to the crafting system.

Tinkering involves finding packs of materials to unlock crafting themes based on civilisations (e.g. lizardfolk, drow, etc.) or technologies (ammunition, throwables, traps, etc.). Items are found in-game from module-wide loot tables and potentially specific ruins and areas derived from a certain kind of civilisation.

Tinkering allows you to make random loot items (repurposing those materials to create or repair weapons and armor and such), or to make more specific tech (grenades, contraptions, traps, siege weapons, etc). You just need to find the bundles or schematics to do this stuff.

Finally...
As always, while we have tried to make this a bug-free experience, this system has been revamped and may contain unforeseen bugs. Keep an eye out and post a bug report if you find anything strange.

We are also highly aware that the crafting revamp is very new and untested. So don't panic if something doesn't feel right, or if it's a struggle to get started. We welcome constructive suggestions and feedback.

Many thanks to the DM team and players for their patience.

Enjoy.

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The forum migration is now complete. We are now using Simple Machines Forum, or SMF. It is considerably leaner than vBulletin, doing the job of a forum and not a lot else (thankfully).

With different forum software comes different functionality. Some of this will be exciting, enabling us to do things we want to do. Other observations will be disappointing, because much-loved features of vBulletin will no longer be available. On the whole though, this change will enable us and unleash us more than it will hold us back. The state of our vBulletin forum was causing the DM team and some players a lot of grief. With any luck, things are going to be a lot easier and faster with this forum.

Here are just some of the nice things that will come out of this change:

QuoteForum management improvements, better experience in Minor/Plot factions

We had quite a lot of challenges creating and managing boards on the previous forum. No longer. Now small factions and plot-based factions will have a better experienced, more connected to other players and DMs. Now we can feel in control of our forums again.

Leaner, faster. Less unnecessary feature bloat. More customisable.

Player faction forums
Now that we have left vBulletin, player faction forums can be requested again. As before, you will need to nominate at least 3 player faction members to get a player faction forum set up.

Faster application turnaround, nicer application process
It should be easier for DMs to manage some administrative aspects of applications now. We will also try out using a form for applications, to make things a bit easier and a bit less nebulous and intimidating for people approaching apps.

A sexy new look. (Also mobile responsive.)

Probably a lot more...

As with any significant shift, there will be a little bit of pain as we adjust. Here's what you need to know:

QuoteHow do I get access to the new forum?

If you used the old forum, then all your accounts were migrated to the new forum. However, passwords are handled differently on this forum. Because of this, to regain access to your account, you will need to use the "Forgot My Password" functionality on the new forum. Unfortunately, some email addresses (notably hotmail/live/outlook/etc) may not be reachable by the "forgot my password" email function as is. Therefore, if you are unable to recover your account through the "forgot my password" function, you should contact a DM to get access to your account. You can do this on IRC or in the old forum. DMs can give you a temporary password to access your new forum account, delivering it by private message on the old forum, or by email to your user's email address.

How do I get my faction forum access back?
Permissions are also handled differently on the new forum and were not migrated across. To get your access back, simply request forum access again from the DM team using the forum request "helpdesk". Create a ticket there and just describe the access you need.

What happened to my avatar/PMs/signature?
Most content and users have been preserved, with some exceptions such as private messages, signatures, avatars, and perhaps more. This was a manual process, so I focused on the necessities and I did not see the value in migrating some things. Please take the time to retrieve anything you want to keep from the old forum, or take this as an opportunity to change things up.

How do applications and private boards (reporting exploits, private suggestions, private discussions) work on the new forum?
The new forum uses a helpdesk/ticket system to handle applications and other private boards. This is because the forum's permission system does not (by itself) give enough fine control to handle these. Applications will work much the same as they have always done, though.

Players will be able to fill out their application as normal, generating a 'ticket' which DMs then administrate in a private DM forum. Then once a vote has occurred, application results will be delivered back to the player.

Where are my Player Character Notes (PCNs)?
Because forum permissions deliver less fine control on SMF, we can no longer support ongoing or new PCNs in a satisfying manner. But we will try to use the ticket system for this as well, and see how it goes.

If you want to retrieve your PCNs for existing or past characters, feel free to request this from a DM.

Help! Alt accounts don't work on the new forum!
On the new forum, you cannot reuse the same email address for multiple accounts. If you want to make an alternative account, you must use an alternative or dummy email address to sign up to the forum. The email address doesn't need to be real.

This place is a mess! What's with the weird code and bad formatting?
Moving from one forum to another can create formatting issues. You will see some of this throughout some threads and posts. You can expect that important threads and new forum content will look just fine moving forward. But some archived content will look a little odd. It is probable that we can find solutions to this, so no need to worry.

Welcome to our new forums!

Brace yourselves everyone.

We are imminently migrating most of our existing vBulletin content and users to a new forum. All going well, there will be little disruption and we will have a nice new forum.

While this is occurring, the forums will be inaccessible. Please cease using the forum. Within 15 minutes, the forum will be shut down so the migration can take place.

Because this will be a manual migration and will involve some reconfiguration due to differences between the forum software, it might take up to a few hours.

More details and instructions to come.

I am sorry to report that we experienced an attack on the EFU web server earlier this month by an unknown malicious party.

For safety's sake, I have forcefully reset EFUSL passwords for all players as a security measure. Apologies for this inconvenience.

Please note that it is important that all players use unique passwords for anything related to EFU. You should never recycle the same password for multiple things anyway, but please definitely don't for EFUSL or our forums. If you have reused passwords for our forums or EFUSL, please take this as an opportunity to change them. You may also like to check out https://haveibeenpwned.com/ and consider adopting a password manager.

You can reset your EFUSL password by going in-game and typing /c password your_unique_password_here

I encourage you to change your forum password as well.

If anyone has information about anything relating to this attack, please do email me (anonymously or otherwise) at sc.efupw@gmail.com

The best way we can deal with this kind of event is to ensure that it doesn't happen again, make sure everyone is safe, and also to not allow the perpetrators to dissuade us from forging ahead and having fun on EFU. It is not apparent that any major damage has been done and the vulnerability has been closed, so consider these measures as a precaution.

Finally, I want you to know that among the cool things planned for EFU as we move forward, are some much needed upgrades to our web presence.

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Pending a comprehensive restructuring of EFU crafting systems, all crafting systems will henceforth be disabled (as of next reset).

This includes:

• Alchemy
• Herbalism
• Cooking
• Engineering
• and more

Sorry to those impacted by this, but you can rest assured that a new, fresh, better, properly-balanced, not-nerfed, fun-to-explore crafting system is on its way. Thanks for your understanding and patience.

I will be posting more about this in times ahead, and may provide some opportunities for players to contribute to the next wave of crafting.

This is a repost of content provided by the DM team to assist players to make a DM Statement of Interest (SOI).

Please see below for:

• Notes on the forum's purpose
  
• A basic template to follow when making an SOI
  

Players can make an SOI here.

Old players and new, please review this thread. It one of EFU's more important threads, and I gather that some people who should know better are having trouble remembering and applying the guidelines.

Note that the purpose of knowing these guidelines is to follow the advice they provide so that everyone has the best experience possible in PvP. DMs reserve the right to make any ruling we feel justified regarding any and all PvP situations.

As we move into the new year, I am keen to bring the major conflict between the Society and the Spellguard to resolution... and perhaps explore various other/related plots that have been intertwined or "on hold".

To that end, there will be a series of events (specifically focused on the Spellguard and the Society associations & factions) over the coming days and a cycle of preparation for a major climactic event: A Meeting of the Minds

For the duration of the next week or so:

• Spellguard Auxiliary recruitment is fully open and does not require an Agent or privileged Auxiliary PC.
• The Society of the Ordered Mind faction does not require an official application. You only require the OK from a DM (can be obtained via forum PM, IRC, or IG... simply offer a very brief description of your character) and the usual IC recruitment. Faction benefits remain the same.

Players who want to be involved as part of these groups are encouraged to join up as soon as possible.

EIGHT events will be run (FOUR for Spellguard... FOUR for Society), in which the Society or the Spellguard may (or may not) obtain an advantage.

Other factions and some NPC groups will be capable of siding with either the Society or the Spellguard. This may result in loot/supplies, direct PC/NPC assistance, withdrawal (eg. the Watchers "running dead" and allowing the Society and the Spellguard to fight it out), or other effects.

These groups include, but are not limited to:

QuoteSANCTUARY AND SANCTUARY INSTITUTIONS
Sanctuary
- Starag's Rest
- The Street of the Gods
- The Workmill
- The House of Trade
- The House of Knowledge
- ...
The Sanctuary Directorate
The Sanctuary Watchers

RELIGIOUS ASSOCIATIONS
The Brotherhood of the Ascension
The Dwellers in Darkness
The Cult of the Ooze
The Scriveners of Doom

DUNWARREN
The Scrappers
The Chosen
The Fey
The Dunwarren Machine
The Infected Animatrons

NATURE
The Stewards of the Ark
The Myconids

OTHER
The Mound
Mutulakt
Loblobliiblop
Shaggaland
Sorrowfeast Island
Causril Commune
Thomas Alqvin

ABERRANT
Malark Amblecrown
Baron Ormulax
Intryzz
The Dread Empire

...AND MORE?

This is just an attempt to flag possibilities. Use your imagination, roleplay, and common sense to consider what your PCs would do and what sort of help they and their faction might seek. Completionism is not possible or desirable.

Wherever possible, PC interaction is highly encouraged above NPC. Spellguard and Society PCs should seek out PC interaction before NPC possessions.

This can be considered to be similar to an election period, and plots (such as killing Bodhi in Baldur's Gate 2, or gathering an army in Dragon Age) in which characters gather support and allies for a final battle.

Society and Spellguard PCs will be the focus of this period, but other PCs can and will be involved... Or may choose to advance other interests (eg. betrayal of Sanctuary to the Dread, finding a way to end the Society/Spellguard conflict, destruction of everything, taking advantage of the desperation of both sides, etc.)

A tentative date and time for the major event - A Meeting of the Minds - is provided here. This may be adjusted closer to the event to optimize the attendance of relevant PCs.

With two major conflicts between factions going on in EFU:R, amongst other plots, players without characters who are searching for a way to get involved are invited to get in touch with me about creating characters for one of the following:

• Association:- Brotherhood of the Ascension
  
• Association:- Spellguard Auxiliary
  
• Opportunity: Aspiring Spellguard Agents
  

Anyone interested in the above should come up with a concept, pitch it to me, and if I give it the tick... I'll help you get started and even throw in a small favour (such as a piece of loot or other benefit).

Report the bugs you find here.

Please be concise but include all important details.

Naturally, exploitable bugs go in the private bug report forum as normal.

I'll be running an unusual prelude quest in around 10-20 minutes.

• There will be two possible groups of PCs. One is "slave" themed. The other is "hungry"/"poor" themed. More than that, I will not say.
  

• The Prelude will occur in the vicinity of Sanctuary. Existing PCs will be able to be involved, so no need to create a "redshirt".

• No expectations on participating players, this is just for fun.

Feel free to just make a PC and wait in the OOC area.

Feel free to discuss the newly available system. The DM Team definitely encourages high quality players to give advice and guidance to struggling low quality players on how they can improve in their problem areas. See the announcement thread for more info.

Since the beginning of EFU:R the EFUDM team has been using a confidential player evaluation system.

The purpose of this system was to use unsupervised passive surveillance to inform DMs about the quality of players. In other words, there are a number of background scripts keeping tabs on certain numbers, information, and behaviours such as:

• A large number of actions, behaviours, and maneauvres in combat. (eg. Luring very few monsters into combat when the total area monster count is comparatively high. Number of rounds per hour that your PC has used expertise and improved expertise (in and out of quest areas). Number of rounds per hour that your PC has been invisible (in and out of quest areas).)
• Build evaluation.
• Who your PC has subdued/FD'd, specifically their level and build compared to yours.
• Whether your PC uses the most popular perks, bard songs, general feats, and spell focus feats.
• If you quest with low quality players.
• Your XP and GP per hour.
• Your IP/Location.
• Your CD key and previous characters.
• Explicit DM modifications to your quality measurements.
• and more...

All of this information was condensed into an easy-to-read format, and expressed in three fundamental measures of player quality.

• Stupidity
• Lameness
• and Cowardice

The system would also helpfully indicate whether a target PC was deserving of punishing DM spice. This may not be surprising to those of you who have experienced such DM spice. Please know that DMs were never out to get you on a personal level. To their eyes, they were just doing their jobs based on the system. And unfortunately some people are just unlucky and get caught up in someone else's punishment spice.

The reason for this announcement is that we have decided to give all players access to the OOC information DMs see about them and other players. Henceforth, all PCs will have access to the Player Character Evaluation Tool, a new player tool accessible through the Crafting Menu. Using it on a PC (yours or another) displays the aforementioned fundamental measures: stupidity, lameness, and cowardice. As mentioned, it will also tell you if that PC is a target for punishing spice.

We are doing this in the interests of transparency.

We want to allow players to improve in their problem areas (whether stupidity, lameness, cowardice, or some combination of the three), and we also want good and honest players to see which players they should avoid.

We hope this information will help you to avoid punishing spice if you are undeserving of it. And we also hope this information being public will isolate those players that are lame, stupid, and cowardly... so that they will be forced to change their behaviours to improve their reputation and bring to EFU a much higher standard of play.

Some of you may be distressed by the numbers you see. They are not open to negotiation or modification, so please no appeals or apps. But feel free to discuss the new system in the General Discussion forum thread provided. We definitely encourage high quality players to give advice and guidance to struggling low quality players on how they can improve in their problem areas.

The Character Advancement Bonus

The Character Advancement Bonus has been restored to level 6.

This means that all PCs will now receive XP ticks every 10 minutes they spend actively online (not when deemed AFK, or inside quest areas), until they are level 6.

DM Faction Advancement

This has already been in place, but just want to make a note of it.

Faction PCs may be able to advance beyond level 6, to a (fluctuating) level of XP that depends on the number of active PCs in their faction, vs. the number of PCs in all factions.

In a later post a list will be released indicating which groups this Faction Advancement does and does not apply to. You can trust that major factions (eg. Spellguard), core minor factions (eg. Society), and some associations (eg. Watchers) will receive this. Others will not receive it, and members of temporary DM factions (eg. plot factions, peripheral minor factions, etc.) will not either.

Quote from: "Johannes"The XP wage has been extended and increased for PCs who are in DM  factions according to the following formula. In addition to the standard  advancement bonus, PCs will receive:

XP Limit = 15000 + 30000 * Disparity Coefficient
XP per 10 minutes = 40 * Disparity Coefficient
Num := Count of PCs in your DM faction
Denom := Count of PCs in any DM faction
Disparity Coefficient = (1 - Num / Denom)^(log (1 + Denom) / log (2))

Thus a PC in a relatively less populated faction stands to obtain up to  40 xp per 10 minutes until level 10 whereas PCs in already  well-populated factions will hardly benefit at all. Players are  encouraged to plan their PCs accordingly to benefit from this new  change.

Thanks to Talir for his help.

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