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We are going to be implementing Nwsync on the server in between 15-16 hours from the time of this post. The time might change a bit, pending on life situations.

Additionally, we would like to warn people that during this time, the server will go down and the initial download of the data is the full set of data you have to download clean.

This dataset needs to be fully downloaded once, after which it only downloads any addition/changes separately, and you won't have to download the full package again, if you don't delete all the nwsync files.

The full package is around 4,5 gigs, that will be compressed to more than half of that in your documents/neverwinternights/nwsync - folder.

When many people get to downloading, we can't say how much it affects the bandwidth, so time to download will most likely vary greatly.

So be aware that tomorrow bit before this current hout, you may not be able to play normally, pending on how well / how fast the downloads will go.

After Nwsync has been adopted well and good, and if no unexpected problems arise, we'll hopefully soon edit the workshop package and remove the haks from it. However you may still need to take music from there, or we might be able to share it through nwsync at some point as well, but it is most likely that for now at least you do not want to do anything to the workshop package. We'll keep you updated on that topic as it becomes more clear.

Efu DM team

Hey folks.

I want to raise once more the common topic of behavior in the community. I generally feel that people are nice to each other, and if someone truly asks for help, they shall receive it. This is awesome.

With time a lot of us have gotten to know each other, gotten familiar with one another and forgotten some boundaries. Both in good and bad, because the lowered barriers bring honesty, but it also brings with it some bad. Mistakes on both sides.

What I want to remind everyone of is this:

1.) Our most common rule. Everyone should respect one another. This means common courtesy. You do not call people out, you do not throw dirt on anyone, and you do not belittle people or treat them badly. If you have need to voice disagreements, you can do it perfectly respectfully, or better yet in private. Lets not get petty about this and start finding nitpicked points or excuses for this. Just remember, it's a game, and we are all people. We can all act better and have more fun when we don't need to make someone else feel like shit.

2.) PvP and following rules. Our rules are many, they have grown because it felt necessary to add more nuances since people leaned on those as grey-areas if they did not exist. But basics remain and always will be expected. It's matter of sportmanship and respect. Don't seek short term gain and intentionally try to put people down. Do bad and evil things IC, yesss! We encourage you. Be merciless. However, can you be merciless when it matters and not off people who are in no way danger to you or you've barely had chance to build up any interaction and relationship with? That's an eternal question. Just think of it for a moment before you make rushed decisions. Same goes for those at the end of the tip of a sword. Don't let your ego get the best of you. Understand that being weaker or defeated, at that moment, is not end of it. It does not define anyone. They are characters, and characters can grow and improve and make great stories of failures too. Think few moments before you spit out something you can't take back. It's a mutual exchange and requires two people to be at same level of respect and spirit.

3.) Lastly, this has become a lot to deal with lately. DM's, our decision making, rules and feedback.

It's not like there has not always been cases where players do not like decisions that DM make. There are always those cases where something we decided or do, will end up hurting someone. You are absolutely fine and you are entitled to dislike it. We feel sympathy in pretty much all these cases, don't mistake that. We see behind the scenes and just like you think "I wouldn't have made that choice or done it like this, it was not fair, or it was bad move", we have those thoughts at times when we see gameplay going. Difference is that we don't come throwing dirt in your face or bring it to public - instead we observe, and often try to help you out even and give you a boost, or challenge you.

Lets go over few points you can very well think with common sense.

1.) We use a lot of time for efu. That is both you, the players, and us the DM's. For the DM's, all of it is Aimed at creating exciting, mysterious, challenging - literally FUN, experiences for players. Not ourselves. We can't think ourselves at front of it. How can we when we often have very little time to play. And such design very quickly runs dry. Do we always succeed in everything we set out? Absolutely not. We try new things, different things and sometimes it does not work out. But lets get that straight. We do things for everyone and we use a lot of time and effort for it. We likelywise do not make short of the effort people put in their characters, but we have a big picture we look at and make aim for that bigger picture. This here does entitle DM's to expect a bit of respect in terms of not causing more troubles and forcing us to use shit ton of time with sorting out things that could be handled directly and smoothly.

2.) We have our own rules that we follow and try to uphold in DM'ing. The whole team is our own peer review board and it can be rough. And if you think we sometimes are not nice in public, you can bet that there's no barriers among ourselves. Respect the fact that we do not simply laugh off anything and enjoy misery of anyone. Goodness, our life would be miserable if our only goal was to make people suffer and let individuals just do what ever they want. If we get feedback, we discuss it and we review our choices and decisions. This is how we handle it, and this is how it must be.

3.) Feedback.

We welcome feedback, but if you truly do not only feel sour because something happened to your character, and you feel something was unfairly done in grand scheme of things, okey. Calm down and collect your thoughts. Then come to us privately. You can feel bad. We can take bad and hard criticism too, but you do not have the right to jump at us with aggression. This is now an OOC moment, person to person. What happened in game is IC and we are both in character, we as DM's in playing NPC's and you as your character. You come to us with appropriate respect, voice your concerns to the best of your ability without trying to scorn the person on other side, and our promise to you is that we take it seriously, and we hear you out. And the rest of the team will hear of it and we'll review it seriously. I do not believe there to be a moment where DM would treat you badly, if you came to them in this manner instead of making a public scene first or throwing dirt on them with first lines. If you are not snarky or mean, we certainly will not beither. This is not always possible on either side. We're people and shit happens. We have bad days, but consider it still. How many times has a DM treated you bad if you yourself treated them well.

Be mindful of this. We have server rules we generally follow. People may forget that we sometimes bend these little to allow people a lot more freedom than rules might say at first. In good and bad sometimes, yes, but people often have the choice. Lets just all accept that it's not always the case, but I can promise that at a point or another, you've received same benefits when someone else has been on the more unfortunate end of it. And we, the DM's, have also experienced both sides of these interactions.

We do however, as even our rules say, reserve the right to make calls and changes in situations as Dungeon Master's, in terms of the bigger picture. Factoring what we know, what we've experienced, seen, heard, and what we have built. Some places, some settings, and some timing can call for us, in our opinion, to do something you may not always consider fair because it did not happen to everyone else. Okey, that's fair. But this is a roleplaying game and we have good old Dungeon Masters that are there to try and liven up the world. We do not always consider individual fairness, but we look at overall picture and aim for something different, something interesting, or maybe it's just a moment and timing where some NPC force has an agenda of their own, and it's been building up in the background. You may not simply no, so don't make assumptions of that, please.

Consider for a moment, what do we get out of any of it. We do not have a character invested to reap rewards. The rewards go to players. We do pay a price though, for our hundreds of hours of work put into some things. And believe it or not, we often swallow and accept that player actions as result of this choice we make as DM's, may end up totally derailing our plans. It's frustrating and painful too, but we consider bigger picture and see other opportunities that players may end up creating and inspiring us to create for them.

This is not 1 to 1 ratio, or universally fair. We are not a static world, static game where everything is exactly as. We make judgement calls. I dare say that most of the time one can look at it and see that something awesome happened in the world, or the moment. It may not be fair towards and invididual, but it was not intentionally aimed to be unfair. We don't keep mechanical count of the points. But believe in us, and believe in other players. We try to play our roles as Dungeon Masters, and it's at times rough to be in this world, but that's why it's so engaging. This is the nature of the game we play, and if you want to play here, you must accept this. We respect the things you do, successes you've had, and also effort you've had in complete failure when it's sincere and honest. And if it seems some things do go the wrong way for you, we do surely try our best to pay it back in one form or another. It may be long time in future, or it may just be next day and in next concept, or next app. If you want to express frustration, come to us and talk, as I mentioned above. Or step away for a while to calm down. We have all gone through this.

One way or another. Please be more respectful to everyone around you. We do not want mobs grouping up on anyone, not other players, not the DM's nor do we want people to shit talk others, or troll them. You want to talk with others, take them seriously and be serious about it. Don't make fun of others efforts. You're going to start pointing out holes in this post, but if you start nitpicking, then consider who you're helping.

If you managed to read this wall of text, thanks for it. I hope it gets everyone thinking a moment and just lay back, and relax. This has been a hobby and passion, source of great fun and emotions for 14 years for a lot of people. New exciting chances for newer players, even DM's. Just keep in mind that people generally want to have fun and not make others or themselves feel miserable. Have fun and remember that it's still a game.

Hey folks!

Thank you for tuning in!

I feel like we may have to remind folks of the importance of continuity and effect of stories to the world around you. With this I wish to convey the idea that each character is unique and what ever their fate may be, they affect other characters around them. Their stories, and the story of the World. Interactions, fame, choices and consequences that carry on. It all accumulates and it's important that we keep it meaningful and immersive.

With that in mind, there is a problem that has arisen few times. Partly because of newer people not quite knowing the spirit of the rules, partly maybe because of slight ignorance because one gets attached to nice concept and setup they happen to find. The team can definitely relate to this. However here is how it has to be in simple terms:

If your character dies or is killed, they should be dead. Do not recreate the near same concept and character, join the same factions or groups of people and pretty much continue to deal with same friends and same enemies as it was. This has dangerous notion of mixing IC and OOC feelings, where it's easy to seek vengeance on your killer with new character. It should not happen.

While everyone is fully justified to play similar type classes and builds, totally understandable, you should really avoid continuing the exact same line of interactions and role in the world, because that takes away from the weight of death and continuity the world requires. It would give you endless continuity personally, but leave the rest of the players and the world carrying all the risks. Losing a dear concept that got you really immersed and into it is hurtful. Absolutely. But that is why we have this hobby. It's not always a simple flip and move onto the next one. If it takes time, then take the time and sleep on it. Take a small break, but part of it is accepting the losses along with the admittedly far rarer occasion of victories. That's why they are that much sweeter.

We do reserve the right to retire characters in these situations.

As it stands, it happens to be the birthday of our founder Howlando (Or as I came to know just H, or Howland - why is that dreaded O even there.. Erhm. Nevermind that)


I wish to congratulate him and wish him a fun and joy filled day, and hope there are many more to come.


Thanks for the good times, and thank you for starting up this great community. It has been going since 2005, and it is going stronger than ever.


Happy birthday!

Hey folks!

If any of you wants to take a minute to check and respond to a really simple and small survey I put together, I would duly appreciate it.

This survey is not for any official project or public use, and it is completely anonymous. What I want is some views based on your possible age and nationality, and see if there are diverse views on these few basic questions. It'll be part of discussion we have going on in my university, and might just motivate a future project or study in better capacity. Right now, however, it is only to act as a source of discussion.

I would truly be grateful if you can fill it up, and it's really going to take most only a minute or two.

http://goo.gl/forms/5OaZy72cPW

Small changes will come into effect after next reset for Ascetic class.

This will possibly change couple things, depending on your level. Some received capabilities were moved to bit lower level and some more effective ones to higher level in order to balance the abilities of the class.

If you play the class and feel like you wish to know details, you may send me a pm in irc or forums, so feel free to check before you may consider it to be a bug.

[Barbarian resting]

Here are couple minor changes done, but ones that should be known by players for obvious reasons. Some more small changes will come soon enough.

Barbarian resting

Barbarians properly should require fire, but not bedroll in resting.

Scorching ray

Scorching ray damage has been reduced from 4d6 to 3d6.

Heart clutch

Hearth clutch functions are not inherently changed, but few issues have been fixed, and rest are still being honed. It is still slightly buggy with standing still still breaking it randomly, when it shouldn't. The animation also is a bit unresponsive. I will be working to further hone it as soon I am able to.

Your concentration will break if you move.
Your concentration will break if the received damage + d20 is higher than your concentration rank.
Your spell will break if the target succeeds their saving throw.

I am going through some forums and doing a bit of cleaning.

I will be removing what I think are inactive, or long non-active accounts with forum accesses to any faction forums, big or small. I will also remove what I may think should no longer have them.

I would like any and all that feel some of their accounts should no longer have access to some association, small or large faction forums contact me with a private message. Send me account name, and what forum they should not have access anymore. Unfortunate reality is that we've noticed some people that should not have access, still have access and they are very much active in the forum. This should not be the case.

Some common courtesy towards moderating yourself is expected likewise. Let DM know your character is dead, or no longer part the faction. Tell us to remove account X from forum Y. It can lead to very uncomfortable situation if we find that someone still has access and somekind questionable choices or actions have been made in game, and at worse force us to take action. This is not something we want to do.

Thank you all beforehand.

Spoiling secrets. Sleuthing identities. Giving detailed information on quests, other characters, players. Behaving poorly. Trolling. Trashing and verbally insulting others.

As these particular traits in behavior are raising in popularity, and therefor in complaints, it looks like it may be needed to remind you of why we are here.

We are here to play a game. Have fun. As it happens, by being here you have also chosen to have fun within boundaries of certain rules and expectations, placed upon you by this community. Not only by the DM team, but your fellow players, also.

These rules can be difficult for newer players, but generally they follow very nice logic that we expect all to abide. Respect others. This means respecting fellow players, the DM's, the new and curious people. Don't troll, don't trash anyone, and most of all, don't do anything you wouldn't want others to do to you.

This means that you should not go being a blabbermouth. Don't talk about mechanics outside basic nwn stuff, like builds or others. It's fine to advice and talk about how you can enjoy your characters better, but do not delve too deep into mechanics that might spoil their experience in efu.

Do not speak about players or their identities, if you are not sure that they want their identity known. Every player at times makes new account and wants to play with "fresh" face. To just enjoy the experience IG, as it is through interaction, without any bias or expectations. Respect it.

Do not speak of IC events. Pvp. Locations. Secrets. Just don't speak of it at all if you have slightest of doubt that you can spoil something. What happens in game, belongs there. Even general events sometimes are something many others do not know of outside the game, and they lose the chance to learn it through playing. Do not speak of secrets, locations, or ruin work of someone who has put days, weeks, maybe even months into it. That one line just screwed someone over irrevocably. Consider others for a moment before you speak.

Sometimes silence is truly golden.

Most of the playerbase tends to have grown more mature. We are of the generation that are either older and experienced people, or now young adults, with still younger people among us. I have high expectations for the people in this community, and I know everyone in this community is capable to be really great, respectful and helpful. Word to word, I am aware people here are by no means stupid. Please, don't then act like it. Additionally, and without any joking, people in efu tend to be quite clever and intelligent, when they choose to be. Don't let yourself lose it.

That's all I ask. Think on it a bit. Have fun in game, talk with fellow players in chat, help each other, but know when not to say something, especially if all you have to say is a cause of grief to someone else.

Through small error system will still demand a deity for druids. It should be fixed next reset to allow them freely, as announced.

With this following reset, we have added some hak additions. I ask everyone to have patience and bare with me, as there will be some lagginess as everyone starts loading up the new files, and there may be some unforeseen issues that, despite my work, may cause some issues. Please report them as usual with orderly manner and I will do my best to work out the issues.

With this, we will have added:
worms underwater tileset
Some good CODI placeables
Treant model, all credit going to dladventure.

[appearance_efu.hak]

Small update was made and you should be prompted to load appearance_efu.hak again. If you do not use launcher, download it manually.

You can download it manually from here: Click

With unified decision of the team, we've removed Arcane Eye from use as a spell.

Simplest reasons remain that with it's mechanics and workings, it is too prone to bugs and certain issues I won't disclose here, and too easily abused and we cannot and do not want to try and enforce the boundaries, effectively ruining much of it's usability. It simply is hard to rework to be as intended, and wanted, with the limitations of the engine.

The spell served it's purpose at it's time, but is right now dated and frankly below standards as it is, so it will not be available from now on. We are working on other things and suggestion forum is always open for new ideas.

I apologize for the inconvenience this will no doubt cause to some, and hope you can understand.

It's become quite obvious that pastebin is in heavy use even to our community, and good that it is. Useful tool.

However, it seems that people tend to post things there that are of spoilerish nature sometimes, or contains as much as records of proceedings and events and they are set to -never expire-. They will be open to the public and quite easily found.

PLEASE DO NOT USE PASTEBIN TO POST INFORMATION UNLESS YOU ARE CERTAIN IT IS PRIVATE. Preferably at all if it's sensitive information. Do not post your notes, logs or what not to public places, especially if you are not sure how to use it, or if you cannot make it private, or have it expire after some due time.

Spreading IC information is in it's core bannable offense - as is metagaming it if you come upon knowledge you should not have.

Druids will be able to cast the following transmutations, the so said "animal" aspects, after next reset:

Eagle's splendor, Cat's grace, Fox's cunning and Owl's wisdom.

You'll need to update the spells.2da to override from our usual directory.

http://nwn.efupw.com/rootdir/patch/

Or it should update automaticly with the launcher, I believe.

Put here short, concise reports of lag and connection issues.

Provide us with time, timezone, player amount IG currently, and take a tracert information if possible.

You can do it in cmd, writing tracert nwn.efupw.com and copying the information to a quote in your post.

[[SIZE="5"]PvP[/SIZE]]

First of all I want to thank all of you, players, both new and old. You make the server what it is, and what it can be, and I've seen a lot of good in the new chapter.

That being said, I must say that I have seen things that I thought we had left behind in great amounts, and ever more hoped they would be few in between with the new chapter - Where we pressed that we will demand far higher quality and integrity where ever possible, from both ourselves and players.

Lets get to the matters at hand.

[SIZE="5"]PvP[/SIZE]

It has become abundantly clear that people have started to slip into horrible habbits of seeking victory beoynd story. We know, each case is individual and there are many reasons to why it may happen, however it has happened far too often, far too easily in such a short time. This may be because we have many newer players. It may be because of the atmosphere of the setting, difficulties of getting to comfortable stage where so many of us felt more secure before, and who knows what else.

Our rules or PvP guidelines have not surely gone away recently. I beckon each and every one of you to look them over, once more. Think a bit before you act and do right by your character. Sometimes it means killing people. Think also if there has been times when it was not your character talking, but your fear of repercussions as a player, for letting your enemy go.

Once more. We are perfectly clear that current setting is far more brutal, more grim and desperate. We want it to be. It does not mean that players should forget good courtesy as people, and stop their efforts in making great stories. We hope it that much more in this challenging environment.

As a reminder, here are links for our server rules and pvp guidelines. I warmly suggest that people look them through, especially newer players.

Server rules
PvP guidelines
[SIZE="5"]
Behavior and Conduct[/SIZE]

This is in part related to our rules. There's a lot of little issues here or there. People taking shortcuts where they think we won't notice, little meta information, engine benefit here or there.

Stop it. We expect you to enjoy and try to limit yourself from abusing things you yourself often can find questionable. If it's a bug, report it. If you think it's bit lame or maybe just not liked, then you should gues that it likely is exactly that. If you doubt something, talk to us.

I have taken a notice that especially good old alchemy has had great interest from some of the older players, and I find it very unlikely few days old characters should be able to dish out incredible things out of the blue. Things, that some of the better and more invested ones were able to do after weeks and months in previous chapter. As much as I understand that some have put endless hours into things, there's a limit to everything. We will be taking a look at this, as we over time haul over the system.

If I personally notice very obvious meta information usage, I will be issuing retirements. We won't allow breaking of balance with the help of meta information, and if need be, we'll have to see something deeply changed if it proves to be an issue. We cannot however easily work over everything, or notice every matter. I would hope people have sense to see what is the level of current setting, and if things stand out, come to us and check if it should be so.

All to all, majority has been great. RP quality has been great, despite some of these old habbits, misunderstandings and what not. Truly, whole team expects that best of you and wants everyone to have fun, but unfortunately I've yet to find perfect system, or perfect people. We need to work on it together and everyone has to be able to play by the book, so to speak.

Older players, please guide newer ones, both in game and irc - and please, behave. We need to keep main channel clear of unnecessary trolling and puns, as to not drive away newer people that actually need some assistance.

It seems that digging currently tends to leave the hole behind even when buried. Do note if this is reoccuring.

It seems the Boss is still bugged, and attacks her own minions, giving characters free chance to attack her and them without being in much of a risk.

Yes.

I caved in and decided to throw away all the years of experience I had as a player, and start again with something new.

As your new master of the Dungeon called EfU, I'll be certain to break a thing or two, limbo your poor characters and probably misslick the kill button a few times before I learn the ropes. Bare with me, and I'll do my best to give you my attention in small and bigger things as we go.

I'll see you all in few months after I've read the dusty tomes. There's a lot of them. They are making me study.

[SIZE="1"]P.S. Help! Get me out of here! Razul kidnapped me![/SIZE]

Paha