Topics

[Character Restrictions]

Ticker Square is drowning itself in blood as swords clash,
the Peerage Ward is stuck in a loop of grandeur and complacency
and all the while a Prince watches,
donning a crown wrought of void and darkness.

Hey there! This is an introduction to something I want to tackle on my new character Walter Davis.
Related : https://www.efupw.com/forums/index.php?topic=697195.0

And by the way, I am going to quite shamelessly copy some of RWG's format for this introduction, in case it wasn't quite obvious enough.  ;)  So credit to him for "inspiring" me how to write this.


This is an attempt to coattail the very recent big events of EfU and start a new concept off of it, one of a Paladin trying to rally people to his side as he attempts to get deeper into the Rings.
The ultimate goal is to defeat the Nothing and become heroes. Reaching Ring 1 is second to that.

Who is Richørd, the player?
[hide]Hi there. I have been playing on EfU since September of 2019 and been very active ever since. Before coming to this server I have been playing on and trying out other Neverwinter Nights servers and originally I picked this game up with the release of the Enhanced Edition. So no, I am not a grassroots veteran who has been playing this game for over a decade. I would still consider myself relatively fresh blood, especially on EfU.
I will warn you in advance for when we talk OOCly. I like to make (self) deprecating jokes at times and not everything I say should be taken serious. Though when I have criticism or advice to give I try to do so in a respectful way. I am also known for being a little saltbomb at times, something I usually try to apologize for afterwards.[/hide]

What sort of people am I looking for?
[hide]Frankly speaking, if you happen to be a new player and you have no idea yet about the current metaplot or are generally uninformed about the recent big events on EfU I would wholeheartedly recommend you to not go for Ringrunning as it can be a difficult and crushing experience. Instead you should explore other avenues on EfU, maybe get into the ongoing Bladeboom or thoroughly inform yourself first.
If that's not the case so far so good. I am not picky about what timezones you are in and I welcome anyone, be they relatively fresh blood like myself or a seasoned veteran of EfU. In the end the prefered timezone for us will depend on who signs up (aka. what part of the world they are from). Once something can be discerned I will make another post here, announcing it. I myself am flexible and can adapt to whatever time is prefered.
Please just don't join up if you are playing a throwaway character or if you are already unsure if you'll still have the motivation to play your PC in a week.[/hide]

So what is this anyways, Richørd?
[hide]As most of you have likely already figured out this is going to be a Ringrunning endeavor. It is quite clear cut and dry initially as we will have to go through the process of getting to the first big challenge in the Rings. You know which one I mean. There we will decide on our initial group and then break through to slowly progress through the Rings from there. The plan is, not unlike the Seven Striders, to at some point be completely independent from Ring 99 and it's infighting and politics and join the groups of people that are already within the deeper Rings.
From there on we will have to wait and see what awaits us as we make our way through the City of Rings.[/hide]


Character Restrictions
Alignment: Non-evil, chaotic characters might find themselves at odds. You will be travelling in the company of Paladins.
Race: Non-monstrous.
Class: No necromancers, no blackguards, native druids would likely not be welcome, Awoken druids would have to be discussed case-by-case.

Characters that only wish to join this up to a certain Ring or for a limited amount of time are also welcome but should make that known IC and OOC.
I will also welcome anyone who wishes to join us later on, we can handle that once we get there.

See you all in the game!
Anyone who wants to reach out to me on Discord is welcome to do so. My Discord handle is Richørd#0256

Fallen Paladin of the Knights Fidelitus
Former Retainer of House Moonspear
Faithless of Yeman
Deadbeat Inquisitor

A bunch of titles I'd give to Adelbert.

Have I taken screenshots? Nope. Few, mostly other people took screenshots and I'd welcome them posting them here.

Adelbert was a bit of a strange ride. Lots of failures, as with many of my other characters. But I had one thing I can be proud of. I was able to participate in the later stages of the Moonspear plot, see it brought forward and assist in it's completion.

What characters do I particularly thank for adding to Adelbert's development as a character?

The entire Moonspear crew. Maxwell Artfall, Adelia Falconier, Paps Stone, Nicolette Buxhoevden, Nalia (Femboyelf), Blackstaff. Each of you did their part.
Ser Vladislav Orza. Fucking maniac both OOC and IC.
Glaurbull. Oh boy, what a strange man. Thanks for your pack though, really helped Grim out.
Anseau de Ilay. No matter how much you insult and hate me, your character's death did a lot.
Imzel. Phew, I am SO UPSET that you ultimately decided to join the Biters and not Moonspear :<
Edwyn. Always a good comrade to Adelbert.


Anyone else who might feel forgotten, I'm sorry. You probably earned a place on that list but my 'tard brain forgot.


LOOT (got hilariously worse after becoming a Fallen Paladin)
[hide][/hide]

BYE-BYE!

Hello there,
currently the Peerage Houses each have a Veteran Badge available in their member-shops, all for the same price of prestige points across all the Houses.


The badges have few mechanical advantages but they all have an Unlimited/Day usable activity that allows the wearer to "proudly flash their veteran badge".
I suggest removing the badges entirely from the shops or alternatively increasing the cost of them to make obtaining them more difficult.


Why?
Because, while providing little mechanical bonuses, the badges carry a huge vanity bonus with them.
To be a "Veteran" signals that your character has seen things, done things, accomplished something or at least stayed around long enough to be witness to some major events happening within the Peerage Ward and survived to tell the tales.
When I hear "Veteran" I imagine PCs like Genovalia de Rossa, Vladislav Orza, Melkoth Thrizklos, Elizabeth Frick, Acathos Nascira.
BIG BANGERS, that without a doubt deserve to be called Veterans, like them should (have) receive(d) the badge for free as a gift from their Houses.
The badge and the vanity of being a "Veteran" should not be available to some absolute dweeb who snuck away with the King's Gifts during off-peak-hour Dispensaries a few times just to rush the badge that has a really low price point.
A PC you, as an active player, have never heard about should not be able to flash that badge in your face.


Why do I make this suggestion thread?
Simple, the topic came up in Discord. Nothing ICly that peeved me off, I don't even currently play a Peerage PC. Just dropping this here at the end so people hopefully don't get the wrong idea about what motivated this thread.

Gregory Belmont's corpse (the most recent PC who wore the Green Knight set) spawned a new "The Green Knight's Panoply" whenever his corpse was moved. The item spawns each time, in a "Remains" pile that reads "Gregory" when inspected, next to the corpse once it is set down aka. dropped out of the inventory.

This is very closely related to the thread "Barbarian fear furor" by Pandip.

If any changes are made to the Terrifying Rage furor I'd suggest applying the same exact changes to this furor. It is very similar in nature and can also result in hillariously one sided "Press To Win" situations.


EDIT: I'd like to add two things with any names and portraits of other people cut out to underline this issue.

Picture 1 : The combat log of me loosing a single dice roll (during which Protection from Alignment did nothing). The numbers speak for themselves, even more so considering that the barbarian only had to drink a few potions and press a button to then pummel my character down with their 21 AB while using Power Attack.



Picture 2 : Another barbarian voicing his opinion.



To me it just looks like barbarians are currently the best melee class when it comes to an open melee and they will remain to be that by a large margin, even should both shout furors end up getting adjusted.

The Royal Candles received from the Dispensary are bugged. When attempting to put them into a trading window the character plays a "place on ground" animation and the candle is gone from both the inventory, the trade window and the world.

Attempting to place the candle down on the ground does the same.

[lol I can farm that much money in a single nigh]

WARNING : A lot of these things are my opinions. Please do not be offended if you disagree with what I have to say.

I see an issue with the current economy of armors and the pricing of custom-fitted suits, therefore I suggest looking into this and adjusting the system.

First let me say : It is good that we have access to custom tailored outfits and armors at Webber's Wonders and Poetry & Steel.
The prices for anything above leather armor gets too out of hand though compared to the income from quests and how cheap / expensive randomly found suits of armors are.

A recap of the current system :
These are the prices for each armor category without any additional dye-changes.
[hide]Cloth / Padded Cloth : 73
Leather : 123
Studded Leather : 173
Scale Mail / Chain Shirt : 473
Chain Mail / Breastplate : 573
Banded Mail / Splint Mail : 773
Half Plate : 2029
Full Plate : 3630[/hide]

One can see that the price suddenly skyrockets after Banded / Splint Mail.
For those unaware : These groat investments get you an outfit that is pure vanilla flavor. No skill bonuses, no AC bonus, nothing.

This is where this system really starts kicking into high gear.
[hide]Each armor / outfit can be fitted with one save increase. It can be a +1 against anything.
Then you can also add skill increases. These can either be a +1 or a +2 to any skill you desire and you can have 2 of them on your armor unless it is Half Plate or Full plate. In that case you can only have a single skill increase.

The prices for these enhancements vary greatly. While on a Studded Leather it cost me only a few hundred groats to give my suit +2 to two diplomatic skills it then jumps up to 1.500 groats to put a bonus to a reflex saving throw on it.
For an adequate price of roughly 2.100 groats total this results in a Studded Leather that has :
+2 Bluff
+2 Persuade
+1 Reflex[/hide]

Some might say that it is fair because, sorry if I sound demeaning here to some people, "lol I can farm that much money in a single night".
Yes, that is great for you. But please look at the bigger picture if this is your way of thinking about this.
I can do level 3 to 7 quests and find better armor than that. I can get lucky with an explorable in the sewers, run past some rats that won't aggro on me anymore because my level is too high, kill a single rat matriarch and loot a suit of Studded Leather that is generally speaking way better than the armor previously described for a time investment of roughly five minutes. I can get lucky with what other players found and then sell on the market and buy better armor for a few hundred groats. Sometimes even get it for free if you happen to be lucky and the person that tried selling it got really sick of lugging the armor around all day.
Or you are a human PC (like 90% of the server population), join a Peerage Ward faction and receive a full set (cape, armor, helmet) of any kind you want, with a dozen skill bonuses that depend on what faction you join for a meager investment of 900 to 1000 groats.
That recruitment cost gets especially lucrative for any character that is going to only use heavy armor as the Poetry & Steel prices are ridiculously high for those armor categories and even on the open market a Full Plate will cost you only around a thousand groats by itself.

Further there are other issues with the custom tailored suits and armors. You do a single mistake like forgetting about the neck part? You want to replace a skill or save increase with another? Tough luck, kiddo. You paid for it, now stick with it until you get ridd of it.



WHAT DO I SUGGEST EXACTLY? TL;DR
- Decrease buy-in prices for everything above Chain Mail / Breastplate DRASTICALLY
- Increase buy-in prices below that
- Decrease costs of enhancements DRASTICALLY
- Increase the limit of total possible skill and save increases by 1 each, ramp up the costs depending on how many enhancements already exist on the outfit / armor
- Equalize total amount of possible skill increases across the board, Half Plate and Full Plate should not get ostracized
- Add options to visually and mechanically adjust outfits / armors without having to buy an entirely new one

As the subject says.

We have IC whispers pop up in Discord. It would be amazing if we could have the same thing with faction bells and their respective Discord channels.

[CHARACTER FLAVORS AND CREATION]

Hey y'all.


I intended to write up some proper feedback for this server ever since I joined.
Some of you know me, perhaps even most, but definitely not everyone.


Therefore a little explanation of my qualifications for giving feedback here aka. where I came from, where do I go? Hey, Cottoneye Joe.
[hide]My NWN experience started only relatively recently. I have never played NWN back when it first came out and only picked it up after the release of the Diamond Edition on GOG to then quickly loose interest in it after I was told to just skip the singleplayer content and head straight for a multiplayer server that was a pure PvE dungeon-grind esque nightmare. It was horrible to be rushed by a few experienced people through a server in a game that I barely understood at the time and had trouble making sense of, even as someone who'd describe themselves to be a very seasoned RPG player.
So I quit the game and left the Diamond Edition to rot in my GOG library.
Then came the release of the Enhanced Edition. This rekindled my interest for reasons such as DND being on the rise in the mainstream and rising to popularity all over YouTube at the time plus some people I considered friends at the time also getting super into it.
This time I was smarter. I actually slashed my way through all three main campaigns as a barbarian with permanent haste boots, thoroughly enjoyed it and then started out on Arelith.
Got myself banned there after about more than one and a half years, moved on to Ravenloft, spent some time there and then moved on to a bunch of different servers due to how I burned out on Mist McGuffin storylines.
Now I'm here and have been playing here for a relatively short while.[/hide]


Now that this is out of the way let's commence the actual feedback.
Remember. These are my opinions and in no way straight facts. Take that for what you want to, EfU staff. I can only repeat what's in my head.

This will be split up into multiple sections, each with pluses and minuses as positive and negative points I can bring up about those topics. The amount of positives or negatives also is not a major factor as it is just the arbitrary and amateurish way I will write my feedback.


CHARACTER FLAVORS AND CREATION
[hide]+ Most base classes. Holy damn, is there a lot of cool stuff going on! You got a dozen different ways to play so many classes here! And there I was, always thinking that you would need a high maximum level for a character's build to become spicy. Nonsense! EfU has shown me how one can bring variety with good and reasonable levelcaps in combination with damn good class restrictions and making certain pure classes stand out. The variety of ways one can play a fighter is amazing. And not just mechanically speaking. Seeing a fighter hang out with his little dog buddy is so cool and has great potential for buddy-co-op stories of sorts! I'm rambling but all in all this is just cool.

- Prestige classes. A bit of an iffy topic for me. My impressions so far are that Prestige Classes are in no way meta or extremely powerful (except the Shadowdancer but I don't even need to get into why that is). Therefore I find it a bit harsh on new players to basically lock every prestige class behind specific factors. One would be how experienced you are as a player and how well the DMs know you. Hey, you're a seasoned veteran of EfU and you know the lore in and out? Sure, buddy. We can trust you with properly displaying a class and it's lore, have at it right from the get-go. Oh, you are new? Well, we can't trust you with playing a specific character fantasy you got in mind. Here, find your own (seemingly convoluted) way to earn that class in the game while playing. On my character Sean Gorick I for example really wanted to earn the Knight PrC but was AFAIK blocked forever out of it after a bunch of drama with the Peerage. Sort of a real bummer after setting my mind on definitely being a Knight due to how well it fit that guy. More likely than not I ruined it myself with the player decisions I made, still somewhat of a bad experience as the first PrC I really wanted to get.
[/hide]

GAMEPLAY
[hide]+ Questing and the pace of it. It is clear that a lot of thought went into offering a rewarding and stable quest curve that does not force you to grind hours just to get from level 2 to 3. It happens fast and it happens at the pace the players decide to take it at. I can go and powerlevel a character to six within a day or two after creation. Or I could take it slow, RP more or maybe not even log on for a few days and then hop on a quest train for multiple levels in a day. Is that bad because it makes leveling too easy? The answer is easy. I don't want to study the freaking quest layouts. I want to be relevant, at least somewhat. I want to be able to quickly regain levels if I had a few deaths in a dungeon. I don't want to be punished too hard for risking my ass during my quest and eating the consequences.

+ Consequences. GOD I LOVE HOW THESE ARE DESIGNED ON EFU WHYCAN'TEVERYSERVERBELIKETHIS. PvP is meaningful and has BIG impact. I hated nothing more on Arelith than to meticulously stalk a PC who was an ogre warchief and pirate captain into the player capital within the Underdark, wait for an opportune moment when there would be a lack of players around and then strike him down after a quick chit-chat in which I taunted the big, hairy bastard who has been a thorn in my character's side . . . just for him to send me a message five minutes later. FIVE MINUTES. THE HEAD I CUT OFF WOULD STILL BE WARM AND TWITCHING. ARGH, MY IMMERSION. But yeah, EfU does it right. And PvE deaths? You loose a a third of your total EXP and then are able to chill and relax while a third of the EXP you just lost slowly regenerates back. Or you get right back on the quest train! Meaningful but not too crippling.

- Rewards. I get it, if everything was as rewarding as the quest next door then there would be no real motivation to go anywhere else than the same two quests . . . but that is exactly what I am experiencing because of it. My character is not level 6 yet? Do quests around Ticker, Ponds and the Peerage. My character is 6? Grind the bandits and cultists of 97 and do morghouls in the Mongrelwoods. Those two levels, 6 and 7, are so damn rewarding for my characters that I feel almost no remorse dropping down to 7 from level 8 after getting my ass handed to me. Why would I? EXP is just temporary. But loot, gold and potion bags from an easy morghoul run? Now those are proper! Everything after 7 feels either very dangerous (I know there are some people that really think orcs of the Mongrelwoods is an easy quest but c'mon guys, that boss is a damn death machine) or unrewarding for the time invested. Especially seams offer a lot of quests that you can do at level 8 or 9, sure. But to just slog through monsters that you can beat with a party of level 5s and have your usual "first impression OOOHs and AAAHs" of RP for 15 minutes just to hand the quest in and then receive 83 EXP while you need thousands to get another level up that you are longing after because it finally gives your character Blind Fight at level 9 because you botched your build? *sigh*[/hide]

DMs
[hide]+ Availability. The most important thing. DMs are more often than not available and willing to help or to tell you who you should approach with a specific topic. Even if I contact several DMs at once to see who would reply first, I do not mind. In the end I find someone in 95% of all cases who can then help me out somehow. Very good!

+ Chill. I hated DMs on other servers, I will admit it. They either faked professionalism just to do the most ridiculous things right after, lacked transparency or were total douchebags about most things they did and behaves like vengeful children. But on this server? Fuck, I got a DM thinking now that I'm a dirty item skimmer and he acted like a damn adult with me! We parted ways with an agreement and he still shows up around me and people I quest with to start up little events and stuff! That is amazing, kudos to you. You know who you are. And then in Discord I actually had a DM be so straight with me that he actually told me to "shut the fuck up". That is amazing! And no, I am not being sarcastic. I mean it. I rather have DMs be real and give out some proper harsh words when necessary than be dirty weasels that gather up stuff behind the scenes just to greet you with a pile of "You are banned" at your doorstep. Yeah, there is some frustration from a server I played on here, one that I mentioned before. Go figure :)

- IC forums. I have been truly involved in only two factions so far that have NPCs at the top. House Velstra and House Nephezar. In both cases I wished more involvement from the DMs, more replies or even some initiative with giving their players more minor tasks. I get that most factions are supposed to be "player driven" and that the NPCs in power usually only chill all day until something , either very good or bad enough , happens that they come crawling out of the DM glovebox. I assume this is due to how certain DMs are assigned to certain factions so that the Non-player-characters would all have a specific way they act, a script that they follow that the DM figures out for each of them. But then again I did make attempts on my previous character to reach out to the Lord of House Velstra through IC correspondence just to recieve absolutely no answer. In such a case, if the NPC is truly supposed to ignore a letter, simply tell the player so. I would not have metagamed it, of course not, but at least I as a player would have gotten some sort of closure.[/hide]

MISCELLANEOUS
[hide]Ornate lockboxes in quests. They are weird and feel bad. It is strange to find a lockbox that is not locked (???) but instead has a lid so heavy that you need 5 to 6 PCs to gather around it? I have not found any clues if it depends on the total numbers of characters, their total strength, divided by the average STR modifier they have and so on ... they are just weird and I don't like them. Perhaps a relic from a time when the handy lootboxes and piles that await players at the end of morghouls, bandits and orcs were not a thing yet. Boxes that award large parties with extra loot and goodies. But if that is the case? Perhaps just make them easier to open or adjust the loot in dungeons like the Darkskull quest by removing and adding as needed and replacing the ornate lockboxes with a lootpile at the end.

Ringrunning. I know this is a living, breathing world and that there is a real time and player element involved that makes you want to hurry to the center of the city to find out what big story plottwist awaits there. But for the love of god, I hope you make some adjustments there in connection to the "no alts" policy that is present on the server. I myself was a rather shitty examplary case for this issue but what I am talking about here is more the case of when characters get REAL deep. Like Ring 40ish or 30ish deep. I see no way for a player to then willingly return all the way to 99 unless they unlock some sort of shortcut at those deeper Rings. But what if there is no such shortcut and they want to play there, in 99? Well, as I have experienced it from messages exchanged with DMs and players alike they should not get their hopes up. They are stuck with their main characters whereever they are and should not expect to be able to join a faction on their second character, be involved in any meaningful plotlines and so on ... I get why this sentiment exists. I just don't agree with it. And this is my feedback thread so I can voice my opinion. Hah! So perhaps consider showing mercy, perhaps having a 1 alt policy if that alt is not in an opposing faction? I don't know, something at least. Because burn out is a real thing and it happens.
[/hide]

Chief Tailor Salarius the VI in the Peerage Ward seems to have troubles handling his gigantic sortiment of dyes all at once.

Please separate the dyes by Cloth - Leather - Metal.

On that note, please make it so we can sell the dyes back to the same NPC. The process is already expensive as it is and further inconvenience by the rather high costs for dyes is just unecessary I believe and could absolutely be mitigated by selling the remaining charges of dyes back to the mephit.

[-1st.]

Hello there.

I will be straight forward. This quest is sucky-sucky and no funny-funny.
If that is intended by the team then so be it, skip over this suggestion and forget about it. But if this quest wasn't intended to be a total, unfun chore? Then please, keep reading.

Reasons :
-1st. It is VERY HARD. I went there plenty of times and never have I had a run that went absolutely smooth. It did not matter how well organized and prepared our group was, there were always close calls or even characters going down. We even had attempts where our main frontliner (sadly me) went down within the first group of trolls that rushed us, immediately setting us back to the point where further attempts would just end up being a waste of good EXP. Trolls themselves are already special by requiring acid or fire damage to go down. Then there's the fact that they regenerate, that they have a hugely varrying set of different trolls ranging from Boulder Throwers to tough melees in the form of War Trolls all the way to dispelling Troll Witches and acid-damaging Spore-Infested Trolls.
-2nd. Unrewarding. The payment at the end is less than what an Arbiter pays you for clearing out a few fiends from a tear in reality that was opened by a stray wizard. The only good piece of loot I have seen there so far was spawned in by a DM. The quest gives you less experience for turning it in than the orcs of the Mongrelwoods. There are no supply crates at the end that anyone can take something from.
-3rd. It is absolutely, 100%, undoubtedly optional. It is not required to advance through Ring 95 and instead hinders the advance through 95 by taking up an explorable spawn slot that could've been one of the quests that you need to advance instead.
-4th. I have not met a single person on the server so far that straight-up said "I like this quest. =)".

So what do I suggest?
Fix at least one of the first three points on that list.
The trolls quest needs at least one factor going for it. I don't even know why I tortured myself with it so many times already. Both me and my character have reached the point where we say : Yo, screw this place.
By making it A) less difficult to cut through, B) properly rewarding for the amount of time, ressources and potential EXP one has to invest into it or C) by adjusting the amount of explorables in 95 and not making the troll-explorable take up a slot you could probably catapult this quest back into a spot where people would actually consider clearing it for other reasons than just RP "we've gotta cull that menace!"

The explorable spawn with the infestation bugs has a large pile of gold behind rubble. One can not reach that pile of gold.

It is as simple as the title says. Seeing NPCs come to life everywhere else makes me think that the Vale could now look much better if it's NPC inhabitants made some gestures here and there, maybe had a little walk back and forth.
Perhaps Nicholas Velstra could get into arguments with the two men at his side?

Though let's please not have NPCs that walk all across the Vale, that might make it too chaotic.

Hello there,

I've noticed a disparity between the prestige points you recieve on turning cards in, one that makes no sense to me in a lot of cases.

Certain cards giving you less prestige makes sense as they might be tough fights but who'd want to, for example, collect the card of a Piter priest? Him giving you less prestige is something I can see making sense, totally.

Today, after handing in the cards of Thaumaturge Alessio (member of House Nephezar, 25 points) , The Tiger's Flame (literal demon-wares peddler and renowned fighter of the arena, 25 points) and Lady Sunspyre (old noble mage-lady, 100 points), I realized this again.
Could some of the prestige rewards perhaps be looked at and get an adjustment for those of us that don't want to collect 50+ cards to create a full set?

Relics do not show their relic tags whenever they are put in a market stall. This makes for some confusing situations.

Hey there, little bug report!
The Huntsmaster's bounty system does not work when the target is a skinnable creature.
This time the target was a mastiff. We tried clicking the body, nothing happened. Behaved like any other mastiff corpse would, waiting on the ground to be skinned.
Skinned it, only had some meat from it, no head, no tag for the bounty so we could hand it in.

Hello there! I had a suggestion for a very specific head model. The image above shows the super-chad Drayson Sparrowbroth next to the mongrel-born looking character Sean Gorick.

I realized just today how Drayson looks super highly detailed and very fitting to a vanilla portrait that I use for my character :


So since DM Akke informed me that Drayson's head was not separable from his body I hereby suggest to change that and allow players to use that absolutely smoking hot beard for their characters.