More suspense!

[Moonthirst]

Dude, EFU:A is getting boring. It is stupid because we can predict what will happen eventually. On EFU in underdark.... BAM! Spellguard leader Illithid! BAM! Azzam is a bad person... It made there be Undpredictable things.... right now we can mainly guess what is going to happen. We need more cool things none of us would expect to happen. We need stuff more out of whack! Right now everything is BORING it seems. I want more things to happen and effect people.

[Hammerfist0]

I think I can speak for most of the playerbase when I say this:

Stop whining please.

[chezcaliente]

Hm. If everything was a "surprise" then nothing would be surprising. I'm sure there's plenty of intrigue waiting to be uncovered, I have faith in our crazy DMs.

[VauntedSpirit]

If there isn't enough for you, why not create some yourself? That, after all, is what EfU/EfU:A was all about. Creating you own stories, you're own intruige and your own suspense.

[Pup]

There is plenty of intrigue, both PC and DM, I assure you.  Just look for the clues, they're there.

[core]

Find some or make some!

[The Beggar]

I hear your frustration. The surface is different from the alternate setting you had grown accustomed too. I would argue however that there are amazing things to discover in this game world, and astounding things that have come to light which you may have missed IC.

If you need an update, please see the Rumors section to gain sweet, exciting information on happenings.

Some things that are not boring that may be of interst are located there for any and all to pick up on, enjoy, create story lines, involve others, and be entertained with. Please also, don't forget the DMs want to be entertained as well. The more we interact with them, and with the game environment they have set up for us to enjoy, the more they will interact with us. Mutual entertainment will ensue, and "boring" will be abolished.

If you are still bored after that, and don't like to RP, I don't know what to say other than try FPS. Unless you find getting headshotted repeatedly boring. If so, I'm out of suggestions.

Just my two cents from an old dixie cup.

[I can has fun?]

I think I can speak for most of the playerbase when I say this:

Stop whining please.

You don't speak for me.

[Mort]

A good way to avoid boredom is to have goals/ways to interact that go beyond questing and hoarding.

If you are constantly doing stuff, roleplaying, risking your character's life, etc. -- Much more likely to have some unexpected story/event to drop in your lap. Few questions that you can ask yourself:

 - Do you engage/talk/emote with other characters you see or let them come to you?

 - Do you act busy around or ignore other characters who talk to you?

 - Do you want your environment to be a product of YOU or be a product of your environment?

 - Do you have diverse pre-written scenarios available in your head to interact with others depending on your character's personae?

 - Are you passive (wait for stuff to come to you) in your gameplay or are you active (try to talk to as many people and organize stuff) in your gameplay?

 - Are your characters interesting? Or can they be summarize by a sentence like Hoaran LE Fighter level 6?

 - Does your character have goals?

I'm not saying it's all one-sided, but that a very big percentage of how you will enjoy yourself on the gameworld is proportional to how much energy you put in involving others or thinking ways to involve others, be creative and be interesting yourself. Thinking or planning goals or ways to interact with other characters is therefore essential, hence why it's emphasized so much.

Logging in and noticing people twirling their thumb, being afk, or just crowding atop the Ziggurat is not inspiring and usually when 70% of the server does that, we'll go see what the 30% is doing whether it's intrigue, plotting, fighting, exploring, or just being active. Also it doesnt leave a lot of window of opportunities for DMs to introduce events, sometimes we only want to bring a fraction of people (admittedly 5-8 party size tend to be the optimal enjoyment size for groups).

And yes, DMs' role in that is important, but it's usually minor in comparison to the time you will spend with other players. Time-spent on DM events has always been a lot smaller than time spent outside of DM events. If we give it a very generous number, I'd say 10% vs. 90%, maybe? Therefore if you work on improving the 90%, not only will you enjoy it more but maybe you'll attract more DM attention as well, tilting the balance to 15% vs. 85% .

My 2 cents is work on things within your control to not be bored (and boring). More suspense or DM events or Announcements are outside your control (and more often than not, outside of OUR control as well).

[petey512]

I have to agree that EfU:A is a big change to EfU. Mainly because EfU made more sense when it came to what you were trying to do. People are showing up on Ymph and I havn't found many characters trying to get back home, I don't know why that is even though it would be ten times easier to escape Ymph due to the ships showing up all the time. Also, there are so many groups off doing their own thing, that it was pretty hard to even figure out what was going on. Most of the time one shows up on Ymph via portal, is told that he/she's on Ymph, to stay away from nightrisers, oh and here's a crummy weapon to get you started since it's going to be a pain in the rear to find one. EfU was pretty simple, make a life in sanctuary or try to get out.

Plus it really restricts what players can do. You see, for example, in the old server, there were all these underdark native plants that were pretty useful for making things like poison and alchemist fire and other little things like that. I havn't logged on for a while but the last time I was on plants were nowhere to be found, and while few players used them, it was nice to know that they could if they wanted to.

Another problem is the server seems very anti-scout/explorer friendly. In the underdark one could sneak about easilly without being seen by the passing giant gelatinous cube or umber hulk. Which could lead to some exciting stuff. Now one would have to be a level 7 rogue with skill focus in hide and move silenty in order to not be seen by a jungle cat or nightriser warlock. Then there's all the locked doors that require keys, which restricts greatly what a player can do. Nothing bums me out more than exploring a whole mysterious cave and then finding that one door that won't open no matter how good I am at lockpicking. Don't get me started about the vast majority of creatures native to the island that are immune to sneak attack.

Essentially Iv'e found the best way to learn something at all about the mysteries on the island is to hook up with a faction filled with level 6 or 8 fighters who can just tank through whatever they please.

Then there's the nightrisers, an uncurable problem very much similiar to the chosen near the closing of the last server. Theyr'e always closeby, theyr'e always powerfull, and theyr'e attacking just as frequently.

So naturally people are getting bored because few can survive the ultra-stealthed cats and the nightrisers, and usually can't do anything productive for the server unless they get to level 4 or 5 at the very least.

[Pup]

Mort is telling the truth when he says the DMs gravitate to more active players (paraphrasing Mort).  If you are plotting and organizing, the chance something sweet will drop in your lap increases ten-fold, easily.

Get involved, start a plot(s), cut your piece of the pie for yourself.

[Sternhund]

I suspect that EFU's environment made it blatantly obvious that there were secrets. (See: Machine, Dunwarren, Spellguard). However, despite EFUA's many secrets and lore which we've gone through rigors to write up, not many people appear to catch on to the fact that this is a rather mysterious island. I don't fault that entirely as a bad thing, but I suspect that people get the wrong impression sometimes.

[Moonthirst]

Well what I do notice is that much is not being learned on this island :(

[Sternhund]

Whoa, I'd say quite the opposite. I feel as if a lot has been discovered of the setting, notably from the Archaeological Society faction.

[AKMatt]

Every faction I've been a part of has had quite a few secrets they uncovered.  Hooking up with a faction, PC or DM, is the way to get into the mysteries of Ymph.