Helpful quicknotes for returning ALFA vets

[danielmn]

Pfft. Get your butt in game FI. You know you want to.

[Brokenbone]

Under topic of helpful quicknotes...

- party. It not only increases survivability if your partymates are willing to look out for each other, but XP/GP output for killing stuff improves above soloing. I saw a lot of weird figures a long time ago for duo, trio, quartet adventuring but whatever... trust that partying is good and it pays most of the time.

- an exception to the above is that the world also tries to balance out poor / rich adventurers who are out there killing stuff. Poor guy might find more loot. Rich guy might find less. However, if a party had 4 guys, poor, poor, poor, outrageously wealthy, the world might have to treat the whole party as outrageously wealthy and turn down or off GP rewards, so the rich don't get richer (though that sucks for the poor guys). I'm talking the world as in "if you're out beating up monsters without a DM", not how a DM chooses to award for a night's dungeoneering.

...

Also hi Mirabai. Whenever someone slaps NWN2 on their machine (usually $20 on GOG) and searches for still active PWs, all the downloading of stuff happens automatically when you try to log in, though it takes a wicked long time. I recently re-purchased NWN1 for EFU Revelations purposes though I got tired of it relatively fast. No ragrets.

[Zelknolf]

I asked in IRC if there was anyplace the information I sought could be found and was told there wasn't.

What information are you seeking?

If it's DMs to contact about their session times or recent news, there's monthly updates on the front page. If it's haks, just log in and it's automatic. If it's connecting to the servers, that's linked from the front page.

If it's something else, I couldn't make sense of the request from your post. Happy to answer questions; I just need to know what I'm answering.

[Mirabai]

Hi Zelk!

what current, active, ongoing campaigns are happening, at what times and with what DM, as well as how many active DMs you've currently got going on on what servers, and when I can generally expect to find them IG, available and potentially interested/able to run even simple things or one-offs.

[Audark]

Hey Mirabai great to see you

[Zelknolf]

Yeah, front page says who's been about and what recent changes are afoot but times aren't usually very set-in-stone "we meet at 3:13 pm on Wednesdays" sort of deals, so I couldn't really put posts there-- I put links to threads when they exist, because schedules seem to fluctuate from week to week. A lot of "when can you guys make it next week? OK let's do that" floating around-- easy enough to nudge one of the active DMs (Mick [BG], Wynna [TSM], Adanu [WHL], or AnalogKid [MS]) to get where they are.

One-off events are also there (which includes a link to the Greengrass schedule; sucks that you poked around for so long looking), major module/rules updates/changes, and elections. Stuff that someone staggering in here would need to read to know what the hell we're doing lately.

Except I guess factions, but those barely exist anymore; I still have one, technically, if you want to make a Selûnite, but there aren't really "faction DMs" like we've had in the past so all you get is a room inside the Moon Vatican™ and an extra merchant.


New posts on the front page go up about halfway through the month; someone looking to hop onto whatever's active should be able to look there and get some sense of who to talk to, at least, to get into things.

[Mirabai]

I saw the greengrass schedule right away since there was a reference to it in the letter. As to the rest, yeah I was hoping for something a bit more concrete, active campaigns and the like. February has some links but given how quickly people come and go with RL schedules always changing and seasons putting different demands on individuals, I'm not likely to take posts made in February as any indicator of what's actually going on in April/May.

Ultimately my point is the letter to old members is a great way to get our attention, and if ALFA's going to bother sending one you may as well revise it to include current events all in that one format. If it's about getting people back then making the crucial information easier to review without having to message DMs and peruse old threads is probably a good idea.

Nice to see you're all still truckin

<<Also would you just LOOK AT THAT AMAZING BUNCHIE!!! ha

[Adanu]

Most of these changes are in fact really old news. Some of them are things I pushed for as an admin so that tells you how old it is. I came sniffing around because I got the recent letter, however it really needs an update rather than just tacking on info about an upcoming event to the existing form letter which was written years ago. I'm not trying to get on anyone's case, just saying if you really want folks to come back, more pertinent information to offer would be what current, active, ongoing campaigns are happening, at what times and with what DM, as well as how many active DMs you've currently got going on on what servers, and when I can generally expect to find them IG, available and potentially interested/able to run even simple things or one-offs.

I spent a couple hours cruising the forums looking for this information and all I could find that was current were the dates for Greengrass - which is a great start- but speaking for myself, Jayde, and the couple other people I may bring with me from *redacted*, not enough to compel us to go through the hassle of getting NWN2 on our current machines, downloading haks, etc etc. I asked in IRC if there was anyplace the information I sought could be found and was told there wasn't.

ALFA's greatest strength, IMO, has always been its DMs, and the DM-driven content it provides. Static quests, action, and quality player/player RP I can find elsewhere. Not that ALFA doesn't have all those things as well, but quality DM events and campaigns are where it truly shines and is the allure that time and again makes one of us ask "I wonder what's going on with ALFA these days..."

So if there are campaigns going on or DMs putting time regularly and consistently behind the client, I would love if someone could enlighten me with the needed information, and maybe even sticky a post or add that information to your "come back" letter. If, however, things are far more erratic than that and mostly what's going on is the one event, then that's information I think it's only fair to share as well. Much better to have it all up-front than to have folks buying NWN2 all over again, taking the time to get it all running, then get IG only to find that they'll only rarely see a DM or an event.

Regardless, it's nice to see all of your names again (well, most of you )

I do a weekly DM session on WHL, thursdays and sundays 10 PM EST. Analogkid does saturday nights. There are others about too.

On that note, my thanks for helping me get Zyrus up and running all those years ago... he's still alive, and level 10 now.

[oldgrayrogue]

Pfft. Get your butt in game FI. You know you want to.

Hey FI -- I just got back to ALFA after a long layoff. BG is very active during US East Coast "prime time" with Mick running a super spooky low level thing.

I think Wynna has a campaign on TSM on Wednesdays? (not sure)

Adanu has a campaign going on WHL.

If you check each specific server's forum there is info out there on each.

Say Hi to Jayde. Would be awesome to play with you folks again.

~OGR

[Brokenbone]

I suspect KMJ's thing which ran several weeks in a row will rise again, just the timing for what started out as an outrageously large group (around 10 people) started not working with people's RLs etc. I bet in most cases we could solidly get 5 people on, but so much of the stuff was in the UD that "the wrong mix of PCs gets nervous about exploring really fast" (i.e., missing a key tank or healer or scout or something = boned).

[CloudDancing]

You forgot we have horses now, too. Warhorses for paladins and regular horses for regular people.

[Mirabai]

Horses? HORSES?? Very cool Thanks for all the info guys, I'll think about it. I'd have to get nwn2 all over again so it's a bit ponderous to consider. Either way it's nice to "see" you all again!

[FoamBats4All]

Horses? HORSES?? Very cool Thanks for all the info guys, I'll think about it. I'd have to get nwn2 all over again so it's a bit ponderous to consider. Either way it's nice to "see" you all again!

We do have a reserve of NWN2 copies for just such an occasion. You can try ALFA out without having to buy a new game. Given how much you've done for ALFA in the past, it should be simple to get you a quick digital copy.

[Zelknolf]

If we don't have them, I'll just buy 'em. Cheaper than a lot of forms of entertainment to get friends into the same long-term games.

[maxcell]

If we don't have them, I'll just buy 'em. Cheaper than a lot of forms of entertainment to get friends into the same long-term games.

ditto, I will buy copies for ppl also