What is ALFA?

[Ofelix]

Please grace me with your keen wisdom, what the hell is ALFA? a lot of people are talking about it in Sorcerers and I well don't know anything about it...

I already hear some SP-er yelling this:

¨Where were you the last years?!¨
¨Well I DID played a Lot of Morrowind, A LOT¨

[Gothmog]

Uhm, i'm not the best guy to tell about ALFA. But i cant resist


Its a online Faerun within NwN. You have servers that split Faerun into many parts. Then if you want your character to start in Waterdeep, you connect on that server. Naturaly you can travel all over the place, no big deal.

The thing that seperates it greatly from all other servers are the players. Becouse players have to go through application, those players who are impatient and want only to get some quick action dont get in at all. Which is a very good thing, becouse we dont get jerks in the game. And those few get banned anyway


I suggest you read Phlan crier, there you'll learn lots more. Especialy topic: Another flavour of ALFA. That topic made me apply and be accepted

[Frostbite]

Okay, well, I play on ALFA to, so heres my summary of it, sorry if it sounds a lot like Gothmogs

ALFA - A land far away, is a collection of NWN servers, that aim to recreate the forgotten realms as realistically as possible with the NwN toolset.

They have a few servers up and running, such as Baldurs Gate and Daggerdale, Waterdeep, Scardale and the vast swamp to name a few.

Its a purely roleplaying server, and your only allowed to play on these servers if you send in an application, asking questions on your thought on roleplaying, your chosen character etc.

Its a heavily DM'd, meaning lots of DM interaction and fun. Things such as on going quests, even the static quests on Daggerdale can be fun if you decide to RP them with a friend or even someone with the same aims as you. Once you've joined, there are loads of things your character can take part in. These servers don't focus on leveling at all, more about getting involved and improving your roleplaying skills.

I personally decided to join after reading through the phlan crier, Sir Bel also recomended I join, and ALFA is by far one of the most fun things that I do now.

For more infrmation, might I suggest the official webpage - www.alandfaraway.net

Also if I were you, I'd browse round the forums a bit aswell, you'll often find interesting topics and happenings throughout the server. Also I would suggest reading some of the older topis in the phlan Crier.

[Mesmero]

Gothmog and Frostbite gave a pretty good description. Make sure you read About ALFA, the FAQ, and also take a look at the charter, but don't read the entire charter. It is too much for any normal person, but you should read it if you decide to register.

Make sure you take a look at the Community Forums, and not the Public Forums. The Public Forums have nothing to do with ALFA. The Community Forums are devided into other forums, much like the BoM, but you'll need to register to the forums to be able to few them all.

And like Frostbite and Gothmog said; take a look at the Phlan Crier. Read the most active topics, you'll get the feeling of what's going on in ALFA.

[Mathetais]

My $0.02

ALFA is the next best thing to sitting around a table with a few buddies, lots of soda and chips, and playign a few hours of pen and paper D&D.

You get to slowly develop a character, both in combat and in social enviornments.

There are people who rarely fight, but dedicate their time in game to being merchants, towns folk and other "types of people" (there is one person RP-ing a prostitute!) That's not to say you can't be a standard warrior/cleric/ranger, etc. It just gives a real depth of experience.

It's not the promised land or anything. Its gets frustrating at times, and no-saved + permadeath makes it frustrating at times. But its worth it.

[Ofelix]

I just get accepted in the comunity but I can't play due to incorrect version betwen the server and my Comp, Does somebody know the link to the revert patch V1.30 to V1.29?

Anyway I'll surely play a Half-elf druid named Kenneth.

[Blackthorne TA]

http://nwdownloads.bioware.com/never...patch/english/

Link care of Frostbite.

[idoru]

ALFA just returned to the present again by adopting SoU and patch 1.31. Just in case someone missed this.. it hasn't been posted on their news page, for some odd reason.

[fade]

I sent in an application so lets hope for the best.

[Mesmero]

it hasn't been posted on their news page, for some odd reason.

They are having troubles posting news on the front page. As far as I heard, they tried multiple times, but it just didn't work. For all the latest news about the upgrade, you should check the anouncement forum, on the ALFA messege boards.

[Frostbite]

Yay! I knew that link would come in handy some time. Shame that ALFas updated to the newest version... damn. Anyway.

You now need SoU installed and running, and the ltest version, 1.31. I believe that the DMs are still fine tuning some of the changes from the upgrade. But ALFAs back running now.

Only problem is my PC keeps crashing...

[BigStick]

From the posts I've seen here, it does not seem that ALFA is a very fun place to play. It seems that very few characters live long enough to do more than begin to be developed.

I'd not enjoy having to start from scratch so frequently. I guess I invest too much into my characters to let them go so easily.

Am I getting a poor view of that world or is that pretty much accurate?

[Mathetais]

I think that's a poor view. Early on I used single-player tactics and got killed early. You have to think more and take it slower. ALFA is best suited for RP, less so for hack 'n slash. As a hack 'n slasher, I tended to die.

If you RP, you'll have a chance to develop. Yes, its dangerous, but you won't die immediately if you RP well and take only calcualted risks.

[Gothmog]

Yup, lvl1&co deaths are mostly results of not being careful, suicidal charges(guess why there arent any paladins ) and such stuff.

But if you go slowly, talking and partying with people you can live a long time indeed. And even if you die sometime when you're wellknown you can get ressurected(at a level loss naturaly) just becouse you're famous

Well, my point is... you can live a long time if you play right.


Thoughts like "i'm going to wipe out whole dagger hills alone(for more xp) to level" get you killed.

Mostly

[Mesmero]

Yup, lvl1&co deaths are mostly results of not being careful, suicidal charges(guess why there arent any paladins) and such stuff.

Are ye insultin' me lad?

My paladin has been alive for five weeks now (not having played for the last two weeks kinda helps ).

I found out very quickly, that hack 'n slash wasn't the way to go. My first character died within 24 hours. I thought he was strong enough to go up against a few foes, but I was wrong. In a party you are relatively save, especially when you know somebody in the party well enough, that he is willing to drag your body back to town.

[Gnolyn Lochbreaker]

Sorry that's the impression you're getting BigStick. Personally, I think ALFA is the best thing to happen to CRPGs since BG1 first came out. And in many respects, it is far, far better. I have an absolute blast on ALFA.

As others have noted, it is difficult - but that is because it takes time to adjust. ALFA is a blend of PnP D&D and the D&D we're used to from BG, Icewind Dale, etc. If you play on ALFA like you would on a CRPG, your characters won't last very long, and you will very likely get bored. There's no saving, no reloading, and no pause. Hack'n'slash techniques will generally result in a) a lot of dead characters, or b) getting you banned for powergaming and metagaming.

On the flip side, although ALFA relies heavily on DM involvement, it's simply not possible for a DM to be online and available everytime you log on. For many players it takes a while to realise that there isn't a DM behind every encounter. Learning to judge an encounter based on your character's capabilities, and those of your party, is also key to surviving on ALFA. It's also important to understand that the DMs are there for all the players, unlike a PnP game where the DM is essentially at your beck and call. ALFA DMs can't oversee and control every aspect of the game: they can't fudge a roll, nor adjust every encounter to balance the game to your character and your party.

Some players don't adjust, either because they don't want to, or they just don't get it. The vast majority do.

I'd not enjoy having to start from scratch so frequently. I guess I invest too much into my characters to let them go so easily.

Once you, as a player, adjust to playing in ALFA your first problem should be solved. The second part is really up to you. Most of my characters last for several weeks. And most don't die. I usually play a character until I get bored, because I've accomplished what I want with them. Then I retire them and move on. Of course some of the characters that I've really enjoyed (Cynedra, Gnessen, Brin) have died long before I tired of them. But that's the luck of the dice, and I thoroughly enjoyed playing them.

The thing is, with ALFA you soon look at everything as a challenge and a risk. In any encounter your character could die (if not, then you need to move on to other encounters and stop camping ). Every situation has some risk. To me that makes it not only more exciting, but I also put much more effort into my characters, and I take very good 'care' of them. The more I invest in them, the more I work at keeping them alive, as well as more interesting to me and other players. As a result, my characters tend to survive most of the time.

[BigStick]

Thanks for the feedback all. I'll take it into consideration.