Parties

When you first begin venturing outside of New Banian, you may find that there are times that you wish there were others fighting with you at the same time, to increase your experience gain and decrease your chance of death. FFO handles this situation with parties. A party is an organized group of people who have joined together, sharing gold and experience as they fight. Once you create a party, the Party tab will be available to you, showing each member of the party and their current HP and MP.

Parties differ from playing by yourself in the following ways:

Experience will be divided among the members, but more overall experience is gained. Although it is not a perfectly even split, it allows you to gain experience even when you are unable to compete with the tougher monsters you may face. While you won't get the same amount of experience as you would by yourself, the actual experience (if it were totalled among all members) is more, with larger parties having more total than smaller parties. Dealing the final blow to a monster gives the most experience to the player who did the deed; dealing the most damage to that monster also gives another portion to the player who did such a thing.
Gold will be divided as well. All gold is evenly split and rounded so that all party members are given the same amount of gold, regardless of who took the gold.
Attacking a fellow party member does not automatically hostile them. In fact, you are unable to become hostile with any player in your party (unless you were already hostiled to them before).
HP and MP bars are shown next to the player. To the right of each party member, a curved red bar is shown, representing the current HP percentage of the member; a partial bar means they have lost health. To the left of each party member is a curved blue bar, representing the current MP percentage of the member: a partial bar means they have consumed mana at some time. Both bars have a neon-green outline around them, so it is easy to track the percentage. Note that you also have these bars around you while in a party.

Before you are in a party, you must know how to become part of one. On the bottom HUD, there are various buttons with a green outline; these are buttons designated to relate to parties. There are two ways to enter a party, join an already-established party or make one of your own. To enter someone else's party, first press the Parties button (or type "pwho" in your bottom command line) to see a list of parties and their members. Some parties are also locked, meaning you cannot join this party presently. Once you find a member of a party that is unlocked, press the Join Party button and click on the player. You will have now joined their party and gain the advantages listed above. The Join Party button will now have been replaced in the HUD with the Leave Party button, and pressing it causes you to exit the party, losing the benefits you once had.

If you wish to create one, use the Create Party command by holding Alt and clicking on yourself. Type what you wish to be the name of the party in the command window that pops up. You will now be the leader of the party, and will have many new commands available to you:

Disband Party: Alt-click yourself and click the "Disband Party" command. This causes the party to be completely removed from FFO, and all members of it are no longer partied with one another.
Lock Party: Alt-click yourself click the "Lock Party" command. This button will "lock" the party to anyone wanting to join. If your party is locked, this command is replaced with Unlock Party, allowing new members to join.
Rename Party: Alt-click yourself and click the "Rename Party" command. This button brings up a text box, where you can change the name of your party.
Remove Party Member: Hold alt and click a party member, then click the "Remove Party Member" command. The selected player is now removed from the party. They are able to rejoin whenever they wish, unless you have locked the party. If you wish to remove a party member who is not in view, alt-click yourself and use the "Remove Party Member" command to bring up a list of party members that you can remove.
Appoint Deputy: Alt-click a party member and click the "Appoint Deputy" command. The selected player will have been deputized, gaining access to the Lock/Unlock Party and the Remove Party Member commands. Deputies may not remove the leader from a party.
Relieve Deputy: Alt-click a party member and click the "Relieve Deputy" command. This will undeputize any player who has been deputized, stripping them of their commands they once had as a deputy.
Pass Leadership: Alt-click a party member and click the "Pass Leadership" button. The selected player is now the leader of the party, and you are an ordinary member of the party. If you pass leadership to a deputy, you are automatically deputized.
(Note: "Join Party" is disabled while you are a leader.)

Logging out of FFO will automatically remove you from your party. Leaders who leave a party this way pass their leadership to the first deputized member. If there are no deputies, then the first member to have entered the party will become the new leader.

Things to remember about parties:

The more players around, the more monsters show up. While you may not necessarily be responsible for the welfare of your fellow party members, keep in mind that if they die, you will likely be left alone against a large group of enemies that you wouldn't normally face alone.
Avoid damaging your fellow members. Again, if you don't take the care to keep your teammates alive by not attacking them, they may end up dying and leave you with a greater challenge at the moment.
Try to stay on good relations with your members. A party should be organized enough so that the players in the party are content with everyone in the party, but it is possible to spark tention among fellow members. Avoid this so that they don't think harshly of you, possibly even retaliate against you during a difficult time.
Pray for fallen members and retrieve their belongings. This is general good behavior that should be considered party etiquette and will increase positive relations between members.

You are now well on your way to being a successful member of a party. Parties tend to be easier and more worthwhile than soloing, so knowing this valuable information will help you become a better player. Good luck to joining (or making) your next party.

Related: Social (Say)
Related: Social (Who)

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