There is a gaping chasm between what "the setting" is described to us as, and what "the setting" looks like in practice. This is a many faceted problem, and I'm going to try to explain it as best as I can.
This, in my opinion, is not fixable, by virtue of what has already been established; it is too late to 'walk this back'.
By and large, characters are dismissive of any and all threats on this server - and why shouldn't they be? They're out every sixteen hours slaying "ancient red dragons", mind flayers, eldritch horrors beyond our comprehension, and wandering into the depths of the Lowerdark casually like it's nothing special. That is because they can be. The very systems and content put in place by the module designers tell us that we can be.
To make this clearer; we are regularly told by "The Team" that we ought to consider ourselves roughly level 12-15, and not epic characters as the sheet tells us. (I am not a fan of "levels" as a way to measure power, as an aside, but other than CR, it is the only metric we have.) If that is so, there is a tremendous discrepancy here. Here's an example of an NPC from the place my current character is from, Maeruhal, in Halruaa.
https://realmshelps.net/faerun/halruaa/cities.shtml wrote:Authority Figures: Mayor Rinlin Pulgro (NG male human evoker 14/Halruaan elder 2).
If the Mayor of a small village is around level 16, and if 12-15 is the ballpark power level we're being told we are, then one might assume our characters would approach even that sort of a situation with mild trepidation; given that we are regularly throwing ourselves at an entire Illithid hive and not just one man, I struggle to see how we are meant to reconcile this?
(So you know this isn't cherrypicking, there are also:
https://realmshelps.net/faerun/halruaa/cities.shtml wrote:Important Characters: Kelvrim Errowd (LN male human diviner 11/Halruaan elder 1), Dobyo Flurrig (NG male human abjurer 12/Halruaan elder 2), Inyda Lauz (LG female human diviner 12/Halruaan elder 4), and Drindos Bez-Mont (N male human evoker 13/Halruaan elder 2), members of the Halruaan Council of Elders; Branwig Forkbeard (LN male gold dwarf fighter 13), leader of the Righteous Hammers mercenary company; Holper Stoutshield (LN male gold dwarf fighter 9/giant-killer 6), leader of the Golden Shield mercenaries; Dreela Fallstatter (NG female half-elf expert 14), proprietor of the Winsome Wyvern festhall and gambling parlor.
We're all rich, too - and we're, for some reason, expected to be, unless we go out of our way to throw money into the latrine. Here's a few varied examples of this from the module itself:
Travelling on a ship costs 50gp
Travelling to Dis costs 7000gp
Paying to free yourself from slavery costs 2,000,000gp
Renting a temporary shop costs 100gp up-front
Again, to use that same village as an example, its entire assets are 6,340gp. One ingot of adamantine costs five times that on the server. How are we supposed to roleplay that, given that our characters (some of whom are supposedly showing up poor as dirt) know the value of a gold piece, and had lives before the isle?
I would like to point out, too, that these are gold pieces. Not copper; not silver. Those are by far what are generally more likely to be used by the commonfolk, and even the average adventurer. This is not something that is set in stone; other servers do not use gold because it is, frankly, ridiculous.
The fact of the matter is that the world outside of Arelith conveniently ceases to exist whenever the gargantuan strain of the suspension of disbelief is about to break the camel's back, and we're told to simply handwave it away, despite that being "the setting". What is asked of us is to respect something that has minimal thought put into it other than the mechanics of it.
Another major issue is, in fact, the way players talk about these resources. That's absolutely 'off', too; it feels like trade chat in World of Warcraft. For example, I regularly see people just casually talking about adamantine like it's some plentiful resource, like sand. Colloquially, it's "addy". People place notes on the floor saying "WTB addy helm 30k." People talk about crafted items like pointing at it on the wiki, with no effort to make it sound like the impressive feat it is.
Where RP is concerned, the team is "hands-off". This is not an issue that can be reported; it is a culture issue. It is the majority of the playerbase, because there is no guiding hand to explain why these things are wrong. These issues are neither addressed in any meaningful way, nor enforced. The most that is offered is a gentle nudge to "please respect the setting." The team is seemingly wary of telling people that what they are doing is "wrong", unless it is a direct rulebreak.
Another point: there is no cohesion between what we do and what we're supposed to roleplay as, and the blame for this lies squarely with the module. Kobolds and Goblins are as powerful as the rest of us as PC races, but we slay them in droves in any other area. Rakshasa and Vampires are talked about as if they are just minor nuisances, despite there being a module-vampire that is seemingly marked as a low level writ having an entire lair full of thralls and magical creatures. Kobolds roleplay as worthy of respect, and not the crafty, cowardly, cruel vermin that the sourcebooks describe them as. Nobody is fearful of anything. Nobody has any reason to be. If a goblin can bash in the Ullitharid's head, why should he roleplay as he ought to? Is he supposed to pretend he did not go out and do those things, so that he can stick to the source material, or is he supposed to roleplay that he is an exception to the sourcebooks, and thus deserves the status of "exempt from those requirements"?
Nothing, and I mean this sincerely, nothing, in the sense of "the setting" is enforced unless it is obviously disruptive; someone running about talking in OOC, or swearing, or they happen to be called Spider-Man. So many things should be gated behind either application or RPB rating; as it so happens, the RPB system would be great for enforcing this - if the team were actually committed to its use. This is not to say that I and those that I enjoy roleplaying with are the pinnacles of roleplay that we all ought to aspire to, but it is a commentary on just how many players and characters perpetuate these immersion- and setting-breaking habits.
I am certain that people are still having fun on the server, and I am glad to hear that - but the server's core foundations that it is supposedly built on seem to have crumbled into dust by now, and all I can see when I look is an MMO with a thin veneer of "encouraged, but not necessary" roleplay.
These are not the only issues; but these are the ones that ought to be addressed and brought into the light first and foremost, and do not delve into the dark pit of "player culture" too much.