The Daze of Darkfall Week 3: Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', yeah
Hey there avid Darkfall readers! It's week three of The Daze of Darkfall, and that means we only have one week left in our feature! Time sure does fly when you're getting your butt kicked in defense of your city!
And that is totally what I did this week! Yes, that's right, it's time for a real look into "hardcore" PvP and raiding! I was out in the PvE sections killing skeletons, I was defending our city against enemy invaders, and I was working with others in harvesting camps.
So this is it. This is the cream of the Darkfall crop. This is what people say is the most amazing part of this game. Is it? Will it live up to the hype? Skip along with me after the break, and we'll go through week three, step by step.
And now for something completely different
First thing is first -- harvesting parties. Up until this point, I've been a lone-wolf harvester. However, as the game has progressed and people have become more, shall we say, adventurous, the harvesting game has become more difficult. Being alone, even with the security of my city just a close jog away, means you can be killed quite easily. I know I don't wear armor when I harvest -- why put something more on the line? If you're going to kill me and take away hours worth of work, I don't want you taking my armor as well. Therefore, I will die from your onslaught quite quickly, as I am very naked.
So, lately, we've been working in groups. The clan has been working together to send out groups of harvesters away from the city and to remote locations that are full of good harvesting nodes and fewer angry armored people. This new format has been working out quite well for us, as the death of harvesters has dropped while the number of resources collected has gone up. Sure, running back would be a pain, but that's why the programmers dropped in "bindstone recall," aka, the hearthstone. Give all of your resources to one man, let them recall, and you keep plugging away on your harvesting.
However, driving many people away from the city has given us one problem...
I'm trapped in a pile of AFK bodies, someone help!
Last Thursday and Friday night were full of, "Raid group outside of town. Looks like they want to come in. Everyone recall for defense." It seems we had finally been noticed by pretty much everyone.
Unfortunately, a nice chunk of people were out harvesting during these times, myself included. I quickly slammed on my bindstone button with the rest of the group, as clan rules dictate that all able members must defend the city should we come under attack, no matter where you are or what you're doing.
Upon recalling back to the town, I did the first thing that made sense: run to the bank and throw my wood into the safety of the vault. As I ran over, deposited my wood, and began to take my armor out, I began to get shot in the back. Our defense had folded quite quickly and now our bank was under attack. As I was pulling the armor into my backpack, I casually looked at my health. It had magically dropped to half already! I about faced with my armor dropping and started shoving it back into the bank as quickly as possible. It wasn't going to do me any good if I was dead before I put it on.
My body fell lifeless next to the bank with only a crappy polearm left on my corpse. Death in Darkfall is quite different from most games, you see. Even though I was "dead," it's more of an unstable bleeding fest. Your character lays on the ground reaching for the sky and gasping for air before someone comes along and does one of two things. Either they can offer you assistance and "resurrect" you, which brings you off of the ground with still a sliver of life, or they can use the oh-so-appropriately-named "gank" skill. (Yes, it's really called the gank skill.) Gank has to be charged up, as your killer triumphantly raises their weapon into the air to sadistically plunge into your body.
