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Aventurine 'sprinting' toward Darkfall 2.0
As Darkfall "sprints" down the road toward its second incarnation, bloodthirsty PvPers are looking to Aventurine for more information about how their favorite game world is being remolded. Tasos Flambouras came forth today with word that not only is the project still powering forward, but the development team is growing as new hires are brought on to assist in the efforts. Flambouras uses the post as a progress report and To Do list all in one. Perhaps the most exciting teases that he mentions are new methods of progression in the game. "These are significant and exciting changes to the way the game is played because they add more purpose to player freedom," he writes. Currently the art team is adding and revamping many of the game's objects and animations, while the world builders are hammering away at Mahirim. As part of Darkfall 2.0, introductory dungeons will be integrated into the game to help newbies get a foothold in the cutthroat MMO. The team is also experimenting with "alternatives" to player respawn time after deaths, as well as a brand-new market system and improved trading experience.
Darkfall ropes players back in with free gametime
Do you hear that? That faint yet alluring noise drifting over the MMO plains? 'Tis the siren song of the free gametime, my child. It twists and turns with the wind, seeking out every nook and cranny where a potential player may be hidden. Few can escape its call, but then again, why would they want to? Over on the Darkfall forums comes the announcement of a Return to Darkfall campaign aimed at previous players. If you were a Darkfall player before April 2010, Adventurine wants to invite you back for a two-week free play session. North American players also have the option to transfer to the NA server for free during this period. Adventurine is directing NA players to sign back up here, and EU players to head over there. The 14-day free play offer will end on May 31st, so if you tasted of the fruits of Darkfall in the past and want to see if it's sweeter today, now is the time to hop back on board! [Thanks Billy!]
DarkFall's expansion set to launch today
We've been hearing quite a bit about niche MMO Darkfall lately, including a clever marketing strategy (depending on your point of view), and an upcoming expansion. The expansion, titled "Conquer the Seas" will go live today, after a few brief delays. A developer post on November 18th set the expansion for "late next week", but a week or so of delay is almost certainly worth it for a bit of extra polish on the expansion. This is the largest patch that Adventurine has ever released, and more ambitious projects are certainly more subject to bumps along the way. Today's developer post says "We're getting ready with the expansion as we speak," and notes that the EU servers will be down for the patch and could possibly be down for 24 hours. The NA1 server will remain up during that time, then experience brief downtime for its own patch. Developer Tasos emphasizes that EU players will be reimbursed for their downtime.
Darkfall bans another wave of cheaters
Adventurine's public voice for Darkfall, Tasos, has announced through their forums that the have banned another 213 players for cheating using 3rd party programs. This is claimed to be 90% of the currently detected cheaters, with the final 10% awaiting verification. Cheaters were detected automatically but the verification process is manual.The message contains a warning that cheaters tend to be very outspoken and so are expected to be proclaiming innocence on the forums. These threads will be deleted and those accounts will also be banned. Darkfall has a zero tolerance attitude to cheating, and previously Tasos has declared that there were a couple of bannings per day.
Some players feeling burnout in Darkfall already?
Syncaine has another interesting Darkfall post up on his blog discussing why he thinks some players have started experiencing burnout so soon after release. He feels some of the issues are a result of how the game world has been playing out, while others are attributed to individual play style.Game specific issues include large alliances that have been forming up in Agon and that some people feel they must keep up with the Joneses. Being in an über-alliance means that nearly (if not) all your neighbours are friendly and that you must travel far and wide to find any PvP. Perhaps due to exploitation methods in the past (e.g., being able to skill up on invincible mobs), some players feel they need to grind before they can be truly effective in the game.Play style specific issues include trying to play a sandbox game with an "on rails" mentality and that some people simply can't handle the notion that for every triumphant gaming session, they will probably encounter an equally disastrous one. While some people think they crave a wide open, hardcore PvP experience, they refuse to accept that it may not actually be their style.
Darkfall delivers on player expectations?
When you go into a movie, sporting event, or new MMORPG with very high expectations, you're likely to be disappointed. In the case of pre-release Darkfall Online, player expectations were all over the map from dismissive naysayers, to undecided fence-sitters, to drooling fanboys. Actually, it's like that for most MMOs, isn't it?Based on information he read on forums, fansites, and gleaned from videos, Keen established his own set of expectations for the various features advertised for Darkfall (he wasn't in beta). Now that he's been playing a while, he decided to rate his initial expectations versus his early impressions. The list includes items like the skill, magic, and crafting systems, graphics, PvP gameplay, and many more.Keen rates 12 parts of Darkfall in total on a highly scientific scale of Fantastic to Total Crap and gives his overall impressions so far. For instance, he expected the combat to be Decent but finds it to be Great, the magic system to be Good but finds it to be Mediocre, and server stability + communication from Adventurine to be Bad but finds it to be Total Crap. It's an interesting way to rate a new MMO, so check out his blog for the full details.
Darkfall impressions on mounts and guild politics
Paragus is back with another mini Darkfall review over at MMORPG.com. This time he's talking about mounts and politics.Mounts in Darkfall are quite a bit different than you'll find in other MMORPGs. The biggest difference is that you don't purchase them from vendors; they come from crafters who learn the "taming" skill. Mounts aren't just vehicles to get you from point A to B either; they can swim and attack (kicking and biting). They can also be stolen by other players, killed, and healed. The controls for mounts are excellent and you can actually attack other players with a one-handed weapon from the saddle.Darkfall's unrestrictive PvP also supports an interesting political system. Guilds can be neutral, allied, or at war with each other. You can even be at war with a guild of your own race. Guards won't intervene when you're fighting a guild you're at war with in a city either. This obviously leads to some complex relationships when you become allied with other guilds because you must factor all the guilds they're at war with.Anyone interested in Darkfall should also take a look at Keen's blog because he has been keeping a very detailed journal of his experiences.
Darkfall lays out a strict anti-macroing policy
There are no levels in Darkfall Online. Instead, they use a skill-based progression system. For example: the more you cast magic missile, the better your magic missiles become. Once your magic missile becomes good enough, you will be able to learn a more powerful spell. Obviously a system like this can be easily exploited by macro or bot programs, so it isn't surprising that Adventurine is taking a strict stance against any such exploitation. Of course, there are also the reports of speedhacking where players can run as fast or faster than sprint without losing stamina.Tasos does not define the term "macro" in the policy, so one must assume its definition is broad. A macro could be assigning several actions to a single hotkey (e.g., a combination of attacks in a particular sequence). A macro could also be a reactionary action (e.g., whenever you are cursed, auto-cast your "remove curse" spell). Anyone caught macroing or spamming spells in the safety of a city or tower area will be warned once, kicked, and potentially banned for repeat attempts. It doesn't seem like they'll punish macro-users in the riskier open-world unless the macros are unattended (generally called bots). Finally, anyone caught using third-party cheating, hacking, modding, or botting programs will be perma-banned no matter where they are.[Via MMORPG.com]
So, you think you're a hardcore PvPer, eh?
The Darkfall hype has shot through the roof these past few days. Since the NDA was lifted, many reviews have surfaced and they all say pretty much the same thing; Darkfall is technically sound but lacks content polish, and due to its core game design and griefing potential, will only really appeal to the hardcore PvPer. And by "hardcore PvPer," they mean pre-Trammel UO slash AC Darktide fans. Haaardcore.A few interesting blog posts popped up yesterday that bring something a bit new to the table. Tobold shared his Darkfall beta experience and suggested that while the game may find it's niche, it will be a very small one because most gamers prefer to play it safe. He points out that even in other PvP-centric games like EVE and UO, people tend to congregate in the safe havens if given the option. Scott Jennings also weighed in on hardcore PvPers. He believes people may appreciate the idea of hardcore PvP in the abstract, but tend to wuss out when push comes to shove. He cites past experience with the quick to rise and fall of PvP servers in DAOC. Finally, Keen lets us know that he finally got his pre-order after refreshing the order page for many hours. He shares a quote from lead Darkfall dev, Tasos, who says they are receiving 20 times the amount of web traffic to their order page than originally estimated.
Paragus' Darkfall beta review: Not your grandma's MMORPG
One of the very first Darkfall beta reviews we found came up only moments after the NDA dropped. Paragus, co-leader of the Inquisition guild and longtime MMORPG fanatic, shared his thoughts on the game over at MMOCrunch.com. It's quite a lengthy read and covers areas of the game such as character creation, user interface, the world, characters and animations, combat, quests, PvE, the alignment system, and corpse-looting.One commentor pointed out a few things the review was missing, including mounts, ships, mount and ship combat, class/skill balance, bugs, missing features, and the player-run economy. Still, we found it to be a very good overview of the game. Paragus suggests that Darkfall is not going to have mass market appeal, however, fans of old-school PvP MMOs like Ultima Online and Asheron's Call should find the game quite entertaining. Overall, he feels that while Darkfall may be a little rough around the edges, it features enough of a unique experience to be worth it. Paragus is also taking questions, so feel free to leave comments on his review.If you'd like a second opinion, why not check out what Massively's very own Colin Brennan has to say about his hands-on Darkfall experience? Also, share your thoughts on whether or not you plan to purchase Darkfall in our Daily Grind.
Darkfall to launch with limited pre-order and launch copies
With Darkfall set to launch in Europe a couple weeks from now, MMORPG.com caught up with lead developer, Tasos Flambouras, for an interview. Things have been a bit quiet on the Aventurine front since late January, which Tasos attributes to them working furiously on getting the game ready for release and supporting thousands of beta testers.Several interesting things were revealed in this interview, including denial that they are planning on delaying release yet again, their plans to lift the NDA to give players enough time to make an informed decision, and that they aren't looking past the EU launch for a North American one just yet. The most interesting piece of information is that they plan to release a limited number of pre-order and launch copies of Darkfall to ensure their infrastructure can support the initial rush of players eager to get their hands on the game. This is a very different strategy than most MMO developers take. Usually, players are forced into long server queues or servers that can't handle the player load and crash frequently. This can lead to more servers being opened that spread the population too thin once the initial rush is over. Given Aventurine's strategy, you may want to keep your eyes on eBay if you miss out on a pre-order or launch copy.
