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Darkfall expansion delayed, treasure hunting in the works
Lots of stuff is going on in the world of Agon, and the weekend brought us a double-shot of news updates, one good and one not so good. Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras recently checked in on the official boards to announce a delay on the upcoming expansion. The delay appears to be primarily performance-related. "The expansion is forced back a short while longer, we hope no longer than a couple of weeks, in order to get the performance right, and everything in the expansion working properly and tested thoroughly so there's no repeat of the last setback with the terrain feature," he wrote. Aventurine has also been having trouble with its network service provider, and the post provides a few details along those lines as well. Now for the good news: treasure hunting is coming to Darkfall, courtesy of the aforementioned expansion. Players will be able to acquire map-reading skills from NPCs, make their own shovels to unearth various objects, and use treasure map hints to determine appropriate dig locations. "We are already planning on expanding this system, which means you can expect additional treasure hunt features being added on top of the one we talked about today," writes Aventurine's Laenih on the Darkfall forums.
Darkfall community Q&A hints at massive game expansion
Its been quite awhile since Aventurine first sat down for a community-based question and answer session with noted Darkfall blogger Paragus. Today, he brings us part two of the lengthy interview, which features a whopping 57 questions generated by Darkfall players. As you would expect, some of the answers are short and fluffy, but many are quite informative as to the future of the PvP sandbox title. Stashed away inside the deluge of queries are a few gems about upcoming content, including mention of the cryptically titled Darkfall 2010 project. "[It] comes after the next expansion and is a much bigger proposition. Darkfall 2010 is our internal code name for this project. Our intent is to have it complete within the year, but we can't rule out that it will take longer than that. We've been working on this for quite a while, it's parallel development to Darkfall and almost as big a project as making a new game," Aventurine says. Aside from that teaser, there is also talk of prestige classes, performance improvements, and the long-awaited four-legged running feature for the mahirim race. Sadly, it seems as if this particular fan wish isn't going to be granted anytime soon, despite the assets already existing in the live game. "Our main problem is that it is an unbalancing factor," says Aventurine.
Darkfall offers up community Q&A session
Darkfall has pegged itself from the beginning as a niche title, focusing on a brand of open PvP that doesn't necessarily appeal to everyone. And it's certainly handled that title with aplomb, earning our staff pick for best PvP in a 2009 MMO. But one of the most important aspects of its existence as a niche game is a strong sense of community among the players, a goal that Aventurine has been meeting more than adequately. Tasos Flambouras, Claus Grovdal and Kjetil Helland recently took part in a question-and-answer session, with the results just posted for all of the game's players to see and enjoy. Summarizing the breadth of the questions and details released is difficult at best. The game's third large content update, preliminarily named "Darkfall 2010," is discussed in depth, and it promises a variety of changes and improvements. Aside from graphical improvements such as DirectX 11 support, it promises to add a variety of new crafting items and an armor dye system. The developers are also keeping a close watch on PvP hotspots and balance, as well as promising to expand the game's specializations and diversify player skills. Read through the full Q&A for a great deal of information about what's promised and coming soon. [ Thanks to Paragus for the tip! ]
