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Darkfall dev diary talks new info interface, crafting skills, and meditation
A new Darkfall dev blog update has been sighted in the wild, and Aventurine is apparently hard at work on a number of Agonian fixes despite a case of the flu taking up residence in the company's office. Darkfall players can look forward to crafting skill gain adjustments in the next patch, and Aventurine is also aiming to get stats into the game's offline meditation system in the near future. Darkfall's new info interface will debut in March, and Tasos Flambouras writes that it will "give you a detailed information overview having to do with a great many activities like politics, clan activities, vendor information, etc." Flambouras also mentions the ongoing work on the game's new UI, as well as upcoming lore-related events tied into the title's second anniversary (and a forthcoming website and forum revamp). Be on the lookout for a full run-down regarding the new info interface in an upcoming dev diary, and check out all the other details at the Darkfall Epic Blog.
Darkfall activity report hints at game-changing expansion
It's been pretty quiet in Darkfall land since the first of the year, and whether that's because the devs have been hunting wabbits or hard at work on the game's next patch is a question that is addressed in the latest Aventurine activity report. There's a new patch in the works, tentatively scheduled for sometime next week, and it's bringing "significant changes" to the offline leveling system that was introduced late last year. How significant? For starters, additional skills will be available for meditation and the overall gains will see a substantial increase according to Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras. Aside from the patch, the dev team continues to forge ahead with Darkfall's next expansion, and it is shaping up to be (quite literally) a world-changer. Flambouras outlines the team's high-level approach which "involves a complete overhaul and dramatic streamlining of the world and complete redistribution of all its features," as well as a "completely level playing field for all players." Details on these sweeping statements are vague at this point, but Darkfall will clearly be undergoing some huge changes when the expansion debuts in the second quarter of 2011. Finally, the activity report touches on long-standing issues like the grind, character progression, endgame content, and the alignment system. If that's not enough for you, there's also a hint about a drop rate increase on books, scrolls, and stat potions, leading us to conclude that big things are afoot in the world of Agon. Stay tuned.
Darkfall offline skilling coming this week
Ready for offline skilling in Darkfall? Ready or not, it's on the way with this week's patch, according to Aventurine's latest activity report. In addition to the hotly debated advancement mechanic, the devs are also tweaking the sea fortress schedule and updating auto-stacking on equipped items. The activity report, written by Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras, also makes mention of several important pieces of player feedback that the devs are working to address. Balance issues brought on by bunnyhoppers, one-man clans declaring war, and additional types of craftable ships are all on the internal discussion table. Flambouras also uses the activity report to clue us in to the importance of player feedback. "We're not talking about long-term hopes when we say we're looking into something or working on an issue. If we talk about it, there are developers assigned to it and community liaisons following up on progress," he writes.
Darkfall dev diary talks new UI, quest content, and more
Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras returns with another activity report on the Darkfall Epic Blog, and the focus is fairly broad. He touches on the dynamic quests and lore-driven events we mentioned last week, as well as upcoming world optimizations that include aggressive wildlife based on location and time of day, new monster families and epic mob encounters, and improvements to both player character models and monster animations. Those of you who haven't been able to get past Darkfall's unique user interface will also have reason to give the game a second look in the near future, as Flambouras states that Aventurine has decided on a new GUI framework and tools. "These should yield a vastly improved user interface. The next phase for the GUI is the architecture and adapting the current GUI functionality to the new framework," he says. Other notable items include the mention of a completely new environmental sound system as well as an in-game political map which will feature clan associations, vendor and bank locations, and various other resources. Check out all the details on the official Darkfall blog.
Darkfall highlights dev team tasks, PvP tips contest
Are you curious about Darkfall but put off by the fact that the open-world sandbox title focuses on PvP? Fear not, as Aventurine is taking steps to make the world of Agon more accessible to a wider range of players. In addition to the recent PvE-focused Hellfreeze expansion, the Greek development firm is also sponsoring a contest designed to impart veteran PvP wisdom to newer players. If you've got PvP tips you don't mind sharing, submit them in the comment section of the contest blog post, and you could be one of five winners who will receive rare in-game ingots and an exclusive forum title. In other Darkfall news, Tasos Flambouras has given us a peek behind the curtain of the game's development schedule, courtesy of another blog post that outlines both the team work groups and their respective responsibilities over the next few weeks. Aventurine's staffers are currently split into 11 teams, all working to grow the game in terms of UI updates, server tools, offline skilling, and various other game mechanics. Flambouras' posting is an interesting look at a Scrum-based software development cycle, and you can check it out on the official website.
Darkfall prepping offline skill advancement
Tired of the lengthy skill-grind in Darkfall, as well as the perception that it will take newer players many months to be competitive with veterans? Aventurine has heard your concerns and is currently in the process of implementing a form of offline skill advancement for the PvP sandbox MMORPG. In a recent activity report on the Darkfall forums, developer Tasos Flambouras clarified the plans for offline advancement and was quick to point out that Aventurine doesn't intend for the mechanic to be used as a substitute for skilling up. "We're not looking to upset the game's balance by adding a convenience feature and this is why I mentioned there's a lot of thought and balancing going into this. So on offline skilling, we'll start with a small amount of skills and gradually expand it, and obviously many skills won't be included," he writes. Offline skilling is nothing new in MMORPGs, as EVE Online has used the system for years, and even themepark games like Age of Conan have gotten into the act. Whether Darkfall implements a similar system or tries something completely new, Massively will be there to bring you the latest.
Aventurine squelches Darkfall 2 rumors, for now
Darkfall news has been flowing fast and furious of late. Whether it's info on the newly minted Hellfreeze expansion and its patches, upcoming character model upgrades, or new lore, it seems like the little Greek MMO that could is gathering a head of steam. One bit of news that got blown slightly out of proportion was a reported mention of Darkfall 2. Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras briefly mentioned Darkfall 2 at a recent event, and some fans took that to mean the company was already working on a sequel to the sandbox MMORPG. In reality, Flambouras was speaking of reusable assets and the fact that the development firm is "keeping the future of Darkfall in mind while we work on this version of the game. It doesn't mean that we're working on a new game." In a post on the official forums, Flambouras reiterates that Aventurine's devs are not currently making a Darkfall sequel, and even if they were, "it would take years to complete and we would not stop full development of Darkfall 1."
Aventurine expanding Darkfall, development team
As much as many in the MMO community love to hate on Darkfall, the game soldiers on, and if recent reports coming out of Aventurine are any indication, it's actually growing a little bit. Producer Tasos Flambouras recently posted a lengthy development update on the game's official forums. In it, he discusses the ongoing server issues before moving on to more interesting news bits like the upcoming expansion, lore updates, and tweaks to various smaller aspects of the game's operation such as the online help and download sections of the website. Aventurine's main task these last few weeks has been polishing the new expansion, and Flambouras has lots to say on the matter. The team has redesigned many of the new dungeons, added new quests, monsters, and rewards, and continued working on terrain improvements. "I have to repeat what a monumental task this has been: the entire world has been repainted, all textures have been redone from scratch, there are no texture seams anymore or stretching," Flambouras writes. Finally, Aventurine looks to be expanding not just the world of Agon but the team constructing it. In addition to welcoming back a former member of the world-building team, Aventurine has hired two new programmers and one designer, and is currently interviewing more programmers in order to bring its future Darkfall plans to fruition.
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 EU server latency issues to be corrected
Denizens of Darkfall's European shard have been subjected to a rough ride of late, and not just from the title's relentless PvP action. Due to a Storage Area Network hardware failure at Aventurine's third-party hosting center, players have seen high amounts of latency over the last week. The bad news is that Aventurine doesn't have a specific timetable for correcting the problem. The good news is that the company is currently working on it, as well as prepping for future hardware upgrades. "Performance is an extremely serious issue with us and we're constantly working on improvements. Apart from dealing with this specific issue, we are currently working on major performance upgrades for both servers to be added during the upcoming expansion," says Darkfall's Tasos Flambouras on the game's official forums.
Darkfall community Q&A follow-up offers more details
Aventurine's Tasos Flamboras has donned his flame-retardant gear and ventured into the eternally blazing forest that is the Darkfall forums in an attempt to douse the fires raging after the publication of a lengthy Q&A session earlier this week. Put together by noted Darkfall blogger Paragus, the community-generated question list was initially answered by a three-man team that included Flambouras as well as developers Claus Grovdal and Kjetil Helland. Controversy erupted when community members balked at the perceived evasiveness of the answers. "When we say that we're looking into something, or considering, or have plans for, it doesn't mean that we're being evasive or diplomatic in our answers. If that was our intention, we simply wouldn't answer. It means that we're trying to give you actual insight or confirmation on what we can't go into detail about," Flambouras says. He goes on to briefly outline Aventurine's information-revealing methodology before expounding on a few of the answers from the Q&A as well as new tidbits like armor dyes, significant improvements to crafting, a completely redesigned UI, and of course the prestige class system. "Prestige classes are the largest feature ever added to Darkfall and will definitely change the face of the game," Flambouras states.
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 PvE expansion delayed
Say what you will about Aventurine and its PvP-centric MMORPG known as Darkfall, but one thing you can't say is that it doesn't communicate with its player base, even when the news is less than stellar. Lead developer Tasos Flambouras checked in on the official forums today with an update on the game's forthcoming expansion. The news is, shall we say, disappointing. It seems the new world-terrain system is the monkey in the wrench of the PvE-focused expansion, and it has introduced a fair bit of instability into the updated client. With six months of work already invested in the expansion, much of it going towards sorely needed tweaks like dungeon and monster revamps, Aventurine is taking a cautious approach and sticking with the "not until it's ready" mantra.
Aventurine: MMORPGs are not casual games
Aventurine, the indie developers behind the free-for-all PvP sandbox known as Darkfall, recently sat down with Rock, Paper Shotgun for a revealing question and answer session. Lending their voices to the discussion were lead developer Tasos Flambouras and RPS' Kieron Gillen. The interview touches on everything from the game's new 14-day trial, to the extensive changes since launch, to changes in the MMORPG genre. "It's pretty amazing to us how little the MMO genre has changed over time. It seems to be the same successful basic recipe with little variation. Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of good games, but they don't really bring many new things to the table. Everyone wanted to make the Everquest killer and now they want to make the World of Warcraft killer. To do that they probably have to make a variation on the theme rather than innovate and dare to be different," Flambouras says. He also comments on the unique nature of MMORPGs as well as the ideal Darkfall player. "When you play any MMOG, you're making an investment, these are not casual games and they continuously evolve," he says. Check out the full interview at Rock, Paper Shotgun.
Darkfall overcomes patch delays, adjusts splash damage
After a brief delay, Darkfall's latest patch is upon us; to compensate, Aventurine released their rather hefty patch notes ahead of time while they polished a few last minute details, so we got a quick look in advance of the launch. Tasos Flambouras checked in on the official forums with the details as well as an explanation for the original delay. "Unfortunately we are forced to hold back the patch for an extra day of testing due to some possible last minute issues. We apologize for yet another delay to this patch, it's frustrating to us as well, but we had to give it some more attention. The new infrastructure we've implemented will help us avoid such delays in the future," he writes. Among the tweaks now live are a few instant cast spells, adjustments to splash damage, and clan city wildlife additions. Check out the full list on the official forums!
Aventurine announces Darkfall price cut
Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras has surfaced on the Darkfall official forums, and the outspoken developer bears great news for fans of the sandbox-style PvP MMORPG. The game client has seen a price reduction to $29.95 USD (29,95 Euro), as the Greek gaming company prepares to launch Darkfall in various retail establishments. Additionally, Aventurine has done its European fans a favor by eating the cost of the nasty VAT tax. "This price reduction is part of the preparations for Darkfall's inclusion in online shops and retail outlets. The 29,95 pricing includes VAT which our company has decided to absorb in the case of EU players," Flambouras writes. Check out the full post on the Darkfall forums, as well as the trial client specific to your region. [Thanks to Paragus for the tip.]
Aventurine offers 14-day Darkfall free trial
Aventurine has officially announced a 14-day free trial for their PvP-centric fantasy MMORPG known as Darkfall. Lead developer Tasos Flambouras brings us the good news via the game's forums. "After our experience with the 1 euro/dollar trial and after several further improvements we feel that we're ready to offer a free trial which won't disrupt the current user experience and will help with making the game available to a larger playerbase and getting new players into the game," he writes. He goes on to state that North American and European customers will receive priority handling in the event of overcrowding. You can check out the European trial client or the American trial client to get started. [Thanks to everyone who let us know!]
Darkfall's Tasos addresses player feedback
Players often complain that development teams rarely address their feedback, or even listen at all. Aventurine's Tasos does both in a lengthy post over on the official Darkfall forums. He touches on a number of planned improvements for the PvP-focused fantasy MMORPG, including faster skill progression, diminishing stat returns, and improvements to the game's PvE options. "We agree that skill progression needs to be made more interesting, that special quests need to be introduced; unique mobs, unique items and many of your suggestions in this area are being looked at already. Furthermore as we mentioned, quests and dungeons are being revamped, the entire system is being made as to connect the dots and give more meaning to adventuring in the game," Tasos says. Check out the post and as well as player response at the Darkfall official forums.
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!]
Eurogamer finally posts Darkfall re-review, game now 4/10
Hands up who remembers the Darkfall/Eurogamer scuffle about a certain low score? If you didn't and just to recap: reviewer Ed Zitron gave the game 2/10 and dev Tasos let forth his unhappiness with a vengeance. He accused Zitron of only having played the game for a few hours, most of which were spent designing characters or screenshotting. Eurogamer's editor-in-chief, Tom Bramwell, then promised to re-review the game, this time entrusting journalist Kieron Gillen with what had to be a very unenviable task. I admit to taking a personal interest in this since the story broke; like many other British games journalists I've done a stint writing reviews for Eurogamer and I know both Ed and Kieron both professionally and personally. Indeed within the British games industry, Kieron Gillen is something of a minor celebrity whose opinion is trusted and respected.
