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The Daze of Darkfall epilogue: The Siege of Andruk
So I thought I was done with my whole "month long investigation of Darkfall." Best way to end out the series was to include some PvP being lead by Wardragon Drow (*gasp*, a last name, and I'll get to that in a second) and then close it off there.Well, sadly, Darkfall had one more surprise left for me. Or, should I say, the Blackrock Clan had one more surprise for me. A siege.A complete accident lead me to logging on during the first contestation of our city, the orc themed Andruk. A siege stone had finally been dropped, sides were quickly formed, and our first war was on. No more drills, no more pathetic defense attempts -- this one was for real. We liked our city and we were not interested in losing it.But with the siege came a conundrum. If I report the siege, it will be pretty obvious who I've joined up with. It doesn't take a genius to look at all of the sieges and come up with, "Which one was at an orc city?" So, as this is truly the last article in the Daze of Darkfall series -- the one where I get to participate in what many say is the capstone of the Darkfall experience -- I think it's time to drop the worries and be specific. This is my view of the Battle of Andruk that took place between the Blackrock Clan and the Brotherhood of the Spider.
The Daze of Darkfall epilogue: The Siege of Andruk pt. 2
The keep, the keep! "Fall back to the keep! Fall back to the keep!" called General Zodd Drow over Ventrilo. The outer walls were abandoned as everyone began rushing back to the keep to make a stand. While this would normally sound like suicide, as we'd leave our citystone undefended, we had placed the keep perfectly next to the stone. From there, people on the roof of the keep could easily fire downwards and destroy anyone who would come close to the stone, while the stairs inside served as the world's best choke point. Think 300, only with less spartans, more lolz, and inside of a keep. From there our most armored men began to hold the steps while I stayed up top, picking off people's mounts and keeping casters at bay with my bow. We had an impressive grouping of archers and spellcasters, all doing their part to keep people below at bay or injured as they entered the keep. Meanwhile, in the keep, the enemy losses accelerated while our losses dropped. Fighting was packed into close quarters with shields and one-handed weaponry becoming the focus. I peeked my head down to see what was going on and only found chaos. Attempting to shoot a bow in all of that was more dangerous than good, so I found myself back up top firing downwards. Then, oddly, people began spilling out. Enemies began to retreat, firing one last wave of spells as they left. Our forces ran out after them, chasing for the moment as they left our city. Everyone relaxed on Ventrilo, happy over our win for the time being. The second assault -- not as interesting as the first Sinister relayed a message to us -- "We don't like to retreat." I'd feel that way too if I had just gotten halted inside of a keep and I was paid lots of money by a clan to make sure they won the battle. Plus then there's that whole reputation thing... eh... yeah, I'd be angry. Half an hour later, they came again. There was one hour left in the battle as they came up the hill, and we were better prepared for what they had to offer this time. We also had a plan -- do the same thing we did before, but now in complete unison instead of panic. They rounded the walls and started in on the wall towers, but we held faster this time around than last time. The force seemed smaller to me, but I couldn't truly tell with all of the insanity going on. When the walls looked too overrun, we moved back inside the keep again, doing what we did before. It worked a second time, and perhaps even better than the first. The attackers backed out of the keep, fearing a repeat, and began to stick to the towers. That was, until, our forces rushed the towers. It was a bit silly to watch from my archery perch above. Three of our people ran in, then 10 of theirs would all rush out the other side. I filed it under, "things that made me laugh and shake my head." Soon enough, they were driven back for the second time. It was at this point that our generals got word from Sinister that they wished to thank us for the challenge and the fun battle. The other clans stayed silent, for the time being. There was still 45 minutes left in the challenge, and we still remained prepared. Finally, the clock slowly rode down. Our guards began to loosen up and joke -- more talking over Ventrilo and silly conversation. Then, as the clock hit zero and the game displayed "DRAW" in huge letters on our screens, everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. Air guitars were played (you can type /air_guitar to make your avatar play the electric guitar, yay anachronism) and congratulations were swapped over Ventrilo. The siege was done. One final look back I sat atop the keep for a while more as everyone disappeared, talking with some of the others about writing this up as a final feature for Massively on my time in Darkfall. I was trying to get a handle on the whole moment, as it came so unexpectedly, and I was still trying to decide if I liked it or not. The siege felt like a giant game of deathmatch, not really a siege. It felt uneven at times, as when I got caught in a fire AoE I almost died via that one spell. It felt fun, of course, as everyone dodged around and was being assaulted on all sides. There wasn't any lag or hangups, save for a few spikes here and there. The game performed to expectations regarding performance, but I'm just not sure how I felt. I didn't stand up and cheer, I didn't feel awe struck. I felt successful, but I didn't feel like a winner. It's hard to explain, so I don't think I will attempt it. I will simply leave the question, "Is it fun?" to you, the readers, as I have in the last column. It's not my place to tell you what you enjoy, and I don't think I'm about to start now. As for me... I owe Kend Drow some warbanding, so if you see Seraphina Azureveil, have the decency to wave before shooting an arrow through my heart.Update: Apparently, Scarce Xrul has uploaded parts of the siege in his YouTube video, convincing his friends to join Darkfall. You want to watch exactly what happened? Well, now you can, and in HD!
The Daze of Darkfall week 4: The terror of Agon pt. 2
The second hamlet: Wherein we learn that fire is hotWe rode onwards to our next target when suddenly a fireball roared towards Wardragon, barely missing him. The next hamlet had already seen us, and a fire mage was casting spells from atop the main keep. We rode onwards, splitting up our formation to avoid the incoming fire (literally.)Once again, we quickly cleared the hamlet of everyone, except the fire mage, and three of our men started to clean out their quarry and their farm. The other three of us played an annoying game of cat and mouse with the fire mage who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, keeping his interest while we cleaned them out and put their stuff into the bank.Once again successful, we jumped on our mounts and rode towards the sea. The last hamlet was on an island out from the mainland, so we reached the beach and jumped off of our mounts to swim across. It was here that our trailing 6th man reported that he was being followed by the people from the last hamlet. They were apparently angry, and concerned about the security of their shit.Wardragon noticed a smaller, desolate island on the map that was close to us, and we used that ground to make our stand. Initially we had counted 6 men in the force... then that was 8 men... then it was 12 men. Arrows were being flung from all sides as we darted between broken buildings. I peeked out from around a corner only to catch a sword to my chest from... Pluto Nash?Hamlets one and two had teamed up to end our reign of theft and tyrrany -- combining their forces to out-man ours. I danced around on the beach for a while with Pluto, who was now wearing a very nice sword and a full set of banded armor, jumping and parrying his blows while I asked for help over Ventrilo. Wardragon came to my aid, but it was too late. With one last slash I fell over onto the ground while Wardragon picked up where I left off.The end of an eraWhile I lay on the ground, coughing up blood, I thought back on all of the things I had seen and done in Darkfall. All of the harvesting, and then more of the harvesting, and then all of that time grinding PvE mobs, then more harvesting, then killing newbies, then more harvesting, then admiring my city, then AFKing on the bloodwall, AFKing on the bloodwall, AFKing on the bloodwall...Dying here was actually more fun than most of the things I had done in Darkfall. There was more action in one 30 minute stretch than my entire playing experience, and I'm not exactly sure how I feel about that. Plus, as I lay there dying, I was about to lose most of the work that I had done during those long stretches of playtime. Darkfall is an interesting game that varies between an intense grind and a game of cat and mouse. It is competitive and brutal in its nature, where only those with large amounts of time or a willingness to cheat the system prevail. On the flip side, however, when it all comes down to a battle or a clash of forces, Darkfall gets to be quite fun. I guess what remains is a very Machiavellian question -- "Do the ends justify the means?" Is it fun if the culmination of hours of tedious gameplay is an extremely fun sequence? Dear readers, I'm not touching that question with a 30 foot pole. As for that battle, I'm sure you're wondering about the outcome. Did Wardragon and his men win the battle? Or did they die horribly like I did? Well, I don't know much about that, but I can say that I love my new set of banded armor. My compliments to the designer -- Mr. Pluto Nash.
The Daze of Darkfall Week 4: The terror of Agon
It's the last week already? Well that went fast! It seems like only yesterday when I woke up in a daze to find my computer had "Thank you for purchasing Darkfall, n00bcakes!" splashed across its screen. Yet, here we are, four weeks later! My clan's city now looks like a real place of habitation instead of a pile of smashed rubble, combat is starting to become more commonplace than one attack every week, and I'm actually wearing armor instead of being naked most of the time. Amazing how things change over time.This week's events seem to all come down to one sentence: "Are you concerned about the security of your stuff?" (NSFW) You should be concerned, as my clan's warbands were taking what they wanted from cities and hamlets, all with me in tow. What happens when I get exposed to "hardcore PvP?" Well I guess you'll just have to read and find out.
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.
The Daze of Darkfall Week 3: Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', yeah pt. 2
Lucky for me one of my clanmates ran along and saw me, quickly reviving me. I jumped up, put on my polearm, and ran pretty aimlessly into combat. Two polearm swings later, I got shot in midair while jumping. I fell over dead (again) and was ganked this time. Awwww. My game reloaded and I found myself back at the bindstone, but I was in quite a predicament. Remember the bloodwall? Yeah, well, our invaders had killed everyone on there pretty easily, as they were obviously AFK. Well, they too had respawned at the bindstone... and I spawned in the middle of them. You can't clip other people in Darkfall. You can't push them (except with certain weapons) either. I was trapped in a pile of AFK meat, unable to actually get out. "Sera, where are you at, why aren't you defending?" one of my guild leaders asked. I took the moment to explain to him how I was unable to defend as I was stuck in a pile of AFK people. Really, really, stuck. "If I could compare it to another MMO, I'd say it's like PlanetSide's combat crossed with EVE's rules." "I'll be the judge of that," he gruffly responded, as if he didn't believe me. He walked over to the bindstone, found me jumping up and down in the middle of an AFK pile like an idiot, my purple hair barely making it over the heads of the many orks and mahirim (wolf people) and then lowly said over Ventrilo, "Sera's exempt from defense until we get her out..." But not all is bad and stuck in a pile of corpses After things had calmed down and I had been freed from the corpse pile, however, we were attacked three more times. Out of those three times we had won twice -- succeeding in driving the offenders off or killing them all. We were obviously getting better at this stuff, and it provided an interesting experience for someone like myself. To be honest, it feels like a deathmatch, except without guns. The enemies invade and you pelt them with arrows and/or magic. They get close and you pull out two-handed weaponry or a one-handed weapon with a shield. You attempt to gang up on someone and kill them, while they attempt the same. Then, one side gets obviously defeated while the other side quickly overruns. It's all very predictable. If I could compare it to another MMO, I'd say it's like PlanetSide's combat crossed with EVE's rules. Fighting is focused on cities (or bases) where you attack or defend to hold/steal what's there, except losing hurts and there's no fancy recall into combat. PlanetSide is snappy when it comes to combat because that's PlanetSide's focus -- Darkfall focuses on outcomes, like EVE does. Therefore, combat is not snappy in Darkfall, it's a brief experience punctuated with death and loss. I did survive for one of the battles where we won, if that's what you're wondering. I did archery (I like archery) and even got down and dirty with my polearm. I didn't gank anyone, but perhaps I'll get that honor another time. One more week Well, we're winding down. There's only one more week left in The Daze of Darkfall. I can't speak too much on the clan's activities and plans, but I can say this: There will be raids. Lots and lots of raids. Perhaps now I get to see what it's like on the other side of this thing.I know what you're looking for -- week 1 and week 2. Well, look no further than here!
The Daze of Darkfall week 2: AFK your way to fame and fortune pt. 2
Battles abound and a city under siegeOut in the wilderness with my clan, we wreaked havoc on newbie towns. Oddly enough, an unarmored newbie weapon carrying player is no match for four people in chain armor wielding crafted weapons. Who would have thought? Also, if you're AFK and auto-harvesting something, you suck at PvP. Just letting you know.In all of this madness, however, my party was lucky enough to stumble upon a person farming herbs. She too was AFK and felt our wrath, but what made this encounter so absolutely hilarious was the presence of a steedgrass on her person. One steedgrass lets you call a mount, so we effectively denied her a mount. Whoops.If that's not painful enough, another one of my colleagues reported that he had killed an AFK newbie, only to find a deed to a cottage on their corpse. He had just stolen a house from someone AFK. A house. I bet you never stole an entire house before.Later on that night though, I got my first real taste of PvP action. One of our members yelled that he spied an incoming force of about 15-20 people to our city, causing everyone to quickly rally. Of course, when I say "rally" I mean everyone stripped their armor and pulled out their staves. (Yes, I too feel as if I live in bizarro world.)As they ran up the side of our city, we began pummeling them with magic missles. I have to admit, the sight was pretty awesome to behold. 25-30 people all casting magic missiles at the enemy as they rode towards us on mounts was pretty fun. I can only imagine what it was like from their perspective, looking up to see this wave of blue bubbles flying at their mounts.Once they reached the city, however, everyone did what they could... while naked... to defend what we had. It wasn't a serious defense, as they didn't have a challenge against us for the city, so many deaths while naked were had. If we had been out somewhere, sure, we would have been wearing armor. But when someone comes in to our city trying to get stuff from our bodies, why give them the pleasure?It's at this point that I'd like to say we drove the enemy away with the stalwart defense of our territory, but it really came down to them getting bored killing naked people. Who can blame them, especially when we killed one or two of their people. We lost nothing (except our pride) but we gained everything (and by everything I mean two sets of armor and weaponry.) What lies in wait for next week? Things are starting to get heated in the clan. The generals want everyone combat ready, including the crafters. Plans are being created, swords are being sharpened, and our evil scowling practice is really coming to fruition. (No one can deny that the evil scowl is absolutely essential in battle.) This week looks like it's going to be a week of blood, and I'll make sure to report all of the lost limbs to you faithful readers next week.No time to go searching? Check out week 1 and week 3 without digging through the category!
The Daze of Darkfall week 2: AFK your way to fame and fortune
Confused as to why this isn't in Anti-Aliased? Well, "The Daze of Darkfall" month long feature has moved to a new home as a standalone feature! Isn't that grand? Now I can talk about my adventures in Darkfall while still unleashing my biased opinions upon you in Anti-Aliased. It's a win/win situation, if you ask me.So what's in the picture above? Well that's me AFKing my way to hardcore status in Darkfall. All you need is an old college textbook and a comb cleverly placed on your left arrow key and you too can get to max run skill with just a few nights of AFKing! Forget running into walls, this is the future! I like to call it "hardware macroing."But this isn't all, dear readers! I have lots more fun inside of this week's Darkfall report! Come, continue reading and enjoy the insanity of Agon, where AFKing is better than playing and naked is the new armored!
Anti-Aliased: The Daze of Darkfall pt. 2
Capturing the city After running halfway across the main continent, I finally found myself in my new home. Albeit my new home is a broken wasteland of stone and rocks at the moment. My clan was very successful in grinding out the 10,000 gold to capture a city in under six hours, leaving us with a brand new piece of real estate in a suitable location. This is the part where things in my Darkfall experience began to get dicey. A city does not just fall into one's hands and just magically work. Construction needs to occur and buildings need to be built. Things like keeps and houses allow more clan members to bind their souls to the citystone, our new respawn point. But to get those, we need stone, and wood to start constructing. And to get stone and wood, you need resource harvesters. Or as I like to call us -- peons. No, honestly, I'm not tripping out and recalling a game of Warcraft or any other real-time strategy game. This is all still very much Darkfall. My job for a few play sessions was going out with a pick axe or wood axe and working to harvest resources for construction. You wouldn't believe how ungodly boring hitting a rock is. Or, well, maybe you could. And, commenters, I know what you're saying. You're saying that I should be out getting some PvP l33tsauce right now. Well, guess what, PvP l33tsauce does not build a city. Sure, I could go shoot and kill other people harvesting. But stone and harvest materials weigh you down and people to kill aren't exactly close to where I am. No, you can just go right outside the darn walls and start hitting trees/rocks. It's faster, it's more productive, you can move resources quickly, and it's not PvP. Sorry. Clan's current plans are to do some more harvesting and production as a group, then we're going to begin "training for PvP." Right now, training consists of beating the crap out of one another to raise defenses and attack skill. Not exactly what I think Aventurine had in mind to raise combat skills, but I don't see them stepping in to stop my entire clan. Beyond that though, I really am looking forward to raiding and doing some real combat. The thought of raiding another city is exciting, although it will take some time. End of part one Well, those are my experiences so far. More of my Darkfall experiences are coming next week, during week two of this month long in-depth look. Personally, Darkfall is a mixed bag right now. The menus still annoy me, the combat still intrigues me, the questing still sucks, the city building feels like a giant real-time strategy game (I enjoy being a commander more than a peon, but I think that's something everyone would agree on), but nothing's really happening. Darkfall's billed as one of the great PvP games, and so far I've seen one instance of PvP in the three days I've been playing. Granted, I could throw myself into PvP, but that just seems like a waste of my money, armor, and weapons at this point. Why PvP when it will cost you more than it will let you gain? Maybe things will turn around. Tune in next time, dear readers, to find out if they do.Hey, want to do the time warp? Check out week 2 and week 3 of The Daze of Darkfall! Colin Seraphina Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who thinks three hours of third-person harvesting is the bomb. When she's not writing here for Massively, she's rambling on her personal blog, The Experience Curve. If you want to message her, send her an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com. You can also follow her on Twitter through Massively, or through her personal feed, @sera_brennan.
Anti-Aliased: The Daze of Darkfall
I'm still not exactly sure what I've done. I remember pressing a few buttons on the Darkfall website, a really long download, and then a very large splash screen appearing on my desktop with the Darkfall logo emblazoned across it.I think I downloaded and installed Darkfall. The North American version, in fact. I thought it was just going to be a one night stand between the two of us, but I guess I was wrong. Looks like I'm back in with the game and I'm going in-depth. This time around though, I'm going to do some things differently. There's going to be no reviewing and less critiquing. It's just going to be a straight up re-telling of my experience in the "PvP experience of a lifetime" with a little snark added in, of course. You guys be the judges of Darkfall this time.This week's events include jumping in with a brand new clan, getting the newbie experience all over again, and the capturing of a city. Exciting stuff, right? Come with me, I'll tell ya all about it.
