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A "carebear" perspective on embracing Darkfall
Darkfall Online has a deserved reputation for being a hardcore PvP-centric massively multiplayer online game. The aggressive nature of Darkfall tends to make some gamers shy away from the title, particularly those whose comfort zone is in the PvE that other titles on the market offer. So then, is Darkfall a game that only appeals to the established hardcore PvP'er or can it hold some allure for a wider MMO audience? We came across an article at MMORPG.com today that may help answer this question, written by their Darkfall Correspondent Kelly Price titled "Darkfall: The Conversion of a Self Proclaimed Carebear" that we feel is definitely worth pointing out. Price caught our attention since much of what's written been written about the game on various MMO sites tends to be somewhat negative (or outright slagging) from the standpoint of people into more PvE-centric massively multiplayer online games, while PvP'ers have taken to Darkfall like fish to water. It's refreshing to see Price's perspective on the game, that of a (self-described) 'carebear' embracing the play experience that Darkfall offers.
A look at this week's changes to Darkfall
MMO developer Aventurine makes no bones about Darkfall being an aggressive, PvP-centric game -- one that we've seen no small amount of debate over among Massively's readers. However, like all new MMOs (and some old), there are still some kinks Aventurine is working out with Darkfall. This week's patch brought significant changes to the game, which are detailed in the official patch notes, but MMORPG.com's Darkfall Correspondent Megan Clark has written her expanded take on the changes and what they mean for the gameplay experience. Clark breaks down the April 24th patch changes as "The Good, the Bad and the Mundane."As to the 'good', Clark points out improvements in sorting out friend from foe, crafting and trade enhancements (with greater protection when trading outside of one's own clan), and new quest lines added. The 'bad', as Clark sees it, is a 45-minute timer when quitting a clan or kicking a member. It resolves the issue of players quitting their clan to avoid conflicts with a warring clan, but it adds another risk. She says, "I feel it poses a greater threat to clans who need to kick members in an emergency to protect their members or banks." Clark explains, "Imagine if you had a rogue member of your clan killing your crafters/tradesmen in protected cities to steal their goods. The problem of an emergency kick doesn't arise often, but when you need someone out fast, that 45 minute timer will be devastating." Megan Clark takes a good look at how Darkfall is shaping up and you can see her angle on these changes at MMORPG.com.
Siege the shores of Agon with Darkfall's brigantine class ship
In a game like Darkfall, it's hard to get people to fess up to owning powerful weapons of war. But if you're Paragus, you'll find ways to get the information out to the public on some of Darkfall's coolest features. This time he's gotten to tour the deck of one of Darkfall's larger ships, the brigantine, thanks to the invitation of The Mercs and Rainbow Ninja clans.Equipped with 8 cannons, a small captain's cabin, and a crew of angry siegers, Paragus was able to see the ship in action from the main deck as the clans took on a shoreline city. The cannons, which hit with the damage of a handheld siege hammer but fire from a range greater than that of most defensive cannons, pounded the city from afar and wrecked defenses.Even if you're not a rabid Darkfall enthusiast, the look at naval combat presented in the article is a good read for anyone interested in general PvP warfare. For the full story, check it out over at Paragus's blog at MMORPG.com.
One Shots: Follow the light
In many games, a lighthouse may call players to the safety of shore; safe harbor, as it were. Of course, in Darkfall, you really never know what will greet you in a new area, and whether it will mean life or death for you and your friends.Today's One Shots shows off a moment offshore, and was sent in to us by Paragus, who says only "castle on remote island." If there is more to this story or location, we'll simply have to guess, or hope someone adds in details in the comments below. One Shots is about community, and that means we need your screens and stories! Want to contribute but don't know how? It's easy. Just email your screenshot along with whatever you'd like to say about it to oneshots AT massively DOT com. Include your character name (server and guild optional) along with the game so we know who to give credit to. Pretty simple, no?%Gallery-9798%
Keen talks more on Darkfall, highlights good and bad issues
One of the best looks we get at Darkfall is from the varied community that plays it, and one of the most outspoken proponents of the game's ups and downs has been Keen from the Keen and Graev Gaming Blog.In his most recent post, Keen has gone into the specifics of what he finds off with Darkfall the most -- the pacing issues. While the game presents enjoyable concepts, those concepts are overshadowed by globs of downtime paired with grinding. The fast-paced action of the game is drowned out by the slow pace that the game itself moves at. Certainly the city building and politics of the game work as intended and are fun sections, but the sieges themselves move slowly as they usually feature 10 guilds attacking one guild.Another one of Keen's issues is the lack of incentive. He gives the example that he could walk across the world and spend hours doing it, but why should he when everything he has can be found in a small area? Players aren't encouraged to get together and tackle with trust issues, they're encouraged to stay apart in their own borders.For Keen's full thoughts on the many facets of Darkfall, check out his posts over on his blog.
Leaders have questions, and Darkfall's Tasos Flambouras has answers
Darkfall blogger extraordinaire Paragus recently sat down with some of the biggest alliance leaders of Agon, collecting questions to take back to Aventurine's very own Tasos Flambouras for answering.While not all of the questions are actually questions (we see those declarative statements, you can't hide them from our prying eyes), Tasos attempts to provide answers to some of Darkfall's biggest problems. Crashing during battles, game mechanics overthrowing battle strategies, six hour sieges, political options in the interface, inability to purchase the game, and the burning question of what Aventurine is doing to deal with cheaters are all covered in this lengthy two page interview.The entire interview has been posted to MMORPG.com. If you're looking for a peek inside of the mind of Aventurine, or the mind of Tasos, in the very least, don't hesitate to jump on over and catch his answers to some burning questions.
You wouldn't like Aventurine when they're angry...
Aventurine smash! Well, they smash people who attempt to impersonate GMs and cheat in their game, at least.Over at Hardcore Casual, Syncaine has put up a post discussing Aventurine's hardline attitude to players in their game, Darkfall. The company has already said, straight out, that they will ban players for an offense like attempting to impersonate a GM or cheating in their game. No warnings, no temporary boots, we're talking a full ban on the first offense.What is unclear, from the perspective of a player, is how well Aventurine is implementing their own policies. From one player's perspective, it seems that the GMs are certainly on the ball and are dealing with people who attempt to use joke names. But as to how many people may have been banned by Aventurine's staff? Well, that's an unknown number that most likely will never be released outside of the company.Even so, a hardline stance like the one Aventurine is taking isn't seen very often in MMOs. Companies worry about alienating their player base with moves such as those.Interested in the full post? Check it out over at Hardcore Casual.
Darkfall patch surprises with changes to the core game design
Usually games give players a heads up when they're going to be changing some things, so this way people can prepare or comment on the upcoming edits. This isn't the case for Darkfall, however, as the development team has literally surprised the player base with some worthy changes to the game.One of the biggest changes is the reduction of maximum positive alignment from 100 to 10. This means a player will only be able to kill someone from their own faction once before they feel the sting of the "rogue player / murderer" social system, instead of letting players gain reputation up to 100 and then go on a virtual killing spree without any punishment.
One Shots: Swimming is for the weak!
Okay, okay, so that's not really true, but somehow it just fit with the image above. Darkfall is becoming known as a hardcore type of game so it seems to make sense that players in Darkfall might likely take the much more difficult route of building rafts to get across water rather than jumping in and swimming like players in many other MMOs do. Still, it's certainly a lovely, bright shot from within this unforgiving game. Today's One Shots was sent in to us by Paragus, who notes that this group is an Inquisition raft fleet. Certainly doesn't look like a bunch of people you'd want to run across. Have you been exploring parts of your favorite game that we haven't seen here? All games are welcome, all images too! Send us combat, group posed shots, landscapes, you name it, to oneshots AT massively DOT com. Some information like your name, guild, server, and a description of what's going on in the screenshot is awesome too. We'll post it up here and give you credit.%Gallery-9798%
Blood, sweat, and valor in Darkfall
Paragus has continued his stories about adventuring through the Darkfall world on MMOCrunch, this time centering on the concepts of alliances and city sieges. While many aspects seem similar to EVE Online's corporation wars, Paragus's retelling of what it's like to be on the front lines of a siege battle makes Darkfall sound more like 300.His overall report is in Darkfall's favor, commenting on how well the game seems to be holding up when there are huge amounts of players fighting in the same area. Certainly there are still client crashes and disconnects, but the performance is overall very stable for mass combat.The only downfall to the whole system lies in the rules of the siege challenge. One of the rules states that if the attacking guild's leader drops offline at any time during the battle, the challenge is immediately lost. During Paragus's siege, the guild leader suffered a timeout, and the guild found themselves losing the challenge all due to connection problems.While Aventurine patches up all of the problems, the overall report of sieges is good, in Paragus's opinion. For the full details, head on over and check out his writeup of the event.
One Shots: You should drop better stuff
For those who were looking for a much more hardcore experience including pretty tough mobs and free-roaming PvP, Darkfall has quickly become a favorite. While the players will tell you straight off that the game isn't for everyone - and they're quite glad of that - we are lucky in that they've been so kind as to send in some screenshots from this relatively new title for us to enjoy. Today's One Shots sent in to us by Garett shows off a recent battle, which he expounds on: Here's a pic from a night of fighting Black Knights deep in the heart of a dungeon in Darkfall. These things hit pretty hard, but a skilled group of players can take them down pretty quickly if they know what they're doing. Its just too bad they never have leather armour on.Screenshots from all games from small to large, and MMOs of all genres are welcome! Just email those in to us at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game it's from, and a quick note about what we're seeing. We'll post it here and give you the credit for sending it in.%Gallery-9798%
Darkfall's March 21 update addresses lag, macroing and game availability
Tasos, Darkfall's community guy, posted an update on the official boards on Saturday addressing a litany of concerns that have been plaguing the user base since the game's launch.While he did include patch notes in the update, the majority of his message dealt with issues beyond the game's live design. Tasos claims server queuing has been resolved, as have lag and random crash issues that have been popping up since release. He also says Aventurine, Darkfall's developer, will credit players with 34 days of free play time to compensate for the problems they've been experiencing. Since Aventurine only made the game available to a limited number of subscribers, North American fans of the game haven't yet been able to actually buy the game. The company is hoping to make the game available for sale again "sometime this coming week; again it will have to be a limited amount of copies to allow a smooth integration of new players into the game." But no news on which regions will have access to Darkfall yet. In addition to availability issues, Tasos specifically mentioned unattended macroing as a problem Aventurine wants to address. The practice of using third-party programs to improve a character while the player doesn't monitor the character's progress is as old as MMOGs; it was particularly popular in another skill-based game, Ultima Online. The company as yet doesn't have a hard-coded solution to deal with macroers, but Tasos included this note in the update: "we will appeal to players not actually playing the game to log off rather than leaving their character in-game. This will allow more people to be able to enjoy Darkfall instead of unmanned characters taking up server space. If you're skilling up by not playing the game as it was intended, you will be kicked and repeated offenses will result in a ban."
How to stop worrying and enjoy games like Darkfall
While they seem to draw a fair amount of controversy and commentary, massively multiplayer online games that offer kick-in-your-ribs PvP aren't really a new thing. Darkfall is the title that everyone's talking about of late, but it's really cut from the same cloth as the progenitor of all MMOs, Ultima Online. Granted, Ultima Online wasn't and isn't purely focused on player killing, but the fact remains that when you log into games that allow for the possibility of being ganked, in some respects it is what you signed up for. While the no-holds-barred style of play isn't for everyone, it certainly is what some players want. Or at least think they want. MMO world celeb Sanya Weathers, writing for Examiner, says "Darkfall has been, since its conception, an unapologetic return to Ultima Online's original style of full metal ham kicking. The gang at Aventurine never pretended their game would appeal to a mass market, and certainly never pretended that the game would have anything but a vicious learning curve."
Mortal Online reveals beta signups, new video, and well rendered buffalo
So you guys flooded our in-boxes with requests for us to cover Mortal Online's beta registration opening up. So, without further ado, Mortal Online's beta registration is open. Also, they have some new in-game footage on their front page.What? You were expecting something more? A few paragraphs at least? Ok, ok, you twisted our arms enough. Mortal Online is the new PvP MMO that everyone's squeeing about -- one that's set up to attempt to out Darkfall, well, Darkfall.Sporting game systems very closely related to Darkfall's, such as skill based progression and action based combat, Mortal Online is a PvP, action based, first person MMO being run on the Unreal Engine. From what we've been able to see from the in-game footage, MO will be a bit slower combat-wise when compared to Darkfall, but will feature more interactivity between the user and the environment through well placed camera angles and the ability to see your own body.The video shows horse riding, dungeon crawling with a torch in one hand and sword in the other, mounted combat, and even a peek at siege weaponry through the use of a ballista. If it sounds like something you're interested in, jump on over to their main webpage or download the official video through their torrent.[Thanks, Jonathan, Daniel, Amisch, and Brian!]
One Shots: The darkness of Darkfall
While getting a hold of this game has really proved to be a pain in the butt, quite a number of people who have managed to get through have been pretty happy with the world they've found there. Today's Darkfall One Shots is the first reader-submitted screen we've gotten from this world, but we're looking forward to more as more people are able to get in and check it out. This one comes to us from Mark M, who writes: I just got into Darkfall today, and I dare say Aventurine has one of the most beautiful game worlds I have ever seen. The screenshot depicts my Mirdain elf homeland. I took this just before he set out into the harsh, blood thirsty world of Agon. The screenshot does not do the beauty of this game justice. This game world is definitely a labor of love!If you're one of the handful of people who have managed to get into Darkfall and really dig the game, we'd love to see some screenshots and hear about your experiences. Just email them to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the game, and a brief description of what we're seeing. We'll post them here and you'll get your chance to tell everyone just why you think the game is awesome. %Gallery-9798%
A copy of Darkfall: More evasive than a cheetah on speed
Darkfall may have launched, but that doesn't mean you're going to be able to get your hands on it. The team at Aventurine is still holding a tight grip over the game's population and the sale of the game through the online store.Each day, the store is opening at an unannounced time to offer a limited number of copies of Darkfall to the players. Once their goal for the day is met, the store shuts down immediately and the prospective buyers with empty hands have to go home pouting until the next day. This has lead to some players becoming demoralized while others use their expertise to suggest solutions to Aventurine. It is an odd time on the forums indeed.Now, we here at Massively understand that finding the Darkfall shop is like finding a unicorn. If you're having trouble finding where the button to go to the shop is even located, it's on the account page after you sign in. After that, however, you're on your own. Good luck though!
Darkfall's forums and chat brought down due to heavy traffic, servers finally online
Well the awaited hour has finally come true, Darkfall is online. While the delays have been numerous and the resulting traffic has basically crippled the Darkfall website, people are queuing up in the log in server to get a taste of what Agon has to offer them.The delay was due to two problems -- the pre-order load and the staff had caught a critical bug in the game at the last moment. The heavy volume of pre-orders had taken longer to process than Aventurine had anticipated, leading them to delay the launch so more pre-orders could be properly processed. Afterwards, they delayed the launch again due to the wish of the development team to fix that last bug.The heavy volume of players interested in the game's release had crippled the forums, shooting traffic to over double what it was at the launch of beta. Aventurine made the decision to bring down the game forums, instead only displaying a message regarding launch status on the forums page. This, in turn, brought more people into the Darkfall chat room run by Stratics, overloading that server and forcing Stratics to temporarily bring down the official chat.Aventurine plans to relaunch the forums sometime today, with the hopes that they can keep the system online under all the duress. All current subscribers (those lucky few with boxes) will be given 33 days of subscription time instead of 30 to cover for all the delays.
Darkfall prepares for launch, renewed sales of games
Today's the big day, Darkfall fans! The 25th of February has arrived and Darkfall should be fully online sometime this afternoon/evening as Aventurine flips the switch on their servers!This launch hasn't passed without problems though. First came the online pre-order page becoming swamped with traffic, leading to multiple credit card charges, people who never received their activation codes, and people who got codes but weren't even charged for the game. If you have had a problem with your pre-order, and wish to check the status of your account, you can always do so on the account management page. Be warned -- account management is under extreme stress from all the traffic and has been mostly down.Today, the heavily burdened website's forums have been up and down, with timeouts occurring as players pile in to see what the news is on the servers. Currently, as of the writing of this post, the servers are still down and unresponsive.Sales of Darkfall will also resume today, as Aventurine plans to start selling the game early in the evening, around the time the servers go live. No exact time has been given yet, but we'll keep our eye on the forums for any specifics given by the development team.
Beware third party downloads for Darkfall
Brannoc, the community manager for Darkfall, has released an announcement today regarding downloading the Darkfall client from any group other than Aventurine. In a nutshell, he says don't do it. Aventurine cannot guarantee the quality of those downloads or what may be hidden inside of them. If you wish to download the Darkfall client, do so from Aventurine's official torrent.Brannoc's official announcement states, "Many people have begun to host the client we made available by torrent on other websites for direct download. Aventurine cannot guarantee the efficacy of these clients and make no guarantees as to their security or freedom of malware. For that reason we recommend only utilizing official download sources for the Darkfall client. Aventurine also does not support any 3rd party applications or programs for use with the Darkfall client. Anytime you utilize non-official resources you run a security risk for your system and for that reason we recommend you keep an up to date antivirus program and firewall software up and running. "
Darkfall's NDA has been lifted, system requirements given
Earlier this afternoon, the Non Disclosure Agreement for Darkfall Online has been lifted, in preparation for next's week's highly-anticipated launch. With this NDA lift comes complete information on the game's pricing, availability and system requirements.According to the announcement by Tasos, the European launch is still on track to happen next Wednesday, February 25th. North Americans are welcome to participate in the European launch, with North American servers coming soon. They say the option will come to migrate servers later. Continue reading below the cut for the complete announcement, and look for our own post-NDA coverage of Darkfall's beta coming soon from Massively.
