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MMORPG.com Darkfall community Q&A

indefindef Member UncommonPosts: 344

I'd like to openly welcome any mmorpg.com readers/users to ask in this thread any question you have about either Darkfall 1 (the existing game) or Darkfall Unholy Wars (the new game being released in November).

In the Darkfall community my characters name is Indefinite Integral but mostly everyone just calls me indef.  I've been following Darkfall since around 2006

Like many, when the game was released I failed to get into the initial wave of players before the purchasing servers crashed for days on end.  After a week of trying I gave up on trying to get in.

Months later I came back to give it another go but there were still many glaring issues that still existed.

About a year after that I came back again when the meditation patch was released (offline skill gains) in order to reduce some of the grind in the game.  Since then I've been completely hooked and I've been playing on and off for about 2 years.  I know every in and out of the game and I doubt there is a question I can't answer.

Darkfall has grown into a one of a kind, truly amazing game that to me will never be matched by any other type of MMO or game.   If you want to know more about this or have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

 

My DF videos.

Comments

  • FluteFlute Member UncommonPosts: 455

    Having played with but mostly against Indefinite in Darkfall 1.0, I can happily say he's a very knowledgeable player.  When players talk about Darkfall 1.0 being "like nothing they have played before" ... they mean it.  Part of why it has so much potential is that it comes from a totally different cultural basis than most of the MMOs or standalone RPGs on the market, and at times felt like playing in a Greek tragedy or Shakespearan play.   The new equivalent would be, most directly, living in a world as harsh and unforgiving as Game of Thrones (indeed if Game of Thrones wanted an MMO, they should license and reskin DF:UW, just with the magic removed or very heavily reduced).

     

    Darkfall 1.0 to me was blend of old-school Ultima Online, EVE Online, a FPS, a classic MMO RP high fantasy world, and early 19th century naval combat.   Yet the world and tone worked.  It had some glaring problems though, including the UI and new player experience (which was likened very directly to the EVE learning cliff, only there were PKs with swords at the bottom of the cliff to kill you if you did anything at all!).   Unholy Wars has incredible potential, and we know from dev Q&A's that some of the "woops" design decisions that plagued DF 1.0 are gone from Unholy Wars - they have listened, and have made significant changes that were long overdue.  It should be a lot of fun, but it is so different that people should not hesitate to ask people like Indef about the game, what was wrong, and what we know is being changed to make the new one so much better.

  • ChramChram Member Posts: 91
    I applaud you guys for loving the game and trying to stir some positive buzz in the mmorpg community. I for one am certainly interested. First obvious question - the dreaded "catching up". I know there probably will be a wipe, but say I am a casual gamer (in terms of limited time avaiable) or I simply won't have much time in November. How long will it (probably) take to reach competitive level in a single specialization? Say the playtime is only a few hours a week. 
  • MacwarMacwar Member UncommonPosts: 3

    I am very casual player, i understand that i never be good in pvp. But that feelings what can be get in Darkfall mass pvp is unforgetable.

    In Darkfall 1. skill up was very slow, but in Darkfall UW it will change, as i understand there will be system like in EVE.

    Many people wont agree with me, but i think Darkfall is very good game for people who dont have time. Yes it take long to craft or get gear, which can be lost in minutes, but my goal is not to participate in every my clans pvp event. Darkfall is very democratic; you, can join to group or leave it and nobody will blame you, maybe i just was in good clans :)

  • furidiamfuridiam Member UncommonPosts: 137

    Ok here I go:)

    1- Wipe or no wipe?

    2- Scripts needed or not for standard play?

    3- Macroing issues taken care of?

    4- Safe zones for newbies? Anyone that says vets do not gank newbies are lieing:) I know Spewart and others that do it. Hell even me at times.

    5- Load lag taken care of?

    Those are first things I can think of

  • GreymoorGreymoor Member UncommonPosts: 802
    Originally posted by furidiam

    Ok here I go:)

    1- Wipe or no wipe?

    2- Scripts needed or not for standard play?

    3- Macroing issues taken care of?

    4- Safe zones for newbies? Anyone that says vets do not gank newbies are lieing:) I know Spewart and others that do it. Hell even me at times.

    5- Load lag taken care of?

    Those are first things I can think of

    1- New game, new servers. Not technically a wipe but essentially yes.

    2- Removal of insta cast spells, role system limiting you to a certain number of abilities combined with AV recognising it and claiming to have removed the need sounds good. But only time will tell.

    3- Macroing has been taken care of in the original as it is now but I wouldn't see the need to macro in UW

    4- I don't think there will be any large safe zones, only the NPC towers to protect you

    5- Yes, something about changing to asynchronus, which wasn't possible in the original.

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
    Estimated release date?
  • GreymoorGreymoor Member UncommonPosts: 802
    Originally posted by Yamota
    Estimated release date?

    20th November 2012

  • BadaboomBadaboom Member UncommonPosts: 2,380

    Im a pve player at heart who enjoyed the danger that Darkfall 1 offered.  The main reason I left was that it took so much time to do anything related to crafting and harvesting plus it was pretty boring.  Tapping a node 51 times?  Has there been any news about that aspect?

    Will they also be introducing localized resources?  Regional banking?  I like that they fixed it so enemies could not use your bank as I was pretty vocal about it.   A local or regional banking system would add a layer of depth and planning to any guild relocation etc.

    Any other Sandbox features looking to be added?

  • Naoson12Naoson12 Member UncommonPosts: 5
    Originally posted by furidiam

    Ok here I go:)

    1- Wipe or no wipe?

    2- Scripts needed or not for standard play?

    3- Macroing issues taken care of?

    4- Safe zones for newbies? Anyone that says vets do not gank newbies are lieing:) I know Spewart and others that do it. Hell even me at times.

    5- Load lag taken care of?

    Those are first things I can think of

    On point 4: "Programming work for all the new training areas is close to being done. The training areas consist of a series of chambers where new players can train before they move on. Training starts with basic movement and progresses all the way up to spellcasting and combat. This training process is actually a nice adventure with an epic ending, before new players earn their pass and are transported to the actual world. The goal is to ensure that, before entering Agon, new players become familiar with the basic mechanics, as well as the essence of Darkfall, and they can do this at their own pace."

    Source: http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/?p=2749

     

     

    And regarding point 5: Theres a interesting Thread on Df Forums on that matter

    http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=327122

    "That's pretty interesting stuff, load lag is my biggest issue. What's the difference between synchronous and asynchronous?"

    "It allows for multiple things to processed concurrently, at the same time. But with darkfall 1, when a player would need to load into your zone, your computer would stop processing the game (very briefly) and load in all the characters data/modles and stuff, then continue processing. It's along those lines, but darkfall UW will process them and the world at the same time. System architecture previously did not allow for this, and would have required a full rewrite of the game engine to fix. With this and a bunch more issues needing a fix is what drove them to practically reprogram the game from the ground up, and what we got is Darkfall: UW. This is also why the game was not an expansion, but instead a full release, because it was built from the ground up again."

     

     

  • MelkrowMelkrow Member Posts: 278


    Originally posted by Chram
    I applaud you guys for loving the game and trying to stir some positive buzz in the mmorpg community. I for one am certainly interested. First obvious question - the dreaded "catching up". I know there probably will be a wipe, but say I am a casual gamer (in terms of limited time avaiable) or I simply won't have much time in November. How long will it (probably) take to reach competitive level in a single specialization? Say the playtime is only a few hours a week. 

    At this point it's only a speculation about DF: UW, although if I had to guess, I would say less than how long it takes to get to max lvl in any other themepark game.

    Now with that said, consider the following. In the current version of Darkfall after the last patch, with you play hours, you would be able to max out everything during your first month, even faster if you have a the funds to sustain your development. So AV has recognized the big flaw in their original design when it comes to character development and therefor we have every reason to believe that the "grind" of skilling up will be a thing of the past.


    Originally posted by furidiam
    Ok here I go:)1- Wipe or no wipe?2- Scripts needed or not for standard play?3- Macroing issues taken care of?4- Safe zones for newbies? Anyone that says vets do not gank newbies are lieing:) I know Spewart and others that do it. Hell even me at times.5- Load lag taken care of?Those are first things I can think of
    1. You can put down a definite yes for this one.

    2. With revamped GUI, limited amount of spells/skill available by each specialization (compared to 110 skills/spells/items you need in the current darkfall lol) removal of instant cast spells for this very reason, looks like a solid NO.

    3. No data on this one. But if the skilling up is as fast as it is now, macroing will be non relevant/non existent as it is in the current version.

    4. Spewart thePunishier is such a terrabad, but let's not get off topic. Well first of all, as has already been pointed out, new players will start the game in the tutorial zone(s). They'll have to complete the tutorial before joining the real world.

    Another thing is, NPC cities will be complete safe havens now. Even clans at war can not attack eachother inside NPC cities. However, this only applies to immediate vicinity of the NPC cities, and once you step out of that protection bubble, you will turn grey and are a free kill for everybody. We are not sure how big this protection bubble is, but I'm assuming it will include couple of newbie spawns.

    Furthermore, according to the new lore, all playable races will be allied to wage an "unholy war" on gods and demons. So there will be no "red races", so anybody killing anybody who's not a rogue will take alignment hit, no matter what race you are.

    5. They say yes, the load lag is fixed (I will miss it!, no joke), but we'll see how it is.

    -Melkrow Nightfang



    image


    Playing: Darkfall Unholy Wars
    Played: Darkfall, EVE, AoC, Ryzom, Ragnarok Online, GW2, PS2, Secret World, WOW, City Of Heroes/Villains, Champion Online.
  • indefindef Member UncommonPosts: 344
    Originally posted by Chram
    I applaud you guys for loving the game and trying to stir some positive buzz in the mmorpg community. I for one am certainly interested. First obvious question - the dreaded "catching up". I know there probably will be a wipe, but say I am a casual gamer (in terms of limited time avaiable) or I simply won't have much time in November. How long will it (probably) take to reach competitive level in a single specialization? Say the playtime is only a few hours a week. 

    Hi Chram,

    DF1 certainly had a MASSIVE grind when the game was first launched and for a solid year or more afterwards.

    Since then AV has done some great things to fix that.  First they started by increasing skill gains on monsters and later on players.  The major thing they later added was meditation.  An offline skillgain system so your magic schools, stats (stats give you health, mana, damage, etc.), passive defenses, etc. would increase while offline for a gold cost.

    Secondly, since a couple months ago AV launched a 'promotion' where they increased all gains by 20x universally.  As of right now you can have a 100% maxxed character in less than a month EASILY.  I personally re-rolled a new character and had her maxxed out in about 2 weeks but I had the bank to back that up.  To give you an idea I play on average of about 10 hours a week, mostly on the weekends.

     

    So as for the new game.  AV knows the grind isn't something anyone wants and they have removed it from Darkfall 1.  I will imagine the new game will function very similar to the current state of DF1 but will have maybe 30%-50% slower gains.  Why?  The role system will only allow you to use certain spells/schools at a time.  I would imagine the goal is to allow casual players like ourselves to have a PvP viable role  within a month or so.  If you play more that will obviously reduce the time frame.

    One of AV's biggest pushes for this new game is the new player experience as mentioned in the video.  The current new player experience is pretty awful if you don't have friends/clannies pushing you in the right direction.  Their goal is to make the initial experience much more intuitive and fun....and much less of a job like it was initially.  We'll see if they pull it off!

  • indefindef Member UncommonPosts: 344
    Originally posted by Macwar

    I am very casual player, i understand that i never be good in pvp. But that feelings what can be get in Darkfall mass pvp is unforgetable.

    In Darkfall 1. skill up was very slow, but in Darkfall UW it will change, as i understand there will be system like in EVE.

    Many people wont agree with me, but i think Darkfall is very good game for people who dont have time. Yes it take long to craft or get gear, which can be lost in minutes, but my goal is not to participate in every my clans pvp event. Darkfall is very democratic; you, can join to group or leave it and nobody will blame you, maybe i just was in good clans :)

    You are correct.  There is currently an offline skill gain system and this will be implemented in the new game.  It has been very successful in DF1 for reducing the time it takes to be PvP viable.  Read my above post for a more detailed explanation.

  • indefindef Member UncommonPosts: 344
    Originally posted by furidiam

    Ok here I go:)

    1- Wipe or no wipe?

    It's a completely new game.  So yes there will be a wipe since nothing will transfer over to the new game.

    2- Scripts needed or not for standard play?

    They have stated they are taking steps to remove game mechanics that give people who macro/script an advantage.  For example just yesterday they stated they are removing instant-cast rays from the game.  These spells had no cast-time and a 1 second cool down and were highly scriptable.  AV said their reasoning was to give players less of a reason to use/need scipts.

    3- Macroing issues taken care of?

    This is a hard one.  I can't really make a claim for the new game as it isn't out yet but like the above question, they have stated they want to reduce the need/desire to use scripts/macros.  That being said, the way Darkfall works by nature will promote people to macro.  However with the offline skill gain system and huge increases to gains across the board there is FAR less of a reason to.  As the game stands currently it is far more expensive and time consuming to macro a character  than to just go use your character out in the world. 

    I think there will always be people who macro in DF just due to its nature.  But as of right now and hopefully in the future, it is absolutely not a requirement like it was towards DF1 launch.

    4- Safe zones for newbies? Anyone that says vets do not gank newbies are lieing:) I know Spewart and others that do it. Hell even me at times.

    We all do it.  It's natural in a game like DF.  You spend your whole starting experience getting jumped at spawns to you want to return the favor later down the road.  

    When you create a new character in DF: UW you will start in some form of "newbie dungeon" that is 100% dedicated to introducing you to the game, helping you learn in, and being free of PvP.  There isn't a lot of details on how this will work but they have said these dungeons are completely removed from the regular world and will not allow fighting/ganking.  I'd imagine you will be invulnerable to player abilities for the time you spend in the newbie dungeon, a system that is currently in place but only for 1 hour after character creation.  I'd also imagine that if you want to get out into the world and kill people you can just run through this starting area and port out.

    5- Load lag taken care of?

    Yes, yes, yes, and yes.  Probably the thing I am most excited for in DF: UW.  DF1 runs its processes synchronously with your CPU.  This is how the game engine is designed from its core.  When DF1 tells your processor to load something in, it stops everything its doing and branches to this new process, and then returns when it is finished.  This is what causes the infamous load lag.  

    Part of why AV made an entirely new game was so they could create a new game engine based on the existing one, not try to fix the existing one entirely.  The new game engine runs processes asynchronously which means it will send information processor in parallel (at the same time) and not based on your CPU's clock.   This new engine was built around the idea of removing load lag.

    Those are first things I can think of

     

  • indefindef Member UncommonPosts: 344
    Originally posted by Badaboom

    Im a pve player at heart who enjoyed the danger that Darkfall 1 offered.  The main reason I left was that it took so much time to do anything related to crafting and harvesting plus it was pretty boring.  Tapping a node 51 times?  Has there been any news about that aspect?

    Will they also be introducing localized resources?  Regional banking?  I like that they fixed it so enemies could not use your bank as I was pretty vocal about it.   A local or regional banking system would add a layer of depth and planning to any guild relocation etc.

    Any other Sandbox features looking to be added?

    There hasn't been much said about gathering.  Crafting has been significantly improved and is a fairly new system.  As for the time needed to max out a mastery or something is still unknown.

    However they have said that the majority of resource gathering will come from local capture points which are controlled by nearby holdings.  This is to promote PvP between nearby holdings.

    Currently you cannot bank in enemy holdings in DF1, but there has been no mention of localized banking.  I wouldn't expect it as they have mentioned wanting to implement some sort of trade system.

     

  • Fly666monkeyFly666monkey Member UncommonPosts: 161

    1. Will I be able to play a Black Knight/ Dark Knight/ Whatever you want to call it?

    2. Have they stated anything about the purchase price and sub fee?

    3. Any improvements to character creation?

    4. Have they released the minimum requirements for the game?

    5. Any new major game mechanics in place that were not in DF1?

  • PhaedreadPhaedread Member Posts: 27
    Darkfall really is a one of a kind game, you either love it or hate it.
  • indefindef Member UncommonPosts: 344
    Originally posted by Fly666monkey

    1. Will I be able to play a Black Knight/ Dark Knight/ Whatever you want to call it?

    Not exactly what you mean by this question.  Can you elaborate?

    2. Have they stated anything about the purchase price and sub fee?

    $30 purchase and a subscription.  I'd imagine it will stay the same it is now which is $10 a month.

    3. Any improvements to character creation?

    No mention of this but there must be.  All the races have be re-done but I can't speak to what kind of improvements there will be.

    4. Have they released the minimum requirements for the game?

    No.

    5. Any new major game mechanics in place that were not in DF1?

    Many.  Major one being the role system.  You can only choose one role at a time which you create.  Using certain magic schools blocks other magic schools.  Using magic might entirely block archery.  Being a heavy warrior will completely block magic.

    Territorial control.  Capture points will be spread throughout the map that link player cities to resource nodes.  Whoever captures these points gets access to the resources.

     

  • Fly666monkeyFly666monkey Member UncommonPosts: 161
    Originally posted by indef
    Originally posted by Fly666monkey

    1. Will I be able to play a Black Knight/ Dark Knight/ Whatever you want to call it?

    Not exactly what you mean by this question.  Can you elaborate?

     

    Something Along the lines of a Shadowknight from everquest. Basically a warrior that uses Necromancy/ Witchcraft.

  • WhisperXIIIWhisperXIII Member Posts: 33
    Originally posted by Fly666monkey
    Originally posted by indef
    Originally posted by Fly666monkey

    1. Will I be able to play a Black Knight/ Dark Knight/ Whatever you want to call it?

    Not exactly what you mean by this question.  Can you elaborate?

     

    Something Along the lines of a Shadowknight from everquest. Basically a warrior that uses Necromancy/ Witchcraft.

    They haven't announced all of the specifics on the role system yet, but it's likely that you'll be able to play as something very close to this.

    image

    Elyse Leveque - Zealot
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