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Total Newbie to Darkfall Early Game Impressions & Observations
tristanryan
Member Posts: 233
Its... like EvE on the ground.. and no ship. Kinda... but not really sortof.
I admit im not very good at it. My Prowess is low and i havent even tried doing the achievements to raise it. Ive only spent points in like two places trying to take my time and learn HOW to play the game. Ive never killed anyone yet, ive also never been killed yet and of course i leave the safe zone.
I logged in late on release (finally) and after reading ONLY about the mechanics of the game i was super excited it give it a try. Boy was i crushed when even lowering my system down to 1280x720 and all settings low as possible i still could only get 15 fps when other players were near me in a city. Cities might not be a good judge, but with future pvp hopes, i know this absolutely will not cut it. Quite angry b/c i can run Skyrim with 150 mods zero crash or stutter and total beauty, and this game looks crappy and wont run worth a shit. Such a damn shame as well because i could tell the game has incredibly deep systems and a total sandbox feel and element.. So much so infact, it was time to lobby the wife for an upgrade.
...and she let me :P
My computer still isnt nice as most of you probably, but i can run the game really well and i spent only 800 bucks total. Id rather not list the specs b/c tbh i dont want to be critiqued on what i chose with my little budget and i dont want this post to be about my upgrade.
Without further ado; The game is damn good. I dare say its immersive, addictive, dangerous AND fun. It runs stable enough (few fixes and optimization needed) and it actually looks REALLY nice imo, and with an oldschool mmo looking touch, not sure how to describe it. A game like this with these mechanics cant be crysis. I know some might not agree, and maybe its cause i made an upgrade, but i think the game looks great and suits the hardcore feeling and paranoia. The godrays (my favorite) sounds, atmosphere, and graphics are definitely playable and quite often very nice looking.
The mechanics are just plain good. Open PvP, with safezones. Full PvP looting. < This is awesome. I know in the days ahead im going to be pounded on and robbed so bad. But its only a matter of time before im giving and not recieving and i very much look forward to it. It adds suspense, excitement, sneaky solo gameplay aspects, risk to death, keeps economy very much alive. Dont turn away from this game because of the aforementioned mechanic. Compared to the boredom of every single game out today, we should welcome this! This exact mechanic also, imo, will drive the economy and keep crafters well taken care of and needed. (read the last sentence again, i know im not the only one that LOVEs that)
Also, player crafted ships and naval warfare (ive only seen the player made videos). Player homes and cities. Mounts. Killable and craftable mounts!! I like the mounts. I like how they start slow and speed up. I like they can be killed. Im pretty sure they can be stolen as well if you leave them out. Although still solo myself, the need for a clan/guild/friends is very apparent. I cant wait to find a good clan (i hope).
The skill system. Wow. I like this as well. Earn Prowess and spend it on what you like. Similar, imo, to swg. Not exact. Theres no respec, so your choices matter. Mages using polearms? Warriors healing? Primalist with a greatsword? Check. Economics and crafting matters. It appears dedicated crafters will be not only saught after, but well taken care of. As most people are focusing on combat, i bet the crafters are rich and considering getting a 2nd account for myself but im still a bit confused on these mechanics, or if i would need two accounts at all. Some posts say yes, some say doesnt matter because crafting requires no prowess? dunno, still learning myself.
The animations could be better, but will definitely be good enough. The player models could be more varied, but i understand in this type of pvp hitboxes can make quite a difference (TERA). If different races are near each other in similar armor they look quite the same. It seems primalist targeted heals can also heal the enemy, friendly fire is definitely on and care needs to be taken in large combat. The game has mounted combat as well..
Seriously, as a player thats never played darkfall 1, i can only think of 3 concerns and this game will be a jewel and quite possibly snowball into popularity. If pepole will only look at the game it has many things we have been SCREAMING for!
1. Performance. Make it better.
2. Cheaters. I seen the unholybanhammer wall of shame or whatever its called. If there are a lot of cheaters, that will definitely suck. But im content knowing they are seeking them out and shaming them and banning them. If they stay on it, hopefully all will be ok. Not sure if darkfall1 was infested or not, havent played it.
3. The UI. This needs work. Im pretty good at keys. I have a g510 and a razer naga and this UI is like a bucking bronco that just wont quit. I dont know if ill ever get this bitch under control, but im trying.
4. Game additions and content. Keep it coming! I read there is and underground mine that will basically have dungeons and connect all under the whole map like a subterranian experience which will add more awesome sauce. Some type of crime/bounty system would be awesome. Many more but post is long enough.
Final & TLDR;
With the mass of 60.00 full price triple AAA turds ive seen and regrettably purchased over the last few years, some with a monthly payment, some B2P, some ftp with cash shop, some with all three. Bleh. 40 bucks and a sub is fine.
I say buy it and get in now before we are left behind. I say we b/c my prowess is still pathetic b/c it took a day or two to get my new pc together.
If you decide to give the game a try good luck and if you are a darkfall newbie (like me) in the orc lands pm me and we can team because i am a newbie as well, thanks for reading.
Comments
This game is nothing like Eve, and to even mention it in the same breath is an insult. This game is another pathetic effort from a pathetic indie developer, launched at least a year too soon (again). Eve is 10X the game DFUO will ever be on its best day. Worth $40 +$15/mo? Only if you want to pay for continued development of a half finished game. Worth for a game no where near ready for release? No Way.
Few facts for ya, as im an eve player as well.
1. Eve, 10+ years ago, was also launched by an "indie" developer, and if not still hasnt been too many years, are still "indie".
2. I said similar. Its a sandbox with harsh consequences on death with losing player made goods crafted in a player economy. How is this not similar to EvE? Ill wait.
Thanks for reading!
Over the last few days ive had a lot of reading to do. Just incase you find this helpful, it seems in that scenario you should pull out a range weapon (magic or bow etc) and smear them from behind, and or mount up chase, and a lot skills will move you large distances stupidly fast. Not sure if this will help ya, just telling you what ive learned because i seen other posts about this issue as well.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
+1
edit: The combat in DFUO looks so shity. It can't even be compared to UO which is 15years old and it's still better. For those who doesn't know ill try to find newest MMO like TERA online.
I'll wait till euphoria is gone to see the deeper conclusion from players.
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.? -Albert Einstein
"The ability to speak doesn't make you intelligent" - Qui-gon Jinn. After many years of reading Internet forums, there's no doubt that neither does the ability to write.
So if you notice that I'm no longer answering your nonsense, stop trying... because you just joined my block list.
Hey Timmy, he's entitled to his own opinion, just like you. Now go take your meds and calm down, you shoulden't take anything personal on mmorpg.com, especially 'percieved' insults to your precious Eve...
Few facts for ya, as im an eve player as well.
1. Eve, 10+ years ago, was also launched by an "indie" developer, and if not still hasnt been too many years, are still "indie".
2. I said similar. Its a sandbox with harsh consequences on death with losing player made goods crafted in a player economy. How is this not similar to EvE? Ill wait.
Thanks for reading!
Haven't played EvE for a few years, not really my cup of tea. But, CCP may have been "indie" when they started, which is to say small and under funded, but 10 years and billion or so dollars in revenue later, they can't be considered "indie" by most usual benchmarks. AV was in the same place as CCP was with the launch of EvE, but then AV did everything wrong that CCP did it right. EvE grew, DF withered. As to the other part, die and lose items? Meh. The crafting in DF was nothing special and it looks the same in DFUO. That's about all that is similar to EvE, which has actually good crafting. This incarnation of DF is much worse than EvE was at the beginning, and I am even being generous with that comparison. This game might be decent in a year or so (again, not unlike EvE at launch) but right now it is not. And if they manage the game like they did DF1, it won't be.Erm.. having indie devs means nothing when comparing the actual game.. A group of indie devs could make a game identical to a well known devs game and vice versa. Jeez, start comparing the actual 'game' and not the people who made it.
Point 2, well yeh.. sort of. The mechanics are completely different though. The crafting is completely different. The combat you take part in to cause you to lose those crafted items is completely different. The theme of those items is different. What you use those items for is completely different. I could go on for a number of pages here...
So, 1-2% of the game is like EvE, and only with the right interpretation (a bit of an imagination). You think that means it's similar to EvE?.. nice!
WoW must be like EvE then since you have to click on inferface graphics to open additional game menus and stuff............. you also have to select targets in WoW. That's two solid silmilarities according to you. Which are more 'valid' than the ones you just gave for Darkfall.
Business aspects aside (which no one cares about when comparing a 'game').. Darkfall is nothing like EvE. I don't think "I'll wait" for any kind of reply because you're obviously already past the point of no return.
Stopped reading right there, because that's flat out wrong. There are just certain things you CANNOT do without a ton of funds and team members. It is literally impossible to gain access to certain tech and enough art assests.
I liked your write up OP. I always thought that Darkfall would be the fantasy version of EvE. AV went a different direction from that though, but still, I like Darkfall better than EvE.
That said, you mentioned that you did not kill or be killed at the time of writting this. Word of advice...when you do get killed, and it will happen, dust yourself off and get right back up and try and learn from your mistakes.
I'm not much of a pvp'er so when Im out farming or harvesting, i really feel on edge and can be jumped at anytime. No, I'm not a masochist. I just enjoy the danger and thrill while trying to accomplish a goal.
I have TF2+Rift for PVP
TSW for PVE
GW2 to play with girlfriend
and way too many single player games (all of which perform stunningly well and look wondrous) to justify spending $800 to make a gutted ugly reboot playable.
Thanks for your review though, glad youre having fun.
how many of these games offer a detailed handcrafted world with one big world instead of small zones........and my PC is 4 years old (i7-920=2,6Ghz) and i run with 40-70 FPS on high settings ( shadows disabled)
Run the game in boardlerless windowed mode ( disable fullscreen) and it also has problems with ATI cards and any form of crossfire/two cards or onboard GFX.
GW2 has a PvP zone with 3x500 players. thats 1500. If i remember right if the zone is full you had 5 sec delay on spells and the game didnt even render 100 people. they would simply go invisible ( which they removed i heard )
GW2 is made by hundreds of people and has a huge funding.
on the otherside you got DF:UW which has one big world and on the EU server 2400 clanned players alone. It has no delay on abilities and for some it has FPS issues or stuttering which is clearly an optimizing problem but will eventually get solved soon.
Out of 129 people in our clan we got 2-3 with this stuttering issue and low FPS.
SO yes it sucks to have these issues but in general it is great what a small company programmed there.
While it doesnt look that bad as people say....
http://imageshack.us/a/img842/3789/sunshiner.png
To be a sandbox you need some sandbox elements wont you?
Too bad DFUW have just about none.
A better comparable game is quake.
To be a sandbox you need some sandbox elements wont you?
Too bad DFUW have just about none.
A better comparable game is quake.
As a 6 years EVE veteran I can say - go and play EVE, it's exactly for such carebears and blobbers as you.
EVE with it's worthless PvP? Why would i like to play that? It's more fun to watch paint dry.
If you played UO felucca mode, you know the real sandbox, for almost +10 years as i did then you have some demands on what you play.
DFUW have about 50% of promised content and that isnt good enough. We were lied to. Just removed my subscription and you know what it felt very good.
Now i just have to wait for Richard Garriott's next game SotA which actually might bring back UO felucca. Alpha starts end of 2013.
https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/
Good stuff! I'm also one of those ppl who is not sure whether to get it or not. I did play UO and I absolutely had a blast playing it. I am waiting for Neverwinter but also wondering if DF would be a better fit. While I always figured DF to have these elements you describe, it's nice to see ppl are in fact experiencing them as such.
PS I suggest ignoring most of the hater replies here. Ppl who are interested in this article and thoughtful get what you are saying. The haters just don't get that there are different type of MMORPG players looking for different game mechanics. These guys see mechanics that don't fit their own desires as faulty mechanics and look in the forums to bash them. They get so obsessed with convincing everybody of their 'wrong' opinions that they change the context of your text in their own mind so that they can form arguments against you.
I was playing DF for almost 2 years, and I know that despite on all AV sloppiness all bugs will be fixed in a month or two. And the new content will be added. And CCP will nerf solo and small scaled PvP another time in Odyssey, it's when I'll be back to DFUW. And as to UO, it had a shitty combat, couldn't bear it back to then. I prefer Quake 3-lite combat of DF. DF is still a sandbox game, doesn't matter what all you haters think.
I like it.. I would say it's like Eve in respects of players being able to "survive" in safe zones (don't even dispute it.. You can do pretty decent in 1.0 areas without even touching a 0.0)
The safe zones pretty much opened the game up to a broader audience.. You don't have to be a blood thristy scumbag to enjoy the game.. The combat isn't bad, kinda feels like a game I used to play called Rune..
Only gripe I have is that the whle "role" thing effectively kills much of the "sandbox" in the game.. Not to say that you CAN'T hybrid, but for the most part things are pretty locked out by role choice and althought switchable, not "on the fly".. I wanted to make a battle mage that could wear heavy armor.. Well the elementalist role cannot use heavy armor.. They should have attached a prowess stat to each armors usage as they did with weapons..
But besides that.. It's a game that works.. Can't wait to see some politics so we can see some artful "deceit" articles in the flavor of the EvE scandals that get so much attention..
Everybody could be everything was perhaps the most hated thing in DF. Or the most whined about. So the game got what most people wanted, and as usual alot of people hate it now...
Combat was the best thing about DF. I sucked in it, but that was a different story.
well. one of my clan mates couldn't play at all, game crash everytime tried to kill mob on decent computer.
but they have patched EVERY day since launch trying to improve performance, and now he clan play fine. just sayin' launch is launch you may be able to run the game well if u wait a bit.
PS: eve is shit, combat is so mindnumbingly boring that I cannot care about the rest of the game.
My blog:
Well it should always be a trade off.. A balance of power... The more skill you have in heavy armor usage, the less skill you'd have in magic skills etc.. But to outright say "NO, it's not possible", isn't very cool to me..
The main thing I hated about the original DF was the macro heavy gameplay.. And that has been fixed, so all's well for me..
I wouldnt worry about cheaters, in Df1 they did some sudden ban-waves that had some particular cheating sites in panic :P
Performance I would like to see the game optimized even more obviously, but they seem to patch almost daily and apparently this has made the difference for a lot of people