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Some new player questions about DF: UW
CallsignVega
Member UncommonPosts: 288
GW2 PvP is a flop and too softcore, so here I am.
I remember beta testing the original Darkfall many years ago. One thing that instantly turned me off was the abysmal graphics and animations. I know gameplay trumps graphics, but you have to draw a line somewhere. Will the graphics and animations be substantially upgraded? Viewing recently uploaded DF 1.0 videos on Youtube, the graphics look like they are from 1999 and not 2009.
More questions after watching said videos:
Why are people bouncing around slowly high in the air? Does this game take place on the Moon or something with low gravity? It look's completely silly.
I know there is no player box or tab targetting. Is there any way to tell how much health your enemy has? Or basically do you just keep fighting them until they die with no clue on their current health?
How is death going to be handled in UW? I am sick of trivial death in virtually all modern MMORPG's. I much prefered the stiff death penalty in EQ1 PvP. In UW, can you just get back up quickly into the fight so that the zerg wins?
Where are the servers located? (I'm US). Is ping time really important in this game?
How do you tell friend from foe apart in large battles? Armor color or some other visual identifier?
Are all skills line of sight? If I were to aim and shoot an arrow at an enemy and my ally runs in front of the arrow mid-way, does he get it? Do projectiles/spells pierce and go through multiple enemies?
Will there be any safe zones or instances in UW? I really dislike being able to hide. You should always be vulnerable if someone wants you dead enough. I'm all for having to sneak around guards etc to make it difficult to kill someone say in a city, but it should not be impossible with immersion breaking "safety flagging".
Why are skill changes plastered right in front of your face? It's great that your dexterity has increased, but do you need that message spammed in gigantic font right where you are looking during a fight?
At high level, how long does it take to recooperate your stats such as health and mana?
How gear dependant is the game? Having full loot, I'd imagine loot is fairly east to come by? Are there such things as no-loot or no-drop items? Any items that are very hard to get and worth getting? Are dungeons worth doing?
Are there any bosses or any resources worth PvP'ing and fighting over? I remember on Zek in EQ, some of the most fun fighting other players/guilds was controlling raids and bosses. You could be attacked at any time during the raid and there were no "safe zones". You actually had to have scouts etc.
Is there a /who feature or any tracking or way to tell if enemies are near you? That was one of the worst features of PvP in EQ as it alerted everyone to your presensce as everyone would routinely /who the zone.
Are there any loading or zone screens? If the game is truly zoneless like advertised, are there any issues with player culling and ghost army lagging? (IE you can be running along and instead of a normal player "clipping" in at say 500 metersm they can be right on top of you before your cleitn displays them). Especially in large fights and it's a massive problem in GW2.
Are there any "stealth" skills or anything that would reduce your visibility besides using natural cover?
I'm sure I'll have more questions, but this is a good start. Any way to try out DF 1.0 for free until UW launches?
Comments
"You are all going to poop yourselves." BillMurphy
"Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone."
Geez, that's too many questions to answer all at once and most of them are unknown at this time. I'll just write what I know about the graphics.
The new screenshots do look a lot better at least as far as the lighting goes--which, really, was the main thing DF1 lacked. That is, it never had an adequate environment to go along with textures and models which were otherwise fine. The lighting was terrible, the sky was always blobby and always the wrong color, and there were no environmental sounds and all the animations were done by hand. They've said they've got tons of new sounds and have motion capture equipment for the animations. And as far as the lighting goes, the new screenshots speak for themselves. Hopefully DF will feel a lot nicer to exist in with these improvements. Fire dragon knows the rest of DF is harsh enough as it is.
How do you tell friend from foe apart in large battles? Armor color or some other visual identifier?
If it's the same as DF1, when you spot someone you have to put your crosshairs over the player and then a name appears. You just kind of naturally remember who is around you because of the need for situational awareness but afaik there's no tabards or armor colors (yet)
Are all skills line of sight? If I were to aim and shoot an arrow at an enemy and my ally runs in front of the arrow mid-way, does he get it? Do projectiles/spells pierce and go through multiple enemies?
Every last one is LoS. Yes, your ally gets hit (and it happens all the time) and there are very few spells that go through enemies and are able to hit multiple but in DF1 there were two rays which would hit people in a line straight line. Mostly they are splash damage based and the farther from the center the lower the damage is done (the worse your aim the less damage you do)
1. Graphics and textures are to be updated iirc
2. Some spells create these silly effects, most of which will be gone. Though some mages will be able to spec for some
3. They have a health bar you can visually see.
4. When you defeat someone they go to a downed state, gank them they go back to their bindstone. There is a downstate where if left alone long enough you will get back up.
5. No idea on the NA server location.
6. As it stands DF one people have party markers above their head, and if they are in your guild/allied they have different coloured names.
7. Not to sure on saftey zones but there will be 'Newbie protection' for x amount of time
8. Skills as it stands now are LoS, spells with AOE hit multiple targets.
9. At high level is not much faster than average/low level as ar as getting stats back up, more about knowing what you're doing.
10. Gear helps, but ultimately skill > gear Though an average player could compete with a better skilled player if he outgears them depending on the skillgap.
11. Yes there will be resources to fight over, and they're adding new land targets (similar to sea towers) the people holding these, villages are also linked into this somehow, though we're not sure yet as to how. And yes there are mobs you'll need groups to kill
12. No.
13. They hint at stealth skills for the skirmisher roles, waiting on more info!
14. DF1 is free atm, but you have to pay a sub to play it for a month.
www.daneslaw.com
@GamerKurisu
Awaiting Darkfall Unholy Wars
Thanks for the feedback guys. Look's like I will definitely give it a try. I like how the only safe areas are the starter cities that no one goes to once you are not a noob anymore. That is one thing I liked about EQ1 PvP, there was zero safe zone Velious and before. I use to sneak into enemy cities past the guards and what not and kill people. Managing all the guard aggro and killing multiple people was so intense and fun.
Hopefully this post will help out other UW prospects.
here's a demo of the new sound engine. It is kickass, beats any triple-A MMO to date.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5MrrD5cVno&list=UUeXzGHiwbo1U_7CLdHrAjKw&index=10&feature=plcp
Ya, that does look pretty nice. The graphics look a little better in that video too. Do most people turn all of the graphics way down in PvP videos and that's why it looks so bad?
Ya, that does look pretty nice. The graphics look a little better in that video too. Do most people turn all of the graphics way down in PvP videos and that's why it looks so bad?
For the most part yes, trust me, when you are at a siege of over 100 people with spells and arrows and whirlwinding twohanded swords. Turning down the graphics help. Lol. It really is a different experience than even wvwvw on gw2.Most definately yeah, people CURRENTLY have their GFX stuff toned to abyss because of big scale sieges, the game (even in it's current state can look pretty decent)
And btw, that is the "old" GFX engine, DF:UW is supposed to have a "new" engine (tho i believe it's improved version of that old engine), so everything amped to +++ it'll propably look pretty nice.
Back in 2010 i thought DF looked pretty damn nice (when i got everything amped up), but i came to realize i needed to tone shiz to minimum in order to be perceptive etc, i had 0 ambience 0 music, graphs all on low par draw distance, just to get an edge or equal setting when it came to gankers, hiders, "stealthers" brigands etc. whilst mining farming, i heard a rustle or a footstep, i ran like the bat outta hell!
Those are the some of the top reasons why all PVP/siege videos on tube look like shite, because people need to be on the "same level" and that being graphics toned to boogers = edge = what it is... same is with DayZ, tone down your shiz and people can't hide in the grass or bushes!
My best laughs from DayZ are from people trying to prone in the grass when i've shot their friend, thinking "he can't see me in this tall grass" - when the brutal fact is, i see no grass, i see a green plateau with a dark lump in it, crawling forward.
In a multiplayer game where audio/visual perception is a key and "hiding in plain sight" is a key to victory, they need to stop making the options so freely chooseable for the sake of bad computers and make the plane equal to the gamers.
DF did right with making bushes, rocks, trees and stuff not clip, allowing players to hide behind them, even tho you could disable all shadows and grass, you could still "hide in plain sight" - most of the times. This is where sound became the "win all" like back in 'good ole counter strike"