Positive feelings

[Rontti]

Tasting Plasu is about as positive as it can get.

[Roninman]

Copied this from their forums, can any players here agree or review little what this guy has posted:




Ok so, I can tell you right now i have been dreaming about a game like this ever since i left the land of Norrath forever. Not since i was hunting orcs in crushbone or tracking bandits in greater faydark have i had such an enjoyable experience as i do in darkfall. (i just wish there was no map >.<) So i am going to pin point some things i believe are wonderful and somethings that aren't.

1. -Combat-
This brings me back to the EQ1 days. It's not as fast paced as it was on my druid with SoW buff (vastly increases movement speed) and clickies (instant clicked items that either put an illusion or buff on you) but it still gets my heart beating. Combat to me is fun and effective. It's not always about who has the better armor or who has more stamina. You can use a lot of things to your advantage. For instance, i was jumped by two Alfar while hunting orcs near this valley. They both jump on me, trying to hit me from behind with arrows and their polearms. I start zig zagging around trees hoping to dodge. I notice that 3 orc have spawned and i make a quick detour towards them. I weave through the orcs with the Alfar following me and sure enough, the orcs aggro the alfar, bringing them both, eventually, to low enough life for them to flee. I managed to escape and kept farming till full on loot. I play PST time and have an average latency of about 190 so i need to time some things here and there but i can say for a fact that timing it perfectly to hit someones back as they pass takes skill.

2. --Archery--
I read a lot of people complaining that it is overpowered or takes too long to make arrows etc etc. Archery is a full skill and pretty much spec for some characters so of course it should take a long time, everything in this game takes a long time and thats exactly how it should be. A tactic i use when coming up on archers is to weave a bit slowly making it appear i am still far away but then sprint to them to get 3-4 hits in while they have bow out. If someone is nailing you with a bow and your running, you're pretty much done but to me, its fair. Run and get pelted in back with 30 arrows, yea its gonna hurt.

3. --Magic--
So far i have 48 LM right now. I read/hear a lot from people that it is a pain in the ass. I think it should be. Magic is not something that should be taken from granted or earned even in a month. It should be powerful but only to those that take the time to learn it. The most viable path to follow atm is a melee weap and magic as a side. It should be like that until you are able to fully protect yourself via magic. I have not tried the elemental schools yet but as of right now i am perfectly fine spending time and resources to level magic. I find mana missle extremely effective when chasing someone who i cant hit with arrows directly. I just aim at where i think they will be and usually it hits for 11-15 damage.

4. --PvE--
This is one of my favorite aspects of the game. I abosutely love how mobs are not painted every 10 feet all across the world. I like that the game makes you explore to find mobs. Let me share with you a story. I was wandering along the west coast of Agon, attempting to head from Mir Bellith (elf lands) to the mahirim lands up north. Along the way i found a portal located in a mountain side. I go and use the portal and i am instantly teleported to an underground cave full of evil goblins and mobs. They try to gank me but i manage to evade them and head through another portal, taking me back to the real world. My heart was racing as i was almost slaughtered in a mysterious place. Looking for mobs also makes individuals move away from towns, adding to danger but rewarding you for your exploration.

5. --Economy--
To me the economy is pretty decent. I like face to face trading over a stupid auction house type. I have about 30 bowyer but i like to harvest a lot more and i make my living selling my materials. Because of this i have a good rep for buying and selling which has netted me discounts and even some free items because i am on time and usually have a good supply of mats for sale. This game lets you make your living exactly how you want to. If you cant go fight, harvest and sell. If you dont want to harvest fight. If you dont want to do either, craft and buy mats with the profit you make. The only thing i wouldnt mind would be a Bazaar similar to eq1s. For those of you that dont know the EQ1 trading system i will explain.
You collected a bunch of items and want to sell them when you're away or asleep. So you head to the bazaar, a giant market place with stalls everywhere and people always near. You would purchase vendor bags which you could then put all the items you wanted to sell. After they are in your bags, you move to a stall and type /trader. A window would pop up showing the items in your bags and how much you wanted to sell each for. You could then set the prices and hit begin trader. Anyone could then come up to you, right click, and view you exactly as a merchant. Even though you may not be there sometimes when you sell, it still helped build relationships and reputations. I always knew this little gnome dressed in green had legit items for cheap so before i went anywhere else, i checked his trader. You could also search for items but only when you were in the bazaar.

6. --Clans--
If you are not in a clan i HIGHLY suggest you join one, especially one with a hamlet or city (woot city!!). Joining a clan was one of the best decisions i made. Not only did it open up priviledges such as a HUGE clan city to explore and chill in, but it provides great roleplay and immersion opportunities. Let me share a small story with you. So i am outside my clan city trying to harvest some ore. I get 40-50 ore on me and realize i am outa stam and have a good amount of resources, it's time to head home. I begin walking back to the city entrance (about 300 yards away, i can see it in distance). Just then i hear a bowstring draw back and its very very loud. I think, oh crap someone is right behind me. Sure enough an alfar begins attempting to gank me from behind. I have a little stam left so i start sprinting for the gate, yelling in clan chat and vent i need help. I run outa stam and with about 40% hp left he catches up and i think, oh crap im finished. just then he stops attacking me and i turn around. 6 of my own clan members and 3 from our alliance are on mounts heading right for him. He sees this, attempts to run but is slaughtered by the calvalry. It was one of the coolest things i have experienced and another reason i am so glad joining a clan. Not to mention harvesting in cities and just being a part of something huge.

7. --Risk V Reward--
Another reason this game shines is because of its huge risk v reward system. I go out to hunt some goblins or skeletons but before i leave, i make sure i am equipped with food, arrows and some medium armor. nothing too fancy because i dont want to risk losing it all if ganked. I head to the spawn, kill for about 20 mins un touched then get jumped. I either manage to escape, die or kill my assailant but in the end, i risked everything but could also gain a lot more. I have been jumped by a full plate wearing guy before and had him chase me right off a ledge where i knew unless you sprinted and jumped you would hit the ground. He landed, lost like 45% of his hp which i then turned around and pelted him with arrows, he ran, i got him from behind and now have a full set of plate, chilling in my bank, waiting for a pvp raid. Everytime i am jumped or about to attack someone, my heart races because i know that i might lose everything yet this guy could have valuable stuff. I have been killed plenty of times, lost lots of stuff but in the end, i say damn that sucks but i lost fair and square.

8. --Community--
The community is one of the best i have seen from the mmorpgs i have played (eq1,eq2,daoc,swg,wow,vg,TR,ao,eve,lotro ). Some people are dicks, have stupid names and try to jump you all the time, but i notice a lot more nice mature players and i believe this could be due to the international aspect of it. A lot of reputations have already started being built, people classified as gankers, hackers or fair traders etc. All in all, DF has a decent community.

9. --Problems i see/hear with DF--

A. Polearm/long reach weapon argument.
I believe this is a valid argument. As it stands polearms hit a lot harder than other weaps and have good range/medium swing speed. To fix this all that is needed is to simply make them swing slower. I believe polearms should be more on the defensive rather than sprinting at max speed swinging wildly. Polearm users should have to time their attacks perfectly or wait for the opponent to come to them unless chasing from behind. Daggers should have increased range and increased damage. You should be able to swipe quickly and move in but if you stay too long, that polearm swing could be devastating.
B. Naked Ganking
Because this game is not based on *levels*, naked ganking is completely viable. It is easy to run around with noob weap, swinging wildly hoping either the other person is out of stam already, low hp or just not as good a fighter as you. You die, you lose nothing. They die, you get everything. I strongly believe that you should take literally double to triple damage from every weapon if you are not wearing any armor. Armor is easy enough to obtain (goblins/skellies/chests/ you can buy chain for 85g, which takes 15 mins to get from goblins)
C. Alightment system
Right now the alignment system needs a simple reworking. Not anything huge but a slight tweak here and there. It's too easy to be a evil murderer, kill till you have -100 then find someone of a diff race or evil too and just slaughter them for 10 mins at a bindstone. Back to good for you. I would propose something similar to an ingame timed thing. For every set of interval negative points you obtain from killing, you are required to stay red for a set period of time. So you get -100 alignment, kill someone evil or enemy race back to -2 and then you should be required to wait the amount of time you earned. Once that times is up you can kill another person and become neutral/good again.

D. No camera View
Im sorry but this has to stay. I have become a fan of first person view now because of this game. Previously, every game i played i NEVER EVER used first person view unless looking around. Because 1st person pov is locked unless melee equipped, it adds to the risk of running around. I keep looking over my shoulder/around for people i know are going to try and gank me. It is completely unrealistic to have eyes in the back of your head.


Closing comments

I still have not covered a lot of stuff but i am working right now so i can't spend as much time as i would have liked. To me, Darkfall is everything i wanted. Sure some stuff can be fixed but just enjoy the game for what it is. This is a small indie company that has given us something huge and worth sticking around for. Just imagine the possibilites once they start creating more servers (but just enough to fill each cap) to allow further revenue which will lead to further development. Darkfall owns, its scary, i fear going out but then again, coming upon a hidde cache of skeleton mobs or ogres is something i relish. Exploring and almost dying, running from gankers and being protected by my clan city is what i enjoy and i know a lot do too. If you don't like darkfall, we don't need to hear your reasons why. Aventurine is doing their best to fix it and i know they want more than anything to keep players here. This game is not for the weak minded or angry people. Its a harsh game but it's what i know a lot of looked for since uo and eq1. I've found my home. Thank you

[Roninman]

And interesting MMORPG blog with pics on siege:

http://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/Paragus1/03 ... es-and-War

Maybe was very wrong afterall, if they can fix things soon these game could start getting more and more players like Eve did at beginning.

[Teuras]

That review is basicly how the game is. The core is solid, but its not all that perfect. Core however, is what counts since the rest can be easily fixed.

Combat is very different from other MMO's since skill does have a huge impact. Basicly its just clicking one button only a couple of special moves and since hitting the backside means almost double damage, the 1vs1 fights are very hectic and players usually just sprint in circles. Once you get used to fighting it becomes more like kendo. Charge, swing swing swing, disengage, charge, swing swing...

Magic users get penalties the heavyer their armor is while archers get some. Magic is at the moment more of a support skill and in combat its used like artillery. Since the fireballs and the like travel relatively slowly, a distant target wont have any problems dodging them. If you have several casters firing at the same time, dodging becomes tricky. Archery is a bit harder when the target is far away and unless you make your arrows you wont be carrying too many of them.

Races have differences in the size of their hit boxes and since weapons have different lenghts it creates some balance issues, but not much. Small race like dark elf wielding a polearm will have a definite advantage over wolfman wielding daggers. PvP melee on foot is mostly done with 2h weapons so the differences are minimal. Shorter 2h weapons swing faster and wolves look cooler than Alfars, so in my opinion things are in balance.

There are no classes so everyone is a hybrid. Some have maxed out archery or magic but those fuckers run macro programs that keep training their characters over night. Basicly you got melee chars who use ranged, ranged char who use melee and those who train to be pure casters.

Mounted combat rocks and takes as much skill as melee and ranged fighting. On a mount you can only use 1h weapons but your mount can bite directly infornt of it and kick derectly behind it. On a mount you need to lean your character left or right in order to reach targets on foot. You can be targeted while on a mount but at least melee swing seem to hit the mount first. You share your stamina with your mount but the mount has a health bar of its own.

I have won a match against 2 players on foot while riding a mount and won a match against a single mounted opponent while on foot(once hes mount died he ran away). If you winpy out before your mount gets down to 50%, its pretty certain that you can escape. If your on foot and running away the mounted opponent will chace you down and take your stuff.

Theoretically you could jump in and fight against the average raiding group the second you log in for the first time, but in reality you get bitch slapped by the stupid UI and spend the first few hours wondering what the fuck were they thinking when it passed the quality control. Its functional(ish) and wont take long to learn but everything is done differently from other games. Stupid Greeks.

There is no grind since everything is a grind. No matter what you do, chances are your getting better at something. Drowning while sharks are eating you? Good way to train diving and defence. If you hit or get hit, you get better at something. Lost in the woods and tryint to find your way back? Run and sprint increases.
Some can handle this and just play the game, some try to "get to max lvl asap" and burn out in days.

Average player has around 200 hp's atm, and at day 1 my newbie weapon did around 11 points per swing. Now after i descended to -100 (red and max negative) alignment from collecting materials for my crafting and fought myself back up to +30 or so my skill has gone up 39 points in polearms and now i hit, still with my newbie weapon, whopping 16-18 points per swing. You can play the game from day one. No need to grind unless your genetic code prevents it.

How do you go red and get negative alignment from harvesting?
You see the harvesting part is boring as hell. Click a tree with axe in hand, wait 10 seconds and maybe a log will appear in your backback. Do this for an 30 minutes then switch to a rock and start clicking again. After 30 mins of that you should have enought materials for moderate amount of arrows. I just skipped and the boring part and killed other harvesters. Way faster and sometimes i got cool loot as well =)

Prices are not stable yet and crafters are still skilling up so cant comment on the economy. Unless a stable neutral player city emerges crafters are more likely to rent their services when needed rather than setting up shops with a stock inventory. Its got potential, but too early to say if it grows into a working player driven economy.

PvE is realistic and refreshing and because of that, fucking annoying. If you see a mob in DF it most likely can see you. some agro from miles away while otherd do not. Mobs try to kite you, run into cover, run away and come back with friends. If your just trying to farm stuff this is annoying since if your solo or with a small group this can take ages. Loot is pretty realistic. If the mob shoots arrows then its a safe bet to assume its carrying a bow. But like with crafting, you can always opt to taking the stuff from others.

Equipment, mounts and gold are yours as long as you keep them in your bank box. Once you take them out anyone can loot them if they manage to kill you one way or other.

2 OUT OF 3 BANANAS
Try if you got 50€, but if you do try, promice yourself youll play it at least 5 hours since chances are the first impressions go something like this "wtf is wrong with my char? it seems like im moving knee deep in tar. omg this ui is retarted" etc. etc.

Once you get over that its an ok game. Best PvP in fucking decades.

[Roninman]

What about races, anything longer info? Any racial traits or things you can do and other cant?

[Chromer one]

What about races, anything longer info? Any racial traits or things you can do and other cant?

at now there pretty much isnt.. some have better starting atributes to other roles but all atributes raise quite easily.

Wolves ought to have 4 legged running but not yet.
diferent hitboxes are pretty much biggest difference.

And looks.

[Stormhold]

Disclaimer: all this crap is by my beta experiences which were up to right before release. I didn't actually pay for the game I think is an utter piece of shit.

The core is solid, but its not all that perfect. Core however, is what counts since the rest can be easily fixed.

More like the core is solid gold, but it's surrounded by a huge layer of shit. Core is what counts, but it'll take ages to dig into it through all the shit.

Combat is very different from other MMO's since skill does have a huge impact. Basicly its just clicking one button only a couple of special moves and since hitting the backside means almost double damage, the 1vs1 fights are very hectic and players usually just sprint in circles. Once you get used to fighting it becomes more like kendo. Charge, swing swing swing, disengage, charge, swing swing...

It does not really need more skill than pvp in World of Warcraft - the game Darkfall hardcore fanboys tell everyone who doesn't like Darkfall go back to. It's mostly because the combat is very simple and quite slow paced compared to World of Warcraft combat having many (atleast more) buttons to press and being faster paced (felt like it to me atleast.). But yes, player skill makes up bigger part of a victory than in World of Warcraft. Gear and character skills still give serious improvement though. EVE has simple pvp, in some cases even simpler than Darkfall, yet the requirement of having your ship at exact right point at exact right time to succeed makes EVE pvp far more satisfying for me than Darkfall. Darkfall feels more like slow paced Quake with melee.

Magic users get penalties the heavyer their armor is while archers get some. Magic is at the moment more of a support skill and in combat its used like artillery. Since the fireballs and the like travel relatively slowly, a distant target wont have any problems dodging them. If you have several casters firing at the same time, dodging becomes tricky. Archery is a bit harder when the target is far away and unless you make your arrows you wont be carrying too many of them.

There are no classes so everyone is a hybrid. Some have maxed out archery or magic but those fuckers run macro programs that keep training their characters over night. Basicly you got melee chars who use ranged, ranged char who use melee and those who train to be pure casters.

Yeah. Like I predicted in beta, nearly everyone will be a melee-magic/archery hybrid, and idiots if they don't have atleast some magic trained. If mana to stamina is still in game it's even more true, and I bet they haven't taken it out. Dunno if different magic schools will make characters feel actually different in terms of what they can do, but majority of the spells were standard boring stuff.

Races have differences in the size of their hit boxes and since weapons have different lenghts it creates some balance issues, but not much. Small race like dark elf wielding a polearm will have a definite advantage over wolfman wielding daggers. PvP melee on foot is mostly done with 2h weapons so the differences are minimal. Shorter 2h weapons swing faster and wolves look cooler than Alfars, so in my opinion things are in balance.

Yeah, the outcry on beta forums was huge. Almost as huge as the "It would be balanced if mahirim had their free mount mode that is always with you!"-crying. Rolling a small race seemed to be the best choice in beta too.

Theoretically you could jump in and fight against the average raiding group the second you log in for the first time, but in reality you get bitch slapped by the stupid UI and spend the first few hours wondering what the fuck were they thinking when it passed the quality control. Its functional(ish) and wont take long to learn but everything is done differently from other games. Stupid Greeks.

You would be bitchslapped even if you knew the game. Unlike people claim, gear and character skills both do matter considerably, especially if you compare 0.1 skills to even average skills. The armor effect atleast was lowered when they "fixed a bug that gave double protection from some armor types" in the end of the beta.

There is no grind since everything is a grind. No matter what you do, chances are your getting better at something. Drowning while sharks are eating you? Good way to train diving and defence. If you hit or get hit, you get better at something. Lost in the woods and tryint to find your way back? Run and sprint increases.
Some can handle this and just play the game, some try to "get to max lvl asap" and burn out in days.

True enough. Lack of advancement and achievement in beta made it feel a bit boring to play at all though. If you happen to love the kind of pvp in Darkfall, it's probably better for you though, but not for me atleast. In my opinion the runfest was utter shit.

Average player has around 200 hp's atm, and at day 1 my newbie weapon did around 11 points per swing. Now after i descended to -100 (red and max negative) alignment from collecting materials for my crafting and fought myself back up to +30 or so my skill has gone up 39 points in polearms and now i hit, still with my newbie weapon, whopping 16-18 points per swing. You can play the game from day one. No need to grind unless your genetic code prevents it.

Is the +hp skill that requires certain amount of hp still in? It seemed pretty unbalanced in beta.

Prices are not stable yet and crafters are still skilling up so cant comment on the economy. Unless a stable neutral player city emerges crafters are more likely to rent their services when needed rather than setting up shops with a stock inventory. Its got potential, but too early to say if it grows into a working player driven economy.

Price stability will be pretty interesting thing since they still afaik don't have any kind of computer ran market, so the only way to sell stuff is spam chat and direct trade. Then again prices will be stabler in general due to the idiotic design decision for a game like this that is known as global bank. Global bank might've been ok if they had limited it to a very small amount, but that wouldn't work currently since you can't store anything anywhere except your backpack or bank.

PvE is realistic and refreshing and because of that, fucking annoying. If you see a mob in DF it most likely can see you. some agro from miles away while otherd do not. Mobs try to kite you, run into cover, run away and come back with friends. If your just trying to farm stuff this is annoying since if your solo or with a small group this can take ages. Loot is pretty realistic. If the mob shoots arrows then its a safe bet to assume its carrying a bow. But like with crafting, you can always opt to taking the stuff from others.

Have they actually made the mobs good? In beta mobs could be an annoyance like you described, sure, they did run away etc. They did not however give challenge due to combat mechanics themselves, just due to either bigger damage or fleeing abilities. It's surprisingly like in WoW, except that the mobs (atleast sometimes) atleast try to avoid your projectiles - though I bet WoW had that if it didn't have targeting. In most cases even the most hardcore mobs which have ranged abilities - especially spells (surprisingly common btw) - can be killed by a small team by dodging the spells and spamming your own projectiles. Slow and boring, but profitable enough and feels like an exploit. Sometimes the mobs just seemed to become brain dead in beta too, but they fixed that water-makes-mobs-braindead-bug atleast I believe. Oh yeah, and pve in groups without exploiting slow projectiles and stupid AI that keeps spamming projectiles even if it could annihilate your group in melee was boring as hell too. People sit around target whacking it in melee while the one who takes damage keeps shield up and is healed by some other people. Even more boring than WoW. While group pve isn't exactly the point of the game, it could be atleast somewhat less boring.

Equipment, mounts and gold are yours as long as you keep them in your bank box. Once you take them out anyone can loot them if they manage to kill you one way or other.

Yeah. Like I said, global bank sucks especially since it's so big - which it has to be since you can't store stuff in other safe(ish) places like your own house (player housing and small bank size is what redeemed UO's global banking quite a bit.)


And my sentence:

0 OUT OF 3 BANANAS
Don't touch this piece of crap unless you have spare 50 euros and really think you'd like it - or well, you probably even can't touch this piece of crap since Aventurine is at brink of bankrupt and can't even afford a 2nd server. The game that was "readier than most mmorpgs at launch" in January is everything except what that promised. It feels like they got their engine done in 2008 and just implemented the basic required functions that were relatively easy to implement. World is as static as in World of Warcraft apart from the clan cities, which themselves are built from static structures. You won't have your own cool tower with it's decorations like in Ultima Online. Mobs like Quake bots? No, they're rather retarded. Weather? No way. Dynamic mob spawns? Ofcourse no. "Interesting and complex crafting system"? No, slightly crappier than in original Ultima Online in my opinion - also one of the real reasons for grind unless it's been changed: the low level stuff was kinda useless and you had to craft so much crap that even higher levels are more or less useless.

PvP is free for all with full loot and no targeting, but really, it could have been hugely better than what it is, and atleast I find the combat mechanics themselves more interesting in many games. As sad as it is "it has FFA pvp with full loot so it can't be bad!" isn't correct, and the game is bad. But yeah, it could become good eventually, we'll see if they have funding, will and wits.

[Stormhold]

What about races, anything longer info? Any racial traits or things you can do and other cant?

at now there pretty much isnt.. some have better starting atributes to other roles but all atributes raise quite easily.

Wolves ought to have 4 legged running but not yet.
diferent hitboxes are pretty much biggest difference.

And looks.

Yeah, it's actually one feature all except most mahirim were glad of missing from the game in the beta. It as it was described would make playing pretty much any other race useless unless you give them huge unbalancing bonuses too.

[Chromer one]

well havent missed the fourlegged humping either.

[Roninman]

Any pics of side by side comparsion by different races? Want to see how much differencence there really is, those videos dont give very accurate description.

[Stormhold]

Any pics of side by side comparsion by different races? Want to see how much differencence there really is, those videos dont give very accurate description.

I don't have pics, but the difference is very noticeable. Dwarves are actually short, elves are actually thin and mahirim (and orcs) are very big in all directions.

[Teuras]

My wolf stands about twice as tall as the smaller races. Orcs are roughly at shoulder height but much broader. Hitboxes do not match the chararacter models and the actual sizes dont make that much difference. Its as easy to hit a human as it is to hit an orc.

As far as design consepts go i disagree with pretty much every point Stormhold made. Im not going to dissect them here, but obviously we like very different aspects of games and our play styles are nothing alike.

6 out of 7 Veturi's have liked it so far and thats enough for a decent raid group.


edit:
About the four legged running.. As far as i know you cant fight in that mode so having a mount would be much better option in pretty much every scenario.

[Roninman]

Map with some clan cities:

http://www.beracor.com/downloads/politi ... urrent.jpg

[Ruoja]

How i can purchase it? Says sold out every day.. huh?

[Roninman]

Its not open everyday or every hour. On their forums it says when its open next time. When someone knows next time its open, post here.

Client is available on torrent, suggest download it in advance

http://www.eu1.darkfallonline.com/dl/Da ... ll.torrent

And create Ork or Mahirrim

[Roninman]

Tomorrow April 23d we will open up the shop at 3pm GMT for those that want to get the Darkfall Client.

If you want to get the Darkfall Client, visit
https://www.darkfallonline.com/accounts/f/default.php
and create an account if you haven't done so already.


AND MAKE SURE YOU MAKE ORC OR MAHIRRIM

[Roninman]

Shop open week 11

The Shop will be open the week of May 11th for those interested in buying Darkfall. The link to the account management is here:

https://accounts.eu.darkfallonline.com

Opening dates/time
Monday May 11th: 3pm GMT
Tuesday May 12th: 3pm GMT
Wednesday May 13th: 3pm GMT
Thursday May 14th: 3pm GMT

Opening hours are subject to change without warning so please check back with this thread.