I’ve only managed to log about 30 minutes or so into Darkfall since the expansion, but even in EuroGamer time I’ve seen some good things. With the upcoming weekend, I should have a much better report come Monday.
The first and most obvious change is of course the terrain overhaul. It’s certainly noticable, and in a way feels like a fog has been lifted off Agon, with everything now being very crisp and clean. It’s also one of those changes that if you don’t know exactly what to look for, you just assume it always looked like that and don’t notice the change. More before/after screenshots would have been interesting to see, but at this point it matters little. Bottom line is the game looks much better now, and the groundwork for the character model, armor updates, and DX11 effects is firmly in place.
The second, and perhaps even more important piece I noticed is an increase in my FPS, up about 20-30 depending on what was on screen. Considering the graphical improvement, that’s impressive. From scanning the forums a bit, it seems those which middle to upper level hardware have seen in increase, while those on budget PCs are reporting a performance hit. Death to toasts I say.
The final point I want to bring up is a bit more theory for now, but something I’m sure will pan out. The PvE changes, primarily the placement of high-value mobs in dungeons and away from player cities, will lead to more small-scale PvP engagements, which is something the community has been asking for. I don’t know why so many are not seeing this, but it’s not rocket science.
You won’t be bringing a raid-sized force to a dungeon to farm, but you most likely won’t be going solo either. Players know the locations of the dungeons, and checking one for activity is not very difficult. ‘Claiming’ a farming spot of high value has always lead to fighting, yet previously most of these spots were close to a player city, so whoever owned the city owned the spot. So now instead of randomly roaming the world looking for PvP, players can instead check on a few dungeons (plus villages, since those are now worth more and don’t go vulnerable as often). And since many of the dungeons are located between various player cities, I expect they will become PvP hotspots for those who live nearby.
Again, a lot more come Monday.
Chuck-o-the-day: Chuck Norris eats his birthday cake without blowing out the candles.
(DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and reporting on DarkFall, your opinion is wrong.)
Hardcore Casual 
No Tobold retort? I’m disappointed, Syn. I thought Blog War Friday was about to start up again.
Eh, I’ll let the old man ‘retire'(again) in peace. It’s not nice to take shots at old folks who have lost all sense of sanity.
That or obvious troll is obvious.
You take your pick.
“Bottom line is the game looks much better now, and the groundwork for the character model, armor updates, and DX11 effects is firmly in place.”
Hm…I believe none of that were added. It was just a Terrain Texture Update. DX11, Character models and Armors are scheduled for DF2010.
Yea that stuff won’t be in until DF2010. What I was saying is that with the terrain done, they can focus on those things, and once they are in, they will compliment the high-rez terrain, rather than having high-rez characters walking on low-rez ground.
You’ve been repeating the PvP hotspot theory for over a year now. What makes this dungeon update different from the other supposed catalysts for small scale PvP? Skill up increases, monster rebalancing, player housing, villages, trade routes, world map counters.
If the community keeps asking for incentives for small-scale PvP, they’re likely to be the designers of their own demise.
Except that AV hasn’t really released any PvP content since CtS Expac, nor have managed to make pointless features more rewarding (Trade Routes and Villages are a good exemple, just ain’t worth it).
This was a PvE patch and won’t bring additional PvP. The PvP you will find is just the random PvP you’d find if you came across another player while running around the map. Not much in terms of small-scale PvP.
And it’s actually the opposite, if the Developers don’t finally add more PvP features, they will be the ones designing their own demise, and as far as I’m concerned, they are already doing that. Population is horribly low.
“This was a PvE patch and won’t bring additional PvP. The PvP you will find is just the random PvP you’d find if you came across another player while running around the map. Not much in terms of small-scale PvP.”
That is my point. Syncaine deflects criticism of each patch by trying to point out the potential it carries. The next patch is going to bring back small-scale PvP or bring a bunch of players back or get a bunch of players off the fence or give him a reason to start logging in consistently again. You just wait and see the creative uses players devise for a… flag.
He and (apparently a horribly low number of) others keep paying for that potential, which is fine unless that potential is never realized.
I don’t know about the EU server, but the NA pop is more than fine.
Oh, and the dungeon PvP is already kicking, so I’m feeling good about it’s ‘potential’. Fighting over the demon spawn is also a daily occurrence.
If people have troubling finding PvP now, they are not looking in the right areas, as there is plenty of it out there.
Same shit on EU, small scale PvP everywhere since xpac.