DarkFall: New Player Protection, possible free trial setup?

Posted on February 4, 2010 by SynCaine

Aventurine today announced some upcoming changes to the new player experience in DarkFall, which can be found here. Surprisingly only a few on the forums are crying “Trammel”, and most seem to agree this is a good step to getting new players into and comfortable with DarkFall.

There are a few issues facing a new player to DarkFall, with one major area being the completely different style of control, day-to-day activity, and general focus of the game. The truth is that anyone who was following DarkFall because they wanted a quality PvP MMO has likely already tried it, so new players today truly are new and likely don’t fully know what they are signing up for. Given that so many in the MMO genre today have cut their teeth on an EQ-clone, something like DarkFall is going to feel very foreign to them.

What this temporary protection does is allows those new players to focus on just learning the UI, the basics of PvE combat, and their immediate surroundings. Most will still likely die to their first goblin, get lost, and not know how to Rest, but at least they won’t be doing all that while some PK is trying to get them to flag themselves gray or killing them just outside of tower range. That will happen eventually of course, but at least a few hours in that new player will know the basics and stand a slightly better chance to fight back or run away. I’m sure dying while trying to get out of mouse UI mode is not a great first impression.

Finally, it’s not hard to see how something like this newbie protection could be further modified into a free trial setup. Use the same limits placed on a character, extend the time to 3-5 days (the longer the trial the more likely it could be abused, but that would require some more testing), and you give anyone interested at least a decent peek into what DarkFall is about. Any sort of trial with PvP included would get messy, and I think someone killing a few mobs should come away with a decent understanding of just how unique the combat system is in DarkFall compared to tab-target MMOs.

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, MMO design, Patch Notes | 9 Comments

DarkFall: Areas for improvement, housing.

Posted on February 2, 2010 by SynCaine

In my one year review of DarkFall, I mentioned that certain areas of the game are incomplete or not yet fully fleshed out, and I want to spend a few posts talking about some of those areas, the first one being Player Housing. Player housing in DarkFall has seen two major updates (the initial implementation, and the addition of player vendors and sea villages), and needs at least a few more to fully reach its potential.

As it stands today, a player’s house has two main functions; a secondary bind spot and the location of your player vendor (if you find/purchase that addition). The secondary bind spot is somewhat self-explanatory, but in a world the size of Agon, it’s a very important tool for both individual players and clans looking for quick transportation. Vendors can be a great way to sell your goods, but location and advertising is key.

The housing market initially was a complete lottery; if you were lucky enough to find a deed in a chaos chest, you either sold it for a fortune or placed it yourself and got a home. Many felt this was a somewhat unfair system and excluded too many from the chance of owning a home of their own. In addition to just the deed, all furniture, decorations, and additions (vendors, gardens, trees) to houses are also found in chaos chests, so again initially this was all a lottery.

Today however the situation has somewhat changed, as there are now two different markets. One is the placed house market, where a current owner sells his placed house to someone else. The buyer knows the exact location and size of the house, plus all of the additions that have been added. Currently prices for placed houses are very high, especially in the more desirable locations. The other market is the house deed market, were the buyer is buying an unplaced deed (cottage, house, villa, large villa, or keep) and they then must find an empty plot to place it. As spots are very hard to find (they become open if a current owner fails to pay his taxes), a deed is generally worth less than a placed house.

Since no one knows if/when Aventurine plans to add more villages, buying a deed today and waiting for a spot to open is a risky venture. Add in the fact that as more deeds are found, the overall price is likely to drop, and again WHEN to buy one is tricky. If you know a spot is going to open up, or just happen to come across an open spot, getting a deed and placing it is a very smart move. Risk/reward ratio, just like most things in DarkFall.

Originally I was not in favor of the lottery system, but now that the concept has matured a bit, I find it fairly reasonable. If you want top property, be prepared to pay for it. If you want to gamble, acquire a deed and hunt for a spot to place it. What will improve this situation as a whole is when Aventurine adds more villages, so more houses are being sold or lost to taxes, and the market overall is more active. Currently it can be almost impossible to buy a house if you are very location-specific.

But beyond the issue of availability and pricing, houses being glorified secondary bind spots and a potential spot to sell goods is cutting the concept short, as there is so much more Aventurine could add to make them more a place to live out of rather then a place to teleport to. Hopefully among all of the additions planned for 2010, housing gets further attention as well.

Posted in Darkfall Online, Housing, MMO design, Patch Notes | 8 Comments

DarkFall Review: One Year Later

Posted on February 1, 2010 by SynCaine

Before I get into the review itself, I want to just set straight why I’m writing this review, as judging from the pre-post there was some confusion. It should be very clear to anyone around here that I really enjoy DarkFall, so this is not going to be an EG repeat of how terrible the game (read: character creator screen) is. As requested I will try to point out some of its current flaws or shortcomings, but given that it’s been more or less the only major game I’ve played for a year now, expect more good than bad.

I wanted to write a one-year-later review because far too often, a new MMO will get reviewed at release, but anyone looking for a solid write-up after some patching goes in will be out of luck, and given how much an MMO should change year to year, I see this as an issue. Along with that, the well documented problem of “how much do you have to play before you can review an MMO” is always present, so a years-worth of experience will result in a different review than one done from the log-in screen and forum searching.

If I had to sum up my feeling about DarkFall in one sentence, it would be that it’s a game of daily progress and discovery punctuated by moments of pure greatness, moments that I believe are only attainable in an MMO like DarkFall. I don’t view the game as a PvP-exclusive MMO, but rather one driven by PvP, and to me that is a big distinction. I can go days without PvP, yet during those days I’m still progressing towards some inevitable confrontation, and the knowledge that at some point I will be locked in PvP pushes me to progress forward. Every action has a PvP-derived purpose, be it direct (raising my melee skills to hit harder), indirect (raising crafting to make better weapons, with which to hit harder), or just generally related (learning the layout of a new area, which can later be used as an advantage should a fight break out in that location).

The more I play the better I get, both because my actual character is getting stronger and because my understanding and comfort with the game is increasing. There is something very rewarding about getting into a familiar situation and getting a more favorable result because you simply played better, and DarkFall is full of such moments. And just like the time to ‘cap’ is very lengthy from a character skills perspective, the time it takes to refine your player skills is likewise extensive. You won’t be able to watch a youtube video or read a forum strategy guide and come out a PvP expert, and while you yourself are improving, so is everyone else, creating a truly competitive and ever-changing environment.

And as in any competitive environment, there are those who will do whatever it takes to get ahead. While cheating is present in just about every MMO (Google search your MMO + cheats to see what’s possible), in a game like DarkFall it has an effect on more than just the person doing the cheating. To me there are two distinct forms of cheating; one being unnaturally getting ahead, and the other is doing the impossible.

Unnaturally getting ahead, be it through macroing, buying/duping gold, exploiting mobs, or whatever else pops up, is to me the lesser of two evils. It’s still cheating, but all that player is really doing is something that anyone with unlimited time could achieve as well. Someone who buys/dupes 10,000 gold is in the same spot as someone who has all day to farm that 10,000. If you are someone who can only farm 1,000 gold, both players will be ahead of you. How extensive this form of cheating is in DarkFall is difficult to say, but it’s certainly present (though of course ForumFall would lead you to believe everyone but the initial poster is duping 24/7 and exploiting mobs WHILE duping). GMs, especially of late, have been very active in temp-banning players who are afk macroing or exploiting mobs, and plenty of well-known players have been perma-banned as well, so SOME action is being taken. While I wish DarkFall was 100% free of such cheating, I understand that is simply not the case, and all I can do is play my game and accept that sometimes I’ll simple be behind, be it due to lack of play time or lack of buying gold.

The other form of cheating, doing the impossible, truly ruins a game. When you can run unnaturally fast, stick to someone’s back, radar hack, or aim-bot, there is little to nothing someone can do to stop you. I’ve personally witnessed this behavior three times in-game, and of those three two have been confirmed as players looking to go out with a bang (basically asking to get banned because they are quitting, so blatantly using a hack to fly around in plain sight). The ban dropped quickly (minutes) of being reported, but that it’s possible is at least a little troubling. The third action happened on the EU server a few months after launch, where I was fighting (and winning) against a character who simply melted into the ground. He had a then-familiar hack-friendly name (long strings of I L I O 0 O 0), but since the name-change policy I have not spotted any such characters (though I never found out if that particular character was banned, though I suspect he was).

Hackusations (as they are so lovingly called on ForumFall) are common on the forums and in-game, and in many cases they are from people who got beat and just refuse to believe they got outplayed. One member of my own clan gets accused of aim-botting at times because of his accuracy with archery. We know that rather than running a hack, he is just that good at aiming, but the accusations still fly. Same goes for people who don’t fully understand all of the mechanics of the game. It’s not a speed hack that let me catch up to you mounted, it’s mount-jumping down a hill. It’s not radar that let me find you behind that rock, it’s having seen you sneak behind it when you thought I was not looking. That type of stuff happens all the time, and makes it more difficult to spot the real exploiters, or to judge just how rampant cheating really is in DarkFall. From personal experience, it’s not very common and I can honestly say I don’t think hacking has affected me personally in any major way, but some on the forums will swear everyone is doing it.

Somewhat related to cheating and getting ahead is the topic of how long it takes a new player to get up-to-speed in DarkFall and actually contribute. To me the biggest hurdle a new player has to cross is not the skills/stats growth, but the very concept and approach of DarkFall itself. The game is not a different version of EQ/WoW/LoTRO/WAR/etc. It does not play anything like any MMO you have likely played before, from the UI to the mobs to the mentality needed to succeed and have fun. It’s just a very different beast, and anyone going in needs to prepare themselves for a bit of MMO culture-shock.

The game does very little hand-holding to guide you from one fun spot to the next, and if you are not at least a little self-motivated, you will soon find yourself without ‘stuff’ to do. You also can’t solo-hero the game start to finish; you need to join a clan, get involved, and get mixed into everything going on around you, of which there is plenty. Great moments and rewards are out there, but Aventurine won’t place them in front of you wrapped in a pretty pink bow, and expecting as much will only lead to disappointment.

As far as becoming a member of the community, it of course varies. While not everyone is a 13yr old self-proclaimed badass in his mom’s basement, those players do play DarkFall, and since they tend to attention-whore more than most, you might notice them. But there are also plenty of mature players, both those intent on world domination or to simply organize an RP event. There are casual clans, hardcore PvP clans, and everyone in between (Yes even a few crafter clans). If you take a little bit of time to look around, you should be able to find a group that fits your playerstyle and maturity level, and having a great group around you really makes DarkFall shine. Even in some corners of ForumFall you can find intelligent discussion, but wading through those badass 13yr olds might be too much for most.

Moving on to the gameplay itself (hey it’s only taken two pages according to Word), I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here: I believe DarkFall has, hands down, the best combat in any MMO. And when your game is so combat-driven, that’s kind-of-a-big-deal. While balance is never perfect, the current state of the game allows for all three styles (melee, archery, and magic) to thrive if played well, and each form requires a unique approach. A great archer might not be the best melee fighter (from a player-skill perspective), and someone who is devastating with magic might be a one trick pony. I don’t want to get into the nitty-gritty details of combat because I believe the countless videos out do a good job of showing it off, and as always, what looks fun to watch is just that much more fun to actually play.

Since release Aventurine has made certain changes that allow a new player to get up-to-speed a bit faster than before, while still retaining much of the slower late-game progress. This means that if you focus on one area, you should be more than competent within a reasonable amount of time (this of course depends on your expectations, but you won’t wait months before being able to at least contribute in a group setting), and even the newest players can contribute in some areas (all players deal the same damage when shooting a cannon, for example). As there is no level or gear-gated content, what you experience and when is based more on you and your clan/alliance than on how many XP points you have or how high your item level is. A day-one player can group up with veterans and head into the toughest dungeon, swing away, and contribute. That same day-one player can head out with his clan and PvP with everyone else. Sure he will be a softer target dealing less damage and have few tools (mainly magic) available to him, but the game itself won’t keep you out.

Combat aside, DarkFall is no slouch in areas like crafting or exploring either. While crafting is not perfect (lower-tier items are undesirable to all but the newest of players, and the upper-tier items are currently very difficult to get for anyone outside of a major alliance due to rare ore availability), its still better than most themeparks, as its more than just a huge grind/money sink (it’s that too) with 1-2 worthwhile items at the end. Given that items will be lost in PvP or break from use, players are always looking to restock, and what you require may change based on your play style (mages perfect one type of armor, melee another). Mobs also have varying weaknesses which will influence what type of weapon you use against them. For instance, I currently farm a Veilron Golem, which is particularly weak to lighting-based weapons. As my weapon of choice is an axe, I went out and bought a player-crafted one-handed lighting axe, plus I had an enchanter put a golem-slayer enchant on it just to give it that extra kick, knowing I would only use it against that particular mob. When I move on from the Golem, I will likely require a different weapon/method to kill whatever is next.

Exploring is another area of DarkFall that has improved significantly since launch, but still has a ways to go. There are countless areas around Agon that are visually stunning, and exploring can yield new mobs to farm or a particularly good spot to harvest. With that said, it’s clear that many areas are still unfinished, be it a deep tunnel that ends in a closed door, a complex city with no real purpose, or dungeons that are little more than a few rooms and 1-2 mob spawns. It can be somewhat disappointing to search a particularly interesting cave/tunnel/ruin only to finally come to the conclusion that there really is nothing to find. As I’ve mentioned before, some of these areas are explained by the in-game quests and lore, but certainly not all of them and its clear Aventurine has left themselves plenty of areas to come back to and flesh out.

Over this last year Aventurine has done what I would consider an exceptional job in refining and improving DarkFall. From noticeable improvement in client stability and performance to expanding questing and PvE, the DarkFall of today is a much improved game from what was launched back in February of 2009, and Aventurine has set a very aggressive pace going forward (three free expansions per year is the goal). In addition to just the sheer size of the updates, very few of the changes could be considered side steps or outright mistakes. The balancing of magic, ships, armor, and PvE rewards have all been well received and genuinely made the game better. It’s this short but successful track record that leads me to believe that DarkFall in 2010 will further see some amazing additions.

As Aventurine has stated before, DarkFall is not for everyone. It can be brutal, frustrating, unfair, and at times make you wish you could reach across your monitor and strangle someone. It’s also been the game that this 13 year MMO veteran has had some of his most memorable moments in, be they epic PvP victories or silly things like playing mana-missile dodge ball with my clanmates. It’s has, without exaggeration, renewed my interest in the MMO genre that prior to this title, was one disappointing or uninspiring EQ clone after another. I’m excited to see not only what Aventurine will add to DarkFall in 2010, but what the players themselves will do as well. More than anything, DarkFall really is a virtual world rather than a string of short and flashy rides, and it’s a world I’m wholly enthralled in.

(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.)

Posted in Console Gaming, crafting, Darkfall Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP | 50 Comments

Saturday night sieges: just the beginning.

Posted on February 1, 2010 by SynCaine

Since I made a post about it over the weekend, I just want to make a quick follow-up post about the siege activity Saturday night. While the battles we were involved with did not go as planned, it was still a great night to be out in force and fighting all over Yssam. Most of the night was us (VEM) fighting at first even numbers against SF (those battles generally went well), only to have their backup arrive and push us back at both Apuatan and Eronetil.

The best part of the night for me was that I did not experience a single crash despite being logged in for the whole night straight. Guess that last patch fixed whatever was MY issue (some people on the forums still reported crashing, although it sounds like it was a vast improvement for most). On a related note, the server held up just fine as well, with no drop in performance through the night.

As for the rest of the action that night, only two properties changed hands, although judging by the aftermath, the various wars that started that night are far from over.

Edit: Screenshots by Paragus Rants

(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.)

Posted in Darkfall Online, Inquisition Clan, PvP | 5 Comments

Rumor has it a siege might happen?

Posted on January 30, 2010 by SynCaine

Busy Friday night…

08:00:44 PM Black Watch was challenged by BIood Thirst for control over Vellenyth. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

08:48:53 PM brutaLity was challenged by FruitaLity for control over Aradoth. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

08:51:00 PM Dark Hand Of Valor was challenged by King Mannus for control over Apautan. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

08:51:23 PM Dread Horsemen was challenged by Genital Asphyxiation for control over Jeradan. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

08:52:10 PM Vigilante was challenged by Turtle Soup for control over Mamengruk. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

08:58:51 PM Lords of Death was challenged by Dominion for control over Eslingar. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

08:59:28 PM Sick Bastards was challenged by Turtle Soop for control over Eronetil. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

09:09:51 PM Lords of the Dead was challenged by WINNERWINNERCHICKENDINNER for control over Spear Waters. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

09:25:44 PM United Legions was challenged by Head Hunters for control over Long March. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

09:31:12 PM Desperate Housewives was challenged by No daddy not again for control over Surtstone. The challenge will active in 22.0 hours.

Dear DarkFall server hardware:

Good luck!

Love,

Every alliance on NA1.

Posted in Darkfall Online, PvP | 24 Comments

DarkFall review prep work

Posted on January 29, 2010 by SynCaine

I’m planning to do a review of DarkFall soon (since our 1yr anniversary is coming up and I want to get it something special), but I’m trying to decide the best way to write it. I know for the thousands in attendance, and the MILLIONS reading around the world, we have a mix of people here who do play DarkFall (newbs and vets alike), people who are curious (no homo) about DarkFall, and the last few remaining haters (Hi haters).

I don’t want to do a straight up “this has been added since launch” post, because that would not only require me to comb over previous patch notes, but would also be somewhat dry. I also don’t want to do a ‘pure’ review of everything because I’ve already talked at length about some of the basics (how sounds is important, how the shadows are awesome, what the death penalty is, etc) and I don’t think that would help anyone.

My general plan right now is to touch on some of the more common misconceptions about DF (its all PvP, it’s a gank-fest, everyone in-game is a kewl d00d), highlight what I think are some of it’s standout features among the MMO genre, and maybe go over why DarkFall would be an enjoyable experience for the average MMO fan and not just the perceived “hardcore PvPers only” crowd.

But before I do any of that, I figured I would ask you, dear read, what you might like to see in that DarkFall review?

Posted in Darkfall Online, Site update | 20 Comments

Why you DON’T want to hit the cap

Posted on January 28, 2010 by SynCaine

The topic of character progression, and more specifically how long it should take to reach ‘the end’, came up when a noted member of the community (ValRoth, the guy who did the newbie videos linked on the right) made a comment that his motivation to log on has dramatically decreased since he ‘completed’ his character. He has enough gear/gold now to no longer need to farm mobs, his skills are all at 100, and since he plays less, he gets involved in random PvP less as well. According to him he now only really logs on for scheduled PvP, and with the slower pace of sieges, that’s not often. The less you play, the less involved you become, and down we go.

Yet in that very same thread, others are asking for an increased pace to that goal, so they then can focus on the ‘good stuff’ rather than ‘grinding’. And that line of thinking very much reminds me of some players asking for PvP in MMO X, when really they don’t know what they are asking for and don’t want what PvP brings. I can only hope that should Aventurine even notice such requests, they themselves know well enough to ignore them. Having watched countless MMOs change over the years, I know that’s not always the case with every developer.

As it stands today character growth is, IMO, set at a good pace in DarkFall. New players will see significant increases in their first few weeks/months and get a great sense of accomplishment/growth, more seasoned players will still have plenty of goals to achieve and secondary (mastery and others) skills to work on, and the upper-echelon should still have some things to finish off or side projects to complete (100 intensity, 100 enchanting, etc). In addition, once you reach a certain comfort level with your character (and that level varies from player to player), it’s only natural to shift your focus from character development to ‘other’ stuff (be it PvP, economy, exploring, whatever), yet even as you do that other stuff you are still growing, albeit at a much slower rate. So long as you are not capped, your actions are never ‘pointless’ because at least you got some character progression in.

This is, in part, why EVE’s retention rate and subscriber longevity is so high, because in that game you will NEVER reach ‘the end’, and there is ALWAYS something to improve. When the goal is to keep people playing, that’s a beautiful model, even once you get past the tears of “but I’ll never catch up!”

(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.)

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design | 25 Comments

Out for some solo PvP

Posted on January 27, 2010 by SynCaine

I’ve been bound to VAMP’s city of Dagamyr (near the center of the map) for a few weeks now, mainly due to its ideal local PvE. Between Shadow Knights that drop Full Plate, Blood Knights that drop a ton of gold, and Grey Orcs for melee/archery grinding, it’s just a great spot for me. Unfortunately most of Inquisition is bound in Talpec up on Yssam, which makes getting together for group PvP rather tough. The recent placement of Megummi’s villa has been a huge plus, but last night he was not around and so I went out solo to see what trouble I could find.

Solo PvP for me is a bit tricky, as I’m not a total noob but don’t have the type of character or player skills to take down anyone I come across. At the same time I don’t intend to just roam the starter towns looking for naked gatherers, so I was unsure just how successful such a trip would be. This is further complicated by the fact that in order for me to be effective, I have to go out in decent gear (rather than just junk armor and regs to spam spells), and my bank can only take so many hits before it starts looking a bit barren.

But out I went, and I ended up having a really great time. I went west out of Dag and into Maharim (wolf) lands, knowing the area well from my time living there on the EU server. At first I only ran across a few under-geared players running to who know where, and they made easy prey for a mounted player. My general philosophy about killing/looting players goes like this: If you have a name I don’t like (baby eater, lulz dood, Legolazz), I will kill and dry loot you regardless of how new you might appear. If you react/play like a new player but fight back, and don’t have a stupid name, I’ll only loot things of actual value to me (regs, arrows, food), leave the rest of your stuff on your corpse and message you letting you know to go back and get it. If you seem like an equal-skilled character, I loot what I want (sometimes I vendor sell stuff, sometimes I’m too lazy to pick it all up).

After a few easy and uneventful kills, the sounds of combat came from a known grinding location (hivekin queen), and so I dismounted and crept up to do some scouting. Just as I neared the top of a hill, I saw a single player swimming away from the hivekin queen island and towards my general location. Loading up my greatsword power attack, I waited until he was just coming out of the water to charge down at him, and before he could react my power attack landed (it’s a forward thrust that is tough to land on a moving target), with more swings coming as he turned to run.

He spawned his mount just ahead of him, but at this point I had landed a good 3-4 back shots and his HP was around 30%. As he got on his mount, I pulled out my bow and started shooting. Initially my goal was to shoot him off his mount, but as he gained some distance more of my shots hit his mount than him (I’m not exactly pro at archery), and I then decided to just bring his mount down and finish him on foot. With his mount at 25%, he turned and charged me, getting a mounted hit in before his mount went down.

With both of us on the ground again, he pulled out his staff and began casting conversion spells to try and recover (mana to stam, stam to health), and while I was able to land a few archery shots, I sadly missed too many to finish him here, and instead he was able to start jump-casting fireballs to kite me. A few times the fireballs would send me towards him if I timed my jump correctly, and this actually allowed me to get in a few melee hits as he ran. I made another mistake here in attempting to chase him with a melee weapon, rather than just continuing to use archery. I’m far more comfortable in melee, and my thought process was that if I continued to miss archery shots, my early advantage would fade as he recovered.

With my own health around 50%, he must have been running low on mana, because he stopped fire kiting and instead went in for some melee. He was wearing full bone armor and I was in a mix of scale/plate, and he quickly realized I had the advantage here. After getting him once again to around 20%, he ran and transferred some more, which prompted me to do the same. I also noticed my stamina was getting critically low at this point (around 20%), and so I spawned my mount to try and finish him that way.

Initially it went well, as I was able to land a few hits and he was trying to bow/melee the mount down. The problem from my perspective was that while my stamina continued to go down, he would occasionally cast transfers, and I felt that shortly I would hit zero stamina and I would be a sitting duck. After a bad string of mounted-attack misses, I made the decision to get off my mount near him and cast some transfers, as my stamina was around 5% or so. As expected, he got on my mount and started attacking me, but I was able to get a few archery shots at him on the mount before outright killing it (yup, I killed my own mount).

But bringing down the mount used up the last of my stamina, and my hp was also at 25%. I tried to scramble and buy some time to recover, but he got into melee range and shortly brought me down. After a good 10-15 minutes, I finally took a breath.

I messaged him “good fight”, and we talked a bit. As it turns out, he was basically out of stamina a few times that fight, and had I pressed him at any of the key moments, I would have taken him down. In particular, when I got off my mount he was one hit away from zero stamina, and rather than trying to recover at that point, I really should have continued to press. In retrospect the worst that would have happened is my mount being killed from under me, and I could have tried to recover then. I also realized that I did not have a food buff (a huge bonus to stamina and hp regen) going for more than 50% of that fight, which would have easily turned the tide for me.

Yet even though I lost the fight, I felt great. I know I made some mistakes, but I also realized I was a much better player now than a few months back, and that as long as I keep my cool and remember all the little things that are key to DarkFall combat (food, keeping your stamina high, knowing when to press/recover), I can hold my own against decent players. This guy was no powerhouse, but he was no noob either.

I re-geared for another trip, and this one was a bit more fruitful while also being very entertaining. I ended up taking down two fully geared players in separate one on ones, killed my share of gatherers for a nice horde of materials, and managed to escape a 3v1 ambush that I ran into with just a sliver of mount health remaining.

I also had a funny conversation after killing a new player out at a mob spawn. I did my usual message about his gear, and he went on to ask a bunch of questions on how to improve and avoid future gankings. The funny part was how surprised he seemed at the options available to him, and how little of DarkFall he had explored to that point. He was trying to play DarkFall like a themepark, focusing on questing and not really planning ahead, assuming he would just ‘level up’ as he went. I pointed him towards NEW, and he seemed genuinely grateful about that and all the advice. Funny what ganking someone can bring.

Bonus: Here is a great little humor video from the DarkFall video contest. It’s a really great use of animations, lighting, editing, and coordination. Enjoy!

(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.)

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, Inquisition Clan, PvP | 7 Comments

Bank Heists in DarkFall

Posted on January 26, 2010 by SynCaine

A player by the name of Darwoth recently compiled and posted 20 of his DarkFall clan vault heists (part one here, part two here), including how he did it, the conversations related to the events, and the contents of the clan vaults. As expected, it has caused quite a stir on the forums. (Warning, if you have virgin eyes, some of the language may offend you, fgt*)

Personally I find what Darwoth does very interesting, as it really exposes just how overly-trusting or careless people are, and just how simple the most effective scams can be. While some try to deflect and blame the game for some of this (in particular the now fixed and bannable I/L font abuse), ultimately all of these could have easily been prevented by a simple vent check, and when you are in charge of a bank used by a large group of players, it’s the least you should do. No amount of font changes, clan vault tabs, or whatever else would have stopped Darwoth when he was promoted to the highest rank in a clan only minutes after talking to someone. In those examples, it’s hard to feel sorry for the victim. Shame on the leaders for letting it happen, and shame on the members for placing their trust in such poor leadership. If anything, Darwoth simply expedited the process of such a weak setup collapsing.

The other aspect of all of this is the old “how many people ragequit because of one person”, and how much money Aventurine would have saved if they had just banned Darwoth (which also assumes he would not buy another account, but let’s pretend). My feelings on this are that it’s a foolish argument. If someone ragequits because of a bank heist, I’m guessing they would also ragequit the day their player city gets taken, or the day a powerhouse PvP clan decides to wardec them and make life tough. In short, if you ragequit over losing pixels, you would not have lasted long in DarkFall anyway.

And for a game like DarkFall to continue to thrive and grow, the weak MUST be culled. If every clan/alliance you take a city from ragequits the next day, that has negative impacts on everyone. People are less likely to declare a siege, a sense of ‘doom and gloom’ permeates the community, and wars only last for one round. Hyperion from EU is the perfect example of this. The day things got rough for that alliance, it folded and left a huge void in the world, with many in the community predicting DarkFall’s demise due to the heavy player loss. As we can now see, the downfall of Hyperion simply removed many of the players that were not cut out for DarkFall, and today the alliances that exist on NA1 are (mostly) made up of players who can take a hit, get up, and fight back; and THAT is exactly the type of community you need to make a game like DarkFall work.

* The ‘fgt’ part is an inside joke relating back to this post on KTR.

(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.)

Posted in Uncategorized | 28 Comments

More on Friday’s fighting.

Posted on January 25, 2010 by SynCaine

In addition to the great video I linked in the post just below this one, here is another video from Covert Operations that not only shows off more of the action, but also give a brief intro about the war. VAMP was trying to ninja Aradoth when Fatality was disbanding and reforming as Desperate Housewives. Ninja move failed, VAMP holdings went vulnerable, world war happened.

The best part of the CO video is when I’m trying to rest up and regear just after dying outside in the ‘safety’ of Dagamyr, only to have what is shown on the video happen. Bonus points for the guy coming back to kill me a second time when I’m trying to get my gear off my corpse. There was no third time; someone already looted me at that point. So much fail…

It really was a great night though, that little sequence of embarrassment aside. I missed the initial bombing of Aradoth that you see at the beginning, but I was there for all of the fights at Dagamyr, and it really was almost non-stop action for hours, as the Super Friends alliance made attempt after attempt to capture the city. Over a dozen cannons were dropped just at Dag, but the city stone only got down to about 60%. VAMP did end up losing a hamlet on Niflheim (undefended) and the city of Mehatil on Yssam, which was overrun towards the end of the night by the Turtle alliance.

Unlike a few sieges on Niflheim, the fighting at Dag never crippled my FPS below 20, and while I still had a couple of memory crashes, none proved fatal. The performance could certainly be better, and even a single crash is not great, but the DF engine has come a long way since release, or even what it was a few months ago. Hopefully Aventurine can work out the last few bugs and do some optimization in 2010, as I know not everyone was able to run the siege smoothly. The current ‘key’ to performance seems to be whether or not you use on-board sound. If you do, your performance takes a major hit. Luckily I’m running an X-Fi card so I avoid the worst of it.

How this war continues is anyone’s guess. The NA server was having some issues the rest of the weekend, so no immediate follow-up occurred, but now that the SF alliance has a holding on Yssam more fights should break out. It will be interesting to see whether VAMP/NEM tries to retake Mehatil (a city with a foundry for making warhulks), or whether they give up on Yssam and re-focus on mainland Agon.

(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.)

Posted in Darkfall Online, Inquisition Clan, PvP | 9 Comments