Darkfall "Released"

[LC]

Don't forget about the miracle patch they may or may not release between beta and final.

[Vanifae]

Don't forget about the miracle patch they may or may not release between beta and final.

Is the miracle patch the industry standard now?

[LC]

Is the miracle patch the industry standard now?

It's the invention of delusional fanbois.

[Delmania]

Don't forget about the miracle patch they may or may not release between beta and final.

Do you mean the patch where the devs will attempt to remove the suck from the game?

[Lantyssa]

I think we should create a DFO forums and move it right to the graveyard Den.

There.  That'll be more useful and amusing.

[patience]

The crafting system is probably the worst thing about the game.

You are close. It's the damn UI that's the worst.

Unresponsive POS.

Various boxes block your vision especially if you reduce your resolution.

The chat system is atrocious. No aliases. Difficult to tell when party members are talking to you.

Multiple steps are required to perform what are now one click actions in other MMOs making this game feel uncomfortable as if it is amateur attempt as torture.

Items not saving their placements in a bag and vault is downright sisyphean.

There is so much that is awful about their UI.


THe only thing I enjoyed about the game was finding new locations to explore and that is fleeting considering how shallow exploration. It's nothing more than sightseeing.

[Delmania]

The crafting system is probably the worst thing about the game.

You are close. It's the damn UI that's the worst.

Unresponsive POS.

Various boxes block your vision especially if you reduce your resolution.

The chat system is atrocious. No aliases. Difficult to tell when party members are talking to you.

Multiple steps are required to perform what are now one click actions in other MMOs making this game feel uncomfortable as if it is amateur attempt as torture.

Items not saving their placements in a bag and vault is downright sisyphean.

There is so much that is awful about their UI.


THe only thing I enjoyed about the game was finding new locations to explore and that is fleeting considering how shallow exploration. It's nothing more than sightseeing.

All I am hearing is "QQ.  DFO is clearly too hardcore for you, carebear.   

[Mrbloodworth]

[SnakeCharmer]

Anybody that wears their hair like that needs to have a shamwow shoved down their throat.

[Vinadil]

The WHOLE key to this game is, will they be able to fund their project with 50-75k subscribers.  I think their odds of landing that many are pretty good, but I don't know if they can be fiscally sound at that level.

Read what you will about the game, most reviews are being truthful (if you can cut out all of the EMOTION that people toss into their posts).  It does not take long to scratch your head about the UI, Chat is horrible and confusing, and the bank system is for people who just like tedious tasks because they are tedious.

Strangely given all of that I still found myself wanting to log into Darkfall every night when I came home.  This last month was the first time in a LONG time that I had multiple 3am play sessions... simply because there was always that One More Thing that I might find/fight/discover.

Personally I think this game will be worth a month or two even if all I do is wander the world and explore.  This game world is more impressive than anything I can remember... ever to be honest, definitely in recent MMO history.  The size of this world, the fact that it is seamless, and the wonder that I don't just FALL THROUGH it (as I have in EVERY game beta at some point in the last few I have played) is amazing to me.  They have mounts, mounted combat, swimming... evne underwater swimming, and it all WORKS.  They have elevators, floating platforms, and everywhere you can SEE you can GET.  There are no arbitrary "zone walls", and yes you CAN get to the top of that mountain that seems to be blocking your path.

Something I have learned in life this last year is that sometimes 90% is good enough, especially if the last 10% requires 10x more resources.  Darkfall is currently a 90% game to me.  It gives me some of the big things I am looking for:

1) Character freedom.  I hate alts, never had them in any game since Shadowbane (24hours to fully level a character can make alts palletable for me).  I will never need an alt in Darkfall. My dwarf can do anything I want him to do and still be competitive in a PVP world.

2) Guild Unity.  As I get older WHO I play with has become more important that WHAT I play.  There are few games on the market today where guilds can play together ANY time they happen to log on together.  WAR tried to help this with their Tiers, but even that was not enough to keep hardcore and casual playing together, so you would have weeks where people played "catch up" and some folks were stuck soloing their way through content because others had "out-levelled" them.  Not so in Darkfall.  During beta we had people come in at different points.  It did not matter if they had been in game 5 minutes or 5 weeks, we could ALL get together, run out, and kill some stuff... even "high level" stuff.  This is HUGE to me as it means our guild will never be split due to game mechanics.

3) City Building/World Development/Politics.  Sure it is not Shadowbane where you can build any city you want how you want... but maybe we won't have to deal with ALL of the horrible bugs/exploits that the SB system ended in either.  And, to be honest these cities are stinking amazing, even in their "ruin" stage.  Again, whoever designed this world should get a raise and become a consultant to other game-world designers... it is simply amazing.  But, beyond the "look" of the cities you have the fact that PLAYERS build them, Own them, and Fight for them.  Now, currently the "siege" system is sort of a joke, but that is partly because nobody ever got to the point of building a Siege Workshop in beta (like Shadowbane there is a natural time limit on construction due to pre-reqs and such).

The combat is not wonderful, but it is preferable (to me) to most other systems.  I can still enjoy the target/click/run around crazy combat of WoW and WAR... just like I can enjoy an occasional FPS match.  But, this just FEELS more tactical and interactive to me, and it is requiring me to learn some new "skills" so to speak, and learning is enjoyable... again to me.

I think the biggest things that will kill this game to the average player (beyond maybe graphics and UI... for all those visual people out there) is the lack of an in-game trading house to stimulate the economy (such as EVE has) and the time that it takes to regenerate after combat.  The current system reminds me of EQ in the days before meditation hit 35... you sit there and stare at a book.  Mmmmm, nothing like sitting watching my character sit to keep me plugged into a game!  I am still a bit baffled why they chose to keep regen times so long.  It has almost nothing to do with Tactics and everything to do with Time sinks.  It also greatly diminishes the solo-ability of the game, which is never a good thing.

The most interesting thing of all of this is that we will finally get to see what actually happens.  Now is the time all of the fans can put their money down to show support... or just keep spouting off on the forums.  I know that at least a few dwarves will be going along, meeting up with some long-time friends from Shadowbane.  Sometimes it is the simple pleasures that drive these decisions, like being able to kill and loot a member of Lords of Death... that is probably worth at least a months sub right there.

[Mrbloodworth]

Apparently this is the game on its highest settings..... Not to bad, player model is a little funky, and the draw distance looks rather dated. But the best part? Look at the chat, and ping.


I normally have much respect for indi developers, how ever these guys came out the gate talking shitt about AAA titles and various games player bases. I currently hold them to that standard, they have failed.

[Signe]

Anybody that wears their hair like that needs to have a shamwow shoved down their throat.

Women love him for his nuts!

[Vinadil]

Blood - where were you playing from?  I have not seen anyone that had 500 ping.  West Coast was around 250 peak and stable, east coast about 140 max.  Is that an Australian client maybe?

And, yea, you don't have to look long to find complaints about the Chat system.  If I were a betting man I would put money on a development cycle that had "Chat system" as one of the LAST things they looked at.  I say that because even in the last 2 weeks they have made large changes to the chat system, and I would not be surprised to see them bring it up to "standard" in the next couple of weeks.  They are not real attuned to the "average" MMO player obviously, but I doubt the average MMO player is very attuned to them right now either.

[Mrbloodworth]

Blood - where were you playing from?  I have not seen anyone that had 500 ping.  West Coast was around 250 peak and stable, east coast about 140 max.  Is that an Australian client maybe?

And, yea, you don't have to look long to find complaints about the Chat system.  If I were a betting man I would put money on a development cycle that had "Chat system" as one of the LAST things they looked at.  I say that because even in the last 2 weeks they have made large changes to the chat system, and I would not be surprised to see them bring it up to "standard" in the next couple of weeks.  They are not real attuned to the "average" MMO player obviously, but I doubt the average MMO player is very attuned to them right now either.

I'm not in the beta. And my comment about the chat, was about the community the developers have created.

[Vinadil]

Hah, yea... community definitely won't be a selling point.  That said, global-type chats are notorious for idiots.  It is easy enough to turn it off.  I think this game could do well by having a "rookie chat" similar to EVE, but I doubt that system will be in place at release and most people will have to wade through Race or Race Alliance options.

[Signe]

I thought there was to be no global chat, only spatial, guild and shouts.

[Arthur_Parker]

This is the only game in which a working chat system might actually hurt sales.

[kildorn]

I thought there was to be no global chat, only spatial, guild and shouts.

The chat plans were too hardcore, they called the game a pussy and left.

[Vinadil]

I thought there was to be no global chat, only spatial, guild and shouts.

Global was in for beta... to encourage people to ask questions and get answers.  That worked, less than planned I would assume.  Currently you have Local, Race, Race Alliance (dwarf/human/elf), Party, Clan, Clan Alliance.  You can choose which of these you watch and don't.  The biggest problem is that you can only watch ONE at a time... which is very annoying in a game where you have to be constantly watching the action.

[patience]

Blood - where were you playing from?  I have not seen anyone that had 500 ping.  West Coast was around 250 peak and stable, east coast about 140 max.  Is that an Australian client maybe?

Ha! That's not my character but I average 450 ms from the EAst Coast of the US. I used to average 150 ms but after one patch build they loved it all up.

[SnakeCharmer]

Isn't this game still under NDA?

[Delmania]

The NDA was lifted last night.

[Murgos]

Isn't this game still under NDA?

There is an direct proportional relationship between the quality of a game and the respect for it's NDA.

I guess the premise is, "If the game sucks then who cares if they ban me for violating the NDA?"

[Vinadil]

The NDA was lifted last night.

This, and ... Ping is one of those things I have no issue with.  I started getting some ping-lag spikes recently, but I am still a steady 125-140 on the East Coast.  Playable for sure, and really no issues in PvP combat.  Of course, most of the time I am fighting other US people because of my playtime... I don't have that much experience fighting people in Europe who are playing with 50-70 pings.

[Mrbloodworth]

Disclaimer: I most likely will play this (not as any kind of main game), as if there was a doubt.

[tmp]

Apparently this is the game on its highest settings..... Not to bad, player model is a little funky, and the draw distance looks rather dated. But the best part? Look at the chat, and ping.

I think the best part is, it's 2009 and this game cannot cope with widescreen resolutions -- that's why everything is horizontally stretched and why the player character looks the way it does.  

[Mrbloodworth]

f13 did an interview? Where is it now?

[Signe]

f13 did an interview? Where is it now?

Vapourware.

[sidereal]

Anybody that wears their hair like that needs to have a shamwow shoved down their throat.

Don't fuck with Vince.  Stop having a boring tuna.

[Nonentity]

I'm in the beta for this.

It needs more time.

The thing is, though, is that it's not really all THAT buggy, there just isn't practically any content there. My ping times are great (sub-100).

[Vinadil]

Disclaimer: I most likely will play this (not as any kind of main game), as if there was a doubt.

The most current fun is actually trying to pre-order apparently.  I am very interested to see what the numbers come out like.  Either they had a VERY small idea of who was going to pre-order (like 10,000 people or something), or there are a LOT of people coming out of the woodwork to check this thing out.  Either way servers are currently overloaded and it is like a lottery whether people will actually get to play at release right now.  Not a bad thing for the unguilded most likely... but with the way that Land Grabs happen in this type of game there are many Clan/Alliances chomping to get in first.

[Mrbloodworth]

Disclaimer: I most likely will play this (not as any kind of main game), as if there was a doubt.

The most current fun is actually trying to pre-order apparently.  I am very interested to see what the numbers come out like.  Either they had a VERY small idea of who was going to pre-order (like 10,000 people or something), or there are a LOT of people coming out of the woodwork to check this thing out.  Either way servers are currently overloaded and it is like a lottery whether people will actually get to play at release right now.  Not a bad thing for the unguilded most likely... but with the way that Land Grabs happen in this type of game there are many Clan/Alliances chomping to get in first.

I didn't say i was going to preorder, i'm not stupid.

[Arthur_Parker]

I thought there was to be no global chat, only spatial, guild and shouts.

Global was in for beta... to encourage people to ask questions and get answers.  That worked, less than planned I would assume.  Currently you have Local, Race, Race Alliance (dwarf/human/elf), Party, Clan, Clan Alliance.  You can choose which of these you watch and don't.  The biggest problem is that you can only watch ONE at a time... which is very annoying in a game where you have to be constantly watching the action.

Given that innovation is sorely lacking in the industry at the moment, it's ironic that flaws like this give me some hope that maybe some new ideas will surface because of garage games.  Not being able to instantly talk to everyone, all at the same time, kinda makes sense on a Fantasy battlefield.  Command, control, communication and all that.

[Lantyssa]

Ventrillo.

[WayAbvPar]

Chat cockblocking is just bullshit. Make all the channels optional and tabbed into Windows ala Eve.