Darkfall "Released"

[Malakili]

A good way to raise a bunch of stats quickly is just to auto-swim into a wall all night and day while at work, you wont be banned, maybe just kicked by a GM. Personally I like the harvesting system in Darkfall it is pretty chill. When you are semi-afk watching TV, movie, browsing web, or just doing some other work or chores around house you can go to an area with a lot of metal, wood, herbs, fish, etc. and just leave your guy hitting a node and check back every 10-15 minutes.

Pfffffbwaahahahaha... Yeah I'll be in a WoW battleground lamenting the fact that I'm playing an easy game that doesn't make me work/think/whatever the hell you said instead of enjoying the intense and awesome world of Darkfall.

Yeah, I even think Darkfall was a pretty good game, but that wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Comparing harvesting to PvP? Cuz WoW has no tedious tradeskills or other grindy, boring crap like raising faction alignment?

[Malakili]

Comparing harvesting to PvP? Cuz WoW has no tedious tradeskills or other grindy, boring crap like raising faction alignment?

Hes making fun of that fact that you feel compelled to go AFK while "playing" your game.

[WayAbvPar]

It is a nice change of pace to settle in for 10=15 minutes of harvesting/fishing every couple of hours or so. I like the fact that once I find a place to harvest, I can stay there and really add to my stock. Most other games had just a few crumbs and then it is off to find another one, making dedicated harvest time a serious pain in the ass.

[Nebu]

It is a nice change of pace to settle in for 10=15 minutes of harvesting/fishing every couple of hours or so. I like the fact that once I find a place to harvest, I can stay there and really add to my stock. Most other games had just a few crumbs and then it is off to find another one, making dedicated harvest time a serious pain in the ass.

I thought the point of offering many small nodes was to keep harvesting something you do in bits while enjoying more combat-focused gameplay.  Well, that and to minimize the use of macro software to keep the player more engaged in the tasks at hand. 

I may need to give Darkfall another try.  The first time through it made me want to resub to DAoC for my pvp fix. In DAoC I could enjoy the endgame competitively in about 30 hour of play time after starting.  Darkfall required a significantly larger up front investment to be more than target practice for someone. 

[WayAbvPar]

The grind to PvP viability is definitely a long one. However, I am actually enjoying learning the game bit by bit. The 24 play hours of n00b protection is really nice for that. As for gathering- I do my crafting/gathering in bursts. When I get the urge, I like to have as many mats as possible on hand. Being able to go out and gather 50+ in 15 minutes is really nice for that. It is also great for one of the quests i am currently working on- gathering 200-300 of fish, rock, wood, and ore. Should only take a couple of hours of game time to do (I have almost half the fish already!). I am wondering how long it will take me to walk from the bank to the quest giver with all that shit in my inventory though...I will be ridiculously overencumbered.

[Lantyssa]

Sounds like a great quest giver to lurk near.  "Hahahaha.  Look at this sucker walking at a snails pace.  Ready?"

[Speedy Cerviche]

People actually get jumped a lot turning in that quest, walking from bank to quest giver (or after, when they have all their gold). Be aware of who is around you when you are in NPC cities, watch out for suspicious looking characters if you are doing a lot of crafting (craft in smaller batches). You are not invincible in NPC cities, especially if you are overburdened it's a big bullseye on your back (that you have a big load of potentially valuable stuff on you, and can't even dodge or defend yourself from any attackers). You should be fine if you are under newbie protection though unless there is a big pool of lava or acid that someone could knock you into.

[WayAbvPar]

I have a few hours of newb left, so I should be able to finish it off before then. I am trying to get myself into the habit of banking more often now in prep for being repeatedly ganked soon. 

[Nightblade]

People actually get jumped a lot turning in that quest, walking from bank to quest giver (or after, when they have all their gold). Be aware of who is around you when you are in NPC cities, watch out for suspicious looking characters if you are doing a lot of crafting (craft in smaller batches). You are not invincible in NPC cities, especially if you are overburdened it's a big bullseye on your back (that you have a big load of potentially valuable stuff on you, and can't even dodge or defend yourself from any attackers). You should be fine if you are under newbie protection though unless there is a big pool of lava or acid that someone could knock you into.

...Wait, so you can actually still be knocked around despite having a newbie bubble?

[Speedy Cerviche]

People actually get jumped a lot turning in that quest, walking from bank to quest giver (or after, when they have all their gold). Be aware of who is around you when you are in NPC cities, watch out for suspicious looking characters if you are doing a lot of crafting (craft in smaller batches). You are not invincible in NPC cities, especially if you are overburdened it's a big bullseye on your back (that you have a big load of potentially valuable stuff on you, and can't even dodge or defend yourself from any attackers). You should be fine if you are under newbie protection though unless there is a big pool of lava or acid that someone could knock you into.

...Wait, so you can actually still be knocked around despite having a newbie bubble?

Yeah you can it's kind of funny, the bubble neutralizes the damage part of a knockback swing or spell but can't stop the kinetic force of it. Usually this wouldn't have any consequences. Falling damage is capped at 90 hp and can't be a killing blow so knocking people off cliffs is pointless besides for giggles, hell players regularly "ski" (tribess tyle) down hills and even flat terrain using DF's cool physics engine. Maybe you could kill someone in lava or acid pools but it would be really difficult unless they were overburdened which you should really try and avoid being unless at a very safe location.

The only example of serious protected newbie griefing I've heard of were some guys who spawned a schooner in that large navigable river in elf lands right beside a newbie city and lured some newies onto the ship. They got them to check out the fore cannon room (which is enclosed on schooners) and then blocked them in, sailed the ship out of newbie lands so the protection got stripped off, then killed them. Although mean, it is pretty funny to imagine them freaking out as they got the warnings regarding leaving protected land while be jammed into a small room.

[Stabs]

Bet they cried all the way to the Account Management page.

[jakonovski]

I can kind of see why the Darkfall community sucks.

[Chinchilla]

I signed up yesterday. Made a Dwarf. Anyone else ingame?

[WayAbvPar]

Tough night last night. Ganked while farming kobolds (I had just gotten a portal shard drop too  ). Back to town, hear the same guy hit someone's miner out front. Wait 20-30 minutes. Go to the edge of town. Get attacked ON THE WALL and die from the same guy. Did a bit of harvesting in the farm, scraped some crap together from my bank and sold it for arrow money, then loaded up again. Found my unlooted grave at the edge of town (someone mentioned killing the guy in clan alliance chat, so I was pretty sure he was gone for good).

Loaded up, went over to farm some skeletons for bone/arrows and for a quest. Spawn was dead. Waited a few minutes, then swam to an island to farm some more kobolds. Still have trouble with the strongmen unless I am at full health, so I spent a lot of time running and diving into the water to escape. Too sleepy to keep alert, I finally logged. Lesser Magic is getting near the magic 75% plateau, and I started working on Greater Magic too (bought Rend, and then bought a damage upgrade for it). Slow grind, but I am still having fun. the AI on the mobs really keeps me on my toes. I am noticing things slowly getting easier, so I must be doing something right.

[Chinchilla]

What's a portal shard?

What race are you playing as WayAbvPar?  I started a dwarf not knowing what would be a good choice and they just looked nifty.  Was that a pretty decent choice?

[WayAbvPar]

Portal shard is something that can be used to teleport to certain spots in game. Haven't used one yet, but they sell like hotcakes and I am broke.

I am human. From what I have heard, either human or Alfar is preferable since they are harder to hit in PvP due to being smaller. I have heard it said that dwarves were the worst overall race, but I don't know exactly why (other than their width). FWIW I see all races in my clan, so it probably doesn't matter much at all in the long run.

[Chinchilla]

Do ppl tend to do more overhead swings or wide arc swings in PvP?

[Malakili]

Do ppl tend to do more overhead swings or wide arc swings in PvP?
[/quote

Depends on the situation, watch for out wide arc swings and friendly fire.

[Chinchilla]

Do ppl tend to do more overhead swings or wide arc swings in PvP?
[/quote

Depends on the situation, watch for out wide arc swings and friendly fire.

I most just asked that because if its mostly wide arc then I can see why dwarves would be worse.

[WayAbvPar]

Wide arcs are awesome when you are soloing, but not so much when friends are nearby (you can switch to vertical swings by hitting T). Two handed weapons are king unless you do all your fighting mounted.

[Speedy Cerviche]

You're not going to be using overhead swings in PvP it's to hard to land. It's used in PvE if you are with multiple people PvEing stuff that needs to be ganged up on, so you don't hit your groupmates.

A wide arc can be pretty important in PvP, swords for example are more popular than axes because they have a much wider arc (slightly longer range too) even though their damage is lower and their power attack is weaker.

In any PvP situation where you will be hitting your allies, you probably shouldn't be meleeing in the first place. Melee is most effective when you are outnumbered, and least effective when you outnumbered someone. If you are fighting say 3 vs. 2 and your 2 allies are both meleeing, the last thing you should do is melee as well. Sit back and take out your bow, aim carefully and try to pick away at one of the enemies, or charge a heal spell and try and get your buddy when the opportunity presents itself.

My clan fought a siege last week where our (allied) leadership's (ridiculously bad) strategy was to use superior numbers to overwhelm the defenders through a single gate. Well it didn't work, we got stalled outside the choke, and hours of (fun) stalemate fighting ensued. One thing the defenders did well was to send out 1-2 heavily armoured guys at a time to charge into our massed ranks and run around randomly through the crowd meleeing, in the confusion our own people would hit each other 5 times as much as these enemies and then they'd run back to their line, a few of these sorties in a row thinned us out and setup a successful counter attack for them.

[WayAbvPar]

Remind me again- which clan/alliance are you with?

[Speedy Cerviche]

I'm in Ruff Necks, we're building a new alliance along with Necessary Evil & TFK + a few smaller clans.

[Chinchilla]

I am having  alot of fun figuring out the controls.  Some dude today said in Race Alliance "Any newbies out there contact me."  He then proceeds to try and get me in vent, but I didn't feel like ALT Tabbing on my laptop.  He told instead of waiting told me in /whisper he wants to sell me an account that's very decked out.  He keeps goin gon and on.  Even gives me his personal phone number to call him or text him if I'm interested since I told him I don't make decisions like that so quickly.  Was offering it to me for like $100.  Those kind of things make me leery.  I know how ppl used to sell their accounts and do then do a account recovery and get it bac k (that was back in the day).

[Rendakor]

I know things like that still happen in WoW at least.

[WayAbvPar]

Heh- I was wondering why that guy wanted to help newbies so badly. What a fucking tool. Basic rule of thumb- everyone is trying to find a way to fuck you over until proven otherwise. You can probably trust most of your clanmates if/when you join one, but that is about it.

[Lantyssa]

Buying a well established character seems like it defeats the point anyways.  And if the game isn't fun to get in to, why play in the first place?

[WayAbvPar]

Some people absolutely must get to the end game ASAP. That is a fairly long journey in DF, so I can see the appeal. Not something I would ever do though- I like to work my way up and learn how to play my own character. I wouldn't mind if they bumped up the skill gain speed a bit though...it is definitely on the Korean side of grindy. I am still having fun though, which is the whole point.

[Nebu]

Some people absolutely must get to the end game ASAP. That is a fairly long journey in DF, so I can see the appeal. Not something I would ever do though- I like to work my way up and learn how to play my own character. I wouldn't mind if they bumped up the skill gain speed a bit though...it is definitely on the Korean side of grindy. I am still having fun though, which is the whole point.

First of all, you're right about having fun first.  Sadly, I have found that pvp play at the endgame of MMO's is very different than the play to the endgame.  That being the case, the time spent leveling often does little to prepare you for endgame pvp beyond just getting you used to dying a lot.  If it turns out to be different in Darkfall, I'd be both amazed and impressed.

[Speedy Cerviche]

If you are involved with your clan's end game PvP (city attacks/defence, or just general maurauding around) you will be participating in & learning the PvP endgame from early on. Yes you will be pretty weak and need to hang back or you will just die a lot, but you can be contributing nicely by focusing on archery (levels up quickly, bows are cheap) and heal magic (sacrifice, best heal other spell in game even at 1 skill point). You could have decent archery and that spell in a couple of weeks.

Yes the game is too grindy if your immediate goal is to become a badass champion who can beat anyone and any situation 1 vs 1, maxing out all the magic spells and melee mastery is a long slog, but you hardly have to do that to enjoy the game. Starting at squad level PvP battles and up, the importance of having tons of maxed magic spells and 100 melee mastery scales down significantly, being able to focus fire vulnerable targets with precision archery, cross heal friendlies with heal is MUCH more important at that level of PvP along with being able to follow orders in a disciplined manner. These are learned player skills you can begin to pickup at the beginning, not acquired character stats.

[Nebu]

Are you suggesting that a level 30 can have meaningful impact on endgame pvp?  I kind of doubt that's the case.  I also feel that while you can learn strategy and organizational skills early, that your endgame playstyle will depend heavily on the skills that you find most useful.  This is exactly what I meant when I stated that endgame pvp is often VERY different from your playing cycle while leveling. 

I agree that you can learn a bit about game strategy and mechanics by being involved early, but you really only begin to become proficient in endgame pvp when your actions have a meaningful impact on outcomes.  Sadly, this won't happen until you're at cap, with skills, and reasonably well geared. 

[Speedy Cerviche]

level 30? huh?

-Archery to 75 takes maybe 1 week for a newbie or so depending on how much you play.

Listen to targetting in battle and help pop arrows into him, you are doing decent damage and contributing not insignificantly.

-Lesser magic to 50, you get greater magic, greater magic to 25, you get spellchanting, spellchanting to 30, you get sacrifice spell (heal other ray). Again easily achievable in first week or two with a bit of clan support to buy reagents (any sane clan would readily help an eager newbie power level up basic magic for that heal).

At 1.0 skill that spell is very powerful. Clans who are able to heal teammates efficiently who are taking fire is what distinguishes the rabble from the elite.

Learn to do these things properly and you will be welcome to roll around in battlegroups of elite clans, because you will be contributing more than even the most pimped out character who can't follow simple instructions, and runs around a furball trying to duel people, oblivious to anything else (there are plenty of these terrible players out there).

Yes the grind is harsher in a lot of areas than it should be, but you can start contributing to your clan from the beginning and have a lot of endgame fun while you develop your character in more standard MMO ways (hunting, gathering & crafting).

[Malakili]

Are you suggesting that a level 30 can have meaningful impact on endgame pvp?  I kind of doubt that's the case.  I also feel that while you can learn strategy and organizational skills early, that your endgame playstyle will depend heavily on the skills that you find most useful.  This is exactly what I meant when I stated that endgame pvp is often VERY different from your playing cycle while leveling. 

I agree that you can learn a bit about game strategy and mechanics by being involved early, but you really only begin to become proficient in endgame pvp when your actions have a meaningful impact on outcomes.  Sadly, this won't happen until you're at cap, with skills, and reasonably well geared. 

Are you talking about Darkfall?  I ask seriously, it almost seems like you are posting about a different game.

[Nebu]

Are you talking about Darkfall?  I ask seriously, it almost seems like you are posting about a different game.

I got my wires crossed. 

Speedy managed to correct me.  It's almost enough to make me consider giving the game another try.  I need a pvp fix and the thought of going back to WAR or DAoC makes me cry.