Darkfall "Released"

[WayAbvPar]

I knew if I posted about it they would post them!
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=263048

6GB! Jeebus. Of course, 90% of that is the new textures.

[Speedy Cerviche]

Haha the disclaimer at bottom

*The name of the expansion is not inspired in any way by the time it took to finally launch it.

Like the Wall of force and ray nerf. Healing changes could be interesting too.

Haha I just realized the ice dragon is gonna be basically on the DOORSTEP on my city if it's at Mount Eyrklas. Sweet! It's gonna be chaos on south-central Niflheim!

I like the toggle switch to first person view in melee. As an ork it was terrible fighting a small race inside a house or corridor, my 3rd person camera would be bouncing around and I couldn't track them.

All the new pve stuff seems great.

[Nightblade]

League of legends has been boring me since I got to level 20, so I'm going to give this trial a shot... unless they revoked the trial offer in celebration of new players returning ala Global Agenda.

[WayAbvPar]

No fucking chance 1 hour is long enough for n00b protection. Maybe when the next expansion comes out and they unfuck the Byzantine UI, but now? It  took me several times that just to figure out how to use half my abilities.

I like the consolidation of the loot on the lowbie mob corpses. Still gonna autoloot though =)

[CaptainNapkin]

League of legends has been boring me since I got to level 20, so I'm going to give this trial a shot... unless they revoked the trial offer in celebration of new players returning ala Global Agenda.

Free trial is still there. I finally decided to give it a go with the combo of the trial and GamersGate had the client for 15 bucks a few days ago. Not sure what I think so far, or if I'll have any real time to play. More likely I just threw more money away like I do every Steam sale. I'm a sucker for a game sale.

[Chinchilla]

No fucking chance 1 hour is long enough for n00b protection. Maybe when the next expansion comes out and they unfuck the Byzantine UI, but now? It  took me several times that just to figure out how to use half my abilities.

I like the consolidation of the loot on the lowbie mob corpses. Still gonna autoloot though =)

You use a script for autoloot?  Is it a G15 or AutoIt script?  Just wondering because I haven't messed around with that stuff much yet and I'd like get that kind of stuff setup once my desktop comes in.  My current laptop as it is has a rough time playing the game to have another program in the background. 

[CaptainNapkin]

No fucking chance 1 hour is long enough for n00b protection. Maybe when the next expansion comes out and they unfuck the Byzantine UI, but now? It  took me several times that just to figure out how to use half my abilities.

I like the consolidation of the loot on the lowbie mob corpses. Still gonna autoloot though =)

You use a script for autoloot?  Is it a G15 or AutoIt script?  Just wondering because I haven't messed around with that stuff much yet and I'd like get that kind of stuff setup once my desktop comes in.  My current laptop as it is has a rough time playing the game to have another program in the background. 

I'm interested in this too, stock loot setup is nuts.

[Nightblade]

So I lasted about an hour and a half through the trial before /uninstalling.

I'll say this, Darkfall sure as hell makes you appreciate games that are actually fun. '

Didn't help that I had to download a shitty updated driver that killed my TF2 performance just to get this game to work properly with my dual monitor setup.

[Malakili]

I'll say this, Darkfall sure as hell makes you appreciate games that are actually fun. '

What was it you didn't like?  Was it the game's lack of direction? The mechanics?   

[Hawkbit]

It's not my bag of chips, but it's got fun in it.  Like EVE, it is nearly 100% dependent on getting in with a decent group of other people right from the start.  Without other people, it's just an empty experience.

[WayAbvPar]

I play it solo while listening to my clanmates on TS 

I didn't play at all for a couple of weeks, and then took a couple of days finding the right way to download the patch ). Played a bit over the weekend and got hooked again. Finally got my wisdom to 40, so I started crafting. Now that I can make armor to grind/farm in, losing it won't be nearly as painful.

As for the autoloot- I use an auto-it script-

Code:

Global $wTitle = "Darkfall Online";
HotKeySet("!z", "BagPos")
HotKeySet("!x", "Loot")
HotKeySet("!s", "Terminate")
HotKeySet("!p", "TogglePause")
WinWaitActive($wTitle)
Sleep(3000)

While 1
   Sleep(10000)
   WEnd

Func BagPos();
   $bagpos = MouseGetPos()
   Global $bagx = $bagpos[0]
   Global $bagy = $bagpos[1]
EndFunc

Func Loot();
   $pos = MouseGetPos()
   MouseDown( "left" )
   MouseMove( $bagx, $bagy, 1)
   MouseUp( "left" )
   MouseMove( $pos[0], $pos[1], 1)
EndFunc

Func TogglePause()
    $paused = NOT $paused
    While $paused
        sleep(100)
        ToolTip('Script is "Paused"',0,0)
    WEnd
    ToolTip("")
EndFunc

Func Terminate()
    Exit 0
EndFunc

Also have one for gathering that has a rest cycle built in. There are tons of others, but i don't have the skills/spells yet for most of them.

[Nightblade]

I'll say this, Darkfall sure as hell makes you appreciate games that are actually fun. '

What was it you didn't like?  Was it the game's lack of direction? The mechanics?   

Let's start with the mechanics. If you're sitting down in an MMORPG and you're prompted with "Your mastery of REST has increased!" something is seriously wrong. Why does a basic skill like "rest" need a mastery? Why does RUNNING and SPRINTING, basic functions need mastery? I mean crap, if there was a way to attach grind to the act of crouching Im sure they would have thrown that in too. Does it add to the depth of the game? No. Why is it there? Who the hell knows.

I had tried this game earlier, so I pretty much knew my away around a few of the newbie areas. I started off as a human and wandered the monkfield area looking for this new supposedly grind reducing dungeon after doing a few of my starter quests.

I was greeted with the usual desolate world and population... Well wait; that's not entirely true. I did see one person; who proceeded to ride around me mounted for about 4 minutes slashing away at me in vain (new player protection).

Eventually, I reached some... place of interest. An area populated largely by zombies that I've never seen before. I found a chest that had a pair of knives inside, having nothing else I put them on and tried them out to discover that my newbie weapon out performed it dramatically. I killed a few zombies and fled from the oncoming adds by exploiting their poor ai. (Standing behind a wall as the zombie just shot magic missles at the wall seperating us).

After doing a bit of research, I discovered that buff stacking was still there, so before every "real" fight, you need to have a requisite 18 rows of buffs(exaggeration) in order to be up to par. Stat grinding was still there, and the game at it's most fundamental level was still broken and unfun. Population issues aside, I can't say much else that the game is just a boring, hamfisted attempt at making a coherent RPG.

I can't help but think, as I'm waddling very slowly through this giant empty world of theres "You know, if I fired up ____ right now, I could be having fun".

The game could be interesting, all it needs is a better engine, a better regen system, consolidated buffs, consolidated skills, balanced skillsets that allow people this "freedom" that they harp on about all of the time, a non retarded interface, an alignment system that actually worked, an interesting world... There's probably more.

Really, I love the idea of an open world FPS ish rpg, but in practice within this game... Chasing around a goblin whos running around in random jagged lines isn't a step up from fighting scripted mobs.

[Sheepherder]

Sounds like a Bethesda game.

[patience]

You have gained level 11 in acrobatics.

[Rendakor]

Glad I'm not the only one thinking this sounds like Elder Scrolls: Full Retard.

[WayAbvPar]

I think that is what I like about it. Everything I do levels something remotely useful. Gathering and crafting actually help your attributes. I can choose to work toward whatever goal I want. It is the very opposite of most games where leveling is basically a ride through a theme park.

[DLRiley]

Darkfall reminds me of the good old days when online gamers didn't bathe.

[Speedy Cerviche]

The skill thing is a copy of UO, there was a skill in that game for stuff like lighting campfires. Is it a bit silly to have a run skill? maybe. But some people like that sort of thing.

The AI is decent, PvE is nothing special but it's entertaining enough with manual aim and the AI is a bit random but not completely braindead. The AI will NOT repeatedly shoot at you with no line of sight so that sounds wrong, can dodge behind obstacles but it wont try range attacks if it has no shot. The one dumb thing about the AI is what causes it to run from a player, it gets stuck in "ranged" mode and tries to avoid a player when its got its bow or staff out, and doesnt take out it's melee weapon. You can either keep running it around and backshotting it with a bow/spells or just stop, let it shoot a couple of times (parry) and then close again and it shouldnt run this time.

There's only 5 buffs that are very strong (spell/melee/arrow haste, and iron skin, arrow ward, and I guess specific elemental damage too if know you're about to face that magic), any others are just marginal stat boosts and not a big deal. Of those 5, 4 are pretty tactical, buff others with shortish (2 minute) durations, so you try and hit a guy with them right before jumping into combat. You dont always have time, they can cost you a lot of mana, and it takes some teamwork to make sure your whole squad is buffed, so they are hardly on the level of the buff bots of some games. Yes you can stack 15 self buffs, all stats and a bunch of protections but self buffs are only adding like 10 stat points and maybe 2 protection points, a very marginal gain.

It's been said many times, join a good clan, that is the fun part of the game, that's where the rewarding battles happen, where DF shines. You're not seeing much of DF wandering around a newbie area for 90 minutes, scoffing at your few AI encounters, then uninstalling.

Obviously the game still needs a lot of work but if you are looking for a challenging MMO RPG/FPS and are willing to deal with the game's rough edges, Darkfall is the only decent option out there and can be a very fun & exciting game.

[Nightblade]

The skill thing is a copy of UO, there was a skill in that game for stuff like lighting campfires. Is it a bit silly to have a run skill? maybe. But some people like that sort of thing.

The AI is decent, PvE is nothing special but it's entertaining enough with manual aim and the AI is a bit random but not completely braindead. The AI will NOT repeatedly shoot at you with no line of sight so that sounds wrong, can dodge behind obstacles but it wont try range attacks if it has no shot. The one dumb thing about the AI is what causes it to run from a player, it gets stuck in "ranged" mode and tries to avoid a player when its got its bow or staff out, and doesnt take out it's melee weapon. You can either keep running it around and backshotting it with a bow/spells or just stop, let it shoot a couple of times (parry) and then close again and it shouldnt run this time.

There's only 5 buffs that are very strong (spell/melee/arrow haste, and iron skin, arrow ward, and I guess specific elemental damage too if know you're about to face that magic), any others are just marginal stat boosts and not a big deal. Of those 5, 4 are pretty tactical, buff others with shortish (2 minute) durations, so you try and hit a guy with them right before jumping into combat. You dont always have time, they can cost you a lot of mana, and it takes some teamwork to make sure your whole squad is buffed, so they are hardly on the level of the buff bots of some games. Yes you can stack 15 self buffs, all stats and a bunch of protections but self buffs are only adding like 10 stat points and maybe 2 protection points, a very marginal gain.

It's been said many times, join a good clan, that is the fun part of the game, that's where the rewarding battles happen, where DF shines. You're not seeing much of DF wandering around a newbie area for 90 minutes, scoffing at your few AI encounters, then uninstalling.

Obviously the game still needs a lot of work but if you are looking for a challenging MMO RPG/FPS and are willing to deal with the game's rough edges, Darkfall is the only decent option out there and can be a very fun & exciting game.

The game should be interesting enough from the start and be able to stand on it's own. I didn't mention this earlier, but I also played this game previously for about a week and a half; I was an Orc. Hiding and running from players I could do nothing against was admittedly a bit exciting at first, but began to wear thin when they started shooting Dragon Ball Z style fireballs at me despite me being in the safety of towers. Another favorite pass time of theirs was standing just outside of town and letting the 4/5 newbies who were trying to leave town shoot low level projectiles at him/them. Anyone who tried to leave was cut down quickly.

For PVE, I found the novelty of manual aim wore off quickly as I found myself hacking away at goblins (and it's always goblins in every new area) instead of having the game aim for me.

My favorite thing about every single newbie area is the three time of generic enemies that are littered around each one:

1 - The weak goblin you're a actually a match for
2 - The slightly stronger goblin that puts up a better fight, but not impossible.
3 - The Goblin Shaman who's inexplicably stronger in all aspects and will tear out your soul and floss with it. Can only be killed with arrows early on and will frequently add and mix in with mobs you can actually kill / need for a quest... Not really something you want to put against someone who's naked, wielding a starter sword and still trying to figure out the ass backwards UI.

I don't know, I think I've given the game a fair shot between this and my last try months ago. If not: how much do I need to play a game I don't like in order to actually have a valid opinion on it? It's the game's job to entertain or pull in the player. The game's site makes constant claims of freedom, but I guess you need to
1 - Join a clan
2- Build your character like this, oh btw this this and this is useless don't do it
3 - Go harvest and craft even if you don't usually craft in these games
4 - OH YEAH do this title quest where you need to kill 100 of this 75 of that 45 of this

and so on.

Admittedly, I didn't get to the real pvp combat, but from what I've seen and actually practiced in, there's a lot of sprinting, and since sprinting doesn't inhibit your ability to change direction; I found it effective to just sprint around in random directions whilst running from my many attackers. It probably gets a bit more interesting once you put in the necessary 40+ hours of chopping wood and spell grinding though, but the mechanics are already so loose and shoddy; I can't see myself liking even the high end stuff.

[waffel]

The PvP videos I watched on youtube that were "cool" "awesome" and "well done" based on replies on the Darkfall forum involved:
-Running all over the places being chased by people spamming fireballs/arrows at you.
-While running away you I guess spam cast a heal spell over, and over, and over, and over, and over.
-Maybe cast some rocketjump-and-then-bunnyhop-with-the-momentum spell to get further away/closer to people
-Maybe cast a mount and ride around until it died

Melee combat involved:
-Randomly swing weapon while spinning in circles hoping you hit
-Jumping, running, and using LoS exploits/geometry to avoid hits
-Casting a heal spell a bunch

Needless to say, it didn't look fun in any way.

[DLRiley]

Darkfall is 40% nostaglia, 20% e-peen, and 60% arm chair.

[WayAbvPar]

Have you actually played it?

[Zzulo]

I agree, the game looks incredibly unappetizing. I love PvP but I just couldn't justify spending money on a game looking like that.

[Nija]

I mean crap, if there was a way to attach grind to the act of crouching Im sure they would have thrown that in too.

When I last played in beta, crouching = sneaking, and I went afk auto running, while crouched, in water, against a wall. To raise swimming and sneaking.

Shit is retarded. I made it about 2 days in beta at a point when the server was only up like 2-3 hours a day.

[Paelos]

I mean crap, if there was a way to attach grind to the act of crouching Im sure they would have thrown that in too.

When I last played in beta, crouching = sneaking, and I went afk auto running, while crouched, in water, against a wall. To raise swimming and sneaking.

Shit is retarded. I made it about 2 days in beta at a point when the server was only up like 2-3 hours a day.

Yep that's definitely MMOG Bethesda shit right thur.

[Chinchilla]

I play it solo while listening to my clanmates on TS  

I didn't play at all for a couple of weeks, and then took a couple of days finding the right way to download the patch ). Played a bit over the weekend and got hooked again. Finally got my wisdom to 40, so I started crafting. Now that I can make armor to grind/farm in, losing it won't be nearly as painful.

.....

Also have one for gathering that has a rest cycle built in. There are tons of others, but i don't have the skills/spells yet for most of them.

Thank you for that script!  I have tried a few AutoIt's, but never had any luck with them running.  Not sure if its my crappy PC or soemthing.  I'll try them again.  I would have responded sooner, but I just got back from a 5 day cruise.

Did you find those other scripts you mention on the AutoIt Forums?

[WayAbvPar]

I got them from my clan. I imagine there are tons on the autoit forums or elsewhere though.

[Chinchilla]

I got them from my clan. I imagine there are tons on the autoit forums or elsewhere though.

Are you in the Goon squad?  I don't remember so figured I'd ask.

[WayAbvPar]

Aye. I am a member, but I run solo atm while I am trying to make myself useful. Getting close to maxing archery (it is at 90 or 89. something), and then I will work on grinding up some of the magic skills. GM is at like 44 or 45 so I am close to being able to get all the elementals, plus the runestone marking skill (which I desperately want). Will probably invest a few grand in leveling tailoring too, so I can make myself some bone armor to wear while I level magic.

Once I get to 350 HP, get witch's brew and level it a bit, max out archery, and get my crafting skills high enough to replace my losses, I will start PvPing in earnest. Thanksgiving or so, if I get enough play time in. The funny thing is I don't feel the need to play every day, and I still don't mind being way behind. It is an interesting journey, imo.

[WayAbvPar]

Got Greater Magic to 50! Now I have all kinds of new spells and schools to level. N00b trick for leveling GM and Witchcraft- grab a couple hundreds regs and go into one of the capital city dungeons. The scumlings in there are not too dangerous (bring a melee weapon for backup in case you get swarmed though), so you can hit them with Rend and Needles over and over again. Fast leveling ftw.

[Shatter]

Reading your journey to trying to attain some level of pvpable avatar makes me want to kill a kitten

[Rasix]

Don't ruin it, we're all waiting for the moment of clarity.

[Shatter]

Don't ruin it, we're all waiting for the moment of clarity.

It will be similar to realizing you just had sex with your sister

[WayAbvPar]

Unless you have played it, don't knock it. It is a hell of a lot of fun. Apparently there is more achiever in my profile than I first figured. Or maybe the Killer part just wants power so it can get to work.

[Shatter]

Unless you have played it, don't knock it. It is a hell of a lot of fun. Apparently there is more achiever in my profile than I first figured. Or maybe the Killer part just wants power so it can get to work.

Yes, I need to play it to appreciate how you have to grind out a bunch of skills and shit in order to participate in pvp and not be cannon fodder.  Where can I signup for your newsletter, Im curious as to your thoughts on why FFXIV is futuristic thinking.  As for your unless you played it shit, its getting old.