Darkfall: love/hate

eek just lost a post... short version:

Grats on the kills!

Macro'ing not needed except for magic. I didnt macro my archery and it's 80+

Yssam is hard need a 65+ combat skill to solo mobs and some you still need a group even after that.

Darkfall is emptying out. Starting cities, player cities and hunting grounds are drastically empty compared to a month ago.

I tried to find a Darkfall catch all but could not (I am the only one seeing a new interface at gwj.com that does not have a search button?), so I will try in this post.

Are any goodjers still playing DF? I am taking a break from my re-love of LotRO and on a whim decided to try the 14-day trial of DF. It is a game I have wanted to try for quite a while but have put off. The new Choose my adventure at massively.com and an extra game time block this week led me to impulsively try DF.

I have had fun with my limited time but it has been exclusively PvE, except for getting jumped by a dwarf while I was running away from goblins. He destroyed me but then revived instead of ganking me, and continued on his way. I really like that it is a lot different than most MMOs, and I love the archery, but I can see that it could be a problem game to try to play when I usually only get 1 block of ~3 hours to play a week.

At some time in the near future they are going to implement offline skill increases. Whether that will break everything or just be a nice boon to those without 20 hours of free time a day, remains to be decided.

I was reading the article on massively about darkfall. It's got me tempted to resub.

Anyone still playing on the euro server?

Waltz wrote:

I was reading the article on massively about darkfall. It's got me tempted to resub.

Anyone still playing on the euro server?

Nope. Almost everyone on the Euro server that played before left to the US server. The difference in lag was so noticable that it almost required people to leave. At the time due to our alliances we had all of Yssam so it was pretty good. Things started falling apart about the time i left though. The politics in this game is something i've never experienced before, and was something to behold.

I am used the politics from playign EVE.

I may jump backmon for a month see how it goes, not even sure where it will log me back on as I last logged out at the guild city

Waltz wrote:

I am used the politics from playign EVE.

I may jump backmon for a month see how it goes, not even sure where it will log me back on as I last logged out at the guild city

If you're still in the guild and they still control the city you'll be back there, but if they kicked you or they lost the city it'll drop ya at the nearest stone outside the city.

I decided not to bother in the end and went back to EVE...can't escape that game

hehe. I've been thinking a lot about it, but already in a couple of betas and with Cata about to drop i knew it'd just be a waste of time/money if i tried.

I had a lot of fun in my limited trial and I am going to pick it up to add to my "play 1 month per year when they remind me with some free days" pile. I will probably wait for a sale on the client price, but does any goodjer have one of those community links that gives them 20% of the price or something like that? I will use your link when I do buy the game.

I grabbed the trial of this today and was completely lost. I ran around for about 35 minutes before seeing a mob, at which point mob and friends began throwing/shooting poison at me and that was that.

I get that it's sandbox with little or no guidance, but I've been able to figure out other sandbox games.. here's it's just kind of .. "uhhh okay?"

Just how bad is botting/hacking/etc? It seems to exist in all mmos but I find in sandbox mmos it really creates a huge imbalance, especially given that players who started earlier already have a huge advantage in most sandbox mmos. Also if the game is so simple and/or tedious that it can be/should be played by a bot why exactly am I paying $15 a month for it?

I do think I prefer the sandbox mmos over the themeparks, but my (very limited) experience with DFO today reminded me of why I quit eve - I'm not convinced any sandbox mmo is really "there" yet for me. Maybe next year :/ I'll pop in dfo again over my two week trial in hopes that it manages to grab me though.

krev82 wrote:

I grabbed the trial of this today and was completely lost. I ran around for about 35 minutes before seeing a mob, at which point mob and friends began throwing/shooting poison at me and that was that.

I get that it's sandbox with little or no guidance, but I've been able to figure out other sandbox games.. here's it's just kind of .. "uhhh okay?"

Just how bad is botting/hacking/etc? It seems to exist in all mmos but I find in sandbox mmos it really creates a huge imbalance, especially given that players who started earlier already have a huge advantage in most sandbox mmos. Also if the game is so simple and/or tedious that it can be/should be played by a bot why exactly am I paying $15 a month for it?

I do think I prefer the sandbox mmos over the themeparks, but my (very limited) experience with DFO today reminded me of why I quit eve - I'm not convinced any sandbox mmo is really "there" yet for me. Maybe next year :/ I'll pop in dfo again over my two week trial in hopes that it manages to grab me though.

I also felt quite lost my first login to the game, and my search for a "tutorial" showed that there weren't really any, but I did find reference to a series of 4 videos about starting DF and after watching those I was able to get into it and continue. I didn't do what the videos told me, but it showed how to "do stuff", if that makes any sense. I can't recall the name of the videos or author at the moment, but it turns out they are pretty famous.

okay, I googled quickly, and these are the videos I used:

Val Roth's Darkfall - Accelerated Character Development Guide

Note though, that I soloed my entire trial. I didn't want to join a clan for the trial, but would definitely try to get into one if I actually start playing the game!

Note 2: I was an Ork, which it seems is a fairly under-populated race, and I hung around mostly the starting areas, so I did not run into a lot of players. This might have coloured my initial views of the game. I am sure if I was getting ganked every 30 mins, rather than the 1 relatively nice gank, I might have a different view!

Senkrad wrote:
krev82 wrote:

I grabbed the trial of this today and was completely lost. I ran around for about 35 minutes before seeing a mob, at which point mob and friends began throwing/shooting poison at me and that was that.

I get that it's sandbox with little or no guidance, but I've been able to figure out other sandbox games.. here's it's just kind of .. "uhhh okay?"

Just how bad is botting/hacking/etc? It seems to exist in all mmos but I find in sandbox mmos it really creates a huge imbalance, especially given that players who started earlier already have a huge advantage in most sandbox mmos. Also if the game is so simple and/or tedious that it can be/should be played by a bot why exactly am I paying $15 a month for it?

I do think I prefer the sandbox mmos over the themeparks, but my (very limited) experience with DFO today reminded me of why I quit eve - I'm not convinced any sandbox mmo is really "there" yet for me. Maybe next year :/ I'll pop in dfo again over my two week trial in hopes that it manages to grab me though.

I also felt quite lost my first login to the game, and my search for a "tutorial" showed that there weren't really any, but I did find reference to a series of 4 videos about starting DF and after watching those I was able to get into it and continue. I didn't do what the videos told me, but it showed how to "do stuff", if that makes any sense. I can't recall the name of the videos or author at the moment, but it turns out they are pretty famous.

okay, I googled quickly, and these are the videos I used:

Val Roth's Darkfall - Accelerated Character Development Guide

Note though, that I soloed my entire trial. I didn't want to join a clan for the trial, but would definitely try to get into one if I actually start playing the game!

Note 2: I was an Ork, which it seems is a fairly under-populated race, and I hung around mostly the starting areas, so I did not run into a lot of players. This might have coloured my initial views of the game. I am sure if I was getting ganked every 30 mins, rather than the 1 relatively nice gank, I might have a different view!

Ork isnt under populated or least it didnt used to be. My US character is an orc and in the starting cities it could be brutal. These days though i'd say most people are near their guild cities and higher lvl hunting grounds. If you trespassed near one of those i suspect you'd find a different kind of reception.

This game doesnt hold your hand at all. The UI isnt your normal mmo ui either so jumping in cold can be disconcerting.

ranalin wrote:
WiredAsylum wrote:
ranalin wrote:

Player cities/hamlets can be taken over in a 6hr process and people/clans that aren't in an alliance tend to be bought up as mercs to help with an attack or defense.

Is this really happening? The mercs and guns for hire. I allways wanted to play a game where you could be contracted for protection or assaults etc.

If that is happening and it is possible to put together a group of mercs who will take down a city i am buying this right now.

Also taking down a city doesnt require signing up and scheduling a raid does it a la AoC?

That video above is a city attack.

Taking down a city isn't scheduled, but there is a time limit and if you're a clan with a city (not sure thats a requirement either) you run the risk of loosing yours as well.

What happens is the Attackers declare war and and pay 10k gold for the right to attack a city. At that point you have 6 hours. The first 4 hours your city can be attacked by ANYone in the game. The Defenders city clane stone is invulnerable during this time.

We got called to ask to defend a potential alliance member to defend their hamlet while they attacked another. So we hung out at their spot for 4 hours. We were attacked 2 or 3 seperate times very light probes. Only small groups. During this time the offensive team went to the city and pretty much destroyed the holders and kept them out of their own city for pretty much the complete 4hrs.

At 2min left of the Defenders invulnerabilty they got around 150-200 defenders and the fight was on. A clan stone can only be destroyed with siege weapons and the heaviest ones are bugged right now :(. They had 500 of the smallest kind thinking that would be enough but it only dropped the clan stone by 20%.

We found out later they paid those defenders to come to their aid at the last minute.

So in that case the attackers lost 10k gold and the defenders kept their city.

There's other options that can happen up to the attacking clan loosing their city.

In case anyone is still interested here... there's some serious changes taking place with the way they're doing sieges. They're trying to eliminate some of the "gaming the system" ways that people have been using to aquire and keep cities.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/d...

Before we solicit your feedback, let’s talk about some more changes in the basic mechanics of the new siege system:

Challenges won’t happen between two parties anymore. They can be joined by additional attackers at any time before the battle begins. This is one of the largest fundamental changes in the new system. There are many additional mechanics and a myriad of options linked to this and these will determine the difficulty for attackers and defenders to achieve their goals. Right now the thought is that the wager amount for entering a challenge after the initial attack issue of the main attacking clan, is dependent on how many additional attackers are trying to join the siege, the number of challenges the attacker has already issued, and the time that has passed in the challenge before the new attacker tried to join in.

And here are our topics for discussion for today:
1.Do you think attacking clans should have a minimum number of active players to be able to issue an attack and, if yes, how many? If “yes”, then should trial members be included in the numbers?
2.In the case of several attackers: What do you think the defenders should have to accomplish in order to win the challenge? Destroy the attacker clan stones (or siege stones), or to simply destroy siegestones placed?
3.How do you feel about the timer running out without any of the sides having accomplished their goals? Should the defenders get the chance to both keep their city AND win the wagers for a successful defense?
4.What do you think of an attacker’s city not going vulnerable automatically but the need of having to issue an actual attack on that city? (with the option for the defenders getting a free attack option without having to pay a fee).

To clarify: the siege system is finished so these values can be adjusted and tested very quickly, and will not require further development. There are virtually countless options which the new siege system allows for. We’d like to start with these 4 important points, but there are others that will follow. Additional information and important points, including topics on how we’ll determine the winners when several attacking parties are involved, will be put up for discussion in the following days.

Wow they're considering a complete wipe after their next update around August.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/d...

There were concerns about wipes: We’ve considered wipes on various levels, however these are important decisions because while this is like a new game, it’s still the continuation of the current one. Also, the way things will work in the new version, it would not be as necessary to wipe, but wiping would also not be as drastic as it would be in the current version. This is a topic we’ll open up for discussion after we’ve given you more information on the new version of the game, so you can understand all the parameters involved.
ranalin wrote:

Wow they're considering a complete wipe after their next update around August.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/d...

There were concerns about wipes: We’ve considered wipes on various levels, however these are important decisions because while this is like a new game, it’s still the continuation of the current one. Also, the way things will work in the new version, it would not be as necessary to wipe, but wiping would also not be as drastic as it would be in the current version. This is a topic we’ll open up for discussion after we’ve given you more information on the new version of the game, so you can understand all the parameters involved.

Isn't a wipe necessary every so often for balance reasons in a hardcore pvp environment? Seems like over time the best gear and characters all wind up on one side.

mindset.threat wrote:
ranalin wrote:

Wow they're considering a complete wipe after their next update around August.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/d...

There were concerns about wipes: We’ve considered wipes on various levels, however these are important decisions because while this is like a new game, it’s still the continuation of the current one. Also, the way things will work in the new version, it would not be as necessary to wipe, but wiping would also not be as drastic as it would be in the current version. This is a topic we’ll open up for discussion after we’ve given you more information on the new version of the game, so you can understand all the parameters involved.

Isn't a wipe necessary every so often for balance reasons in a hardcore pvp environment? Seems like over time the best gear and characters all wind up on one side.

Nope. If there's an imbalance the community makes the adjustments. May take awhile but you get enough of the have nots rallied together they can take down the havers easily.

In DF though its about cities and houses. Gear is unimportant. If you lose your gear you go take it from someone else or have some made.

ranalin wrote:
mindset.threat wrote:
ranalin wrote:

Wow they're considering a complete wipe after their next update around August.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/d...

There were concerns about wipes: We’ve considered wipes on various levels, however these are important decisions because while this is like a new game, it’s still the continuation of the current one. Also, the way things will work in the new version, it would not be as necessary to wipe, but wiping would also not be as drastic as it would be in the current version. This is a topic we’ll open up for discussion after we’ve given you more information on the new version of the game, so you can understand all the parameters involved.

Isn't a wipe necessary every so often for balance reasons in a hardcore pvp environment? Seems like over time the best gear and characters all wind up on one side.

Nope. If there's an imbalance the community makes the adjustments. May take awhile but you get enough of the have nots rallied together they can take down the havers easily.

In DF though its about cities and houses. Gear is unimportant. If you lose your gear you go take it from someone else or have some made.

This; it's something that happens fairly often in EVE with nullsec getting tossed up in the air by a bunch of smaller alliances forging together to toss out and dismantle the dominant one.

Whats interesting is the last time i looked the consensus on the forums is to wipe. Figured there'd be more push back.

I enjoyed playing this game for a while but the stat grind eventually got to me. If they did wipe things, I might retry

I still think the Monster AI is probably the best one that I have ever experienced in an MMO.

sneak peak at the graphics upgrade for the 2.0 patch.

While still not stellar by todays standards its an improvement.

Oh and just because i love this sh*t...

Here's a video of an attack on a city. One of the reasons i worry about the SW:TOR end game. They talk about story, but personally the story of you and the adventures you create on your own is more compelling than ones that are told to you. That's more of a possibilty in a sandbox and not a theme park.

Arise!

My character is going to specialize in archery, first. Any insider tips on money making? Should I be doing any gathering specifically with the intent of sale or just work on my crafting/gathering skills to start?

Blind_Evil wrote:

Arise!

My character is going to specialize in archery, first. Any insider tips on money making? Should I be doing any gathering specifically with the intent of sale or just work on my crafting/gathering skills to start?

Hmm i'd relocate to the northern shore. There's a triangle of cities that offer you a somewhat protected place to bank and craft as well as a place to run to if you get into trouble. There's spawns of Dwarves that drop gems and have a percentage chance of dropping keys that unlock treasure boxes. I'd try to talk to the folks at Skogul first to see if they'll let you hunt unhindered first though. Folks who own that tend to treat that place as their own. Plus people also know that it's a popular hunting ground and will make that a part of their route of their hunting parties. Remember to listen and constantly be keeping an eye out on your surroundings.

It's annoying, but it's actually more productive to make many trips of small loads than holding out till your full up and get jumped and lose everything.

Was running around killing Goblin Shamans and found a blue headstone. Guy had a ton of stuff, three pieces of armor a level above me. I took those, and his gold and arrows. Am I going to hell? That's like, spirit of the game right?

Blind_Evil wrote:

Was running around killing Goblin Shamans and found a blue headstone. Guy had a ton of stuff, three pieces of armor a level above me. I took those, and his gold and arrows. Am I going to hell? That's like, spirit of the game right?

lol... if you can take it and keep it... it's yours.

blue headstone? that's a new touch.

Well it had a blue glow. Monster graves are yellowish and players are blue.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Well it had a blue glow. Monster graves are yellowish and players are blue.

ya last i was in they didnt have that touch. How you're doing on your skills? I'm sure by now you've discovered taht archery requires a steady supply of arrows.

Hmmm... What's your toon's name and where you hanging your hat?

depending on my weekend i might just install this and poke around a bit. I can at least give ya some supplies and a mount.

Hmm.

My archery is around 33, greatsword 25ish, lesser magic 40ish, armorcrafting 25, logging 55, mining 40, fishing 20... not sure what else. I have a little under 1000 gold.

I'm still hanging around Heart of Eanne (sp?), working on quests for the NPCs there. I get the impression they've been fleshed out quite a bit. Honestly I'm having a LOT of fun just going it alone and figuring stuff out. It's wild-west type discovery I haven't experienced in an MMO since FFXI launch. I'm heading to Sanguine next time I play to get something or another from the blacksmith. Toughest stuff I've killed is the trolls to the north. Tried lizardmen for a timed quest and I could tell at range that I'm nowhere near strong enough for them yet. Character name is Percival Ashborne.

Well i got disconnected and not able to log back in. If you're not in the same boat you can go back to where we were crossing the water and you'll have another mount. Unless they changed it you leave your mount in the world if you get disconnected.