DarkFall - Officially Launched

[InkofDeath]

That is a big map.

 

On Wednesday, I'm going to try and count all the islands you can see with red dots and such.

 

 

 

Anyone want to take estimations? I'm guessing around 160ish.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

Also, you can see how they developed the map and how it's not computer-generated either. They did squares and just put them together. Though there are certain parts where it's not entirely squares. Like in 'Flaming Skull'. that entire area doesn't look made square by square, but was actually done in an all in one go, or it's blended very nicely.

 

 

 

I think that's where they started building the map, and then they found out it would take too long doing it that way and just did squares. I could be wrong but it's my observation.

[InkofDeath]

Open Beta/Trial has begun.

 

 

 

Patches: http://darkfallleaks.blogspot.com/searc ... results=31

 

 

 

Also if you get an invite through email, I suggest looking for people in the beta forums that are from Tip.It, so that 'if' any of us get into it, we can muck around, and not be entirely lonely with strangers. ;)

 

 

 

Edit

 

 

 

Actually list your forum name on here, so that in the beta forums or in-game, if we do get in and we see you we can add:

[ember3579]

Yeah, apparently, the DFOF are offline for the moment. I'd guess that it's because Beta is on, which is understandable. Just one question. Is the NDA lifted? This is a very big question for me: if I give any info on the game and it's still on, I can't give my on-forum name or I might get kicked off of beta.

[Nadril]

Forum name is nadril I think. That or Cyrant. I used one of those to sign up a while back.

[InkofDeath]

Yeah, apparently, the DFOF are offline for the moment. I'd guess that it's because Beta is on, which is understandable. Just one question. Is the NDA lifted? This is a very big question for me: if I give any info on the game and it's still on, I can't give my on-forum name or I might get kicked off of beta.

 

You can give your forum name. I'm not telling you to tell us your forum name if or aren't you in beta. It's just so we can check in the beta forums or in-game for you. You can tell us your forum name, just don't tell us you're in or not in the beta. The NDA is still in effect, except for those who have confirmed each other as beta testers in-game and on the beta boards, these people can discuss it in private, non-recorded channels.

 

 

 

The forums are offline cause idiots are DoS'ing the Darkfall forums.

[ember3579]

Yeah, apparently, the DFOF are offline for the moment. I'd guess that it's because Beta is on, which is understandable. Just one question. Is the NDA lifted? This is a very big question for me: if I give any info on the game and it's still on, I can't give my on-forum name or I might get kicked off of beta.

 

You can give your forum name. I'm not telling you to tell us your forum name if or aren't you in beta. It's just so we can check in the beta forums or in-game for you. You can tell us your forum name, just don't tell us you're in or not in the beta. The NDA is still in effect, except for those who have confirmed each other as beta testers in-game and on the beta boards, these people can discuss it in private, non-recorded channels.

 

 

 

The forums are offline cause idiots are DoS'ing the Darkfall forums.

 

 

 

 

 

Thing is, if I DO get into beta, I want to give some info on how it's going so to shut up the naysayers. I personally am tired of hearing all the vaporware idiocy on the DFOF, so I'll try and mitigate some of it.

 

 

 

And I figured that it would be because people just are individually flooding the site (to try and look for any info about 1/22), not a DDoS attack. Know which flavor it is, and when it might end?

[InkofDeath]

Thing is, if I DO get into beta, I want to give some info on how it's going so to shut up the naysayers. I personally am tired of hearing all the vaporware idiocy on the DFOF, so I'll try and mitigate some of it.

 

 

 

And I figured that it would be because people just are individually flooding the site (to try and look for any info about 1/22), not a DDoS attack. Know which flavor it is, and when it might end?

 

 

 

This will answer and correct everything you're wondering about:

 

http://www.eu1.darkfallonline.com/news/

 

 

 

If you had gone to the blogspot leak I have continuously linked to, then you'd know that there is a game:

 

http://darkfallleaks.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

Just take my word for it that there is a game, and it is solid, and you should be looking forward to playing this type of an MMO, even for the experience, but you'll find something enjoyable about it anyways.

[ember3579]

Thing is, if I DO get into beta, I want to give some info on how it's going so to shut up the naysayers. I personally am tired of hearing all the vaporware idiocy on the DFOF, so I'll try and mitigate some of it.

 

 

 

And I figured that it would be because people just are individually flooding the site (to try and look for any info about 1/22), not a DDoS attack. Know which flavor it is, and when it might end?

 

 

 

This will answer and correct everything you're wondering about:

 

http://www.eu1.darkfallonline.com/news/

 

 

 

If you had gone to the blogspot leak I have continuously linked to, then you'd know that there is a game:

 

http://darkfallleaks.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

Just take my word for it that there is a game, and it is solid, and you should be looking forward to playing this type of an MMO, even for the experience, but you'll find something enjoyable about it anyways.

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the first link, I'll take a look at it now.

 

 

 

And I KNOW that there's a game and it's pretty freaking sweet even without a bunch of random things on, it's just that I'm tired of people [bleep]ing and moaning otherwise. I want to do my part in shutting them up, and that link alone might not do the trick. Besides, there's not a HUGE amount of stuff on there. Think of it as a little kickback for these forums.

[RayOxide]

Ok, so, the games released. Is it anything like I thought it is?

 

 

 

Horribly easy to die, yet hard-ish to get decent armour?

[InkofDeath]

Ok, so, the games released. Is it anything like I thought it is?

 

 

 

Horribly easy to die, yet hard-ish to get decent armour?

 

Game may be released, but it's a beta release, and the NDA is still in effect. Otherwise this thread would be filled with tons of posts from me.

 

 

 

Though I can loosely say from leaked sites that the game is awesome, it's very easy to die, and people need to stop ranking armour. Armour isn't important in this game. Decent, godly, horrible, or whatever armour. It doesn't matter, there's just a variety of it, not too much better or too worse.

[RayOxide]

Ah ok. But if the proper version gave armour an attacking plus, would it be used more/ more useful?

 

And is there archery and mage? :-$

 

 

 

Btw, eww.. Boxxy.. eww. :shame: :P

[ember3579]

Ah ok. But if the proper version gave armour an attacking plus, would it be used more/ more useful?

 

And is there archery and mage? :-$

 

 

 

Btw, eww.. Boxxy.. eww. :shame: :P

 

 

 

 

 

Archery and magic IS in. Also, I disagree slightly with skatedog. Equipment WILL be important, just not as big a factor as others, like player skill. Unless if they are VERY good at combat, an unequipped person will get laid out by an equipped one, if it works how I suspect it will. Also, keep in mind that all zerg tactics are supposedly kept in check by the game's mechanics, even the naked variety. If the difference between equipped and unequipped was TOO marginal, than crafters would be put out of a job.

[InkofDeath]

Yea, people are totally dominated if they aren't wearing some sort of armour. Then again attack speed isn't even in the game yet, so those with 2h's are just manslaughtering us with short/average swords, or even clubs. Can't wait for that to be in the client tbh.

 

 

 

Archery is point & shoot, but aiming is ALL on you.

 

 

 

Magic is the same, with aiming as well.

 

 

 

One thing in common is attack speeds. They are different for archery and the type of spell, but you need to time and aim or guess where the opponent will be when the projectile gets there. Arrows travel as fast as you'd expect them to, with magic spells traveling at varying speeds.

[ember3579]

Yea, people are totally dominated if they aren't wearing some sort of armour. Then again attack speed isn't even in the game yet, so those with 2h's are just manslaughtering us with short/average swords, or even clubs. Can't wait for that to be in the client tbh.

 

 

 

Archery is point & shoot, but aiming is ALL on you.

 

 

 

Magic is the same, with aiming as well.

 

 

 

One thing in common is attack speeds. They are different for archery and the type of spell, but you need to time and aim or guess where the opponent will be when the projectile gets there. Arrows travel as fast as you'd expect them to, with magic spells traveling at varying speeds.

 

 

 

Yeah, varying attack speed is a must where melee is concerned. It's somewhat similar to the combo rule; the more attacks something can make in succession, the weaker each attack generally is by comparison. A revolver can fire six times, a missile only once. And yes, I got that from Bleach. Any questions?

 

 

 

On aiming, that's really the way it should be. Later on they might throw in some limited magic-based homing abilities (with varying weaknesses and strengths, like for example something that homes in on the highest heat source in the area getting screwed up with targeting when someone throws around fire or ice magic in a thoughtful manner), but seeing as to how that would be limited to either straight up magic users of a considerable level or people willing to shell out large sums of money for that ammo, it won't be too common that it will become imbalancing.

 

 

 

On projectile speeds, that also is the way it should be. An arrow isn't very varied from one form to the next, except for the ones designed for specific bows. However, considering the very nature of magic, it makes sense that some spell types would be at or less than walking speed while others would be near instantaneous.

 

 

 

And if I discern it correctly, you just hinted at you being in beta. Is that true?

[InkofDeath]

On projectile speeds, that also is the way it should be. An arrow isn't very varied from one form to the next, except for the ones designed for specific bows. However, considering the very nature of magic, it makes sense that some spell types would be at or less than walking speed while others would be near instantaneous.

 

Indeed, I agree and like how it is.

 

 

 

And if I discern it correctly, you just hinted at you being in beta. Is that true?

 

No, and it's not like I've been hinting at such a thing the past 5th and 6th page of this thread. :wall:

[InkofDeath]

NDA LIFTED - Preorder Information:

 

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

For those that didn't get the obvious hints, I am in the beta. I'll be posting dozens of videos exploring different aspects of the game tonight, so keep a watch on here, or sub to me @:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/inkofdeath230

 

 

 

I'll be doing the GUI first, combat examples (melee fighting), showing swimming, and pvp.

 

 

 

Anything else you want me to vid, tell me now, in here.

[InkofDeath]

GUI Video:

 

 

 

Youtube HD Video - This video will cause high CPU usage, to view the video in a lower quality, please click here.

[Nadril]

I'd like to see a video of the combat, PvP mostly. The videos I've found so far suck.

 

 

 

edit:

 

 

 

Like this video:

 

 

 

sRBX7WnHprc

 

 

 

Looks like they're just spamming attack.

 

 

 

edit 2:

 

 

 

This video looks decent. Hard to tell what's going on

 

 

 

ORSC3HWilPg

[InkofDeath]

Lol, theMercs. They're the equivalent of the standard school bully. :-#

 

 

 

I'll try and get into a pvp run with my clan and see what happens. I'll record fighting several monsters (goblins, skeletons, trolls, ogres...maybe ghosts or dragons if I can spare to die and waste the hours getting to the spots, lol).

 

 

 

PvP is really complex. Not that it's hard to learn, but there's so many options you have to make in a fight, it's awesome.

 

 

 

You need archery & a decent melee skill to be successful against others. Not that it's hard to get a decent level in any of those.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's from themercs as well. 0:54 is the best part. =P

[Faux]

Umm am I the only one who thinks the fighting animation and physics is kinda awkward? it's like you don't even feel getting hit other than your screen bleeds red

[Nadril]

Umm am I the only one who thinks the fighting animation and physics is kinda awkward? it's like you don't even feel getting hit other than your screen bleeds red

 

 

 

The animations are horrible, you aren't the only one.

 

 

 

Since the NDA dropped I have become less and less impressed by this game. The videos look like [cabbage] and, from what I've heard, there is almost no actual "life" out there save for certain pre determained spawn points on a long spawn timer. So much for just exploring.

 

 

 

 

 

So for now I'm going to put this in the same basket as Dark and Light because it's starting to remind me exactly of it.

[InkofDeath]

Game owns though. PvP is awesome, and fighting with the mobs is very entertaining. Animations/graphics are easily ignored for the gameplay.

 

 

 

Sieging and ship warfare owns as well. theMercs & some other clan had a 30vs30 and tons of people came to crash it, theMercs were owning people on the land with their ships from the water.

 

 

 

Just epic.

 

 

 

---

 

 

 

The videos you're watching on YT suck in quality and don't represent the game's visuals well at all. The animations are out-dated but honestly they don't realy come into play at all.

 

 

 

The combat & pvp system shines brightly enough that you can ignore the defects of the graphics or animations easily. The spells & skills are varied and are well put into the game.

 

 

 

Regardless I've been beta testing since December. Game is still full of surprises and fun. The dungeons that are in the game are just amazing in terms of the puzzles & diversity each dungeon has. Fighting in water owns. Fighting octopuses and sharks in water owns. Fighting on moving ships, raiding a ship then stealing it, owns.

 

 

 

Game owns.

 

 

 

Servers have been offline for two days though.

 

 

 

Anyways pre-orders were up, but the servers were crashed after over 600k unique visitors tried to access the pages, while Aventurine only estimated 150k.

[Faux]

are they all using the same spells or all spells look like that?

[Nadril]

I don't really care about the quality of the game engine they are using, although a lot of the animations are just downright lazy (and a game revolving around combat it needs to be smooth). The art style is kind of bland too, I much prefer the way Ultima Online looked back in the day.

 

 

 

 

 

I would like to see what is so fun about the combat though. I mean, the combat looks like Moorwind's combat, which sucked. From what I understand there is an "upper slash" and a "side slash" which you switch between through a hotkey.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll wait for the game to come out so that I don't get opinions that are diluted with raving fanboys. I don't really see the variance in skills though. If anything do a video and show us all of the different skills and spells you can use as a player.

[InkofDeath]

http://blood.shutupnerd.com/TheChase2009.wmv

 

 

 

You've most likely only saw one spell & that's mana missile. Very craptastic spell that fails. Leveling magic is hard. You need to train Lesser Magic to 50, in order to use Greater Magic. Then you need to train Greater Magic to 50 or 75 or 25, or some level requirement for the elemental spells. Then you can start training Earth, Wind, Water, Necromancy, WitchCraft and such. You also need to buy the individual spells in each category of magic as well. No one in beta has reached level 50 Greater Magic, though someone is at 43 right now. So we still don't know how good magic can be, but the heal self spell is very useful when running away from opponents. Will keep you alive for another 4 minutes.

 

 

 

----

 

 

 

Land Size

 

 

 

It would probably take 4-5 hours to run from the east to the west of the Agon continent. Assuming you don't find any of the larger mountains, which you can climb. It's an extremely large map, and there is no repeating landforms or landscapes, everything is what they said to be handmade, and not computer generated. Ground is detailed, yet lacks in depth, the ground looks like a 2D image. This is resolved by the grass & other additions you can choose to enable, as well as the density of the grass. So you can have 50 bushes in a square metre, or only 20, or maybe 1000, all in a single square. Very handy for optimizing FPS or spreading out vegetation. If a land is barren, it's meant to be barren. If it's full with trees, then you'll know it's a forest. Everything in terms of the map is just right.

 

 

 

Combat

 

 

 

General

 

 

 

There's walking, running, sprinting, and jumping. Sprinting & Jumping use stamina. Swinging your weapon or attacking, uses stamina. You can move while attacking with melee/archery and some spells.

 

 

 

Attacking the back of a target does more damage (1.5x-2x). Hitting the head doubles the damage.

 

 

 

You have tons of stamina, so it hardly runs out unless you're being wasteful of it. If seven targets were standing still, you could probably kill them all twice without running out of stamina. Though this doesn't take into account sprinting & moving or the food you could use to increase the stamina rate.

 

 

 

Melee

 

 

 

Each type of weapon in the game (polearms, one-handed swords, sithras...etc) has it's own skill. Thus you'll have 'One-Handed Sword' skill, 'Two-Handed Sword' skill, 'Battleaxe' skill, and like 12 (I think?) others, or more. There's also one for staffs I think or whatever. Using the relevant weapon will raise the relevant skill. Thus using a shortsword, will increase one-handed sword skill, or using a polearm will increase the polearm skill. Raising skills for the weapon categorize increases the damage you do with the weapons, enables you to lower encumbrance and probably other unknowns.

 

 

 

Armour isn't as diversified but it doesn't need to be. By fighting in armour you increase your 'armour proficiency' which allows you to reduce the sprint consumed by the weight, reduces the damage removed by the armour you're wearing (you can lose close to 10 or more points of damage for wearing things way too heavy for your character). This is also applied to 'Armour-Archery Proficiency' or something called that. you also have a block or 'Parry' skill, that can icnrease through use in combat. This if timed correctly with someone else's attack will reduce the damage, but consume stamina. It's well balanced tbh.

 

 

 

The default melee attack is a side-ways sweep. The default key to change this to a high-hit swing is T, but can be remapped. The animations for every weapon are different for each type of swing. Swings do take a different amount of time to be executed, but don't count towards the overall attack speed, thus animations don't come into play, they're just visually there, but don't rely on them, as they do change according to weapon stats, or potions. Also Aventurine has told us that there's several different types of swings for weapons that will be available through vendors. They told us there's a low-to-high swing that goes from the feet to the head, but it's a rounded hit, thus it's peak would hit the stomach area as the main hit area if centred on the body of the character. There's also an opposite side swing, two verticals and two lower vertical swings. Just not in vendors right now.

 

 

 

You have to click to attack. After the animation finishes, or the attack speed overrides the reduced or inflated animation you may attack again. You can move and circle a target while attacking - uses stamina.

 

 

 

Overall melee is a necessity in killing efficiently, and is extremely fun. Best melee experience I've had aside from being very close to the combo system in AoC, but nowhere near the 'funness' of that combat system. It's still pretty darn awesome though.

 

 

 

Archery

 

 

 

You have one archery skill right now. It's a universal skill that takes into account for long/short bows, and any arrow types. Aventurine wants to improve the diversity of this combat type but due to time constraints it'll be later in the year when they release a more improved version.

 

 

 

For now it's use the best to worst arrows with the best to worst bows with the best to worst armour for archery. Then you aim & shoot. You must take into account distance, wind and where the opponent will be when the arrow gets there. The arrows do not auto-lock on. The arrows will not hit the target if you just aim at them. Archery is difficult at first, but rewarding and epic once you are able to run/sprint at a fleeing opponent and range them from behind. It's just pure awesomeness. There's a variety of bows, and arrows, yet they both take time to get. Right now it's faster to farm mobs for arrows than to craft the arrows yourself, lol. Kind of stupid but whatever.

 

 

 

Magic

 

 

 

From the amount of spells in vendors that you can see, but can't buy, once you have Greater Magic, it's pretty awesome to see the variety of spells there are. Most descriptions aren't in, but the names hint pretty well.

 

 

 

Anyways, you have 1 category of magic to begin with. Then you increase to 50 in order to unlock this second category. Increase this second category to a required level for the elemental categories.

 

 

 

Each category has a variety of spells that you can utilize regardless of the categories level. However increasing the spell, and category skill levels will offer better benefits in terms of damage/speed & other factors.

 

 

 

Lesser Magic > Greater Magic > Elemental Spells.

 

 

 

- Elemental spells are suppose to be the big guns and tactical gods that define the strategies you can use in combat, as well as be great supports or awesome damage dealers.

 

 

 

Magic spells above GM require reagents. The elemental spells require some pretty rare or unheard of reagents. Thus elemental spells will be powerful but using them will be time consuming, thus they aren't going to be overpowering and will be used effectively in sieges not pitiful 5vs5s or whatever team ganks. Will also require a lot of mana as well.

 

 

 

AoE's exist for sure, as Mana Missile has a pretty large AoE on it as well. DoT's though only last like four seconds, but those four seconds can be deadly for the type of stuff you can inflict on people. Cast it, then get someone else to cast a huge damage spell on them and you increase your damage almost two times for a nice kill. However that's impractical and is a waist of resources. Such tactics would be better off on clan buildings or the clan bindstone itself to reduce the hp of the object and overtake the city.

 

 

 

But that's really all from the descriptions and hints we've gotten from dev's. So still unknown, spells could be pitiful or just be backup supporters for melee.

 

 

 

Combine that together and you get Melee/Archery as the main attack types until beta testers or in-game players feel confident enough to level their skills before a character wipe happens. A lot of testers aren't doing anything time consuming because it'll be a waste when they wipe the game and they could spend time exploring the massive map and get something done than wasting time getting to 48 GM then a character wipe comes out of nowhere, so close to the required levels or whatever. I think like 8 ships have been built out of 3000ish beta testers.

 

 

 

I'll wait for the game to come out so that I don't get opinions that are diluted with raving fanboys.

 

If that was directed at me, then you seriously need to back off. I still think the game needs to be released in March, or heck even summer with some of the bugs & incomplete aspects of the game. But even how the game is now, it's still good enough to 'aww' the most skeptical gamers.

 

 

 

A lot of hardcore or 'interested' pvp'ers are going to find out this game isn't for them because it's too punishing and difficult. Already happened loads in the beta.