The delay from 2003 was because the game was under a new company and had to be totally remade. Delay from 2005 was for a major update to the game, according to Women's Gamer, who interviewed them in 2006. Never before have they had a release date, or a publisher. They now have both. And they should very well know fi they delay this again, they will lose the little credibility they have left.
exactully
lol
OK, lets take some more quotes from the same 2005 interview. Since the game was just totally remade, no doubt they will have something to say about it. Right?
Claus Grovdal: The long development time hasn't affected the game much. It has, however, significantly reinforced some of our main design decisions and reaffirmed our belief that we're going in the right direction with Darkfall.
Kjetil Helland: The additional time has allowed us to get more control on the gameplay and to create a better framework for expanding the game.
Kjetil Helland: We started out with very good software design, and the passage of time has had a negligible impact on the game. We set the bar very high to begin with and we're in a good position right now, technically speaking.
Henning Ludvigsen: Graphically, the longer development time has given us a chance to make the art better, improve the animations, etc. It has definitely been beneficial to the look of the game.
Jonric: Still looking at the past year or so, what are the notable improvements and additions you've made to Darkfall?
Claus Grovdal: From a design point of view, nothing notable has changed from the main parameters. Last year has been all about adding content plus refining and tweaking various aspects of the game.
Kjetil Helland: We've spent the better part of the past year making things work and work better. It's been a huge challenge; the scope of this game is enormous.
Henning Ludvigsen: Art-wise, the most notable improvements have been the brushing up of the player characters, and the major improvements to the look of the environment.
Sure doesnt sound like they remade the game to me.
Now, the delay from 2005 to present...huh. A major upgrade to a game that they already claim is a triple-A title that can compete with the best games out there...doesnt make much sense. So I guess DF will release as the best game EVAH, considering it has 3 years of work on top of a world class game. Cool.
if it would have released in 2005 it would have been buried.
there not goign to delay again unless some major flaw happens. and we wont know that until public beta starts. thre saying release this year not beta. that means public beta better start
Buried? Come on, you are just parroting what Tasos said much later, in an attempt to gloss over what they had said in 2005. It is a lame excuse. And if what they were saying in 2005 was actually true, no excuse would have been needed.
Tasos during an interview in 2005:
Tasos Flambouras: The additional time taken to work on the game was a decision made in an effort to make Darkfall directly competitive with the largest MMOG titles out there. Nobody is going to feel they've stepped down by switching to Darkfall, or play Darkfall as an alternative to their main game.
So, they took additional time to make a game that is directly competetive with the largest titles out there. They claim DF is just as good as any MMOG, including the top of the line titles.
Tasos Flambouras: But the main reason is that we decided that it's time to show Darkfall, rather than keep talking about it - we believe that it will speak for itself better than we ever could.
Tasos Flambouras: It's getting close to the point where people will get the chance to playtest the game. If they aren't looking at Darkfall now, they'll probably wish they had been.
Does this sound like a game that would be "buried" if it were to release? If so, that sure isnt what the devs are saying to the press/fans.
Since when is a decision making the game better then it was at the moment 2005 a lame excuse?
Its a good thing they decided to raise the bar for the game. It will make it all the merrier when it now finally arrives.
The delay from 2003 was because the game was under a new company and had to be totally remade. Delay from 2005 was for a major update to the game, according to Women's Gamer, who interviewed them in 2006. Never before have they had a release date, or a publisher. They now have both. And they should very well know fi they delay this again, they will lose the little credibility they have left.
exactully
lol
OK, lets take some more quotes from the same 2005 interview. Since the game was just totally remade, no doubt they will have something to say about it. Right?
Claus Grovdal: The long development time hasn't affected the game much. It has, however, significantly reinforced some of our main design decisions and reaffirmed our belief that we're going in the right direction with Darkfall.
Kjetil Helland: The additional time has allowed us to get more control on the gameplay and to create a better framework for expanding the game.
Kjetil Helland: We started out with very good software design, and the passage of time has had a negligible impact on the game. We set the bar very high to begin with and we're in a good position right now, technically speaking.
Henning Ludvigsen: Graphically, the longer development time has given us a chance to make the art better, improve the animations, etc. It has definitely been beneficial to the look of the game.
Jonric: Still looking at the past year or so, what are the notable improvements and additions you've made to Darkfall?
Claus Grovdal: From a design point of view, nothing notable has changed from the main parameters. Last year has been all about adding content plus refining and tweaking various aspects of the game.
Kjetil Helland: We've spent the better part of the past year making things work and work better. It's been a huge challenge; the scope of this game is enormous.
Henning Ludvigsen: Art-wise, the most notable improvements have been the brushing up of the player characters, and the major improvements to the look of the environment.
Sure doesnt sound like they remade the game to me.
Now, the delay from 2005 to present...huh. A major upgrade to a game that they already claim is a triple-A title that can compete with the best games out there...doesnt make much sense. So I guess DF will release as the best game EVAH, considering it has 3 years of work on top of a world class game. Cool.
The game just needs to be good nothing more, if you wish to raise false expectations go ahead. Not sure anyone is listening to an attempted smart arse reply...
________________________________________________________ Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
No, seriously, I don't expect to get any kind of reasonable discussions going on with Darkfall fanboys...the saddest and least intelligent species of the fanboy genus.
Look, lets assume that everything they are telling us is honest. So, they've rebuilt the game twice now...why? I doubt if its because the work was sloppy, or the concepts and design were poor. In fact, there is good reason why many people 4-5 years ago looked at DF as the holy grail of MMOs. Unfortunately, the team of people involved is somehow incapable of developing at a pace that keeps the game competitive. Each iteration of the game looks like it is five years old. Maybe they do get ready for a beta / release...but then realize "Oh shit! This game looks / sounds / plays like crap compared to everything on the market now! We need to update our graphics, sounds, combat, interface...". And POOF! A few more years down the drain. Rinse and repeat.
But, i expect this to go over the heads of the few DF fanboys that still haunt this place. Too complicated for them. Perhaps talking to a DF fanboy is like trying to debate a creationist--it should be incredibly easy, considering its science vs. the fairy tales of cattle-herding primitives...but is in fact impossible since they are immune to reason and can dismiss anything too difficult for them to address as the blasphemous lies of satan.
It's still great entertainment to mess with the delusional though.
The number of threads desperately trying to demonstrate that this is anything but vaporware from clunky screenshots, cinematic snippets, stolen logos and dev resumés astounds me. It's a bit like watching a small crowd of people staring at a brick wall thinking it's one of those Magic Eye puzzles.
The delay from 2003 was because the game was under a new company and had to be totally remade. Delay from 2005 was for a major update to the game, according to Women's Gamer, who interviewed them in 2006. Never before have they had a release date, or a publisher. They now have both. And they should very well know fi they delay this again, they will lose the little credibility they have left.
exactully
lol
OK, lets take some more quotes from the same 2005 interview. Since the game was just totally remade, no doubt they will have something to say about it. Right?
Claus Grovdal: The long development time hasn't affected the game much. It has, however, significantly reinforced some of our main design decisions and reaffirmed our belief that we're going in the right direction with Darkfall.
Kjetil Helland: The additional time has allowed us to get more control on the gameplay and to create a better framework for expanding the game.
Kjetil Helland: We started out with very good software design, and the passage of time has had a negligible impact on the game. We set the bar very high to begin with and we're in a good position right now, technically speaking.
Henning Ludvigsen: Graphically, the longer development time has given us a chance to make the art better, improve the animations, etc. It has definitely been beneficial to the look of the game.
Jonric: Still looking at the past year or so, what are the notable improvements and additions you've made to Darkfall?
Claus Grovdal: From a design point of view, nothing notable has changed from the main parameters. Last year has been all about adding content plus refining and tweaking various aspects of the game.
Kjetil Helland: We've spent the better part of the past year making things work and work better. It's been a huge challenge; the scope of this game is enormous.
Henning Ludvigsen: Art-wise, the most notable improvements have been the brushing up of the player characters, and the major improvements to the look of the environment.
Sure doesnt sound like they remade the game to me.
Now, the delay from 2005 to present...huh. A major upgrade to a game that they already claim is a triple-A title that can compete with the best games out there...doesnt make much sense. So I guess DF will release as the best game EVAH, considering it has 3 years of work on top of a world class game. Cool.
A game that was good in their eyes 2005 doesnt automatically mean they didnt see more things to work on, does it?
The choice to continue develop the game have been informed to us in Darkfall Developer journals and is no secret.
They decided they could make a even better game. Over enthusiastic developers you might ask? I dunno, its their choice and theres only.
Another classic. Listen, fanbois, putting /beta on your site with a static .jpeg image is NOT "evidence omg!" that there is a beta. It's evidence that there's a .jpeg pic on their site.
Evidence of a beta is, you know, the beta. An announcement with an actual date. People downloading a client and connecting to servers. Something along those lines.
And please spare me the bit about "professional beta testers." There is no such thing as "professionally beta testing" an MMO. The first M there stands for "massive," if you recall, and that means you haven't even BEGUN to touch MMO coding until you've exposed it to the masses.
Another classic. Listen, fanbois, putting /beta on your site with a static .jpeg image is NOT "evidence omg!" that there is a beta. It's evidence that there's a .jpeg pic on their site.
Evidence of a beta is, you know, the beta. An announcement with an actual date. People downloading a client and connecting to servers. Something along those lines.
And please spare me the bit about "professional beta testers." There is no such thing as "professionally beta testing" an MMO. The first M there stands for "massive," if you recall, and that means you haven't even BEGUN to touch MMO coding until you've exposed it to the masses.
Logically you'd think that would make sense, but the on portion required of an M in MMO would be server load and server stability. In all other aspects of playability you can test without having the game "exposed to the masses"
That being said you can "professionally" test certain aspects of any game, and single player games do that all the time. Why should MMOs be any different? Because they're on a larger scale? Perhaps, but even still there are many things that can still be "perfected" before the game is "exposed". Unfortunately alot of MMOS nowadays rather show their games early with all their naughty bits hanging out for the "masses" to comment on.
At least with Darkfall people are complaining that the game may never see the light of day and not that the game has a lot of technical flaws at the moment.
Another classic. Listen, fanbois, putting /beta on your site with a static .jpeg image is NOT "evidence omg!" that there is a beta. It's evidence that there's a .jpeg pic on their site.
Evidence of a beta is, you know, the beta. An announcement with an actual date. People downloading a client and connecting to servers. Something along those lines.
And please spare me the bit about "professional beta testers." There is no such thing as "professionally beta testing" an MMO. The first M there stands for "massive," if you recall, and that means you haven't even BEGUN to touch MMO coding until you've exposed it to the masses.
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
--- And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there. John Smedley, SOE
I have a play to remove all rumors of vaporware. Let 5000 people play the game...be it for one hour or one day or whatever restrictions they want. At least then people will know that the game does exists. I think people have waited for this game a long time, and to be honest i think those people would rather know the game existed and is far from completion with a small test, rather than waiting months for a silly screenshot and a video.
So thats it, a solution for both fanbois and haters alike, let some people test the game for a very limited time. Then the rumors can move on to "how long till its finished?" instead of "does it exist?"
I mean after like a decade of development im sure they have a playable portion of the game...right?
And when i say let someone test out the game i mean ristrict the hell out of the content they can play so you dont need to lock them down with an NDA. Give 5000 random (not employees or bug hunters) a taste, let them go out onto gaming forums and tell their story....will be the best PR youcould get...5000 people that know the game exists
Logically you'd think that would make sense, but the on portion required of an M in MMO would be server load and server stability. In all other aspects of playability you can test without having the game "exposed to the masses" That being said you can "professionally" test certain aspects of any game, and single player games do that all the time. Why should MMOs be any different? Because they're on a larger scale?
An MMO is ***entirely*** different from testing a single-player game. When you have a huge 3-D environment with thousands of people running around doing thousands of things in thousands of combinations, the variables escalate exponentially.
You simply CAN'T test an MMO with a few dozen people like you can a single-player game. Anyone who has ever been in a beta for extended periods sees that, once the public gets ahold of the game, hundreds of bugs and quirks get found and patched every week or two.
The things people find to break and exploit coding never cease to amaze me. You see patch notes like "Dropping 100 silver pieces in a row will no longer allow characters to open their bag, cast Fireball 3 and then walk through the wall in Hogwart tavern."
An MMO has to be tested massively. You have to turn the monkeys loose before you know anything at all about your code. And that's not just stability/networking issues, it's everything in the game.
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
The people paid to do "the tedious stuff" are low-level coders. They are not beta testers.
And yes, you DO need the masses who just want to "play the game for free." This generates huge databases for the devs to evaluate. That alone is priceless. And you do want lots of people just "playing" as a way of focus-grouping your game to see if it's, you know, fun.
All beta testers are good beta testers, as long as they log in and do ANYthing. You don't have to take every suggestion every one of them makes and put it in the game, obviously - but you DO need them to break your code in ways you never thought of.
An MMO is ***entirely*** different from testing a single-player game. When you have a huge 3-D environment with thousands of people running around doing thousands of things in thousands of combinations, the variables escalate exponentially. You simply CAN'T test an MMO with a few dozen people like you can a single-player game. Anyone who has ever been in a beta for extended periods sees that, once the public gets ahold of the game, hundreds of bugs and quirks get found and patched every week or two.
The things people find to break and exploit coding never cease to amaze me. You see patch notes like "Dropping 100 silver pieces in a row will no longer allow characters to open their bag, cast Fireball 3 and then walk through the wall in Hogwart tavern."
An MMO has to be tested massively. You have to turn the monkeys loose before you know anything at all about your code. And that's not just stability/networking issues, it's everything in the game.
QFT
In addition, when you make a sandbox style MMOG, you further up the ante.
Logically you'd think that would make sense, but the on portion required of an M in MMO would be server load and server stability. In all other aspects of playability you can test without having the game "exposed to the masses" That being said you can "professionally" test certain aspects of any game, and single player games do that all the time. Why should MMOs be any different? Because they're on a larger scale?
An MMO is ***entirely*** different from testing a single-player game. When you have a huge 3-D environment with thousands of people running around doing thousands of things in thousands of combinations, the variables escalate exponentially.
You simply CAN'T test an MMO with a few dozen people like you can a single-player game. Anyone who has ever been in a beta for extended periods sees that, once the public gets ahold of the game, hundreds of bugs and quirks get found and patched every week or two.
The things people find to break and exploit coding never cease to amaze me. You see patch notes like "Dropping 100 silver pieces in a row will no longer allow characters to open their bag, cast Fireball 3 and then walk through the wall in Hogwart tavern."
An MMO has to be tested massively. You have to turn the monkeys loose before you know anything at all about your code. And that's not just stability/networking issues, it's everything in the game.
Absolutely. I'm not really sure what weasel was trying to get at. In any case, I hope that Darkfall gets released. I don't really get any of this love/hate crap. It's just a game. If it does eventually release, great. If it doesn't, oh well. No need to get all worked up over it.
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
The people paid to do "the tedious stuff" are low-level coders. They are not beta testers.
And yes, you DO need the masses who just want to "play the game for free." This generates huge databases for the devs to evaluate. That alone is priceless. And you do want lots of people just "playing" as a way of focus-grouping your game to see if it's, you know, fun.
All beta testers are good beta testers, as long as they log in and do ANYthing. You don't have to take every suggestion every one of them makes and put it in the game, obviously - but you DO need them to break your code in ways you never thought of.
You seem to know alot about Aventurine's staff. Do you have their CV's ? Testing is not a science, its about making a model of the reality and hoping it's accurate enough. Let's say they made a script controlling controlling avatars and put in some basic instructions like move ahead until stuck. When stuck, log postion. Make a few thousand instances of avatars with some random instruction included and you'll have a nice little testcase going on. Will it reflect reality good enough compared to reality ? i dunno but it could be a plausible alternative.
--- And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there. John Smedley, SOE
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
The people paid to do "the tedious stuff" are low-level coders. They are not beta testers.
And yes, you DO need the masses who just want to "play the game for free." This generates huge databases for the devs to evaluate. That alone is priceless. And you do want lots of people just "playing" as a way of focus-grouping your game to see if it's, you know, fun.
All beta testers are good beta testers, as long as they log in and do ANYthing. You don't have to take every suggestion every one of them makes and put it in the game, obviously - but you DO need them to break your code in ways you never thought of.
You seem to know alot about Aventurine's staff. Do you have their CV's ? Testing is not a science, its about making a model of the reality and hoping it's accurate enough. Let's say they made a script controlling controlling avatars and put in some basic instructions like move ahead until stuck. When stuck, log postion. Make a few thousand instances of avatars with some random instruction included and you'll have a nice little testcase going on. Will it reflect reality good enough compared to reality ? i dunno but it could be a plausible alternative.
yepa s long as them bots /ai cause the same ammount of stress as real people would it should work
Lol you dont like well ignore it dont try to say were wrong you're right just go back to sucking funcom or warhammer's cock, wow took 6 years to be created and in that period it was called vaporware many times, just like darkfall. i dont see you making a fuss about mortal online.
by the way, love the new darkfall icon really cool .
Totally agreed, trolls have no place here if they really don't like the game as much as they say they don't.
If the game is never coming out then why follow the damn thing? The fact is we all want it to come out and saying it won't isn't going to change it - Darkfall is coming and there is nothing you trolls can do about it!
Comments
exactully
lol
OK, lets take some more quotes from the same 2005 interview. Since the game was just totally remade, no doubt they will have something to say about it. Right?
Claus Grovdal: The long development time hasn't affected the game much. It has, however, significantly reinforced some of our main design decisions and reaffirmed our belief that we're going in the right direction with Darkfall.
Kjetil Helland: The additional time has allowed us to get more control on the gameplay and to create a better framework for expanding the game.
Kjetil Helland: We started out with very good software design, and the passage of time has had a negligible impact on the game. We set the bar very high to begin with and we're in a good position right now, technically speaking.
Henning Ludvigsen: Graphically, the longer development time has given us a chance to make the art better, improve the animations, etc. It has definitely been beneficial to the look of the game.
Jonric: Still looking at the past year or so, what are the notable improvements and additions you've made to Darkfall?
Claus Grovdal: From a design point of view, nothing notable has changed from the main parameters. Last year has been all about adding content plus refining and tweaking various aspects of the game.
Kjetil Helland: We've spent the better part of the past year making things work and work better. It's been a huge challenge; the scope of this game is enormous.
Henning Ludvigsen: Art-wise, the most notable improvements have been the brushing up of the player characters, and the major improvements to the look of the environment.
Sure doesnt sound like they remade the game to me.
Now, the delay from 2005 to present...huh. A major upgrade to a game that they already claim is a triple-A title that can compete with the best games out there...doesnt make much sense. So I guess DF will release as the best game EVAH, considering it has 3 years of work on top of a world class game. Cool.
Buried? Come on, you are just parroting what Tasos said much later, in an attempt to gloss over what they had said in 2005. It is a lame excuse. And if what they were saying in 2005 was actually true, no excuse would have been needed.
Tasos during an interview in 2005:
Tasos Flambouras: The additional time taken to work on the game was a decision made in an effort to make Darkfall directly competitive with the largest MMOG titles out there. Nobody is going to feel they've stepped down by switching to Darkfall, or play Darkfall as an alternative to their main game.
So, they took additional time to make a game that is directly competetive with the largest titles out there. They claim DF is just as good as any MMOG, including the top of the line titles.
Tasos Flambouras: But the main reason is that we decided that it's time to show Darkfall, rather than keep talking about it - we believe that it will speak for itself better than we ever could.
Tasos Flambouras: It's getting close to the point where people will get the chance to playtest the game. If they aren't looking at Darkfall now, they'll probably wish they had been.
Does this sound like a game that would be "buried" if it were to release? If so, that sure isnt what the devs are saying to the press/fans.
Since when is a decision making the game better then it was at the moment 2005 a lame excuse?
Its a good thing they decided to raise the bar for the game. It will make it all the merrier when it now finally arrives.
exactully
lol
OK, lets take some more quotes from the same 2005 interview. Since the game was just totally remade, no doubt they will have something to say about it. Right?
Claus Grovdal: The long development time hasn't affected the game much. It has, however, significantly reinforced some of our main design decisions and reaffirmed our belief that we're going in the right direction with Darkfall.
Kjetil Helland: The additional time has allowed us to get more control on the gameplay and to create a better framework for expanding the game.
Kjetil Helland: We started out with very good software design, and the passage of time has had a negligible impact on the game. We set the bar very high to begin with and we're in a good position right now, technically speaking.
Henning Ludvigsen: Graphically, the longer development time has given us a chance to make the art better, improve the animations, etc. It has definitely been beneficial to the look of the game.
Jonric: Still looking at the past year or so, what are the notable improvements and additions you've made to Darkfall?
Claus Grovdal: From a design point of view, nothing notable has changed from the main parameters. Last year has been all about adding content plus refining and tweaking various aspects of the game.
Kjetil Helland: We've spent the better part of the past year making things work and work better. It's been a huge challenge; the scope of this game is enormous.
Henning Ludvigsen: Art-wise, the most notable improvements have been the brushing up of the player characters, and the major improvements to the look of the environment.
Sure doesnt sound like they remade the game to me.
Now, the delay from 2005 to present...huh. A major upgrade to a game that they already claim is a triple-A title that can compete with the best games out there...doesnt make much sense. So I guess DF will release as the best game EVAH, considering it has 3 years of work on top of a world class game. Cool.
The game just needs to be good nothing more, if you wish to raise false expectations go ahead. Not sure anyone is listening to an attempted smart arse reply...
________________________________________________________
Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel
No, seriously, I don't expect to get any kind of reasonable discussions going on with Darkfall fanboys...the saddest and least intelligent species of the fanboy genus.
Look, lets assume that everything they are telling us is honest. So, they've rebuilt the game twice now...why? I doubt if its because the work was sloppy, or the concepts and design were poor. In fact, there is good reason why many people 4-5 years ago looked at DF as the holy grail of MMOs. Unfortunately, the team of people involved is somehow incapable of developing at a pace that keeps the game competitive. Each iteration of the game looks like it is five years old. Maybe they do get ready for a beta / release...but then realize "Oh shit! This game looks / sounds / plays like crap compared to everything on the market now! We need to update our graphics, sounds, combat, interface...". And POOF! A few more years down the drain. Rinse and repeat.
But, i expect this to go over the heads of the few DF fanboys that still haunt this place. Too complicated for them. Perhaps talking to a DF fanboy is like trying to debate a creationist--it should be incredibly easy, considering its science vs. the fairy tales of cattle-herding primitives...but is in fact impossible since they are immune to reason and can dismiss anything too difficult for them to address as the blasphemous lies of satan.
It's still great entertainment to mess with the delusional though.
lmao...
exactully
lol
OK, lets take some more quotes from the same 2005 interview. Since the game was just totally remade, no doubt they will have something to say about it. Right?
Claus Grovdal: The long development time hasn't affected the game much. It has, however, significantly reinforced some of our main design decisions and reaffirmed our belief that we're going in the right direction with Darkfall.
Kjetil Helland: The additional time has allowed us to get more control on the gameplay and to create a better framework for expanding the game.
Kjetil Helland: We started out with very good software design, and the passage of time has had a negligible impact on the game. We set the bar very high to begin with and we're in a good position right now, technically speaking.
Henning Ludvigsen: Graphically, the longer development time has given us a chance to make the art better, improve the animations, etc. It has definitely been beneficial to the look of the game.
Jonric: Still looking at the past year or so, what are the notable improvements and additions you've made to Darkfall?
Claus Grovdal: From a design point of view, nothing notable has changed from the main parameters. Last year has been all about adding content plus refining and tweaking various aspects of the game.
Kjetil Helland: We've spent the better part of the past year making things work and work better. It's been a huge challenge; the scope of this game is enormous.
Henning Ludvigsen: Art-wise, the most notable improvements have been the brushing up of the player characters, and the major improvements to the look of the environment.
Sure doesnt sound like they remade the game to me.
Now, the delay from 2005 to present...huh. A major upgrade to a game that they already claim is a triple-A title that can compete with the best games out there...doesnt make much sense. So I guess DF will release as the best game EVAH, considering it has 3 years of work on top of a world class game. Cool.
A game that was good in their eyes 2005 doesnt automatically mean they didnt see more things to work on, does it?
The choice to continue develop the game have been informed to us in Darkfall Developer journals and is no secret.
They decided they could make a even better game. Over enthusiastic developers you might ask? I dunno, its their choice and theres only.
roflcopter
WTF does a new logo got to do with beta?!
My blog:
It says beta in the url. That passes for a major breakthrough in the wonderful world of Darkfall.
Another classic. Listen, fanbois, putting /beta on your site with a static .jpeg image is NOT "evidence omg!" that there is a beta. It's evidence that there's a .jpeg pic on their site.
Evidence of a beta is, you know, the beta. An announcement with an actual date. People downloading a client and connecting to servers. Something along those lines.
And please spare me the bit about "professional beta testers." There is no such thing as "professionally beta testing" an MMO. The first M there stands for "massive," if you recall, and that means you haven't even BEGUN to touch MMO coding until you've exposed it to the masses.
Logically you'd think that would make sense, but the on portion required of an M in MMO would be server load and server stability. In all other aspects of playability you can test without having the game "exposed to the masses"
That being said you can "professionally" test certain aspects of any game, and single player games do that all the time. Why should MMOs be any different? Because they're on a larger scale? Perhaps, but even still there are many things that can still be "perfected" before the game is "exposed". Unfortunately alot of MMOS nowadays rather show their games early with all their naughty bits hanging out for the "masses" to comment on.
At least with Darkfall people are complaining that the game may never see the light of day and not that the game has a lot of technical flaws at the moment.
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
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And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.
John Smedley, SOE
I have a play to remove all rumors of vaporware. Let 5000 people play the game...be it for one hour or one day or whatever restrictions they want. At least then people will know that the game does exists. I think people have waited for this game a long time, and to be honest i think those people would rather know the game existed and is far from completion with a small test, rather than waiting months for a silly screenshot and a video.
So thats it, a solution for both fanbois and haters alike, let some people test the game for a very limited time. Then the rumors can move on to "how long till its finished?" instead of "does it exist?"
I mean after like a decade of development im sure they have a playable portion of the game...right?
And when i say let someone test out the game i mean ristrict the hell out of the content they can play so you dont need to lock them down with an NDA. Give 5000 random (not employees or bug hunters) a taste, let them go out onto gaming forums and tell their story....will be the best PR youcould get...5000 people that know the game exists
An MMO is ***entirely*** different from testing a single-player game. When you have a huge 3-D environment with thousands of people running around doing thousands of things in thousands of combinations, the variables escalate exponentially.
You simply CAN'T test an MMO with a few dozen people like you can a single-player game. Anyone who has ever been in a beta for extended periods sees that, once the public gets ahold of the game, hundreds of bugs and quirks get found and patched every week or two.
The things people find to break and exploit coding never cease to amaze me. You see patch notes like "Dropping 100 silver pieces in a row will no longer allow characters to open their bag, cast Fireball 3 and then walk through the wall in Hogwart tavern."
An MMO has to be tested massively. You have to turn the monkeys loose before you know anything at all about your code. And that's not just stability/networking issues, it's everything in the game.
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
The people paid to do "the tedious stuff" are low-level coders. They are not beta testers.
And yes, you DO need the masses who just want to "play the game for free." This generates huge databases for the devs to evaluate. That alone is priceless. And you do want lots of people just "playing" as a way of focus-grouping your game to see if it's, you know, fun.
All beta testers are good beta testers, as long as they log in and do ANYthing. You don't have to take every suggestion every one of them makes and put it in the game, obviously - but you DO need them to break your code in ways you never thought of.
Am I the only one to see a similarity (if not copycat) with the D&D logos of the old editions ?
When I see an operational beta of DF (possibly lasting less than several decades) I'll believe the Faith.
Till then, It's vaporware....
QFT
In addition, when you make a sandbox style MMOG, you further up the ante.
An MMO is ***entirely*** different from testing a single-player game. When you have a huge 3-D environment with thousands of people running around doing thousands of things in thousands of combinations, the variables escalate exponentially.
You simply CAN'T test an MMO with a few dozen people like you can a single-player game. Anyone who has ever been in a beta for extended periods sees that, once the public gets ahold of the game, hundreds of bugs and quirks get found and patched every week or two.
The things people find to break and exploit coding never cease to amaze me. You see patch notes like "Dropping 100 silver pieces in a row will no longer allow characters to open their bag, cast Fireball 3 and then walk through the wall in Hogwart tavern."
An MMO has to be tested massively. You have to turn the monkeys loose before you know anything at all about your code. And that's not just stability/networking issues, it's everything in the game.
Absolutely. I'm not really sure what weasel was trying to get at. In any case, I hope that Darkfall gets released. I don't really get any of this love/hate crap. It's just a game. If it does eventually release, great. If it doesn't, oh well. No need to get all worked up over it.
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
The people paid to do "the tedious stuff" are low-level coders. They are not beta testers.
And yes, you DO need the masses who just want to "play the game for free." This generates huge databases for the devs to evaluate. That alone is priceless. And you do want lots of people just "playing" as a way of focus-grouping your game to see if it's, you know, fun.
All beta testers are good beta testers, as long as they log in and do ANYthing. You don't have to take every suggestion every one of them makes and put it in the game, obviously - but you DO need them to break your code in ways you never thought of.
You seem to know alot about Aventurine's staff. Do you have their CV's ? Testing is not a science, its about making a model of the reality and hoping it's accurate enough. Let's say they made a script controlling controlling avatars and put in some basic instructions like move ahead until stuck. When stuck, log postion. Make a few thousand instances of avatars with some random instruction included and you'll have a nice little testcase going on. Will it reflect reality good enough compared to reality ? i dunno but it could be a plausible alternative.
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And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.
John Smedley, SOE
I find it hilarious that some people apparently couldn't give two hoots about the game yet flock to any topic about it.
There is a beta going on, just not an open/public one. There are some advantages for using the professional testers. They know how to keep their mouths shut and they are payed to do do the tedious stuff.
The "masses" as you call them rather play the game than be bughunters. Also as a dev you don't have to listen to the testers whine, just slap them in the back of their heads and order them to continue. Sounds like a smart deal to me.What is MMO coding btw ?
The people paid to do "the tedious stuff" are low-level coders. They are not beta testers.
And yes, you DO need the masses who just want to "play the game for free." This generates huge databases for the devs to evaluate. That alone is priceless. And you do want lots of people just "playing" as a way of focus-grouping your game to see if it's, you know, fun.
All beta testers are good beta testers, as long as they log in and do ANYthing. You don't have to take every suggestion every one of them makes and put it in the game, obviously - but you DO need them to break your code in ways you never thought of.
You seem to know alot about Aventurine's staff. Do you have their CV's ? Testing is not a science, its about making a model of the reality and hoping it's accurate enough. Let's say they made a script controlling controlling avatars and put in some basic instructions like move ahead until stuck. When stuck, log postion. Make a few thousand instances of avatars with some random instruction included and you'll have a nice little testcase going on. Will it reflect reality good enough compared to reality ? i dunno but it could be a plausible alternative.
yepa s long as them bots /ai cause the same ammount of stress as real people would it should work
Totally agreed, trolls have no place here if they really don't like the game as much as they say they don't.
If the game is never coming out then why follow the damn thing? The fact is we all want it to come out and saying it won't isn't going to change it - Darkfall is coming and there is nothing you trolls can do about it!
This.
And they insult us for our following of the game, when someone should really be doing some kind of psych study on them.
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Click this for lulz: http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/173737/page/6
Yet another thread gone to trash here and no moderation.
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Sorcery must persist, the future is the Citadel