A view from the stands. My take on Darkfall

sidroc

I must start out by saying that my first MMO was SWG, therefore my opinion is slightly biased towards an open game play system. However, I am also a 2 year world of Warcraft addict after the NGE hit.

I have been watching Darkfall from afar for quite a long time now, as well as everything else. I have decided to post my thoughts on what I think about Darkfall.

The first thing I wanted to address was the graphics, as that seems to be the hot button issue right now. What I am about to say may sound like I am beating a dead horse for an argument.

Does anyone remember the Original unreal, or Unreal tournament? The original unreal had very low polygon models with low quality textures. However, it made up for it by having a very long an immersive storyline that evolved into two very goods books. That game was enough of a smashing hit because of how good the story was, that it is still going today.

The same think can be said about quake. Graphics don't mean much if the quality of game play type is up to par. On the other hand, I am still very unsure about Darkfall not becoming a reincarnation of Dark and Light in terms of its development.

However, by watching the video, as has been pointed out it does look like they have borrowed heavily from Asherons Call 2 for the combat type. This combat type was amazing in the fact that you had a immersive feel to it. Aiming a spell and leading a target makes allot of sense to me. But if it were only for that, then Age of Conan would be a smashing hit.

But I have picked up on something else in that video. It looked like the ships were more of a guild thing rather than a single operated entity. All the cannons had to be manually controlled. I would venture to guess that the siege equipment as well as the land vehicles in Darkfall work on the same principle as the ship combat. This reminds me heavily of Jump to Lightspeed in SWG were had a crew of eight manning my YT-1300. Without that crew, it was a useless ship.

Now you may ask what am I getting at? It is simple really. The systems that Darkfall plans to promote will create a social atmosphere that will draw players in. The item decay will keep crafters permanently in business as long as items have variable stats for the same item based on the quality of gathered resources(I don't have clarification if quality of resources affect items in Darkfall, if someone would like to clarify let me know). The manual aiming will allow for more than button mashing a snare and several dots.

For example, manning movement, using different spells with binded keys, and manually aiming spells that have a warm up and possibly a cool down can be very intense. This is especially true when you have knockdown abilities. Picking a group will be less about level and more about the persons reputation for being able to perform in heavy action. Working together to not only mann siege equipment as a team and defend it will make guild preparation even more essential and make room for spies to check how the exact defenses on player cities and maybe if they can approach from behind a hill as to not be seen by the watchtowers.

All of this leads to all players having to work together in a social environment. I don't know about you, but If I cant get into the community of an MMO I cant play it anymore than I can play a single player RPG like Oblivion. The social factors of Darkfall will like eve, be what makes or breaks the game.

Will Darkfall manage to deliver on all these points? I have my doubts, but if it does I am on board. I will admit that some of the fans on this board seem to be fanatics, but the trolls to consistently look for a way to spite the fan base of the game on these boards seem to be off touch with reality. It would be like taking time out of your day to walk to the nearest Ford dealership (provided you hated Fords) and protest out front about how much you hate Fords.

To the rational followers I salute you. This may read like a wall of text with jumbled thoughts. I apologizes for that, I am not much of an organized writer, rather I spew my thoughts as they come. What I want out of this thread is to hear rational feedback of the game play mechanics that were seen in the video and how they intertwine with the yet seen features this game promotes. I am going to stop before this turns into an even larger wall of text.



 

Edited with Fixed version.

imbant

I tried to skim through it to find out the general message you are trying to send, but it really is difficult to read and I would recommend just going and putting a couple of spaces in there to break it up into smaller paragraphs.

Thanks for taking the time to write up what looks like an objective post, but in all honestly I just have a tough time focusing my eyes on the middle parts

=(

Genleo

ouch my eyes!

Paragraph if you want people to read you issues.

sniperg

Originally posted by sidroc


          I must start out by saying that my first MMO was SWG, therefore my opinion is slightly biased towards an open game play system. However, I am also a 2 year world of Warcraft addict after the NGE hit.
I have been watching Darkfall from afar for quite a long time now, as well as everything else. I have decided to post my thoughts on what I think about Darkfall.
The first thing I wanted to address was the graphics, as that seems to be the hot button issue right now. What I am about to say may sound like I am beating a dead horse for an argument.
Does anyone remember the Original unreal, or Unreal tournament? The original unreal had very low polygon models with low quality textures. However, it made up for it by having a very long an immersive storyline that evolved into two very goods books. That game was enough of a smashing hit because of how good the story was, that it is still going today.
The same think can be said about quake. Graphics don't mean much if the quality of game play type is up to par. On the other hand, I am still very unsure about Darkfall not becoming a reincarnation of Dark and Light in terms of its development.
However, by watching the video, as has been pointed out it does look like they have borrowed heavily from Asherons Call 2 for the combat type. This combat type was amazing in the fact that you  had  a immersive feel to it. Aiming a spell and leading a target makes allot of sense to me. But if it were only for that, then Age of Conan would be a smashing hit.
But I have picked up on something else in that video. It looked like the ships were more of a guild thing rather than a single operated entity. All the cannons had to be manually controlled. I would venture to guess that the siege equipment as well as the land vehicles in Darkfall work on the same principle as the ship combat. This reminds me heavily of Jump to Lightspeed in SWG were  had a crew of eight manning my YT-1300. Without that crew, it was a useless ship.


          Now you may ask what am I getting at? It is simple really. The systems that Darkfall plans to promote will create a social atmosphere that will draw players in. The item decay will keep crafters permanently in business as long as items have variable stats for the same item based on the quality of gathered resources(I don't have clarification if quality of resources affect items in Darkfall, if someone would like to clarify let me know). The manual aiming will allow for more than button mashing a snare and several dots.
For example, manning movement, using different spells with binded keys, and manually aiming spells that have a warm up and possibly a cool down can be very intense. This is especially true when you have knockdown abilities.  Picking a group will be less about level and more about the persons reputation for being able to perform in heavy action. Working together to not only mann siege equipment as a team and defend it will make guild preparation even more essential and make room for spies to check how the exact defenses on player cities and maybe if they can approach from behind a hill as to not be seen by the watchtowers.


          All of this leads to all players having to work together in a social environment. I don't know about you, but If I cant get into the community of an MMO I cant play it anymore than I can play a single player RPG like Oblivion. The social factors of Darkfall will  like eve, be what makes or breaks the game.
Will Darkfall manage to deliver on all these points? I have my doubts, but if it does I am on board. I will admit that some of the fans on this board seem to be fanatics, but the trolls to consistently look for a way to spite the fan base of the game on these boards seem to be off touch with reality. It would be like taking time out of your day to walk to the nearest Ford dealership (provided you hated Fords) and protest out front about how much you hate Fords. 
To the rational followers I salute you. This may read like a wall of text with jumbled thoughts. I apologizes for that, I am not much of an organized writer, rather I spew my thoughts as they come. What I want out of this thread is to hear rational feedback of the game play mechanics that were seen in the video and how they intertwine with the yet seen features this game promotes. I am going to stop before this turns into an even larger wall of text.

 

Fixed it. Because that wall of text attacked me, killed me and looted my body:P

Good post though

Ozmodan

Yep, good post, you ask questions many of us have asked.  Adventurine has never had any question and answer sessions, you only get what they deign to give you.  So I guess we have to wait and see what they deliver. 

It would be nice if we had an actual beta date, something to look forward to.

imbant

Aye very good post now that reading it doesn't come at the cost of losing your eyesight

Blodpls

Lots of interesting stuff in that post.

One thing I would to comment on is the boats. 

There seems to be fair variety of diffenent sized boats judging from the video so if you have nobody to sail with or only 1 or 2 friends then you can just make a small one. 

Obviously you won't be as menacing as the massive one's but you should still able to have fun fighting other small ships and running from the big one's.

Ashlura

I couldn't read it - sorry

kaydinv

Originally posted by sniperg

Fixed it. Because that wall of text attacked me, killed me and looted my body:P
Good post though

 

I'm making that my sig. I "lol'd" irl.

 

Interesting post, OP.

javac

Originally posted by sidroc


Now you may ask what am I getting at? It is simple really. The systems that Darkfall plans to promote will create a social atmosphere that will draw players in. The item decay will keep crafters permanently in business as long as items have variable stats for the same item based on the quality of gathered resources(I don't have clarification if quality of resources affect items in Darkfall, if someone would like to clarify let me know). The manual aiming will allow for more than button mashing a snare and several dots.

 

Quality of crafting material and resources are indeed very important in Darkfall, there has been several references to this in various developer journals. For instance, the demi-gods, who will be among the most epic mobs in Darkfall, have been described to drop large quantities of rare and precious metals.

 

We also know that other resources are valuable because they confer resistance bonsues to a specific damage type.

 

In any case I 100% agree that everything in Darkfall has been designed to promote strong social behaviour, ie: it's not just about conflict: to be really successful in DF you'll need diplomacy with other clans, cooperation with crafters, connections with scouts and spies, etc. ie: a lot like EVE (but without Eve's rather dull combat system).

 

 

daarco

I liked the OPs post.

One thing really got my heart to beat faster, the SWG YT-1300 issue. Its one of the many multipersonal ships in SWG. You need a crew to fly it. And that was some of the best things to the game. No other MMO have dared to try that.

Almost as it have become a insult from the devs to "force" players to meet other when playing. So im so glad that Aventurine will put that back in a MMO. I want a big ship in Darkfall, and its so obvious that you need a crew. 

If Aventurin would pull that PotBS crap with ships, i wouldent be intersted in Darkfall anymore.

ermorden

Originally posted by Ozmodan


Yep, good post, you ask questions many of us have asked.  Adventurine has never had any question and answer sessions, you only get what they deign to give you.  So I guess we have to wait and see what they deliver. 
It would be nice if we had an actual beta date, something to look forward to.

 

Aventurine has had many Q & A sessions.  Check the website. 

javac

Originally posted by Ozmodan


Adventurine has never had any question and answer sessions, you only get what they deign to give you.

 

it's aventurine for one thing, and they have given > 20 different Q&A sessions over the years.

 

do you know how to use google?