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From what I see in the "Gameplay" video...
Well, to be fair, it really isn't a "gameplay" video so much as it is a video captured by someone using a free roaming camera while other people actually played the game. There were a few very brief shots of some UI, but for the most part that wasn't a feature we saw much of at all.
What I did see highlighted in the video were some of the more challenging features they were touting for this projcet.
Mounted combat seemed to be at least working, though there's little indication of how well a mount handles either in or out of combat.
Naval combat also seems to be functional both from a ship to ship and a ship to shore perspective. It seems that boarding parties will play at least some role in combat, though the video didn't make it clear if a boarding party could steal a ship, alter its course, or use its guns. It also seems evident that larger ships will require one heck of a player crew to be effective.
We also saw some city building in the video, and actually the city they built looks pretty good. The video doesn't specify how much freedom players have in the placement of structures, though, nor the extent to which these structures will allow players to control resources.
The crafting and trade system was touched on for a short second, but not in enough detail to indicate anything more than the existance of some sort of crafting and trade system. I'm not too concerned about this personally, though, as the devs have said they really aren't trying to re-invent the crafting wheel. I wasn't really expecting anything revolutionary on this front.
There were a few brief moments of PvE combat, and it seems like you can kill things... It would have been nice to see some more of the AI they've got developed, as it was a bit hard to judge its quality based on the short battles shown.
I would have liked to see some player looting and some resource gathering. I'd also like to have seen some more examples of player collision detection. All of those features are very important to clan vs. clan RTS elements of the game and I would have liked to have seen a nod to them at least. (I suppose I did see a couple players fishing off the edge of a raft... I suppose that's resourse gathering)
Most of what I saw, I must say I liked. The battles looked engaging and they certainly highlighted the use of terrain and positioning for strategic advantage (Hiding the orcish cavelry behind the hill, covering the keep gate with ship cannons, blasting melee fighters off of cliffs, and using archers from hidden positions for example)
I wasn't too fond of the armor I saw... Not due to bad graphics, but rather due to what I consider poor design... I'd like to point out I didn't feel this way about all the armor, just a few of the more outlandish sets.
Actually, the graphics overall were quite good, assuming they had the texture resolution set to a low to moderate setting. There were some nice effects with shadows, reflection, and lighting, and the environments were very well crafted from what I saw. The particle effects could certainly stand a bit of work, but it's possible that these, too, were set to a more framerate friendly level.
One visual area I think that needs a great deal of work is animation. The character movement wasn't all that bad, but it felt to me like the timing was off and needed to be adjusted. The animations for the giant cat mount were clunky at best and certainly didn't make the animal appear graceful in any way. The ship sinking animations and the building construction/destruction animations were either really poor or non-existant. If the devs are looking for an area to polish before release, I'd say it's these things.
Overall, I'm pleased with the video. It highlighted some of the more complex features that the company was perposing and gave me a sense that the less complicated featues were most likely in place. If they can keep character control smooth and if they can keep the game stable and lag free, then I think we're looking at a cult legend here.
Comments
one of the best video critiques i've read, well done.
one of the best examples of the collision system is at the start, where the male human leaps down on the invading orks from above and pushes and is pushed by the orks he leaps down on. this is also from 'melee perspective' -- exactly as a player would see it and experience it.
there were 3 different PVE mob encounters, it wasn't long but you can see the lizardman boss heal/buff his lizardman buddy, nuke, switch to melee weapons then you see him strafe around in melee.
I saw a few things that looked promising from the few PvE battles, but in those areas I really wanted to see longer clips that gave a clearer picture of the overall battle and how the creatures were reacting to it.
Gundam- in response to your question about the sea battles. You certainly can steal ships, take over cannons and do whatever you are able in that regard. This is a point that has been made by Tasos in a couple different Journals and a Q & A.
Also, thank you for what seems to be the first really accurate interpretation of the video from someone who hasn't been following the game fanatically. I agree with you on all your points if I remember correctly.
I always remind myself that gamers are making this game, not some company with a goal to make money from pretty anime graphics. Their focus is depth and playability, not recreating a korean beautiful gfx/shitty gameplay mmo. My worries regarding game improvement and animations are rested somewhat by that fact.
You and I both... I bet there is a large group of people who'd love to see how good the PVE in Darkfall can be.
I've actually done a lot of research lately on this game, and from what I've gathered, the feature list they're claiming is very impressive, not for its size, but rather for its focus.
It's been a long time since an MMO has been released that focuses its attention on the sandbox/PvP player. In fact I've not seen a good fantasy product in this particular market since UO.
I know a lot of people complained about how bloody and brutal UO was, but I enjoyed the world and many of the systems and features that it supported. It's one of the few games in which I felt I'd built something.
Since EQ, MMOs have tried to focus on attracting the casual player... building low risk games that reward time spent in the game over actual playing skill.
There's noting wrong with this, but it does seem to me that the market has become a tad saturated with the WoW/EQ/LOTR style of game, and it's nice to see someone aiming for a different player base.
I'd originally thought that AoC might pull it off, but that game, for all its beauty, was little different from the WoW breed, supporting meaningless PvP that was more inconvienent than interesting (Though I must admit I enjoyed spending hours killing the jerks who offed me while I was turning in quests)
I look forward to seeing if this game can succeed where AoC failed.
Hopefully what we are finally looking for, something with density.
Age of conan was a huge dissapointment. Just another good looking hollow shell
You and I both... I bet there is a large group of people who'd love to see how good the PVE in Darkfall can be.
I think for something like PvE its hard to show in a video. They claim to have a pretty robust NPC AI and I think thats something hard to show in a video.
Hopefully once beta starts people will be able to make and share their own videos. We can only hope.
You and I both... I bet there is a large group of people who'd love to see how good the PVE in Darkfall can be.
I think for something like PvE its hard to show in a video. They claim to have a pretty robust NPC AI and I think thats something hard to show in a video.
Hopefully once beta starts people will be able to make and share their own videos. We can only hope.
I don't disagree that it's difficult to illustrate a smart AI in a video, and we'll probably need to get some first hand accounts of players who've actually played against it to know if it's really any good... I'd still like to see some examples of NPC's running away or going to get help. If I shoot at a deer, will it charge me and attempt to kill me or bolt off into the forest looking for a place to hide? If I start shooting at a melee NPC from a high wall, will it switch to a ranged weapon or run for cover or will it just sit there and take it? Will mounted or fast moving NPC's use hit and run tactics or simply run up to me and stop, robbing them of their speed advantage? Will I see NPC's intelligently setting ambushes and coordinating attacks from hiding places? Will NPC's realize when they're being kited and not take the bait?
Just how good is this AI really going to be?
There's a good dev journal on Darkfall AI, here's an excerpt:
While you can't call Darkfall's AI revolutionary as far as game AI goes, and Mirco avoided
trying to reinvent the wheel, he invested his resources trying to make things very
interesting and fun. Darkfall is a PvP game without leveling so one may think that we
wouldn't pay that much attention to PvE. It's quite the opposite. PvPers have much
higher standards for their combat experience, they like to be challenged, they like to
have fun, they have to train, and I believe that those needs are fully satisfied in
Darkfall’s AI system.
There's a good dev journal on Darkfall AI, here's an excerpt:
While you can't call Darkfall's AI revolutionary as far as game AI goes, and Mirco avoided
trying to reinvent the wheel, he invested his resources trying to make things very
interesting and fun. Darkfall is a PvP game without leveling so one may think that we
wouldn't pay that much attention to PvE. It's quite the opposite. PvPers have much
higher standards for their combat experience, they like to be challenged, they like to
have fun, they have to train, and I believe that those needs are fully satisfied in
Darkfall’s AI system.
Yeah, I saw this last night. It sounds interesting and impressive... I just would have liked to see more of it in action. A solid AI is a very easy feature to claim and a very difficult feature to pull off. I'm not saying that they haven't put a lot of work into theirs or that it isn't very good... I just don't think the video did a good job of illustrating that particular feature.