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Darkfall seems stable and bugfree so far during beta
Gianna made some clarifications on her experience of Darkfall beta and to the response she got so far from fans. Seems the game is very stable so far. Also nice clarification on stealth.
http://beta.thenoobcomic.com/df_preview/part2.html
Clarifications (Dec 3, 2008)
I don't have time to post an update this morning (I should be on my way to work already) but I had a look yesterday at the forums on the Darkfall website and I'd like to address some of the concerns that were raised there by these previews.
1. Public beta. This seems to be a really big issue and I can see why. These previews are NOT a replacement for it, they have nothing to do with it, and most of all I have no idea if that's going to start tomorrow, in a week in a month, etc. If I say, "in the next few updates I plan to... " please don't start consulting the astronomical calendars of the Maia to determine the date of beta from what I wrote, because I know it as much as you do. If that's any consolation, every day I see new names and there seems to be a steady stream of people joining.
2. Stability and state of the game. Relax! It's not been wiped at all since last week, and even if at some point it's going t o be wiped twice a day it's because they are testing things according to their test plans, not because something's gone horribly wrong and they have to shut down everything. The game is stable. I crashed once to desktop, which is a lot less of how much I crash to desktop in the released MMO that I've played most recently. How ready is it? I don't know! From what I can observe, assuming that it would play the same with thousands of people instead of hundreds, it's less buggy in beta of some games a month into release, but this is just an observation of what I can see, I have no idea if they are opening black holes and rips through time and space by mistake in their server room even if we don't notice.
3. Stealthing. I didn't mention (oops) that if you crouch and sneak up on people like that, while you don't go invisible, semi-transparent, etc., you advance silently. Having shadows turned off doesn't mean that you are particularly able to spot a guy who's using cover to sneak up on you and being clever about it, but you'll see it for yourselves when you start playing, it's something that has to be experienced and cannot be described.
4. "There's nothing new in these previews". Duh! Most people on the Darfkall forums could easily win University Challenge, Jeopardy, etc. etc. if the topic was Darkfall! Please consider that the previews are aimed mainly at the readers of my comic who may or may not know about the game and who may not have followed it with the same level of attention as you did. I hope you'll enjoy the screenshots, at least 
Comments
I didn't see her use the word "bugfree" in her update... but I suppose that makes for a better title than using "less buggy" .
Hehe, you caught me there.
Ah well you're right, i should have written that Darkfall dont seem to have that a much of bugs so far according to this beta tester.
And that's why a Public Beta is something DF needs.
Why? Let me put it this way: When I was in the AoC Beta, the game ran smoothly for me. It did not crash more than once or twice during my testing and it didn't cause problems on my machine.
So, did I believe all the other people who cried that the game was buggy as hell? No, I didn't. In a sort of blindness to the rest of the world, I labeled everyone who did not have the same experience as me as a liar (to my defense, the other side did much the same, too XD).
It's only when you get a whole lot of people testing the game that you will see how it performs under release conditions. Isolated reports from one or even 10 people is not something that raises my trust in the game in any way, having been burnt badly once.
But hey...still a week and a half till Open beta should be over!
I kid! Waiting to hear the announcement on Open Beta and/or Free Playtesting however.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
"Most people on the Darfkall forums could easily win University Challenge, Jeopardy, etc. etc. if the topic was Darkfall!"
I really dont get this phrase. Of course almost every human could tell and know everything about nothing, because there is nothing to know and tell...
P.S. What is point of such preview? She could just write few words: "DF has nice Stealth System."
I was the same with AoC. I never crashed, had decent FPS and an overall smooth experience. I was shocked to see all the crys of bugs. I still beleive a good amount were user error from talking to people and trying to help. Hopefully "TheNoob"'s experience is indicative of what's to come and not just luck of the right hardware.
Agree they really need to let us in asap. Game need to be under stress from thousands of player and with different hardwares.
Agree they really need to let us in asap. Game need to be under stress from thousands of player and with different hardwares.
yea but i bet most of the current testers have diffrent hardware
Well that depends on alot of things... but I'd be willing to bet they'd lose because Jeopardy goes by the strict information provided on the Features Page, which everybody (troll and fanboi alike) knows isn't accurate in the least anymore. And neither are half of the Dev Journals under the name...
In addition, I've seen Darkfall argued where it seems 2 fans have very different "facts" from very different places. The issue being that the Developers haven't taken the time to make a cohesive document, and expect anybody interested to go Forum Diving to get any inkling of "correct" information.
...it, honestly, scares off new people probably...
in conclusion: they should pull their heads out of their asses and update their website. Because right now it looks like a Dawn copy-paste (dragon and all)
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
This "review" or "preview" or whatever is a total JOKE. It's an insult to anyone who has ever been waiting for this game. This is almost as bad as the 2 italian forum mods.
Wtf is it with Aventurine? Why can't they show their game to REAL gaming sites or magazines?
My prediction: the game is 50% ready with working starter area and smart goblins. Everything else is unfinished and needs about 1 more year to be ready.
We've already heard that the entire world is built and populate.
Nice troll though. Enjoying WoTLK?
(Uzik ibnYaraq in game. Always willing to help.)
http://www.youtube.com/user/UzikAlJhamin
Hi!
*cough* Darkfail!
*runs from the room*
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
.. You are wrong.
But that's beside the point.
any extra information we can get about DF is good. We won't see any "hard" reviews until the NDA is released and REAL reviewers can play.
Currently playing Real Life..
http://i36.tinypic.com/2uyod3k.gif
For all your stalking needs..
http://www.plurk.com/Random_
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
Completely untrue. Mythic showed of WAR, Funcom showed off AOC, heck this site just got a preview of TCOS.
Think, then post.
OP, you forgot to highlight the most interesting part of the NOOB's update....
How ready is it? I don't know! From what I can observe, assuming that it would play the same with thousands of people instead of hundreds,
This is probably the first estimate of actually how many people might be in the current beta phase, and if I were to venture a total guess, I'd say its probably in the low hundreds at this point. (close friends and family only right now)
While the NOOB's reviews aren't real deep, the strange thing is they contain more actual game info than Aventure tends to provide us, so we can be grateful for that. (and I don't need her reports translated from Italian or Greek, which is a bonus)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
Are you flippin serious bro? Every single MMO that is of any consequence, besides maybe D&L, has gaming publications and websites play their game and release previews of it before it is released. Whether this is in studio, through their own logins, at gaming conferences, or any other number of ways. Especially when its this close to "release".
You can look on this VERY webiste that you are posting on for Beta impressions of CoS. This is maybe the worst post ever on this website as you can refute it by exploring the same freakin page you are posting on.
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
Completely untrue. Mythic showed of WAR, Funcom showed off AOC, heck this site just got a preview of TCOS.
Think, then post.
OP, you forgot to highlight the most interesting part of the NOOB's update....
How ready is it? I don't know! From what I can observe, assuming that it would play the same with thousands of people instead of hundreds,
This is probably the first estimate of actually how many people might be in the current beta phase, and if I were to venture a total guess, I'd say its probably in the low hundreds at this point. (close friends and family only right now)
While the NOOB's reviews aren't real deep, the strange thing is they contain more actual game info than Aventure tends to provide us, so we can be grateful for that. (and I don't need her reports translated from Italian or Greek, which is a bonus)
LOL...we were posting that at the same time! Nice.
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
Completely untrue. Mythic showed of WAR, Funcom showed off AOC, heck this site just got a preview of TCOS.
Think, then post.
OP, you forgot to highlight the most interesting part of the NOOB's update....
How ready is it? I don't know! From what I can observe, assuming that it would play the same with thousands of people instead of hundreds,
This is probably the first estimate of actually how many people might be in the current beta phase, and if I were to venture a total guess, I'd say its probably in the low hundreds at this point. (close friends and family only right now)
While the NOOB's reviews aren't real deep, the strange thing is they contain more actual game info than Aventure tends to provide us, so we can be grateful for that. (and I don't need her reports translated from Italian or Greek, which is a bonus)
Spot on as usual Kyleran!
First with your response to chokepoint. Was he really trying to be serious? I'm going to assume it was sarcasm with all the CAPS... but if he was serious...
Because none of us have ever read in any magazine or on any web-site a pre-view before a game is released... heh yeah... NEVER happens.
Anyway... onto the meat of your response.
With this NOOB review and what we have learned from downtoearth's response from his friends that are in CLOSED Beta... I would feel safe in saying there are probably 100-200 total CLOSED Beta Testers. Of those... around 10-20 are playing concurrently.
Obviously not enough players to fully test the game just days before OPEN Beta, or a few weeks before Release... but still at least some movement in the right direction anyway.
I don't think anyone realistically thinks the Release will still happen in 2008... that much should be pretty obvious from what we are seeing in these CLOSED Beta snippets. Despite some of the "the glass is half full" posts... it should be obvious to all that the testing is only in it's very beginning stages. Which if I'm not mistaken; I think we had all hoped would have been thoroughly polished a very long time ago.
The only real question remaining is if OPEN Beta will happen in 2008.
I personally think we'll see OPEN Beta sometime in 2009, and if that goes somewhat according to plan we might see Release sometime in 2009 as well. Heh... now I'm sounding like Tasos as well...
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
Completely untrue. Mythic showed of WAR, Funcom showed off AOC, heck this site just got a preview of TCOS.
Think, then post.
OP, you forgot to highlight the most interesting part of the NOOB's update....
How ready is it? I don't know! From what I can observe, assuming that it would play the same with thousands of people instead of hundreds,
This is probably the first estimate of actually how many people might be in the current beta phase, and if I were to venture a total guess, I'd say its probably in the low hundreds at this point. (close friends and family only right now)
While the NOOB's reviews aren't real deep, the strange thing is they contain more actual game info than Aventure tends to provide us, so we can be grateful for that. (and I don't need her reports translated from Italian or Greek, which is a bonus)
no its not close friends and family only
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
My first reaction was that this guy is joking. Then I realized what he said is not even remotely funny so I assume he is serious.
It's funny when he says someting dumb in CAPS and then finishes it with "think. then post."
We need more angry, dumb people on these forums
Again to be honest who the hell is this person? I never heard about her nor been to this site. Where are the casual people to confirm this instead of a devs friend(at least thats what i heard)?
This list of clarifications is about 1/3 of the preview so far.
Damage control at its finest.
Bonus points for the misleading title, no where does this say that Darkfall beta is bug free, that’s a damn lie.
This person is just a proxy mouth piece for Tasos and Aventurine in my opinion.
Anyone who considers this a legitimate preview is very silly in my opinion, you can clearly see this person is desperately trying to be as evasive and vague as possible, even when making "clarifications"!
There is very little new or of any substance, its mostly fluff, nothing definitive, totally subjective.
Nice to see we have moved on from the “I don’t know anything about this game” slant to the “this is for people who don’t know anything about this game” routine.
So this is the only “substantial” beta preview we have and its by someone who professes to not know much about the game and is apparently aimed for people who don’t know much about the game, yeah right.
This is a mutual publicity arrangement, its payback for all the years they hosted this persons site, and after all what are friends for?
I wonder if this and the other beta “review” from mmorpg Italia is just part of Aventurine’s pre delay publicity or if this really is their pre launch publicity, I hope not.
The reason I did this angry hate filled rant was entirely because we did not hear anything more about Goblins today, hopefully after today’s unnecessary clarifications we will get back to the goblins again tomorrow.
he's trolling. there is zero evidence that it's exclusively close family/friends. in fact the beta leaks so far show the opposite.
With regards to your other post where you now redefined what you meant about gaming companies not getting a "full preview" you should have said that the first time I'm thinking, instead of making the broad, sweeping and non-factual statements like you did the first time.
I can agree, DF's behavior is suspiciously like like another game this year, with their careful display of just the starter areas. That's right, its like AOC/Funcom. Mythic took their game on the road for many months and showed of almost all of its features before it released.
With regard to my other comment above being "trolling", I will direct you to the part where I said "if I was to make a total guess"
Again, you like to throw the troll label around like it hurts me or something. Guess what, it doesn't. I freely admit to being a troll if that's how you wish to define it.
In the end, you really don't know any more about the real state of the DF beta than I do.
(edit, and it really pisses you off)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Aventurine has hosted this persons website since 2005 and they have been a good friend of Tasos and Claus for many years by their own admission.
No need to say anymore about the veracity of this rather dismal publicity attempt.
In my opinion they wont let anyone who’s not a friend, a supporter or a member of their community staff beta test this game and do a preview/review of it because if the truth got out it would be disastrous for them.
Aventurine has hosted this persons website since 2005 and they have been a good friend of Tasos and Claus for many years by their own admission.
No need to say anymore about the veracity of this rather dismal publicity attempt.
In my opinion they wont let anyone who’s not a friend, a supporter or a member of their community staff beta test this game and do a preview/review of it because if the truth got out it would be disastrous for them.
shes still be honest with us
nice troll (lol @ you if this isn't a troll post). Srsly why do people complain when we get more info, and then complain that there's no new info when we don't
When I'm energetic I'm:
the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
When I'm at default I'm:
WHITE/BLUE
Lol according to this I'm bipolar :O
BECAUSE IT'S NOT YET RELEASED.
NO COMPANY EVER SHOWS ITS GAME TO NEWS SITES BEFORE IT'S BEEN RELEASED.
think. then post.
yes, you should
or to give you the benefit of the doubt - do you live on a very tiny island in the vicinity of iceland maybe?