Listen, this is all you need to know: Darkfall has a gorgeous game world (Argon) that obviously took many years to make and is incredible. The suns, moons and shadows of the game world are incredible. Everything else, absolutely sucks...!
Darkfall = Turd Sandwich
Heh, the best part of DFO is the gameplay.
The only thing that sux is practicaly lack of safty in newbie zones, very unpolished (but great) environment effects and crap model animation (except mounts maybe).
If you are not up only to graphics details and know that you are not safe in newbie area the game is great. Of course everything is question of personal taste. The fact that someone do not like it or even have not tried to understand the gameplay do not mean DF sux.
Everyone have to understand that Sandbox and Theme park MMOs have compleately different gameplay in exactly the same way as RTS and FPS are differnt. The only common thing in MMOs is the grinding, just with different look and feel.
Where themepark games try to hide that they are copying WOW, games like Mortal Online and Darkfall make no attempt to hide their inspiration ______\m/_____ LordOfDarkDesire
Is that about right? Is there anything else I - and other Darkfall potential players - should know?
If you see a review that seems overly positive or overly negative, just do a search on the poster's history.
If that person has been a rabid crazed fan, it's probably not as good a picture as they are painting.
Conversely, if you see someone with a history of DF bashing long before the game was released ("This game will fail" "Won't launch" "Won't get more than 1,000 subs") then you can bet the game is no where as near as bad as they are portraying it either.
Take the "reviewers" words with a grain of salt. But by this time, you should be able to pick out who hates the game so bad that they'd want it to tube yesterday.
Well said popinjay.
Although then there are the new accounts that are created by both sides as well. There were quite a few new accounts created when the official forums were down for a few days and this forum became the unofficial "official" forums.
But yes, a person's posting history can give a pretty good idea of which way they lean. There have been very few who are truly neutral. It just isn't a game that lends itself to "fence-sitting".
My biggest peeve is when people have to resort to personal attacks to try and make their point. That is an automatic "fail" in my book. If you can't debate your opinion without degrading to personal attacks... then you probably need to go back and re-think your position.
Everything else is just part of posting and visiting internet forums in general.
The gamers that regularly visit forums will always be the minority. We may act like we represent a bigger percentage than we do from time to time... but again that is just the nature of the beast. The majority of a particular MMOs players will not be swayed one way or the other by anything posted on a gaming forum, official or otherwise.
The majority will stay and play, or leave... based on what they see first-hand. So in the end... the game does really have to speak for itself.
I understand that the order and delivery system is proving to be horribly clunky, and that there is a lengthy wait to get in game. These might be just launch bugs. As for the early game experience, character customisation is poor but the size and detail of the world is apparently spectacular. There is very little PVE of any interest because the game focuses primarily on PVP. As for the PVP, at low levels - and perhaps higher levels too - combat techniques are rudimentary and repetitive. However, people who have experienced PVP say that though it is simple the experience of hunting, ambushing, fighting, defending against or running away from your opponent is intensely enjoyable. At the moment, the prevalence of PKers is distorting the experience. As for crafting, housing and cities, judgement is still deferred. Is that about right? Is there anything else I - and other Darkfall potential players - should know?
If you can't decide if darkfall is good or not thats your own fault. You're looking for someone to make up your mind for you. If you like the features try the game yourself and decide on your own. That is what will need to happen anyway.
I think it's interesting that the number of posts on the Darkfall Forum is way more than the number on the EVE forum.
Both are quite unforgiving games with plenty of PvP and EVE has lots more regular players and has been going much longer.
Thing is, most of posts on the EVE forum are about the game...
..and the vast majority of posts of this forum are fanbois or haters mouthing off at each other.
I really think this forum has shown the lowest level of the MMO community. There was a time when people on game forums mostly talked about the games; and tactics; and what to level on; on what mobs they enjoyed fighting; and stuff about crafting etc. Mind you, there are better forums out there to be honest.
The UI is cumbersome and has responsiveness issues at times.
The Chat system needs love. You basically have a seperate chat Tab for every channel and cannot configure it in such as way as to have a single chat window with multiple channels.
The graphics are...ok. They've taken what I like to call an advance World of Warcraft approach. That is they don't have a large polygon count but try to make up for it in artistic detail. They do have an insane use of Shadows. EVERYTHING casts shadows and they seem to be constantly moving.
Everything is a skill--love this. Running, sprinting, crouch walking, casting with armor on, casting in general, etc etc.
You cannot drop objects in the game world - I don't like this.
Looting - You literally have to move one item at a time manually and any number of people can be looting the same corpse. I kinda like this I think. I refer to this process as Competitive Looting On the plus side, whatever items you see a creature using, it actually has for looting--this is good.
Mob AI - I think its better than most MMOs. To give an example, if you engage a goblin, he won't wait till he's nearly dead to run back for his friends assistance. They also can hear and spot you quite a ways off, if they do, they'll likely draw bows and get just within range and start pelting you with arrows. So far, there's no standing just 20 feet away and "pulling" a single mob..rinse repeat.
Crafting is a little disappointing for me. I don't like the idea that you have to go to a city and use "workbenches" to process raw goods. I'd hoped for the ability to live in the woods and carve out my own niche. There is a tremendous number of items characters can craft -- this is a good thing.
The world is dangerous -- this is a good thing. I like the realism of it.
Mobs in the world -- Presently you could walk for 5 - 10 minutes in real time and not encounter a creature of any kind. This needs to be rectified.
Harvesting in the world -- Nodes are plentiful.
Stealth -- There may be actual stealth, I've not seen it. What I do know is that people and objects don't have "floaty names", this means that holding still near objects in nature is a realistic form of camoflage--this is good. Crouch walking is quieter than walking. You can sneak up on things.
In summary, I'm still not sure what my overall opinion is. I'm still playing and hoping a little polish will be forthcoming in the next couple weeks.
I think it's interesting that the number of posts on the Darkfall Forum is way more than the number on the EVE forum. Both are quite unforgiving games with plenty of PvP and EVE has lots more regular players and has been going much longer. Thing is, most of posts on the EVE forum are about the game... ..and the vast majority of posts of this forum are fanbois or haters mouthing off at each other.
I really think this forum has shown the lowest level of the MMO community. There was a time when people on game forums mostly talked about the games; and tactics; and what to level on; on what mobs they enjoyed fighting; and stuff about crafting etc. Mind you, there are better forums out there to be honest.
Blame MMORPG.com for not moderating these forum..
The fans have asked for very long time to get the trolls banned ..
but having stuff members commenting "and how then should someone express his opinion about DarkFall is vaporware" shows the mentality of MMORPG.com stuff and how they wanted people to troll here and express their negative opinions about the game is vaporware..
This mentality hasn't changed with release.. they still allow the haters to attack these game ..
Despite in the RoC is to read "we will rate an opinion such x game sucks as an game attack" ..a reported topic got 14 pages named "This game sucks" ..you see whats going on here..
They don't care cause the don't get so much money like $OEgive them to "moderate" the forum over there ..
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE-------------------------------------------------- $OE - eternal enemy of online gaming -We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Darkfall is very different from other MMOs released in recent years. Usually when a new MMO comes out, people can just compare it to some other game already on the market, and you get a good idea for what to expect. You can just compare the differences, and then argue about whether they are in Game A or Game Bs favor.
Not so with Darkfall. The only thing you can compare Darkfall with is Darkfall, or rather what people expected it to be like.
There are people who hate everything about it with a passion. They're not lying. The game does not have all the features they thought it would have, and the ones that are in, are not implemented the way they wanted them to be. Worst game ever.
There are people who love Darkfall. They are not lying either. It feels different from the boring norm. Playing it is rewarding. It's FUN. There is no way to explain why it feels rewarding, and fresh, and fun, though.
Playing Darkfall is like playing Darkfall. I like it, a lot, but I can not say with confidence that some other, random person will feel the same way, based on other games they like. It's like a friend of mine who was trying to convince me to play WotLK by saying "The game is so great now! I can solo like 20 mobs at a time, and kill people in 3 seconds with my rogue!". People just want different things from their gaming experience.
im fairly in the middle about the game,im neither a troll or fanboy-although my opinions have unfortunately upset a lot of the more hardcore fanbois,though im not really interested in them.
So says the guy with the "Order of the White Border" on his avatar, who had his fun going along with the "vaporware" trolls who have now made new accounts to bash the game anonymously now because of their embarrassment of being so wrong about it.
Really, you should remove that if you want to try and pass for some type of "balanced" reviewer of Darkfall, or wonder why you upset hardcore fans.
Kind of like someone wearing a swastika lapel pin saying he's not really biased against minorities, then goes on to give an "honest" opinion of the Holocaust Day activities.
I would like to defend the Order of the White Border. We are not all the vaporware trolls, we were mostly the skeptics who needed a distraction from all the drama. It's all joke and sarcasm... Don't take our avatars as negatives, but look at our post history.
Clearly there are some things about Darkfall that are not to be liked. Personally however, the things I do like about Darkfall out weigh the bad. By a pretty substantial amount.
I have a difficult time recommending the game to RL friends because I know they don't have the patience to play the game. Many are quite Wowified and the drastic change from the norm would put them off. It reminds me somewhat of pre-cu SWG, at least I get alot of those same feelings when playing. I attribute this to how immersed I find myself while playing.
It is all the little things that I truely love about this game. On more than one occasion I have been running for my life and loot from several enemies. Having multiple arrows sticking out of my body and my health quickly diminishing I make it to some ruins or structures of some sort. Quickly I turn a corner and duck into an outcropping of the structures wall, just a little corner only able to conceal my body from one direction of view. The direction of my pursuers. I cringe as they run by, so close I could reach out and touch them, one ...... two ........three ....... then run as fast as I can the opposite direction.
I love the lack of a radar ........ you can actually sneak up behind someone or follow them, and unless they turn around and bust you ........ they have no idea. Note: While doing this ......... make sure you look behind you!
I recently acquired a knock back hit for my melee weapon and have found it invaluable when fighting multiple enemies. Last night I was returning from some loot gathering and encountered two enemies hanging out on a cliff waiting for unsuspecting victims. I saw the shining/twinkle of ones weapon or armor from way off so I had the advantage. I took the long way around and pretty much snuck up behind them. On a little closer inspection I saw one decked out in plate armor with sword, another alot less armored sporting a bow.
I raised up from crouched position and whipped out my bow. I managed three hits on the less armored one before they realised where I was. They began running towards me, the armored one clearly going to arive first. I kited him to the edge of the cliff and pulled out my melee weapon. Upon his arrival I quickly got him between the edge of the cliff and myself. Knockback don't fail me now.........one hit and he was gone. Literally ....... flying back off the edge of the cliff ...... gone. His buddy was easy pickings from there as my bow shots had brought his health about half way down. I finished him off with a few more arrows in the back once he realized his partner was no longer any help. Good times ......
You seem to have options when confronted with greater number/stronger enemies. It quite simply is not instant death. Don't get me wrong. Many times I have been PvEing, my health beat down and I never saw the person sneak up behind me and quickly takes me out. This happens daily and is incredibly frustrating if I've got a bag full of loot. It adds to the immersion.
Lately the queue thing has straight up sucked. Over an hour to get into the game is unacceptable. Been dealing with occasional sync issues. Where I'll be fighting a MOB and it will freeze for a few seconds or reappear in a new location some feet away. I believe they have let too many people in the only server they have as these things are time of day related issues. I wouldn't be writing this except I'm stuck in queue. Primetime is rough. I am playing from the US with a ping of 140-160.
Meh ....... Darkfall is certainly a change of pace. It is a little rough around the edges. I like it ........ alot.
~Hairysun~
P.S. Feel free to check through my post history. I'm no fanboi ...... or at least I wasn't. Depending on how far you go back, troll would more likely apply.
im fairly in the middle about the game,im neither a troll or fanboy-although my opinions have unfortunately upset a lot of the more hardcore fanbois,though im not really interested in them.
So says the guy with the "Order of the White Border" on his avatar, who had his fun going along with the "vaporware" trolls who have now made new accounts to bash the game anonymously now because of their embarrassment of being so wrong about it.
Really, you should remove that if you want to try and pass for some type of "balanced" reviewer of Darkfall, or wonder why you upset hardcore fans.
Kind of like someone wearing a swastika lapel pin saying he's not really biased against minorities, then goes on to give an "honest" opinion of the Holocaust Day activities.
the order of the white border was a piss take on the rabidness of darkfalls fanbois,in the way that even the slightest bit of news would send them into a frenzied whirlwind of boasting and bravado. people like yourself,for example,who will pick at any even slight point in an argument and spin it over and over if they dont have any ammunition,again,much like yourself.
fanbois will also tend to use insults when backed into a corner or come up with bizarre counter arguments rather than face questions head on.much like yourself. by all means make a few videos of the amazing darkfall combat and put them up here, as all other videos so far have been declared smear campaigns by the fanbois,or if you can tuse that arguement,made by trolls and haters.or no,its a beta video,its nothing like that now!
I upset the hardcore fanbois because I havent spun the truth and told tall tales about the super advanced Ai and amazing combat,neither of which exist. ive been positive in other aspecst of the game,but of course in a fanboi mind,any critisism however slight will be met with childlike insults,foot stamping and straw grasping.
the order of the white border is still strong my brothers,all those who defy the greatness of the saviour tasos and the almighty darkfall will be smite upon where they stand!
I understand that the order and delivery system is proving to be horribly clunky, and that there is a lengthy wait to get in game. These might be just launch bugs. As for the early game experience, character customisation is poor but the size and detail of the world is apparently spectacular. There is very little PVE of any interest because the game focuses primarily on PVP. As for the PVP, at low levels - and perhaps higher levels too - combat techniques are rudimentary and repetitive. However, people who have experienced PVP say that though it is simple the experience of hunting, ambushing, fighting, defending against or running away from your opponent is intensely enjoyable. At the moment, the prevalence of PKers is distorting the experience. As for crafting, housing and cities, judgement is still deferred. Is that about right? Is there anything else I - and other Darkfall potential players - should know?
Look at it this way: Even if you wanted to get it no matter what, you'd have to be lucky to get an order for it in the limited timeframe they put up daily. And even if you get your order (Huzzah!), you'lle have to wait in the queue for (And this is only hearsay) an hour or so (Booooo!).
Yet.........I'm still curious about how it plays....
im fairly in the middle about the game,im neither a troll or fanboy-although my opinions have unfortunately upset a lot of the more hardcore fanbois,though im not really interested in them.
So says the guy with the "Order of the White Border" on his avatar, who had his fun going along with the "vaporware" trolls who have now made new accounts to bash the game anonymously now because of their embarrassment of being so wrong about it.
Really, you should remove that if you want to try and pass for some type of "balanced" reviewer of Darkfall, or wonder why you upset hardcore fans.
Kind of like someone wearing a swastika lapel pin saying he's not really biased against minorities, then goes on to give an "honest" opinion of the Holocaust Day activities.
the order of the white border was a piss take on the rabidness of darkfalls fanbois,in the way that even the slightest bit of news would send them into a frenzied whirlwind of boasting and bravado.
that's the funniest thing about you trolls - you think *you're* the ones doing the trolling. hook, line, sinker everytime.
TASOS is the one that promoted the super advanced npc ai (completely pve there) and darkfall is the game with the website that talks about TONS of wonderful pve'ness.
"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. "
haters are simply clueless.
tasos *clearly* said their AI wasn't super good, he said it was good enough to count as pvp training. and it succeeds in that very well. PVE mobs act & play a lot like players. yes, a few mobs were/are/will be bugged, but shit happens.
Yup, that's a pretty good quote to emphasis your opinion of the NPC AI.
However, you must have not seen a couple of these other quotes from Tasos on the subject as well. Read through these as well, and you might be able to see why a person could come up with the opinion that Tasos really was promoting the DarkFall AI as something very special.
"In Darkfall the game doesn't really distinguish between a player and the AI. The AI are bots actually living their life and skilling up within the game. The AI has been helping us test a large part of the game almost as if players were in it. "
"MOBs have kill-on-sight lists. The player characters are on most of them, and in some cases other MOBs as well. Monsters can detect players through sight, sound, and smell. You can probably sneak up on a monster from behind, while moving crouched and downwind. "
"Darkfall NPCs go about their lives and level up as they age. Because the NPC AI is so sophisticated and seems exactly like a player to the servers, the NPCs themselves are doing a fair amount of game testing just by running around and exploring."
"Darkfall's real-time combat system, advanced monster AI, dynamic spawning, and interconnected adventure areas make for a uniquely challenging player vs. environment experience."
I'll let the quotes I posted with their links speak for themselves.
I think the readers here are smart enough to come up with their own opinion of whether Tasos promoted DarkFall's PvE with "ADVANCED AI" or "NOT REVOLUTIONARY".
But then again... I may just be clueless.
so: you're cherrypicking just the quotes that suggest the AI is super advanced but ignore the quote from an article called "Artifical Intelligence" that clearly states they do not consider the AI revolutionary? hmm.
the AI *is* advanced, not revolutionary. none of those quotes say "super advanced", as the other guy claimed. mob *do* detect players by sound (crouching & walking = less agro radius), and smell does work (approaching downwind = less agro radius). in other words, Tasos called it spot on.
Honestly if something has this much negative vibes then thats a bad sign. Look at VG, AoC, even WAR. All had this and all ended up gutter trash. DF is a large and pointless UT3 map. If you dont want to pvp 24/7 or macro harvesting then it wont be the game for you. Also look at how the company runs itself. Shouldnt be a hard decision.
and which ones have you played? I'm willing to bet not over 1 or 2 of them, and definitely not darkfall.
I hadn't really followed the games development.. so I don't consider myself fanboi or troll for this game.
I was going to buy it simply because I was bored out of my skull.
So my response for the OP would be this... I pretty much decided that by the time I could buy this product one of the ones I have been following would be on the market. So that made up my mind for me... that's just me.
Its just rather an odd concept (to me) to release a game that most people can't buy.. pre-order or whatever term they are using. That seems to be the biggest issue so far to be honest.. Most people who were curious enough to buy it.. can't.
Honestly if something has this much negative vibes then thats a bad sign. Look at VG, AoC, even WAR. All had this and all ended up gutter trash. DF is a large and pointless UT3 map. If you dont want to pvp 24/7 or macro harvesting then it wont be the game for you. Also look at how the company runs itself. Shouldnt be a hard decision.
I'm beginning to think that this is the case (I won't put in the "pointless" comment because you could argue that with any game). That is not to say this is a negative thing. If that is your kind of game, more power to you. I just don't think it will be my thing.
The only way to know is to try the game out...but I'm not going to play the mini game of purchasing this thing. There is no way a game is that good. I'll wait until it is easily purchased.
It's a proven historical fact that beer saved humankind.
I can't be arsed to read all the thread - sorry. If my post adds something, great - its at least honest.
The bad:
1. The account system and the launch itself regarding the accounts was startlingly poor, and is still so. Embarrassingly bad, Aventurine deserves its reputation suffering over it. It really was and is unprofessional no matter how you slice it.
2. The recent queue times. If this isn't fixed as promised, soon, it will exacerbate things.
3. The small number of clan stones. This coupled with the unreasonable risk that clans with no clanstone must put forward in order to challenge for one makes the lucky clans who got a critical mass of their folks in game the lottery winners and holders of hamlets and cities. There either needs to be more clan spots or more servers soon, truly. This is very important and not to be underestimated - clans need at least reasonably accessible shared goals, without it they will move en mass to other games and that is the brass tacks of it.
4. The rogue system. Folks simply unclan themselves and act the asshat via the rogue system. This is very irritating especially around cities to no positive end. Tweak it? Maybe. Just make it true FFA and do away with combat in NPC towns in my view, it takes a whole lot less quasimoding it and asshats can be served.
5. Polearms. Self exlpanatory, they are noticably better than the others for PVP and no worse for PVE. Needs fixed.
6. Race size difference. No reason at all to have some races far taller and more visible than others, especially considering the giant of the races, Mahirim, has been given no racial ability and no ETA when it will be in.
7. Tight lipped development team. They only update when they absolutely have to and give us almost nothing to go on. That is fine for alpha/beta. It isn't sustainable to paying customers long term, it simply isn't. Tasos could and should be replaced as their frontman if he won't shift gears.
The good:
1. It is a fairly large world, even taking the low movement speed issue into account (which artificially magnifies the effect). It does feel sandbox, and has a lot of the same feel as early UO as far as level of danger and that sort of thing.
2. The shadows. The shadows really are gorgeous, I feel bad for folks who have kneejerk turned them off. They are the best visual thing about the game and my hats off to Aventurine.
3. It is new. Which means you can't wiki your way out of things. Crafted items, even low ones have value. Not so much an advantage of the game as it is the circumstance - its transient as it is in all of these early games.
4. Its combat system does think outside the box and there are some positive elements to it, it actively tries to make it skill base, and succeeds here and there.
5. It is full loot. Enough said.
6. It has a large first person element.
7. It is more challenging than the run of the mill MMO.
That about sums up all the major things that come to mind. One could hair split all of them and I'm sure folks will if this thread hasn't already run its course, but they are honest.
The negatives could be fixed, but if they are ingored or only fixed half ass? Then I have my doubts that Darkfall has legs.
It has potential. I'm enjoying it, for now. I can see it either running its course quickly or gaining traction, neither is gauranteed.
You know the OP is getting a nice glass of irony served with a bowl of Shut the Hell Up. Pure Karma in action.
For over 3+ yrs, him and his fellow SWG vets have run their mouths constantly all over MMORPG.com....insulting anyone and everyone that would deal with SOE. Not for playing SWG...we are talking any SOE game. Spam and hate was the MO.
Now all of a sudden that it is something he is interested in, he is bringing up the fact of the chaos on the forums. Something he has added to all this time.
Truly priceless.
Although I gotta admit, listening to Darth whine is perhaps the funniest. They should of kept their vendetta to SWG itself, and not included other games like EQ and EQ2 to try inflicting harm...whose players had nothing to do with them losing their PRECioUs.
I feel sorry for the folks who had nothing to do with the vets, and are wanting to see DF succeed. For the other nimrods though, who would of luved to of had a nice sandbox, it will be fitting if this train wreck does indeed fail.
Couldnt of happened to a nicer bunch of misfits.
Next time I suggest paying attention to your own games, rather than trying to inflict harm upon someone elses. Cause as it stands right now, even if this game does survive, it will be a long time recovering from this abomination of a launch. Which is fitting for people that went out of their way to try and harm others gaming interests.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
I understand that the order and delivery system is proving to be horribly clunky, and that there is a lengthy wait to get in game. These might be just launch bugs. As for the early game experience, character customisation is poor but the size and detail of the world is apparently spectacular. There is very little PVE of any interest because the game focuses primarily on PVP. As for the PVP, at low levels - and perhaps higher levels too - combat techniques are rudimentary and repetitive. However, people who have experienced PVP say that though it is simple the experience of hunting, ambushing, fighting, defending against or running away from your opponent is intensely enjoyable. At the moment, the prevalence of PKers is distorting the experience. As for crafting, housing and cities, judgement is still deferred. Is that about right? Is there anything else I - and other Darkfall potential players - should know?
I have not played it yet, but if you will enjoy it all depends on the type of game you are looking for.
From the people I personally know who have played the game, most of them enjoy it.
Sure there are fanboys, sure there are haters. Thing I have noticed is that a large amount of the haters have not even actually played the game, and a large of them actually started hating because of the issues with being able to purchase an account.
I dont understand why the people on these boards work how they do though. If someone posts that they enjoy the game, the "haters" immediately label the person a fanboy, and spend their time trying to talk them out of enjoying the game. Why waste the time? They are not going to talk someone out of enjoying the game. They just make it seem like there are many more "fanboys" then there actually is.
Then the "real" fanboys join in to defend the game, and it all goes down hill from there... which is why your in the position you are in now - not knowing what information is best.
But in the end - just like every other game - if you enjoy it is entirely up to you - and since this is an MMO it is also dependant on the group of people you play with. You cant really experience how good an MMO is without having a few regulars to play with - so that you can start to form strategies and tactics with eachother.
So if you are still interested in the game at this point, why not give it a try? Make sure you find a group of players to try it with - and that is the only way you will be able to find out if the game is for you.
(Edit: I did not read thru the entire post, but just reading thru some, you see what I said is true - alot of the people trash talking the game have not even really played. Some "claim" to have played - but only "trying a friends account" or something similar. That is not really trying the game. As I said, you need to play with others to see what a game is really like.
This is an MMO. You simply cant say you have really gave the game a legitimate try unless you have spent some time working on and learning your own character, and interacting with others reguarly. Hell, you cant even say you have really gave an MMO a fair try if you have only played a week either. They take time to learn and get in to.
Only haters will try to convince you that "because there is so much hate that must mean the game is bad". Especially when hate comes from unreliable sources. Look at every MMO in existence - they all have their share of haters.
Noone is able to tell you if you will enjoy OR dislike a game. If they attempt to - that ruins their own credibilty. You should not take advice from ANYONE who tries to tell you either of these things. That is how you could tell if someone is really a fanboy or a hater.
The only advice you should really take from anyone here is information on how certain things work. If they say "the games amazing youll love it", dont listen. If they say "this game sucks", dont listen. Keep a neutral point of view and if the mechanics seem intriguing to you, give them a try and you will be able to decide yourself. )
I can't be arsed to read all the thread - sorry. If my post adds something, great - its at least honest.
The bad: 1. The account system and the launch itself regarding the accounts was startlingly poor, and is still so. Embarrassingly bad, Aventurine deserves its reputation suffering over it. It really was and is unprofessional no matter how you slice it. 2. The recent queue times. If this isn't fixed as promised, soon, it will exacerbate things. 3. The small number of clan stones. This coupled with the unreasonable risk that clans with no clanstone must put forward in order to challenge for one makes the lucky clans who got a critical mass of their folks in game the lottery winners and holders of hamlets and cities. There either needs to be more clan spots or more servers soon, truly. This is very important and not to be underestimated - clans need at least reasonably accessible shared goals, without it they will move en mass to other games and that is the brass tacks of it. 4. The rogue system. Folks simply unclan themselves and act the asshat via the rogue system. This is very irritating especially around cities to no positive end. Tweak it? Maybe. Just make it true FFA and do away with combat in NPC towns in my view, it takes a whole lot less quasimoding it and asshats can be served. 5. Polearms. Self exlpanatory, they are noticably better than the others for PVP and no worse for PVE. Needs fixed. 6. Race size difference. No reason at all to have some races far taller and more visible than others, especially considering the giant of the races, Mahirim, has been given no racial ability and no ETA when it will be in. 7. Tight lipped development team. They only update when they absolutely have to and give us almost nothing to go on. That is fine for alpha/beta. It isn't sustainable to paying customers long term, it simply isn't. Tasos could and should be replaced as their frontman if he won't shift gears.
The good: 1. It is a fairly large world, even taking the low movement speed issue into account (which artificially magnifies the effect). It does feel sandbox, and has a lot of the same feel as early UO as far as level of danger and that sort of thing. 2. The shadows. The shadows really are gorgeous, I feel bad for folks who have kneejerk turned them off. They are the best visual thing about the game and my hats off to Aventurine. 3. It is new. Which means you can't wiki your way out of things. Crafted items, even low ones have value. Not so much an advantage of the game as it is the circumstance - its transient as it is in all of these early games. 4. Its combat system does think outside the box and there are some positive elements to it, it actively tries to make it skill base, and succeeds here and there. 5. It is full loot. Enough said. 6. It has a large first person element. 7. It is more challenging than the run of the mill MMO.
That about sums up all the major things that come to mind. One could hair split all of them and I'm sure folks will if this thread hasn't already run its course, but they are honest. The negatives could be fixed, but if they are ingored or only fixed half ass? Then I have my doubts that Darkfall has legs. It has potential. I'm enjoying it, for now. I can see it either running its course quickly or gaining traction, neither is gauranteed. If my post helped anyone, righto. If not, *shrug.
You have summed it up very well this is very accurate how all pro's and con's are!
Number 3. you mentioned can be a huge gamebreaker if thats not fix many will leave in few months.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009..... In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I have played a few days and I think I can sum it up in a few paragraphs. The player base is the most rotten bunch you will run across. Most of the players are hardcore mmorpgers who have deluded themselves into thinking mmorpg are skill based and not time based. Don't start an Alfar. They stand outside of town and kill each other. For the most part the game is a laggy pile of crap and queue times are several hours. I have been in the queue for 4 hours today. I think I am going to give up and go buy some shrimp and make me some boiled cajun shrimp for dinner, yummy. The game is a novelty and should not be taken seriously. In its current form it wont be around in a few months. The company running it appears inept. If you want a layed back gaming experience that is reliable and friendly and has decent gfx, try wow or Warhammer, etc. If you want a cutthroat 22 year old male "I am more leet than you" circle jerk with 10000000 bugs and hours of losing items and other frustration, try DF. Another thing is that you can't just buy the game. You have to smash a button at very cryptic hours of the day and hope to be one of the 100 people in the world to get the game. It is a big racket and will be one of those stories mmorpgers look back on and talk about for years to come like NGE and SOE horror stories. As far as stuff to do in the game, it is staggering when you realize that they ran out of money to populate the world with mobs. I have never seen anything like it in all my days of playing mmorpg. Most of the fanboys will say stupid, ignorant things like "that is how it is supposed to be", etc. but that isn't true. There is no way they made such a huge world with the intention of not putting mobs in it. I am not joking when I am saying that you could go out into an open forest and plain and find more stuff to kill like deer and squirrels than there are in this game. There are sparse patches of goblins that people stand around and gank eachother at but besides that I haven't seen one mob in maybe 20 square miles of exploration. You can literally run for one hour and never see anything. Hopefully with some of the launch money they will add mobs.
As far as who hates and who loves the game, I joined a hardcore guild last night and some chick fangirl was raging about how the game sucked and she was going to quit because she had just lost her 5th horse in a day or two because of bugs. Also, she said the GM she was talking to was useless and they just waste your time. Even the fans are having a hard time it seems.
Never played the game and I don't plan to, nothing in this looks/sounds interesting... IMO looks a lot like RYL and has the same FPS style game play... thats probably nearly 10 years old..
darkfall made me wet the bed in anticipation. like five times. once per day I tried to get in. I still haven't gotten in, but I know this game is going to be so cool that I will probably wet the bed again, but not in anticipation. In like, what would you say is the opposite of anticipation? playingcipation. I'm going to wet the bed in playingcipation.
I understand that the order and delivery system is proving to be horribly clunky, and that there is a lengthy wait to get in game. These might be just launch bugs. As for the early game experience, character customisation is poor but the size and detail of the world is apparently spectacular. There is very little PVE of any interest because the game focuses primarily on PVP. As for the PVP, at low levels - and perhaps higher levels too - combat techniques are rudimentary and repetitive. However, people who have experienced PVP say that though it is simple the experience of hunting, ambushing, fighting, defending against or running away from your opponent is intensely enjoyable. At the moment, the prevalence of PKers is distorting the experience. As for crafting, housing and cities, judgement is still deferred. Is that about right? Is there anything else I - and other Darkfall potential players - should know?
Dude, what do you need to know? Are you a miserable f*ck who would enjoy a MUD if it allowed you to roam free and gank people for no reason, living our your fantasties of being a criminal piece of trash?
Or are you a real gamer that plays a mix of MMOs, FPS, RTSs, and knows what a good game really is?
Look at this game:
Crappy sound effects. Crappy animations. Crappy GUI. Crappy inadequate chat system. No voice chat. Weak monster spawn system. Archaic combat system. Huge queue times. Lag. Piss poor community. No NA servers. The list goes on.
You have to be an idiot to call this game good. And anyone who thinks this game is going to be fixed in less than a year is a complete moron. Look how long it takes a REAL company, such as EA or Valve, to fix simple little bugs and balance issues in their games. It takes MONTHS. Here we are talking about an MMO developed by some dumb as$ skeleton crew company. Think they going to have things patched up next week? Think again.
This game has attracted a worthless abusive crowd of players much like what you saw in UO and EvE. Scum of the earth trash who wouldn't lift a finger for their own mother.
If you consider yourself one of those players, then fire it up. Me, no thanks.
Comments
Heh, the best part of DFO is the gameplay.
The only thing that sux is practicaly lack of safty in newbie zones, very unpolished (but great) environment effects and crap model animation (except mounts maybe).
If you are not up only to graphics details and know that you are not safe in newbie area the game is great. Of course everything is question of personal taste. The fact that someone do not like it or even have not tried to understand the gameplay do not mean DF sux.
Everyone have to understand that Sandbox and Theme park MMOs have compleately different gameplay in exactly the same way as RTS and FPS are differnt. The only common thing in MMOs is the grinding, just with different look and feel.
Where themepark games try to hide that they are copying WOW, games like Mortal Online and Darkfall make no attempt to hide their inspiration
______\m/_____
LordOfDarkDesire
If you see a review that seems overly positive or overly negative, just do a search on the poster's history.
If that person has been a rabid crazed fan, it's probably not as good a picture as they are painting.
Conversely, if you see someone with a history of DF bashing long before the game was released ("This game will fail" "Won't launch" "Won't get more than 1,000 subs") then you can bet the game is no where as near as bad as they are portraying it either.
Take the "reviewers" words with a grain of salt. But by this time, you should be able to pick out who hates the game so bad that they'd want it to tube yesterday.
Well said popinjay.
Although then there are the new accounts that are created by both sides as well. There were quite a few new accounts created when the official forums were down for a few days and this forum became the unofficial "official" forums.
But yes, a person's posting history can give a pretty good idea of which way they lean. There have been very few who are truly neutral. It just isn't a game that lends itself to "fence-sitting".
My biggest peeve is when people have to resort to personal attacks to try and make their point. That is an automatic "fail" in my book. If you can't debate your opinion without degrading to personal attacks... then you probably need to go back and re-think your position.
Everything else is just part of posting and visiting internet forums in general.
The gamers that regularly visit forums will always be the minority. We may act like we represent a bigger percentage than we do from time to time... but again that is just the nature of the beast. The majority of a particular MMOs players will not be swayed one way or the other by anything posted on a gaming forum, official or otherwise.
The majority will stay and play, or leave... based on what they see first-hand. So in the end... the game does really have to speak for itself.
If you can't decide if darkfall is good or not thats your own fault. You're looking for someone to make up your mind for you. If you like the features try the game yourself and decide on your own. That is what will need to happen anyway.
I think it's interesting that the number of posts on the Darkfall Forum is way more than the number on the EVE forum.
Both are quite unforgiving games with plenty of PvP and EVE has lots more regular players and has been going much longer.
Thing is, most of posts on the EVE forum are about the game...
..and the vast majority of posts of this forum are fanbois or haters mouthing off at each other.
I really think this forum has shown the lowest level of the MMO community. There was a time when people on game forums mostly talked about the games; and tactics; and what to level on; on what mobs they enjoyed fighting; and stuff about crafting etc. Mind you, there are better forums out there to be honest.
Assorted Observations
The UI is cumbersome and has responsiveness issues at times.
The Chat system needs love. You basically have a seperate chat Tab for every channel and cannot configure it in such as way as to have a single chat window with multiple channels.
The graphics are...ok. They've taken what I like to call an advance World of Warcraft approach. That is they don't have a large polygon count but try to make up for it in artistic detail. They do have an insane use of Shadows. EVERYTHING casts shadows and they seem to be constantly moving.
Everything is a skill--love this. Running, sprinting, crouch walking, casting with armor on, casting in general, etc etc.
You cannot drop objects in the game world - I don't like this.
Looting - You literally have to move one item at a time manually and any number of people can be looting the same corpse. I kinda like this I think. I refer to this process as Competitive Looting
On the plus side, whatever items you see a creature using, it actually has for looting--this is good.
Mob AI - I think its better than most MMOs. To give an example, if you engage a goblin, he won't wait till he's nearly dead to run back for his friends assistance. They also can hear and spot you quite a ways off, if they do, they'll likely draw bows and get just within range and start pelting you with arrows. So far, there's no standing just 20 feet away and "pulling" a single mob..rinse repeat.
Crafting is a little disappointing for me. I don't like the idea that you have to go to a city and use "workbenches" to process raw goods. I'd hoped for the ability to live in the woods and carve out my own niche. There is a tremendous number of items characters can craft -- this is a good thing.
The world is dangerous -- this is a good thing. I like the realism of it.
Mobs in the world -- Presently you could walk for 5 - 10 minutes in real time and not encounter a creature of any kind. This needs to be rectified.
Harvesting in the world -- Nodes are plentiful.
Stealth -- There may be actual stealth, I've not seen it. What I do know is that people and objects don't have "floaty names", this means that holding still near objects in nature is a realistic form of camoflage--this is good. Crouch walking is quieter than walking. You can sneak up on things.
In summary, I'm still not sure what my overall opinion is. I'm still playing and hoping a little polish will be forthcoming in the next couple weeks.
Blame MMORPG.com for not moderating these forum..
The fans have asked for very long time to get the trolls banned ..
but having stuff members commenting "and how then should someone express his opinion about DarkFall is vaporware" shows the mentality of MMORPG.com stuff and how they wanted people to troll here and express their negative opinions about the game is vaporware..
This mentality hasn't changed with release.. they still allow the haters to attack these game ..
Despite in the RoC is to read "we will rate an opinion such x game sucks as an game attack" ..a reported topic got 14 pages named "This game sucks" ..you see whats going on here..
They don't care cause the don't get so much money like $OEgive them to "moderate" the forum over there ..
-----MY-TERMS-OF-USE--------------------------------------------------
$OE - eternal enemy of online gaming
-We finally WON !!!! 2011 $OE accepted that they have been fired 2005 by the playerbase and closed down ridiculous NGE !!
"There was suppression of speech and all kinds of things between disturbing and fascistic." Raph Koster (parted $OE)
Darkfall is very different from other MMOs released in recent years. Usually when a new MMO comes out, people can just compare it to some other game already on the market, and you get a good idea for what to expect. You can just compare the differences, and then argue about whether they are in Game A or Game Bs favor.
Not so with Darkfall. The only thing you can compare Darkfall with is Darkfall, or rather what people expected it to be like.
There are people who hate everything about it with a passion. They're not lying. The game does not have all the features they thought it would have, and the ones that are in, are not implemented the way they wanted them to be. Worst game ever.
There are people who love Darkfall. They are not lying either. It feels different from the boring norm. Playing it is rewarding. It's FUN. There is no way to explain why it feels rewarding, and fresh, and fun, though.
Playing Darkfall is like playing Darkfall. I like it, a lot, but I can not say with confidence that some other, random person will feel the same way, based on other games they like. It's like a friend of mine who was trying to convince me to play WotLK by saying "The game is so great now! I can solo like 20 mobs at a time, and kill people in 3 seconds with my rogue!". People just want different things from their gaming experience.
So says the guy with the "Order of the White Border" on his avatar, who had his fun going along with the "vaporware" trolls who have now made new accounts to bash the game anonymously now because of their embarrassment of being so wrong about it.
Really, you should remove that if you want to try and pass for some type of "balanced" reviewer of Darkfall, or wonder why you upset hardcore fans.
Kind of like someone wearing a swastika lapel pin saying he's not really biased against minorities, then goes on to give an "honest" opinion of the Holocaust Day activities.
I would like to defend the Order of the White Border. We are not all the vaporware trolls, we were mostly the skeptics who needed a distraction from all the drama. It's all joke and sarcasm... Don't take our avatars as negatives, but look at our post history.
-Almerel
Hello my old friend.
Clearly there are some things about Darkfall that are not to be liked. Personally however, the things I do like about Darkfall out weigh the bad. By a pretty substantial amount.
I have a difficult time recommending the game to RL friends because I know they don't have the patience to play the game. Many are quite Wowified and the drastic change from the norm would put them off. It reminds me somewhat of pre-cu SWG, at least I get alot of those same feelings when playing. I attribute this to how immersed I find myself while playing.
It is all the little things that I truely love about this game. On more than one occasion I have been running for my life and loot from several enemies. Having multiple arrows sticking out of my body and my health quickly diminishing I make it to some ruins or structures of some sort. Quickly I turn a corner and duck into an outcropping of the structures wall, just a little corner only able to conceal my body from one direction of view. The direction of my pursuers. I cringe as they run by, so close I could reach out and touch them, one ...... two ........three ....... then run as fast as I can the opposite direction.
I love the lack of a radar ........ you can actually sneak up behind someone or follow them, and unless they turn around and bust you ........ they have no idea. Note: While doing this ......... make sure you look behind you!
I recently acquired a knock back hit for my melee weapon and have found it invaluable when fighting multiple enemies. Last night I was returning from some loot gathering and encountered two enemies hanging out on a cliff waiting for unsuspecting victims. I saw the shining/twinkle of ones weapon or armor from way off so I had the advantage. I took the long way around and pretty much snuck up behind them. On a little closer inspection I saw one decked out in plate armor with sword, another alot less armored sporting a bow.
I raised up from crouched position and whipped out my bow. I managed three hits on the less armored one before they realised where I was. They began running towards me, the armored one clearly going to arive first. I kited him to the edge of the cliff and pulled out my melee weapon. Upon his arrival I quickly got him between the edge of the cliff and myself. Knockback don't fail me now.........one hit and he was gone. Literally ....... flying back off the edge of the cliff ...... gone. His buddy was easy pickings from there as my bow shots had brought his health about half way down. I finished him off with a few more arrows in the back once he realized his partner was no longer any help. Good times ......
You seem to have options when confronted with greater number/stronger enemies. It quite simply is not instant death. Don't get me wrong. Many times I have been PvEing, my health beat down and I never saw the person sneak up behind me and quickly takes me out. This happens daily and is incredibly frustrating if I've got a bag full of loot. It adds to the immersion.
Lately the queue thing has straight up sucked. Over an hour to get into the game is unacceptable. Been dealing with occasional sync issues. Where I'll be fighting a MOB and it will freeze for a few seconds or reappear in a new location some feet away. I believe they have let too many people in the only server they have as these things are time of day related issues. I wouldn't be writing this except I'm stuck in queue. Primetime is rough. I am playing from the US with a ping of 140-160.
Meh ....... Darkfall is certainly a change of pace. It is a little rough around the edges. I like it ........ alot.
~Hairysun~
P.S. Feel free to check through my post history. I'm no fanboi ...... or at least I wasn't. Depending on how far you go back, troll would more likely apply.
http://www.straightdope.com/
So says the guy with the "Order of the White Border" on his avatar, who had his fun going along with the "vaporware" trolls who have now made new accounts to bash the game anonymously now because of their embarrassment of being so wrong about it.
Really, you should remove that if you want to try and pass for some type of "balanced" reviewer of Darkfall, or wonder why you upset hardcore fans.
Kind of like someone wearing a swastika lapel pin saying he's not really biased against minorities, then goes on to give an "honest" opinion of the Holocaust Day activities.
the order of the white border was a piss take on the rabidness of darkfalls fanbois,in the way that even the slightest bit of news would send them into a frenzied whirlwind of boasting and bravado. people like yourself,for example,who will pick at any even slight point in an argument and spin it over and over if they dont have any ammunition,again,much like yourself.
fanbois will also tend to use insults when backed into a corner or come up with bizarre counter arguments rather than face questions head on.much like yourself. by all means make a few videos of the amazing darkfall combat and put them up here, as all other videos so far have been declared smear campaigns by the fanbois,or if you can tuse that arguement,made by trolls and haters.or no,its a beta video,its nothing like that now!
I upset the hardcore fanbois because I havent spun the truth and told tall tales about the super advanced Ai and amazing combat,neither of which exist. ive been positive in other aspecst of the game,but of course in a fanboi mind,any critisism however slight will be met with childlike insults,foot stamping and straw grasping.
the order of the white border is still strong my brothers,all those who defy the greatness of the saviour tasos and the almighty darkfall will be smite upon where they stand!
Look at it this way: Even if you wanted to get it no matter what, you'd have to be lucky to get an order for it in the limited timeframe they put up daily. And even if you get your order (Huzzah!), you'lle have to wait in the queue for (And this is only hearsay) an hour or so (Booooo!).
Yet.........I'm still curious about how it plays....
So says the guy with the "Order of the White Border" on his avatar, who had his fun going along with the "vaporware" trolls who have now made new accounts to bash the game anonymously now because of their embarrassment of being so wrong about it.
Really, you should remove that if you want to try and pass for some type of "balanced" reviewer of Darkfall, or wonder why you upset hardcore fans.
Kind of like someone wearing a swastika lapel pin saying he's not really biased against minorities, then goes on to give an "honest" opinion of the Holocaust Day activities.
the order of the white border was a piss take on the rabidness of darkfalls fanbois,in the way that even the slightest bit of news would send them into a frenzied whirlwind of boasting and bravado.
that's the funniest thing about you trolls - you think *you're* the ones doing the trolling. hook, line, sinker everytime.
classic example of a clueless hater. here's what tasos *actually* said:
"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. "
haters are simply clueless.
tasos *clearly* said their AI wasn't super good, he said it was good enough to count as pvp training. and it succeeds in that very well. PVE mobs act & play a lot like players. yes, a few mobs were/are/will be bugged, but shit happens.
Yup, that's a pretty good quote to emphasis your opinion of the NPC AI.
However, you must have not seen a couple of these other quotes from Tasos on the subject as well. Read through these as well, and you might be able to see why a person could come up with the opinion that Tasos really was promoting the DarkFall AI as something very special.
"In Darkfall the game doesn't really distinguish between a player and the AI. The AI are bots actually living their life and skilling up within the game. The AI has been helping us test a large part of the game almost as if players were in it. "
www.warcry.com/articles/view/devjournals/darkfalljournals/3570-Darkfall-Dev-Journal-25-Philosophy
"MOBs have kill-on-sight lists. The player characters are on most of them, and in some cases other MOBs as well. Monsters can detect players through sight, sound, and smell. You can probably sneak up on a monster from behind, while moving crouched and downwind. "
www.warcry.com/articles/view/devjournals/darkfalljournals/3329-Darkfall-Developer-Journal-3-Artifical-Intelligence
"Darkfall NPCs go about their lives and level up as they age. Because the NPC AI is so sophisticated and seems exactly like a player to the servers, the NPCs themselves are doing a fair amount of game testing just by running around and exploring."
www.massively.com/2008/04/13/darkfall-producer-talks-about-beta-testing-and-setting-release/
"Darkfall's real-time combat system, advanced monster AI, dynamic spawning, and interconnected adventure areas make for a uniquely challenging player vs. environment experience."
rpgvault.ign.com/articles/713/713375p1.html
I'll let the quotes I posted with their links speak for themselves.
I think the readers here are smart enough to come up with their own opinion of whether Tasos promoted DarkFall's PvE with "ADVANCED AI" or "NOT REVOLUTIONARY".
But then again... I may just be clueless.
so: you're cherrypicking just the quotes that suggest the AI is super advanced but ignore the quote from an article called "Artifical Intelligence" that clearly states they do not consider the AI revolutionary? hmm.
the AI *is* advanced, not revolutionary. none of those quotes say "super advanced", as the other guy claimed. mob *do* detect players by sound (crouching & walking = less agro radius), and smell does work (approaching downwind = less agro radius). in other words, Tasos called it spot on.
and which ones have you played? I'm willing to bet not over 1 or 2 of them, and definitely not darkfall.
I hadn't really followed the games development.. so I don't consider myself fanboi or troll for this game.
I was going to buy it simply because I was bored out of my skull.
So my response for the OP would be this... I pretty much decided that by the time I could buy this product one of the ones I have been following would be on the market. So that made up my mind for me... that's just me.
Its just rather an odd concept (to me) to release a game that most people can't buy.. pre-order or whatever term they are using. That seems to be the biggest issue so far to be honest.. Most people who were curious enough to buy it.. can't.
I'm beginning to think that this is the case (I won't put in the "pointless" comment because you could argue that with any game). That is not to say this is a negative thing. If that is your kind of game, more power to you. I just don't think it will be my thing.
The only way to know is to try the game out...but I'm not going to play the mini game of purchasing this thing. There is no way a game is that good. I'll wait until it is easily purchased.
It's a proven historical fact that beer saved humankind.
I can't be arsed to read all the thread - sorry. If my post adds something, great - its at least honest.
The bad:
1. The account system and the launch itself regarding the accounts was startlingly poor, and is still so. Embarrassingly bad, Aventurine deserves its reputation suffering over it. It really was and is unprofessional no matter how you slice it.
2. The recent queue times. If this isn't fixed as promised, soon, it will exacerbate things.
3. The small number of clan stones. This coupled with the unreasonable risk that clans with no clanstone must put forward in order to challenge for one makes the lucky clans who got a critical mass of their folks in game the lottery winners and holders of hamlets and cities. There either needs to be more clan spots or more servers soon, truly. This is very important and not to be underestimated - clans need at least reasonably accessible shared goals, without it they will move en mass to other games and that is the brass tacks of it.
4. The rogue system. Folks simply unclan themselves and act the asshat via the rogue system. This is very irritating especially around cities to no positive end. Tweak it? Maybe. Just make it true FFA and do away with combat in NPC towns in my view, it takes a whole lot less quasimoding it and asshats can be served.
5. Polearms. Self exlpanatory, they are noticably better than the others for PVP and no worse for PVE. Needs fixed.
6. Race size difference. No reason at all to have some races far taller and more visible than others, especially considering the giant of the races, Mahirim, has been given no racial ability and no ETA when it will be in.
7. Tight lipped development team. They only update when they absolutely have to and give us almost nothing to go on. That is fine for alpha/beta. It isn't sustainable to paying customers long term, it simply isn't. Tasos could and should be replaced as their frontman if he won't shift gears.
The good:
1. It is a fairly large world, even taking the low movement speed issue into account (which artificially magnifies the effect). It does feel sandbox, and has a lot of the same feel as early UO as far as level of danger and that sort of thing.
2. The shadows. The shadows really are gorgeous, I feel bad for folks who have kneejerk turned them off. They are the best visual thing about the game and my hats off to Aventurine.
3. It is new. Which means you can't wiki your way out of things. Crafted items, even low ones have value. Not so much an advantage of the game as it is the circumstance - its transient as it is in all of these early games.
4. Its combat system does think outside the box and there are some positive elements to it, it actively tries to make it skill base, and succeeds here and there.
5. It is full loot. Enough said.
6. It has a large first person element.
7. It is more challenging than the run of the mill MMO.
That about sums up all the major things that come to mind. One could hair split all of them and I'm sure folks will if this thread hasn't already run its course, but they are honest.
The negatives could be fixed, but if they are ingored or only fixed half ass? Then I have my doubts that Darkfall has legs.
It has potential. I'm enjoying it, for now. I can see it either running its course quickly or gaining traction, neither is gauranteed.
If my post helped anyone, righto. If not, *shrug.
You know the OP is getting a nice glass of irony served with a bowl of Shut the Hell Up. Pure Karma in action.
For over 3+ yrs, him and his fellow SWG vets have run their mouths constantly all over MMORPG.com....insulting anyone and everyone that would deal with SOE. Not for playing SWG...we are talking any SOE game. Spam and hate was the MO.
Now all of a sudden that it is something he is interested in, he is bringing up the fact of the chaos on the forums. Something he has added to all this time.
Truly priceless.
Although I gotta admit, listening to Darth whine is perhaps the funniest. They should of kept their vendetta to SWG itself, and not included other games like EQ and EQ2 to try inflicting harm...whose players had nothing to do with them losing their PRECioUs.
I feel sorry for the folks who had nothing to do with the vets, and are wanting to see DF succeed. For the other nimrods though, who would of luved to of had a nice sandbox, it will be fitting if this train wreck does indeed fail.
Couldnt of happened to a nicer bunch of misfits.
Next time I suggest paying attention to your own games, rather than trying to inflict harm upon someone elses. Cause as it stands right now, even if this game does survive, it will be a long time recovering from this abomination of a launch. Which is fitting for people that went out of their way to try and harm others gaming interests.
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
I have not played it yet, but if you will enjoy it all depends on the type of game you are looking for.
From the people I personally know who have played the game, most of them enjoy it.
Sure there are fanboys, sure there are haters. Thing I have noticed is that a large amount of the haters have not even actually played the game, and a large of them actually started hating because of the issues with being able to purchase an account.
I dont understand why the people on these boards work how they do though. If someone posts that they enjoy the game, the "haters" immediately label the person a fanboy, and spend their time trying to talk them out of enjoying the game. Why waste the time? They are not going to talk someone out of enjoying the game. They just make it seem like there are many more "fanboys" then there actually is.
Then the "real" fanboys join in to defend the game, and it all goes down hill from there... which is why your in the position you are in now - not knowing what information is best.
But in the end - just like every other game - if you enjoy it is entirely up to you - and since this is an MMO it is also dependant on the group of people you play with. You cant really experience how good an MMO is without having a few regulars to play with - so that you can start to form strategies and tactics with eachother.
So if you are still interested in the game at this point, why not give it a try? Make sure you find a group of players to try it with - and that is the only way you will be able to find out if the game is for you.
(Edit: I did not read thru the entire post, but just reading thru some, you see what I said is true - alot of the people trash talking the game have not even really played. Some "claim" to have played - but only "trying a friends account" or something similar. That is not really trying the game. As I said, you need to play with others to see what a game is really like.
This is an MMO. You simply cant say you have really gave the game a legitimate try unless you have spent some time working on and learning your own character, and interacting with others reguarly. Hell, you cant even say you have really gave an MMO a fair try if you have only played a week either. They take time to learn and get in to.
Only haters will try to convince you that "because there is so much hate that must mean the game is bad". Especially when hate comes from unreliable sources. Look at every MMO in existence - they all have their share of haters.
Noone is able to tell you if you will enjoy OR dislike a game. If they attempt to - that ruins their own credibilty. You should not take advice from ANYONE who tries to tell you either of these things. That is how you could tell if someone is really a fanboy or a hater.
The only advice you should really take from anyone here is information on how certain things work. If they say "the games amazing youll love it", dont listen. If they say "this game sucks", dont listen. Keep a neutral point of view and if the mechanics seem intriguing to you, give them a try and you will be able to decide yourself. )
You have summed it up very well this is very accurate how all pro's and con's are!
Number 3. you mentioned can be a huge gamebreaker if thats not fix many will leave in few months.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I have played a few days and I think I can sum it up in a few paragraphs. The player base is the most rotten bunch you will run across. Most of the players are hardcore mmorpgers who have deluded themselves into thinking mmorpg are skill based and not time based. Don't start an Alfar. They stand outside of town and kill each other. For the most part the game is a laggy pile of crap and queue times are several hours. I have been in the queue for 4 hours today. I think I am going to give up and go buy some shrimp and make me some boiled cajun shrimp for dinner, yummy. The game is a novelty and should not be taken seriously. In its current form it wont be around in a few months. The company running it appears inept. If you want a layed back gaming experience that is reliable and friendly and has decent gfx, try wow or Warhammer, etc. If you want a cutthroat 22 year old male "I am more leet than you" circle jerk with 10000000 bugs and hours of losing items and other frustration, try DF. Another thing is that you can't just buy the game. You have to smash a button at very cryptic hours of the day and hope to be one of the 100 people in the world to get the game. It is a big racket and will be one of those stories mmorpgers look back on and talk about for years to come like NGE and SOE horror stories. As far as stuff to do in the game, it is staggering when you realize that they ran out of money to populate the world with mobs. I have never seen anything like it in all my days of playing mmorpg. Most of the fanboys will say stupid, ignorant things like "that is how it is supposed to be", etc. but that isn't true. There is no way they made such a huge world with the intention of not putting mobs in it. I am not joking when I am saying that you could go out into an open forest and plain and find more stuff to kill like deer and squirrels than there are in this game. There are sparse patches of goblins that people stand around and gank eachother at but besides that I haven't seen one mob in maybe 20 square miles of exploration. You can literally run for one hour and never see anything. Hopefully with some of the launch money they will add mobs.
As far as who hates and who loves the game, I joined a hardcore guild last night and some chick fangirl was raging about how the game sucked and she was going to quit because she had just lost her 5th horse in a day or two because of bugs. Also, she said the GM she was talking to was useless and they just waste your time. Even the fans are having a hard time it seems.
Some positive things:
Ummmm... I guess it is fun when it works.
There is no war.. there is no hate. Grow up and take responsibility for your own actions. Spend the money and try it.. or dont
Never played the game and I don't plan to, nothing in this looks/sounds interesting... IMO looks a lot like RYL and has the same FPS style game play... thats probably nearly 10 years old..
darkfall made me wet the bed in anticipation. like five times. once per day I tried to get in. I still haven't gotten in, but I know this game is going to be so cool that I will probably wet the bed again, but not in anticipation. In like, what would you say is the opposite of anticipation? playingcipation. I'm going to wet the bed in playingcipation.
Dude, what do you need to know? Are you a miserable f*ck who would enjoy a MUD if it allowed you to roam free and gank people for no reason, living our your fantasties of being a criminal piece of trash?
Or are you a real gamer that plays a mix of MMOs, FPS, RTSs, and knows what a good game really is?
Look at this game:
Crappy sound effects. Crappy animations. Crappy GUI. Crappy inadequate chat system. No voice chat. Weak monster spawn system. Archaic combat system. Huge queue times. Lag. Piss poor community. No NA servers. The list goes on.
You have to be an idiot to call this game good. And anyone who thinks this game is going to be fixed in less than a year is a complete moron. Look how long it takes a REAL company, such as EA or Valve, to fix simple little bugs and balance issues in their games. It takes MONTHS. Here we are talking about an MMO developed by some dumb as$ skeleton crew company. Think they going to have things patched up next week? Think again.
This game has attracted a worthless abusive crowd of players much like what you saw in UO and EvE. Scum of the earth trash who wouldn't lift a finger for their own mother.
If you consider yourself one of those players, then fire it up. Me, no thanks.