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"Hellfreeze" Expansion Presentation - October 2010
Source http://www.darkfallonline.com/expansion/0910.html
"Hellfreeze" Expansion Presentation - October 2010
In the center of Agon, in the heart of the Pall, an immense being bathed in flames steps through a shadowy doorway. In the north a frozen mountain erupts as an ancient evil, colder than the deepest ice, takes to the skies. Hell freezes over on Agon as two beings of immense evil and power, the Ice Dragon and The Demon arrive!
Hellfreeze, Darkfall’s third free major expansion, heralds the change of things to come! Scores of monsters including two new bosses arrive into Agon with fresh appetites and updated homicidal A.I.!
The Beasts.
The Ice Dragon!! - Miles below the surface of the northern glaciers the dull, muted explosions of shattering ice herald the coming of something cold. Awoken by the sounds of the Emberfest celebrations months ago, Agon's iciest denizen takes to the skies in a fit of homicidal rage and waking munchies.
The Demon!! - Out of the depths of the pall an immense figure of demonic darkness steps forth. The first of the beings of the servants of the Demon-Lord Oncylus arrives in Agon to secure a foothold for the coming of his Master.
Gorra Dar and Gorra Slave - Bursting out of the cracking soil, drawn by the footfalls of the unwary, the crushing mandibles of the Gorra Dar come for you! He isn’t alone either, his minions clatter underfoot to help secure your tasty flesh for their master’s luncheon.
Gray Ork Executioner - The ultimate killing machine amongst the ranks of the Gray Orks. The executioner swings his razor sharp axe with deadly accuracy and gleeful frenzy.
Shadow Spirit - Rumored to be the vengeful spirits of an ancient coven wiped out by the Orks of Morak, these shadow beings return to the site of their demise with some hidden, dark purpose in mind.
Svartdvergir Doombringer - The twisted Svartdvergir dwarfs unleash their latest weapon in the form of the Doombringer. His misshapen limb swings with the strength and stopping power of a brick in the face!
Beastman Devastator - Trees crack and bend aside as the largest Beastman you will ever see steps out of the forests. Slavering jaws open in a bestial snarl as limbs the size of a ponie’s neck ripple with hidden rage...and now you have to run!
Deathless Servant - Loyal bodyguards in life, murderously devoted minions in death. These servants of the Deathless Mage retain the martial prowess that earned them an honored place by their masters side in life and death.
As the winds of change shift around Agon many of the denizens and monsters, both old and new, have sought new homes and areas to hunt in. Monster spawns have been shifted and redistributed accordingly. Many new beasts have crawled into the cold, dark places of the world to find their prey. Dungeon habitats have seen a notable boom in monster populations!
Additionally now many of Agon’s monsters will start to level up as they kill players!
DING! Farm me now fool!
New Agon!
- The entire world has been graphically revamped! Old terrain has been upgraded with a new exciting look. Seas, mountains, deserts and even entire monster families have had extreme makeovers. After a monumental under-taking of almost a years solid work by our artists and developers, the entire span of Agon’s locales glisten with a fresh new look, feel and atmosphere.
- Dungeons have seen a galvanizing overhaul! 17 dungeons have been entirely re-themed and re-designed. Many of them now feature Chaos Dungeon Vendors who offer items and exciting new daily quests! These re-designs also set the stage for many new dungeon style encounters to be introduced in the near future.
Additionally entirely new dungeons have been discovered in each capital city for the beginner dungeoneer! The entrances to these deep, dark places can be found next to the banks of the capitals.
New sandbox features!
For the enterprising players among you, Funhulks and Funflags open up a whole new area of player initiated events with a racing/battle theme!
Funflag gates can be placed anywhere in the world and will display a message as each player crosses them with their Funhulk. At the end of the race the player who placed the flags will receive the final scoring.
Player Flags are an additional feature that can be used separately to Fun Hulks for capture the flag type scenarios or anything else that an imaginative player can conceive! They will come in three sizes and the player who placed them will receive a message once they have been captured stating the name of the player who grabbed the flag.
Treasure maps will now drop off of mobs around the world. Decipher the map to claim your treasure! (Shovel and digging skill sold separately!) Of course, once you have a shovel and if you’re feeling lucky, you can always try digging around in likely spots.. you never know what you might find!
New Mounts and Ships!
Hail the Blue-Tailed Runner! Faster than greased lightning on ice. This handsome beast will get you to your destination quicker than any other mount alive and do it with style!
The Tribeland Bear! The savage Mahirim hunters have tamed the lord of the forest himself. This ursine mount is not for the faint at heart..
Two new ships also dock in the ports of Agon in the form of the the Launch and the Junk (pronounced Yoonk!).
The smaller, more versatile Launch is craft-able without a shipyard and comes with one cannon at the prow.
The Junk (again, pronounced Yoonk!) is a sleeker looking ship of medium size and eastern design.
Shipwrights have also been working closely with Agon’s blacksmiths to produce two new strongboxes for naval use. One can be used by anyone and one comes with special anti-pillaging technology to restrict it to clan use only.
New Lore!
The Acolytes of the Watcher, through their chronicles and research for the Goddess, are shedding light on many of the unclear, dark and hidden aspects of Agon’s past, present and indeed future. Visit the World Lore section of the Darkfall website every week to read the chronicles of our world.
And much more!
- Many spells and schools of magic have been reworked for extra balance.
- Monster AI has seen significant upgrades to physics and behavior
- Many areas have been remodelled with new looks and layouts
- Animation tweaks for monsters and player models alike
- Social management tweaks
- Game-play tweaks
- Large scale Battle Optimizations!
The details for all the above and much more can be found in the Detailed Expansion Notes.
Enter the Hellfreeze
The northern skies bristle with frost crystals as the Ice Dragon leaves cold death in her wake. The Pall rumbles and quakes as the first of the Demon servants of Oncylus begins his master’s machinations. Agon shifts and trembles and portents of doom and chaos ripple through the nations.. join the battle, carve a legend and ready yourself for the revelations of Agon’s future!
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
Comments
Servers still down. ETA is in a few hours but we'll see.
DFO Owns !!!!
-CC
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
i was really hoping for master tailoring skills and I fear what might happen to magic...
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
Hope it stays down for another 3 hours until I'm done work. That way if they did add more housing slots I can try and get a large villa spot.
Excellent.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
I was hoping for the crafting expansion to make it in too. Who knows; perhaps in the detail notes to follow there may be aspects of it but that part isn't looking likely.
What about magic are you concerned about?
-CC
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=4545497#post4545497
Proper expac notes. Tasos just put up the follow up with the real details.
Updated detail notes just released.
Expansion Notes
Torrent Information
This expansion is massive as far as what's going into it, largely due to the new terrain. The patch size is 6GB. We have taken measures to make the download easier for you and we're also adding a torrent. Torrent information will be posted at the top of the expansion notes.
The fastest method to get the new expansion is via torrent. If you do not already have any torrent download software you can find some reliable programs for free download on the following sites:
BitTorrent: http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/download
(Help guides: http://www.bittorrent.com/btusers/guides)
or
μTorrent: http://www.utorrent.com/downloads
(Help guides: http://www.utorrent.com/documentation)
You can find a helpful webpage on how to install a torrent client here:
http://www.findmysoft.com/how-to/Install-BitTorrent/
http://www.findmysoft.com/how-to/Ins...nt-in-Windows/
Once you have a torrent client installed, simply click on[PLEASE STAND BY FOR THE TORRENT LINK] to download the new files required for the Darkfall HellFreeze Expansion
After the download is complete, execute the following procedure to quickly update Darkfall:
1. Navigate to the folder of your torrent downloads, and copy all the new Darkfall data files.
2. If you are using a 32-bit operating system, go to
C:Program FilesDarkfalldata for the EU-1 server, or
C:Program filesDarkfall USdata for the NA-1 server,
and paste all your newly downloaded files there.
If you are using a 64-bit operating system, paste the new files on
C:Program Files (x86)Darkfalldata for EU-1, or
C:Program Files (x86)Darkfall USdata for NA-1.
These are the default installation directories for the US and EU game data files respectively. If you have installed any of the Games (either US, EU or both) in a different drive/directory use that path instead, to copy the data files from, and to.
3. Make sure to select the replace option for all the new files you are copying, instead of keeping the original files or moving the new ones as a copy.
Expansion status:
The expansion is taking a bit longer than expected to launch because of some fallout from the recent hardware issues on the EU1 server which is first in the sequence and is making things slower for us. We're all here and doing whatever we can to speed this up.
HellFreeze Expansion* Expansion Notes:
Also see the Expansion Presentation.
New Terrain: All of Agon features new terrain. This is one of the largest development additions to the game to-date. There was a spotlight on this with more details.
Character default view is now the 3d person view, rather than the first person view until now. You can use F12 to toggle between first and third person view. This is an addition that will make things less confusing for new players entering the game for the first time, and is also one of our most requested features.
Newbie dungeons have been added to all the racial capitals. These are dungeons for new players meant to help them learn the ropes.
Newbie Protection has been reduced to one hour. This is because the previous 24 hour long protection was making new players complacent and was diluting their Darkfall experience. The one hour timer plus the addition of newbie dungeons should be enough for them to get the hang of their character before they’re thrown into the world. If it isn't long enough, we'll make minor changes to the timer, but our preliminary testing shows it should be enough.
Player vendors will now advertise every now and then when you walk by them they may let you know if they have something to sell.
Skinning skill advancement rate has been increased by 15%.
New and revamped dungeons:
17 dungeons have been revamped, themed up, with the majority of them having new spawns added to them. There is a full new layout, chests and monsters.
In 14 of these revamped dungeons, new chaos dungeon vendors have been added.
These vendors will be able to buy items off players, but also sell items from a chosen list at a special price.
The dungeon vendors will also be giving out a unique daily quest to players of all races, for those that wish to take on the challenge.
Chests now have a 10 second unlock timer. These changes affect all chests but they were made so with dungeons in mind.
Runestones can no longer be bound to Dungeons.
New Ships:
The Launch: A single cannon ship that can be crafted wherever rafts can be crafted, without needing a shipyard.
The Junk: It packs quite a punch for its size.
There are 2 new strongboxes that can be placed on ships:One that anyone can use and one that only the clan of the person spawning the strongbox can use. Both strongboxes are craftable by players.They will stay in the world for 2 hours, just like regular strongboxes.
The deployer of Campfires and Strongboxes on land will have their locations show up on his world/minimap
Spell balancing: The ray spells were due some much needed tweaking and this was also a large community request. Far from a simple numbers tweak, these changes had to fit in with the overall rebalancing of the game.
The following ray spells now share a cooldown of 0.5s:
Pungent Mist
Unholy Caress
Dragonbreath
Impale
Frostbite
Lightning Bolt
Insect Swarm
Complimentary to the above ray balancing, Wall of force duration has been reduced from 8 to 6 seconds.
Heal Self, Lay On Hands and Witches’ Brew have been rebalanced to have a greater effect on a shorter duration. Previously one of these spells would heal for e.g. 2 seconds at skill level 1 and then heal for e.g. 6 seconds when surging. Now it heals for e.g. 6 seconds at skill level 1 and e.g. 2 seconds at surging (with greater effect).
New Mounts Added:
More information and images on the new mounts can be found in the expansion presentation.The Blue Tail Runner, a lighter and faster mount and
the Tribeland Bear, the Mahirim specific mount.
Fun Hulks and Fun Flags have been added to the game as new sandbox elements for use in player run events.
There are 3 variations for you to choose from and they are player craftable.
Fun Hulks can only damage other Fun Hulks but will take damage by anything attacking them.
Using Fun flags, you can now plan your own personal race track in Agon and hold your own destruction derby.
You can craft the fun flags yourselves and place them in the world.
There are different versions of the flags including starting flags, middle flags and end flags. **
The perspective on the Fun Hulk can be changed, like WarHulks, using (default) F12.
You deploy a fun flag track by first placing a starting flag, placing at least one middle flag (you can place many more) and then placing an end flag.
The flags will show up on your mini/world map as you race by them.
The creator of the track can 'Use' on any of your flags to start a race.
The track will stay up for 2 hours (from the time you placed the first flag) and after a race is finished you can start a new one by pressing 'Use' on any of your fun flags.
The race can only be completed on Fun Hulks.
You have to pass each gate in the order it has been set out. (The number of the gate is displayed over the flag).
When the winner has finished, the race will last for 3 more minutes allowing the rest of the competitors to finish the race.
After the time is up, results will be posted in the area and to the organizer of the event.
Player Use Flags added:
These are basic flag poles you can craft. There are 3 variations: Small, medium and large.**
You can place them in the world and it is up to you what to do with them.
The player placing the flags will have them displayed on his mini/worldmap.
When someone uses one of your flags, it’ll be removed from the world you’ll get a notification on who found it.
Use these tournament flags to send people out for quests for you or to create in-game events: hide the flag somewhere and give a reward to whoever finds it. Place it in dangerous areas and test someone before letting them in your clan. Be creative.
The flags will stay in the world for 2 hours before they disintegrate.
Treasure Maps added as per our featured spotlight
When you hunt monsters around agon, every now and then they might drop different varieties of treasure maps for you-
Double click the map to see the location and use your real life recognition skills to try and find out where it is.
You can trade the maps
To dig up treasure you need a shovel. This is craftable.
To use the shovel you need to train the Digging skill. This can be bought.
Find your own treasure or stalk a guy with a shovel.
There is also a chance you might find something by randomly digging around.
Village Control Points: There have been changes to villages in order to make them more rewarding:
The Village Control Points will now stay invulnerable longer after capture: The timer has increased from 6 hours to 12 hours.
The total timeout has increased from 10 hours to 17 hours.
The person capturing a Village Control point will now split the gold generated with his clan.
Clan Journal:
There have been several fixes to the clan journal:
A bug that wouldn't release some old clan names from the system has been fixed: This should also serve to help clear up quite a bit of clan politics.
A bug where some active clans did not show up in the 'browse clans' page has been fixed
Anything which goes in the clan vault or is checked out of the clan vault related to stations/fortresses/wars/challenges/villages is registered and anyone with sufficient rank can see it in the clan vault related pages.
Bug fixes related to the journal quest diary page
Darkfall’s Social Manager: We’ve added some social conveniences in the game and we’re on our way to adding many more:
When a player logs in to the game a message about which of his friends are online.
The player also gets a message about how many pending friend requests from and towards other players.
Whenever a friend comes online or goes offline
You get a message whenever a friend request is sent.
You get a message whenever your friend request is accepted.
You get a message if you’re removed from a friend’s list
You get a message every time your friend request is rejected. We’re not as nice as facebook.
Worldbuilding Changes
DEMON FORTRESS: The Demon Fortress in the Central Area has been expanded.
Beastmen villages: The beastmen villages have all been revamped.
The Dwarven area has been revamped.
Dragon Lairs: Dragon lairs have been updated.
Some Mahirim starting areas have been improved.
Lore
The lore has also received a few updates.
A secret organization called the “Acolytes of the Watcher” has been added to the World Lore section.Through the Acolytes of the Watcher, light will be shed on many of the unclear, dark and mystical aspects of Agon's past, present but also the future.
The Lost Civilizations section of the World Lore has also received some updating.
Nithron and Chal d'Ean lore has been updated, while the Vargash and a study into the The Lost Elven Nations has been added to the section.
Monsters:
Monsters have been redistributed all over Agon and especially in dungeons. This was a major undertaking and should be a substantial improvement in PvE
Many monster families have been re-modeled and re-textured, not to mention having their abilities adjusted. Among these are the Undead Dwarves, Svartdvergir, Beastmen, Sarlids, Gnolls and Matayin. Also, a few new monsters have been added, such as the Gorras and various new dungeon mobs which are variations of known surface monsters
Epic loot drops have been rebalanced.
Several monsters will now level up when they gain experience defeating players
Low level monsters now only produce a grave half the time, but graves produced will have more loot.
Lots of physics tweaks for monsters related to monster behavior.
Monster protection against debuffs has been balanced
A bug that prevented some monsters from drinking potions has been fixed.
Loot has been increased several special monsters.
New Monsters:
You can read more about them and their descriptions in the expansion presentation.
The Demon
The Ice Dragon
Gorra Dar and Gorra Slave
Svartdvergir Doombringer
Shadow Spirit
Gray Ork Executioner
Beastman Devastator
Cave Hag
Cave Spider
Cave Troll
Shade Salamander
Deathless Servant
Monsters Redone:
Several monsters were completely redone (models and animations) and have new skills added:
Sarlids
Matayins
Svartvergirs
Undead Dwarves
Beastmen
Gnolls/Gaunts
Monster Special Abilities:
Some of Darkfall’s monsters have received some epic special abilities which make them unique. This is just the beginning. Our goal is to give all notable Darkfall monsters unique special abilities.
Hags
Shadow Knights
Winterbound/Seidbounds
Elfwraiths/Elfshades/Ghosts
Menhirs
Stone Golems
Monster Animations:
Some monsters have had their animations reworked:
Flesh Golem/Son of Ochran
Mummys
Troll Shaman
Gargantua
Monster Optimizations:
Dynamic monster encounters and events will take place all over Agon.Wildtribes
Okrs
Iklits
Serpentines
Kraken
Devil
Sarnakhs
Optimizations for large scale battles: These optimizations are expected to have a significant impact on large scale battle playability.
Finally, there have been numerous corrections, bug fixes and tweaks that have not been mentioned in these expansion notes.
*The name of the expansion is not inspired in any way by the time it took to finally launch it.
**The simplicity in the naming of Fun Hulks, Fun Flags, Use Flags, flag types etc. is intentional. That, or we couldn’t find a better name for Middle Flags
__________________
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
I'm only at 80% patching but here is a good link for new screenshots.
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=263362
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter