List of known features/changes in DF: UW

Melkrow

Please note that this is an incomplete list and has been pooled from many blog and forum updates.

**Visual Updates**
- New motion-capture animations
- New character models
- Citys/Hamlets/Villages redesigned, relocated and renamed.
- Full world redesign NPC/Chaos Citys included (based off the shape Darkfall 1 map had)
- New dynamic light system
- Plethora of new and revamped item skins

* New sound system
* New Crafting System (including recycling system?)
* Introduction of market (auction house)
* Newbies start the game cut-off from the world during their tutorial while they familiarize themselves with the game.
* You're no longer allowed to attack anybody in NPC cities, even clans that are at war. But as soon soon as you step outside NPC city, you turn grey and are a fair game for anybody.

**Character Development**
- Role System - You can pick (and change whenever you want) a basic role for your character, for example, Warrior, Mage, Skirmisher. These "roles" will define what armor you will be allowed to wear. Different roles will provide different bonuses or penalties towards different armor types (heavy, medium, light).

- Specialization System - You can no longer be jack of all trades, master of everything. You will have to specialize in certain discipline, or disciplines. For example, you can choose to specialize in Water Magic as your primary and Earth magic as your secondary discipline. This is different then having Earth as your primary and water as secondary.

Furthermore, opposite schools will lock one another, so if you pick Fire, you can not pick Water at the same time, or if you pick earth, you can not pick air at the same time. The same number of specs will be available for warrior and skirmisher roles.

There are many specs to chose from, including a "healer" spec for example.

It's important to note that you can switch between specs by talking to NPCs. This also means that you can still master/level everything in the game, but you can only use certain amount of abilities at any one time. This will make it so new players can quickly and easily develop their character in a certain spec and be just as effective as every veteran, while at the same time, veterans that put more time into developing their character can switch back and forth the specs if the chose to develop more than a single spec.

**PVP**
- Resource Monoliths, where people get rare materials for controlling an area
- Movement Momentum mechanics. You can't turn 180 instantly if you're running.
- Wobble mechanics. The faster you move, the harder it will be to aim.

* Territory control by linking player villages and player Cities.
* Features to make battle preparation easy and intuitive
* More features that reduce downtime after death, including limbo system.

* New GUI!
* Revamped Dungeons, with traps and other obstacles leading up to Bosses.
* New world bosses

Melkrow

I guess we should add

* Removal of instant cast rays

mrcalhou

Is it still going to use the same tier-system for abilities, items, and magic? You know, where it was all about vertical advancement and little in the way of horizontal advancement? While it would make sense that an r90 weapon is better than an r40 weapon, there should be some benefits to using that particular r40 weapon over the r90 weapon depending on certain situations. There should be pro's and con's to each weapon, skill, ability, item so that one thing isn't always favored over all the other items. It'd be better for the economy and for stopping players from being clones of each other.

 

Is it still going to be so easy to acquire "max-ranked" equipment that there is no reason to bother with trading or, tying back with the first question, using anything that isn't max-ranked? I'd think the game would be more balanced if, instead of acquiring the equipment a player has equiped, equiped items were "destroyed" upon death and turned into scrap that would have to be recycled for use in crafting, this would also be better for the game economy.

 

Note that I come with the vile bias of a hater, but I really do want this game to work (the fact that they are adding a momentum system is enough to get my attention since that was one of my biggest gripes with the first game).

I also really like the idea of the speccing system, though I see no reason why fire and water magic couldn't be used at the same time. Seems like a silly restriction to me.

Melkrow

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Originally posted by mrcalhou
Is it still going to use the same tier-system for abilities, items, and magic? You know, where it was all about vertical advancement and little in the way of horizontal advancement? While it would make sense that an r90 weapon is better than an r40 weapon, there should be some benefits to using that particular r40 weapon over the r90 weapon depending on certain situations. There should be pro's and con's to each weapon, skill, ability, item so that one thing isn't always favored over all the other items. It'd be better for the economy and for stopping players from being clones of each other.

 

Is it still going to be so easy to acquire "max-ranked" equipment that there is no reason to bother with trading or, tying back with the first question, using anything that isn't max-ranked? I'd think the game would be more balanced if, instead of acquiring the equipment a player has equiped, equiped items were "destroyed" upon death and turned into scrap that would have to be recycled for use in crafting, this would also be better for the game economy.

 

Note that I come with the vile bias of a hater, but I really do want this game to work (the fact that they are adding a momentum system is enough to get my attention since that was one of my biggest gripes with the first game).

I also really like the idea of the speccing system, though I see no reason why fire and water magic couldn't be used at the same time. Seems like a silly restriction to me.

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On your first point about vertical advancement. Spells have never been vertical advancement, a lvl 1 bolt for example is used throughout your entire gaming career in DF. The problem with current Darkfall is in fact horizontal advancement, you have to get SOOOOO many spells from all the magic schools, and spell 'ranks' had nothing to do with it.

Now as far as weapons, yes, gear is still ranked, and higher ranks are better than lower ranks, as it should be. The advantage of lower ranked weapon is that it's cheaper to make than higher ranked weapon. As far as effectiveness, higher ranked weapons would almost always be better than lower ranks. Although magic staves don't exactly follow that rule, since some low rank staves are preferred over higher rank weapons because of the casting speed modifier. If you're looking for a game where gear is non-essential, and is purely cosmetic, I would suggest looking elsewhere. That is not to say that you can't kill players with that are using the best of the gear while you wear really bad gear, but the rule of the thumb is that weapon rank matters. Bigger risk, bigger reward. The concept works well in full loot PVP game.

On your 2nd point, you're proposing a change that would fundamentally change the spirit of the game. EVE Online has a looting system that you are advocating for, where things are destroyed into raw materials. However, this will never happen in Darkfall, and many of us prefer it that way. If that's a deal breaker for you, then don't bother, the looting system will stay as it is.
I don't really know where you get the idea that you don't need to trade in current Darkfall or that it's "easy" to get max-ranked equipment. Sure it's not "super hard", but you could be spending hour plus to get just one single gear bag ready. While one hour is not a whole lot of time, it becomes "hard" when you lose 5+ bags in a day (yesterday I lost 8). Anybody that PVPs even casually will want to trade.

I can't comment on fire vs water for example, since all magic schools have been redesigned. It could simply be that fire is for example very offensive school, while water is 'control' school, so for balancing sake you don't want to allow people to have both.

Also, on related note, auction house will be introduced in the game, so trading will finally be less of a hassle.

On another related note, here are some details about new crafting system http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/?p=2904