Originally posted by MadnessRealm Yes I saw Yew Militia taking it down. Apparently 12 guys swimming around Kraken while spamming attacks does the trick. Kraken's AI doesn't target players that much but focus a lot more on ships from what I've heard.
Wasn't combat while swimming made more difficult in this patch?
Well, not a very flattering debut for a giant, amazing boss, that's for sure.
Well, keep in mind, it is an indy game. Given that I think it was probably very fun for all involved. Regardless of what one thinks of Darkfall, it's important that games like this are made and supported by those who like them. In the end, those with the big bucks might take notice and might be tempted to try a few things in their own games.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Originally posted by MadnessRealm Yes I saw Yew Militia taking it down. Apparently 12 guys swimming around Kraken while spamming attacks does the trick. Kraken's AI doesn't target players that much but focus a lot more on ships from what I've heard.
Wasn't combat while swimming made more difficult in this patch?
Well, not a very flattering debut for a giant, amazing boss, that's for sure.
It's not a boss you grouchy man
Just a big nasty wandering NPC. Give AV a chance to patch it right. Things were messy over the weekend, but the first fix has done a lot to improve things (Monday should always be patch day, argghh). I even caught a mob hunting down some deer that ran through their area. Things are going to be alright.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I used "boss" in the sense of an above-average difficulty encounter. Sorry for the misnomer.
And I'm not saying that it won't be tweaked or anything. Just an objective comment that as a high-profile encounter, one should expect the creature to put up a better fight.
I don't buy the "indie" theory, for a variety of reasons. "Indie" companies function, in their basic structure, like any average company, just in a different scale. Both fail and succeed, due to a lot of factors, many shared by both of them. This was a heated topic in this forum since Beta, and a lot was said about this.
I used "boss" in the sense of an above-average difficulty encounter. Sorry for the misnomer. And I'm not saying that it won't be tweaked or anything. Just an objective comment that as a high-profile encounter, one should expect the creature to put up a better fight. @Sovrath I don't buy the "indie" theory, for a variety of reasons. "Indie" companies function, in their basic structure, like any average company, just in a different scale. Both fail and succeed, due to a lot of factors, many shared by both of them. This was a heated topic in this forum since Beta, and a lot was said about this. @Cecropia I'm not grouchy =/ I'm a "half-empty glass" kinda guy.
Gotcha Strix, and I don't blame you
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I used "boss" in the sense of an above-average difficulty encounter. Sorry for the misnomer. And I'm not saying that it won't be tweaked or anything. Just an objective comment that as a high-profile encounter, one should expect the creature to put up a better fight. @Sovrath I don't buy the "indie" theory, for a variety of reasons. "Indie" companies function, in their basic structure, like any average company, just in a different scale. Both fail and succeed, due to a lot of factors, many shared by both of them. This was a heated topic in this forum since Beta, and a lot was said about this. @Cecropia I'm not grouchy =/ I'm a "half-empty glass" kinda guy.
I do agree that they function under similar methods but with larger companies the tendency tends to be more "design by comittee" and less risk taking along with having to keep investors happy.
You can have fewer people making the product and as long as the product works well and they can reach enough customers to pay the bills, pay salaries, etc, then it really doesn't have to be more than that. Small companies that intend on staying small can do that. I once worked at an Architectural firm that always maintained about 50-55 employees. When asked if we would grow the answer was "we can maintain these jobs and always have something for someone to work on. If we grew then we could be faced with layoffs and we would prefer not to have too go that route." "The size is fine for what we want to do and want to accomplish".
but my experience with larger companies is that just paying the bills, paying salaries and having enough to continue is not enough. heck, my company laid off 10% of its work force because business was less by 10% the previous year. this was despite the fact that they felt they had a very strong product pipeline continuing '09 and going into '10.
Prior to this, the company I had worked for only had to keep the lights on and pay salaries and just keep going. On top of that decisions on the way a product could go were reached far quicker. Then we were purchased by a larger company and things took longer, sometimes we were asked to go a different way because what we were working on had to fit into some larger product offering. This of course caused waste and even a back up in the work while people were getting up to the task of the new project."
There's actually a book out that talks about how smaller companies are able to make faster and more viable and pertinent decisions unlike their larger bretheren. From my experience I have to agree with that. larger companies do have things going for them but I don't believe they oftentimes move as quickly and sometimes it's just in response to keeping pace with other companies as opposed to actually believing in their products.
As a footnote, we had a prodcut that was supposed to help businesses trrack and control their products and workforce. My company was touting it as a "must have product". I then asked if our company (actually the larger company that used us) also used this product as it seemed that it was supposed to be incredible. My answer? "No, the cost to implementing it isn't worth it".
I couldn't understand how we could ask another company to purchase our product and move to a different way of doing things if we ourselves didn't embrace our own technology.
When we were a smaller company we used our products to enhance our work.
I'll also add, at the risk of making this longer, that there are some business in our area that are owned by private interests and not large companies. One of them is a cafe that used to be an Au Bon Pan Cafe. Eventually Au Bon Pain closed it because it wasn't pulling in the money like they wanted. On top of that the place always looked crappy as if the company didn't really care. so a private interest came in, opened up their own cafe that wasnt' a clone of anything else and they are fiendishly successful with a whole new look to the place, better layout, better food, etc.
At the end of my street there is a pain your own pottery place. the owner really loves the shop and in a sense it is a realization of her own dream. She makes enough to stay open and pay salaries. She'll never get rich off of it but it can run and service customers who are interested in this little place. She doesn't worry about expanding or investors. Or that she has a niche service.
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
Originally posted by Beanpuie makes me wonder if there are other giant monster roaming around in this game, could anyone imagine a big sand worm storming to some one's village eating on their houses?
There are dragons that fly around in the sky and roam and will follow and track you for a LONG time. Imagine running, thinking everything is fine, and then BAM you get blasted by a huge fireball. Now you're running for your life.
Besides that, the Kraken (as far as I know) is the only other type of big roaming mob in game right now. Of course, this is just the beginning.
yep sooner or later they will have god of war type gaints
I have to say that this is pretty uninspiring a mob. Certainly, it adds to the randomness of seafaring but it is something you can achieve by a simple random number generator, and, that is, what I think most others who are not enthralled by this particular incarnation of Kraken are complaining about. I recall that back in the days text-based RPGs on C-64 had also these "random" encounters but they really weren't all that interesting either. Nonetheless, they installed that element of randomness and danger in a quite similar fashion as this -- I just think they were a bit more sudden in their execution back then.
Obviously, you can have an ocean packed with life of varying size and danger but it hardly renders that particular sealife all too interesting. And, thus, treating sealife just as it is and not as a large-scale epicness of utmost nature would be more fair. This addition does not constitute an element of PvE into the game as its sole contribution lies in its randomness and the effect of randomness for PvP. I doubt that anyone would call a giant, thou randomly emerging, goblin that would take 20 minutes to kill the new coming of MMORPGs if the arsenal of attacks of that particular Giant Goblin of Mayhem would consist of the very same goblin attacks that you see on its inferior cousins.
Therefore, I think that new additions to Darkfall's seafaring introduced in the latest expansion are warmly welcomed as they are a breath of fresh air to the PvP scene of the game. But, it is not the greatest nor most innovative addition to PvE since the dawn of time as has been stated here. Sure, it looks nice, but more pixels of watery horror sadly don't make more intense a gaming experience.
I have to say that this is pretty uninspiring a mob. Certainly, it adds to the randomness of seafaring but it is something you can achieve by a simple random number generator, and, that is, what I think most others who are not enthralled by this particular incarnation of Kraken are complaining about. I recall that back in the days text-based RPGs on C-64 had also these "random" encounters but they really weren't all that interesting either. Nonetheless, they installed that element of randomness and danger in a quite similar fashion as this -- I just think they were a bit more sudden in their execution back then.
Obviously, you can have an ocean packed with life of varying size and danger but it hardly renders that particular sealife all too interesting. And, thus, treating sealife just as it is and not as a large-scale epicness of utmost nature would be more fair. This addition does not constitute an element of PvE into the game as its sole contribution lies in its randomness and the effect of randomness for PvP. I doubt that anyone would call a giant, thou randomly emerging, goblin that would take 20 minutes to kill the new coming of MMORPGs if the arsenal of attacks of that particular Giant Goblin of Mayhem would consist of the very same goblin attacks that you see on its inferior cousins.
Therefore, I think that new additions to Darkfall's seafaring introduced in the latest expansion are warmly welcomed as they are a breath of fresh air to the PvP scene of the game. But, it is not the greatest nor most innovative addition to PvE since the dawn of time as has been stated here. Sure, it looks nice, but more pixels of watery horror sadly don't make more intense a gaming experience.
MMORPG's having seas are few, MMORPG's having sea's to dive in and there are creature in the water are fewer, MMORPG's offering multipassenger ships to sail through the seas in which sea monster live like sharks for underwater PvE are even fewer, MMORPG's having an see encounter designed around destroying such a multipassenger ship while it is sailing on the sea is ONE = Darkfall !
/hail Darkfall
From sandbox perspective, from RP perspective , from PvE perspective and even from RTS perspective (the gathering efforts of the clan members for the ship and all the danger and cost already put in such a musltipassenger ship) , its a FANTASTIC feature too.
-----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)
I love the wow newbs coming into this thread comparing a random NPC spawn with a scripted instanced boss.
Hello!!!!!
Of course this fight isn't as hard or as complicated as a scripted fight. In an instance the devs know how many players are fighting the boss and at what level, they have an idea of what the role make up the party will be.
In darkfall you could be floating out on a raft with two or three other guys and that thing could attack you.
Obviously its only going to be a DPS encounter.
I know in WoW blizzard did away with world encounters but back in the day the wow bosses weren't that difficult to fight since you could take them down with multiple raid groups.
It's alot harder to design an encounter when you know shit about the force thats trying to take it down.
I love the wow newbs coming into this thread comparing a random NPC spawn with a scripted instanced boss. Hello!!!!! Of course this fight isn't as hard or as complicated as a scripted fight. In an instance the devs know how many players are fighting the boss and at what level, they have an idea of what the role make up the party will be. In darkfall you could be floating out on a raft with two or three other guys and that thing could attack you. Obviously its only going to be a DPS encounter. I know in WoW blizzard did away with world encounters but back in the day the wow bosses weren't that difficult to fight since you could take them down with multiple raid groups. It's alot harder to design an encounter when you know shit about the force thats trying to take it down.
The kraken is a world boss that can appear anytime when sailing.
If it was a normal monster a single ship should be able to handle it so it's not a normal monster but like I said a world boss. People are saying that the lack of animations on this big fellow is something that needs to be changed there's no need to make it as scripted as a dungeon boss but some diving, attaching to the ship, throwing people in the water are some things that are seen in movies,ecc when they put a kraken.
I love the wow newbs coming into this thread comparing a random NPC spawn with a scripted instanced boss. Hello!!!!! Of course this fight isn't as hard or as complicated as a scripted fight. In an instance the devs know how many players are fighting the boss and at what level, they have an idea of what the role make up the party will be. In darkfall you could be floating out on a raft with two or three other guys and that thing could attack you. Obviously its only going to be a DPS encounter. I know in WoW blizzard did away with world encounters but back in the day the wow bosses weren't that difficult to fight since you could take them down with multiple raid groups. It's alot harder to design an encounter when you know shit about the force thats trying to take it down.
The kraken is a world boss that can appear anytime when sailing.
If it was a normal monster a single ship should be able to handle it so it's not a normal monster but like I said a world boss. People are saying that the lack of animations on this big fellow is something that needs to be changed there's no need to make it as scripted as a dungeon boss but some diving, attaching to the ship, throwing people in the water are some things that are seen in movies,ecc when they put a kraken.
I think this boss is freaking sweet. But im oldschool and to me the instancing of raid encounters was one of the worst ideas in mmo history.
I think the animations are awesome also. I'm just saying its harder to design a world encounter and the wow fanbois need to stfu because they know im right.
Are you drunk? How is it harder to design a boss that was ALREADY BEATEN BY FEW SWIMMING warriors than a random encounter in any given MMO that is not DF?
Are you drunk? How is it harder to design a boss that was ALREADY BEATEN BY FEW SWIMMING warriors than a random encounter in any given MMO that is not DF?
Because the developers know what the attacking players level, role and number of players will be.
In an instance you could design a scripted encounter easily since you know all those things.
It's tough when you know none of that.
100+ people could be fighting that thing or 3 dudes swiming.
Kinda tough to make a boss using phases and complex mechanics when you have no idea what the players will be fighting it with.
Are you drunk? How is it harder to design a boss that was ALREADY BEATEN BY FEW SWIMMING warriors than a random encounter in any given MMO that is not DF?
Because the developers know what the attacking players level, role and number of players will be.
In an instance you could design a scripted encounter easily since you know all those things.
It's tough when you know none of that.
100+ people could be fighting that thing or 3 dudes swiming.
Kinda tough to make a boss using phases and complex mechanics when you have no idea what the players will be fighting it with.
Well this is naive thinking (if I try to be nice ). The thing is that they didn't think at all how to make him (since 6 warriors beat him) ... they simply released a big monster hoping it will attract more players.
Same type of boss was in Anarchy online (if you played it) - forgot it's name but it was the only end game boss in 1st expansion. It was simple ... tanks went in and dps did dps. In rubi ka it was actually done through a bot system (DKP) - 100 came and took him down easily. But, as much as I liked the game, this boss was boring, dull and brain freeze. Same as this Kraken dude. My point? Admit already this "boss" is shit because devs fucked it up. Nothing is perfect .. and some stuff are plain shit - like kraken and that AO boss I told you about.
Are you drunk? How is it harder to design a boss that was ALREADY BEATEN BY FEW SWIMMING warriors than a random encounter in any given MMO that is not DF?
Because the developers know what the attacking players level, role and number of players will be.
In an instance you could design a scripted encounter easily since you know all those things.
It's tough when you know none of that.
100+ people could be fighting that thing or 3 dudes swiming.
Kinda tough to make a boss using phases and complex mechanics when you have no idea what the players will be fighting it with.
Well this is naive thinking (if I try to be nice ). The thing is that they didn't think at all how to make him (since 6 warriors beat him) ... they simply released a big monster hoping it will attract more players.
Same type of boss was in Anarchy online (if you played it) - forgot it's name but it was the only end game boss in 1st expansion. It was simple ... tanks went in and dps did dps. In rubi ka it was actually done through a bot system (DKP) - 100 came and took him down easily. But, as much as I liked the game, this boss was boring, dull and brain freeze. Same as this Kraken dude. My point? Admit already this "boss" is shit because devs fucked it up. Nothing is perfect .. and some stuff are plain shit - like kraken and that AO boss I told you about.
It's only one boss mob, it looks cool, seems fun. With that said before we trash AV for not delivering boss mobs with phases that require the player to read online guides to take down lets let AV create more and see if they all end up simple encounters.
Even a game like WoW had simple tank and spank encounters.
In a pvp focused game like Df it's nice to see a pve fight, even if its just a dps down encounter.
WoW cannot compare to this game since it is full of instances. This is an MMORPG so let's compare apples to apples. MMORPG's in my mind don't have instancing.
This is just a random encounter that could happen to anyone. There could be a big war with real loss on both sides and then this thing comes along. What now? The people you are fighting are now suddenly your best friends or someone seizes the advantage. Anything can happen. You are not told to kill that thing.
Certainly the animations can be better and I'm sure in the future they will be. However, A lot of people are just nitpicking and appear to be jealous.
I do agree that they function under similar methods but with larger companies the tendency tends to be more "design by comittee" and less risk taking along with having to keep investors happy. You can have fewer people making the product and as long as the product works well and they can reach enough customers to pay the bills, pay salaries, etc, then it really doesn't have to be more than that. Small companies that intend on staying small can do that. I once worked at an Architectural firm that always maintained about 50-55 employees. When asked if we would grow the answer was "we can maintain these jobs and always have something for someone to work on. If we grew then we could be faced with layoffs and we would prefer not to have too go that route." "The size is fine for what we want to do and want to accomplish". but my experience with larger companies is that just paying the bills, paying salaries and having enough to continue is not enough. heck, my company laid off 10% of its work force because business was less by 10% the previous year. this was despite the fact that they felt they had a very strong product pipeline continuing '09 and going into '10. Prior to this, the company I had worked for only had to keep the lights on and pay salaries and just keep going. On top of that decisions on the way a product could go were reached far quicker. Then we were purchased by a larger company and things took longer, sometimes we were asked to go a different way because what we were working on had to fit into some larger product offering. This of course caused waste and even a back up in the work while people were getting up to the task of the new project." There's actually a book out that talks about how smaller companies are able to make faster and more viable and pertinent decisions unlike their larger bretheren. From my experience I have to agree with that. larger companies do have things going for them but I don't believe they oftentimes move as quickly and sometimes it's just in response to keeping pace with other companies as opposed to actually believing in their products. As a footnote, we had a prodcut that was supposed to help businesses trrack and control their products and workforce. My company was touting it as a "must have product". I then asked if our company (actually the larger company that used us) also used this product as it seemed that it was supposed to be incredible. My answer? "No, the cost to implementing it isn't worth it". I couldn't understand how we could ask another company to purchase our product and move to a different way of doing things if we ourselves didn't embrace our own technology. When we were a smaller company we used our products to enhance our work. I'll also add, at the risk of making this longer, that there are some business in our area that are owned by private interests and not large companies. One of them is a cafe that used to be an Au Bon Pan Cafe. Eventually Au Bon Pain closed it because it wasn't pulling in the money like they wanted. On top of that the place always looked crappy as if the company didn't really care. so a private interest came in, opened up their own cafe that wasnt' a clone of anything else and they are fiendishly successful with a whole new look to the place, better layout, better food, etc. At the end of my street there is a pain your own pottery place. the owner really loves the shop and in a sense it is a realization of her own dream. She makes enough to stay open and pay salaries. She'll never get rich off of it but it can run and service customers who are interested in this little place. She doesn't worry about expanding or investors. Or that she has a niche service.
Now, that's a quality post, right there. Thanks for taking the time for writing it down.
Yes, the main difference between big businesses vs. small businesses can be reduced to "resources + reaction time". Usually, bigger companies are monolithic and slow to react, but they compensate that with deeper pockets and a wider consumer base to their products. Also, products made by bigger company tend to have a sense of greater "value" attached to them. This phenomena is clearly seen in Gaming.
Smaller businesses are still in that phase of the "ideal". They have less external interference, workers are more idealistic, and there's usually a bigger drive to do things the way they should see fit. This is why smaller companies often develop creative, innovative products. If they are successful enough, they become big, and slowly change as a company, or are phagocytated by larger businesses aiming to expand in other segments.
Gaming companies want, above all, the largest playerbase possible. This is their goal, and Blizzard set the bar right up there. I think that all game company president that develops a product and says that they do not aim for the kind of player figure WoW has is a liar. And, mind you, there's nothing wrong with that. Aventurine has investors. Investors do not care about genres, PVE vs. PVP, the ideal game, patch content, etc. They care about money being made. We can see a change in direction made by Aventurine already, trying to open up the game to a wider audience, to make it more popular. It wasn't an innocent change.
Whether they like it or not, a MMOG is a MMOG. It will be measured against the best up there. People won't "take pity" on the game simply because it was developed by a smaller company. This is one of the reasons why DFO was so bashed in its early days: the whole experience was amateurish, from purchasing it, to logging in, and finally playing it.
It's relatively safe to say that Aventurine woke up and started doing things as a legitimate gaming business should, and everyone will profit from there. But, they'll have to step up and deliver quality. Because that's what everyone, customers and critics and the market, wants.
Now, that's a quality post, right there. Thanks for taking the time for writing it down. Yes, the main difference between big businesses vs. small businesses can be reduced to "resources + reaction time". Usually, bigger companies are monolithic and slow to react, but they compensate that with deeper pockets and a wider consumer base to their products. Also, products made by bigger company tend to have a sense of greater "value" attached to them. This phenomena is clearly seen in Gaming. Smaller businesses are still in that phase of the "ideal". They have less external interference, workers are more idealistic, and there's usually a bigger drive to do things the way they should see fit. This is why smaller companies often develop creative, innovative products. If they are successful enough, they become big, and slowly change as a company, or are phagocytated by larger businesses aiming to expand in other segments. Gaming companies want, above all, the largest playerbase possible. This is their goal, and Blizzard set the bar right up there. I think that all game company president that develops a product and says that they do not aim for the kind of player figure WoW has is a liar. And, mind you, there's nothing wrong with that. Aventurine has investors. Investors do not care about genres, PVE vs. PVP, the ideal game, patch content, etc. They care about money being made. We can see a change in direction made by Aventurine already, trying to open up the game to a wider audience, to make it more popular. It wasn't an innocent change. Whether they like it or not, a MMOG is a MMOG. It will be measured against the best up there. People won't "take pity" on the game simply because it was developed by a smaller company. This is one of the reasons why DFO was so bashed in its early days: the whole experience was amateurish, from purchasing it, to logging in, and finally playing it. It's relatively safe to say that Aventurine woke up and started doing things as a legitimate gaming business should, and everyone will profit from there. But, they'll have to step up and deliver quality. Because that's what everyone, customers and critics and the market, wants.
I dont agree that every gaming company wants the largest consumer base they can get. I think most do but not all. Same is true for other companies, some companies want to provide a product or service that they are very attached to on a personal level and are really not intrested in making something so generic that everyone will like it.
A good example of this is music. Not all musicans want to be the next Britteny Spears and thank god for that. The larger the appeal the more water down it usually becomes.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Comments
sweet video, more incentive to go get the game now
Wasn't combat while swimming made more difficult in this patch?
Well, not a very flattering debut for a giant, amazing boss, that's for sure.
Well, keep in mind, it is an indy game. Given that I think it was probably very fun for all involved. Regardless of what one thinks of Darkfall, it's important that games like this are made and supported by those who like them. In the end, those with the big bucks might take notice and might be tempted to try a few things in their own games.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Wasn't combat while swimming made more difficult in this patch?
Well, not a very flattering debut for a giant, amazing boss, that's for sure.
It's not a boss you grouchy man
Just a big nasty wandering NPC. Give AV a chance to patch it right. Things were messy over the weekend, but the first fix has done a lot to improve things (Monday should always be patch day, argghh). I even caught a mob hunting down some deer that ran through their area. Things are going to be alright.
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I used "boss" in the sense of an above-average difficulty encounter. Sorry for the misnomer.
And I'm not saying that it won't be tweaked or anything. Just an objective comment that as a high-profile encounter, one should expect the creature to put up a better fight.
@Sovrath
I don't buy the "indie" theory, for a variety of reasons. "Indie" companies function, in their basic structure, like any average company, just in a different scale. Both fail and succeed, due to a lot of factors, many shared by both of them. This was a heated topic in this forum since Beta, and a lot was said about this.
@Cecropia
I'm not grouchy =/ I'm a "half-empty glass" kinda guy.
Gotcha Strix, and I don't blame you
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
I unsubbed to DF last week then I literaly just resubbed after this video....
I do agree that they function under similar methods but with larger companies the tendency tends to be more "design by comittee" and less risk taking along with having to keep investors happy.
You can have fewer people making the product and as long as the product works well and they can reach enough customers to pay the bills, pay salaries, etc, then it really doesn't have to be more than that. Small companies that intend on staying small can do that. I once worked at an Architectural firm that always maintained about 50-55 employees. When asked if we would grow the answer was "we can maintain these jobs and always have something for someone to work on. If we grew then we could be faced with layoffs and we would prefer not to have too go that route." "The size is fine for what we want to do and want to accomplish".
but my experience with larger companies is that just paying the bills, paying salaries and having enough to continue is not enough. heck, my company laid off 10% of its work force because business was less by 10% the previous year. this was despite the fact that they felt they had a very strong product pipeline continuing '09 and going into '10.
Prior to this, the company I had worked for only had to keep the lights on and pay salaries and just keep going. On top of that decisions on the way a product could go were reached far quicker. Then we were purchased by a larger company and things took longer, sometimes we were asked to go a different way because what we were working on had to fit into some larger product offering. This of course caused waste and even a back up in the work while people were getting up to the task of the new project."
There's actually a book out that talks about how smaller companies are able to make faster and more viable and pertinent decisions unlike their larger bretheren. From my experience I have to agree with that. larger companies do have things going for them but I don't believe they oftentimes move as quickly and sometimes it's just in response to keeping pace with other companies as opposed to actually believing in their products.
As a footnote, we had a prodcut that was supposed to help businesses trrack and control their products and workforce. My company was touting it as a "must have product". I then asked if our company (actually the larger company that used us) also used this product as it seemed that it was supposed to be incredible. My answer? "No, the cost to implementing it isn't worth it".
I couldn't understand how we could ask another company to purchase our product and move to a different way of doing things if we ourselves didn't embrace our own technology.
When we were a smaller company we used our products to enhance our work.
I'll also add, at the risk of making this longer, that there are some business in our area that are owned by private interests and not large companies. One of them is a cafe that used to be an Au Bon Pan Cafe. Eventually Au Bon Pain closed it because it wasn't pulling in the money like they wanted. On top of that the place always looked crappy as if the company didn't really care. so a private interest came in, opened up their own cafe that wasnt' a clone of anything else and they are fiendishly successful with a whole new look to the place, better layout, better food, etc.
At the end of my street there is a pain your own pottery place. the owner really loves the shop and in a sense it is a realization of her own dream. She makes enough to stay open and pay salaries. She'll never get rich off of it but it can run and service customers who are interested in this little place. She doesn't worry about expanding or investors. Or that she has a niche service.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
There are dragons that fly around in the sky and roam and will follow and track you for a LONG time. Imagine running, thinking everything is fine, and then BAM you get blasted by a huge fireball. Now you're running for your life.
Besides that, the Kraken (as far as I know) is the only other type of big roaming mob in game right now. Of course, this is just the beginning.
yep sooner or later they will have god of war type gaints
Told you so ... you don't even need a fucking ship
. (so much for kraken being real monster ... a regular shark could eat these warriors :P)
Anyway I have a question for you bunch - when "just a beginning" starts being "a beginning of an end"?
I have to say that this is pretty uninspiring a mob. Certainly, it adds to the randomness of seafaring but it is something you can achieve by a simple random number generator, and, that is, what I think most others who are not enthralled by this particular incarnation of Kraken are complaining about. I recall that back in the days text-based RPGs on C-64 had also these "random" encounters but they really weren't all that interesting either. Nonetheless, they installed that element of randomness and danger in a quite similar fashion as this -- I just think they were a bit more sudden in their execution back then.
Obviously, you can have an ocean packed with life of varying size and danger but it hardly renders that particular sealife all too interesting. And, thus, treating sealife just as it is and not as a large-scale epicness of utmost nature would be more fair. This addition does not constitute an element of PvE into the game as its sole contribution lies in its randomness and the effect of randomness for PvP. I doubt that anyone would call a giant, thou randomly emerging, goblin that would take 20 minutes to kill the new coming of MMORPGs if the arsenal of attacks of that particular Giant Goblin of Mayhem would consist of the very same goblin attacks that you see on its inferior cousins.
Therefore, I think that new additions to Darkfall's seafaring introduced in the latest expansion are warmly welcomed as they are a breath of fresh air to the PvP scene of the game. But, it is not the greatest nor most innovative addition to PvE since the dawn of time as has been stated here. Sure, it looks nice, but more pixels of watery horror sadly don't make more intense a gaming experience.
MMORPG's having seas are few, MMORPG's having sea's to dive in and there are creature in the water are fewer, MMORPG's offering multipassenger ships to sail through the seas in which sea monster live like sharks for underwater PvE are even fewer, MMORPG's having an see encounter designed around destroying such a multipassenger ship while it is sailing on the sea is ONE = Darkfall !
/hail Darkfall
From sandbox perspective, from RP perspective , from PvE perspective and even from RTS perspective (the gathering efforts of the clan members for the ship and all the danger and cost already put in such a musltipassenger ship) , its a FANTASTIC feature too.
-----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)
Not only that. They need to add visual water effects, like splashing waves and such as well.
It looks cool this Kraken. But it also looks extremely fake because of the total lack of environmental effects.
Cheers
I love the wow newbs coming into this thread comparing a random NPC spawn with a scripted instanced boss.
Hello!!!!!
Of course this fight isn't as hard or as complicated as a scripted fight. In an instance the devs know how many players are fighting the boss and at what level, they have an idea of what the role make up the party will be.
In darkfall you could be floating out on a raft with two or three other guys and that thing could attack you.
Obviously its only going to be a DPS encounter.
I know in WoW blizzard did away with world encounters but back in the day the wow bosses weren't that difficult to fight since you could take them down with multiple raid groups.
It's alot harder to design an encounter when you know shit about the force thats trying to take it down.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
The kraken is a world boss that can appear anytime when sailing.
If it was a normal monster a single ship should be able to handle it so it's not a normal monster but like I said a world boss. People are saying that the lack of animations on this big fellow is something that needs to be changed there's no need to make it as scripted as a dungeon boss but some diving, attaching to the ship, throwing people in the water are some things that are seen in movies,ecc when they put a kraken.
The kraken is a world boss that can appear anytime when sailing.
If it was a normal monster a single ship should be able to handle it so it's not a normal monster but like I said a world boss. People are saying that the lack of animations on this big fellow is something that needs to be changed there's no need to make it as scripted as a dungeon boss but some diving, attaching to the ship, throwing people in the water are some things that are seen in movies,ecc when they put a kraken.
I think this boss is freaking sweet. But im oldschool and to me the instancing of raid encounters was one of the worst ideas in mmo history.
I think the animations are awesome also. I'm just saying its harder to design a world encounter and the wow fanbois need to stfu because they know im right.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Are you drunk? How is it harder to design a boss that was ALREADY BEATEN BY FEW SWIMMING warriors than a random encounter in any given MMO that is not DF?
Myeah...Metalhead, L2's bosses were mostly raid bosses and they still had a few abilities here and there, specific for their type.
Even the instanced ones weren't exactly instanced and their entrances could clash in huge WPvP battles to decide who's going in.
It doesn't have to be WoW like, but it still looks subpar to older world bosses in far older games. I mean, it's 2009, dude.
It's a sea monster. it already tosses people out of the boat and smashes the boat. What else could it do?
I agree that other world bosses were more complex but lets see what AV does when they get around to bringing in really massive land encounters.
Also understand that this is a sandbox game, I don;t know if Dakfall has the mechanics to fill certain roles like other games.
I know in a game like Ryzom the most a tank could do is wear heavy armor and hit taunt every 10 seconds.
Kinda limits what you can do with an encounter even basic tank and spank encounters.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Because the developers know what the attacking players level, role and number of players will be.
In an instance you could design a scripted encounter easily since you know all those things.
It's tough when you know none of that.
100+ people could be fighting that thing or 3 dudes swiming.
Kinda tough to make a boss using phases and complex mechanics when you have no idea what the players will be fighting it with.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
Because the developers know what the attacking players level, role and number of players will be.
In an instance you could design a scripted encounter easily since you know all those things.
It's tough when you know none of that.
100+ people could be fighting that thing or 3 dudes swiming.
Kinda tough to make a boss using phases and complex mechanics when you have no idea what the players will be fighting it with.
Well this is naive thinking (if I try to be nice
). The thing is that they didn't think at all how to make him (since 6 warriors beat him) ... they simply released a big monster hoping it will attract more players.
Same type of boss was in Anarchy online (if you played it) - forgot it's name but it was the only end game boss in 1st expansion. It was simple ... tanks went in and dps did dps. In rubi ka it was actually done through a bot system (DKP) - 100 came and took him down easily. But, as much as I liked the game, this boss was boring, dull and brain freeze. Same as this Kraken dude. My point? Admit already this "boss" is shit because devs fucked it up. Nothing is perfect .. and some stuff are plain shit - like kraken and that AO boss I told you about.
Because the developers know what the attacking players level, role and number of players will be.
In an instance you could design a scripted encounter easily since you know all those things.
It's tough when you know none of that.
100+ people could be fighting that thing or 3 dudes swiming.
Kinda tough to make a boss using phases and complex mechanics when you have no idea what the players will be fighting it with.
Well this is naive thinking (if I try to be nice
). The thing is that they didn't think at all how to make him (since 6 warriors beat him) ... they simply released a big monster hoping it will attract more players.
Same type of boss was in Anarchy online (if you played it) - forgot it's name but it was the only end game boss in 1st expansion. It was simple ... tanks went in and dps did dps. In rubi ka it was actually done through a bot system (DKP) - 100 came and took him down easily. But, as much as I liked the game, this boss was boring, dull and brain freeze. Same as this Kraken dude. My point? Admit already this "boss" is shit because devs fucked it up. Nothing is perfect .. and some stuff are plain shit - like kraken and that AO boss I told you about.
It's only one boss mob, it looks cool, seems fun. With that said before we trash AV for not delivering boss mobs with phases that require the player to read online guides to take down lets let AV create more and see if they all end up simple encounters.
Even a game like WoW had simple tank and spank encounters.
In a pvp focused game like Df it's nice to see a pve fight, even if its just a dps down encounter.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
WoW cannot compare to this game since it is full of instances. This is an MMORPG so let's compare apples to apples. MMORPG's in my mind don't have instancing.
This is just a random encounter that could happen to anyone. There could be a big war with real loss on both sides and then this thing comes along. What now? The people you are fighting are now suddenly your best friends or someone seizes the advantage. Anything can happen. You are not told to kill that thing.
Certainly the animations can be better and I'm sure in the future they will be. However, A lot of people are just nitpicking and appear to be jealous.
F8ck n00b spammers. Video pWN.
Now, that's a quality post, right there. Thanks for taking the time for writing it down.
Yes, the main difference between big businesses vs. small businesses can be reduced to "resources + reaction time". Usually, bigger companies are monolithic and slow to react, but they compensate that with deeper pockets and a wider consumer base to their products. Also, products made by bigger company tend to have a sense of greater "value" attached to them. This phenomena is clearly seen in Gaming.
Smaller businesses are still in that phase of the "ideal". They have less external interference, workers are more idealistic, and there's usually a bigger drive to do things the way they should see fit. This is why smaller companies often develop creative, innovative products. If they are successful enough, they become big, and slowly change as a company, or are phagocytated by larger businesses aiming to expand in other segments.
Gaming companies want, above all, the largest playerbase possible. This is their goal, and Blizzard set the bar right up there. I think that all game company president that develops a product and says that they do not aim for the kind of player figure WoW has is a liar. And, mind you, there's nothing wrong with that. Aventurine has investors. Investors do not care about genres, PVE vs. PVP, the ideal game, patch content, etc. They care about money being made. We can see a change in direction made by Aventurine already, trying to open up the game to a wider audience, to make it more popular. It wasn't an innocent change.
Whether they like it or not, a MMOG is a MMOG. It will be measured against the best up there. People won't "take pity" on the game simply because it was developed by a smaller company. This is one of the reasons why DFO was so bashed in its early days: the whole experience was amateurish, from purchasing it, to logging in, and finally playing it.
It's relatively safe to say that Aventurine woke up and started doing things as a legitimate gaming business should, and everyone will profit from there. But, they'll have to step up and deliver quality. Because that's what everyone, customers and critics and the market, wants.
I dont agree that every gaming company wants the largest consumer base they can get. I think most do but not all. Same is true for other companies, some companies want to provide a product or service that they are very attached to on a personal level and are really not intrested in making something so generic that everyone will like it.
A good example of this is music. Not all musicans want to be the next Britteny Spears and thank god for that. The larger the appeal the more water down it usually becomes.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me