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Former player, was about to install MO, but then found out its dead.. How many people play Darkfall?
Hey all! im a former darkfall player and was recently interested in trying out Mortal Online.. but after finding out its more or less dead, and that the devs dont do ANYTHING about cheating, i decided to boot up the old darkfall again.
But i was wondering, on average how many people are on during primetime, and would we see in the cities. or even running around... thanks =P
Comments
This is a tricky question. The population in any game is up and down. With the summer ending the popualtion is rising again.
Also, a new expac is expected soon (long delayed) and population always increases after each expac. T^his one promises to be a good one adding much more sand to the sandbox.
The World
Population in starter cities can be medium or sparse depending on race.
Population in player cities with alliances is good. My alliance is a small one and we fight of nightly raids by several guilds. PvP can be easily had by traveling to lucrative hunting areas and player cities (some are more populated than others).
The world is big so it can often seem there is less population than it seems. However, when you fight (PvE or PvP) it is loud and this makes the world much smaller than it seem.
I will add that cheating / hacking seems to be a thing of the past. Many people were banned and I haven't seen anyone hacking in months.
In the NPC cities you should see a decent amount of people depending on your race. There were times I would easily see 20-30 in a racial capital with another 20+ in the surrounding areas.
Player cities depends on the size and activity of your clan or alliance. I would usually see around 10-15 in Zag when we controlled it. During battles or gathering for battles that could spike to 50+.
Out in the world, it will seem sparse because the world is so large. There are routes people travel though to get from one area to another (usually following chaos stones). Every time I traveled between Ork and Mahirim territories, I ran across at least a couple of people. Usually they wanted to kill me, which made the trip that much more exhilarating.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
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Since you already own it a one month sub is not to bad to check it out. Like others have said there are peps playing. Im in DHoV at Apautan and I can almost always get a group up for something and reds are in constant supply especially on the weekends. If you are not in an alliance you should find one as that is where a lot of action is in DF.
DHoV in Appletown. Lolz. I will have to stop by for teh zergz!
There's still the occasional 200+ player sieges on both servers.
I would agree I see at least 1-2 "Battle will start in 22hrs" every day or so and I know some of those are ALT guilds for Big name guilds with good turn out...
I play solo often in DF (cannot do vent over cellular data plan) and I still run in to people all over the place and lots of Reds (fun stuff) even in Elf lands which is considered one of the less populated places to play. Weekends for sure are high pop and I run to atleast 20+ new faces in NPC towns which are not as populated as the Player Cities. Its still very much populated from what I have seen.
this is so silly ....there is no way you know how many people are on at any given time. Yes you can get a general idea of high and low population time and places but to say "there are about 250-300 people at high times" is being silly.
I actually think the population is just fine during regular playing times for specific server. This weekend I got 3 pvp events and I wasnt even looking for them. Not saying that is high but I am saying if I start to get 9 unwelcomed pvp events in 2 days it might start to get old.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
We get plenty of PvP every day with raids every few hours despite being out in no-where.
I was at a siege Monday where there were enough people to crash a number of clients.
The population is certainly better than WaR and DAoC when I quit playing those games.
It would be interesting to actually compare the number of players of DF and MO. I think DF has more players but I have no actual proof of that whatsoever.
But for OP: Neither of the games are really dead but neither are a game you should play if you are really worried about sub numbers, both are kinda small but neither have big debts and both games seems to be slowly patching themselves up.
The reason you should select one of them are features and which one you think is most fun to play, not the exact number of population. I will not say that you should play one or the other, only you can say which game that fits you best but if you want a game with large population neither is the perfect choice, they are both kinda niche games (which can be good or bad depending on what you like).
DF have a free trial, you can always try it out to see if the population is enough for you and if you like the game, it only costs a little time.
I've played both games but couldnt handle MO more than a month.
MO has about 200 peeps during prime time but the world is smaller so it may seem busier at times.
Darkfall has about 1000+ peeps during prime time on each server (so 2000+ if you count both but actually EU probably has less now) but the world is a hell of a lot bigger than MOs so it can seem empty at times. I actually just edit and cut this in half . .. its so hard to tell really.
There was 4 sieges in one day last week . .. and NA is sure becoming populated again but most people are waiting for the expansion so there will be a boom when that happens (ETA was another month about a month ago so it could be any day now) and another boom when DF2010 comes. Even a lot of people who love the game are waiting for the expansion since it is so much funner to play with a busy population.
Summer has ended almost so people are returning to both games since kids are returning to school and mostly adults play and not as many outside things to do.
Not sure how long its been since youve played DF but cheaters are pretty much non-existant now. I never even come across radar hackers anymore . .. the sites that sold DFO cheats have stopped selling since AV had caught on.
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You need to differ between EU and NA server. I made a NA trial and got the impression its population is 4-5x bigger than EU's. But unfortunately my ping is too high to enjoy.
But compared to the size of the world and what it was designed for Darkfall's population is still too low. Also compared to the release-period population.
I remember times where almost every mob spawn was crowded with some players. NPC cities were full of people. Even lots of hamlets were populated.
But you don't see this living world anymore at anytime in Darkfall today.
Today almost all active players hide in their clan's cities, behind their walls, macroing and almost only going out to PvP in groups to raid other clan's cities.
Common Open PvP is almost non-existend. It still happens, yes. But there are lots of times where you can run around for hours and don't see anybody. Instead of fighting sounds at mob spawns you just hear their spawning sounds when comming close.
Also there is still a huge gap between veterans and casuals / newbies. If you're a (semi-)new player chances to PvP someone in your progression range are very very low. But very high to get ambushed and roflstomped in 5sec by some Wall of Force and Ray spam of some bored (macroing) "vet."
At release you could often go out of the vicinity of your starter area and run into some other noobs exploring the world. I remember my first PvP experience in Darkfall was a noobie Mirdain comming to our Alfar Goblin spawns. Back in that days you always had this kind of encounters. No spawn was really safe. Today you can PvE for hours and nothing happens.
Don't get this wrong. I love Darkfall and don't want to bash it. I'm also not a "noob." I'm clanned, playing since release and got a very nice and decend char.
But everybody saying Darkfall's (especially EU server's) population is healthy and good is either lying himself or is only playing at nut cupped sieges half of the server VS the other half of the server.
I don't think any one is saying DFO population is great. What most of us are saying is we have no problem finding pvp or it finding us; we have no problem finding groups, etc. I wouldn't want the same population back at release to be honest; I thought it was way to packed and find no enjoyment over every spawn being camped. A population between the height of DFO and today would be perfect IMO. What I do love is the opportunity now to more easily find some peace & quiet to gather and raise skills in anticipation of what I know the coming months will bring in terms of patches, expansion and increase in player population.
It is actually an awesome time to start playing DFO.
-CC
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
If your profile information is correct I assume you play on NA server? If yes, then of course you're right. As I also said, from my experiences on my US trial account the NA server is much more crowded than the EU is. I always met some people in or around Alfar starter cities, even at your off times.
But on EU you hardly meet anyone in NPC cities or at mob spawns. And most of those you meet are Trial players with their halo.
Wish the EU population was like NA population.
Aye, I understand from all I hear the EU server is light. Hopefully I'm right about the future. As I'm sure you know, DFO is an insanely good game; just needs more of exactly what we are told is on the way. "When" it arrives, I fully expect a lot of players to at the least; resub to check it out and if it's up to snuff the word will spread and potential player you want is there.
There really is no happy middle ground because even if they put one server on the East coast of the US those in Australia and other locations really suffer. The only good long term solution is for AV to stay on course, pick the speed up if at all possible, and let the merits of the game do the rest. Despite what the trolls frequently post, this game owns; just needs a bit more polish and filled in with additional content.
-CC
"Lately it occurs to me,
what a long, strange trip it's been". -Hunter
not enough.
Damn, im like a week into my DF subscription, finding myself quite bored in game. I was about to give MO a try.
It really depends on where you are in the game world. Sadly the game is set up in such a way that you will see more of the playing population as you skill up, so that noobs can end up thinking that the game is less sparsely populated then it actually is.
NA is certainly more populated then EU, but with the coming xpac numbers should jump significantly. Eitherway there is certainly a large enough population on both to see decent sized pvp battles, and it is certainly larger then alot of non playing naysayers will have you believe.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
If you're not liking DF after a week, you're certainly not going to like MO. Give it a try though. It's in pretty rough shape right now. Personally, I wouldn't touch MO with a 10 foot pole. Which is sad because it was the MMO I was most excited about last year.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN