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Darkfall Activity Report: More community feedback
http://www.darkfallonline.com/blog/darkfall-activity-report-more-community-feedback/
We’re preparing for the next patch as our immediate priority, and in this next patch we have added offline meditation, several bug fixes, an auto-stacking update for equipped items, a new Sea Fortress Schedule, and more. The patch is coming next week, due to some persistent bugs which kept us from launching it sooner.
The sprint schedule is running as planned, much of the same things we have been working on, continue. We’ll go into this in more detail next week after the sprint presentation.
We’d like to thank our players for taking our suggestion last week and sending more feedback our way. The community liaisons collected more feedback and suggestions from the forums and I’d quickly like to address some of these today:
There was quite a bit of feedback having to do with issues related to the user interface, example: a suggestion for a visual indicator on the chat interface, how much bank space you have left, or horizontal hotbars. These will be addressed with the new GUI so we won’t comment on them right now. As we have mentioned our new GUI is going to be completely different. We do want your feedback and ideas however so please keep them coming.
We’re looking into feedback and suggestions concerning Destroyer and Indestructible and at the moment we see a lot of room for exploitation following several otherwise good suggestions. We’ll keep looking into this.
The use of one handed melee and shield has been brought up as a topic and on our end we have been looking into ways of making shield blocking more reactive than active.
The issue of (one man) clans, being able to war everyone is an issue high in our agenda and we’ll start taking action to curb this in the next couple of patches.
Regarding ship construction, we’re planning on offering more types of craftable ships in NPC cities, and we’ll move forward on allowing ship de-spawning only to the helmsman. Also swimmers with designs against a boat are going to have to think twice, or risk getting blown up.
We like a suggestion of not allowing hostiles to use clan banks and we’re going to implement it. We also like a suggestion of system messages being disabled when watchtowers are destroyed, until they are repaired.
We will make smaller treasure maps available.
“Bunnyhopping”: it’s a complex and sensitive issue. We want to balance it without penalizing skill. Rest assured that we’re looking at this very closely. On a related topic: death from falling is something we’re also looking into. Dungeon logging is another complex issue to fix but we are working on it.
Finally, a request and discussion on making crafting more involved finds us in agreement, but for this we’re looking to the next expansion.
Your suggestions are not simply commented on; they are quite often acted on. We’ve been doing this since day one, but we’re happy with the new workflow having to do with handling your feedback. We’re not talking about long-term hopes when we say we’re looking into something or working on an issue. If we talk about it, there are developers assigned to it and community liaisons following up on progress. Many of your suggestions will be acted on as soon as the next couple of patches. There are numerous other suggestions we have scheduled for future use, when our workflow allows us to.
We’d like to ask you to keep the excellent feedback coming.
Thank you for reading.
Comments
Just read this earlier today, I have to admit Aventurine keeps suprising me by improving on communication with every new updates. Overall, the issues they raised are quite important for the community and the overall experience so I'm really looking forward to how these changes will play out once they go live.
Offline Skilling on it's way, curious to see how it will affect everything. My only concern is that they have yet to look into the Alignement System, which is one of DarkFall's biggest flaw. So hopefully we'll see some changes in that direction in the future, as new players are struggling pretty badly with this Alignement System (see Bashur's video for exemple).
Love the communication that's coming from AV now, and I'm excited to see they're aware of and working on solutions to some major issues.
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
That was some good news. And just to know they really are working on it makes you happy : )
“Bunnyhopping”: it’s a complex and sensitive issue. We want to balance it without penalizing skill. Rest assured that we’re looking at this very closely
I wonder what they mean by this? Will they add more damage when you land after a bunny hope? Jumping off cliff when i got 1 hp left will kill myself?
Anyway, next week, off line progression. This is the day i am resubbing.
C:\Users\FF\Desktop\spin move.gif
Not sure if you saw it, but just after what you quoted, Tasos says: "On a related topic: death from falling is something we’re also looking into". So we'll see.
What use is talking about community feedback, when they're simply not listenting?
It's appears in their posts as long as it's trivial enough to write a online about it but the core issues of the game still fall on daft ears, even after 2 years of constant complaining.
The main issue now is that AV is listening to their current playerbase, as small as it is. And that playerbase doesn't believe that DarkFall has those "core issues", and rather ask for those lesser issues that still impact daily gameplay.
Core issues ? Madness explained already....
Its a damn working game..game cant do nothing for you not liking it..they have and will always expand to it ..what do you want more ?
There is only one explanation for talking about core issues at this point..you want to play a different game then Darkfall...and there is solution for you ..there is plenty of it around ....
-----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)
Well you proved Madnessrelam's point.
As far as your post. I am playing other games, due to the fact that darkfall is not a game for me:
Lack of toys in the sandbox.
To carebear for me. No skill cap and no death penalty makes this to simple of a game. and they are adding off line skill ups. (The reason I don't play EVE). Just means that the game is made for those that want everything handed to them, with out working for it.
After all this time, the game still only has about half of what Aventurine first proposed.
So I would say Aventurine still has not fixed the games core issues.
You proof also my point.
Darkfall is a complete working game with everything as promised in it -they said at laucnh housing and 4lr isn't in- but 4lr can't be balanced they explanied and housing got in with 1 expansion already.
You want to play a different game that is not Darkfall.
-----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)
from what i've seen so far the devs are pretty decent in terms of communication and listening to folks.
(not perfect, not as good as some other games, but good for the small size of their company)
but i'm very new. maybe in a week or three i'll find myself angry at them for whatever reason.
RIP Ribbitribbitt you are missed, kid.
Currently Playing EVE, ESO
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.
Dwight D Eisenhower
My optimism wears heavy boots and is loud.
Henry Rollins
DarkFall launched with a fraction of it's promised content. Game released in Feb.2009, Housing was added in the June Expac, to which they added Player Vendor in the December 2009 Expac Conquer The Sea. In fact, that last addition goes completly against what they had promised in the first place, hiring Merchants/Guards for you city, setting up shops in NPC Cities, etc.
As for Four-legged Running, after the confirmation by AV that they wouldn't look into 4lr anymore, many suggestions were made that made complete sense from a balance point-of-view, and several tweakings are possible, but AV has chosen the easy path to just add a reskin of a mount.
The promised content and the state of the game at launch and current state are not even remotly comparable, as they are entirely different game. The former had no Fun Hulks.
I'll be honest, since October, AV pretty much did a big 180 degree on their communications with the community and clearing things up. But before that, there was little to no communication outside of excuses for delays 1-2 days before a patch went live (HellFreeze anyone?). Now there's a new blog post every week, Bi-Weekly Chaos Chest, etc. So it's going great.
It's definitively a 180 in a very positive way, leading to believe that there is maybe a "future" for DarkFall. But I'm still doubtfull, and not because of AV this time, but because of it's community. But that's a different issue :P
Darkfall launched as a functioning game. The combat systems, magic systems, and crafting systejms were all in place at launch (which is more than could be said for other games). The only borderline funcitonal peice which was not in at launch were city gates.
4lr was scrapped befoore launch. They said it would not be in at launch before they launched the game.
EVERY game makes decisions about feature freezes. Claiming that DFO was in any way incomplate because it did not have housing at luanch is plain sillyness. The feture list at launch was still bigger than most games after years of play.
But that's all DarkFall is. Combat, Magic and Crafting (which is quite weak I may add). There's nothing else, there's no tool, there's no sand. Yes you can launch a game like that, it's the company's call, but they'll obviously suffer the consequences and DarkFall and MO are proof of this.
Four-legged Running was somewhat brought back late 2009 I believe, where AV stated they were looking into it (I believe before CtS but I could be wrong), then in a later interview or Q&A, AV went back on what they said and decided that it wouldn't work because of balance issues.
Were you really there at launch? DarkFall had little to no feature, and is still lacking in several areas. Has the game improved, yes, in some areas. But by no mean did they have a longer list of features than "most games", unless you are talking about the previous version of the website, which was replaced few months after launch to reflect the entirely different game that is the DarkFall that was released in February. And I don't remember saying that DarkFall was imcomplete because it didn't have Housing at launch. The whole game screams band-aid fix and lazy additions.
The playerbase is doing a ton to try and get in new players. Trust me we realize the core issues and it's why a majority is not in a uproar over offline skill gains. We want the grind reduced and for the servers to be full again. Anyone who does not see the current population and think "WTF there is something seriously wrong" then they need there head examined.
Bunion read this and tell me Darkfall was released with all of its promised features again.
The "complete" list of developers statements (part 1)
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=167124
A compiled list of possible features which were discuessed for years before a release do not constitute and "OFFICIAL" list of "promised" features. Just becasue someones ex-cousins roomate passed gass and his girlfriend though it was some dire portent on what Darkfall would contain when it launched does not make it promised, nor official.
Development Reality 101
Prior to any product release milestone an event takes place. All features are reveiwed, along with thier status. All open bugs are reviewed. Any feature which are not considered to be "core" and/or have issues assocaited with them will be re-evaluated for inlcusion. If the bug is not too severe the issue may be fixed at a later date. if a feature is broken, has not been developed 9due to resoruces) it may not be included. Once this review is compelted an OFFICIAL list of features is provided. This happens 1 time.
The devs did this in DFO. The game released with the features that they promised at the end of beta. I was in beta, I was there. I was a bit distrurbed by the lack of gates on cities, but everything else made sense. All of the core mechanics were in place. At the time of release it was clearly stated that features such as housieng would be added at a later time.
Stopped reading immediately. I've seen that thread, its a bunch of BS.
It starts listing stuff from an entirely different version of Darkfall, with an entirely different company, in an entirely different country.
Darkfall did in fact launch with every major feature it promised (other than the roaming mob ai), and was only missing a few minor features. Seriously, when mentioning "broken promises" you bring up an almost entirely unimportant racial ability? It couldn't be balanced well, so it was cut. How hard is that to understand? Aventurine does't lie to you and break your dreams, you have dilusions about what features would be like.
I see people with "lists" all the time. "Aventurine promised us a fun game! There's no fun in this!"
It amazes me that people like you somehow manage to quote a bunch of "missing features". You can quote things the devs "promised you" but you can't quote when they announced those features cut?
Hiring NPC merchants and mercs and stuff was cut ALMOST TWO WHOLE YEARS BEFORE LAUNCH. Sorry you missed it buddy. Oh but I'm sure Aventurine lied to you, and that they just went on promising those features anyway, right? They wanted to change the direction of the game, to encourage people to work together, they got rid of hirable NPCs.
I think the "missing features" everyone discusses is intended to reflect on the very poor and suspect main-page for Darkfall at its release, and awhile thereafter. The main page at the time was never updated and as such reflected things that may have been cut years prior to launch, the only real way to know what was actually in prior to launch was to actively follow the forums/leaks.
Darkfall is a great game, and Aventurine is doing wonderfully with their communication and patches now. Until they fix the grind and allow some form of balance between a vet and a newer ( this doesn't mean a week old character) character .. I and many others won't comeback.
I'm an OS gamer ... I started with MUDS, I can tolerate enjoyable grinds .. I refuse to tolerate getting tagged by some chump who simply started at launch ( and most likely macro'd skills, and exploited broken mobs for gold/mats) .. with no hope to defend myself for months. I'm not a sadist ... and the pvp isn't THAT good.
Darkfall needs continued life support, I think offline skilling is the wrong move .. but its another step in the right direction.
*Puts his tinfoil hat on*
Its almost as if they themselves are vets and don't want to relinquish there huge balance gap.