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Darkfall - What is it unappreciated for?
We all know Darkfall gets a lot of appreciation for it's hardcore PvP mechanics and full loot system. Infact when darkfall is mentioned you'll only hear about the two things 1.) Brilliant PvP 2.) No skill-cap / grind for stat points
What people forget to mention with Darkfall is the PvE sidet it offers, I suspect this is because at launch the PvE wasn't great and many mobs were bugable. Two years down the line however we've seen huge changes in the PvE;
1.) A lot of dungeons added, other dungeons revamped along with epic mobs such as the Demon/Ice dragon/Krakken implemented
2.) Smarter and more effective AI, more dangerous and unexploitable in 99% of scenarios
3.) New mobs and special mob moves
4.) Looting table revamps
As it stands today Darkfalls PvE experience is a lot different to standard MMOs, you'll find the AI on mobs is a lot smarter and the mobs go to great lengths to hunt you down and kill you when you're trying to flee. Mobs will aggro not based off an artifical range but through sound and vision.
Even for high level characters there are plenty of PvE experiences in Darkfall that present a genuine challenge, instead of rolling over to die and hand over loot like in many games to date.
Comments
Darkfall should get the award for the best under-rated PvE but I disagree with your reasoning.
The PvE in Darkfall has always been fantastically better than other MMO's the difference is that the community of Darkfall by and large do not care that much about PvE and/or come from a single player background which always has much better PvE then MMOs.
Another part of Darkfall that gets constantly missed by many in the community and by almost every review I have read is the warfare aspect of it. The fact that I can build player cities, ships and have ship combat as well as 100vs100 etc.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I used to do nothing but wandering the countryside looking for PVP with most of my time (one of the reasons I am so under-developed for how long I have played) and one of the best warm-ups for me was hitting this nearby camp solo tht had a golem and 8-12 other mobs in a single camp. The only way to win was to kite, use the ramparts on the wall, bunny hop, try and get them to split up, etc. If I did that with shadows on and frapsed it the MMORPG community might see how fun the PVE can be.
I used to loathe PVE for the most part in MMORPGs. I like going deep in a dungeon and stuff like the original EQ but for the most part in the dumbed down games I would actually find myself looking at the time and getting bored, but having to stick with it because I commited to do some quest with my team. By the time it is over I am usually glad to log out. I have never been a big fan of MMORPG PVE and people used to die on occasion because I would start to get so bored that I would stop playing my role effectively. I love Darkfall's PVE because I am not forced to do a class-specific role and it feels a lot more realistic and more visually immersive, not to mention when PVP comes I almost always get a rush right after my heart jumps . .. claiming PVE areas as a solo player back when the game felt almost too crowded was fun as hell too. I love the PVE that keeps me at the edge of my seat and there are spots like that to be found all over the map.
I remember one time almost a full group of scare bears jumped me pretty close after NA release and somehow I managed to down one of them and the rest caught up and started throwing all these end-game nukes at me while I was playing a very under-developed character compared to them and somehow one of them shot me back and I timed every jump perfectly, parried whenever I was in the air, and baaaaarely made it back to the safety of the towers. I wasn't able to loot but that was the first time in NA that I got a super high from this game that seemed to bring my spirits up all day lol I think that this feeling is underrated as well since other games just do not give it to me at this extreme.
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Most of that PvE wasn't available on release, and it was laughably bad and buggy. Didn't help that a lot of the world felt 'copy-and-pasted' ala the new FF game. Followed by atrocious customer support and a common occurance of over-billing people for the game caused many to leave before it even got off anywhere. First impressions in the MMO genre are huge just like in many facets of life.
Despite the things everyone always talks about as far as issues with grind etc, there is definitely a lot of things that I think people seem to gloss over. Regardless of your opinion of Darkfall, the game has some aspects to it that people take for granted.
Zoneless overworld is a big one for me personally. Asheron's Call was over a decade ago, and I find it funny how few MMOs we have seen since then that have been able to successfully have this feature. If this alone would become the norm for MMOs, the quality of the games being produced would be substantially better. Too many companies take the easy way out walling you in and masking the fact that their overworld is just a giant rat maze with unclimbable walls all around you.
The entire boat aspect of this game is another thing. This is a fantasy MMo that actually allows players to create their own boats, sail them where ever they want, and have naval battles. This isn't even a primary focus of the game, it's just there on the side while other games either have boats on rails or completely unusable water space on the map.
It's areas like these that AV has really been able to push the envelope where a lot of other big name companies either can't or are too scared to try. Consider the resources the dev team has compared to the AAA titles and you have to give them credit.
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You over exaggerate. The game got ddos attacked which messed up billing. The first day had desynched mobs. Other than that the game was fine. I should know since I was there. As for your comment about the world being copy pasted, that is what is laughable. Darkfall easily has one of the best handcrafted worlds on the market.
First impressions are huge, but MMO's become living breathing worlds and change over time. Attitudes should do the same.
Bravo buddy! :-) Sounds like a great experience. I agree that the 'feeling' you got from the intensity of such situations is the underrated part of MMO's now.
I remember that feeling on a daily basis when I was playing FFXI, granted, that game is no where near as intense as Darkfall, but if you were emersed in the world, and progressed far on your character, the PVE situations could definitely get your heart racing!
I've tried Darkfall 3 times. 2 of which were during Beta phases. (i think it was like $1 for beta access or something?) - I was very very very impressed with the pure RPG elements and structure of the game, and the UI was cool too. Felt nostalgic, like they were trying to bring back the feeling of getting into RPG's before being numbed to the same old. Back when we were amazed at 3D environments lol . The 3rd time I tried Darkfall was on Trial, and I had planned to buy it. What turned me off was that it's community was full of botters/scripters. and the 'play-to-win' pvp crowd that takes all the fun out of things by spreading the news about the flavor-of-the-month tactics/exploits/builds. I don't have any friends playing DF, so alone, I didn't feel i stood a chance.
I would love to give the game another shot, however. If you know of some way I might have a better experience than just walking around solo getting ganked, please share and I might download and install again!
I've played aton of MMOs and DFO has been the most emmersive by far for me. Once AV throws in some more updates (models and sound changes are going to draw a huge crowd) I think many new players will sub to see what they've been missing.
DFO belongs on this list without a doubt. In fact I'd even put it at #1
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What the hell you on about bud? Me thinks we founds a troll...
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I think the source of almost all the QQ around Darkfall from the gaming community at large basically comes from this fictional example.
I am gamerX and I am hardcore, I am great at the game I play. Whats this? Darkfall? It says a game for top clans and top pvp? oh well yeah I am that guy!
<signs up>
<losses fight>
well its not me its the game......[BeginRant] ...forever..... [/EndRant]
unlike AV I am not suggesting that Darkfall is the benchmark for top pvp clans, what I am saying however is that it doesnt matter but people who rage quit often do it out of ego concerns moreso than the game itself although I do concede wining in DF takes a great deal of time and commitment. Some see that as good some see it as bad, I see it only as reality.
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I definitely give them credit. It is also no mean feat to develop your own MMO infratructure and graphics/physics/lighting engine all from scratch either.
What pains me is how narrowly and shortsightedly Darkfall has been designed in terms of its actual gameplay. And its arbitrarily narrow target audience. It kills the whole game.
Many of us predicted, correctly, that Darkfall's population would gradually decline as all the sheep left leaving only wolves, which is what's happened. There no graduation of risk/brutality in Darkfall (as there is, e.g. in EVE online), you just get thrown in there with vets/griefers able to grief within capital cities, gank at newbie mobs, etc without repercussion or risk. Sandbox games don't really work without risk-v-reward & choice-v-consequence.
Then there's the single class system, where everyone can be (read: has to be) an uber mage, uber meleer, uber archer, uber crafter. It was never going to work, and it doesn't, it just makes the game hollow/shallow and very grindy, as every players has to grind every skill up high cause everyone else has, and you have to use magic, and you have to use archery, and have a weapon mastery, etc.
They would have been far better off creating a more complex and interesting class/skill system with some kind of skill caps/restrictions and adding ships in a subsequent expansion. Doing the other way around is 10x harder and riskier, and it's hard to fathom how they could have been so blind/naive not to have seen this from the start.
I just really think they need to do a lot more in terms of equipment and skills. Advancing feels too much like climbing a ladder. Instead of having just one option at each tier, or only a view viable options across the entire equipment sets, they should try and expand horizontally at each level. Have more special stats attached to weapons. Have all the armors be useful in their own way. Make varying skills for each weapon group that subliments the weapon in varying ways.
It'd also be nice if they would make more craftable resources and have them spread out in certain areas. The world feels entirely too small because you can get practically anything you need wherever you are.
I'm not a fan of skill caps; I much prefer the Eve-Online system of how your role is defined by what ship you are flying at any particular time, and how there are tons and tons of crafting and resource skills to learn so it's not viable for everyone to speacilize in everything, but the player still has the option of changing their mind and not losing any progress.
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I played DF for a few months. A few months is good for me. I trade hobbies weekly. Sometimes I concentrate on games. Sometimes I concentrate on music. Sometimes I concentrate on 40k. Notice, i made no mention of girls. Alas, i shall continue wearing my +10 cape of never getting laid.
One thing I did not appreciate about DF was how untolerant it was for alcoholics. At some points in my life I will come home for the weekend, turn off my phone, and drink vodka till I wake up. DF was at one of those points in my life. I lost so much stuff in DF because of that. I would settle in for a night of drinking alone and wake up the next day with all my ore gone. Not sure where it went, but I can bet I got ganked somewhere along the way.
What that has taught me, is that that I need safe zones. I need a place where I can get sloshed and still play the game without detriment. DF will never have that. Chances are it will never have my money again either,
Lets not forget about the grind. Another poster made the perfect point. You have to be an expert at 2hndrs, 1handers, archery, and magic. You also need to be amaster in several schools of magic. All this took ALOT of time. Eventually I realized that I am perhaps a carebear and like pvp areas and areas to just sit back and harvest.
None of my stupid points are anything against DF. It is a hell of a great game. I thought it was the best modern mmo since WAR. I think there needs to be alot more games like DF, I really hope DF brings in enough numbers for another company to try to steal ideas from DF.