I thought I would share a game that I have been checking up on over the years that is finally set to open beta/release in the next month.

Darkfall: Many people have probably heard of this game, as it has been developed since 2002. The idea of the game is to have an open PvP MMORPG world that gave minimal limitations to the player. Now, most MMO's will claim this... but this is the closest I have ever seen. All the attacking is manual (similar to oblivion) range/magic first person and Melee 3rd person, with still click to attack. It has no levels and is based 100% of skills (which appears to be a balanced way to effectively incorporate levels). Most important part that makes it amazing for PVP: You can kill anyone anywhere, anytime. There are obviously guards in major cities, but that doesn't necessarily stop you from a kamazi.

If you don't feel like reading anything (or are interested in getting a head start on the download), here is a link to the newest game play video:
http://media.darkfallonline.com/Darkfall_gameplay_trailer.zip
It is 100% gameplay. I thought it was impressive.

Edit: This is a shorter video that does a really good job showing the features, I suggest you check this out before first. Note that it is a couple years old... so the graphics are somewhat outdated.
High detail: http://www.mediafire.com/?5ltdu0nmzzy (1 minute download)
Need a player FLV compatible (http://www.download.com/FLV-Player/3000-13632_4-10467081.html?cdlPid=10896762)

For lazy people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bYYT6Wg3Gg


Some of the key features in bullet notes. Yay.

• Six playable races, Dwarves, Alfar, Humans, Mahirim, Mirdain, Orks
• At least 500 skills and 500 spells in the retail
• Real-Time Combat, with manually aiming and firing/fighting
• Fighting from your horse or from ships, with your crew being able to man the cannons
• Collision detection and friendly fire makes it possible for a small, skilled group of players to be able to take on a larger group
• There's no target selection in Darkfall; all attacks are aimed
• Character control is maintained while riding; the character can equip items, attack, look around
• There are no safe zones in Darkfall
• The game fully supports siege warfare for towns between rivaling Alliances and Clans
• Players can install entire kingdoms, this is fully supported by the game
• When a character dies, all of his belongings that he carried with him stay on his corpse and can completely be looted by others
• Monsters will spawn dynamically, spawns do not appear in the very same place, up to the point where a species becomes extinct in a given area for a while
• All items in the world can be made by players
• There are no floating nametags over player's heads
• Players will be able to set up houses of various sizes and design, ranging from small cottages to huge castles and citadels
• The world is huge, possibly the largest single online game world ever create
• They are hoping to allow for up to 10.000 Players on each server
• Darkfall doesn't have zones. Only when you enter a dungeon or a structure there will be a loading screen
• Player defined legal systems are supported by the game
• You can effectively perform stealth activities by using tactics such as knowing your terrain, moving silently, using cover, using weather and darkness, wearing non-reflective armor, clothing that blends with the environment, keeping your weapon sheathed, crouching through tall grass, staying in shadows, moving slowly, trying not to make noise, being aware of where your enemy is looking

There are MANY more features, check out the full list below.


Main Website:
http://www.darkfallonline.com

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darkfall

Entire list of features:
http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=43318


Darkfall FAQ's
Darkfall FAQ - Skills
http://hem.bredband.net/mongobash/DF-FAQ/skillsfaq.htm

Darkfall FAQ - Prestige class
http://hem.bredband.net/mongobash/DF...restigefaq.htm

Darkfall FAQ - Combat
http://hem.bredband.net/mongobash/DF-FAQ/combatfaq.htm

Darkfall FAQ - Rules of the world
http://hem.bredband.net/mongobash/DF-FAQ/rulesfaq.htm

Darkfall FAQ - Cities
http://hem.bredband.net/mongobash/DF-FAQ/citiesfaq.htm

Let me know what you think... make sure you check out the game play video (http://media.darkfallonline.com/Darkfall_gameplay_trailer.zip)

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 14 2008, 11:38 pm by Joker47.

Wow, seems like a total chaos game, kind of like D2 Hardcore but far severe and advanced.

So taking out levels is the most balanced to incorporate levels?

This sounds like the MMORPG that would make me finally play an MMORPG. Are you saying I could pretty much create my own world and see it fall to pieces as others destroy it?

I believe you have to play second life to experience that...
Also, lol.

Ok, the "skill" system took me the longest to understand. Basically there are over 500 skills that are "trained" simply by playing. For example, if you run, you train your running skill providing more speed, same for mounts. Swimming includes speed and ability to carry more weight in water. Jumping, etc. As for other skills such as spells, you train each one individually by using it. Bow skills/healing/melee attacks are all used by simply playing the game. This means every has the same base attributes, similar to a FPS. Except as you play the game skills such as your health (I am guessing by taking damage) improves. There are of course many more crafting skills including mining, cutting, smithing, that you may or may not choose to participate in. So you don't have an overall level by grinding for exp.

As my point about it being more balanced I read a quote by a dev saying that 3-4 entirely new characters with similar items and same playing skill level (like how good they are at the game) can take on a high level character playing alone. Unlike almost every other RPG where a level 99 would take 0 damage from a level 1-50. But the odds are most new players won't be as experienced in battle tactics, thus may not be able to kill him. The point is, it won't be a rapefest by high levels.

On a side note, items are way less important than in other RPG's due to the easy ability to craft them and the rate that the items are lost at (100% on death). Meaning, if you die and you have the right skills, you can be at the same place you were before in a short period of time. Unless of course you drop a rare boss drop.

More on skills:
http://hem.bredband.net/mongobash/DF-FAQ/skillsfaq.htm

The "world" is the server I suppose. I wouldn't say you "create" the server, as it is static. Your character and all he does is effectively your creation. You can build your house anywhere. And all guilds are custom made an any of 100 preset locations on the map- including islands, caves, shore, etc. You can build ships and destroy ships, which the large ones for pirates can almost be considered a guild hall. But yeah, you create everything by getting the materials, and anyone else has the ability to destroy it. So say you make a guild city, and you are sieged and have it destroyed (like in the movie), then yeah, I would say your own world fell to pieces as others destroy it.

NO LEVELING? FUCK WOW!

I say we form the SEN alliance when the game is released. I'm definitely playing this instead of WoW.

And, I take it that the skill system works like in a Elder Scrolls game?

Is it bad if I was sadisticly smiling as I watched the video?

Any idea of what the requirements are for this? Seems the devteam hasn't made any announcements about the requirements even with the open beta coming up. Also, once released is this going to be f2p, p2p, or f2p with shop/subscription extras? Googling only turns up old unanswered forum posts.

That's just as good. I can't wait to try it out now.

There's something about this that still does not convince me. The graphics...

Says the guy who plays StarCraft.

And Doom, and Megaman X 1-8, and many other -old- games.

Furthering my point

I don't want to expose my point of view in this thread, since it would have no point, and would only obtain hatred from others.

Oh, I forget to mention. The explosions and the blood, along with the building destroying animations suck monkey balls in that video. I know for a fact the graphic setting was not anywhere near the max, and that the graphics have been improved since then (the video is from 3 months ago).

Another argument for the bad graphics group is the models themselves aren't very impressive, and it is masked by extremely good looking texture. Which I can agree with to some extent. If you look at the terrain and armor texture, etc- then it looks sweet. The polygons/model themselves aren't anything too impressive, although I wouldn't describe it as bad. I am satisfied with the animations.

In the end I believe the gameplay will outweigh any graphical flaws.

Haven't played ES in awhile but I would say the way it levels up is similar (use to level up). But unlike elder scrolls where I think I remember leveling skills is a trade off (like if you focused on melee, you wouldn't be as good as range and magic) in darkfall you can simply take out your new equipment and start working on your other skills. If I remembered more from Oblivion I could probably answer this better... but I do recall really hating the leveling system- so I am not sure if oblivion is the best example. As far as combat though, oblivion is similar.

The main reason why they are currently having the closed beta is so they can test the game on many different computers and mainly see if the game runs correctly, not so much for glitches/gameplay. Which is why they haven't officially declared minimum specs. They will obviously do so before the open beta.

The community has basically accepted that it will be p2p, the price has not been set, it will most likely be at the same price range as current p2p MMO's. I really don't want this to become a giant thread on p2p vs f2p and how guild wars did it etc. I personally have mainly played f2p games but I am planning on making an exception for this. Many hardcore community members say they would only play the game if it was p2p, because that is the only way to maintain a quality game and keep updates flowing. I don't expect "shop extras" as it will most likely be funded by a subscription and they make a big point on not conflicting with the players in the game game trade/currency/and item creation... which is inevitably what money shops do.

Haha, hell no.

Alright, it's exactly like TES (minus the leveling), which makes me happy

I rather have nice graphics and a dull crappy game play than an awesome gameplay and poor graphics.


What I think is that the animations look too...dull or like if the character had troubles with moving... You can appreciate this specially when they are "thrown away" by some fireball. It's the same stupid sprite that just got randomly moved. The walking seems like they're stepping in the air and many more things.
I'd have to agree, though, that overall the graphics like nice and they have good texturings and modellings. They just have got to get better animations.

All you kids who are saying 'graphics > gameplay' need to die in a fucking fire. You're killing the game industry and encouraging corporations like EA to roll carbon copy generic games by the truck load out of their studios. Pretty soon all we're going to have are 3 unit RTS games and Halo 10.

EDIT: Just so we're clear:

Music is all about sounds.
Art is all about appearances.
Games are all about gameplay.

You can have all three and create a masterpiece (Starcraft) but having only one can still make a game people will remember for generations (MUDS - precursor to MMO's).

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 14 2008, 10:26 pm by chuiu.

Just to be clear, I never said graphics > gameplay. I said I would rather have nice graphics than a good gameplay.

Actually if you had non-wikipedia definitions of these first two you would know that music is not anywhere near to be all about sounds and neither is art all about appearance. Specially art, it is almost never about appearance.