Darkfall delivers on player expectations?

I'm very reluctant to be a player of Darkfall. After the failures of such "hardcore" PVP games as Shadowbane and Age of Conan, I just feel like I would be falling for it all over again. I've found my PVP fixes in Korean games that have daily server wide wars as their main focus, and games like RF Online for having amazingly resiliant characters that makes PVP last long.

My question for Darkfall players: do stealthers rule everything? or does a ranged DPS have a chance at anything.

I was very interested in Darkfall when I heard about it. I had no idea there was a market of Sandbox MMOs with the exact systems and ruleset I had been dreaming about. But after watching some of the videos and how combat works. It seems kind of tedious.

Stack all of that ontop of not being able to get an account, because they screwed up their launch; I have lost a lot of desire to play this game.

After watching the new Mortal Online video that released yesterday (I sent in a tip to you guys), I must say, the game has perked my interest greatly. I had only heard of it less than a week ago. I am already convinced enough to want to play it.

There was a REALLY good forum post (It got deleted within 3 minuets) on the darkfall official forums.



For those that can't wait to enjoy the game, that are still using the website as a guide to features, I'll go ahead and outline features versus in game, where things differ. From an objective standpoint, as best I can. Links to where each quote is, so that they may be verified.

http://darkfallonline.com/features/
"Interact with over ten thousand simultaneous players and shape the world."
-I think its not quite to the point of having that many online. Getting there, but not quite there yet.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/general.html
"Darkfall is currently in the final stages of internal beta testing. This means that the game is being tested in-house in preparation for public playtesting."
-It was released almost a month ago.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/world.html
"Besides being huge, the world features hundreds of islands you could discover and make your secret base on."
-Making 'bases' requires places in world being there, assigned for making cities and hamlets. There's a lot of islands, but only a bit over a dozen places to put bases, and most (if not all) are long since gone.

"There are no safe zones in Darkfall unless the players themselves create them or seek them out. There is no area where a player cannot be attacked by another player."
-You may attack anyone, anywhere, but if its in guard tower range, you're going to die if you hit more than once, and don't run away. The guard towers make very effective safe zones. Generally only found near NPC cities.

"A player in a city full of his clanmates and further guarded by NPC guards is as safe as he can be, but he is still vulnerable to a sudden enemy raid."
-There are no NPC guards, only towers. As long as they hide behind an object to prevent very long range attacks, they are safe. Enemies cannot raid, due to towers, and towers hit unlimited numbers of people (I've seen them hit >15 people at once)

"No. Darkfall is seamless and will not have zones and zone loading, as seen in other MMORPGs. There will be a short loading pause when entering dungeons and structures."
-Yes, there's loading screens entering dungeons, and after death. There's hitching in places where loading occurs otherwise.

"Our random spawns are dynamic. Clear out a spawn and it will not reappear in the same place. If you spend enough time killing a species, its presence in that area will thin out and eventually the species will migrate to a different area. "
-Everything has its set places to spawn, and really don't wander very far. No matter how many times things are killed, they keep coming back.

"With a no gore setting you will have no gore whatsoever, whereas with full options you could watch a perfectly timed and powerful swing of a sword take someone?s head clean off their shoulders."
-There's only blood decals and a generic red 'poof' as the spatter effect. Nothing more. No decapitations, no limb separation, no actual splattering. The present "decapitation" is instant, non-revivable death. However, no separation of limbs or parts occurs.

"Expect realistic weather effects, such as rain, snow, wind blowing in the trees, wind blowing in the grass on the ground, thunder and lightning."
-There is presently no weather effect, all grass is standard 2 or 4 poly static grass objects. There's some variation, but they are static.

"A dynamic in-game map is available."
-There are three maps. The standard minimap, the standard world map, and the journal map. All locations that are 'marked' are marked on the mini and world map. The issue is, the world map is not zoomable, and with the size of the world, it really jumbles everything togethor. The journal map is zoomable, but can not be marked, and doesn't track anything. They way they work is like using a sketch of the globe to mark location on, when you have an atlas next to you that you can't write in. If they'd combine these, it would make for a powerful, feature filled map, but they haven't, at least yet.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/characters.html
"Your character will start his/her adventure near his/her racial capital, with little more than a name, some basic equipment, and a neutral alignment. "
-There is positive, and negative alignment. This includes +0 and -0. There is no neutral. Everyone starts +10 alignment (blue), and a newbie 1h sword.

"Changing your alignment towards good is a challenging and difficult process. "
-Only if you're not in a clan that accepts people of enemy races. These clans kill internally, over and over, to raise their alignment very quickly and easily. Those aren't in these clans simply find places where red or enemy players respawn, and repeatedly kill afk players for basically the same reason. There's no limit to the alignment you can receive from killing the same player again in any period of time. A max negative alignment player can easily become a max positive alignment character in a matter of an hour or two, less with many enemy-race clan mates.

"If you want to learn to use the sword for example, you pick up the swordsmanship skill by learning it from an NPC or from another player"
-Can't teach players skills, only learned from NPC trainers.

"That being said - There is an option available to follow a class system: the Prestige classes described below."
-No one has found ANYTHING about prestige classes anywhere in game. A GM confirmed they are not in yet. I'll go ahead and skip everything else on the page that has to do with them.

"There are many ways you may customize your character to give him a unique look."
-All plate on a race looks the same as all other plate on that race, same for all types. You can mix'n'match types, but everything that looks one way on the race looks the same on every other player of that race.

"Does each race have unique properties? Yes they do. We?ll speak more about these at a later date. "
-Only difference is really hit box size. Larger races are easier to hit, and have difficulty interacting with things on the ground, and that's it for gameplay differences.

"Your character is capable of swimming, if he learns how to swim."
-Everyone starts with swimming, and can swim from the moment they enter the world.

"We have trade skills such as farming, setting snares and hunting animals"
-No farming, no trapping, no snares, no 'small game' of any type. There's some bears and such, but no small game.

"Therefore eating is in the game, and players that enjoy farming, setting traps, baking, cooking, fishing, hunting, etc. can sell their wares"
-Farming is out, trapping is out, baking isn't present, there's no hunting... there is cooking though.

"Players will be able to set up houses of various sizes and design, ranging from small cottages to huge castles and citadels."
-No player housing whatsoever. There's clan cities and hamlets, with predefined buildings in predefined places, and that's it.

"Can I design my own house? Yes you can."
-No you can't, as there is no 'my own house"

"If you are wearing heavy armor, you will run and swim slightly slower than if you are wearing no armor at all."
-No, armor does not affect running or swimming in any way. You swim the same speed, and have the same stamina loss for swimming in full plate armor with two spare sets in your backpack as you do naked.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/skills.html

"We currently have about 300 skills and 200 spells designed on paper, but we are hoping to get at least 500 skills and 500 spells in there before retail."
-I think the final tally was about 200 skills and 200 spells at retail launch. Many do not work at all, some do the exact same thing as others, with just a different name.

"Some skills and spells can be learned from other players."
-Cannot teach other players anything. Confirmed by a GM, who went on to say this wasn't ever intended.

"In addition there are some special spells that do not fit directly into any school of magic, such as racial specialty spells, and Prestige class specialty spells."
-No racial abilities in game, nor prestige classes.

"There are some special skills and spells that can only be learned by specific Prestige class characters."
-See above.

"Yes, however, your casting time will increase significantly if you are wearing heavy armor."
-I have observed no difference, perhaps due to armored casting, however there are other who say there is an observed difference. The change to actual damage or healing is notable.

"There is also a slightly increased chance of making a mistake while casting a spell if you are wearing heavy armor."
-You cannot fail a spell.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/items.html

"Is it possible to repair items? It is possible, with the proper skills and tools, up to a point. Eventually an item will be destroyed after being repaired several times."
-Can only repair seige weaponry, boats, and buildings. You can NOT repair armor, weapons, or tools.

"You will be able to make almost every item found in the world like weapons, tools, armor, clothing, food, containers, furniture, jewelry etc."
-No furniture in game. There are several chain armor pieces that can not be made by smiths, ancient armor can't be made by smiths, and I'm sure there's many more like this.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/society.html

"Remember that human NPC hirelings, such as guards and vendors, will not tolerate Orks and Alfar players, and may attack them on sight, even though they are in the same Clan."
-Vendors will not touch anyone, ever, clan or not, enemy or not, in a player hamlet or city.

"There will most certainly be Clans in Darkfall with players from all races. We predict that this will be small evil Clans, which will set up their Clan headquarters in remote locations, and not get involved in city conquest or empire building, since it will be almost impossible for these Clans to recruit NPC hirelings to help defend their cities and to run their shops."
-There are no penalties, only benefits for ARAC (All Race All Class) clans, and almost all of the 'successful' clans are ARACs. It is very difficult for non-ARACs to compete. The vast majority of clan owned locations are owned by multi-race-alliance guilds, and almost all cities are owned by these clans.

"You will find all the information you need on the political map, including who controls the different city states/kingdoms/fiefs, their laws and who they kill on sight."
-The politcal map is not in the game.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/economy.html

"We have developed a pretty sophisticated trading system that brings buyers and sellers together easily, and it will work in, but also out of the game."
-You send a message to your race, or race alliance stating you have something via chat. They send a PM, you meet up, and trade-window it. That's the whole trade system.

"You can have pets and NPC hirelings in Darkfall, ranging from tamed animals and monsters, to summoned skeletons, charmed animals and monsters, hired NPC merchants, hired NPC guards, etc. "
-You can have a mount. Clans can build (not quite hire, its build) merchants for clan cities and hamlets. None are advanced enough to even find out if there's summoning, but none have found any way to have any other type of player-owned/controlled npc.

"NPC hirelings can follow you around and fight with you, they can carry your loot, they can perform skills and spells to aid you, etc. NPC hirelings can do pretty much everything that player friends can do."
Nope, they stand in their predefined place to stand, once built, inside clan cities and hamlets.

"They can be a vendor in your shop that you have set up, they can mine for minerals in a mine, they can go out into the forest and chop wood for you, or stand on the banks of a river fishing for you all day."
This whole line did not make it anywhere near the game, no shops, no npc hire-able collectors.. you an hire players to do this though...

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/combat.html

"you may have to rely on magical items, potions or scrolls"
-Magical (enchanted) items made it, potions made it, there are no scrolls.

"However, if you’re intelligent, persistent and skillful you could be very successful playing the lone wolf character."
-Other than starting area npc's, there's very very few things that can be killed (at least yet) by a solo player, even with the skills aquired by macroers.

"Yes you can fight wherever you want. There are no safe zones."
-Within guard tower range is safe. You may get up to 3 or 4 attacks in on a player before you're killed by the towers. You'll respawn with no health or mana, and then will be able to get in, at most, 1 more shot before the person you're attacking is at full health again.

"It is possible to push players and monsters out of the way"
-No, you cannot push players. They may stand around you and box you, so that you cannot move. The only viable movement of others is through knockback, or seize, weapon skills which move players, or a few spells with similar effects. All of these methods count as attacks against the players.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/gameplay.html

"What camera view is used in Darkfall? More on this soon"
-First person for magic or unarmed interaction, third person fixed camera for melee, third person free camera for resting or mounted.

"How do I tell my NPC hirelings what to do"
-You don't, the only hirelings are standard npc merchants that only stand in their predefined place, once built, in clan cities and hamlets.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/community.html

"If you would like to volunteer, you will be offered the opportunity to apply."
-Nope, no applications. Just random people like myself, who go out of their way to try and help people who are legit, or report those who are breaking rules.

"Does Darkfall have in-game bulletin boards? Yes it does."
-Sort of, the launcher links back to the regular forum. I don't know if clans have one through their journal.

"Is there a Darkfall Newsletter? There will be one as soon as the playtesting begins."
-Playetesting came and went, retail launch came and went, and there's no newsletter. Heck, since playtesting ended, there's not even patch notes.

"We have designed a custom communications system for Darkfall which works whether your character is logged in the game or not."
-Chat system only works in game.

"profile that will look something like ?The Titanic Honorable Paladin Cornelius GoblinsBane // General of clan The Inner Circle - Grandmaster swordsman ? married to Mary of clan The Inner Circle.""
-This indicates there's in game marriage, which there is not.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/development.html

"You can use the developer interaction message board on the official site and you can speak with the developers live during our upcoming developer chats."
-There's no developer interaction board, very little indication that actual staff (and not volunteer moderaters) read the regular boards, and certainly no developer chats.

"We will run polls regularly on the official Site. There will be even more methods to provide feedback in the future. "
-Polls stopped before beta was over, and there was apparently only 1, asking for what race people want. The 'more methods' consist of posts, which devs do not at least appear to read, or to talk to a gm in game.

"We will start having House of Commons style developer chats very soon and on a regular basis. "
-These do not occur.

"We will have regular news updates, screenshots, announcements, FAQ updates, downloads, and progress reports on the official Darkfall site. "
-Most updates are from pre-playtest, which occured last last year. There are occasional news updates via the forums. No screenshots or downloads other than the game client have been made available.

http://darkfallonline.com/faq/testing.html

"There will be a public beta test."
-There WAS a closed beta test.

"To get to beta test Darkfall you will have to..."
-All past tense.

http://darkfallonline.com/races/alfar/index.html

"every time an alfar casts a spell the results vary slightly"
-All spells, regardless of race, fluctuate only within standard game dice rolls.

http://darkfallonline.com/races/mahirim/index.html

"Only mahirim mastersmiths can make Ghost Claws, a weapon which is made using an extremely rare resource called moonstone."
-The Mahirim special is a 1h sword, which doesn't require moonstone.

"When standing erect, mahirim move with the same speed as members of the other races. However, when not engaged in combat, they can switch to all fours and run with the speed of a horse."
-Mahirim ride mounts like everyone else, their mount is identical to the Orcs, and they can not use all fours.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/features/interact.html

"Trade your hard earned items using Darkfall?s secure trade interface and in-game trade boards."
-There are no trade boards, no truly secure trading

"Darkfall places no restrictions on player interaction, so there are no developer imposed safe zones, no realms, factions, PvP zones"
-There are guard tower enforced safe zones, three race-alliance factions, and everywhere outside guard towers is an open pvp zone.

"Darkfalls Communication interface includes in-game message and trade boards, an IRC-style chat system, instant messaging, voice support, and even mobile phone SMS messaging."
-No in game message boards, no trade boards, the only IRC style chat is the ability to use CTRL-K to set chat color (you cannot create channels, no channel ops, etc), no SMS capabilities.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/features/explore.html

"Each race has a unique set of abilities"
-All races have the same abilities

"Repetitive monster encounters are a thing of the past"
-Same monsters in the same places, copied frequently from area to area, along with kill X amount in Y minutes style quests

"Watch trees and grass sway in the wind"
-Grass no, but yes, TREES SWAY

"Sail your ship through rough seas, then become hampered by fog as the waters calm. Struggle as your battlefield-bound army marches into a severe storm. In Darkfall, the weather is more than just window dressing. "
-There's no weather

http://www.darkfallonline.com/features/freedom.html

"You can forget about point - click - and wait"
-This is actually the harvesting system in a nutshell

"there's much more to character development than, say, raising your riding or mining skill by mindlessly killing rats all day. Instead, you'll need to practice your skills if you want to get better at them"
-Yes, and no. For raising the skill, using actively is just as effective as using a key-repeating keyboard over and over.

"a hundred Prestige classes to further specialize in"
-No prestige classes

"Multiple safeguards protect you from cheats and exploits that would otherwise interfere with your gaming experience."
-I'll be really quick here, they are rampant, people caught and reported for both are commonly seen (and reported) again and again, yet there are a few people who claim to have been banned for them.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/features/create.html

"In Darkfall, all items in the world can be made by the players."
-Most yes, all, no

"Darkfall?s crafting system is intuitive, non-repetitive, challenging, useful, fun - and profitable."
-You click again and again and again, until the resource is empty that you're collecting, or you're out of materials if you're crafting.

"you could invent and be the first to use a weapon as awesome as the"
-Crafting follows predefined recipes to make predefined items

"Bring your goods to market using Darkfall?s sophisticated and secure trading system, bringing buyers and sellers together easily whether they?re inside the game or not"
-Only in game trading, trading is only performed with the predefined game channels, all transactions take place only through trade-window interactions

http://www.darkfallonline.com/features/fight.html

"There are no safe zones in Darkfall. The only protection you can count on is your friends watching your back. "
-Guard towers around all NPC cities, and wilderness banks prevent all non-clan-war combat in these areas.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/features/challenge.html

"Test your mettle in Darkfall's Arena Events"
-No arena events, yet.

http://www.darkfallonline.com/features/be_heard.html

"We are committed to delivering and maintaining a complete, stable, and balanced game"
-Its still suffering from post-launch trauma, and I think they had stability issues they didn't anticipate. I expect good things down the road though.

"a game that makes good on its promises"
-Many many many game features outlined on the web page did not make final cut, as outlined here. Not to say they won't happen, just not yet.

"with regular and free expansion-size updates, prompt and swift customer service, and superior value for our players."
-Many people are ignoring that the game is in post-launch trauma, and slowly improving. Its getting there. Regarding customer service, asking gm's in game usually results in VERY fast responses.

.
.

All things considered, the game is in post-launch stability training. Many features that were promised didn't make final cut, some of them, such as Prestige classes, were (according to in game GM's) never intended. The lack of patch notes since beta testing finished makes it hard to tell how much is being done, and the lack of regular updates from actual staff doesn't help. There's a stong volunteer effort on the part of moderators in both IRC and the forums, and in game help is usually really fast. So there are at least people there for support.

The game is still very fun, even in its present state and with the lack of the features listed on the website. The player's understanding of how to use a skill frequently outweighs the numerical number of the skill of their opponent.

Once the issues that arose during launch are completely cleared up, and the developers can focus more on features, I'm sure we are going to see this game truly bloom into an epic game. Until then, I'll keep plodding along, doing my thing in game.
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WHOA only meant to copy part of that not the whole thing........ oh well, the basis of it is: Tasos is a lying bitch, the features page is totally outdated, wall of text crits DF for 3000.

yes we have seen the list. Feature page is outdated. NPCs hirelings were dropped in dev update a while back. Same with prestige classes.
Guard towers vs guards no big deal,
safe zones are minor quit complaining and not totally safe,
instanced dungeons for stability reasons still everyone plays in same dungeon.
No trading is a miss,
weather is a miss,
dynamic spawning mobs is a miss,
crafting system is a miss but works economically very well just boring as hell.
no cheating is not rampant any more then other games. Many people afk macro however.
racial ability miss
4 legged run a bad miss
all the ingame communication promise miss
A lot of this stuff is fluff, except for some key things. Think some of it was withdrawn last minute due to balancing issues. Hopefully will make it in

Hmm, everything I care about in an MMO is rated worse than expected, while everything I don't care about was well-executed. Figures. I wasn't going to play anyway, but it's nice to have confirmation that I made the right decision.

Well I wouldn't mind trying it, 'trying' being the operative word here because for the life of me I can't get a copy of the game. As another person has already said, I'm beginning to loose interest. Couldn't be arsed now.

If you don't have a copy of the game, you haven't tried to get one very hard. Read the forums.

I saw the ingame video of Darkfall combat.

Incredible.

Tx to such products, Blizzard has the whole market for themselves.

The industry hasn't got a clue, but every article on half baked products - and E X T R E M E LY poorly animated and constructed games are suicide for the complete industry.

I read it somewhere else: Darkfall is TOO crappy to devote words to it.

So full stop.