Alignment in Darkfall has long been a sore spot for the game's devoted playerbase. Aventurine's original implementation allowed for players to farm one another at will and basically offered no real penalty for doing so. According to a new activity report on the Darkfall Epic Blog, all that is about to change.
Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras states that "alignment changes are going in. Enough with killing other players, this won't improve your alignment any more." So just how does a bad Agonian man (or Mahirim) lose that negative alignment? The devs are implementing a new mechanic centered around Chaos Churches where players can "repent their negative alignment away."
Said churches are located in the game's neutral cities (i.e., those not aligned with any of the title's warring races). The activity report doesn't go into a whole lot of detail, but Tasos does indicate that there will be a spotlight feature dedicated to the new mechanic in the near future. Aside from alignment, this week's report also hints at fishing-related modifications, specifically those made to player ships to allow for scalable catches based on the safety of the waters, as well as additional protection against attacks from player swimmers. Finally, there's a bit more info about meditation tweaks and a mention of increased drop rates for books, scrolls, and attribute consumables.
Reader Comments (13)
Posted: Feb 21st 2011 10:49PM placebonation said
This helped me never want to touch this game again. Church? Really?
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 12:12AM Krelian said
"Darkfall"
"Enough with killing other players"
I lol'ed.
"Enough with killing other players"
I lol'ed.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 12:41AM cray said
I am surprised this game is still going strong as subscription-based MMO. I keep holding my breath waiting for it to turn to subscription-free. I got plenty of patience.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 3:26AM Kaoss said
seems like they're making DF less hardcore?
Posted: Feb 23rd 2011 2:20AM DancingCow said
@Kaoss
The issue isn't really about it being less hard-core - it's about attempting to fix a badly broken system.
Eg. under the old system if you got negative alignment from killing members of your own side, all you had to do was kill X number of players from the opposite side.
But there's nothing stopping players from making an arrangement to let them kill opposite side players X number of times to fix their alignment.
At this point negative alignment - as a disincentive to kill members of your own racial side - becomes completely meaningless.
Reply
The issue isn't really about it being less hard-core - it's about attempting to fix a badly broken system.
Eg. under the old system if you got negative alignment from killing members of your own side, all you had to do was kill X number of players from the opposite side.
But there's nothing stopping players from making an arrangement to let them kill opposite side players X number of times to fix their alignment.
At this point negative alignment - as a disincentive to kill members of your own racial side - becomes completely meaningless.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 3:59AM beskar said
"Enough with killing other players... I know that's the whole reason 99% of you play the game... but enough with killing other players!"
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 9:27AM Jef Reahard said
@beskar
Context ftw.
If you don't leave out the second half of the quote, it makes a lot more sense.
Reply
Context ftw.
If you don't leave out the second half of the quote, it makes a lot more sense.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 4:20AM (Unverified) said
I call practical joke:
"Enough with killing people", go to church and repent instead. Tasos is winding us up I think.
"Enough with killing people", go to church and repent instead. Tasos is winding us up I think.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 6:47AM (Unverified) said
Church? Will there be different faiths? are they monotheistic? This game is about to get real hardcore... :P
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 7:09AM pcgneurotic said
Oh come on people, it was a throw-away line, a bit of the old humour at most and just a lot of knee-jerk reactions clouding your interpretation of the text. Crikey.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 7:35AM Jade Effect said
But I thought Darkfall is all about being a deathmatch arena.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 8:45AM Temko said
i love how many jaded trolls reply to any post about darkfall. no other game has this many people spending time of their life telling others how "bad" it is.
that said, the allignment changes are a much welcome addition. wile 99% of players play to pvp, that has not changed, what has changed is that players now cant have a alt/friend they can kill for free allignment fixing, after they have broken the racial-rules and gotten negative allignment.
this is a good change that will result in more consequence then asking a guildy for his alt to kill and go blue again after you have killed a ton of racially allignmed players.
that said, the allignment changes are a much welcome addition. wile 99% of players play to pvp, that has not changed, what has changed is that players now cant have a alt/friend they can kill for free allignment fixing, after they have broken the racial-rules and gotten negative allignment.
this is a good change that will result in more consequence then asking a guildy for his alt to kill and go blue again after you have killed a ton of racially allignmed players.
Posted: Feb 22nd 2011 9:30AM Jef Reahard said
@Temko
Aion gives DF a run for its money in the jaded troll department.
The funniest thing about this post is that people seized on the first half of the quote and conveniently leave out the second part because it doesn't jibe with their "omg he said there's no more pk'ing" fallacy. Pretty chuckle-worthy.
Agreed on the alignment changes though, good job AV.
Reply
Aion gives DF a run for its money in the jaded troll department.
The funniest thing about this post is that people seized on the first half of the quote and conveniently leave out the second part because it doesn't jibe with their "omg he said there's no more pk'ing" fallacy. Pretty chuckle-worthy.
Agreed on the alignment changes though, good job AV.







