Darkfall Q&A from Keen

I’ve been receiving an overwhelming number of questions lately in the comments section.  Given my lack of time and the nature of the comments section getting out of control and content being hard to find, I decided that it would be a good idea to extract all those questions and create a Q&A so that you can have your questions answered and share them with others who might be wanting to know the same things.

Below are the questions that I have not answered.  You’ll have to go back and find the ones that I have in my previous Darkfall posts.  I encourage you to do so too because several people have helped me in answering the questions.

Q. Is the bank/auction house system global or, as I really want it, just a regional thing?

A. It is global.  Your personal bank account (go up and press F on the bank) and clan account (press G on the bank) are all global.  It ends up being for the best that it is this way, rather than regional.

Q. Can you talk a lil about crafting? I know u r not a crafter but have to know someone who is.

A. Crafting in Darkfall is fairly simple, but really involved.  You have to go out and mine a great deal of resources and bring them back and refine them, then craft them.  Resources in Darkfall are “static”.  You can go up to just about any tree, any bush, and rock, and any body of water and do your relevant resource gathering.  However, these nodes can run out (although it takes a while).  It takes a LOT of resources to raise your crafting skills, which means you will be harvesting for a LONG time.  You can be a weaponsmith, armorsmith, alchemist, Tamer, Jewelcrafter, enchanter, construction, woodworker, and maybe more thant I am forgetting.    Is it worth it?  Read on where I feel that I answer that question.

Q. Can u list the prestige class i only know of 2 pally & drood . thx

A. Prestige classes did not make it into launch.  I think I’m happy about this though.  In a way, these prestige classes would have been too great a carrot and detracted from my ability to sit around and do nothing productive in the game yet feel like I am playing and having fun.  Yesterday I sat around and killed a few hobgoblins and orcs, then I sat in town and socialized.  Seriously, I socialized.  I haven’t done that in years in a MMO because I always have to be chasing the next best thing; not the case in Darkfall for me.

Q. What happens if you pull the plug? (how long is the log out, do you keep running?)

A. I don’t know personally because I have never done it (never will either).  I have seen people do it though, and people get disconnected unintentially.  Your body persists and runs in place.  When I was chasing this one Alfar and he d/c’d I was able to kill him.  His corpse didn’t appear though, so I’m not really sure what happened.

Read ‘more’ for the rest.

Q. What happens when you log out in the middle of nowhere (can you use second account as a “field mule/bank”)

A. When you log out in the middle of no where, you log out.   You log back in and you’re where you logged out.  You have a safety timer that should protect you while you log in from other players attacking you.  I see no reason why you can’t use a second account as a mule/bank… but it’s not necessary at all in my opinion.  Your bank space is nearly unlimited.

Q. What sort of CC does this game have?

A. The best collision detection I’ve seen in a game (puts WAR’s to shame).  I’ve also noticed that almost every weapon skill (maybe all?) have an ability they can buy that when they hit you it pulls you closer to them.  It’s very short range, but it would be enough to keep someone at arms length if they had higher run skill.   All in all, I don’t think there is any real “CC” as people have come to know it today.

Q. Can you destroy items?

A. Yes.

Q. Are there any teleportation/escape spells/items?

A. You can recall, but it takes darn near 2 minutes+ to cast.  No other spells/items that I have seen.

Q. How expensive are mounts in the game just out of curiosity? You replaced your gear easy enough but is the mount that easy too?

A. Mounts are going for 250G right now on average.  This is dirt cheap given that I can farm that in less than an hour.  However, your mount can die, be taken from your corpse, and even stolen while you’re trying to mount up.

Q. Are there any penalties to the players that jumped you while so low on health?

A. No.  Unless remorse is considered a penalty, but then they would have to have a concience so… no.

Q. Does the armor you’re wearing and the amount of items you’re carrying in your inventory affect your run speed?

A. It sure does.  I lose stamina quicker in heavier armor than my friends in cloth.  They also run slightly faster.  Your inventory is unlimited space, but you have a weight cap.  I have yet to even come close to reaching it, but it’s there.

Q. Do items decay over time and eventually become unusable?

A. Yes.  I’ve worn out three weapons already.  As you use items (armor and weapons, etc)  you lose durability at a fairly high rate.

Q. Are there Quests in Darkfall?

A. The only quests with item rewards that I have seen were the couple in the starting town.  I’ve done maybe a total of 5 quests total.  There are a few in outlying outposts that you can pick up to kill mobs for money.  Quests are really not a part of Darkfall at all from what I have seen.

Q. Are crafted items are on par or better than looted pve items or quests?

A. Crafted items have shown to be better than anything I have ever looted.  The durability is better, the damage slightly higher, and crafted gear is just easier to come by in my opinion.  If you lose it all then just pay a crafter for a new set and you’re back in the game.

Q. Does it lag when you get a bunch of characters on the screen?

A. I have had zero slowdown in-game related to people on the screen.  Admittedly, the most I have seen on the screen at one visible time is about 30.  If I were to pan around and look at all the area around me there may have been 40-50.  I get about 70+ frames on average.

Q. Hey keen, was wondering if you could let me know where to pick this game up?

A. The game is only available through online purchase and digital download.  Aventurine opens sales through an announcement on their official forums and says that it will happen at such and such a time.  Make an account and be on during that time and be one of the luck ones to get a copy.  They close sales shortly after opening them because there is only ONE(1) server to play on that holds about 10,000 people at a time.

If you have any questions you would like me to answer then please post them in the comments section and I will do my best to answer them all in a timely fashion.

  • i remember a few people in the fourms upset that they were killed after they logged out, and logged back on to find all of their weapons and loot gone.

  • You need to log out in a safe or well hidden area. The reason you stay in game for a bit after you log out is so people can’t just log off to avoid getting killed and ganked.

    Of course I’m still terrified to go anywhere so I just log out in my quaint Mirdain town 🙂 In fact I’m thinking of just playing the game as the official Mirdain greeter to folks who enter our town!

  • Very interesting, ahh so tempted..

    I asked about pulling plug exactly because of that. People should die if they pull the plug. Good stuff. Have you seen any window dragging going on?

    So you can destroy items.. so can you destroy the stuff you have inventory while getting ganked? Can you do it to your equipped stuff?

    I love the fact that there is no teleport, one of the big mistakes in Shadowbane I think

    BTW reason for mule bank is to save items after you gank people. You can have a mule character that you log in put everything you got from them then log him out. Also very useful for banking near hostile cities probably

    I might pick it up once they open more servers

  • You can destroy items from your pack. The items that you destroy will remain on you for 5 minutes after you destroy them. This system was implemented, just prior to launch, to prevent dying characters from disposing of all of their items, thus robbing the victor of the loot.

    Your body is supposed to remain in game for 5 minutes after you log off or pull the plug. I am not sure whether or not this is working as intended yet.

  • While youve said how to buy the game, and ive seen things like “sales will be opening” in the forums… where is the actual sales page? I cant find that.

  • Hate to post twice, but how do you even create an account? all ive found is links to their forums and creating an account there (which I assume is seperate from the game account).

  • Thanks, but im curious, how did you manage to find it? Where was the link? was I just not diligent enough in my search?

  • While banks are global, aren’t auction houses regional? I remember reading something in the FAQ that you could be a merchant and buy items in one area and sell them in another area at a higher price by transporting them there via caravans. Seems that would only be feasible with local economies (similar to EVE).

    Items degrading in durability over time is great but there is no way to repair or sharpen a weapon? For example, a weaponsmith can’t repair his own weapons? He’d have to make a completely new sword after the previous sword “falls apart”?

    Thanks again for all the info Keen. Greatly appreciated. 🙂

  • I do not believe there are even any Auction Houses in the game. There is a repair skill but it only works on buildings and siege weapons from what I’ve seen.

  • Does durability affect how good your weapon is? or just how long it lasts? (Ala DAOC lower durability/condition actually made the weapon weaker)