MMORPG / Reviews / Sandbox

What I expected vs. What they delivered (Darkfall)

Since I receive dozens of “what do you think about this” requests every day, I thought I would try to answer as many of them as I can think of in one post. If I think of any more then I will edit them in.

Scale: Fantastic, Great, Good, Mediocre, Bad, Lousy, Total Crap.
Totally subjective. Totally my take based on how I play the game.

Skill-based system
I expected: Fantastic
They delivered: Mediocre
Reason: The system is susceptible to macroing and sets aside the value of earning skills with the value of accruing them. Example: Instead of hitting mobs with spells to earn skillups, you just spam them into the sky. The skill system could have been taken an alternate root with skill trees, skill progression and unlocks, choices between skills via branches or pools, etc.

Combat
I expected: Good
They delivered: Great
Reason: I expected Oblivion with a lot of issues translating such a real-time system to the mmorpg gameplay. Aventurine surprised by actually pulling it off with just a few quirks that can be worked out.

Crafting
I expected: Fantastic
They delivered: Mediocre/Bad
Reason: It’s not what they advertised it to be. I’m not even knocking them for simplicity or tedium. I’m knocking them here for allowing stupid stuff to make it into launch such as only having to make the very first item from 1-100. Seriously, why craft anything but Goblin Axes from 1-100 when they take the least materials and you can skill up on them just as easily as something that takes 100x the mats? The system earns points with me for really requiring players to work at something, rewarding them with a player-driven economy, and having much of the game in general center around crafting.  [Additional points added today for making the gathering system more in-line with what it should be in today’s patch with resource nodes being global.]

Melee Abilities and Weapons
I expected: Great
They delivered: Lousy
Reason: Whether you’re using a dagger or a polearm, the abilities are all the same. You get a Seize (draw in), Knock back, Whirlwind, and power attack. Zero thought went into this. Additionally, combat with certain weapons doesn’t make sense or it’s not polished. Polearms do the most damage, have the most range, and the widest arc while the only drawback is they use the most stamina. Arguably using anything else is inferior. There are subtle differences, but weapons should really stand out as having their unique benefits and drawbacks. It’s too simple. Ranged Combat falls into this for much of the same reasons.

Read ‘more’ for the rest! (more…)

43 Comments
March 17, 2009
Game Design / MMORPG

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. (more…)

14 Comments
March 5, 2009