Interesting sounding MMORPG

[acrobat]

Darkfall Online

Someone told me to check this out, so I did. I am amazed really. It's basically my dream game, bar one very important thing that I'm not too sure about yet.

But basically, I read the feature list on their website... and wow.. If you click "Features" and then open each one in a new tab in your browser and check them all out. It paints a picture of a really impressive game. Then I got all intrigued and went on to their forum and started reading the posts, and there were a few posts with a million questions, and their staff answered all the questions. It was all the stuff I wanted to know. I'm amazed by it all because it just sounds so perfect.

The only thing is, it sounds maybe too good to be true. They are doing every great idea I always wanted to see in a MMORPG. It has everything. PVE and PVE, a level-less system, sieges, and raids, and well.. a million things too big to mention. So I have to just wonder if they can do it all without messing something up in the process.

They sound incredibly positive on their forum though. They said that everything is pretty much finished already and they are just tidying it up. They plan on having a very short beta, and they want the game to be finished for beta - so that there won't need to be any major changes.

[mediaboy]

MMORPG and good don't generally mix... without money that is.

How much are they charging? Is it likely to be a monthly fee? Is it going to be free?

There are VERY FEW (only one I can think of) open beta/finished MMORPGs that are "good" and very few that include lots of nice features.
This one sounds quite good though.

[spazman]

I lol'd when i saw MMORPG and interesting in the same sentence.

[mediaboy]

Yep.. MMORPG+Interesting don't mix.. like MMORPG+good really.
Some of them are alright though..

Like runescape actually did have some interesting bits in it (killing the noobs that thought a decent player would team with them... killing the higher levelled players that thought they could kill you, killing the teams that try to kill you... mostly killing really) and WoW does have one or two redeeming feaures.. The problem with MMORPGs is that they change, and so a perfectly good game because rubbish overnight, and you just stop playing. I suppose that's life though.

[Dreaming]

No rules, eh?

Player-made bandit guilds would be good. Especially if it got to the stage where you could take on towns, incapacitate the guards, loot as much as you can carry and run away...

[Ciber]

Does look interesting. Some broken links in the news section and no news since January make me slightly dubious though.

[Virtual Monkey]

No rules, eh?

Player-made bandit guilds would be good. Especially if it got to the stage where you could take on towns, incapacitate the guards, loot as much as you can carry and run away...

Except that eventually there'd be no more loot left to...loot. That's the thing with online games, for them to be fairly freeform, you have to make sure there are people who'd want to fulfill certain roles that make it neccessary for the other roles to function. Looting isn't that fun if everyone's out doing it, and no-one's making new stuff.

[Dreaming]

Yea, you'd have the majority of the playerbase honest hard working folk, going out PVE questing and being general do gooders.

Then you get bandits who basically come to kill rape and pillage. Good stuff!

I'd like to be a moderately corrupt governor of a small border town, that would be cool. Power, but out of the way enough that I don't have to get annoyed by legal types bothering me with tax forms.

Sadly I expect some of the depth will be limited. I don't tend to play these games anymore as they just take too much investment to get anything worthwhile out of it i.e. world of warcraft I tried to play an everyone told me I needed to get to level 60 because it was a whole different game but I never made it.. got to about 25 and got bored of the same old grind.

[educatedfool]

Yea, you'd have the majority of the playerbase honest hard working folk, going out PVE questing and being general do gooders.

Then you get bandits who basically come to kill rape and pillage. Good stuff!

I'd like to be a moderately corrupt governor of a small border town, that would be cool. Power, but out of the way enough that I don't have to get annoyed by legal types bothering me with tax forms.

Sounds like an on earth (or wherever) version of EVE, and there's no rape as such.

[acrobat]

MMORPG and good don't generally mix... without money that is.

How much are they charging? Is it likely to be a monthly fee? Is it going to be free?

I think the plan is to have a monthly fee, but to be able to download it initially for free, so that you can play it for free for a month or so. They have a team of around 30 people and a decent sized budget, so it's not going to be a little game.

I lol'd when i saw MMORPG and interesting in the same sentence.

Did you read it though? I know most of them are pretty crappy, but there is scope from these games to be far better than any other games imo. There's nothing more exciting to me, than the thought of enormous large scale sieges, where huge armies are attacking a castle with catapults and people trying to scale the wall and stuff, while another team is in the castle defending it with longbows and catapults and stuff too. And then once inside, it turns into close range combat with magic and melee.

That's where the genre is going and it hasn't quite nailed it yet. Shadowbane was close, and DAOC and WoW have done some good things too. When these games work well, they are better than anything else I've played. As polished and tidy a good FPS is, it's still just running around pressing mouse button 1 over and over. Magic combat and melee combat can be much more interesting and involving. Combine that with a huge world with all kinds of factions and adventures and places to explore with real people, and it makes for something really special.

Not sure if anyone here ever played EQ in 1998/1999, but that game was amazing back then. It's one (maybe THE) greatest gaming experience I've ever had in about 20 years of gaming.

The problem with MMORPGs is that they change, and so a perfectly good game because rubbish overnight, and you just stop playing. I suppose that's life though.

That's true, but EQ was a lot of fun for me, for at least 2 or 3 years. That's not a bad run. So not really an overnight thing. Also, some of them that I've played, have only changed for the better.

Does look interesting. Some broken links in the news section and no news since January make me slightly dubious though.

You should check out the forum. They have community people posting on there constantly. I made a huge post full of questions, and they answered it within a couple of hours. But while I was waiting I saw other huge posts full of good questions and they had the most detailed answers I've ever seen from a gaming company. It's not your usual corporate bawls. When someone asks something, they tell it how it is - and in great detail.

Except that eventually there'd be no more loot left to...loot.

That wouldn't happen. A player made bandit guild would be public enemy number 1 to all the "Good" guilds on the entire server. They would be fought every step of the way, and if they sieged a town, people would help defend the town.

Also, you get loot from mobs and also player made, so there will be an endless supply of loot coming in to the world. In MMORPG's, the problem is never running out of loot, it's always how to take loot out of the world so to avoid inflation.

Sadly I expect some of the depth will be limited. I don't tend to play these games anymore as they just take too much investment to get anything worthwhile out of it i.e. world of warcraft I tried to play an everyone told me I needed to get to level 60 because it was a whole different game but I never made it.. got to about 25 and got bored of the same old grind.

There are no levels in this game, so it might feel different for you. That's one of the things that attracts me.

[Ciber]

Yeah I like the lack of levels as well. If you can play the game just doing the things you want to do ie pvp if you like that or crafting/trading if you like that without having to grind through endless dumb npc mobs to get levels or items then thats a very good thing.

[acrobat]

I think so too

I also like the fact that items aren't a huge deal like in other games. In this, they are just a little help, but won't make anyone imbalanced. The guy on the forum said that a new player can kill someone who has been playing for ages and has good gear, as long as the new player fights well and the other player isn't playing well.

So basically.. it's all down to skill

I like that because I can spend a bit of time finding some ok gear and then just get stuck in to fighting and I don't have to go grinding through endless levels and endless sets of gear.

[mediaboy]

/me remembers when he played runescape... 3 or 4 years, 3 level 70+ accounts and when they deleted pking he left.

RPGs DO change, and some change for the worse due to things outside of their control.


Free trial sounds good though! Will be looking at that

levelless = good
skillful playing = better
banditry and evility = the best!

[acrobat]

RPGs DO change, and some change for the worse due to things outside of their control.

I think Runescape was an exception and shouldn't put you off MMORPG's in general. These games do change, but usually it's for the better, not worse. Of the several MMORPG's I've played, only one of them changed for the worse, and that was changed back shortly afterwards.

And of all the others, most of those only got better and better in time. I'm not a big fan of WoW, but it's as good an example as any, seeing as it was fun for millions of people originally, and then they released Burning Crusade which made it even more fun and added even more stuff, and now they have this Lich King expansion due which looks amazing to be honest. So that has been going for about 4 years and only keeps getting better and better.

With my two personal favourites, they are far better today than they were years ago when I first started playing them.

p.s. Also you can be safe assured that in a game like Darkfall, they are never going to change the PK aspect, because that's the main bulk of the game.