Gaming World Forums
General Category => Entertainment and Media => Topic started by: Rowain on February 26, 2009, 04:59:02 pm
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Darkfall Online. Maybe you've heard of it. It's a MMORPG.
Way back in the summer of 2001, Darkfall was announced. At the time, it was under development by a team from Norway calling themselves Razorwax. In October of 2002, Razorwax merged with a team of Greeks, and became Aventurine.
The game has had a development history almost as ridiculous as Duke Nukem forever. The number of delays have reached an almost innumerable amount. It's about five years overdue at this point, if you want to go back to the first release date estimates.
There have been multiple beta signups that have resulted in no invitations ever being sent out. Numerous times the game has been discarded and put aside, but it always seems to pop back up. It's not surprise the general consensus from the community has been to dub it "vaporware".
What makes Darkfall special, besides its own hilarious history? It's a spiritual sucessor to Ultima Online, one of the "founding fathers" of the MMOPRG genre, to coin a lame phrase. The idea behind Darkfall is to give the players a sandbox and let them create their own history and conflict. A huge continent with player built cities, player built boats complete with naval combat, a comprehensive resource gathering system and a robust crafting system that allows you to create ANYTHING you see in the world, realtime twitch based combat with no autotargeting or ability queues. A completely freeform skill system that allows you to build whatever character you want, with no pesky "levels" or "classes" getting in the way of your customization, and a HUGE library of spells and magic schools to compliment this open ended character building. And full loot free for all PVP, where your death means the loss of everything you're carrying. This is what has all those old hardcore UO players salivating, a return to the basics where simply travelling down a country road may mean the loss of all your finest gear to a bunch of player controlled bandits. The possibility for full on clan warfare, complete with player city sieges and fragile alliances and betrayls. It certainly sounded interesting at least!
Well in August of 2008, after seven years of delays, cancellations, and returns to the metaphorical drawing board, Aventurine announced another closed beta. Except this time there actually was one. While the general consensus was sitll that Darkfall would never see the light of day, even the so called "haters" were starting to get a little hopeful. And the fanboys went nuts. Aventurine announced plans to have the game out by December of last year.
It's no great surprise that the date came... and went. Still Darkfall was in closed beta. And a VERY closed beta. Complete nondisclosure. Aventurine was more tight lipped than a virgin puritan. Those fragile hopes were quickly being dashed. They came out with another release date - January 22nd, 2009. This was the real deal. Definitely. January 22nd. Darkfall would be out!
You don't have to be a skeptical person at all to be extremely skeptical of anything Aventurine says. The official Darkfall website's News section was only updated once every few MONTHS. Some of the actual CONTENT on the website hasn't been touched even half that much. ALL of the information comes from the forums, where they post snippets of info.
So it wasn't a big surprise when close to the new January 22nd release, Aventurine, by way of head PR honcho "Tasos", announced another delay. Due to the need for further testing and finalizing of their billing system, blah blah blah, Darkfall won't be here until February 25th, 2009. However, starting January 22nd, Aventurine would be "opening up" the closed beta - which only meant they'd be letting a few more people in, and possibly not jsut the rabid forum fanboys who have spent the last four years posting about the game. The nondisclosure agreement? That stayed on. So while a few more people were actually testing the game, the greater internet community still didn't know dick about shit as far as how well the game actually played.
So there was another month to wait. Aventurine was TOTALLY 100% SERIOUSLY NO JOKE THIS TIME ITS HAPPENING commited to getting the game out in February. So they came out with their "phased" release plan. Starting a few days before February 25th, players would be able to "preorder" a digital copy of Darkfall. The cost was something like 42 Euro, plus a 3 Euro "processing fee" or some shit. The 3 Euro fee was paid upon your order, but the preorder cost of 42 Euro wouldn't be charged until the 25th, when the game came out and the server went live. Copies would be limited. Why? Because Aventurine only has one game server, and it's a European one. The North American release to "To Be Determined". So they were trying to hold back a large percentage of players because they simply didn't have the infrastructure to deal with them. Apparently they were "shocked" that a game promising the fucking moon and the stars was "popular" among MMORPG players and simply weren't prepared to deal with the overwhelmingly large number of potential players.
More "copies" (remember, this is only a DIGITAL release) were promised to be made available on launch day.
Sooo here we are, the 26th of February. A day after Darkfall's launch. And what has happened?
Well, I don't even know where to start. Firstly, the moment preorders were available, their entire account management system crashed. Hard. Apparently, once again, the demand was SOOOO great that they just couldn't handle it. Purchasing attempts timed out, resulting in double billing, or no billing at all, and many simply got a 404 when attempting to access the account management link. It's worth noting that during this, the official web page hasn't been updated. At all. the last news posted is from January 22nd, mentioning the new release date. There isn't an account management link or ANYTHING on the website.
Eventually, after hours of delays and frustratingly obtuse messages from the development team, preorders were back up, and promptly sold out. Nothing to do but wait. The big day came.
Forums went down. At first, their forum software, vBulletin, simply displayed "Server is too busy, try again later." error messages. Later, Aventurine manually disabled the forums and periodically left status updates as to what was happening.
Firstly, preorders were taking "longer than expected" to process. What? It seems they are doing it manually... or something. No one knows for sure. They don't really say. Account management is down again and there certainly aren't any new copies of the game available. There billing errors by the hundreds, people being charged and not being activated, people NOT being charged and also not activated. Forums are still down. And the server sure isn't up, even for those who WERE charged and WERE activated.
Last night, Tasos says that a large bug was discovered and must be fixed before the server goes up. Several patches are released - the first of which corrupts the 9GB Darkfall install, which by the way is only available via torrent.
So today, it seems the server did go up, but only for the people who have finally had their preorders processed. How the game actually plays is really up in the air as NOBODY SEEMS TO KNOW WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON. The forums are still down: http://forums.darkfallonline.com/ with continual assurances of them being back "soon". Account management still gives a 404, and their official site reflects absolutely none of this: http://www.darkfallonline.com/ Stratics, who hosts their IRC network, "requested" them to disable their channel due to performance issues being caused by the flood of players.
I don't know how any of this will end, but it's been a pretty funny thing to read about, and I thought I'd share what's happened. It's sort of the culmination of eight years of internet history. There's no way in hell I'd send them any money and I feel a little bad for anyone who has!
Oh, here's a gameplay video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWjfvW38lZI
Yeah.
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You... Didn't give these people money, did you? Please tell me you didn't.
It was a novel idea, an action MMORPG; a shame it runs like a half life 1 mod and plays like a "My first home made FPS".
I downloaded the client regardless, waiting for private servers or that bs "free trial" they initially promised but quickly took back.
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You... Didn't give these people money, did you? Please tell me you didn't.
It was a novel idea, an action MMORPG; a shame it runs like a half life 1 mod and plays like a "My first home made FPS".
I downloaded the client regardless, waiting for private servers or that bs "free trial" they initially promised but quickly took back.
Nah I said at the end I didn't, it's TOO ELABORATE to be a scam but they are so grossly incompetent that I still wouldn't trust them with my greenbacks.
Someone likened Darkfall to Cartmanland, I think it's a pretty funny comparison.
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Nah I said at the end I didn't, it's TOO ELABORATE to be a scam but they are so grossly incompetent that I still wouldn't trust them with my greenbacks.
Someone likened Darkfall to Cartmanland, I think it's a pretty funny comparison.
Yes, that was actually me.
But it's ok if they're incompetent, they're INDIE, so it's OK! AND HARDCORE TOO.
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Yes, that was actually me.
But it's ok if they're incompetent, they're INDIE, so it's OK! AND HARDCORE TOO.
it was in the Something Awful thread
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it was in the Something Awful thread
Oh, never mind then. I made that exact reference somewhere else.
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Oh, here's a gameplay video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWjfvW38lZI
Yeah.
Cool, I've always wanted to fight a dragon on a rotating auto display platform.
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Well I have to say it does look great, probably the best looking MMORPG out there as of now.
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Well I have to say it does look great, probably the best looking MMORPG out there as of now.
I don't understand
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Oh my god, the last I heard of this was some guy who wrote an article on his visit to their building (they actually have a building) and, apparently, they were working on Darkfall. And that was a few years ago.
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This is the WoW killer.
More like... well... even Runescape is better.
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Hahaha, I knew it! My brother was so excited about this game, going on and on and on about the features it boasts.. Claiming that it will be amazing, etc, etc, etc.. All the while I kept saying that no, it's all too good to be true and this game would definitely flop.
I'd love to see the look on his face right now.
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brb making fun of my friend ala UPRC's post
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I can't believe I wrote such a long fucking OP I don't blame anyone who tl;dr's this shit.
http://www.darkfallonline.com/ HERE IS THE MAIN PAGE IT HAS PRETTY SCREENIES ^_^
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That gameplay video sucked btw, ah well.
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rowain i read the entire first post so i wanna say thanks man. i didnt need to wikipedia or visit their website or anything. you rule.
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On paper, this game sounded totally awesome. Best MMORPG ever.
In reality... The game is really, really bad. It was made by a bunch of total amateurs, I am willing to bet most people here have more experience making games than the people who made Darkfall (and yes, I do mean the ones who have only used RPG Maker).
The majority of the features the game hyped or bragged about do not exist in any way, shape or form. The features that are added to the game, either do not work very well and are awefully buggy (AI for example is absolutely terrible, enemies that see you, walk in a straight line, they do not know how to walk around objects, and if there is one between you and the enemy, they will keep walking into it until they can no longer see you), or the features that are added have been so poorly planned they are just not even worth mentioning (you can spend 3 months making swords before you start making decent ones... On the other hand you could just buy a sword that is 5x better from the first shop in the game).
It is pretty weird really! For the amount of time and effort the developers claim to have put into the game (something like 7-8 years), they have very little to show for it. For anyone who remembers Age of Conan or Warhammer Onlines release, this game is even less finished than they were when they were released... By a hell of a lot. I'd go as far as to say that you average, crappy Korean MMORPG is more developed and has more to offer than Darkfall.
I'd honestly be suprised if this game was still alive in say... 6 months time.
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On paper, this game sounded totally awesome. Best MMORPG ever.
In reality... The game is really, really bad. It was made by a bunch of total amateurs, I am willing to bet most people here have more experience making games than the people who made Darkfall (and yes, I do mean the ones who have only used RPG Maker).
The majority of the features the game hyped or bragged about do not exist in any way, shape or form. The features that are added to the game, either do not work very well and are awefully buggy (AI for example is absolutely terrible, enemies that see you, walk in a straight line, they do not know how to walk around objects, and if there is one between you and the enemy, they will keep walking into it until they can no longer see you), or the features that are added have been so poorly planned they are just not even worth mentioning (you can spend 3 months making swords before you start making decent ones... On the other hand you could just buy a sword that is 5x better from the first shop in the game).
It is pretty weird really! For the amount of time and effort the developers claim to have put into the game (something like 7-8 years), they have very little to show for it. For anyone who remembers Age of Conan or Warhammer Onlines release, this game is even less finished than they were when they were released... By a hell of a lot. I'd go as far as to say that you average, crappy Korean MMORPG is more developed and has more to offer than Darkfall.
I'd honestly be suprised if this game was still alive in say... 6 months time.
6 Months? They are having trouble with the 10k people they accepted before proclaiming the game "sold out". I give them 3 months, and that's being charitable.
They can't even handle billing properly, as their billing form (Providing you could load the thing) had no credit card confirmation, so pre order forms with incorrect information were accepted. To put it bluntly, this company had a legion of idiots ready to give them a mound of money (despite reports stating how awful and incomplete the game is) and they couldn't even do that properly.
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the game /looks/ pretty damn good
but lol your character attacks like the suits of armor in RE4
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I don't understand
I think it is the best looking MMORPG graphics wise, but what do I know? I'm not up to date on MMORPGs.
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I think it is the best looking MMORPG graphics wise, but what do I know? I'm not up to date on MMORPGs.
Indeed, you are very out of date. Darkfall would have looked good back in 2002.
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Some of the stills really don't look that bad. DATED yes, but still sufficient, you know? I mean, if a game offers as much as Darkfall originally promised, I really wouldn't care THAT much even if it looked like the original Everquest.
Unfortunately when everything sucks as much as Darkfall, your crappy graphics engine becomes just one more nail in the coffin.
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I've watched my brother play WoW, and the graphics absolutely blow this game away. Did you notice their legs were in water or mud or whatever, but when they moved, nothing happened to it? That the dragon floated in the air? That every single attack looks exactly the same (chop downward every time)? That the dragon had no death animation, and just went from floating to dead?
The only thing that looks good about the graphics are the textures, but nice textures have existed forever.
I fucking hate the Ultima crowd. They're like the 4Chan of MMOs
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I fucking hate the Ultima crowd. They're like the 4Chan of MMOs
This is the best thing I have ever read.
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This is the best thing I have ever read.
Well it's sort of truth. idk if I'd call them 4CHANNERS but the HARDCORE PVP FFA LOOT ANYWHERE old school UO crowd can be incredibly circle jerky, like entire threads of them jerking each other off on stories of ganking mages at moon gates and stealing their regeants. I've seen this!!
So if Xanqui was simply implying that old UO players often share a bunch of annoying traits in common (not unlike 4Chan users) then I agree!
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It is all the Greeks' fault.
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Well it's sort of truth. idk if I'd call them 4CHANNERS but the HARDCORE PVP FFA LOOT ANYWHERE old school UO crowd can be incredibly circle jerky, like entire threads of them jerking each other off on stories of ganking mages at moon gates and stealing their regeants. I've seen this!!
So if Xanqui was simply implying that old UO players often share a bunch of annoying traits in common (not unlike 4Chan users) then I agree!
It's funny because it's true.
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Holy creee-ap that gameplay video is hilarious. All these dudes furiously hacking on the dragon, while the dragon struggles to rotate fixed in place atop their heads. Looks like they should have TIGHTENED UP THE GRAPHICS ON LEVEL 3. Even the blood animation is bad, it just shoots out of his chest no matter where you stab him. I hope these guys were having fun. The video even fades out and back in, probably 30 minutes later before they slay the thing.
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It's interesting how it barely attacked at all, and it's only attack was simple head butts. It was like the dragon didn't want to fight, but I doubt it.
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Greenpeace will sue the makers of this game for the unnecessary slaying of dragons.
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Yeah the game is supposed to have ADVANCED AI, but it basically comes down to enemies charging you, hitting you once or twice, and fleeing regardless of how strong they are, or you are. Like players have been attacked by a dragon, by themselves, and the dragon hits them for like 95% of their health in a single blow... and then runs away.
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So if I was charged by a group of monsters all at once with a couple hits in they'd all run away? As much as i'd like to see that, that is pretty bad.
What about the hardcore PvP they supposedly provide?
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What about the hardcore PvP they supposedly provide?
It is not that hardcore, nor is it balanced, well designed or fun.
It is not hardcore because there are technical safe zones. Though you can hit anyone anywhere, there is "guard towers" in major settlements. These towers are invincible, can see everything within a 1 mile radius, and can kill you in one hit (and it never misses). If you attack someone, they will kill you before you can kill that person.
Also, the whole "no targetting and auto-attacking" really does not work very well in PVP. It is highly abusable. The game has an "alignment" system of sorts, but it is horribly simplistic. You have good guys and bad guys, if you hit a good guy, you turn into a bad guy, bad guys can be attacked and killed without any negative consequences. Since there is no targetting, you can jump infront of anyones attacks (happens commonly with ranged attacks and magic, sometimes by accident) and that person gets labled a bad guy. You can then kill and loot them without you yourself becoming a bad guy.
Also, because there is no targetting or auto-attacking in the game, ranged attackers suffer particularly bad from lag (which seems to happen fairly often). Since ranged attacks are like a FPS game, where you have to aim and shoot, lag makes anyone you are trying to shoot look like they are teleporting around the screen, and this makes aiming at them impossible.
Also, the entire game seems to cater entirely to dick heads. As mentioned above, you can easily turn someone into a bad guy, kill and loot them without negative impacts.
On top of that, everything in the game is freely lootable when killed. This usually means if you ever kill a mob or even player, you will suddenly see 20+ people dog pile on the corpse and loot everything it has before you even have a chance to react (kind of reminds me of scrambles in the school playground). Literally, you could play for days, and see no loot at all because everyone steals it. It is also not uncommon for people to hang around you, just waiting to steal your loot.
Also, if you happen to be holding something that looks valuable, or people suspect you have something valuable (such as you've just been seen gathering items for crafting), you will be killed and looted. No exception. I have literally been chased half way across the world in the game by a bunch of naked people who were after killing and looting me (they were naked because I either killed them, or they stashed all their valuables incase they died and lost them).
Oh yeah. The launch of the game was... Beyond fucked up. The forums have over 300,000 members. They opened up registration with a low number of slots avaliable (less than 10,000, probably a lot less, and from what has been posted on the forums, a lot of them are dissapointed in the game). They are going to continue letting people in the game in low numbers, but have (if and) when they let the next group of players in.
I was probably being way to generous when I said the game wouldn't last more than 6 months. I doubt it'll last till this time next month (because it'll have no new players, and all the old players will have used up their free month).
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Also, the entire game seems to cater entirely to dick heads. As mentioned above, you can easily turn someone into a bad guy, kill and loot them without negative impacts.
On top of that, everything in the game is freely lootable when killed. This usually means if you ever kill a mob or even player, you will suddenly see 20+ people dog pile on the corpse and loot everything it has before you even have a chance to react (kind of reminds me of scrambles in the school playground). Literally, you could play for days, and see no loot at all because everyone steals it. It is also not uncommon for people to hang around you, just waiting to steal your loot.
Also, if you happen to be holding something that looks valuable, or people suspect you have something valuable (such as you've just been seen gathering items for crafting), you will be killed and looted. No exception. I have literally been chased half way across the world in the game by a bunch of naked people who were after killing and looting me (they were naked because I either killed them, or they stashed all their valuables incase they died and lost them).
AHAH that's hilarious, everyone is a bandit, I might try it! Just for that! :fogetlaugh:
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I'm not really surprised, I mean I tried that Conan MMO and those pvp specific areas were just full of dicks, and giant armies/bands of dicks. It comes with the territory, thats why there should be punishments and the like so there isn't one huge sausage fest of raping and pillaging eachother's corpses (btw I once got swarmed by an entire horde of chickens in the Warhammer MMO).
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Also, everyone in the game loves acting like tough guys. 99% of peoples personalities can be summed up by "Fuck year! I fucking kill you carebare, because I am hardcore, I eat 9mm bullets, on my pizza because I am so hardcore. You are imagining my voice sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger, because I am hardcore, and I will fucking kill you."
Seriously, the way most of the people act and talk in the game, you'd think they are action heros or UFC fighters in real life.
But yeah. This game is doomed to fail. Not only because it is crappy and the developers failed to meet expectations, but because the entire community is full of total dick heads who will ruin the game for anyone potential players of the game.
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Also, everyone in the game loves acting like tough guys. 99% of peoples personalities can be summed up by "Fuck year! I fucking kill you carebare, because I am hardcore, I eat 9mm bullets, on my pizza because I am so hardcore. You are imagining my voice sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger, because I am hardcore, and I will fucking kill you."
Seriously, the way most of the people act and talk in the game, you'd think they are action heros or UFC fighters in real life.
But yeah. This game is doomed to fail. Not only because it is crappy and the developers failed to meet expectations, but because the entire community is full of total dick heads who will ruin the game for anyone potential players of the game.
You sound like you have an account, you... don't have one though... Right?