Patch Notes

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State of The Game Aug 09

State of The Game Aug 09

Right now we are putting the finishing touches on our next patch, which we plan to have ready by the end of this week.

With this patch we are adding a significant skill-up bonus to fighting mobs, essentially tripling the speed of skill-ups compared to hitting other players. At the same time we have doubled the speed of skilling up all magic schools. This means that all skills involving combat are now leveling up three times as fast as before, and leveling magic schools are six times as fast as before when fighting monsters.

This change will help newer players catch up to veterans faster. We also think it will make it even more attractive to go out and fight monsters, which in turn should lead to more open field PvP.

In this patch we have also fixed the underlying problem with battlespikes and damage modifiers. The hotfix we released last week was temporary, and we will adjust the modifiers back to their correct values now that the root of the issue has been fixed.

Other than the upcoming patch, the development team is hard at work with the second free expansion for Darkfall, which is currently scheduled for release by the end of October. This expansion is a lot bigger than the first, and we are extremely excited about it. We will give you more detailed information on the many new features over the coming weeks.

It includes many changes and additions to ship building, sea combat and sea objectives, part two of our character specialization system – this time some much needed love for archery and melee combat, the first step of local banking, player owned local vendors, the first set of racial skills, barber shop, the caravan system, new houses and villages, new housing objects to decorate your house with, wandering mobs, more rare drops added to monsters, new free spawning objects to discover, and much more.

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Looking at the First Expansion

MMORPG.com first time Correspondent Jeffery Hargrove writes this look at the first free expansion to Aventurine’s controversial MMO, Darkfall Online.

Darkfall Online is an MMORPG developed by Aventurine. On July 10th 2009 they released their first expansion. As a result, I spent the last week and over 36 hours testing it out. Wondering what it’s all about? Just keep reading for the full highlights.

In this expansion, nearly all of the mobs in the game had damage or HP changes to put them more in line with intended difficulty. Considering the number of mob types in the game, this was a huge undertaking that included fixing player skill mechanics, game mechanics, and mob AI to prevent future exploits.

The developers taking a three tiered approach addressing the player skills, the game mechanics, and the AI of mobs was amazing. It also allowed them to address the underlying problem, of players exploiting because mobs were too hard to kill without doing so. A lot of companies take the easy way out, just fixing AI, nerfing skills, or taking away key elements of the game. Aventurine’s three pronged assault has made for a much more enjoyable PvE experience.

Read Looking at the First Expansion

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Eurogamer Re-Review: 4/10

Anyone closely following Darkfall should know of the Eurogamer vs. Tasos 2/10 review fiasco. Well, Eurogamer has since agreed to re-review the game, assigning writer Kieron Gillen to the task, and that re-review is out today. What’s the new verdict? A not-so-improved, but certainly better, four out of ten.

Kierons opening comments:

There is a history here, which would be foolish to pretend doesn’t exist. When Darkfall was first reviewed on Eurogamer, it scored 2/10. The developer, Aventurine, was incensed. They’d checked their logs to discover the reviewer had a total logged-in time of a couple of hours. Eurogamer pressed their reviewer, who claimed their numbers must be wrong. He gave it at least nine hours. Eurogamer offered a re-review. Aventurine declined. Eurogamer bought an account anyway. And two months later, I’m here.

A bit more:

At the moment, I don’t think there are many who will put up with Darkfall’s madness. I certainly won’t. I hope Darkfall grows and becomes a game which can take its charms and appeal to a wider audience (EVE wasn’t EVE when it launched, for example – it began with fine ideas that appealed to a niche, and as they improved the game it sold its ideas to an ever-larger niche). Darkfall’s just launched in the US and its expansion has gone live, after all. But as a game, it’s just not there yet, its rewards too distant and the road there too barren to recommend to fellow travellers.

Read the full Eurogamer re-review here

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North American Launch Scheduled Today

The North American launch of Darkfall is scheduled for today. Until now, Darkfall has only maintained a European server, but if all goes well today, those of us on this side of the pond may have a server of our own to call home.

Those who are interested might want to keep an eye on the official NA Darkfall website

How excited are you for Darkfall’s NA launch? Let us know in the comments!

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Darkfall Expansion Notes

Expansion Patch Notes

The weather system will be patched in tomorrow Saturday July 11th rather than today as previously announced.

In addition to the Darkfall Expansion presentation here are some patch notes containing more information:

Server Optimizations

• There have been numerous bug fixes and optimizations performed on the server
• An insurance system has been implemented, which in the event of a server crash returns mounts warhulks and ships to either the person who spawned them or to whomever was using them last

Crafting

• New ingredients added (to be used for crafting Sithras):
  • Elemental Blades
  • Fibulae
• Woodcutting now allows you to craft a door that can be used in your house
• Ingredient requirements for crafting high level weapons have been reduced
• Ingredient requirements for crafting high level armor have been reduced
• Ingredient requirements for crafting high level mage staffs have been reduced
• Gold income will be produced from all crafting and enchanting stations in clan cities. Every time a player crafts something in a clan city, a small amount of gold will be given to the clan that owns the city.
• All new crafted figurines will weigh 100 kg
• Support for Autocrafting has been added to all crafting stations
• Support for bulk buying has been added to all vendors

WorldBuilding/Area Modification:

The following areas have been modified:

• Carpendale
• Copperdale
• Alberworth
• Gulton
• Duke’s Landing
• Stonefang
• Gulton
• Sandbrook
• Hildershall
• Grayvale
• Wetstone
• Winterworth
• Chilbourne
• Sanguine Bay
• Blackwood

Graphics & Animation Updates

• to most statues in the world
• to most Orkish area decorations
• to various Bows & Arrows
• Visual updates to Dwarven stone textures
• to miscellaneous props scattered all over Agon.
• Player jump animations updated
• Mount animations updated
• Player Whirlwind attack animations updated
• Fix for player character death animation

Skills

• New Skill for Reading scrolls and books added. Can be bought from the Arcanist
• New Skill "House Recall" added. For use with player housing. Can be bought from the Arcanist

User Interface

• New Expandable Hotbar
• Journal Updated
• New clan vault item window
• New journal quest page
• New Clan news reel page
• New crafting overview page
• Compass added

Gear

• Sithras have been added to the game:
  • Betrayer
  • Conqueror
  • Plaguebearer
  • Redeemer
  • Shadebringer
  • Souleater
  • Stormcaller

• High ranking weapons no longer give a penalty for use with low weapon skill
• All Weapon damage has been rebalanced (Lower rank weapons deal less damage and higher rank weapons deal more damage)
• Rank 80 weapons have been moved to rank 70
• All protections for all armors have been increased (fire, acid, lightning, holy and unholy damage).

Gameplay

• Maximum regeneration rate increased to allow stacking of food and resting bonuses
• When targeting a warhulk/cannon/mount/ship you will now see who is controlling it
• Decreased swim sprint speed
• Killing someone when in a party will display a chat message to other party members about the kill
• Killing someone when in a clan will display a chat message to other clan members about the kill

• Nexus System
  • You need one nexus entrance and one nexus exit to use the system
  • You need to first place the entrance (do this by double clicking on the entrance in your backpack)
  • If you haven’t built the exit within 2 hours, the (inactive) entrance will be destroyed
  • Anyone can destroy a nexus system
  • There is a timer countdown between each player using the Nexus
  • There is a limit to the number of players that can go through the nexus system
  • Anyone, friend or foe, can use a nexus system
  • You will have to wait for a timer (displayed on the nexus itself) to count down immediately after placement of the nexus exit before you can use it for the first time

New Mount

• The Battlehorn features more health and several protections against magic

Monsters

• AI tactics upgraded
• Several AI exploits plugged
• Monster melee attack speed decreased on several monsters
• All Monster spawn timers have been rebalanced
• Most Monster loot has been updated
• Most Monster hit points have been rebalanced

Sieges

• You can no longer build in a city when the city is part of a siege

Quests / Rewards

• Dynamic roaming chests have been added to Agon. Explore Agon to find these chests that potentially contains House Deeds, scrolls, books, gold and much more
• Title Quests(Achievements) have been added (Read more about them on the expansion page)
• Fices to some quests that would not give out the correct rewards

Spells and Magic

• The Mage in Adianthel now teaches spells and skills

• Increased mana cost and cool-down for:
  • Death Fog
  • Flames of Vengeance
  • Ice Storm
  • Meteor Strike
  • Thunderstorm
  • Volcano

• Arcane protection has been added to all rings/necklaces
• Spell damage penalty from all armor has been increased
• Unburden spell effect has been decreased

• Extensions for Spells added:
  • You buy extensions for each spell
  • Only one extension can be on each spell
  • If you want to change the extension, you can just go to the Mage and buy another one
  • Buy the ability to jump while using spells with a small penalty to the spell damage
  • Buy extra damage for certain spells
  • Buy longer range for certain spells
  • Buy higher exit velocity for certain spells
  • The add-ons can all be bought from mages in clan city Mage Guilds

Player Housing / Village Control System

• Player Housing added (Read more about it on the expansion page)
• Every 3 days you need to pay tax to keep your house
• If you have not paid your taxes within 8 days the house will be freed
• Add tenants to your house by alternative use on another player
• Use your journal to manage your tenants
• A flag outside the house will remind you whether or not taxes are been paid for that particular house
• Craft a door and install it on your house.
• Other players can destroy your door by attacking your house.
• Attacking a house that you don’t own or aren’t a tenant of will turn you rogue.
• Find numerous extensions to your house throughout Agon (chests, monster loot, quests)
• Give your house to a player by alternative use on the player you want to give it to
• Pay the taxes of a house by targeting it, pressing alternative use and select Pay Taxes. (Anyone can pay the tax on a house)
• Install personal crafting stations in your house
• Install resource spawns in your house
• Much more

Ships

• Ship speed has been increased

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Darkfall Website Update

New European Darkfall site and Payment options

As you may have noticed, there’s a new Darkfall website up and the message boards also have an updated look. The website is still under heavy construction so please excuse any placeholders, outdated information, and browser incompatibilities. These will be addressed throughout the day and over the weekend. We’ll be adding a lot of content to the site and we’ll keep it updated.

We’ve also activated new payment options. You can now use PayPal, Carte Bleue and JCB. We will introduce even more payment options in the near future.

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Spotlight Blog – Darkfall’s "Surprise"

MMORPG.com blogger beau Turkey writes this new entry concerning Aventurine’s announcement of a North American server launch and gives his own unique perspective on how to support (or not support) an independent development studio.

No one should be surprised that the Darkfall developer(s?) have hit you up for more money. I don’t care if they are charging you for the North American server, transfers or just because they are poor. I don’t care if they are charging you because they are just greedy. Here’s the rub: in the world of independent games (and a good deal of the time in the Big Leagues) stuff like this happens.

It’s 50 bucks. 50. Ask your parents for a loan.

Read the entry, here

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US Launch, Big Patch Incoming

Darkfall will open their American server on July 7th, 2009. This launch will coincide with the release of a large patch that will include many new features, new content, PvP updates, and more.

In the same announcement, Tasos has also stated a new website would be coming, including new forums. The forums will be viewable by the public, but only active subscribers will be able to post.

For the full announcement, go here

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Blog – It’s Not You… It’s Me

MMORPG.com blogger Beau Turkey writes this entertaining post talking about why Aventurine’s hardcore MMO Darkfall wasn’t for him.

I know it hasn’t been long. What…2 weeks? 3? But let me just explain.

Sit down. No, not there. That chair’s broken.

Ok, look. I still think you’re really Immersive, and graphically you are much better than I thought you would be. Pretty, actually.

But you’re just not the right game for me. You’re all about getting together with several of your friends and going after other groups of friends. You know, like a game of paint-ball. I enjoy those kinds of things once in a blue moon, but generally my off-time from real life doesn’t involve so much…you know..running.

Read Beau’s Blog – It’s Not You… It’s Me

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Combat Guide Part One

MMORPG.com Darkfall Correspondent Kelly price writes this guide to the basics of Darkfall Combat.

Why bring a knife to a polearm fight? Why bring a polearm to a siege? Why shoot someone in the back with a mana missile when you have a bow and arrow? Indeed why (or why not)!? I am here to answer these questions and much more in my guide to all things sharp, shiny, and lethal.

Well let us jump into the thick of it with a few charts. Don’t you fret, little Agonians, I shall explain!

Read more here

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Newest Patch Live

Aventurine has posted the notes for the latest patch for Darkfall.

The main focus for this patch were the optimizations. This is the most work we’ve done to date in this area.

Optimizations

• The audio system has been completely revamped and this will result in significantly higher performance, mostly noticeable during large sieges.
• A large number of server side optimizations regarding sieges and large battle performance have been applied.
• Miscellaneous client problems have been addressed

Crafting

New Items added for Skinning:

• Dragon Bone
• Ork Darktaint
• Northman Blood

Read more here

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Siege Incident Reassurances

The folks at Darkfall have posted reassurances to players after an ill timed server crash at the end of a city siege put the results of that siege into question.

Last night, after a siege was concluded, there was a server crash due to an unrelated issue. This created a rare condition where the city ownership change was not fully saved by all storage subsystems.

Any such inconsistency in the data is automatically corrected by the system during the scheduled maintenance window which unfortunately happens to be several hours after the fact. We’ve checked and we see that the siege results will be saved during the scheduled maintenance. While this kind of automatic correction happens for all things to maintain the stability of the system, this happens to be a major event and we feel obligated to inform the interested parties: City ownership will be automatically finalized during the data consistency checks within the scheduled maintenance window. This means that the city will be owned by the winner of the challenge.

Read more here

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Cheating Policy Update

The folks at Darkfall have posted an update on their policies on third party programs and macroing.

This is mostly an information update on topics that the community may find useful. There will be more of these types of updates on a regular basis. Since we haven’t had one in a while, this one is quite long.

Policies
There seems to be some confusion about what’s allowed and what’s not in game. When in doubt, the EULA and the Terms of Service are displayed every single time you start the game.

The general rule is that any third party program that interfaces with the game or gives a player an unfair advantage is prohibited in Darkfall. The only types of programs allowed are chat communication programs and screenshot-video capture programs.

Read more here

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Combat Guide, Part Two

MMORPG.com Darkfall Correspondent Kelly Price is back with part two of an overview of Darkfall combat mechanics. Today, Kelly goes more in-depth on the specific melee weapons, how to use them and what each is best for.

Weapons have stats and damage ratings like any game, but they can be looted from you when you die (and you will). The only things you have that will never be taken are three possible newbie weapons. You begin with a free one-handed sword (which you can swap for any other type for 20g), and the second and third slots cost 100g and 1000g.

Pressing “T” changes the swing of your weapon from horizontal to vertical and back again. Common sense dictates that swinging horizontally will allow you to hit in a wider arc in front of you, whereas swinging vertically will allow you to only strike one opponent at a time. In close combat with friends or potential enemies you’ll want to keep your swings as tight as possible. Say you accidentally hit that guy killing skellies nearby. Nine times out of ten he is going to take that opportunity to gank you or at the very least send you speeding back to town.

Read it all here

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