Darkfall

Development history (2001 to 2012)

On 29 August 2001, Razorwax announced the development of Darkfall and launched its official website. ^[3] Claus Grovdal (Lead Design and Producer), Ricki Sickenger (Lead Tools and Game Logic Programmer), Henning Ludvigsen (Art Director), Kjetil Helland, The Razorwax development team in Oslo , Norway (Lead 3D / Client Programmer), and Erik Sperling Johansen (Lead Server Programmer). Approximately 14 months later, in October 2002, the Razorwax team was integrated into Aventurine SA , a newly formed company based in Athens , Greece, ostensibly created for the continued development and subsequent marketing of Darkfall . ^[4] When the Razorwax team and the Aventurine team had their first meeting in Athens , Razorwax should be relocated from Greece to Greece and Greece. Eventually, the two teams realized that this idea is really good, ^[5] and by December 2002, ^[6] the relocation of Razorwax, now Aventurine, was finalized.

In September 2005, a signup page for a closed clan was made available on the web; this beta never happened, however at 1.5 min Darkfall gameplay was released in February 2006 as a reward for the community. ^[7] A later statement from Associate Producer Tasos Flambouras Explained that a decision had been made internally to devote additional money and resources to expanding the scope of the game.

Darkfall’s first major revelation was at the E3 game in 2006, and while Aventurine did not have a playable version at the time, various industry reporters were shown a standalone demonstration version of the game. ^[8] From June 2006 onwards, just after E3, the Darkfall Development Team has begun to publish articles on the Warcry website .

An announcement on 11 July 2006 stated that preparations were made to begin, ^[9] although Aventurine stated it was not a publisher for Darkfall at the time, and that they were considering the possibility of self-publishing the game. ^[10] Six months later, on January 17, 2007, Aventurine announced they were in active discussions with prospective partners, distributors, publishers, and technology providers, and said that it was fully functional and stable. ^[11]

On January 30, 2007, Aventurine released their second official gameplay, putting together real-time melee combat, mounts, spell-casting and naval combat. ^[12] In May 2007, Aventurine Gave an Update on Their Progress towards Beta, announcing that they are in the future. ^[13] A later update, on 2 August 2007, stated that beta would not start negotiations. with possible publishers were complete. ^[14]

On February 22, 2008, Aventurine released a “rental test video” depicting various NPC and player-crafted city rentals in the game. ^[15] Later, in April 2008, it was announced that Darkfallwas feature-complete, ^[16] and in May, that “… our launch date will be inside 2008, with the public beta preceding it by a few weeks. This is official and internally we are more specific, but pending an announcement, we can not say more at this time “. ^[17]

In June 2008, Aventurine confirmed they had signed with Greek company AudioVisual Enterprises to distribute Darkfall in Europe , ^[18] and this was confirmed by AudioVisual in a stock market announcement made to the Greek Stock Exchange ^{[ citation needed ]} .

On August 29, 2008, Darkfall’s official beta was announced as the final scene of a 17-minute gameplay video, ^[19] which has many aspects of the game, such as small and large group PVP, including small and large group mounted combat , ship sailing and naval combat, magic and archery, and vehicular combat, creative use of in-game physics and magic, crafting, banking, 3 different PVE encounters demonstrating mob AI , and city building and sieging. This was soon followed by a “limited public hardware test” of Darkfall as the first phase of public beta, which was then followed by a staged gameplay-oriented public beta. ^[20]

On 16 October 2008, Darkfall was reported at Athens Digital Week ^{[ citation needed ]} . This event was unofficially reported by a member of the Darkfall forum moderators during this event, including a 30-minute video of Darkfall played live on stage ^{[ citation needed ]} .

On December 5, 2008, Tasos Flambouras announced that Darkfall would be released for the European market on January 22, 2009, with an American release to follow. ^[21] The NDA for beta players was lifted on 18 February 2009. ^[22]

On June 24, 2009, Tasos announced that Darkfall will launch in North America on July 7, 2009, alongside Darkfall’s first free expansion to the game. ^[23]

Darkfall launched successfully in North America on July 13, 2009. ^[24]

Darkfall’s first free expansion launched in July 2009 featuring massive monster re-balancing, player housing, darkfall’s village system, the Nexus system, a character specialization system, the weather system, special items, new weapons and much more. ^[25] [26]

Darkfall’s second free expansion launched in early December 2009. The EU-1 server went down late on Thursday December 3 and the North American Server went down shortly after patching. The update has been added to the game in the game’s first 9 months. Shortly before both servers went live extensively. Patch notes were released for the 2nd expansion titled “Conquer the Seas”. ^[27]

On 11 June 2010, Darkfall developers released patch outlines. These are some of the most important changes made to Darkfall to date. ^[28]

On February 10, 2011, Darkfall developers released yet another patch that addressed several issues that had major effects on gameplay. Three Notable changes are clan bank permissions, War Status Timeouts, and bindstone mechanics designating where you will spawn in the event. ^[29]

On April 25, 2011, Aventurine changed hosting to Chicago to improve server stability. ^[30]

On July 2, 2012, Aventurine released the Ultimate Promotion patch. It increases the cost of buying and leasing while reducing the cost of goods and expenses. $ 9.95, down from $ 15. This promotion ran from release until the launch of Darkfall 2.0. ^[31]

On September 18, 2012, Aventurine announced Darkfall Unholy Wars . The game was due to be launched in November 20. On 14 November 2012, Aventurine announced that it was due to a combination of external factors, last minute issues, and final testing feedback, the company was forced to push back the release date to 12 December 2012. Darkfall Unholy Wars is set again in the fantasy world of Agon, countless centuries after the events that took place in the original Darkfall Online. ^[32] The company released a set of feature, game play and developer diary videos to support the launch on their official YouTube channel. ^[33]

Development history (2012 to present)

On 16 June 2015, Claus Grovdal, the original creator of Darkfall, trained Razorwax CEO, wrote on Twitter ^[36] that he was disappointed that Aventurine is not making a big deal back Darkfall Online.On April 28, 2015, Axilmar, has developed Unholy Wars, posted a petition on Reddit ^[34] to taste the interest in a classic Darkfall server due to the demand of the community. The petition raised about 1789 signatures. He is presenting the result to the Aventurine CEO.

The CEO of Aventurine Zad Mehdawi posted a message ^[35] where he explained that Darkfall is not feasible due to the large investment in the infrastructure and development of the game. a Darkfall revival goal was continued to work and improve the game Unholy Wars. However, the company is open to serious proposals for licensing and supports the original Darkfall game.

On November 18, 2015, the community manager of Wave in a post on the official forum, ^[37] wrote that Aventurine was under negotiations with 2 interested parties ^[38] [39] for the license of Darkfall Online.

On 3 February 2016, Ub3rgames confirmed the acquisition of Darkfall Online license and updated their own website. ^[40]

On March 1, 2016, Big Picture Games also confirmed the acquisition of the Darkfall Online license. ^[41]

On March 8, 2016, Ub3rgames along with their weekly update, released the first in-game footage of Darkfall: New Dawn. ^[42]

On 19 March 2016, Big Picture Games released the first in-game footage of Darkfall: Rise of Agon. ^[43]

On 8 April 2016, Big Picture Games released the closed alpha for Darkfall: Rise of Agon with NDA in place and first 500 prompts along with a new alpha trailer. They also opened the store with 3 different founder packs. ^[44]

On June 14th, 2016, Ub3rgames in their weekly update announced the launch of Darkfall: New Dawn stress test for the 28 June 2016 at 2:00 PM Paris time. ^[45]

On 3 August 2016, Big Picture Games announce the launch of the closed beta. ^[46]

On 16 August 2016, Darkfall: New Dawn switch from free stress test to InDev beta, only people who bought the game can play it. ^[47]

On May 05 2017, Darkfall: Rise of Agon launched.

On 26 January 2018, Darkfall: New Dawn launches. ^[48]

Gameplay

Skills

Darkfall departures from the conventional MMORPG paradigm of character levels as the main form of character progression, favouring INSTEAD has broad skill-based system, ^[49] similar to That found in games Such As Ultima Online , Eve Online , Wurm Online and Asheron’s Call . Skill and skill in the game, including weapons and weapon skills, a few special attacks, spells, and archery, all aspects of player crafting, as well as more basic facets of gameplay, such as the ability to swim, craft various types of items, and to ride and control mounts.

NPC trainers in the game, but certain skills will require other skills as prerequisites. Without exception, however, skills are improved through actual use in game.

Playable races

There are six playable races in Darkfall , divided into 3 factions. ^[50] Unlike other MMORPGs, racial choice does not strongly influence character choices or progression options. Each race begins with their own homeland, and has their own unique storylines, stories, and racial alliances / enemies. It is possible to form mixed-race clans of opposing factions, however racial alignment adjustments (see ‘Alignment’) are always in effect.

While certain races have friendships and hatreds with other races in Darkfall , these are not strictly enforced upon the players, and they are possible for allied clans to declare their own race and their racial allies. Declaring war against a clan will prevent the assertion of the clan of the opponent from the opposition of the clan, regardless of race.

The races, organized by faction, are:

• Alfar (dark elves)
• Orks, Mahirim (wolf men)
• Humans, Mirdain (forest elves), Dwarves

Attributes

• Strength: Increases damage dealt with melee weapons, and moderately affects max health.
• Vitality: Grants has a bonus to stamina. A high vitality can reduce the effects of poison and bleeding.
• Dexterity: Increases the effects of the effects.
• Quickness: Slightly increases melee and archer speed and may reduce damage taken from such attacks. Also grants a moderate bonus to max stamina.
• Intelligence: Increases the power of spells and greatly affects max mana. It also improves resistance against mental attacks.
• Wisdom: Grants a bonus to all crafting and harvesting skills. Also moderately affects mana, and grants a slight resistance bonus against curses. ^[51]

As with other MMORPGs, the player has a set of semi-static attributes, which determines their in-game physical and mental prowess. These attributes are: strength, vitality, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence, quickness and ^[52] These attributes Improve over time in response to player activity. For example, in the process of being more successful, the result will be a greater improvement in that player’s strength. There are also three dynamic attributes: hit points , mana , and stamina, which determines a player’s overall vitality and capacity for physical activity and / or magic, which fluctuates in response to performing actions and receiving damage.

Likewise, the casting of magical spells requires and expends mana points, and the execution of various physical activities, such as sprinting, swinging of weapons, and casting of spells expend stamina. All of these statistics are varied over time, and may be rapidly regained through the use of healing and other restorative spells, potions and items.

PvP

Darkfall has been designed from the outset as a full-loot PVP game, meaning on death players are able to fully loot other players of their gear and gold on their person. The ability to fully loot other players has been factored into the game as an important facet of the risk versus reward nature of the game.

The ability to fully loot other players is a significant departure from other, contemporary MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest II , in which the quest for betterment is the primary driving force of player character enhancement. In Darkfall , character skills are the primary driver of character improvement, ^{[ citation needed ]} and gear également plays a broad role in Determining a player character’s overall power.

Friendly fire and collision detection are always in effect in Darkfall . ^{[ citation needed ]} Combined with a Real-Time Combat System, Darkfall’s Fighting for a Realistic Combat Experience MMORPGs. ^{[ citation needed ]} The developers have opined that historically successful battle formations and tactics will be adopted and adapted for use in Darkfall . ^{[ quote needed ]}

City building and conquest

The goal of Darkfall is its support for large-scale territorial conflict between player clans. To this end, empire building through the conquering of pre-made cities is a major part of the game. To promote such conflict, there are a number of pre-made cities (97 rentals – 44 cities, 53 Hamlets) within the world. The potential pre-made city and hamlet sites are marked in-game by structures known as clanstones.

These pre-made cities are spread around the world, and greatly expand in their location, surrounding areas, access to nearby resource nodes, and accordingly, their ability to be defended by the owning clan.

Player clans have full diplomatic control over their relationship with other player clans, and can declare war on other clans unilaterally. Clans that are at war with each other free of charge. Player-owned cities can be freely attacked and then sieged. Sieges last for 4 hours. In the first two hours the defenders may launch an attack on the enemy ‘s shard holder or city. If the defenders are victorious, the siege ends. The attackers may be trying to capture the defender’s city after two hours have passed. They only have two hours to destroy the clanstone. To this end, Darkfall contains a variety of different weapons such as cannonsand siege hammers, all of which are player-crafted. There is a limit to the rate of destruction of a building of the building of the building, but it is not possible to reduce the structural integrity to zero. ^[53]

Player housing was later added. ^[ when? ] Houses were stationed around the world and built up in their homes or wherever they were. They also found a rare item called “house deed” and found an empty spot for their home. Players would then pay taxes on their home or else they could lose it to another player who is willing to pay the tax. Clans are able to fight over these villages for control of the tax revenue which adds additional PvP elements.

In the patch “Conquer the Seas”, Darkfall received two broad fortresses at the North and South ends of Agon. These fortresses are only attack-able from a player built ship. If a clan checks the sea tower they get a server wide broadcast of their achievement, free recruitment postings in NPC towns, and additional revenue. Tones of fixed to the conquest system were also introduced in 2009 and bugged city structures were fixed.

Alignment

Darkfall features a player character alignment system that ranges from good to evil based on the actions of players. ^[54] Characters start the game with a good alignment, which decreases on performing “evil” actions such as attacking racial allies without provocation, or killing racial allies. The consequences of evil actions include being able to attack these “gray” players without repercussion. A succession of evil actions results in negative alignment, and a permanent “kill on sight” (“red”) status. Alignment can be regained only by killing racial enemies and / or by killing other evil players.

In the 31 March 2011 patch, alignment can not be avoided by praying at a church in a chaos city. ^[55]

Stealth

In Darkfall , stealth is Accomplished by playing stealthily, Employing real-world stealth technology Such As moving in darkness / shadow Employing camouflage , walking silently, and using world objects as cover; that is, stealth is not automatic, and not restricted to any particular class or subset of players. ^[56] Since Darkfall is a classless MMORPG, any player is able to practice stealth-enhancing skills such as “crouch-walking” and to follow a stealthy play style. ^{[ quote needed ]}

This feature of stealth also comes with semi-realistic ^{[ citation needed ]} limitations – metallic armor reflects light. Stealth in Darkfall est aussi made possible, through the deliberate Lack of showing players on the minimap and use of first-person perspective for ranged fighting and general movement.

The Darkfall world

Geography

Darkfall claims to feature one of the world’s largest MMORPG created to date. ^[57] The Darkfall is a large, central continent named Agon, on which all six racial capitals are located, north-west, south-east and south-west. In addition, there are numerous small islands and archipelagos . It was estimated by one of the developers that it would take roughly eight hours for a human to run from one end to the other. ^{[ citation needed ]} In reality, the time to cross the main continent is closer to 4 hours, ^{[ citation needed]} stretching the time to cross the map on a diagonal up to around six. ^{[ Citation needed ]} (For comparison, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft continent of Eastern Kingdoms is three hours from north to south.) ^{[ Citation needed ]}

The world includes a wide range of land types, including forest , plain , desert , ice , jungle / tropical , swamp , and wasteland areas. Every share of the Darkfall world has-been handmade by the developers and not computer generated. ^{[ citation needed ]} Darkfall developers have stated that any / all fields can be accessed by characters possessing the appropriate skills, ^{[ citation needed ]}eg mountains can be climbed by those who possess the ability to climb; islands can be reached by swimming.

Monster spawns and AI

Darkfall has a relatively small number of mob spawns relative to land mass compared to contemporary MMORPGs, ^{[ citation needed ]} in an attempt to reflect a more “realistic” style. Mobs also display more technical intelligence than in other games, ^{[ citation needed ]} and will frequently call for help, strategically retreat, dodge, and switch between melee and ranged attacks. Consequently, MMOGs, ^{[ citation needed ]} to the extent that widescale mob is a specific focus for the recent Darkfall expansion. ^[25]The December patch of Darkfall further improved the AI ​​of the mobs, ^{[ citation needed ]}making them even more difficult to take down.

Wild creatures

In the most recent patch ^[ when? ] of Darkfall included non-aggressive wild animals (such as deer) that players can hunt. ^{[ citation needed ]} They provide a number of resources. ^{[ quote needed ]}

Dungeons

As is typical of any fantasy MMORPG, Darkfall features several dungeons and underground areas. Both the Alfar and Dwarven racial capital cities are located predominantly underground. It should be noted that the dungeons in the world of Agon are not traditionally “instanced” like in other games. An instance is a separate game universe that a group of people are taken to when entering a dungeon so they can fight through the dungeon alone. In Darkfall the dungeons are available for everyone, and are not instanced-so-called open world dungeons were the norm in first-generation MMORPGs such as EverQuest. The most notable effect of this is that players are fighting with other groups of people in the same dungeon in the non-instanced world. This is a result of the fact that the entire game world is seamless; everyone is a shared server from the towns to dungeons. ^[57]

Launch

The game went live at 9 pm Central European Time (UTC + 1) on 26 February 2009, twelve hours after the launch. ^[58] The launch of a number of setbacks due to unexpected high demand; stumbled upon a critical issue which the developers took the game down to fix, and Aventurine’s website was unable to handle the overwhelming amount of traffic, causing them to be unavailable to customers for several hours. ^[59] It was also reported by Aventurine that there were problems with the pre-order system. ^[58] As a result of these problems, customers are awarded a free game of time. ^[60]

The game launched on multiple impulse on 1 July 2010. ^{[ citation needed ]}

Reception

MMORPG.com gave Darkfall 6/10, ^[61] praising its innovations, concepts and world design, but criticizing the lack of polish and the missing elements promised before the final release. In early January a re-review was posted giving Darkfall a 7.2 / 10, ^[62] praising its clan battles and skill system, but criticizing grinding.

Game Observer gives Darkfall an overall score of 83/100. ^[63]

Meristation gave Darkfall an overall score of 7/10. ^[64]

Eurogamer game reviewer Ed Zitron Awarded the game a rating of 2 out of 10. ^[65] HOWEVER, this review Was not well received as it contained errors Several basic gameplay description, and Darkfall lead developer Tasos Flambouras claims That Game show server logs que la Eurogamer reviewer played the game for the three hours, claim denied by the writer. ^[66] Eurogamer’s subsequent offer to compromise by commissioning a second opinion review ^[67] (by games Noted critic Kieron Gillen ) Was Declined by Flambouras, ^[68] aim Was the carried out anyway, being white Awarded 4/10. ^[69]

References