Darkfall - Jan 22nd (maybe...)

[DanTheMan]

I think the fact that theyre small means a good launch is absoutely critical to the games longevity and this is not a good sign. Taking another mmog as an example, WWIIOL had huge hype before launch, lots of people bought the box. On the actual launch day it was a nightmare and only a couple of percent of players went on to pay the monthly fee. The game struggled to survive and it was only because it was very much a niche market being both an FPS MMOG and a tank/plane simulator with ultra realistic damage models that a select couple of hundred grognards kept the game ticking over until it became playable. And some would say theyre not there yet, many years later.

I cant see any reason why they cant get investment in darkfall which would let the development process continue for a couple more months, theres more than enough expectation in large sections of the gaming community - it just seems theyre very unwilling to let go of a chunk of their intellectual property in exchange. But its so clear that they are unready, and blaming 'ISP's in america having problems' and 'running out of digital downloads' cant hide the fact that they are seriously out of their depth in a relatively basic area, getting the client out there in exchange for a large wad of cash.

I hope hope hope im wrong, but the way i see this going, as has happened many times, is the hype means a massive influx on launch day, server lag and wholesale crashes to start with until some sort of stable client is established, then bugs and exploitation to the nines till a number of patches have been brought out. possibly a world reset. The forums are a screaming mass of discontent, the first reviews pan the game sideways and a large chunk of the players go back to the games they actually had fun in.

Fingers crossed, the game will survive for a while on all the digital download sales, and left with only the dedicated might actually be quite an interesting proposition at this point. Youre looking at april anyway.

I agree entirely with what you say and feel pretty similar about DF. The thing that DF has to its advantage is the fact that it has a tried and tested ruleset in games like UO, Asheron's Call, Shoadowbane, SWG and DAoC and the fact that there's nothing like it on the market at the moment.

People that played those sandbox games are craving something similar and are willing to support the game through thick and thin, they don't care about how polished it might be or how bad it might be at launch as it's worth it in their eyes.

 

[Tombstone]

is the hype means a massive influx on launch day, server lag and wholesale crashes to start with until some sort of stable client is established, then bugs and exploitation to the nines till a number of patches have been brought out. possibly a world reset. The forums are a screaming mass of discontent, the first reviews pan the game sideways and a large chunk of the players go back to the games they actually had fun in.

I guess thats the catch 22 , if they attempt to control that massive influx on launch day by limiting the number of digital downloads, everyone complains that they are too small and doomed. If they dont attempt to control the massive influx on launch day and just let everybody download, the servers crash at the start and everyone complains that they are too small and doomed. They just cant win.

I'm not a programmer, but if I was I would never try and make an MMO. Seems like a lose/lose industry where you never make everyone happy and everyone is always oh so eager to jump down an MMOs throat when things go wrong.

 

[Shaye87]

I'm not a programmer, but if I was I would never try and make an MMO. Seems like a lose/lose industry where you never make everyone happy and everyone is always oh so eager to jump down an MMOs throat when things go wrong.

It's all 'bout the money
It's all 'bout the dum dum...
And I don't think it's funny

 

[drunkenmaster]

How can they possibly sell out of digital copies! Have they not done any capacity planning / forecasting. What a bloody joke. I can see Wednesday being another day of refreshing and sql errors until they they "run out" again.

You can make as many keys as you want but its irresponsible if they simply sell 5million copies of the game but only have enough equipment to keep 250k people running smoothly in the game at any time. LIkewise, its fairly silly to buy equipment for 5 million people to play constantly, when 5 weeks after launch and 3 million people give up they've got £100,000 worth of server hardware and internet access all paid for and unused.

An MMO doesn't need 12million people to make money, it only needs 12 million people to be a phenomenal success and make billionaires out of the owners, and WoW didn't get there overnight either.

They'll start with a number that is conservative, keep some money ticking in till they get it more polished(as it sounds like it needs it) then as people love it and persuade friends to join once it gets re-reviewed again months down the line, they can decide if they need to invest in it, or if its only worth keeping as is or scaling down to keep it profitable for as long as possible.

It sounds pretty interesting, and I'm bored to tears with other mmo's/games with nothing else to do so I'm possibly going to dive in and try it, if I can actually get a copy. £30-40 is hardly a huge amount, more so if it ends up great.

The only thing I hate is how they, and everyone who harps on about it goes on and on about no leveling making them an entirely new breed of MMO cliched crap, then go on to explain how skills level up from 1 to 100. it takes "experience" in use to skill up and time and playing the game, sounds a lot like leveling to me. I would assume there will be places in the world with monsters that shockingly spank you easily when you have low level skills and are only killable when you have higher levels in all the skills, again, same as any other mmo if you ask me.

 

[misterjingo]

The only thing I hate is how they, and everyone who harps on about it goes on and on about no leveling making them an entirely new breed of MMO cliched crap, then go on to explain how skills level up from 1 to 100. it takes "experience" in use to skill up and time and playing the game, sounds a lot like leveling to me. I would assume there will be places in the world with monsters that shockingly spank you easily when you have low level skills and are only killable when you have higher levels in all the skills, again, same as any other mmo if you ask me.

It is levelling, but without the grind. You simply play and gain skills in what you use, rather than doing 50872 very tedious quests just to get to a "level" to be able to PvP, raid etc.
It also allows for emergent gameplay to develop. Such as in UO, to gain wrestling skill many a times I've been in tournaments etc at friends keeps/houses - or the bone wall where randomers would meet up at night to form a wall of people wrestling/fencing/sword fighting undead etc. Healers would turn up to heal the fighters to gain healing skill/first aid skill/various other skills.
Interesting things happened when the levelling process wasn't forced down a set path.

 

[Sleepery]

It is levelling, but without the grind. You simply play and gain skills in what you use, rather than doing 50872 very tedious quests

No, instead you stand somewhere quiet casting magic missiles over and over again to increase you skill in it, which people are already doing in the game apparently.

So in a PvP game like this you end up doing the same thing just to remain viable in PvP.

 

[Raumarik]

Macro'ers paradise - get those Nostromo's at the ready then.

Honestly, good luck to it but I've a feeling it's fairly unique MMO wise for a reason - that reason being it's going to fail. It would be nice to have something non-orc based out there though but I won't be spending any cash on this one, I'll stick with Warhammer for now.

 

[CliffyG]

For those of you unable to apply your credit card details you can get round it by creating a new account. I've been banging my head against a wall trying to register mine and on the advice of some others created a new one and it went through straight away. Looks like some off database problem. Anyway, now to wait for the release!

 

[Tombstone]

No, instead you stand somewhere quiet casting magic missiles over and over again to increase you skill in it, which people are already doing in the game apparently.

So in a PvP game like this you end up doing the same thing just to remain viable in PvP.

Pretty much the same as it was in UO. That and the 8x8 method for raising magic in UO. Along with running up and down in firewalls and trapping monsters behind crates in your house to raise your magic resist

 

[misterjingo]

Pretty much the same as it was in UO. That and the 8x8 method for raising magic in UO. Along with running up and down in firewalls and trapping monsters behind crates in your house to raise your magic resist

Hiding by a vendor mall and ID'ing all their items .

 

[Sleepery]

None of that was fun, it just felt like you were exploiting a badly designed skill system.

UO had a lot going for it, but all those skill maxing exploits were one of the things that ruined it for me.

 

[Tombstone]

None of that was fun, it just felt like you were exploiting a badly designed skill system.

UO had a lot going for it, but all those skill maxing exploits were one of the things that ruined it for me.

Its one of the inherent drawbacks with a skill gain system rather than a levelling system. Once you have skills rising via usage of the skill, its nigh on impossible to prevent players from just finding a way to use the skill repeatedly in order to gain in the skill.

On the other hand, I still vastly prefer it as a system rather than a straight level-based system.

 

[Adsta]

I thought this was due out today 25feb ? That was the last I read

 

[CliffyG]

Will be released digitally this evening apparently.

 

[MotherMayI]

None of that was fun, it just felt like you were exploiting a badly designed skill system.

UO had a lot going for it, but all those skill maxing exploits were one of the things that ruined it for me.

I spent most of my time in UO power gaming to the verge of exploiting. When there was no PvP (even that I pushed the boundaries with.. 0.5sec bandages anyone? ), thats where the fun was for me.

Shadow heaters, carto bug, GL resist stone..

I also spent the majority of pub15/16 scamming and stealing with my theif. Made a silly, silly amount of gold.

If Darkfall can go anywhere near recreating the anything goes/every man for himself atmosphere that early UO had.. Ill be there for years.

 

[Psypher5]

so its all client side and has been hacked already. lvl 30 weapons at lvl 10

gg

 

[misterjingo]

None of that was fun, it just felt like you were exploiting a badly designed skill system.

UO had a lot going for it, but all those skill maxing exploits were one of the things that ruined it for me.

Agreed such a system could be exploited - i'm both sad and happy to say that I've killed many an unattended macro'er - even those hiding in brit thinking they'd be safe there .
But such a system also allows one to play the game. You can cheat at anything, it doesn't mean you have to though.
Standard levelling is simply a means to an end, whereas a skill based levelling system can be a game in itself. I guess it depends if you want to get maxed skills asap or want to play the game.

 

[Adsta]

so its all client side and has been hacked already. lvl 30 weapons at lvl 10

gg

REALLY ouch not a good start if true

 

[CliffyG]

REALLY ouch not a good start if true

I've not seen it on the forums, surely they wouldnt do everything clientside .

 

[Adsta]

I've not seen it on the forums, surely they wouldnt do everything clientside .

That would be suicide if everything was clientside. Could you imagine the exploits and mods that would happen...... They cant be that stupid......can they