Darkfall. The game hasn’t been featured here at MMO Fallout much lately, in fact not since June when Aventurine announced that the client price would be suspended in favor of simply subscribing after the trial runs out. Meanwhile, Aventurine is still plugging away at Darkfall 2.0 (or Darkfall 2010 as many of you know it), and Community Liason Unuldur appeared on the forums last Friday to announce an upcoming announcement:
Hello Darkfallers!
Apologies for the delay. We have an important announcement to make this Monday and we needed to turn our attention there.
And yes, I realize that it is already Tuesday. So what was the announcement? It wasn’t made. Granted, Aventurine is only off by a day, so we’ll have to wait and see what the important announcement is.
Whenever I see flyby videos of Darkfall 2.0, I always feel as though I’m watching a version of Morrowind with improved graphics. Darkfall 2.0 launches at some point in the future.
Whenever the topic turns to Darkfall 2.0, I can’t help but think back to how Jagex moved Runescape to Runescape 2 (now just referred to as Runescape) and the huge amount of changes the game went under just during that initial transition. So seeing this quote from Aventurine, I can’t help but hold high hopes for this ambitious update:
After 3 expansions, 2 siege system revamps and 60 major content updates, we decided that we need to do things from scratch to satisfy the thousands of great ideas, suggestions, criticisms coming from the community, and to properly implement the lessons learned by us since Darkfall’s launch.
The Darkfall Epic Blog was updated to showcase a substantial list of functions Aventurine will be overhauling with this update, a reminder that Darkfall 2.0 is far closer to a brand new game than a simple expansion pack. As for the dreaded (or anticipated, depending on who you ask) wipe, Aventurine still has not come to a conclusion, once again noting:
We explained that whether we wipe or don’t wipe, the game is so different that it’s of little significance. You should not think in terms of the current version of Darkfall when it comes to Darkfall 2.0.
The current state of Darkfall 2.0 is nearing a playable version. More to come.
Referring to the Darkfall 2010 expansion as Darkfall 2010 would just be silly at this point, being 2011. Instead, Aventurine has renamed the expansion Darkfall Arena, and has promised that the update will not only change Darkfall as a game, but change the world its players reside in.
In a recent blog post, Aventurine’s own Tasos Flambouras goes on to talk about streamlining the world, removing dead spaces, and moving points of interest closer together. The racial areas are set to receive a complete layout change, and clan cities will also have their layouts optimized. Each subcontinent is being revamped, with the addition of their own epic monsters to join the mobs already existing in-game. Current monsters will also be receiving a makeover from the art team, as well as player characters receiving their own graphical upgrade.
Aventurine is also focusing on the general atmosphere of the world of Darkfall, with ambient lighting, aesthetic upgrades, sounds, and more. More work is being done to keep the servers stable, offer options to clans, and bring in new upgrades for non-combat skills, including the much promised speedup in leveling.
You can read the entirety of the post above. It’s good to see the leaps and bounds Darkfall has improved since release, and hopefully the timely release of Darkfall 2011 will only add to that continued success.
The recent release of Darkfall’s “Darkfall 2010” expansion brought along an overhaul to the world of Agon, from the terrain to the dungeons, the villages, ships, and monsters (some of them level up now), and everything in between. A big change, yes, but warranting an article? Probably not. Today, the focus is on changes to the Newbie Protection Program. New players will now be protected for only one hour after creating their characters, as Aventurine found that newbies were becoming too complacent in their previous protection.
Aventurine is still set on making newbies feel as welcome as possible, however, and the expansion brought in a couple new features new players will like. Racial capitals now feature dungeons to get players acquainted, and the default view is now third person by default, toggled by F12. Third person is not available when wielding a bow, grenade, or staff.
Back in April, Aventurine launched the Newbie Protection Program, offering 24 hours of…protection. New players are incapable of attacking other players, or using certain features of the game (teleports, Runestones, portals, clans, mounts). Aventurine has been working diligently this year on reducing certain symptoms of player grief. Declaring war takes time and costs more to deter griefing, balancing health differences, and more.
The search terms coming to MMO Fallout are trending towards Darkfall, so a large update must be coming soon. Earlier this year, I talked about the Darkfall 2010 update and really haven’t given it much notice since then, as I wanted all the features to come together before-hand. I don’t have the time to go back and update previous articles, so I try to do as little reporting on well-wishes as possible, as my traffic shows an article from January can get just as much attention as an article from yesterday. That being said, I’m going to wait for the full patch notes to be released before I start screaming about what’s being added in.
Until then, you can buy Darkfall on Gamersgate for $14.97, 50% off of the title’s $29.99. I’ll have more on Darkfall’s upcoming free expansion in a few days, assuming it goes all to schedule.
Update: The Darkfall 2010 update has been delayed until tomorrow (Wednesday).
Darkfall is coming upon its first anniversary, and two expansions out the door is already looking at expansion number three. Dubbed “Darkfall 2010” the expansion looks to focus on everything. Armor dying, tons of new craftable items, more impact with the dynamic lore system, death animations, more PvP and PvE opportunities, better drops, wandering mobs, scavenging, mounts, and of course user interface upgrades, among others.
Of course, thanks to games who may or may not be Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Runes of Magic, and Runescape, players are reasonably concerned by the idea of “sweeping changes,” and some have expressed concern about any less desirable surprises that may be in store for this update. Unfair ganking practices will be slightly more difficult with the changes, making it impossible for players to declare war on players simply to gank them inside normally safe cities. Granted, as the MMO community often does, likely the following will be taken far out of context:
Yes we’re always adding more things and we’ll keep adding elements to make the game friendlier to new players, solo players, and more casual players.
I’m not normally one to forward conspiracy theories (or stir the pot of an already paranoid community), but the planned updates I have seen are quite reasonable. Disallowing players invading a city to use the city’s guild bank, putting a stop to griefing by players declaring war to gang up and attack sole players in starter areas without fear of the town’s natural defenses.
Either way, hopefully these sweeping changes will continue the reported upward trend in Darkfall’s subscriber rate. More on Darkfall as it falls into our hands. You can read the entirety of the community Q&A here:
MMO Fallout 