Tag: Darkfall

Eve Online: The Exception To The Rule


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Some time ago I wrote an article discussing how games that have full, unrestricted PvP are doomed to fail. The games create a griefer’s paradise, where Player Vs Player combat is no longer about finding the most powerful person to take down, but rather how many people you can gank out of their starting area before you are removed for a few hours. Developers create the games with the knowledge that the title will be niche, but fail to realize just how many players will not make it past their first free month of gameplay.

Continue reading “Eve Online: The Exception To The Rule”

Darkfall Isn't Dead!


People think that I must hate being wrong when I write articles for MMO Fallout when, in fact, the opposite is true. Even though the main purpose of MMO Fallout is somewhat doom and gloom, I do try to balance that with articles on success and companies prospering. So it makes me glad to see the dedication to Darkfall that Aventurine has, with a vision that they are bringing into the world, to make the game in their image, while still being accessible to more and more players.

darkfall

On September 2nd, Aventurine released a balancing patch in preparation for an upcoming October Expansion. The patch tweaks quite a few mechanics of the game. Some important notes:

  • Ships are now cheaper, but with reduced hitpoints
  • Ships and Warhulks are slowed by damage.
  • Weaponsmithing leveling is faster creating higher leveled weapons.
  • New one handed clubs, and elemental bows
  • Shield blocking damage has been reduced
  • Spell trees level faster in preparation for adding more schools
  • Spells cost less, but have a lower AOE damage.
  • Villages bring in more gold, but have less hitpoints
  • Training on monsters gives triple the experience of fighting players

Darkfall is the closest thing you’ll get to the original Ultima Online, obviously barring the lack of an isometric view. Aventurine knows their target audience, and knows who they are not advertising to, and they are ok with that.

Darkfall Isn’t Dead!


People think that I must hate being wrong when I write articles for MMO Fallout when, in fact, the opposite is true. Even though the main purpose of MMO Fallout is somewhat doom and gloom, I do try to balance that with articles on success and companies prospering. So it makes me glad to see the dedication to Darkfall that Aventurine has, with a vision that they are bringing into the world, to make the game in their image, while still being accessible to more and more players.

darkfall

On September 2nd, Aventurine released a balancing patch in preparation for an upcoming October Expansion. The patch tweaks quite a few mechanics of the game. Some important notes:

  • Ships are now cheaper, but with reduced hitpoints
  • Ships and Warhulks are slowed by damage.
  • Weaponsmithing leveling is faster creating higher leveled weapons.
  • New one handed clubs, and elemental bows
  • Shield blocking damage has been reduced
  • Spell trees level faster in preparation for adding more schools
  • Spells cost less, but have a lower AOE damage.
  • Villages bring in more gold, but have less hitpoints
  • Training on monsters gives triple the experience of fighting players

Darkfall is the closest thing you’ll get to the original Ultima Online, obviously barring the lack of an isometric view. Aventurine knows their target audience, and knows who they are not advertising to, and they are ok with that.

Unrestricted: A Dead Feature


Imagine, if you will, that you live in Medellin, Columbia. Not only that, but imagine Medellin is the only city, and you have no other choice but to live there. You are forced to deal with the daily life of terrorists, drug lords, bombings, kidnappings, and random muggings and shootings. The government does nothing about these murders, because they don’t have the resources, and may be in the pockets of some of these drug lords. The leaders may be manipulating data to make the records sounds better than they are. Now imagine a new city forms, where there is still a little crime here and there, but it’s more along the lines of littering, with violence much, much lower and a government that cares. Would you (We’re disregarding financial issues here) move to this new city? Of course you would!

The reason for this analogy is to focus on the point that anything looks more popular when people have no choice. In this analogy, Ultima Online was Medellin, Columbia. I’ve always referred to Ultima Online as the Wise Granddaddy of MMOs, that other titles should take wisdom from and learn from both the good times and the bad. Ultima Online was the first mainstream MMO, and the release version was also insanely unapologetic and unforgiving; but there was no competition. When Everquest was released two years later, players began flocking out of Ultima Online, and resulted in Origin pulling what I’ve dubbed the Trammel Effect, bringing major changes to the game’s pvp aspects.

Full PvP is a dead feature, and I intent to explain exactly why.

Continue reading “Unrestricted: A Dead Feature”