Information nº6! You won't get it! (Or you will)

Well, I've decided to entitle this post with this mythic quote from The Prisoner starting credits cause information is for us mmorpg players as important as it was for Nº2. So, today is a happy day! Here you can find the whole post from Tasos but I'm gonna comment on the hottest topics.
Before going into some specifics for next expansion, Tasos has written about the ETA for this very same expansion and future ETAs from now own in a very appreciated declaration. Now, the important stuff:

There are many new monsters being added to the game, new monster types, new spawns, new tactics, special abilities, new behaviors etc.

Hell yes! I've been praying for this for a long time and it finally looks like it's coming. Darkfall's PvE is going to be great.

We’re adding new fun resources and features to the game which players can use to play around or create events with.

 That's very nice! Darkfall surely lacks some fluff and I love the idea to give players tools to create events. Actually, as soon as I have a good character with enough good equipment I really want to create some events to improve further this great game.

It includes new ship types, an additional feature to ships, and new mounts.

The additional feature on ships is suposed to be a cargo hold working as a moving strongbox and that's suposed to lead to regional or even local banking. Also, I've heard through the grapevine that we'll have more than two new mounts (Bear and Runner). Awesome!

I've only listed some of the features on the article and most likely, there will be some more. Of course, all these features could be bad coded or whatever and be complete shit but we can hope. Accoding to Tasos's words we should expect the new expansion for august or something like that but meanwhile I'll be waiting for every Spotlight with any bit of INFORMATION!!!

Interview with Darkfall Devs!

Ok, I didn't do it but anyway, there it is!
Unfortunately, this interview doesn't offer anything to us, anxious players. But it's ok, the interview is for all the Darkfall players-to-be, that webpage is pretty famous and Darkfall certainly needs more players.

PS: Despite that I keep finding too many players I don't win. :-P

Back Home

These last few days I've been in Mahirim lands. It's always nice to spend some time there after a long absence. But not too long either. What was I doing? Well, first I did some quest for ther rewards, nice enchanting mats, and then I cashed all my Selentine and Veilron keys. While Veilron aren't that bad, Selentine keys are just not worth the time. From now on, I won't cash them anymore and will sell them or give them for free to newbs. After that I decided to finish my Q1 STR title quest, goblins, because I could kill them naked with my 1H Axe. Unfortunately, despite getting the quest done, my 1H Axe skill barely got up and it will be a long time until I can do mounted combat properly. So, after my long run in Mahirim Lands, three or four days, I'm finally back home at Hal Kali. I've missed my grouped hunting sesions and I'm hoping to restart them as soon as I can.

The Long Hunt

Yesterday's game sesion was really really good. It had a little bit of everything: some questing, some PvPing, some mats gathering, some running away, some ganking and some looting but the best Darkfall moment for me was this one.
I was riding to a low mob spawn to finish a quest (lately it looks like Quests give better rewards: the gold amount is still insignificant, but they give Nith or Numen or even a selentine ingot.) when I heard some battle noise. I was only carrying my LowPvE bag so I decided to check it out. Crouching and slowly I moved to a place where I could see another player figthing the Windlords. Unfortunately I quickly notice that Windlords (who looks better now) don't even start to scratch the other players HP and, anyways, he heals quickly as soon as he has finished them. I keep looking trying to decide if I should run away or take my chances when I see him leaving the Windlord spawn. I check YourMom and I see that he's going to a Menhir spawn. Menhirs are far stronger than Windlords so I decide to follow him. Crouching all the time and moving from cover to cover really slowly (Splinter Cell stylah) I finally manage to get a good view of the Menhir spawn. There, the unlucky player is fighting the Menhir but his HP is really low and it doesn't look like he's going to win it. I jump from my observation point and start shooting arrows at him. Luckily for me, he dies far from the Menhirs so I can loot him without problems. He wasn't carrying a ready bag and I'm pretty nervous so, looting him becomes a pain in the ass. With a big smile on my face I discover that he was carrying a Battlehorn! My first Battlehorn! Still with the Adrenalin Rush I realize I'm overcumbered so I start to recall praying that he doesn't come back to claim his stuff. He doesn't and I bank the battlehorn plus some other things he was carrying.
This little adventure was thrilling and I loved it. I truly am a Dark Arrow!

Excitement and raids.

Well, the new patch is here and there's a weird mix of excitement to check how new things work, a rare ore rush that makes everybody go mine and for those who don't want to do it, a very good oportunity to raid those miners and take their precioussss rare ores. A lot of discussion in the forums about all this. I got some work to do so, metal nodes here I come!

New Patch!

Yes! I love it when Av decides to patch a little bit this incredible game. Sometimes, the patch is not nearly enough but some other times, the patch is just very good and everyone is excited. Well, in here you can find the full patch notes (the patch itself is coming tomorrow) but these are the highlight stuff for me:

Normal mining nodes now have a chance of dropping a rare metal ore

Well, this is very good news. Until now, it was really hard to get your hands on some rare ore if you hadn't a high character. Now, it'll be easier and I might start using r50 weapons.

Wildlife has been added to many cities and clan cities. This includes cats, rats, chicken, pheasants, manthe spiders

That's not a big deal but I like it.

Corrected the hitpoint advancement for all players. Hitpoints now increase faster at lower Vitality/Strength levels.

A very important step towards reducing the noob-vet gap. This is the patch jewel. Now I won't have any excuses if I suck at PvP. We shall see.

Several performance optimizations.

Ho ho ho! I really hope that's true. Darkfall truely needs some optimizations so big sieges are still playable. Also, I'd really really like to see some improvements in the Sight Distance issue. I believe that Mortal Online looks better than Darkfall because it has longer Sight Distance. 

Splash damage is related to your distance from the explosion center. This applies just to player cast spells against other players.

A lot of players, me included, have waited for this for a long time. This little magic nerf was very needed so players stop a bit the magic nuke spamming. We'll have to see how much the damage reduces.

The only thing I miss in this list is some archery love. Yes, the chance for rares and the splash damage reduction relates to archery but it is kind of indirect. I'd like to see some more archery skills or different kinds of arrows or something that adds more tactical options.

Aventurine is not a very big team but they are working in the good directions and I'm completely sure that Darkfall is going to be a very important MMO within a year or two.

The Wild Bunch

There's nothing as good as group up with some people to bash whatever is in our way. What do you like best? Solo or grouped gameplay?

More Dev Input!

Today Tasos has come clean with some features that next week patch will bring to Darkfall and I'm truly excited about them.

Normal iron nodes have a chance of dropping rare ore, making higher end gear more accessible to a larger number of players.

That's a good move. Some players fear now rare ores will be worthless and everyone will be wearing infernal armor. Well, being Av, that chance might be something like 0,001 % of getting one rare ore. Only those who mine 3 hours a day will get that ore. Anyway, I'm hoping that Darkfall 2010 brings more mats to craft and among them some super rare ore.

The amount of splash damage dealt out by magic spells will now depend on the target's distance from the center of the explosion. This change is meant to add to pvp balance.

Hell yes! From my point of view, magic is heavily overpowered and this fix will be very good for balance. No more nuking with eyes closed.

By player demand, the world map and the minimap will now display your character's last death location making it more convenient to get back.

That's the lesser fix. I've always been able to find my tomb when it was actually there. Looking for it is kinda fun.

The health curve for all players has been modified. Health gain is considerably faster at lower levels and is another step to improving competitiveness for newer players.

¡Yes! This is a really needed fix for the amazing noob-vet gap that plagues the game. Nearly all character progression in this game should be horizontal.
Well, I can't wait. Once this patch is online, I might be able to get my hands on some R50 and R60 weapons. It's about time!

Player Storytelling

Wandering the net, I've learned that old SWG has a very nice player generated system called Storyteller System. It seems a very good idea but unfortenately I couldn't find any video explaining the whole process in detail. Anyway, can u imagine a Storyteller System in Darkfall? The main problem might be phisical space cause Agon, even if it is really big it's also crowded with buildings, trees and mountains and it's not prepared for players to modify the terrain. We can always hope... Maybe, sometime...

P.S: Here, the best link I've found related to SWG Storyteller System.

I'm a Dark Arrow

Dark Arrow

Not a knight.

Lately, I've been trying to engage my enemies in mounted combat but I've realized that I'm not really very good at it. In all the fantasy games I've played I've never been a knight or paladin something like that because I'm more of a thief or a ranger. So, I need to focus on my archery, my highest combat skill, cause I can aim pretty good.
Not long ago I saw the new Robin Hood and I felt it had too much sword and mounted combat aswell, Robin Hood is suposed to be about archery! And so is my gamestyle.

Aventurine growing

¡Good news! It's not exactly the kind of news players are looking for but they are good nonetheless. Darkfall players have been waiting for a new patch for 2 weeks now and today, Tasos has written a post where he explains why the patch is not coming yet. The good news is that Av is still growing, investing more money in equipment and hiring developers. Also, there is a line about Darkfall 2010 that raises my expectations sky-high. Anyway, that's prove that Darkfall is still very much alive and growing every week.

Siege Report: Kalthadar 31st May

At last, I had a good and playable siege! It's not like we won it or something like that but there was nearly no lag at all and there were very nice fights like both at sea and in the hamlet itself. The naval battle was awesome, people repairing the ship while some shot the canons. I fired the cannons a little bit and it was fun. It's not easy to aim with them cause how they move.
Well, I'm sorry, my siege reports will improve very soon but right now, I'm not in the mood...