Economics part I: Auction Houses

Well, since the economics of Darkfall can be very complex and there are lots of things to say, I've decided to write a "part I" in the title and start talking about Auction Houses. This has been discussed in the forums over and over again but it seems like Av hasn't said nothing about it so speculation and discussion goes on.
Personally, I'd like to see some kind of Auction House but of course, the hard part is how to implement it. A lot of people think the Auction Houses will make the trade too easier and will eliminate player interaction. Well, first, trading right now is just painful, you gotta spam the chat, pray for someone interested to be reading it in that precise moment and if all the other work, hope the buyer or seller is not in the other side of Agon. So, I'm pretty sure that there's a way to keep the trading a risky business without being totally aberrant. The second part can be solved if you implement the Auction Houses with that in mind.
I'm not gonna post a full description of how the Auction House could work but only the main parts. The amount and location of Auction Houses in Agon is the first thing to decide. I think that two or three, kinda far from NPC cities, run by a neutral faction, available for everyone blue, could do the trick. Of course, nearby holdings would see their value grow but that's gonna happen with any content, Devs decide to add.
The Auction House could work in two ways:  1) as some kind of vendor where players need to transport the object and leave it there with a value attached and other players take it and need to transport it back to bank. 2) as a way to easily find any object you need and the player who wants to sell it, then you can meet the player wherever you want. I'd like better the first one cause I feel the second one could be misused.
Well, this are my 2 cents on Auction Houses. If you wanna read more ideas, check this link. You need to be registered in Darkfall Forums to see it.

Improving Darkfall's PvE

Yesterday I talked about a post that Syncaine wrote in his blog Hardcore Casual and I wanna expand a bit on it. Syncaine has been lucky enough to go visit Adventurine while in his honeymoon and he has some very good information for us all.
In Darkfall Forums I've wrote about the need of more PvE variety for some time now. I feel like zombies should be slow and not smart while flying monsters should be able to fly up and charge down as a falcon would do, bersekers should attack you no matter what and goblins might flee as soon as you get the upper hand in combat. Well, acording to Syncaine some of this is coming to Darkfall. For one, the monster AI will become more obvious so players can know what's a mob status. The second hotspot of his post are mob special attacks like. I hope that combining this two improvements the PvE in Darkfall will get a lot better but I'd still like to see some more kinds of mob attitude and combat tactics.
In any case, Aventurine knows the great potential Darkfall has for PvE and I'm pretty sure that we will see it growing in every and each expansion.

Hell yeah!

After a very long time waiting, some good and bad luck all in one and the remaping all of my binds I can finally say I'm back. I still need to sort out some little issues but today I've killed two Evil Eyes! Back in the game. I'm really happy about it and I'm eager to get my pace back. Moreover, today I've also discovered a very interesting post in Syncaine blog, a must in the narrow Darkfall blogsphere that I shall comment tomorrow or so.
Well, those of you playing in EU1, see you ingame!

I'm coming back...

Just a little bit longer...

Tremors in Darkfall!

Well, I have 8 days to wait until Day21 comes and I'm biting my nails more than ever. Anyway, AV has released some more information that most likely will feature in coming Darkfall free Expansion. You can find the the Spotlight thread here in Darkfall Forums. This thread from Laenih explains that some monsters will have an improved appearance and the example are the Sarlids that now have a very threatening look. I've been asking for some time now more diverstity in mobs tactics and abilities and it seems like some of it is coming now. You can check the video below to see how will behave this new "Tremor inspired" creature . Fun is coming!

Darkfall storytelling

Well, there is a guy who is trying to tell a story using only frapsed videos from Darkfall. Right now, I think there are two videos on his Youtube but I guess he'll keep uploading them. There are som technical issues that could improve like voice quality but this is a very nice community effort. I'll go back to them to rewatch them so I can get an idea of the story itself.
Check it out here!

11 days left

Yup. I'm counting days until I can play Darkfall again. It's not an exact science but it's all I have. This gaming coitus interruptus is so bad because it was the most enjoyable gaming "period" in Darkfall by a long shot. There are several factors in this: I just entered in a clan that seemed to fit perfectly with what I want from my gaming experience; my player skill was improving slowly but steady; finally, after so many months of playing I had good enough equipment, not the best, but enough; my toon skills were also doing nice "dings".
The worst thing of it all is that I'll have to work a bit before I can start to play. Due my fried graphic card I formatted the whole system. I'll have to reinstall, patch and update, I'll have to set the bindings, the graphic and sound settings, Ventrilo and Fraps. It's not a big deal but it was allready done and now is gone. The bank'll be a mess. Damn! Well, I allready know that whenever I get to play Darkfall again, I'll do it for 6 hours straight.
In the meantime, still waiting for that Q&A, pretty sure it's coming this week.

What's an image worth?

Besides some bad news from Tasos, today we've received some screenshots from the new World Terrain System. The word Systems and some bits from Tasos post seem to point to something bigger than graphic revamp but for the time being, we don't know what might be. So, let's talk about graphics. Actually there's not much talk to do because 99% of the gamers know that graphics are nothing if there's no good gameplay. Some time ago, before a very needed improve on my computer, I found that I couldn't play the new games anymore so I took a look into old games, oldies but goldies. Then I found one of the best games I've ever played, nº1 PC game of all times according to IGN: X-COM: UFO Defense.
That game is just amazing and the size of the pixel is nearly as great as the game is. Despite that, the level of inmersion and care you had for your squad members was just completely amazing. I gotta admit it, in X-Com I reloaded pretty often, but it was not because I wanted to win the battle.  I didn't want my great characters to die! The whole game is amazing and if you've never played it, go download it right away. You're gonna have a blast!
Well, the same thing happens to Darkfall. I don't need to reload to save my character but I truly don't care much about graphics either. I'm happy they improve them because most likely it will bring more players to the game but in my list, graphics update are low, very low.

Addicted to fun!

Well, even though I got no computer to play Darkfall with (it's day 6 waiting for the new graphic card) I can't avoid checking the forums for some funny stuff and some news. I'm particularly waiting on the latest Q&A sent by Paragus but meanwhile the Spotlight section of Darkfall Forums has delivered another bit of what's to come. And it's Fun Hulks! Oh... and flags. You can find the original post here.
As usual ForumFall Warriors started to tear up their clothing in the name of "Not Enough" or even "Completely Useless". I've already stated that ForumFall is like a swamp, it can be misterious and even gothic-beautiful if you like foggy places (I do) but if you go too deep in it, there's no way back. In Darkfall official forums there are LOTS of good ideas, suggestions and discussions but unfortunately there also is a big share of trolling. Actually, thanks to ForumFall Warriors I've recently grasped the full meaning of Forum Trolling.
Anyway, as with everything else we'll have to see how Fun Hulks and Use Flags are implemented but I kinda like it. It's not like that's the only content we'll see in the coming expansion and as Resfelm has written they're both sandbox elements, so you can use it or not. I'm pretty sure smart players will find lots of use for both of these features, some of them will be called exploits and some others will be praised for the amazing fun it brought. We'll have to wait and see.

The unavoidable dependency

Well, I got the worst news. My computer has severely crashed. For now, it looks like the problem is in the graphic card and it might mean more than 2 weeks til they get the new one on the shop. That's absolutely sad because my laptop is also in its last moments. Well, I might not post anything til I got my PC back but as soon as I do, I'll be back!

First clan event on first day

Yup, yesterday I finally and oficially joined Lux Arcana and that very same day I participated in a mounted clan tournament. It was very nice and I learned some good mounted tactics. Actually, I did a lot better than I thought I would, I won 3 combats out of 7 and my 1H axe skill is around 35. Riddik was the Mounted winner, congrats to him!
Also, Darkmoore, LA current home is a very nice city with really good spawns around and also close to Mahirim lands. Tonight there's another clan event and I hope I can participate again. Fun fun fun!

Change of Clan

Today I made the final decision on something that has been around my head for some time now. I've left Covenant of the Phoenix. I joined CotP the first day on Agon because I bought the game through Heist, its SG. The day I arrived at Tiquiya, CotP was selling it cause many members were leaving to NA1 (if I'm not right). Those days were hard cause I was a completely noob, Darkfall being my first MMORPG and not a very accesible one. We lived in Western Tlaloc for a very short time, there I discovered the joy of being bindcamped by Chuck Norris, no less, and I found my only good chaos chest: 10k gold. After that we spent a long time in Silvertown where live was harsh for me, a week old character. Finally we joined Guardians-BoS-Shadowlords and the good times came. I've had a lot of fun around Hal-Kali but I feel it's time for a change of air.
So I've joined Lux Arcana. They seem to be a good clan and I'm very excited about joining them. Soon, some news about my new clan.