Interview with Ginger Magician!

Well, what else there is to say? Enjoy it!

EL: Can you tell us something about you for those that don't know you?

GM: Well its hard to imagine any DF player who doesnt know who I am but I am basically the most famous soloer in the game with the most kills and the biggest reputation. I am also active out of game on the forums and my threads are usually some of the most popular ones around. I also have a long and distinguished history as a MMO player going back to 2003 with Neocron and then Eve Online.

EL: Can you tell us something about you IRL?

GM: My real name is Jonathan and I'm 40 years old and male and an English gentleman from the SE of the country.

EL: How do you feel about being a popular player of Darkfall? Do you feel loved or hated by the community? Do you enjoy it?

GM: I have never cared what people thought about me good or bad. Popularity and fame or even infamy in my case have their uses. For example I should imagine its much like the case of a real life celeb who everyone knows and who never needs to introduce himself to anyone. My gaming profile is much the same and being famous as a gamer can help you get certain infos and access to people easier.

EL: What do you think about the current EU1 server status?

GM: I think its pretty healthy. Playing for such a long time now we have ofc become accustomed to relatively low population and its nothing unusual. I always said since beta testing the game that it would not have a very wide market and so it has proved. One of my main concerns is the zerging seems to have gotten worse lately and to have 50% of the active population in one clan can't be good for anyone.

EL: What's your opinion on Lux Arcana?

GM: I quite like Lux Arcana to be honest. They always seem a well organized and discplined clan to me and the leaders are very mature and dont tolerate smack talk. For the casual and more mature player they are an excellent choice.

EL: What's your opinion on the Grind and Character Progression?

GM: Well this recent patch claiming 2 times increase in skillgains for me I have not noticed any real difference and the grind is probably still too long. There are very few players of my level around and 1v1's nowadays are usually pretty boring. A lot of people run as soon as they see me or attempt to hide and log off. If the grind was reduced there is also the question of whether the game is interesting enough to keep people playing once they max out. Atm I would have to say that its not so AV need to tread carefully with their grind reduction strategy imo.

EL: Do you miss big scale fights, sieges and other big-sized clan stuff?

GM: I have done all these things and tbh I dont find them very exciting or even particularly skillful. A lot of luck comes into play with large scale fights and the vast majority of them are pure numbers affairs where the side with more numbers always wins. Being solo means its a lot harder when it comes to pve and there are a lot of mobs which I cant kill solo but then again I really dont like pve and darkfall pve in particular so I dont feel like I am missing out at all.

EL: How's your average day on Darkfall?

GM: Depends what I feel like doing what I need at that particular moment and what gear I have available. Too much of my time is spent making gold and getting gear but its the same for everyone. My best days are those spent roaming in a gear set I am happy with and having and winning various pvp encounters around the map.

EL: What's the most enjoyable moment you recall having in Darkfall? And worst?

GM: There are so many enjoyable pvp fights that its hard to pick out one special moment. Beating Evaner Mordred 1v1 and then having him post the video in a thread was a special moment and it made a lot of people realize that there was more to me than just the forum talk of the haters. Coming fourth in the EU server melee/archery tournament and beating 2 alfars in a row was another highlight.
One of my worst moments was losing a full set of infernal that I had just crafted 5 mins before because of a crash and losing all that gear to a naked scrub alfar was very annoying.

When you think it's over... it's not.

I knew my grinding was not really over because I still had to level many magic spells so they are as effective as they can be but, after having Archery and Daggers kinda maxed out, I decided to stop worrying about the magic grind and just watch it slowly increase while I'm casually playing with my wolf. That decision is not written in stone because after losing a battle to a high magic character I'm always thinking: "I gotta level my damn rays". Despite that, my resistance to grinding is very low so I grind my magic for a day and already feel exhausted and go back to PvEing or PvPing for fun.
After thinking about it for a long time and discussing it with several clanmates, I've decided to start another grind: Greataxes. If you are asking why, you are not playing this game. Daggers are very underpowered and it doesn't look like Aventurine is giving them any love soon.
I've already accepted I'll never be a great fighter in Darkfall due to its own system. Too many buttons gets too chaotic for me. I'm more a "few tools with many uses" kinda guy (still waiting my Battlefield World (Bad Comany 2 + Darkfall FTW!)). Despite accepting that sad true, I won't stop trying to get better and I'm sure that using Greataxes is a good way to improve my combat efficency. Right now, my Greataxes skill is at 33 so I still have a long way ahead of me. But that's fine, as long as noone starts developing Battlefield World, I'm staying in Agon for a very long time.
The good news? In the latest patch, Av has increased skill gains across the board, so maybe it won't take as long as it took to level Daggers.

Comment on 21st January Activity Report

Thank god those weekly activity reports are back! They're so juicy!
This week's report is quite something, check it out here. Tasos starts with good news about Meditation, basicly it'll be cheap and there will be new ways to get meditation points. I've stopped all the meditation until this happens of course.
Tasos goes on teasing the upcoming expansion and the first thing he says is:

The next expansion has two prongs: one involves a complete overhaul and dramatic streamlining of the world and complete redistribution of all its features. The second prong has to do with a competitive component on a completely level playing field for all players.

I'm very interested in the second part. What does that mean? I've started a thread in forums to gather people's thoughts about it. There's a number of interesting options but, taking into account the first part pointing at a map remake, it looks like Av is completely upgrading the combat system to a point where all previous skills are rendered useless. This seems quite radical, and so is a server wipe, my second option, but the sentence itself is quite radical aswell. It could also be a 4th combat mode besides Melee, Archery and Magic, I don't know, Martial Arts maybe?, Black Powder Guns? Who knows? I'm surely curious.
The tease continues with more interesting bits like city upgrades, major changes to the crafting system, reducing the grind, hacking prevention and some other stuff. For me, this first two sentences are the more interesting without a doubt. It looks like we'll have a changed map when the expansion hits, with redistributed mobs and resources going the regionalized way. But now, it also looks like we might have a serious change in combat mechanics. Can you imagine Darkfall working like Warband? How would you feel if there was a server wipe? Are you excited to skill up another combat option?

Comment on 14th of January update

Four days ago, Tasos made an update on Darkfall. Tasos spotlighted the support team banning some people for gold-selling related stuff. He also said the meditation skill will improved with cheaper prices, quicker timers, more skills and free meditation points for not yet known reasons. The next and last subject is what shines the most. Tasos politely asked for some feedback on an idea their working on:

The topic: Consider armors and clothing working to enhance certain specific abilities like for example magic, melee, archery vs. hindering or even blocking others during their use.

Well, well, for starters, the examples are kinda already ingame. It's called Encumbrance. The don't enhance or block but their encumbrance marks what is it best suited for. Most people on ForumFall has shouted yes and some of them in full rage-mode. I've been trying to find something about the topic that doesn't involve melee, archery or magic because of the encumbrance thingy but since everything is combat in Darkfall it's hard. I guess some clothing might enhance Riding, Sailing or some stuff like that. But I don't like the idea of an armor that gives bonus to melee and hinders archery and magic and so on. That's too rigid, like a way to force differentiation. I'd like to see Elemental Robes or Armor, Riding and Sailing Clothes, Crafting Robes...
Anyway, for me, the best that could happen armor-wise is that your whole encumbrance should affect your running and sprinting speed. That would really be awesome!

Siege Report: Vranghorn 16 January

Well, yesterday, Lux Arcana succesfully sieged Vranghorn from Harbringers of Nithron alliance (Black Phoenix, Black Team, Goodfellas and RunAway). The sieged started in our now usual Big March where all our active members ride or run together towards the objective. After a little detour, our melee guys, fully buffed, lead a charge to the top of a mountain riding their Battlehorns with all the rest sprinting behind them. I gotta say it was the charge was awesome and those who did it enjoyed it very much despite some very low fps here and there. It's a shame that such moments are not as good as they could be with better performance.
When I arrived up there I started shooting arrows to the enemies and sacrificies to my clanmates but, outnumbering them and after the battlehorn charge we got rid of them pretty fast. I think we didn't loose nobody in that first fight. After that, everything was quiet for some time but then, they started to hit the siegestone and there we went to defend it. We were late but managed to interrupt them when the stone was at 5% health. Very soon we started attacking the bindstone with cannons and minutes later, a Get Good group attacked. My group was slightly up the mountain yet and tried to flank them but they went straight to us. It was actually quite good because the cannons had time enough to destroy the bindstone before Get Good was able to create serious havok.
Moments later, we regrouped from the long chase the Get Good members offered us and started sprinting towards Andruk because some people had lost all their mounts in the fights. In Andurk, SUN hitted us a bit but we even managed to split the siege loot and I received some needed stuff before I logged. All in all, a very nice evening with nice fights and a victory!

Increasing performance

Well, my new mouse has arrived and I have already set the bindings accordingly. Now I need to get used to it and that might increase my PvP efficency. I already know I won't be in the Top10 PvPers of Agon (still waiting for Battlefield World to accomplish that :-P) but to really enjoy this game I need to win some combats. There are a number of factors in winning a combat including gear, stats and skills; unfortunately I got none on my side. Due to being poor (damn meditation!) I can't ride around in good gear because I need to save it for sieges or clan events. Moreover, I'm realizing that Knives are severely underpowered and I can't afford using R60 knives all the time to compensate for that. Isn't Aventurine going to show the love? I hope they do but I'm not expecting it. So, should I start leveling Great Axes or what? I don't want to do that but I'd also like to be a competent player aswell. Playing Darkfall is like a marathon, it's a long run, so we'll see what the future holds for me. Maybe I'll win the Jackpot and I'll be able to ride my Runners in my infernal set with my r60 weapons. One can dream...

Back and winning!

Yup, I'm back. My hollidays have been very nice and I managed to stay away from everything Chirstmas-related so, I'm happy and feeling strong. Right now, I'm waiting for a new mouse that's supposed to arrive very soon and with it, I sincerely hope to increase my PvP effectiveness a bit.
In my second game session after Xmas, I managed to win my first 2vs1! It was in a dungeon and my opponents were not really strong but nevertheless I really enjoyed it! I hope I can repeat it soon. For now, I'm happy to be back.