Yesterday, Tasos posted another of those beloved Activity Report and that one contained a very important new. Av is planning to implement an Offline Skilling System to "curbing macroing, giving newer players a better chance to close the gap, and to cut down on some of the tedious repetitive tasks that exist in the game". There already are several threads in forums about this key subject. Most of the people think it's a good adition to the game but some others fear it will empty the world because everyone would like to do offline skilling.
First of all, we still don't know how are they gonna implement this, we only know they'll "start with a small amount of skills and gradually expand it, and obviously many skills won't be included" in the beginning. Knowing how Av works, initially, the offline gain will be very little and only on several skills hard to level like melee and maybe buffs.
This seems like a very good idea and I surely hope it works but as with everything else, we'll have to wait, see and then, rant on forums.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
We all like to be patched...
Today, Aventurine has reward our continous pasion with yet another patch. This one was kinda little with only fixing a bug about treasure maps (I haven't found one yet :-o); more upgrades to certain zones (Scaranibben and Thorsland are the only ones I recognize) and the inevitable Halloween theme.
Apparently, besides some Halloween weapons, now some mobs appear in player cities and we have evidence to prove it! This is a cool addition and I hope they keep it after Halloween or tweak it a bit so it can work, not only for a month, but forever. This patch has also ninja-added a new Hellfreeze loading screen. Maybe it has increased the treasure map drop rate. One can only hope. Get ingame to see the changes!
Apparently, besides some Halloween weapons, now some mobs appear in player cities and we have evidence to prove it! This is a cool addition and I hope they keep it after Halloween or tweak it a bit so it can work, not only for a month, but forever. This patch has also ninja-added a new Hellfreeze loading screen. Maybe it has increased the treasure map drop rate. One can only hope. Get ingame to see the changes!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Trade Routes
Yesterday, five clanmates and me did the Fangwall Trade Route. Only Trung had done it before but it was a long time ago, so we decided to do it to check it out for ourselves. We spent 4k gold each, a total of 24k gold, and started riding with our runners towards Nekaria in the other side of Agon. It was a quiet journey, we only encountered a lonely player and were zapped once by a wilderness bank tower. When we arrived at Nekaria we were given 7k, so we got a 3k reward for a full hour riding! Bad, very bad, terribad.
Yes, ok, if you do the Trade Route several times, you have an increased chance to get some special object but come on, it's hard to be motivated to do it several times if you're only getting 3k gold. So, how can Aventurine improve the Trade Routes?
1- Increase the reward: this on is a no-brainer. Nearly nobody does the Trade Route because there's a lot of stuff you can do in one hour that will grant more money and be less risky than the Trade Route. It doesn't need a very big increase, just something to make it worth while. I'll probably would add more special rewards on top of the gold; some of the objects that only drop from Chaos Chests could be given randomly as a reward in the Trade Routes.
2- Instead of saying "so hastely", the NPC at the end point should tell you the exact time that took you to do the Route and that time should be recorded so you can try to break your own records. This is just a small thing but we all know how we like to improve our performance.
3- Make riding something funny and tactical. Mounts should have an stamina bar and the ability to high stamina consuming sprints. Also, the acceleration time is way too fast now and the turning speed should be variable depending on the mount speed. I've been playing Warband and Darkfall could take some sutff from that very good game, how to handle mount riding it's one of them.
The first point will encourage more players to do the Trade Routes and the other would make them very funny to do. I just hope Aventurine has not forget about them because leaving them as they are now is condemning them to oblivion.
Yes, ok, if you do the Trade Route several times, you have an increased chance to get some special object but come on, it's hard to be motivated to do it several times if you're only getting 3k gold. So, how can Aventurine improve the Trade Routes?
1- Increase the reward: this on is a no-brainer. Nearly nobody does the Trade Route because there's a lot of stuff you can do in one hour that will grant more money and be less risky than the Trade Route. It doesn't need a very big increase, just something to make it worth while. I'll probably would add more special rewards on top of the gold; some of the objects that only drop from Chaos Chests could be given randomly as a reward in the Trade Routes.
2- Instead of saying "so hastely", the NPC at the end point should tell you the exact time that took you to do the Route and that time should be recorded so you can try to break your own records. This is just a small thing but we all know how we like to improve our performance.
3- Make riding something funny and tactical. Mounts should have an stamina bar and the ability to high stamina consuming sprints. Also, the acceleration time is way too fast now and the turning speed should be variable depending on the mount speed. I've been playing Warband and Darkfall could take some sutff from that very good game, how to handle mount riding it's one of them.
The first point will encourage more players to do the Trade Routes and the other would make them very funny to do. I just hope Aventurine has not forget about them because leaving them as they are now is condemning them to oblivion.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Bunnyhoping
From time to time, a new thread appears on the forum about this subject. Right now, you can find those about it. I think having bunnyhoping in Darkfall is a good thing because it increases the game's possibilities but I agree with those that say : "It's too easy, everybody just jumps away." Because they really do, in Frostbourne we have many lonely or small group raiders that are really hard to catch because of bunnyhoping. It has several problems, one of them is the amount of spells that you can use to bunnyhop. There's simply too many. If they were limited so no player can have them all, it would be an start. Bunnyhoping wouldn't be so useful and the player should think when to use it. The "Death from falling damage issue" is also very important here, if it were implemented players could still bunnyhop at any time but they could not do it when they are very low on health. Aventurine has said they don't want to add this precise cause of death in Darkfall so maybe, they can adjust it somehow so death from falling only applies when bunnyhoping. Within the current system, there could be a global cooldown between them but maybe it already exists (I only have shrapnel for the moment), in that case it's not enough.
The bunnyhop thing and those climbing spells are a good thing, I really think so. The problem with them is the lack of a skill, not spell, to do something similar; the amount of spells that let you do it and the fact that every player can have all of them. Having some kind of physics is great, overuse it's not.
The bunnyhop thing and those climbing spells are a good thing, I really think so. The problem with them is the lack of a skill, not spell, to do something similar; the amount of spells that let you do it and the fact that every player can have all of them. Having some kind of physics is great, overuse it's not.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
The Player Skill
Yesterday I started a thread called "How important is player skill?" with a poll included. Everybody knows that in Darkfall, player skill is an important factor in any outcome; at least, more important than many other games. Despite that, my feeling is that player skill is not important enough. The poll I did is far from perfect but its results are interesting anyway. Right now, 130 players have already voted in the poll and 43.85% thinks "Player Skill is quite important but not like gear or character skill" The second place goes for " Player Skill is the most important factor in Darkfall" with 36.92%. Clearly, as already said, we players know Darkfall is a game where player skill really matters but apparently, there's more people whou would like it to matter even more than those who think that it's important enough as it is.
I guess that most of the people who voted for the second option are players who have been playing Darkfall for some time and are still appalled by the amount of grinding they still have ahead before reaching the vet status. Yep, in a MMORPG, a complex system, most variables affect several things and the grind is a very important element in this discussion. The other two factors in play here, are Gear and Character Skill and both of them are quite grindy. The gear grind is not really bad because there aren't many parts in it, you only need to grind for armour and weapons but the Character Skill grind, what we call The Grind with caps, is just too long.
One of the best solutions in my opinion is to use the health gain system in every skill and stat in the game. Any Skill or Stat now increase faster at lower levels and its bonus or effect per point decreases at high levels. What if Darkfall combat involved the same amount of player skill than Battlefield 2? That would be great.
I guess that most of the people who voted for the second option are players who have been playing Darkfall for some time and are still appalled by the amount of grinding they still have ahead before reaching the vet status. Yep, in a MMORPG, a complex system, most variables affect several things and the grind is a very important element in this discussion. The other two factors in play here, are Gear and Character Skill and both of them are quite grindy. The gear grind is not really bad because there aren't many parts in it, you only need to grind for armour and weapons but the Character Skill grind, what we call The Grind with caps, is just too long.
One of the best solutions in my opinion is to use the health gain system in every skill and stat in the game. Any Skill or Stat now increase faster at lower levels and its bonus or effect per point decreases at high levels. What if Darkfall combat involved the same amount of player skill than Battlefield 2? That would be great.
Monday, October 25, 2010
A nice list of features for My Perfect Darkfall
Today I've discovered a new MMORPG that's still in beta phase. This game, Xsyon, includes many features I'd like to see in My Perfect Darkfall. I'm gonna comment on some of the best with some changes to make them work with Darkfall:
Resources
Players rely heavily on natural and found resources: lumber from trees, leather from animals, grass, scrap materials and rare objects of the lost modern civilization. -Constantly changing resources can be renewed or depleted.
-Availability dependent on season and weather conditions.
-Resources can be claimed by clans.
-A large variety of resources with individual properties. Different woods, cloths and metals have properties that affect crafted items.
Skills
Players start the game with a selected set of skills. They gain new skills by learning from other players or by uncovering knowledge in books from the past. -Skills increase with use.
-Skills decrease over time if not used.
-Skills are affected by many external factors. -Many actions are dependant on several skills.
Creatures
-No set creature spawns or re-spawns. Animals multiply based on the current creature population.
-Creatures gain experience and power, potentially evolving into legendary beings.
-Creatures can overrun areas or be depleted.
-Creatures gravitate towards different areas based on mood and weather.
-Creatures can be tamed and ridden.
-Creatures possess realistic loot. If you see armor or a weapon on a creature you can take it. Animals can be carved up for raw materials.
-Creatures are a primary resource for crafters.
There are more features than that and I recommend taking a look at it even if it's only to dream a bit. Apparently, many of those features are not in the beta yet but the idea looks very cool.
I think Darkfall 2010 will polish everything already in-game and besides some more content, it will start to add more tools to improve Darkfall's sandbox. After Darkfall 2010 I hope Aventurine will start working towards making Agon a nice emulation of a realistic fantasy world, if you know what I mean. If Darkfall retains it's arcade/action feeling about combat and improves the rest so Agon feels like a true world, it'll become king of MMORPG.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
It's good to be back
Yesterday I made my way back into Frostbourne. Unfortunately, my friend Anthas has RL work to do and has been unable to log in since a week or so and I'm afraid he'w trial period will be over before can he enjoy what this game has to offer. I can only hope he can try it again sometime.
In Frostbourne everything is as usual and I'm really sorry that I miss a couple of very nice events. Clan events are always awesome and very funny. Some days ago, before I left for Long March, we did a FunHulk race and hearing everybody on vent screaming "That damn Frostwalker is tearing my FunHulk apart!" was just hilarious. One of the events I missed involved the new UseFlags in a Capture The Flag game Mordin organized. I'm always thinking about preparing some events but somehow I end up delaying it ad infinitum. I'll try to change that because playing WITH people is the best way to play. I'll keep you posted.
In Frostbourne everything is as usual and I'm really sorry that I miss a couple of very nice events. Clan events are always awesome and very funny. Some days ago, before I left for Long March, we did a FunHulk race and hearing everybody on vent screaming "That damn Frostwalker is tearing my FunHulk apart!" was just hilarious. One of the events I missed involved the new UseFlags in a Capture The Flag game Mordin organized. I'm always thinking about preparing some events but somehow I end up delaying it ad infinitum. I'll try to change that because playing WITH people is the best way to play. I'll keep you posted.
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