My Two Pennies

A two weeks ago or so, Aventurine released a HUGE 17-minute Darkfall in-game trailer. Though any game trailer of that length more than deserves the title 'huge', knowing that it is from Aventurine (a small indie developer who have previously only released short videos amounting to only one or two minutes each) makes the video doubly significant.


The video was released alongside the commencing of beta sign-ups, and since this is Darkfall that we are talking about, it obviously created quite a stir. A game that was once dismissed as 'vaporware' by the majority of the gaming community is now attracting a lot of attention.

Since the video's release and the beta announcement Forumfall has been deluged by new members signing up. Forumfall's membership doubled in a week, while over on mmorpg.com the Darkfall forum surged to the second most popular section after Warhammer Online, mirroring Darkfall's "hype meter" on that site.

This, barely a week after beta sign-ups began. Just wait until beta starts in October.


Of course the reason behind the levels of interest is the feature set that Darkfall promises. Since the release of the original Everquest and World of Warcraft, the mmorpg genre and industry have been stuck producing endless copies of a game format that is known to generate revenue. In that environment a large development house would be reckless in investing millions on developing a game that did not follow the direction of previously released games.

So basically the mmorpg genre has been stuck in a format that was well suited to the days when mmorpg's were in their infancy, and dominated by nerds, but doesn't suit todays gamer particularly well.


Let me break this down to the individual issues that the current crop of mmorpg's have.

1 – Levels/grind

To progress you character you must gain levels. To gain levels you must obtain experience points. To obtain experience points you must complete quests and kill an awful lot of critters. The thing is people don't want to complete 40 quests or slay 600 generic beasties just to gain a level. You're not playing the game at that point - you're just jumping through hoops.

It's also grind ... and it's boring.

Compare that system with Oblivion's system which doesn't have experience points. In Oblivion you level by gaining ten skill points across your core skills. You gain these skill points by using your skills. The result of that is the elimination of grind. You don't need to kill X number of critter type Y or complete Z number of quests to level. You just play and have fun and your character gains skill points in the process.

Aventurine have gone one step further and have abandoned the level system altogether. Darkfall is 100% skill based. You raise your skills by using them, ie – by playing and having fun. Higher skill levels lead to more potent abilities.

So if you're a player who enjoys being a tank type, or a mage, or a healer, or whatever, the mere act of playing the way you enjoy most improves your character AS a tank, mage, healer or whatever.

So people are hoping that Darkfall will be a mmorpg that isn't (*gasps*) filled with boring grind.


2 – Combat (subtitled 'combat' – notice the inverted commas)

In a mmorpg combat involves parking next to a critter, putting your hand-brake on and toggling the auto-attack. For the next couple of minutes your eyes are glued to the reuse timers on your hotbar. Every 4-6 seconds or so you get to click one of your abilities. Combat is basically "click ... wait ... click ... wait ...click ... wait", and though your avatar is having a great time going through all his combat animations, for you the player it is mind numbingly boring.

It is for this reason that the rest of the gaming industry does not touch the auto-attack and hotbar system. Why would they want to make their games boring? The only reason the auto-attack system remains in mmorpg's is because, like I have previously said, big developers have become too conservative and averse to 'risky' change, fearing a poor return on their investment.


FPS style combat, whether in shooters or Oblivion type games, is undeniably fun. The player is completely immersed in the actual mechanics of combat, rather than just once every six seconds like in mmorpg's. A few small developers have actually taken the risk in introducing FPS combat in their mmorpg games – WW2Online and Planetside come to mind – but the majority of the market is in the fantasy side of the genre which is dominated by the click-and-wait system.

Darkfall uses full FPS style combat, whether it is swords, spells, arrows or cannons that are being used. That's "fun box number 2" ticked off for Darkfall.


3 – PvP, mounted combat and vehicles/ships (in PvP)

PvP is a complete joke in most mmorpg's. Because of the level system, you are not competitive in PvP unless you're maxed out. In some games high levels prey on lower level characters that don't stand a chance (broken PvP). In other games where they have restrictions you can't attack someone that is X number of levels above or below you, or in certain areas (carebear PvP). In most mmorpg's the PvP is pointless and only amounts to glorified duels or ganking. In games where the PvP has been poorly thought out you can be ganked while you're helplessly stuck in a cut-scene dialogue with an NPC.

And those are just the problems that a level system brings to PvP. The auto-attack system brings more problems and restrictions.

Want to fight on a mount? Sure thing! Want to fight REAL mounted combat that isn't just a glorified speed bonus? Not in a mmorpg with auto-attack. In a system where you have to select a target and toggle auto-attack on, genuine mounted combat is impossible. You can't run down characters on foot, swiping them as you pass. You can't engage in mounted verses mounted combat where both sides are desperately trying to out-manoeuvre their opponent so they can attack, avoid attack and defend themselves effectively against their opponent (ever played Mount & Blade?).

Want to man a cannon on a friend's ship and REALLY blast other ships? Want to conduct ship-to-shore bombardment against other players? Not in a game that uses auto-attack ... and the latter would actually be considered 'griefing' in games using auto-attack. Auto-attack adds unnecessary restrictions to the mechanics of PvP combat.

Without PvP tripping over levels or auto-attack, Darkfall promises fun PvP.

I want to go through the recent video and give my two pennies on it so if you haven't already, download the 17-minute Darkfall video from below so that you know what I'm talking about.

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=64217

The first thing of significance you notice very early on is that when someone is 'killed' they merely become incapacitated and are left helplessly writhing on the ground. At that point they can be either resuscitated by a friend of finished off by an enemy. I play a few shooters that use a similar concept of 'healing' the fallen so I know that is a good gameplay element. Firstly, casualties won't have an irritatingly long run ahead of them after respawning in order to get back into the action (assuming their buddies keep control of the battleground). Secondly, healer character types are going to be incredibly important in any successful attack or defence.

Healers are going to have so many friends in Darkfall.


The mounts are amazing and are beautifully animated. Have a look at around 14:00 in the video and you'll see that unlike other mmorpg's, where mounts remain upright when they run up or down a hill, in Darkfall they actually run up and down slopes realistically. That scene at 14:00 blew me away. I also notice that at 6:12 the mounts also have a backwards walking animation (so no more Moonwalking™) and seem to lean into sharp turns (17:03). They also have forward and backwards attacks (14:48). The mounted combat looks amazing.


I didn't see any Shulgan Drakes (the Alfar racial mount). I'm guessing the inclusion of them in an already awesome video would have breached the maximum safe limits of awesomeness and cause people's heads to explode. Though all the mounts were excellent, the animation of the Garmir Rams (14:22) was especially so.


There's a large number of different ships types 10 minutes into the video. There's everything from tiny 3-gun boats to mind-bogglingly huge ships with two or three full gun decks. I don't think I can stress that enough. I've never heard of player ships being that stupendously big in other mmorpg's or FPS games. Never. Those ships are probably the largest player vehicles in any online game, and when I say that I mean vehicles that you can run about in and not EVE Online type vehicles where player = vehicle.

I noticed that in the two gun-deck (11:04) and three gun-deck (11:51) ships that not all the gun ports had cannons. Some were just left empty and some were covered by some kind of sliding door (11:48). I'm going to speculate that the cannons are a separate endeavour to the ships themselves. Meaning you first build the ship, then build the cannons with which to outfit the ship.

I counted 25 cannons on one side of that 3-decker, meaning 50 cannons total, but there are 72 gun ports in all, empty and occupied. A ship like that would easily be the pride and joy of well organised clan.

You could probably squeeze a couple of thousand players on that ship.


O.O

If you look at 7:10 and 14:21 you have shore bombardment going on. In game, I doubt that point-blank bombardment like that would happen unless the risk to the ship was minimal. A ship is a big, easy, expensive target. In a game like Joint Operations you would do it from beyond visual range. It's a lot less accurate but it's a useful way to harass the enemy and can be devastating if you have spotters telling you where your rounds are going.

Likewise, ship-to-ship combat would probably be done at the maximum visible range feasible, to make your ship as difficult a target to hit as possible, with the long-range shooting skills of the gunners being the decisive factor in any engagement, but this is just speculation.


The magic is going to be one of the most interesting aspects of the game, and not just because you have to aim your attacks. If you check out 4:18 you'll see a very short clip of people using magic to jump from one ship to another. The same technique is used at 6:30 to jump over a rock. At 3:38 an Alfar archer uses magic to levitate himself up a tree. I'm assuming that the same type of spell can get people up onto roofs too. Then there are multiple times in the video where spells send enemies flying (1:34, 1:44, 2:44, 15:19). You can imagine situations where a narrow path or bridge can be effectively held by a small number of magic users against a much larger force.



If you look at 15:45 you will see three types of warhulks, the existence of which has stirred up much debate on the forums. Personally I like them.

In the video there are three types. The blue ones appear to be giant floating guns that have what looks like a short range electrical gun covering the access ladder at the rear. I'm guessing they're used in attacking fortifications. The large white one looks like it works like an apc that can transport lots of people safely though dangerous spots. It's pretty much an empty box with two separate stairs at the rear and a small gun on top. The black ones are interesting because apart from the large front and rear facing guns, they also have a pair of flame throwers on the sides that were used to destroy the wooden defences which begs the question "are wooden defences vulnerable to fire attacks?" Can wooden defences be upgraded to stone I wonder?

Looking at the style of all three I'm speculating that these are the Ork/Mahirim racial versions of warhulks.

Some people are claiming that these "hover tanks" are game breaking. I don't think that's true and I'll explain why. Have a look at 17:06. You'll see a human in one of the warhulks attacking the crew. These warhulks appear to be slow moving so if you can get up the access ladders you can kill the crew and take the warhulk for your clan. In areas that have lots of places to hide (inside cities, rocky areas, wooded areas etc) warhulks are going to be vulnerable to infantry. In open areas these slow moving warhulks are going to be vulnerable to cavalry that can move and manoeuvre faster than they can. You'll also notice that the defenders of that city seemed to be throwing battle spikes (anti-vehicle/building grenades) at them. You may even be able to snipe at the crew with arrows/spells since the crew positions are exposed.

For every fighting style there will be a counter, I'm sure.



The PvE (8:47 – 9:37) looks like a lot of fun since the critters are running about just like players in a FPS game, and are not static as is the norm in mmorpg's. They also have brains enough to change weapons mid-fight (9:18).

The PvE section of the video was the only part where you saw player gravestones, despite all the combat in the video. For the uninitiated, a gravestone is what appears after someone has 'finished off' an incapacitated player – or if the player decides to respawn instead of waiting for resuscitation. Once your corpse becomes a gravestone all your gear can be looted from it. It reminded me of a developer update, where it was said that the critters could loot fallen players and then use their equipment. Is that why we only saw gravestones there? Because the AI critters automatically finish off and loot players? That would be my guess.

So if you've got a Flaming Sword of Pwnage and some critter lops off your head, guess who will be wielding your sword when you run back to your gravestone?

That would be so awesome.


With all the in-game things I have mentioned above - the abandonment of the level and auto-attack systems, removal of boring grind, the ship combat, the mounts, the cities etc – Darkfall is going to be an amazing game. Knowing that there is a large population of players that are sick to the back teeth with WoW-clone cookie-cutter mmorpg's I'd say that Darkfall could become massive too. Not just 'massive' EVE Online style with around 200,000 subscribers, but massive WOW style with millions of subscribers. Darkfall is offering a unique feature set within the fantasy mmorpg genre, with many of the individual features being completely unique within the genre. For that reason Darkfall will attract a lot of attention. Players who shuttle from one mmorpg to another mmorpg in a vain search for something different and fun will find that Darkfall has both.

tl:dr version – w00t! Darkfall is AWESOME!!!