DarkfallUncover the mysteries of an ancient civilization, which left more than just ruins for later generations to discover. Untold riches and incredible power is the prize, as you join the race to claim an age-old inheritance. Choose your character from Elves, Dwarves, Humans, Mahirim, Orks and Alfar
July 04, 2006 - Darkfall is a fantasy online world in development at Aventurine, a Greek-based company that absorbed the originator of the project, a Norwegian team called Razorwax, and has advanced it to the stage where preparations are currently being made to begin beta. Set in a world known as Agon, it features six playable races. Humans, Dwarves and the elven Mirdain maintain generally friendly terms among themselves, while Orks and the wolf-like Mahirim, although not quite so amicable, usually aren't hostile to each other. The same cannot be said of the Alfar, pale outcasts who openly loathe all but their own kind.
The character development system is intended to allow for a high degree of customization, offering a vast array of skills and spells. The objective, an appealing one to many observers, is to make it possible for players to follow virtually any type of career path they might want, becoming a de facto explorer, hunter, mercenary, smith, magician, fisherman or almost anything else by making the appropriate choices, with optional prestige classes such as Paladin, Assassin, Gladiator, Enchanter also available. All will adventure in an environment that differs from most others in its clearly stated emphasis on player vs. player combat.
As a skill-based game, Darkfall stands apart from most MMOs that use a class / level system. In this article we talk about why we didn't take the beaten path, and a little bit about how the skill system in Darkfall works.
Darkfall's skill system is all about player freedom, endless customization, adaptation and control. It adds great depth to the player characters, and to the process of developing them.
As players, we enjoyed playing skill-based games like Ultima Online and The Elder Scrolls series, and we couldn't help feeling restricted by class / level-based ones. When faced with the decision of allowing players the freedom to take the skills they want and need as their character grows and the game evolves - or not - it was a no-brainer.
Orks riding a Death Pig and a Dwarven Garmir; one is doing a battle taunt
In Darkfall, players can develop the exact characters that they want to play, without the limitations a class-based system imposes on creation and advancement. During character creation in Darkfall, you start out with a set of basic starting skills in addition to some special race-specific skills - like Anger for example, which is an orkish skill. You get a pool of points to allocate. This process as well as selecting starting skills is pretty straightforward.
You can't make a mistake in Darkfall's character creation or development that will gimp your character. If you don't like the combination of skills you've chosen, you can pick and train new ones. You never have to re-roll a character; you just adapt your existing one to fit your needs and adapt to the evolution of the game over time. In class systems, your original and often uninformed decisions could haunt your character forever. Furthermore, you're often penalized by updates and other events beyond your control.
The same two seen from behind
In Darkfall, you have the freedom and the pleasure of developing your character exactly the way you want. Ultima Online had about a hundred skills and spells. Darkfall has at least 10 times that, and there will be more added throughout the life cycle of the game with every update. The number of skills in Darkfall ensures that each character will be truly unique.
You train the skills that interest you by using them. We think that this is a lot more fun, challenging, diverse and relevant to the players' wants and needs than having to level-grind the old fashioned way. You'll have fun with your new character in Darkfall from day one, without having to suffer through endless repetition for months before you're able to start enjoying yourself. You also don't have the huge imbalances of power between characters of slightly different levels, seen in class- / level-based games. Even starting out, your Darkfall character is very viable.
A comely rider aboard a sturdy mount
Skills in Darkfall are a lot more than just numbers. Many are features in themselves. For example, climbing, riding and sailing are skills, but they're also associated with major features in the game. Darkfall's skills are associated with the many things that you can DO in Darkfall that are parts of the gameplay and the game mechanics. Skills are also associated with attributes like strength, constitution and intelligence, and they affect each other.
You pick up the more common skills at NPC trainers. Skill progression occurs through use of any particular skill or series of skills, and ranges from 1 to 100. In common activities like swimming, progress is faster than in the more complex skills to train such as 'mana efficiency'. In-game messages will inform you when you've advanced. Spells progress the same way as skills, through use, so taking the Tornado spell as an example, the more you use, it the more powerful a tornado you'll be able to unleash on your enemies.
Like all skills, riding improves with practice
Skill decay will set in at a slow rate for unused skills at an expert level. There are also skill trees that open up new skill categories that lead to further specialization.
Darkfall's skill system is all about player freedom, endless customization, adaptation and control. It adds great depth to the player characters, and to the process of developing them. Darkfall players will enjoy their unique characters, and will always be able to get the best out of them throughout the life cycle of the game.
July 11, 2006 - Darkfall is a fantasy online world in development at Aventurine, a Greek-based company that absorbed the originator of the project, a Norwegian team called Razorwax, and has advanced it to the stage where preparations are currently being made to begin beta. Set in a world known as Agon, it features six playable races. Humans, Dwarves and the elven Mirdain maintain generally friendly terms among themselves, while Orks and the wolf-like Mahirim, although not quite so amicable, usually aren't hostile to each other. The same cannot be said of the Alfar, pale outcasts who openly loathe all but their own kind.
The character development system is intended to allow for a high degree of customization, offering a vast array of skills and spells. The objective, an appealing one to many observers, is to make it possible for players to follow virtually any type of career path they might want, becoming a de facto explorer, hunter, mercenary, smith, magician, fisherman or almost anything else by making the appropriate choices, with optional prestige classes such as Paladin, Assassin, Gladiator, Enchanter also available. All will adventure in an environment that differs from most others in its clearly stated emphasis on player vs. player combat.
There's no radar in Darkfall. There are no floating nametags over player's heads. You won't be able to see bleeps on the mini-map that will alert you to the presence of other players and monsters. For that, you must rely on your senses and stay alert, rather than letting your user interface do it for you. This opens the door to a number of very interesting and unique gameplay possibilities, which are supported by a number of sensory cues, some of which we discuss in this article.
Monsters can hear and smell players, and be alerted to their presence, so you may want to move silently and keep your scent away by moving downwind from them to get in a surprise attack
There are numerous visual clues a player can use to gain greater situational awareness. Mechanics that support the visual cues are Darkfall's long view distance, dynamic shadows and weather, which can limit visibility.
Shown close up here, a weapon's reflection can be seen from a good distance.
Armor and weapons might make a player noticeable in the distance by reflective shimmer. This isn't as visible in the screenshots. but the effect in-game is very realistic. Seeing smoke in the distance might mean a town, or a distant battle. Dust is kicked up by galloping mounts. Hiding in shadows will make characters harder to see in the distance, while the shadows characters cast might get them noticed. It's easier to spot a rider than a crouching character, and a moving character versus one that standing still.
The shadow you cast can get you noticed, and so can your silhouette.
When a player is injured, there is a varying degree of unique looking blood and bruising on his face and body. There is visible weapon and armor decay. A character on fire, smoking or with arrows sticking out of him is also showing his condition. Smoke and fire coming out of buildings, structures or equipment such as boats and siege weapons show the extent of damage they've received. Dead bodies, mount carcasses and destroyed equipment tell of a recent battle in the area. Blood splatter on the ground, trees and walls indicates that someone has just been through that spot and may be injured.
Sound in Darkfall indicates direction and proximity of the source, and much more, depending on how experienced a player is in recognizing sounds in the game. For example, you can tell if an approaching player is mounted or on foot and what type of mount he's on. You can approximate the size and composition of a party by the sounds you hear in battle, what kind of magic is being used, war cries, etc. Ambient audio effects, monster sounds and ambient music may alert a player to certain points of interest.
Staying in shadows makes you less noticeable.
The visual and audio cues, along with experience may help you size up other players since in Darkfall, there are no levels. You can target an opponent and learn the character's name, his clan affiliation, alignment, status and titles. His race, reputation, unique look, the equipment he's carrying, riding ability, the size and type of the spells he's using in combat are some of the many indicators you can use to size up what you're up against. Of course, you can never be too sure.
Wearing equipment and clothing to match the environment.
There are many visual and audible cues when a player is being attacked and hit. Powerful hits might knock a player any which way depending on the direction of the blow. The power of the attack will affect how much the player is knocked around. Screams of pain are relevant to the size of the attack. Powerful spells being used will shake the ground, blow players away and visibly affect them depending on the spell type, like setting them on fire, electrocuting them, icing them, etc.
Monsters can hear and smell players, and be alerted to their presence, so you may want to move silently and keep your scent away by moving downwind from them to get in a surprise attack, or to maintain stealth and not to alert other players in the area of your presence.
The mount has been killed and the character is showing some damage on her face.
As you can probably understand, all these sensory cues and mechanics supporting them add real-world stealth capabilities to the game. Darkfall has some stealth-related skills that enhance the player's tactics, but you won't go invisible because you don't need to. You can effectively perform stealth activities by using tactics such as knowing your terrain, moving silently, using cover, using weather and darkness, wearing non-reflective armor, clothing that blends with the environment, keeping your weapon sheathed, crouching through tall grass, staying in shadows, moving slowly, trying not to make noise, being aware of where your enemy is looking, etc. It's one of the many features we've worked hard on to enhance the immersive experience and excitement of the game, negatively inspired by how many other games have auto-magically chosen to handle this.
The same character continuing on foot, with the damage more visible.
We've only scratched the surface of another very exciting set of features that make Darkfall stand out from other games in the MMO genre. We've tried to make these simulate real-life conditions, without restricting players in their choices. We hope that this article will provide players with some insight into the depth of the gameplay experience possible in Darkfall, and tangible ideas that they can apply to creating tactics and strategies we haven't even thought of. We're very interested in seeing what they'll come up with.
RPG Vault Darkfall peek #23 and #24
Linear Mode
