Darkfall

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Darkfall
Developer(s)	Aventurine SA
Publisher(s)	Audiovisual Enterprises SA[1]
Designer(s)	Claus Grovdal, Henning Ludvigsen, Ricki Sickenger, Kjetil Helland, Erik Sperling Johansen
Engine	Darkfall Proprietary Engine
Version	1.0.37
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)	NA July 13, 2009[2] EU February 26, 2009
Genre(s)	MMORPG, Online RPG, MMOFPS
Mode(s)	Open PvP Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: Rating Pending (RP)
Media	DVD disc and a downloadable package[3]
System requirements	Windows XP/Vista, Pentium 4 2.5GHz, 1 GB RAM, 12 GB hard disk space, PixelShader 2.0 compatible 128 MB graphics card
Input methods	Keyboard, mouse, gamepad

Darkfall is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Aventurine SA that combines real-time action and strategy in a fantasy setting. The game features unrestricted PvP, full looting, a somewhat large static game world, and a player skill dependent combat system free of the class and level systems that typify most MMORPGs.

[edit] Development history

On 29 August 2001, Razorwax announced the development of Darkfall and launched its official website ^[4]. The Razorwax development team was based in Oslo, Norway, and initially consisted of five members: Claus Grovdal (Lead Design and Producer), Ricki Sickenger (Lead Tools and Game Logic Programmer), Henning Ludvigsen (Art Director), Kjetil Helland (Lead 3D/Client Programmer), and Erik Sperling Johansen (Lead Server Programmer). Approximately 14 months later, in October 2002, the Razorwax team was integrated into Aventurine SA, a newly-formed company based in Athens, Greece, ostensibly created for the continued development and subsequent commercialisation of Darkfall ^[5]. When the Razorwax team and the Aventurine team had their first meeting in Athens, a member of one of the teams joked that Razorwax should relocate from Norway to Greece due to the lower taxes and cost of living in Greece. Eventually, the two teams realised that this idea actually made very good business sense,^[6] and by December 2002,^[7] the relocation of Razorwax, now Aventurine, was finalised.

In September 2005, a signup page for a closed clan beta was made available on the web; this beta never happened, however a 1.5 minute Darkfall gameplay video was released on February 2006 as recompense to the community ^[8]. A later statement from associate producer Tasos Flambouras explained that a decision had been made internally to devote additional money and resources into expanding the scope of the game.

Darkfall's first major public revelation was at the game convention E3 in 2006, and while Aventurine did not have a publicly playable version at the time, various industry journalists were shown a standalone demonstration version of the game ^[9]. From June 2006 onwards, just after E3, the Darkfall development team began releasing bi-weekly developer journals and community question/answer articles, published on the game forum site Warcry.

An announcement on the 11 July 2006 stated that preparations were being made to begin beta ^[10], although Aventurine stated it did not have a publisher for Darkfall at this time, and that they were considering the possibility of self-publishing the game ^[11]. Six months later, on 17 January 2007, Aventurine announced they were in active discussions with prospective partners, distributors, publishers, and technology providers, and that a fully functional and stable beta build was running on remote servers ^[12].

On the 30 January 2007, Aventurine released their second official gameplay video, consisting of about one minute of ingame footage demonstrating real-time melee combat, mounts (including mounted combat), spellcasting and naval combat ^[13]. In May Aventurine gave an update on their progress towards beta, announcing that their internal target date for beta was for summer 2007 ^[14]. A later update, on 2 August 2007, stated that beta would not start until negotiations with possible publishers were complete ^[15].

On 22 February 2008, Aventurine released a "location test video" depicting various NPC and player-crafted city locations in the game ^[16]. Later, in April, it was announced that Darkfall was feature-complete ^[17], and in May, that "... our launch date will be inside 2008, with the public beta preceding it by a few weeks. This is official and internally we're a lot more specific, but pending an announcement, we cannot say more at this time" ^[18].

In June, Aventurine confirmed they had signed with Greek company AudioVisual Enterprises to distribute Darkfall in Europe ^[19], and this was confirmed by AudioVisual in a stock market announcement made to the Greek stock exchange.

On 29 August 2008, Darkfall's official beta was announced as the final scene of a 17 minute gameplay video, which demonstrated numerous aspects of the game, such as small and large group PVP, including small and large group mounted combat, ship sailing and naval combat, magic and archery, and vehicular combat, creative use of in-game physics and magic, crafting, banking, 3 different PVE encounters demonstrating mob AI, and city building and sieging. This was soon followed by a "limited public hardware test" of Darkfall as the first phase of public beta, which was then followed by a staged gameplay-oriented public beta. ^[20]

On 16 October 2008, Darkfall was publicly presented at Athens Digital Week. This event was unofficially reported by a member of the Darkfall forum moderators during this event, including a 30 minute video of Darkfall played live on stage.

On 5 December 2008, Tasos Flambouras announced that Darkfall would be released for the European market on 22 January 2009, with an American release to follow.^[21] This launch date was later revised to 25 February 2009. The NDA for beta players was lifted on the 18th of February.^[22]

On 24 June 2009, Tasos announced that Darkfall will launch in North America on 7 July 2009, alongside a free "expansion" to the game. ^[23] Expansion details are vague, but its developer claims the expansion will include additional content and improvements to the core game-world as well as characters, skills, PvP, and PvE content. The North America launch of Darkfall was pushed back six days and is now expected to launch on 13 July 2009.^[24] The "expansion" is still set to go live on 7 July 2009.

[edit] Launch

The game went live on February 26, 2009, 9:00 AM GMT +1, twelve hours after the announced launch time.^[25] The launch saw a number of setbacks due to unexpected high demand; players stumbled upon a critical bug which the developers took the game down to fix, and Aventurine's website was unable to handle the overwhelming amount of traffic to the online store and forums, causing those features to become generally unavailable to customers for several hours. ^[26] It was also reported by Aventurine that there were problems with the pre-order system. ^[27] As a result of these problems, customers were awarded with 4 days free game time. ^[28]

[edit] Gameplay

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[edit] Playable races

There are six playable races in Darkfall.^[29] Unlike other MMORPGs, racial choice does not heavily influence character choices or progression options: 95% of the skills may be learned regardless of character race, the remainder are race-specific abilities. Each race begins play in their own homeland, and have their own unique storylines, histories, and racial alliances/enemies.

While certain races have friendships and hatreds with other races in Darkfall, these are not strictly enforced upon the players, and it is possible for allied clans to declare war upon both their own race and their racial allies. Declaring war against a clan will prevent players of the declaring clan from sustaining alignment penalties associated with attacking and killing players of the opposing clan, regardless of race.

It is possible to form mixed-race clans of opposing factions, but this choice comes with some disadvantages: NPCs will always behave according to their racial faction, and will thus react with hostility to racial enemies even if accompanied by and/or allied with friendly races.

The races are as follows:

The six playable races of Darkfall; from top: Alfar female with Shulgan drake mount, two male dwarves and one female dwarf, human female, mirdain (elf) female with aerdian cat mount, mahirrim male, ork female.

[edit] Alfar

• Homeland: Nagast
• Allies: None
• Enemies: Everyone
• Racial mount: Shulgan Drake

The Alfar are the cruel, hate-spawned cousins of the Mirdain. Abducted eons ago by their insane god-king Melek, these former Mirdain have been mutated and warped by his diabolical influence and his mother's Silver Circlet into fearless, rage-driven killers. Striking their enemies from the shadowy, spell-blasted lands of Nagast, the Alfar tear a bloody swath of destruction wherever they go, disappearing as quickly as they appeared. Gifted with an innate affinity for the magical arts, the Alfar are skilled spellcasters who draw their power from their volatile God. Due to this unpredictability, Alfar spells fluctuate in power, creating a slight variance in result with every cast. Alfar have a deep seated hatred for all other life on Agon; though they can join clans of other races, they loathe doing so.^[30]

[edit] Dwarves

• Homeland: Dvergheim
• Allies: Humans, Mirdain
• Enemies: Mahirim, Orks, Alfar
• Racial mount: Garmir Ram

Grim-faced, iron-strong and unshakable in courage and convictions, dwarves are trueborn children of the mountains. They are an introspective and taciturn race who scorn all gods in preference of a multi-millennial path to perfection that was laid out by the legendary founder of their nation. The dwarves follow the teachings of Ymir, a legendary mastersmith who forged many of Dvergheim's greatest wonders, as well as the nation itself. Ymir spent his final years writing a book that laid out a detailed, step by step plan for the next 20,000 years of dwarven civilization. Ymir's teachings told the dwarves what to strive for, what to practice and what to create, and he told them how and when they should approach each task.^[31]

[edit] Humans

• Homeland: Mercia
• Allies: Dwarves, Mirdain
• Enemies: Mahirim, Orks, Alfar
• Racial mount: Warhorse

Humans in the game live very much like their real life counterparts did in medieval times, with a feudal system, and a constant power struggle between the King and the Church. Humans are a versatile race, with no particular strengths and weaknesses.^[32]

[edit] Mirdain

• Homeland: Mirendil
• Allies: Dwarves, Humans
• Enemies: Mahirim, Orks, Alfar
• Racial mount: Aerdian cat

The Mirdain are a sophisticated race of skilled diplomats and traders. They prefer diplomacy and subtle manipulation to direct conflict, but Mirdain are still brilliant tacticians whose expert troop movements and cunning ruses allow them to defeat enemies many times their number. Working deep from within their forest home of Mirendil, the Mirdain are a peaceful and cultured race in a world torn by war. The Mirdain are somewhat magically adept, and most of them are able to direct a modest number of spells. They are also skilled hunters, proficient with the bow from an early age.^[33]

[edit] Mahirim

• Homeland: Tribelands
• Allies: Orks
• Enemies: Humans, Mirdain, Dwarves, Alfar
• Racial mount: Originally planed to be able to run as fast as mounts on four-legs. Currently uses Ork mount Death Pig

A fierce race of predators from the untamed wilds of the Tribelands, the Mahirim are a race who still seem at odds with their recent move to civilization. While they have laws now, they retain all the finely-honed instincts and predatory skills of their pack-hunter ancestors. Though they have recently evolved to walk on two-legs, the wolf-like Mahirim retain the ability to run on all fours, and can easily out-pace all other races on foot and match other races' mounts for speed, whilst retaining the capability to ride other races' mounts. Given their long history of aggression and their somewhat arrogant nature, the Mahirim have few friends. They do, however, have a small degree of respect for the Orks, who are very capable warriors and equally warlike.^[34]

[edit] Orks

• Homeland: Morak
• Allies: Mahirim
• Enemies: Humans, Mirdain, Dwarves, Alfar
• Racial mount: Death Pig

Until very recently the Orks used to roam the swamps like the Goblins do now: no permanent settlements, no civilization, spending their time hunting or at war. But, an evil deity tamed the Orks and taught them how to build cities and enslave workers. Modern day Orkish society is built on the enslavement of the Goblin race, as they do all the manual labour for the Orks. The Orks also control an evil cult of Dwarves who design buildings and weapons for Orkish conquest; they live in much better conditions than the Goblins. The Orks believe that one day their god will rise from the Volcano and kill all non-Orks.^[35]

[edit] Attributes

• Str: Increases damage dealt with melee weapons,and moderately affects max health.
• Vit: Grants a bonus to max health and moderate bonus to stamina. A high vitality may slightly reduce the effects of poison and bleeding.
• Dex: Increases archery damage, and may reduce damage taken from area effects.
• Quick: Slightly increases melee and archer speed,and may reduce damage taken from such attacks. Also Grants a moderate bonus to max stamina.
• Int: Increases the power of spells,and greatly affects max mana. Also Improves resistance against mental attacks.
• Wis: Grants a bonus to all crafting and harvesting skills. Also moderately affects max mana, and grants a slight resist bonus against curses.^[36]

As with other MMORPGs, player characters have a set of semi-static attributes, which determine their in-game physical and mental prowess. These attributes are: strength, vitality, dexterity, wisdom, intelligence, and quickness ^[37]. These attributes improve over time in response to player activity, for example, repeated use of a melee weapon will result in a gradual improvement in that player's strength statistic over time, which in turn will allow him/her to deal greater melee damage. There are also three dynamic attributes: hitpoints, mana, and stamina, which determine a player's overall vitality and capacity for physical activity and/or magic, which fluctuate in response to performing actions and receiving damage.

Receiving physical or magical damage from other players, NPCs or other objects cause the loss of hitpoints until that player is incapacitated, at which point there is a certain amount of time during which that player can choose to declare themselves dead and return to their last "bind point", or they may be "finished off" by force, or revived by another player. Unless revived, the player dies at the expiration of the incapacitation timer.

Likewise, the casting of magical spells requires and expends mana points, and the execution of various physical activities, such as sprinting, the swinging of weapons, and casting of spells expend stamina. All three of these statistics are regained over time at varying rates, and/or may be rapidly regained through the use of healing and other restorative spells, potions and items.

In terms of racial differences, the order of races with respect to the strength statistic is: ork > dwarf > mahirim > human > mirdain (elf) > alfar (dark-elf), while for intelligence, the order is the exact reverse: alfar > mirdain > human > mahirim > dwarf > ork.^[37]

[edit] Skills

Darkfall departs from the conventional MMORPG paradigm of character levels as the main form of character progression, favouring instead a broad skill-based system^[38], similar to that found in games such as The 4th Coming, Ultima online, EVE online and Asheron's Call. Skills and skill proficiency determine a wide range of a character's capability in the game, including weapons and weapon skills, a few special attacks, spells, and archery, all aspects of player crafting, as well as more basic facets of gameplay, such as the ability to swim, craft various items types, and to ride and control mounts.

Skills may be learned from NPC trainers in the game, however certain skills will require other skills as prerequisites. Without exception however, skills are improved (raised in power) through actual usage in game.

There are five categories of skills

General skills

Combat skills

Weapon skills

Magic skills

Crafting skills

[edit] PVP

Darkfall has been designed from the outset as a full-loot PVP game, meaning on death players are able to fully loot other players of their gear and gold on their person. The ability to fully loot other players has been factored into the game as an important facet of the RTS-like logistical meta-game between warring clans.

The ability to fully loot other players is a significant departure from other, contemporary MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest II, in which the quest for better gear is the primary driving force for of player character improvement once maximum level has been attained. In Darkfall, character skills are the primary driver of character improvement, and gear also plays a large role in determining a player character's overall power. In some respects the looting system of Darkfall resembles that of EVE Online, which allows players to loot much of a destroyed ship's gear from the wreckage.

Friendly fire and collision detection are always in effect in Darkfall. Combined with a real-time combat system, Darkfall's combat is anticipated to provide a more realistic combat experience than other fantasy MMORPGs. The developers have opined that historically successful battle formations and tactics will be widely adopted and adapted for use in Darkfall. Likewise, area-effect spells and abilities affect enemies and allies equally, and so must be used with caution and discretion.

[edit] Alignment

Darkfall will feature a player character alignment system, which ranges from good to evil, based upon the actions of players.^[39] Characters will start the game with a good alignment. "Evil" actions, such as attacking other characters without provocation. The repercussions include being attacked by guard towers in NPC controlled cities, and other players may attack them freely.

From the Darkfall character FAQ: "Turning evil is easy, although it doesn't make for an easy life. Killing other characters unprovoked will get you there fast and this will make guard towers, clans and other players attack you on sight. Changing your alignment towards good is a challenging and difficult process."

[edit] Stealth

Stealth does not have a skill in the game but a player may use their surroundings to hide from other players.

[edit] The Darkfall world

The world of Agon

[edit] Geography

Darkfall claims to feature one of the largest online worlds of any MMORPG created to date. The Darkfall world is comprised of a large, central continent named Agon, on which all 6 racial capitals are found, surrounded by 4 smaller continents to the north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west. In addition, there are numerous small islands and archipelagos. It was estimated by one of the developers before release that it would take roughly 8 hours for a human to run from one end to the other. In reality, the time to cross the main continent is closer to 4 hours, stretching the time to cross the map on a diagonal up to around six. (For comparison, Blizzard's World of Warcraft continent of Eastern Kingdoms is 3 hours from north to south.)

The world includes a wide range of diverse terrain types, including forest, plain, desert, ice, jungle/tropical, swamp, and wasteland areas. Every part of the Darkfall world has been handmade by the developers and not computer generated. Darkfall developers have stated that any/all terrain can be accessed and traversed by characters possessing the appropriate skills, e.g. mountains may be climbed by those who possess the ability to walk; islands may be reached by swimming.

[edit] Monster spawns and AI

Darkfall has a small number of static spawns in the game world. This is similar to many other fantasy MMORPGS. The Monsters use advanced artificial intelligence; making it difficult for players to kill them. When a monster reaches a certain level of health, it runs around erratically for several minutes before stopping to allow the player to kill it. All but the lowest tier of monsters in Darkfall have disproportionate hit points and damage output when compared to players. This makes them a poor source of income. It is being re-balanced with the new expansion.

[edit] Dungeons

As is typical of any fantasy MMORPG, Darkfall will feature several dungeons, and underground areas. Both the Alfar and Dwarven racial capital cities are located predominately underground. It should be noted that the dungeons in the world of Agon are not traditionally "instanced" like in other games. An instance is a separate game universe that a group of people are taken to when usually entering a dungeon so they can fight through the dungeon alone. In Darkfall, the dungeons are available for everyone, and are not instanced. The most notable effect of this is that players are fighting with other groups of people that are in the same dungeon in the non-instance world.

[edit] Cities, city building, and clan warfare

A screenshot of a city siege

The goal of Darkfall is its support for large-scale territorial conflict between player clans (guilds). To this end, empire building through the conquering of pre-made cities is expected to be a major part of the game. To promote such conflict, the developers have stated that there is a finite number of pre-made cities (97 locations-44 Clanstones, 53 Hamlets) within the world. The potential pre-made city and hamlet sites are marked in-game by structures known as clanstones.

These pre-made city sites are spread across the entirety of the world, and vary greatly in location, surrounding terrain, access to nearby resource nodes, and consequently, their ability to be defended by the owning clan. The developers expect certain sites, such as underground cave sites hidden by a waterfall, or a precipitous mountain-side location with a precarious one-way approach to be more highly coveted than other sites, adding to the potential for territorial conflict.

Player clans have full diplomatic control over their relationship with other player clans, and can declare war on other clans unilaterally. Clans that are at war with each other may kill each other freely without alignment penalties. Player-owned cities can be freely attacked and then sieged. Sieges last for 4 hours. In the first two hours the defenders may launch an attack on the enemy's shard holder or city. If the defenders are victorious, the siege ends. The attackers may attempt to capture the defender's city after two hours have passed. They only have two hours to destroy the clanstone. To this end, Darkfall contains a variety of different siege weapons such as cannons and siege hammers, all of which are player-crafted. There is a limit on the rate of destruction of a captured city of 1 building per day, however any number of buildings may be disabled at any time by bringing their structural integrity to zero. ^[40]

[edit] Reception

Darkfall Online's first review was published in May 2009. Eurogamer game reviewer Ed Zitron awarded the game a rating of 2 out of 10. ^[41] However, this review has generated some controversy as it contained several basic gameplay description errors, and Darkfall lead developer Tasos Flambouras maintains that game server logs show that the Eurogamer reviewer played the game for under three hours, a claim denied by the writer.^[42]

Eurogamer's subsequent offer to compromise by commissioning a second opinion review^[43] (by noted games critic Kieron Gillen) was declined by Flambouras^[44]. However, according to Eurogamer's official Twitter account^[45], the site has purchased a normal commercial account and plans to continue with the re-review.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Darkfall site
• Compilation of all Darkfall developer information
• Interview of Tasos Flambouras at GameWorld