Darkfall Official Blog - September 30 Activity Report

Implementing the new siege system has been a very difficult task, but from the feedback we’re getting, it was well worth the effort. Player feedback has been very useful as far as us issuing quick fixes. Today’s patch hopefully addressed any remaining issues with the new siege system as well as some of Darkfall’s outstanding issues from a list the community compiled for us last week. Our feedback on the siege experience is very good, players seem to be having a lot of fun, and we’re committed to monitoring performance and your feedback to make all necessary adjustments to the system.

Today we’ll give you a report on team activity as well as on recently completed tasks.

Darkfall programmers have been working hard on the many tasks to be completed and there’s a lot of activity between coders and testers as features are tested, tweaked and added to the game. It’s not all about implementation; we’re also testing a lot of potential features like for example an improved third person camera added to the game. We are examining if players could benefit from a properly implemented tight third person camera which allows a better overview of their surroundings as well as watching their character in action. An improved camera coupled with other effects such as crosshair wobble could make combat much more immersive and fun. Momentum mechanics have also been reworked as you may have seen in the Bone scale armor video, a first implementation of the new mechanics. The current implementation looks much better and impacts gameplay in a more meaningful way. We’ll do a media peek on this feature after testing is concluded on this feature. More aesthetics programming tasks include ragdoll physics which will be added to animations. The initial implementation is complete and they are now in the tweaking phase.

We’re making changes in starting areas to protect new players during their first steps in the game. More and more powerful guard towers have been added. This will create a safer place for new players since the towers will react to any PvP even if it’s between players of enemy clans. As usual, red players won’t be welcome in starting areas. We’re not looking to create safe zones but we think that a tiny fraction of the game should have safer zones than what we offer now, and that new players should be able to enjoy some protection against disruptive behaviors while they learn the game basics. In contrast, the vast majority of Agon, outside starting areas, is now lawless.

Clan city and hamlet tower and bank options can be adjusted on a per holding basis and you don’t need to apply universal rules. This gives clans with multiple holdings greater freedom and more options. We are also upgrading the defensive options for player holdings. Player-controlled cannon towers are more powerful and also fully customizable, meaning that clan members can choose what type of cannon they want on each one of them. We’re also experimenting with guard towers of increased effectiveness with the limitation that this occurs only when and for as long as they’re being “fueled”. The idea is to provide more options to the defending clan, therefore promoting the use of siege machinery (e.g. war-hulks and cannons) by the attacking clan(s). To this end, the construction cost of siege machinery is reduced while the defensive structures (e.g. guard towers and cannon towers) are more fragile. Additionally, we are working on options which allow all clan members to operate a city gate, without compromising the city’s security, without the need of a higher ranking officer being present.

Obviously the new armor specialization system is one of the major focus areas in our activities. Every armor in the game has to be checked, rebalanced and tested in order to achieve balance between play-styles. The core work has been completed and the system is ready for testing. The same team working on the new armor system is also working on the new spell system that goes along with it in determining each character’s strengths, weaknesses, so ultimately their play style. In this process, spells have been removed; others will be available only to certain monsters, and opposing magic schools will be reintroduced to the game. With the large number of spells in the game, there’s a lot of balancing to be done in this area as well.

On the new map/journal/clan tool, we have reported all that we can in previous blog articles. The only thing to say here is that this new tool is now waiting for the new GUI to be implemented so it’s development can be concluded. Which brings us to the new user interface: This is the centerpiece of the relaunch version in terms of impact, as well as development time, connection to other features, and complexity. Our two lead programmers are focused on this task and as development progresses, more people from the team are getting involved so that we can complete implementation in a timely fashion. The GUI is the pivot for the relaunch, as nearly every other feature and system will be using it.

Time to move on to the Art team that also has its hands quite full. The main tasks that our artists are keeping themselves busy with are modeling new and existing monsters, animating new ones and working on customization options for the player characters. Currently the new Infernal and Celestial monsters are being animated, finishing touches are being applied to the new Khamset monster family models and new haircuts are being worked on for all races. The haircuts for Humans, Alfar, Mirdain and Orks are done and the artists are now working on Dwarves and Mahirims. Also, new props are being created for a new Red Pharaoh themed dungeon that is in the works. There is also concept art that has been created for various aspects of art, monsters, weapons for the new crafting system, dungeons, props and new coat of arms images for all the NPC factions of Agon.

World builders are working on re-designing the Orc NPC cities, as they recently completed work on the Human cities. All clan holdings have now been re-designed and await testing. Dungeon remakes and additions are underway and the all new Red Pharaoh themed dungeon, located in Rubaiyat, is currently being worked on. This is a completely new dungeon and, while the big guy himself will not make an appearance yet, it will be inhabited by the Red Pharaoh’s most powerful servants. One thing to note here is that up to now dungeons where created by stitching various props like corridors, floor pieces, walls and the like together. The new system we’re using now allows for dungeons to be created from a seamless mesh much like terrain is created for the rest of the world. This allows our world builders to create much more intricate and appealing dungeons while keeping polygon counts to a manageable number.

Lore and quest wise, the team is working hard on re-writing all of the text and descriptions for old as well as new quests, dungeons and areas. The central task here is working the re-launch into Darkfall’s existing lore and providing a role playing aspect to all of the changes that are coming. Some specific player actions are also being integrated in to the lore of Darkfall 2.0. This team is also working on re-naming some monster families as well as items, equipment and NPC factions to provide a smoother overall consistency.

We hope that this gives you an idea on all that we’re working on at the moment. There’s also more that we’ll speak about in next activity reports. As always your feedback on what we say here is very welcome and it is sorted and presented in our development meetings.

Thank you for reading.

Darkfall Official Blog - Quick Update September 23

We spent this past week monitoring the servers for issues related to the new siege system added to the game and making sure everything was functioning as intended. Your feedback, as always, was very useful in identifying problems which we fixed during hot fixes this week and the week before. We are continuing to address issues as they come up and we’ll continue monitoring the new system’s performance, as well as your feedback through the direct use of the new siege system.

We identify with a request on the community forums asking for smaller, more frequent patches from now on. While we used to do frequent large patches in the past, we have recently focused on major development of Darkfall’s relaunch and the implementation of the new siege system. Having finished with the latter, we do intend to return to smaller and more frequent patches to the game. The thread I mentioned earlier is by user Ka0ru and in it he’s compiled a specific list of fixes, and I quote:

“1 – The dungeon portals, (Fixed on the siege patch, but could have come before it)
2 – The tower scream, (Was promised to the siege patch, but didn’t come)
3 – House taxes, make that only owner and guests are allowed to pay it.
4 -House safe, make that if the owner authorize guests or specific guest can access it.
5 – House slots, make guest rooms for house and villa that allows +1 for house and +2 for villa.
6 – Increase the village reward + items/resources if you feels like
7 – Increase the trade route reward
8 – Sea fortress timers
9 – Emotes cutting sounds and animations.
10 – Submarine bluetails, bluetails running on the bottom of the ocean
11 – Hear to other ppl swinging their weapon.
12 – Bag bug when porting – (I don’t think this one is as simple as the others).
13 – Spell lock bug when switching staves and keying a spell too fast
14 – Players being able to release spells under the water.”

We intend to address most of these issues in upcoming patches in the next few weeks. Some are relatively straightforward, others are not so simple but we’re always looking into all the issues reported by our players. There are more fixes to other issues that we’re also investigating but we prefer looking into your priority issues, so keep providing us with feedback on those.

Development on Darkfall’s relaunch is moving at a steady pace. Recently, momentum mechanics have been reworked and there have also been some changes to the camera. We’ll show these changes in a media sneak peak as soon as they’re finished.
Due to transportation strikes in Greece this week, making it difficult for some of our developers to get to work, our sprint presentation meeting has been postponed for next week and with it, so has our activity report.

Thank you for reading

Darkfall Official Blog - New Siege System: Dev Notes and Manual

Here are the development notes for the new siege system :

► New Siege system. For more specific information on this read the related article as well as the Siege System Manual that has been compiled by Jon, the main developer of the new system. You can get the Manual in PDF format here.

► Resource changes:

• Clan-stone hamlet, health decreased.

• Clan-stone city, health increased.

• Small siege-stone, health decreased.

• Small siege-stone, maximum binds increased.

• Large siege-stone, health decreased.

• Medium siege-stone now “useless”, can be sold back to NPC Vendors for full-refund.

• New item – protection shard small, gives 3 hours protection from siege initiation.

• New item – protection shard large, gives 6 hours protection from siege initiation.

• Both protection shard items can be purchased from Councillor NPC in racial capitals

• Protection shards must be activated near the clan-stone of the holding to be protected, by a high-ranking clan member of the clan who owns the holding, and only that holding will be protected

• Protection shard items share a clan-wide 24-hour cool-down (ie. only 1 can be used, per clan, per 24 hours)

• Clan-city barrels prop, health decreased.

► Activation timers added to dungeon portals. To activate a dungeon portal you will need to stand still for 10 seconds after using it.

Darkfall Official Blog - Siege system update / Media Sneak Peek

This week in development we’re finishing up work on the new siege system and we’re continuing our work on Darkfall’s relaunch features. Our next scrum meeting will happen after the new system is in place, and this should yield more specifics. Business meetings have been focused on Asian and other localized versions of Darkfall, on Darkfall relaunch distribution, partnerships and timing specifics.

On the new siege system, things are looking good for deployment next week. Some bugs that where discovered during testing this week were addressed and no other issues have come up. The new siege system apart from the things we detailed in a previous blog article will also feature protection shards, an item that has been requested quite a few times by the community. Protection shards will come in 2 variations, large and small, and they will protect your holding against siege for 6 and 3 hours respectively.

There is another item related to sieges that has been inserted into the system but will not be active in the upcoming siege patch. Extension shards will enable the defending clan to push back or forward the actual time that siege goes live. There is an internal debate at the moment on whether to activate this feature, and if so, what sort of limitations should be imposed.

At the moment the shards can extend the time that the siege goes live by 3 or 6 hours. There are thoughts of adding 2 more extension shards that will make the siege go live 3 or 6 hours earlier than the original time. Some things to consider are:

• -how long after the initial siege declaration a defending clan can use an extension shard,
• -if there should be different time restrictions for shards that push the siege time back and ones that bring it forward, and
• -if the 3 or 6 hours are too short or too long.

Keep in mind the extension shard implementation to the game will come with a small patch after the siege patch provided the community response is favorable.

We await your feedback on this feature.

For today’s media peek, our art team shared a concept of the redesigned Khamset monster family. Our artists are in the process of modeling now and we will show you the finished product as soon as it’s completed.

Our lore team provided the following:

As the Red Pharaoh exerts his tenuous influence from beyond the veil that separates life and death, the lands that were once his dominion begin to shift and distort. As Ur-Khamset grows in power in his bid to return to the lands of Agon, he reaches out to prepare his minions! The dry, dusty bones of those he cursed with undeath so long ago, twist with growing flesh, warping them into their master’s image and needs.

Thank you for reading

Darkfall Official Blog - Update, September 2

We noticed that there was some anticipation building up to the end of last month having to do with an ETA for Darkfall’s relaunch. We had previously mentioned that we would know more around this time. We’re in a better position to estimate but we haven’t concluded our discussions with our partners yet. Also, there are positive developments after the GDC which need a lot of consideration. Our goal is to have a smooth launch without problems for our players. Having learned from Darkfall’s first launch, we know there are numerous factors to consider. We’ll keep you updated on all our developments.

As far as the wipe or no wipe debate within the community, we are looking at ways to satisfy both sides. We respect our playerbase and our long-time active players and our relaunch is not meant to destroy the current game, but extend it. In the meanwhile, if it’s any indication, we’ve been investing heavily in the current game with the siege expansion.

Regarding the Siege expansion, we’re still working on it. As we’ve explained previously this is a system we’re bringing back from the new version of the game and it’s a complete rewrite. We “trashed” the old system and did something new. We created a system to create siege systems that is completely configurable. This has been a lot of work. We had to develop it, test, configure the system, test everything, reconfigure, test, merge it with the current game which has been very difficult, test again etc. It’s a huge undertaking and we wouldn’t be doing this if we didn’t care about the state of the current game. At the moment it’s undergoing heavy final testing which, if all goes as planned, should be concluded early next week. We understand this is taking a long time but it also brings a lot to the game.

We have a video for you today. It’s important to understand that some things you see in these videos are from the new version, others are placeholders from the current functionality. Consider this something like an alpha version:

In this video you can see part of the new Niflheim dungeon. The dungeon will be inhabited by yetis among other things. You can also see one of the dynamic dungeon elements that we will be adding. These elements will make dungeon crawling a lot more interesting but also more dangerous. You can also catch a glimpse of the new blood spatter system that has been implemented.

The following bit is from our Lore team:

The locals refer to these icy depths as Frostbyte Lair. Among it’s numerous denizens hungering for the warmth of flesh one can find the ravenous yeti. While many roam above the caverns in the light of day, their main population has been driven below ground by their battles with the Vargashi. These lords of ice build cunning traps within their dungeon home to best prepare hapless adventurers into a hearty meal. Pictured below is Tenderizer Pass, a deadly bridge used to soften up their potential prey before meal-time!

We’ll keep you updated on any developments. After the siege expansion is out, we’ll be running down our development priorities and we’ll give you an activity report about that.

Thanks for reading

Darkfall Official Blog - Crafting System Update

Before we go into the crafting update, please allow me to give you a small update on the Siege expansion. What we’re working on now is merging it with the current version of the game. As we’ve explained in the past, the siege system was originally meant to go into the Darkfall relaunch version. Since we decided to make the relaunch a much bigger project, we decided to bring a few of its features to the current version. Merging it with this version of the game has proven to be a large task, so we estimate about another week’s worth of work for it to come out. When we’re done with that, we’ll go into more detail about more relaunch features and the production schedule. Today, we have some information on the new crafting system coming straight from our design team:

As we explained on our “Darkfall 2.0: A closer look” article, we will be giving you more details on each feature on that list, as they become available. Today we offer insight into the philosophy behind the new crafting system as well as some details on how weapon crafting will work.

The general philosophy behind the upgraded crafting system involves an increased importance of rare ore, more unique looking items, many more customization options and more opportunities to excel as a crafter. Also, mastery skills will be added to more crafting skills.

In the current system, crafters are able to choose a specific amount of designs for their weapons and these designs are different per rank. If, for example, you like the design of a rank 1 weapon but you want to use a rank 5 because it has better stats, you are obligated to use the rank 5 design.
In our updated system, crafters will have the initial choice of six distinctive base designs per weapon type and these will only alter in style to reflect its higher rank and materials used. Below you can see a concept example of the 6 initial designs in Image 1. New designs will be added as we go so new aesthetic choices will constantly become available.

When it comes to crafting weapons, the rare ores will see their importance increased and their use will become more consistent. First of all, weapon rank and ore rarity will be tied together. Low rank weapons may just require iron ingots to craft but as you move on to the higher ranks, Selentine, Veilron, Neithal, Leenspar and Theril ingots will be needed in that order. Image 2 shows a concept example of the association of ore and weapon rank.

That’s not all for rare ores though. In the new crafting system materials such as wood, leather and cloth, will be able to be infused with rare ores to create higher quality variations. Following suit, a rank 90 bow will require wood infused with Theril ingots. Conversely, rare wood types will be removed.

A lot more has changed as far as crafting is concerned especially in enchanting and potion making. We’ll explain all about those changes in a future article.

Darkfall Official Blog - Media Sneak Peek 6

In today’s media sneak peek we present the new Bone armor, renamed to Bonescale as well as a new golem based on the old obsidian golem that goes by the name of Necroguardian.

The new bone armor will be the high end medium armor and to craft it you will need some special components. The Necroguardian will inhabit undead themed areas.

[Not a PvP Vid] Knif is so bad i cant belive it

..tornati in città 2min dopo avevano già tutti sloggato.. o_O'

Darkfall Official Blog - Darkfall 2.0: A closer look

We’ve talked about Darkfall 2.0 and Darkfall 2.0 features on several occasions. We’ve explained that this is a new game created on top of the current game rather simply an expansion. We do not want to get too specific for several reasons including that we don’t want to give everything away, also doing so might lead people to draw the wrong kind of conclusions or get caught up in irrelevant speculations and debates. On the other hand there are things we need to present to you in order to get feedback and to inform you of the changes to come.
Today, we’ll talk a bit about some of the changes that are already implemented. This is far from everything that’s going in to Darkfall 2.0, or what is changing. These are some of the points we’ll be giving more details on and discussing with you in the weeks to come. Thanks to Adam, Elias, and George P. for the information and Vagelis for putting it together.

• Character skill set customization and role selection through the implementation of Darkfall’s new armor system and through attribute boost via achievements: What armor you wear  greatly affects which skills you can use effectively and it makes others ineffective. You’re highly specialized in one role making your character extremely efficient and effective in that role. The major attribute boost works exponentially to give your character access to special items and weapons setting him further apart from the hybrids. New skills are going to be added, and redundant ones will be removed from the game.
• Skill and attribute gains have changed considerably. If a new player focuses on a single role, he will excel at that role in a relatively short time frame through casual play. More options and more roles will become available to him. Players can use one specialization at a time however.
• Crafting System Overhaul: More customization options, visual cues as to what players are wielding as equipment rank is visually distinguishable. Increased importance of rare ores through infusion of other materials and closer correlation of ore rank and equipment rank. Gems are also a lot more important since they’ll be used in enchanting.
• There’s a great increase in player housing spots and a more meaningful connection between villages and player holdings.
• The world map has been completely changed. This isn’t simply about moving locations around, it’s about changing the geography of the world. Monster spawns have been redistributed so they are more relevant, and all NPC and player holdings have been completely redesigned.
• Combat dynamics are much more tactical now. Changes affect several skills like blocking and disabling blow, and introduce new mechanics such as momentum and crosshair wobble.
• Complete redesign of the magic schools and their physics with clearly defined roles to spells, opposing magic schools, ability to assume different roles in combination with the attribute boost system (damage dealer, healer etc.). The magic system is built to promote cooperation among players.
• Complete redesign of most dungeons. New dynamic elements such as traps, moving objects and one-way doors have been implemented.
• Changes to the grid of teleportation chambers. No chambers exist in player holdings anymore and they are strategically placed to enhance PvP tactics.
• More changes to the Alignment system: Lawful areas are limited to the immediate vicinity of racial capitals and surrounding NPC faction cities. There’s an increase in the lawful area protection with increased tower coverage.
• The incapacitation system (gank/decapitation/revive rules) is revised in order to improve player PvP and PvE experience.
• There have been adjustments to physics to achieve more realistic results.
• All item properties, numeric values, calculation formulas and the like are completely redone.
• We’ve introduced a new Graphical User Interface which includes both new visual elements and new functionality. It offers a streamlined experience to the players alleviating all shortcomings of the previous one.
• A new map tool with a lot of information added including vendor locations and items for sale.
• Serious improvements to the new player experience, including training quests on all basic aspects of the game.
• More changes to the new siege system we’ve already described.
• Redesigned monsters, monster families, monster abilities, and all loot tables redone from scratch.
• A new lighting system and new visual effects.
• New environmental audio system and many additions and replacements to existing sounds. New area based music.
• Changes in models, textures, animations and most visual aspects of the game.

These are just brief mentions on exciting and sweeping changes compared to the existing game. These changes, along with the ones we’re not talking about yet, are the products of years of experience with Darkfall, lessons learned, and thousands of pieces of feedback from the community. In the coming weeks we’ll present each of these points in depth, with specific information on the mechanics of each point.
As for our current activity, we’re fighting some bugs in the new siege system which are pushing our ETA back again. We’ll keep you posted on our progress with that.
Thank you for reading.

Darkfall Official Blog - Media Sneak Peek 5

As we’ve mentioned before, everything is being redone in the new Darkfall world. Today we’ll give you a sneak peak into Sandbrook redesigned. It doesn’t remind much of old Sandbrook, other than the surrounding scenery. The city has been completely optimized and everything is conveniently located where players can find it easily. Furthermore, we should mention that it’s no longer a starting area but a faction city. A mysterious looking prop you can see close to the bindstone has to do with some of the new training quests that will be introduced to the game with the relaunch.

Key people are missing this week, so our planning meeting will happen next week and that’s when we can give you an activity report and possibly another Q&A segment that we’re working on

Darkfall Official Blog - Quick Update

There’s not much to report today. Most of the work being done right now is on the testing and the balancing of the siege system. We hope to run final tests next week before we can deploy it. We’ve also been looking through your feedback on the points we made in the siege system presentation. Thank you for that. We also understand that we’re running a bit behind our target date again but we need to make sure everything is working properly.
We also took a couple of screenshots of the intricate leather armor for you today. Some of you asked for them after we posted a short video of the armor yesterday. You should be able to see it more clearly now. We hope to have more information for you on our overall progress next week

Darkfall Official Blog - Media Sneak Peek 4

In today’s sneak peek we present to you one of the completely new armor sets that will make their appearance with the relaunch. The intricate leather armor will be better than the leather armors that are in game right now.