Darkfall: Unholy Wars

[Xaine]

For people who haven't heard.

Darkfall launched a few years ago.

Its a full loot, open world, clan warfare game with sandbox elements.

The combat system is very interesting. Its like an FPS. You have to manually aim your spells and your sword attacks. There is no targeting in the game.

No levels in the game, no quests. You start the game and do whatever you like.

It was set as the spiritual successor to UO, but sadly fell short. The game was broken at launch, the grind was huge.

Despite that, it was the best game i've ever played in terms of enjoying it.

The full loot element, means that winning or losing a fight in PVP means something. The clan politics are amazing. You can build up a city, another clan can take it from you. Drama ensures. Rivalries, Alliances, back stabbing etc.

The new game, Darkfall: Unholy Wars launches in 3 days. Its the relaunch of the game, but with better features, fixed problems and a lot less grind.

It should be epic.

If anyone has ever REALLY wanted to get into Eve because of the clan politics. Darkfall is a lot easier to get into so you can have these clan vs clan battles that really mean something, but its also a lot less deep.

[Baneblade]

I've been keeping tabs on it. Kind of wish it was F2P, but also kind of glad it isn't.

[Xaine]

If you can handle the fact its full loot, and that it really isn't fair. You can farm for an hour, get 1v5ed at the mob spawn and lose all your gear, the loot from the mobs and everything on you.

If you can deal with that, its the most fun i have ever had in an MMO. Hands down.

Nothing gets your heart pumping, your adrenaline going like fighting and knowing if you lose, you actually lose something. You don't just respawn.

Death means something.

[Baneblade]

I've been registered on the DFO forum for nine years

I was there when everyone believed it was vaporware. I played the beta, but couldn't really get into the game as it was. Too many exploiters and such.

[Xaine]

Yeah, there was quite alot of that going on at the last launch.

Hopefully they've got their shit together now.

[ChipMHazard]

Aye, hopefully people won't be able to boost their stats by using macros, bots and exploiting terrain. If I remember correctly players were increasing their health by exploiting lava. Can't say I'm surprised that they have gone with a class system.
I played the original when it launch, and was part of the forum during the beta. I was part of the Duchy of Wessex.

Hopefully they've learned from their past mistakes. I might actually give this a try.

[Crator]

Have not heard of this but just watch a bunch of the videos and then noticed you mentioned they are relaunching, well, supposed to be today. Looks like they are doing a closed beta now though. I really might have to buy, looks like a really fun game to play.

[Assist]

Played Darkfall quite a bit when it originally released. I agree with the OP, most fun I've ever had in an MMO. It had quite a few issues on release, but it's one of the very few games out there that really makes you earn what you want. The clan warfare is above and beyond other games with the closest competitor to it being EVE. The politics are a lot more volatile than EVE, the combat is way more skill based, and it's the epic high fantasy setting that personally I enjoy.
All that said, Darkfall Unholy Wars really is a completely different game. The combat has changed from strict first/third person view based on weapons to giving the option to the player of first/third person. The UI, graphics, audio, spells, world, crafting, trading, safe zones, and pretty much every aspect of the game has been thoroughly reworked. The first game was open skill system and UW has classes built in with almost moba-style skills on each class. You can still level every class and every skill, but you can only have certain classes equipped at a time and it's a long channeled cast to change classes.

If you enjoy the theory of the Planetside world(Conqueror your foes, Dominate the world), and enjoy extremely competitive FPS-style PvP, than I strongly suggest checking the game out. The base/castle design is what a lot of people on these forums are semi-asking for. They don't change hands often, but when they do it's extremely epic fights and people are quite literally fighting for everything they've gained throughout the game. The cities are built from the ground up through crafting and trading, they're destroyed through wars which on DF1 release were always the result of feuds and politics.
I'm decent at PS2, decent at most FPS games. I was horrendous at Darkfall. The players in that game are the true definition of hardcore gamer, almost on par with those crazy people who play until their bodies shutdown.

To describe me as a fanboy of Darkfall would be accurate as well. I've been following the game since shortly after it's announcement and an active member of their forums since '03. There's a few lurkers in this community that also play DF or have lurked the forumfall boards as well.

As an FYI - the game went on pre-order today. If you pre-order you're given beta access which in theory starts Monday (12/17). Pre-order for DF1.0 owners is $15(1 month sub) and for new players $30. I will tell you however that the company running Darkfall(AV) is horrible compared to SoE. They make the game they want, and they have serious tunnel vision. Don't believe any dates they set, don't expect the kind of communication that you get from SoE and other AAA games. They're an indie company and they're from Greece. I love their game, I love what they do with it, but they are easily the most frustrating gaming company out there.

[Crator]

They got new pics and vids up on the site now since yesterday. Entire site looks to be redone too. The graphics upgrade looks really nice. New GUI and they added classes too but looks like you can quick switch classes at will.

Also mentioned in one of the vids was better territory control system and granular clan permissions capabilities.

[Wahooo]

Anyone in this thread playing the extended Beta? I'm highly disappointed with almost everything and I only played the original for a little while, and that was after the DF2 announcement killed the population.

[Boomzor]

Wow. I had repressed this game back into the dark recesses of my mind... the botting...

Also, it was the acid lakes people exploited to build general damage resistance.

I did love the PvP aspect and politics of it, but there were so many things wrong with it, chafing you little by little every time you played, I just had to put it away.

[Baneblade]

The worst part is they keep changing it for the worse, its like they have no idea what people find enjoyable in a sandboxish game.

[Assist]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

The worst part is they keep changing it for the worse, its like they have no idea what people find enjoyable in a sandboxish game.

Yeah, I stopped playing the beta. Will always lurk their OT boards. <-- Xarnthal there

[Wahooo]

Originally Posted by Baneblade

The worst part is they keep changing it for the worse, its like they have no idea what people find enjoyable in a sandboxish game.

What I don't understand is that the changes that needed to take place to the original were so small, and yet they didn't make those changes correctly. Then everything else they made small tweaks in the wrong direction.

Some of the macro stuff and movement exploits could have been removed, OR made part of the game. One of the only things done right between the original Tribes and Tribes2 was that the Devs took note of the most common player made scripts and integrated them into the next game... not all were done right but... meh the concept was correct.

The class thing makes sense, but there were suggestions on how to change the original way of making an all in one super-hero class in the original, and that is basically making a skill cap, so if you are a jack of all trades you are pretty weak. If you want to be strong you have to progress along one of the trees. The way they dumbed down the whole skills and progression DRASTICALLY changes something fun in the game.

The safe zones? Really? oh... the full loot hardcore game... with really huge safe zones. ugh. Then the whole combat thing with hitscan swings that are totally disconnected from the animation.

The whole inventory system was great... they really made that ugly and cumbersome. This is one of those spots they should have integrated the "exploit" scripts everyone was using. It made sense and took what was frankly a chore and helped you get into the fun part of the game.

Not to mention just how poorly the game runs on all systems.

So disappointed. I know I've complained at release of PS2 that I wanted to go back to PS1... but at least I COULD do that if I wanted to. Now that i've spent money to get into this crapfest they are calling a Beta for this game... oh how I wish I could play 2 months of original DF instead.

[ChipMHazard]

Sad to see that the game is going in the wrong direction. I was looking forward to trying it out when it's released.

Boomzor: Aye, acid. Heh I also remember finding players who had "warped" into trees just so they could bot boost their stats without getting killed.