Author Topic: Darkfall - my stuffty experience (Read 1993 times)

yuki · February 19, 2011, 01:41:44 AM

Darkfall is a rare MMO, in that it actually has some form of gameplay. Which is awesome, because I like playing games not mashing keys.

So me and my friend decided to play the free trial today, and spent mostly all day playing it. Our experience was as follows
1st hour: Got used to the game, excited to play, did some quests.

2-3rd hours: Realized newbie protection is applied to the account when it's created, not to the player.
The first MAJOR issue with the game, considering it took more than 8 hours to get both of our games installed. By the time we had actually started, we only had 30 minutes of newbie protection (which was exhausted at this point).

4-5th hours: Had some fun doing quests.

6th hour: We were richarding around and my friend hit another player. The security for the area lightning bolted him, KO'ing him. Before I could revive him, the starfish finished him off and they looted his stuff, then proceeded to be richards ("hey i like ur hat lol" [whilst wearing it]). I tried taking the stuff back but I was soon killed and my stuff looted. We almost ragequit right then, but a guy came up and gave us free stuff, saying that usually players weren't such starfishs. About 5 minutes later we were killed by the equivalent of flying mosquito things, and we ragequit.
SECOND major issue: Idiot/inconsiderate players.

7th hour: We returned as elves this time, and were killed immediately by goblins.
Balancing issues.

8th hour: Humans again, new city. Were killed by Goblin shamans.
Again, balancing issues. Took us around 5 tries to finally kill the damn thing, and I died anyway, and another one spawned up the hill.

9th hour: While mining, another player came up and killed my friend, looted him. I barely escaped.
THIRD problem: Players can run around and massacre low-level or inexperienced players without any sort of repercussion or penalty, and we can't fight back. We lose all of our items so the game is essentially over, seeing as almost all of our armor and tools and weapons were given by quest, and to get them back we need gold, but to get gold we need to do quests, and any quests we actually CAN do we cannot accomplish because we don't have armor or weapons. The game is essentially over at this point, it's almost unplayable. This relates to the first issue. There isn't any newbie "world", for beginner players, or a newbie zone or anything. We were constantly prey to everyone.

10th hour: While fighting goblins my friend lost connection, but his player character was still in-world. I tried defending him, but was killed trying to pick his stuff up because my player decided to not react to any of the inputs I was giving him (WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW WWWWWWWWWW) I alt-F4'd and we uninstalled the game.

Darkfall is a game with great gameplay, but is absolutely plagued by huge loving issues. I mean, gigantic holes in game design that are glaringly obvious, but considering this game isn't that new, I don't think will ever get fixed. You could argue "it's a competitive game!", but that doesn't make up for the fact that new players are totally underpowered and get entirely forgeted over by any and all other players, including players of your own race/alliance.

I'm extremely disappointed, because I loved the gameplay, but the game is just made unplayable to beginners or passive players by these glaring holes in game design.

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shafin25 · February 19, 2011, 01:43:13 AM

Dear god.

skelolego229 · February 19, 2011, 01:47:53 AM

i think visage was trying to tell me how “great” this game was

Lugnut · February 19, 2011, 01:51:03 AM

rkynick · February 19, 2011, 01:52:48 AM

Quote from: skelolego229 on February 19, 2011, 01:47:53 AM

i think visage was trying to tell me how �great� this game was

Visage isn't known for having good, quality opinions.

And by "isn't known" I mean I don't think he has good quality opinions the rest of you might be idiots and think he does but I don't really care.

yuki · February 19, 2011, 01:55:49 AM

Quote from: skelolego229 on February 19, 2011, 01:47:53 AM

i think visage was trying to tell me how �great� this game was

The great gameplay does not at all make up for the sheer amount of bullstuff. I can typically justify it and power my way through, but the game was basically made unplayable by these idiotic errors of design.

Prince N · February 19, 2011, 02:13:11 AM

Age of Time v2

Visage · February 19, 2011, 02:56:42 AM

Quote from: skelolego229 on February 19, 2011, 01:47:53 AM

i think visage was trying to tell me how “great” this game was

Don't even know who you are, and I actually just started the Darkfall trial today too which is why this was odd to come by.

Quote from: rkynick on February 19, 2011, 01:52:48 AM

Visage isn't known for having good, quality opinions.

And by "isn't known" I mean I don't think he has good quality opinions the rest of you might be idiots and think he does but I don't really care.

"Visage said a game might be good a few months ago and I cried, you're all idiots!"

Funny thing though is I was just playing Darkfall all day, I find it a lot of fun. I was killing stuff all day without any problem, and every player that ran by me didn't even bother me. My greatclub skill is already 40 and archery is 35. I also joined a pirate clan and tomorrow we are taking out one of our boats to take over some villages.

Also if you want a 2nd try I will give you armor and weapons and teach you how to play. And the newbie protection is 1 hour and it only counts in-game play time, you didn't waste hours of it DLing. Also shamans aren't meant to be killed as your first, there is a goblin spawn in every newb area that is only scouts that die fast, even so I killed a shaman and a fighter at the same time as my very first fight.

yuki · February 19, 2011, 12:09:19 PM

Quote from: Visage on February 19, 2011, 02:56:42 AM

and every player that ran by me didn't even bother me.
-Almost every player we encountered killed us. There were around 8 players I didn't mention in the OP that killed us at random. Oh and they were all on our race/alliance.
Also if you want a 2nd try I will give you armor and weapons and teach you how to play.
-I know how to play.
And the newbie protection is 1 hour and it only counts in-game play time, you didn't waste hours of it DLing.
-Then that's still a problem. That's simply not long enough of a period. Even after 10 hours of playtime we were still newbies, having to restart 4 times didn't help anything.
Also shamans aren't meant to be killed as your first, there is a goblin spawn in every newb area that is only scouts that die fast, even so I killed a shaman and a fighter at the same time as my very first fight.
-That was the closest goblin spawn, and I'm sure you did.

I already uninstalled it, and I don't plan on coming back. There are simply too many problems with the game for it to be fun at this point, which is extremely disappointing.

Visage · February 19, 2011, 12:17:38 PM

Quote from: yuki on February 19, 2011, 12:09:19 PM

I already uninstalled it, and I don't plan on coming back. There are simply too many problems with the game for it to be fun at this point, which is extremely disappointing.

All the problems you mentioned are problems I have not seen, also you seemed to just run in and get murdered by goblins so obviously you didn't know how to play. Also lol'd at you not believing I killed a shaman and a fighter my first fight, it was actually insanely easy. It seems you wanted a game that takes skill like you said in your first post, but then you just tried button mashing without using any common sense and then ragequit after you Self Deleted a ton of times. I am on day 2 and actually have not died once don't even know what happens when you die.

yuki · February 19, 2011, 12:50:01 PM

Quote from: Visage on February 19, 2011, 12:17:38 PM

It seems you wanted a game that takes skill like you said in your first post, but then you just tried button mashing without using any common sense and then ragequit after you Self Deleted a ton of times.

Uh, no. I meant that I wanted a game where you play the game, not press buttons (cough Wow cough). I don't partake in that stupid "skill" argument. A game should be easy to play for all skill levels, but providing more benefits for players who become more skilled. The rest of your post is "lol i never got kild ok lol so u jus suk". You're making it seem like I don't know how to play a combat game and am trying to fight like 6 things at once. I couldn't even fight fighter goblins when I first started, it took both of us to kill it before it killed us.

Keep in mind that we were two players working cooperatively and we still got maimed at every turn, mainly by loving friend players that didn't even tell us why they killed us, other than to be gigantic richardheads. Maybe you're just lucky, but my game experience was loving horrible.

Again, you could argue that it's a competitive game, but that's loving stupid. That alienates a wide variety of players, and is a stupid excuse for not actively balancing the game. It's the reason WoW has a PvP world and a normal world, separate. I mean, the main problem is higher skilled players could come around and kill us without any sort of penalty and we were powerless to stop them. It's not like they wanted our worthless stuff, they just wanted to be loving starfishs.

Visage · February 19, 2011, 12:54:13 PM

Quote from: yuki on February 19, 2011, 12:50:01 PM

Uh, no. I meant that I wanted a game where you play the game, not press buttons (cough Wow cough). I don't partake in that stupid "skill" argument. A game should be easy to play for all skill levels, but providing more benefits for players who become more skilled. The rest of your post is "lol i never got kild ok lol so u jus suk". You're making it seem like I don't know how to play a combat game and am trying to fight like 6 things at once. I couldn't even fight fighter goblins when I first started, it took both of us to kill it before it killed us.

Keep in mind that we were two players working cooperatively and we still got maimed at every turn, mainly by loving friend players that didn't even tell us why they killed us, other than to be gigantic richardheads. Maybe you're just lucky, but my game experience was loving horrible.

Well you can hurt teammates if you hit them, even group members, so I am guessing you 2 were beating on each other while fighting goblins. And I pretty much am saying you just sucked, as I farmed goblins for hours at the start without needing much rest, so if I could do it without a problem and you got massacred, what would you attribute that to? I'm not really arguing the game doesn't have problems, but all the problems you mentioned were your own fault and not a problem with the game. I mean your friend hit someone for no reason and got killed and he took his stuff, is that really a problem with the game, or is your friend just an idiot? And if someone tried to kill me in the middle of town and got owned, I would take his stuff too, he deserved it.

I still don't know if I will even keep playing, but I hate reviews where a bad player gives a decent game a bad rep. I have to see how the pirating goes, you can kill Krakens and stuff in the ocean and they have some huge ass boats you can make, one is called a manowar and has 50 mannable cannons on it. So if the pirating aspect is fun I will definitely keep playing.

yuki · February 19, 2011, 01:02:21 PM

Quote from: Visage on February 19, 2011, 12:54:13 PM

Well you can hurt teammates if you hit them, even group members, so I am guessing you 2 were beating on each other while fighting goblins.
-No, we knew we could hurt each other, so we used vertical slices and kept our distance while dealing damage.
And I pretty much am saying you just sucked, as I farmed goblins for hours at the start without needing much rest, so if I could do it without a problem and you got massacred, what would you attribute that to?
-Maybe it's because I didn't farm like a mindless machine, I wanted to adventure and have fun.
I'm not really arguing the game doesn't have problems, but all the problems you mentioned were your own fault and not a problem with the game.
-You mean the lack of newbie protection, the lack of a penalty system for raiding newbies over and over, and the fact that once raided, newbies can't fight back because they have no items, and at parts of the quest line we were effectively neutralized and had to start over because we couldn't actually do anything (due to the cycle outlined in the OP)? Sounds like problems with the player to me :derp:

I mean your friend hit someone for no reason and got killed and he took his stuff, is that really a problem with the game, or is your friend just an idiot?
-That was part of my criticism of the playerbase, not the game mechanics.
And if someone tried to kill me in the middle of town and got owned, I would take his stuff too, he deserved it.

Then you're an starfish. Me and my friend were in our own little group, messing around outside of town, and he accidentally hit another player. We apologized, but the guy proceeded to act like a rooster. If someone did that to me, I'd have revived him and went on with my day, but the guy went out of his way to finish him off and steal his stuff, and then gloat. If you're one of those players, then go forget yourself. You deserve to be stung by bees.

You can't use "skill" as an argument. Games should always be playable by people of any skill level. If you really need to know why, then you're brain dead.

Visage · February 19, 2011, 01:08:57 PM

Quote from: yuki on February 19, 2011, 01:02:21 PM

Then you're an starfish. Me and my friend were in our own little group, messing around outside of town, and he accidentally hit another player. We apologized, but the guy proceeded to act like a rooster. If someone did that to me, I'd have revived him and went on with my day, but the guy went out of his way to finish him off and steal his stuff, and then gloat. If you're one of those players, then go forget yourself. You deserve to be stung by bees.

You can't use "skill" as an argument. Games should always be playable by people of any skill level. If you really need to know why, then you're brain dead.

This game was made by an indie company targetting a specific player-base of hardcore players. It was not made like WoW in that even a handicapped 6 year old can play it, it requires a bit of skill even when fighting goblins. I don't believe every game should be playable by every skill level, as then people with skill end up bored with nothing to do. For example goblin shamans were very easy for me to kill, if the game was made so even you could kill them easily, then they would be too easy to me, and I would not have any fun.

Also I kind of like how anyone can kill anyone, but they make it so you can avoid it. For example sounds travel very very far in Darkfall, you can even hear a miner from like 100 feet away if you are paying attention, you can hear a mount from very far away, you can even hear a bow being knocked. So if I hear a mount and it is getting louder, I will seek cover and stop fighting, as they can hear me fighting.

yuki · February 19, 2011, 01:20:29 PM

Quote from: Visage on February 19, 2011, 01:08:57 PM

This game was made by an indie company targetting a specific player-base of hardcore players.
-No wonder their userbase is so low.

I don't believe every game should be playable by every skill level
-I can't believe I have to explain this to you.
, as then people with skill end up bored with nothing to do.
-handicapped argument, means nothing.
For example goblin shamans were very easy for me to kill, if the game was made so even you could kill them easily, then they would be too easy to me, and I would not have any fun.
-That's a dumb example and a dumb supporting argument.

The reason you want your game available to players of all levels of experience and skill, is that you can attract more financial gain and more possible subscribers, who become skilled players and continue investing in the game. You alienate your profit and your community when you try to filter the playerbase in such a stupid and arbitrary way. There is nothing on the website or in any of the advertisements saying that the game is for hardcore pvp richardheads, so obviously they are trying to attract people to their game, but when the gameplay and game mechanics say otherwise, those potential buyers leave. Your argument of "skilled players get bored hurr" is transparent, and doesn't make any sense whatsoever. In the end, you end up with eve more experienced players than before. WoW has this chalked up to a goddamned psychological algorithm. They don't alienate players, they strive to get more of them, and look at their success. It doesn't take a genius to figure this out. Fighting rats isn't inherently fun, because they're low-level creatures, but as you ascend the ladder you fight more challenging, bigger, cooler monsters. Making the low-level creatures too strong makes the game seem too difficult to beginners, making them too easy makes the game seem dull. Really, low-level creatures should be a war of attrition. A rat on its own is no challenge, but after fighting consecutive ones you are drained.

These are basic principles of game design you can pick up just from looking at other games.