Darkfall

For the books by this name, see Darkfall (novel)

Darkfall
File:Df-sized.jpg
Developer(s)	Aventurine S.A.
Publisher(s)	N/A Self Published
Designer(s)	Claus Grovdal, Game Design/Producer Henning Ludvigsen, Art Director Ricki Sickenger, Lead Tools/Game Logic Programmer Kjetil Helland, Lead 3D/Client Programmer Erik Sperling Johansen, Lead Server Programmer
Engine	Darkfall Proprietary Engine
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows
Genre(s)	MMORPG, Online RPG
Mode(s)	Open PvP Multiplayer

Darkfall is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in development by Aventurine SA that combines real-time action and strategy in a fantasy setting. The game is expected to feature unrestricted PvP, full looting, a huge, dynamic game world that evolves in response to player actions, and a player skill dependent combat system. Developers claim that the game is currently in private beta testing.

Unique features

Darkfall is expected to have several plox features that set it apart from the plox majority of MMORPGs:

• Unrefined PvP, with safe zones, protection by NPC guards in racist controlled cities. Consequences for indiscriminate player killing result in changes in alignment (see alignment section below).
• Complete looting. All items will be dropped on death, and can be looted by anyone who opens the corpse. Armor and weapons will be somewhat easy to replace.
• A character advancement system devoid of player levels. The majority of player capabilities are determined by the possession of skills, which improve in response to in-game use. For example, all weapon proficiencies, the ability to swim, cast spells, ride mounts, and hide in shadows are all skills that can be learned and improved through in-game use.
• Inter-character and projectile-character collision detection. Projectiles (spells, arrows, cannonballs etc.) can be dodged. Players can be pushed or blocked by other players or by explosions.
• A real-time combat system that includes FPS-style manual aiming & blocking.
• Naval warfare, with the ability to board, capture and sink player controlled ships.
• Real-world physics.
• Dynamic, physical weather, including variable, directional winds, and tidal waves.
• Day/night cycles based on a realistic planetary system of 2 orbiting moons.
• No radar or floating names .
• Ranged combat will be viewed from first person perspective. Melee combat will be viewed from third person perspective.
• Friendly fire. If you miss with spells or arrows you may hit someone other than the character you were targeting. Area of effect offensive spells and healing spells can affect your friends and your enemies.
• Cities that can be built, captured and destroyed by players .
• Enhanced monster behaviour and AI. Monsters do not simply stand and swing at players until dead; they may employ sophisticated combat tactics based on their capabilities, social behaviour, and intelligence level. For example, intelligent monsters will preferentially target healers, casters, and/or weakened players. Monsters do not have fixed spawn locations or sizes - monsters form their own communities, may construct buildings and/or may relocate to new areas in response to being hunted by players. Monsters may also fight other monsters in their region.
• A zoneless, handcrafted world that supports over 10,000 concurrent players per game instance. It has been stated that virtually all props and items in the game are able to be crafted by players.

Development history

• On August 29, 2001, Aventurine SA announced the development of Darkfall and launched its official website. The Razorwax development team 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)
  • Erik Sperling Johansen (Lead Server Programmer)

• In October 2002, Aventurine S.A. was founded in Greece. The Razorwax team was integrated into Aventurine, and five other developers from Norway were hired into the company. 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 realized that this idea actually made very good business sense, and by December 2002, the relocation of Razorwax was finalized. In the same year beta was announced and sign ups began. After 6 months sign ups were closed and the original declaration of closed beta was retracted. To this day claims persist that beta is "just around the corner".

• In September 2005 the signup for the closed clan beta began. But the planned beta of Q4 2005 was cancelled. Developers have stated that before the beta, they would release a gameplay video , which they did in February 2006.

• Aventurine did not have a playable version of Darkfall available at E³ 2006, an offline demo was presented instead. In June 2006, just after E³, the Darkfall team started releasing weekly Questions and Answers through Warcry, in order to help newcomers to the community.

• An announcement on July 11, 2006 stated that preparations are still being made to begin beta.

• An interview with the developers on August 25, 2006 indicates that Aventurine does not have a publisher for Darkfall, and has considered the possibility of self-publishing the game.

• On January 17, 2007, Aventurine announced that a fully functional and stable beta build is running on remote servers and that the game is being shown to prospective partners, distributors, publishers, technology providers, etc.

• On January 30, 2007, Aventurine release a video containing about one minute of ingame footage, showing melee combat, mounts (including mounted combat), spellcasting and naval combat. The developers have stated that the combat will be similar to that of Mount and Blade.

• On May 31, 2007, Aventurine's 9th Developer Journal responded to some of the recent beta inquiries, and announced that their internal target date for beta is Summer '07. In addition, the main Darkfall site has continued to see regular updates to its Race, Monster, and Lands sections. Skepticism still surrounds the announcement due to the previously missed Beta deadlines however.

• On August 2, 2007, Aventurine stated that although the game is technically ready for beta, beta will not start until negotiations with possible publishers are completed

• On September 13, 2007, Updated public beta information added to Darkfalls forums stating "Solo player beta applications will be taken soon. Please watch the news forums for this."

• On February 22, 2008, they released a new "Location Test Video" depicting several locations in the game."For today's update we put together a medley of location test videos, from in and around clan cities and racial outposts."

Vapourware speculation/confirmation

The lack of game publicity, various missed beta dates, along with the significant time the game has spent in development have led some gamers to label Darkfall as vapourware. In reality, many other games of Darkfall's scale have had similar development durations, but they chose to announce their game closer to release, whereas the Darkfall development process has been openly discussed by the developers since very early in the development process.

In reference to the general lack of conventional PR publicity, Aventurine have stated "We've dedicated our resources to development, knowing that our game can compete a lot better than our publicity can.", and "The Darkfall community has demonstrated that it doesn't need constant handholding and reassurances".

"Forumfall"

The long development time of Darkfall, combined with the generally high enthusiasm for the game displayed by posters in the Darkfall offical forums have led to the popular usage of the term "Forumfall" to describe the "pseudogame" of regularly posting about the game on the forums in lieu of being able to play the actual game. Unlike the most official MMOG forums, the official forums for Darkfall are moderated for topic relevance and excessive abuse of the TOS, but are not moderated for mature or abrasive content.

Gameplay

Playable races

There are six playable races in Darkfall. Unlike other MMOGs, racial choice does not heavily influence your characters choices or progression options: 95% of the skills may be learned regardless of your race, the remainder are Prestige/Racial abilities(Note: At this time, Prestige classes and abilities are not in the game). 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 will prevent players from sustaining alignment penalties associated with killing friends and allies as well. It is also possible for two racial enemies to ally together. However, the NPC will behave according to their racial rules, and thus will react with hostility to racial enemies even if they are allied with that clan.

The races are as follows:

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 and adaptable race, with no particular strengths and weaknesses .

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 .

Dwarves

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

The Dwarves prefer to live underground, away from the troubles of the surface, but recently their capital has begun to expand upward and there are a few settlements on ground level .

Mahirim

• Homeland: Tribelands
• Allies: Orks
• Enemies: Humans, Mirdain, Dwarves, Alfar
• Racial mount: None
• Racial abilitie(s): Runs as fast as a mount when using hands and feet to move.

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. 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. .

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 labor 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. .

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. .

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, similar to that found in games such as Ultima online and EVE online. Skills and skill proficiency determine a wide range of a character's capability in the game, including weapons and weapon skills and special attacks, spells, and archery, stealth mechanics, all aspects of player crafting, as well as more basic facets of gameplay, such as the ability to swim, climb vertical surfaces, and to ride and control mounts.

Whilst the breadth and depth of the skill system has been frequently referenced in developer reports, only a few skills have been specifically named and described by the developers.

Character alignment

Darkfall will feature a player character alignment system, which ranges from good to evil, based upon the actions of players . Characters will start the game with a neutral alignment. "Evil" actions, such as the killing of other characters without provocation, stealing from other characters, and even the casting of certain necromantic spells cause a change in alignment toward evil. The repercussions of an evil alignment range in severity from NPCs ceasing to trade with a character and the inability of a character to "bind" in certain cities & towns, to that character being attacked on sight by NPC guards and player characters of good alignment receiving quests and alignment bonuses for hunting and killing evil characters.

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 most guards, clans and other players attack you on sight. Changing your alignment towards good is a challenging and difficult process."

The Darkfall world

File:Darkfall agon map.jpg

The world of Agon

Geography

Darkfall claims to feature one of the largest online worlds of any MMOG created to date. The world, named Agon, is comprised of a large, central continent on which all 6 racial capitals are found(Also referred to as Agon), 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.

The world includes a wide range of diverse terrain types, including forest, plain, desert, ice, jungle/tropical, swamp, and wasteland areas. Every part of Agon 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 sufficiently high Climbing skill; islands may be reached by those who possess a proper watercraft.

Monsters and monster spawns

In addition to its much-discussed PvP aspects, Darkfall will also include a wide variety of PvE monsters scattered across the world of Agon. Unlike most contemporary MMORPGs which involve timed, static spawns of monsters throughout the game world, Darkfall's mobs aggregate with each other to form groups, and when left unopposed will grow to form larger encampments. In addition, computer-controlled mobs will attack player cities if nearby, and will also fight nearby enemy mobs. Monsters range in innate aggression levels and social dependence, which affects their likeliness to initiate attacks with other players/mobs, run away, call for help, etc.

The NPCs in Darkfall will have their own Kill On Sight lists. They will also loot your corpse if you fall to them in combat. Monsters will loot only what they can use off of Player Corpses. If a player is slain by a wolf, the wolf will loot any food from the corpse. If a player is slain by a goblin or other humanoid, it is more likely that all items on the corpse will be looted. Mobs whose numbers are repeatedly thinned through player actions will eventually relocate to other parts of the world that satisfy their preferred habitat.

The combat AI of NPCs has been said to parallel that of Quake bots with respect to the level of challenge they are intended to present to the player . An indication of the quality of the NPC AI is shown by associate producer Tasos Flambouras by repeatedly referring to combat with NPCs as serious "practice" for PvP.

Darkfall is expected to feature a wide variety of monster types typical of the high fantasy genre, for example, goblins of various types, undead, such as skeletons and zombies, as well as various dragons, golems, and demons. Further examples of these may be found in the Darkfall bestiary.

Dungeons

As is typical of any fantasy MMORPG, Darkfall will feature an as yet unknown number of dungeons and underground areas, many of which will be heavily populated by monsters and monster bosses. Some underground areas are also available for players to colonise and build cities within. Both the Alfar and Dwarven racial capital cities are located predominately underground.

Cities, city building and clan warfare

A screenshot of a city siege

A major design goal of Darkfall is its support for large-scale territorial conflict between player clans (guilds). To this end, empire building through the construction and conquering of cities/forts/castles 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 geographical locations within the world that are able to support city building.

These city-building 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.

External links

• Official Darkfall site
• Official Darkfall FAQ
• Official Darkfall forums
• Community-compiled FAQ
• Community-compiled summary of features
• Darkfall Information Database (News aggregator/Information fan site)
• Darkfall Online Information Database (Information fan site)
• DFCommunity (Dedicated English Fansite)
• Curse Gaming Darkfall Section (Information fan site)
• Darkfall Wiki
• Darkfall Warcry (Fan site)
• Darkfall Radio (Radio fan site)
• DarkfallOnline.eu (German fan site)
• Darkfall Crafters
• The Story of Silvius Oakbender
• Darkfall Forums for Clans and PVP
• Oct 2004 account of a tour of Aventurine and first hand preview of Darkfall (Gamerifts.com)