Next free expansion; First news

[sinuhe]

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=216927

There were quite a few questions after the announced introduction of local banking in the upcoming Darkfall Expansion. We asked Claus Grovdal for some information on this that we could pass on to you:

Claus explained that this is the first step for local banking in Darkfall, something we refer to it internally as Limited Local Banking. It’s basically bank access in player owned houses. This will allow house owners to store crafting materials, loot, reagents etc in their house but it's stored locally only - meaning you do not have access to the content of this specific bank vault from other banks in the world. Claus is excited about the added dynamics local banking will bring to villages especially since player controlled vendors are also being introduced in the Expansion. These changes are designed to make player villages a lot more attractive to live in or raid.

Claus explained that the topic of local banking is very interesting, and something the developers are willing to explore further should this limited introduction be a success. They are specifically looking at various options for local banking in clan cities, possibly starting out by allowing players access to a second vault at first, giving a bonus maximum limit, but where the contents of the vault are local only. Claus doesn’t rule out the possibility of eventually allowing only local banking in clan cities through a process of gradual evolution.

“With any form of local banking, it's a fine line between cool feature and ridiculous annoyance, so we are trying to do this in steps, and work with our players to get it just right.”, Claus concluded on the topic.

The developers are very interested in the community’s feedback on this, so please feel free to post your comments within this thread.

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Lisää expansion tietoa:

Other than the upcoming patch, the development team is hard at work with the second free expansion for Darkfall, which is currently scheduled for release by the end of October. This expansion is a lot bigger than the first, and we are extremely excited about it. We will give you more detailed information on the many new features over the coming weeks.

It includes many changes and additions to ship building, sea combat and sea objectives, part two of our character specialization system - this time some much needed love for archery and melee combat, the first step of local banking, player owned local vendors, the first set of racial skills, barber shop, the caravan system, new houses and villages, new housing objects to decorate your house with, wandering mobs, more rare drops added to monsters, new free spawning objects to discover, and much more.

Jousimiehille tulee myös lisää skillejä:

An option called Jumpshot allows you to jump and fire a bow at a 10 percent penalty on max mana. Aquatic Shot allows you to use a bow under water at a 5 percent penalty on max mana. Finally Mage-Killer will give you bonus damage against users wielding a staff but completely blocks your ability to use elemental, arcane, and necromancy magic. You could select to use all three of these options to get a real edge as an archer vs. magic at a 15 percent max mana penalty plus the magic use penalty. This is a choice you make, you’re not forced to do this, and if you don’t like it you can reverse it easily and get something else that suits your play-style better. There are many high-end specialization options available and more will be added with every update. Claus explained to us that this is the just first step in adding even more diversity to Darkfall.

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The AI team is currently working on wildlife additions. This new type of AI will be roaming throughout the world and react quite differently then their aggressive counterparts. We have also been told that those will be quite numerous and spread in much bigger radius and areas not limited by any artificial camp range.
The idea behind these new type of AI is of course to add to the immersion while the same time creating new ways of gathering resources. We have also been assured that they are specifically being careful to not add to the server load with these new type of additions as they are well aware that performance during sieges is always a top priority.

[natraz]

Eli pääsee jahtaa jotain peuroi jousilla ja lahtaa pupujussei mitkä juoksee karkuu.

[sinuhe]

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=218603

Now that the Darkfall developer credits have been posted, we thought it would be a good idea to write some short articles that will give you a better insight on what the developers are working on.

Obviously, some of these articles are bound to be more interesting than others, but all of them should give you a better idea of how the developers work and what they are focused on these days.

Also please keep in mind that these articles will not be replacing the official news and announcements that come straight from the developers so forgive us if we do not flesh out some subjects as much as we would like.

We will start off with Trond Evanger, a senior game designer at Aventurine. He's the person to talk to when it comes to skills, spells, item properties, and generally, the numbers behind Darkfall.

Trond had some very interesting things to talk about. First of all he told us that the first small steps towards racial differentiation are on their way and some racial skills will be introduced to the game with the upcoming expansion. For example, Orks will be dealing more damage with greataxes, humans will have longer nourishment duration from food and dwarves will be able to craft more durable armor.

We were also told that items will be receiving some adjustments to their stats so for example the heavier armors will be getting increased elemental protection, and weapons of high rank will be getting increased damage.

Crafting will also receive a bit more attention as the related skills will skill up faster when making higher rank items. This already happens for weapon crafting but now this will also apply to more crafting skills such as armor smithing and alchemy.

Lastly, Trond and Lars Erik have been working on a system that will apply a cool down to spells depending on their use. So, when casting a high damage AOE spell for example, all your AOE's will have a cool down applied. This, along with other changes, such as the mage killer shot, will help bring some much desired balance to the game.

Again, as things stand now, all these changes will be applied to the game with the Darkfall’s upcoming second Free Expansion.

That's it for today, please stay tuned for our next developer spotlight article.

[Viikinki]

We were also told that items will be receiving some adjustments to their stats so for example the heavier armors will be getting increased elemental protection, and weapons of high rank will be getting increased damage.

Lisää damagea? Ei lisää physical resistei?

Onkohan ne ikin pelannu peliään ollenkaan, high rank wepat lyö jo ihan tajuttoman kovaa, lisää vaan juujuu:)

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Lyö ne boneen tai nahkaan mutta laitas päälle Full Plate tai Infernal ni kyllä damaget tippuu. Ne kai yrittää saada ihmisiä käyttämään parhaita armoreita jos on vastassa parhaat aseet. Muutenhan alasti taistelu on kannattavinta mutta jos tipahtaa parilla lyönnillä niin ehkä siitä ei jatkossa ole enää sitäkään hyötyä. Nytkin vielä näkee jonkun gängärin tulevat päälle ilman armoreita "jos vaikka sais kaikki alas". Rewardihan on hirveä silloin.

KF

[Viikinki]

Oon mä full platei jne joskus käyttäny eikä ne paljoa tee tappihahmolle jol on kunno wepa kädes kyl:/ Paskempien hahmojen damaget ne kyllä syö tosi tehokkaasti. Mutta ehottomasti pitäs damagea kautta linjan vähentää ennemmin kun mitään damagea nostaa. Tappelut vaan lyhenee ku hahmot kovenee, defense ei skaalaudu ollenkaa offensen mukana.

[natraz]

ite tapitin eile 2h swordin ja ei se paljoo yli 20 damaa normina lyö tosin miekka ei iha paras elementaali ollu ja skillil 25-30 hikisee. mua o lyöty banduu 59 polella edestä.

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Parhailla hahmoillahan on myös statit 100+ ja aseet aina rank 65 ja vähintään Q3 chanteilla. Onpa tippunut vihulta jo Q5 chantattuja aseita. Maksaa noin 2K tuolta tradelta.

Mutta jos oikeesti käytät sitä viime armori patchin jälkeisiä Full Plateja niin kyllä se dämäge ihan oikeasti tippuu. Tietusti buffit, + 100 Defence, rigor ja ignore pain auttaa myös. Nytkin meillä kestää ihan riittävän kauan saada noita maxattuja vihuja alas ja jos vielä ase ja spelli damaget puolitetaan niin kyllä ne regenoi ja healaa nopeemmin kuin 10 miestä ehtii dämää mättää. Meillä on joka päivä mättöä noiden max hahmojen kanssa ja kova homma saada parikin alas meidän dämägellä.

KF

[Viikinki]

Meillä on joka päivä mättöä noiden max hahmojen kanssa ja kova homma saada parikin alas meidän dämägellä.

Mun kokemus sanois et kysymys ei ole damagesta vaan sen damagen osumisesta, ei kukaan kestä mitään DPSää jos se DPS menee perille. Jotkut vaan osaa välttää sitä damagea ihan eri tavalla kun toiset, kyllä toki healaukset jne kanssa auttavat mutta ei pelkästään hiilaamalla ketään tapa, eikä pysy kyllä hengissäkään.

[sinuhe]

http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=220850

Spotlight on Expansion skills.
We have previously mentioned that with the upcoming Darkfall expansion: Conquer the Seas, the skill system for melee and archery will be getting some love in the form of Skill Extensions and Specialties.

We managed to wrest some muchly coveted details from our humble devs this week and thought we would share them with you before they greedily snatch them back!

The skill extensions will focus mostly (but not exclusively) on melee and ranged combat. Some examples are Rage, a high mana cost skill that will temporarily buff your resistances to magic while at the same time giving you some healing. Disabling Shot and Disabling Blow will interrupt an enemy and disable their blocking skill for a given time.

Ontop of these combat skills there will also be many new specialties added which you can use to focus and hone which battle style suits you best. Among the many various paths and advantages offered there will be two skills that give you a double jump or the opportunity to dodge attacks with a double tap in a certain direction.

Another skill extension currently in testing is called Spotter. Spotter would enable you to identify other players from great distances.

The new racial skills will also come in with Darkfall's Conquer the Seas Expansion. These will be the first tier in racial identity and will introduce certain passive abilities that each race will have to their unique advantage. Alfar, for example, have a greater affinity for magic while Mahirim have always been swift of foot (or rather, paw). Mirdain rely on their keen sight and Orks are tough and able to withstand more damage than most.

Bear in mind that the skills mentioned here are far from a complete list but rather some examples to shed a little light on things to come.

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ttp://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=220951

Expansion Spotlight – Player Vendors and new house type
Today we bring you a little bit of additional information about the new player vendors that will be added to the game with the upcoming “Conquer the Seas" expansion.

To start with, player Vendors are unlocked as house extensions which means you will have to find them before you can add one to your house.

Once you got a hold of the appropriate item it will enable you to have your very own little gnome vendor setting up shop outside your house. Happily counting the money he'll make for you, always on the lookout for potential customers.

You can not only add items to sell and set individual prices for either single objects or stacks of objects, you can create categories and name them to your hearts content so your customers have a more convenient browsing experience.

Adding items to your vendor won't cost any money and you can switch them around, take them off and reprice them at any time. However when you sell an item, a little fee is deducted from the selling price.

For the bloodthirsty among you, no you can't kill those vendors, shush go hunt some newbies!
They can also not be used by other players or friends to sell their own things but you can of course pass on your items to a friend and have him/her sell those items through his/her vendor.

The Vendor will have a limit of items you can put up so the ones among you who probably already thought of using them as banks, will be slightly disappointed.

For buyers:
You will be able to chose to either pay the price for the item directly from your backpack or you can chose to pay more safely from your personal bank account which will however add an additional fee to the price.

To calm some of your concerns about not getting a Vendor yourself:
with the new expansion there will be almost 800 house plots available and as mentioned before, nothing stops you from making a deal with a friend to have him or her sell your items through his/her vendor.

Since we are talking about houses already, the Developers let us in in another little secret:
Additionally to the big feature list there will be a new player owned house type available. We learned that the Keep is a new player owned house that is considerably bigger then the villa. By applying the right items in the Keep, you can increase its friend slots to ten friends, making it an ideal home for small clans or groups of friends. Coupled with the introduction of local house banking and the before mentioned player vendors, village life has never been better.

And with this expansion there will even be another fun way to make some money in your new house but more about this at a later point!

One of the little guys was kind enough to let us take a picture for you!

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Second Developer spotlight article
With the expansion release coming closer and closer, we decided to pry a couple of developers away from their desks for a few minutes and bring you some information about what they are working on.

This time it was the AI team's turn. They have been hard at work the past few months and they where quite eager to reveal some of the improvements and additions that players will experience with Darkfall's second free expansion, “Conquer the Seas”.

First, the wildlife creatures that we mentioned in a previous spotlight article will be introduced to the game with the upcoming expansion. The AI team also had quite a few things to add when talking about this new feature.

The wildlife creatures of Darkfall will be non aggressive and they will be found in every corner of Agon, thus satisfying the player request for a more alive and immersive world. While they will not be much of a challenge to kill because of their low health, they will not be sitting there idly while you pepper them with arrows or cut them down with your swords. Running away is the only defense they have, so expect to do some proper hunting.

Once killed, these creatures will provide the aspiring hunters with resources like leather and meat, essentially becoming a new resource gathering node of sorts. Also some of these animals, depending on their actual real life habits, will form packs and follow a pack leader around. Those packs will of course scatter and run away when they are attacked.

Another thing to note is that the monsters of the world will interact with these animals as well. Some will attack and kill them, while others will protect and even heal them. There will be of course monsters that completely ignore the wildlife as their only concern is ripping players apart.

Additionally, the AI team revealed some major changes in the AI system. This is something that they have been working on for quite a while and the changes will be substantial. As they told us, this is the first major AI overhaul for Darkfall and one that will change the PvE aspect of the game quite a bit. Of course they have addressed a series of AI bugs such as monsters de-spawning suddenly among others but the big news here is the changes and additions.

The first thing that they stressed is that the monsters have been rebalanced in such a way that now, players will need to use a variety of tactics, depending on what they are fighting, to be victorious. To be more specific, monsters will now have different weaknesses and strengths that players will need to figure out. Some examples of this diversification of the monsters include skeletons being more resistant to piercing damage while being very susceptible to bludgeoning damage and fire elementals being next to immune to fire damage while ice damage will do the job a lot better.

That does not mean that certain types of damage will be all together useless on specific monsters, but let's just say that figuring out the weakness of a monster and using it against it will be way more efficient.

Additionally there has been a reconfiguration of the AI that will make the monsters react differently on player actions, making them a lot harder to outsmart.

Because of these changes, the health of many monsters has been reduced so that the PvE experience will be more challenging and diverse but not frustrating. Also the loot of many of the monsters has been increased to be in accordance to the increased challenge they will pose and it will also be more random so that every kill will not provide you with the exact same items every time. The AI team hinted that, after the expansion, it would be worth trying to kill some of the monsters that right now do not have noteworthy loot, as you will be pleasantly surprised by their new loot drops.

As a final note, these changes should give a boost to the economy, as different types of weapons will be now required to defeat different monsters. With the correct choice of weapon, melee can be the preferable combat option in many cases. Additionally, these changes should encourage diversity in magic usage as well; for example de-buffing will play a much more important role in exposing a monster's weakness.

As a closing comment, they AI team told us that players will need to think a lot differently than they do now, when it comes to PvE in Darkfall.

We hope you enjoyed reading. Stay tuned for our next Developer spotlight article.

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http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=221741

Darkfall's new free expansion, "Conquer the Seas", is set to launch late next week. This is a tentative ETA, but even if we miss it, it will be a matter of just a few more days. This took longer than the original estimate because aside from the many new and important features added to the game, there have been hundreds of smaller improvements and thousands of corrections and fixes. A lot of testing is involved in getting this right, and to correct all the problems that come up during the testing.

We understand the excitement and the anticipation for our second expansion. We always do our best to meet our deadlines but taking whatever extra time is needed to get it right is equally important. We do appreciate your patience.