I don't even remember how long the queue was. Three hours at least. But when I finally got into the game, I had fun.
Darkfall's graphics are fine. Not astounding, but not terrible either. For some reason the game locks up when I try to launch it in any resolution higher than 1024 x 768, although I was able to bump it up when I got in game. The big improvement there was not just overall graphics, but the UI especially. The UI leaves a lot to be desired, but at least at a proper resolution it wasn't hogging all of the real estate on my screen.
In Darkfall, your character starts in one of the sattelite villages near your race's capital. A couple of quests are available immediately, though you won't know that until you talk to one of the handful of NPCs hanging around the village. No giant floating exclamation points here to draw you towards a quest giver. The quests themselves are fairly straight-forward "Kill x goblins", "Bring me x golbin axes", etc. As you complete those, there are also resource-gathering quests that become avaible and that helpfully provide you with a starting tool for each of the gathering crafts.
Goblins are the only mosnters I've encountered so far. I've read a lot of discussion on both sides of the question as to whether Darkfall's monsters display brilliant or erratic AI. They generally won't stand still while you whack on them, preffering to circle you when possible and even setting you up so that their allies can flank you in the back, doing much more damage. So even with PvE, you have to keep moving and use positioning. This is all fine, but it's hardly the stuff of genius. Maybe that's a reflection on the level of creatures I've been fighting. They'll run off suddenly, then stop and face you again. Their pathing seems mostly random. So on the issue of PvE, I guess I'd say the AI is different, but not necessarily better or worse than what gamers have seen elsewhere, particularly in MMORPGs.
But the monsters are admittedly not the draw here for the average Darkfall player. The game really tailors itself to PvP and, yes, I experienced some of that already on my first day.
First of all, I have found the people in the game to be much more civil and cooperative than the fans who show up in forums and blog comments to excoriate anyone who's not a true-believer. Active fan forums always seem to be like that, though, don't they? It helps, of course, that my character is starting among his fellow humans, to whom the game mechanics provide fewer incentives and more penalties for attacking me outright. Darkfall's simple alignment system is much like Ultima Online's in that non-agressive players' names show up in a blue color while those who are consistently aggressive against their alliance members show up in red. More than just a warning sign, the "red" status puts some limitations on the towns the character can visit and their NPC interactions. Unfortunately, enemy races who are not aggressive towards their own alliance also show up in blue, which can be confusing if you take blue to mean "It's NOT OK to attack me!" I'm hoping this is something the game developers will change once they finish fixing all the more serious things that are detracting from play.
All of this is to get around to explaining that there is a third alignment status, the "gray" character. You can "go gray" when you attack your fellow alliance members; the gray status is a sign that it's OK for them to fight you back without triggering any penalties. One hit, most likely by mistake, will turn you gray for ten seconds or so. A second blow, however, makes you an open target for much longer. It's fairly easy to hit other players in combat when you don't mean to because everyone tends to crowd around the monsters when they show up. I would occassionaly go gray during these skirmishes, and I didn't experience anyone trying to take advantage of it, perhaps because of they didn't want to get caught whaling on me right when I turned blue again.
I was attacked, though, by another player when I was alone waiting for some more goblins to show up. I saw him circling around, paddling through the water. I can't say if he was human or perhaps Alfar because he was wearing a helmet and armor and swinging a big polearm. I just watched him, though, because I wasn't carrying much of value and I really didn't want to move. He was clearly better equipped than me, and probably more skilled as well. When he did attack, carebear though I am, I just attacked him back. We went around in circles a bit, me doing some damage, him doing some damage. At least I got a chance to practice using a shield and trying to time the wide swings of that polearm. But in the end he was too much for me and I died. Going back a bit later, I found he hadn't looted everything off of my body, so I was able to save a few things. I've just gone into this game knowing I'm going to be killed and trying not to worry about it too much.
The second time I was attacked by another player I was practicing magic inside a ruined hut just outside of town. The low level attack spell you start with, creatively called "Mana Missle," requires no mystical ingredients to cast, and you can gain proficiency with it by shooting it at pretty much anything, making it one of those skills you can increase by simply standing around and using it over and over again. Not thrilling, but it's better than getting beat on by goblins while you try to cast something that's likely to have little effect anyway. So I guess Mr. Attacker #2 thought I might be macroing in there, basically letting my character skill up while I was physcially away from my computer. Fortunately I was right there, and this time I ran to the nearby safety of the town because I was carrying a good bit of junk to sell.
Towards the end of the night I worked more on gathering wood to sell to other players and practicing my magic near town. So I made a little progress in both and started putting away some goods that may help me finance my career in magic!
In Darkfall, your character starts in one of the sattelite villages near your race's capital. A couple of quests are available immediately, though you won't know that until you talk to one of the handful of NPCs hanging around the village. No giant floating exclamation points here to draw you towards a quest giver. The quests themselves are fairly straight-forward "Kill x goblins", "Bring me x golbin axes", etc. As you complete those, there are also resource-gathering quests that become avaible and that helpfully provide you with a starting tool for each of the gathering crafts.
Goblins are the only mosnters I've encountered so far. I've read a lot of discussion on both sides of the question as to whether Darkfall's monsters display brilliant or erratic AI. They generally won't stand still while you whack on them, preffering to circle you when possible and even setting you up so that their allies can flank you in the back, doing much more damage. So even with PvE, you have to keep moving and use positioning. This is all fine, but it's hardly the stuff of genius. Maybe that's a reflection on the level of creatures I've been fighting. They'll run off suddenly, then stop and face you again. Their pathing seems mostly random. So on the issue of PvE, I guess I'd say the AI is different, but not necessarily better or worse than what gamers have seen elsewhere, particularly in MMORPGs.
But the monsters are admittedly not the draw here for the average Darkfall player. The game really tailors itself to PvP and, yes, I experienced some of that already on my first day.
First of all, I have found the people in the game to be much more civil and cooperative than the fans who show up in forums and blog comments to excoriate anyone who's not a true-believer. Active fan forums always seem to be like that, though, don't they? It helps, of course, that my character is starting among his fellow humans, to whom the game mechanics provide fewer incentives and more penalties for attacking me outright. Darkfall's simple alignment system is much like Ultima Online's in that non-agressive players' names show up in a blue color while those who are consistently aggressive against their alliance members show up in red. More than just a warning sign, the "red" status puts some limitations on the towns the character can visit and their NPC interactions. Unfortunately, enemy races who are not aggressive towards their own alliance also show up in blue, which can be confusing if you take blue to mean "It's NOT OK to attack me!" I'm hoping this is something the game developers will change once they finish fixing all the more serious things that are detracting from play.
All of this is to get around to explaining that there is a third alignment status, the "gray" character. You can "go gray" when you attack your fellow alliance members; the gray status is a sign that it's OK for them to fight you back without triggering any penalties. One hit, most likely by mistake, will turn you gray for ten seconds or so. A second blow, however, makes you an open target for much longer. It's fairly easy to hit other players in combat when you don't mean to because everyone tends to crowd around the monsters when they show up. I would occassionaly go gray during these skirmishes, and I didn't experience anyone trying to take advantage of it, perhaps because of they didn't want to get caught whaling on me right when I turned blue again.
I was attacked, though, by another player when I was alone waiting for some more goblins to show up. I saw him circling around, paddling through the water. I can't say if he was human or perhaps Alfar because he was wearing a helmet and armor and swinging a big polearm. I just watched him, though, because I wasn't carrying much of value and I really didn't want to move. He was clearly better equipped than me, and probably more skilled as well. When he did attack, carebear though I am, I just attacked him back. We went around in circles a bit, me doing some damage, him doing some damage. At least I got a chance to practice using a shield and trying to time the wide swings of that polearm. But in the end he was too much for me and I died. Going back a bit later, I found he hadn't looted everything off of my body, so I was able to save a few things. I've just gone into this game knowing I'm going to be killed and trying not to worry about it too much.
The second time I was attacked by another player I was practicing magic inside a ruined hut just outside of town. The low level attack spell you start with, creatively called "Mana Missle," requires no mystical ingredients to cast, and you can gain proficiency with it by shooting it at pretty much anything, making it one of those skills you can increase by simply standing around and using it over and over again. Not thrilling, but it's better than getting beat on by goblins while you try to cast something that's likely to have little effect anyway. So I guess Mr. Attacker #2 thought I might be macroing in there, basically letting my character skill up while I was physcially away from my computer. Fortunately I was right there, and this time I ran to the nearby safety of the town because I was carrying a good bit of junk to sell.
Towards the end of the night I worked more on gathering wood to sell to other players and practicing my magic near town. So I made a little progress in both and started putting away some goods that may help me finance my career in magic!
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