Darkfall: Insightful Information From A PVP Guildleader

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By Obidiah Khan

I'm sure the devs of darkfall keep a close eye on shadowbane and what makes the game work and doesnt work, but in my experience in the game heres what i see that worked and tanked.

1) Coding- All the crashes, targeting bugs, system lag, memory leaks, graphics flickering, sound issues(my sounds been off for 4 months), getting stuck on walls (wtf). They ruined a lot of of the playability of this game. In many battles it was the side that crashed the least that often came out on top... or the side that was in the right postion on a wall that could target more people, rather than battle tactics and player organization.

2) Radar- Too small to accurately count incoming enemies, enemies dont even show up until they are 10 feet from you in most cases, map was slow to load often causing an entire group to have to stop running just to wait for the damm thing to load. Stealthers wouldnt show up on the map until they had half run away. Targeting is also in this category, only a next target button was offered, not a next enemy button. Targeting on the screen was also difficult.

3) Battle Tactics- One of the best aspects of shadowbane and should be considered for DF. Higher ground, flanking, group coordination, all good stuff and really worked in that game. The perfect "anti-zerg" pill. Being able to take 20 people and out-think the 40 attacking you... and win. Thats the base to a good game, where even if you are extreamely outnumbered, you can come out on top if you work together. Being first person and having a target recticle should expand even further on these possibilities.

4) Time consumption- It sounded great in the locker room but when the massively merciless game actually came out for a month it was murder. A lot of the player base up and quit just because the game was too time consuming to keep a nation going. Anyone who played in a full scale war knows that your required to guard your town(s) 24 hours a day. Spend 2 months getting your nation to where u want it to be and a few ninja raids later its all gone. The point i want to make is, there should SOME down time where u dont have to worry about protecting your "sim city". Where the only thing people can do it actually have PvP fights with each other... with a purpose.... without involving towns. From what ive read about how long it takes to build (and take down) a city, darkfall looks right on, on this one.

5) Reason for everyday fights- Shadowbane PvP is now reduced to bane fights (taking over or defending cities) and 10 man groups killing 10 man groups that are out experiencing. Thats 90% of the PvP in the game. Why? Because theres no motivation for fighting outside of these areas. Theres no stats like in "DaoC", theres no loot like in uo. Give us a reason to fight everyday... all day. Keep stats on the web page. I think thats what Dark age of Camelot so fun, you could log on everyday and raise your rank and look for people that are close to yours.

6) The LvL treadmill- When your not raiding/defending cities in shadowbane, you are leveling up an alt. Its simple, but its ruining the game. No one fights outside of these areas because everyon is too busy leveling up their "new greatest template". Darkfalls idea was brillant on this one, no leveling, go back to uo style. So if a new "edge" comes out you can simply train it up instead of starting allll over. Perfect solution to a tough problem.

From everything ive read about Darkfall they are moving in the right direction. Increasing loot from kills, making it harder and longer to take down cities, no exp'ing. I can't wait to see all these things in action in Darkfall. And i don't mean to completely slam Shadowbane dont get me wrong, its had more awesome PvP moments than any game previous, and without playing it a lot of other new games like darkfall, could have made the same mistakes. Props to SB, for laying the path to better gaming in that regard.

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www.lordsofdeath.com
Obidiah -Master, LoD