Week #5 Darkfall Sneak Peak @ IGN

[Gowel]

http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/438/438117p1.html


Very nice stuff! The layering system looks great. None of it looks painted onto the skin. It's loose and baggy in the places where it needs to be.

Not to point out the problems, but you've often asked for feedback, so I have to mention that the platemail seems to clip through the side of the boots and the gloves. I'm sure someone at RW has already noticed that. Everything else looks spot on to me. I absolutely love the way that the cloak is attatched to the body. Most games just tuck it into the back of your character's shirt or something. The way it's done here, it's going to be possible to make, and you probably already have, very cool looking hooded cloaks. Great job RW/AV.


Move this to news please =)

[AshTheUgly]

I love the fact that you can mix plate and chain, my favorite type of combo way back in UO. Get some of the mobility bonuses from the chain and some of the toughness attributes from the plate. Not to mention it looks damn sharp to.

[Gaintlord]

Oh my god!!!

This was a cool read and love the pic of the armor!!

On the flip side, each piece of armor worn comes with several penalties. Movement rate, stamina loss, dodging, casting time and chance of successfully casting spells are some of the variables that are affected. Again, it's the type of armor that will determine the severity of the penalties, but placement might be just as important

I'm very happy the devs did this. This way for those that want to be mage/fighter they will be no match to a pure or robe caster!!

[Shaky]

This truly is a great read. I am very much enjoying these updates on the many different things Darkfall has to offer. Animations were great!! I can't wait to play this game!!!

[Arolas]

Very impressive. I don't think I've seen as much attention to detail on clothing in any game, MMORPG or not.

My only concern, or main at least, is something I've noticed in all MMORPGs of this genre to date, that I have played. This is the whole idea that to have a good defence, or rather to say an defence good enough to keep up against other players/opponents, you have to create, find, or buy certain clothing. Of course, this is just the way it is; certain clothing gives defence better than if you were just running around in your underpants like a headless chicken. But the idea that these clothes are limited in variety, eg if a good defence is considered 200+, and certain armour, say chainmaille and dragon scale armour, have 200+ armour points (Take in mind this is just an example and isn't meant to be accurate to the armour system or what armour clothing will be in game etc). This, then, means that a player not necessarilly wanting over 200+ armour points, but wanting not to get left behind because everyone else is wearing some, is forced to wear certain armour, which may not suit his character. Now, this really only effects the role playing aspect of the game, or maybe even just the 'my character looks 1337' aspect, but that is a big element to some people. Of course, player skill is a big aspect of dark skill, but armour no doubt has it's merits, or it wouldn't be there.

[Ferox]

armor is cool.


some news about beta would be better though :)

[Airius Droc]

I love the armor stick figures. They all look fantastic.

Movement rate, stamina loss, dodging, casting time and chance of successfully casting spells are some of the variables that are affected.

That's a great quote. Years ago, there'd been a lot of talk on the boards, years ago, about making all the armor types meaningful so their wasn't a "best" armor for all situations. I think this is a good example of the developers listening to pre-game player feedback. From a design standpoint, this is something that shouldn't have to change, although it will obviously need to be balanced. Neato. :)

[Braddict]

Devs enjoy torturing us, I know it! :wacko:

[Dorundain]

Wow.

I love the attention to detail.

The chainmail texture is perfect.

I love it!

[Mars]

I think the armor looks great, although the woodelf that is doing the modeling seems a bit thin. ;)

[Dracul Fey]

That is the best update to date, that I have seen at least. That armor is AWESOME!!! :D I was a bit disturbed by the lack of groin-covering armor on the set of plate.. :o

[Gowel]

I was thinking a bit about the layering system and I'm wondering if it's going to account for wearing armor undernearth of clothing, platemail in particular.

If you notice, the platemail animation has lots of places where the metal sticks up and out. It's seen best on the shoulders and the joints of the arms and legs. In a game like UO, you could just throw a robe over top of your platemail and at a glance most people couldn't tell if you were wearing platemail under it or not. However, with Darkfall, just tossing a robe over top of the platemail that we've seen, it would be fairly obvious at just a glance, that you are wearing platemail underneath your robe, because it would stick up in those places. A person not wearing platemail under the robe, would have a flatter, less padded look to the robe they're wearing.

I love the variety and I hope to see hundreds of different types of clothing and armor, but I'm just hoping that it all looks good when layered. It seems like they'd have to go through all the pieces of clothing/armor and make sure that every single combination looks great, that things don't clip through each other and that some of the items actually must change their shape in which they are draped over a character, depending on what's worn under them. It seems like a hell of a lot of work, but I think that it's great that they're putting this kind of effort into the game.

[Whistler]

Movement rate, stamina loss, dodging, casting time and chance of successfully casting spells are some of the variables that are affected.
This is awesome.
There's actually an advantage to running around completely naked, w00t! :D

[Common]

This really is one of the best updates yet. I am fairly pleased with the looks of the armour. I wish they would have shown us what the leather armour is going to look like. I hope there are some variations as far as asthetics with the leather and plate. Maybe some armours that are smooth and more formfitting, while others with ornate protrusions and fantastical decour. I don't know . . . spikes would be a fun addition to any armour, don't you think?

[Dozier]

nice guys, good to see capes in, hopefully hooded capes be in there too

[Dulin]

:blink: wow.....that is gorgeous....

[Andonis]

once again the RW team have shocked me =D
great work guys keep it up, it seems that the variety and player freedom is almost endless within DF

[Arathalus]

very very nice system, one of the best to date easily.

[Thourne]

gotta love the ability to customize the armour with a unique insignia... that is one of the things im most stoked about when looking at the ctrafting portion of DF. The devs really rocked the house with armour.

[Yggdrasil]

Realy nice armors, cant wai to us eone of em'

"I see a REALY weak spot on the plate, do you" :D

[Jalik]

impressive as i expected it to be (if you look at other screens you know that there has to be some excellent artists at razorwax). if the gameplay is as good as the graphics .. you know .. this game will rock :)

[Khazym]

Originally posted by Whistler@Sep 15 2003, 06:09 PM
Movement rate, stamina loss, dodging, casting time and chance of successfully casting spells are some of the variables that are affected.
This is awesome.
There's actually an advantage to running around completely naked, w00t! :D
Dont go streakin through the streets yet!

I'll wager just about everyone will be wearin at least leather armor, even 'pure' casters. Armor looked great, I thought the plate mail was very nice looking.

Hate to just rag on UO as it was ahead of its time and all, but mages wearing full plate and running around casting with no penalties whatsoever was just about the [HAPPY KITTENS SUNSHINE] thing ever....

[tryz]

Most impressive armor I've seen in a game yet.

I've been tracking a couple of other online games and I just happened to find this one....looks great!

[olemak]

The armour looks great... but I must say that the articulation in the shoulders on the plate armour is less than fuctional, and that is a bit unneccesary, concidering the attention to detail that has obviously gone into this... also, the groin area should of course have some sort of solid protection.

The problem with the shoulders: While the character has the arms streched out to the sides, the protuding plates protect the neck against wings from the side... and to some degree from directly above, too, but not so much.

However, when the arms are in some more normal position, such as holding a shield, or with the hands are at waist/chest level, maybe stabbing with a sword or a spear, or parrying a low blow... there would be a huge gap in the armour. Expect to see a lot of former warriors with arms amputated at the shoulder :) As it is today, the design of that shoulder guard would actually guide downward swings directly towards the neck or the meaty part of the outer shoulder... ouch! And imagine the force on a heavy hammer swing getting caught on that protuding piece of armour affixed to the upper arm plating... that arm is coming OFF dude! Eeew!

Also, the neck, the throat and the armpits are horribly exposed - very vulnerable areas, all of them, not to mention the groin. This could easily be fixed. You'd have to wear chain under the plate, of course, but still... this could be fixed very easily...

Sure, this is fantasy, and the armour is magical and all that... but it lacks sooo little to appear "real" and believably functional... As it stand today, it hampers immersieon: you know that this suit of armour is just there as a representation of a list of stats and numbers that get crunched once the blows start falling. The armour is of course virtual, not "real" - this is a computer game, for X's sake. But immersion is all about making the unreal seem real - and this could very easily be fashioned to give the impression of real functionality. Which would, in my opinion, be cool. And what is cool is good.

[Ren]

The main purpose of wearing armor is, obviously, protection in combat. This will result in reduction of damage rather than hit probabilities. It's not just weapon attack damage that will be affected, but also damage by attack spells such as Fireballs, Acid Bolts, Lightning Storms, etc.

Each type of armor offers different protection against various attack forms. For instance, plate is resilient to slashing attacks, but not to electricity, while it's the other way round with leather armor. On the flip side, each piece of armor worn comes with several penalties. Movement rate, stamina loss, dodging, casting time and chance of successfully casting spells are some of the variables that are affected. Again, it's the type of armor that will determine the severity of the penalties, but placement might be just as important.


Finally, someone gets it.

recall early in the development process of SB, the intent was to make heavy armor about protection instead of avoidance. And yet Heavy armor ended up with both resistances and defense. And they simply gave Dodge to classes without access to Heavy armor.

I much prefer a system with penalties so that the player can make performance-based decisions instead of hard-coded restrictions.

[Ren]

Originally posted by Khazym@Sep 16 2003, 06:26 AM
I'll wager just about everyone will be wearin at least leather armor, even 'pure' casters. Armor looked great, I thought the plate mail was very nice looking.

I don't know about that. Lineage2 has done a decent job of enticing mages to stick with Robes due to both casting speed and mana regen bonuses. The Human Cleric gets protection bonuses from either Light or Robes so that is one class then splits between the two and you see some light tank Clerics.

Its only a matter of making the penalties significant enough to force a real decision.

[Airius Droc]

Originally posted by Ren@Sep 16 2003, 09:57 AM
Finally, someone gets it.

recall early in the development process of SB, the intent was to make heavy armor about protection instead of avoidance. And yet Heavy armor ended up with both resistances and defense. And they simply gave Dodge to classes without access to Heavy armor.
Dodging in Heavy Armor should be extremely difficult. If I see people circle strafing in Full Plate my soul will shrivel up and die. Another thing to watch is players changing their mouse sensitivity to high so they can turn on a dime in Heavy Armor. These are the little tricks I hope Darkfall

[ChewY]

I wonder if it is possible to put those plate, chain, and clothing over other humaniod monsters like hobgoblins.

[ChewY]

Originally posted by Ren@Sep 16 2003, 06:57 PM
Finally, someone gets it. 

recall early in the development process of SB, the intent was to make heavy armor about protection instead of avoidance.  And yet Heavy armor ended up with both resistances and defense.  And they simply gave Dodge to classes without access to Heavy armor.

I much prefer a system with penalties so that the player can make performance-based decisions instead of hard-coded restrictions.
UO had a simular system to what DF is doing, all armor did was buff your Armor rating up, which only absorbed damage. Later on OSI added a dex penalty to people in anything more than leather making them slower in melee combat. It is little things like this that make mmos virtual worlds rather than lvl fests.

[itzkurt]

Not to point out the problems, but you've often asked for feedback, so I have to mention that the platemail seems to clip through the side of the boots and the gloves.

Hehe.. what if the armor clipping you speak of is just the way the devs designed the boots and gloves. Perhaps that's a hole in the glove and the boots are just getting old and have worn through a little =). Hehe.. ya never know.. but I definately see what you're talking about.. just thought I'd throw a different spin on it.

[Critter]

the armour looks damn awesome, i love the idea abt what armour you're wearing determines your fighting capabilities. so warriors wont be able to just run through everything mages throw at them, and mages will have to choose their spells specifically to do the most damage against whatthe warriors wearing
i like the chainplate better than the plate though, neve really liked capes either....

[Darkmatter]

In lots of games , like AO, players don't have to be close to eachother - or even in contact when fighting for them to make hits and kill eachother with melee weapons. I hope this game REQUIRES direct contact to actually mean anything. Parrying should be real parrying, and hits taken by the armor should make the right sound for that type of armor. I'd also love to see damaged armor and so on if its not to hard to make. I liked what Olemak said. I'd like to be aware of that i'm using an armor in more ways than seeing my defence-stats going higher when i put it on. It should both look like it could keep you alive, and since it already affects your ability to move and fight , it should often take blows and make clirring sounds when hit,hehe.. And if to knights with armor bumps into eachother i don't want there to be silence like they both were wearing cotton-pillows- a real metal-sound should be heard, louder the harder they hit. :)
I came up with that since it's stated that players can't clip through eachother - move through another player.

[Blade]

WOW! Incredible detail!! I love the looks of all of it!
The only thing I saw wrong is that the plate shinguard peeks out through the boots. But Im sure this will be taken care of before going live! :)

Great Update!! :D

[Erigoth]

Awesome!

[Exmortis]

Truly incredible. Not just the design and look of the armor, but the fact that the devs are LISTENING to the players. I can't help but think that this is the UO we always wanted. Being a cynical gamer a lot of the time (and one who loves to nitpick small things), I'm almost shocked to hear myself say this, but it's true -- I agree 100% with the decisions the dev team continually makes as Darkfall moves forward. It's very strange, and totally pleasing, that I've found a game which so far seems to reflect exactly what I would do if I were making the game.

Good job Darkfall team! Keep up the good work. I'm the guildmaster of a PvP group on UO, and I've got them all convinced that Darkfall is our next playground. Seeya there :)

- Exmortis

[Andonis]

Its going to be interesting how customisable the4se suits of armor/clothing will be with the clan symbol/colours system they have in DF it should allow for huge amounts of variety and i mean HUGE :D