Status Of Darkfall

[Tasos]

We feel that the Darkfall community deserves an update on the state of the game, this being the last day of Septemeber. We had said that we expect to be in beta this month and there has been a lot of speculation and uncertainty about what we meant by that.

We've been in a tech beta since September 2nd, testing, working on bugs, tuning and tweaking, adding content, and building the world. We're slightly behind schedule in some areas of development, ahead of schedule in others, and we're always working on new things, the latest being an optional third person perspective (http://forums.darkfallonline.com/index.php?act=ST&f=2&t=5651) that can fit in with our gameplay design. Overall we're very happy with the progress, we don't have any serious problems, and we believe that we'll be able to deliver an advanced beta build for playtesting before long.

Our idea of playtesting involves a playable Darkfall. We haven't been busting our asses all this time to deliver a world with nothing to do in it. We had that 18 months ago during pre-alpha testing as some of you know firsthand, and we don't think that that's the kind of beta everyone has been looking forward to.

What you can look forward to in the immediate future as we move forward with our closed beta, is the beta registration process for individual players and for guilds to open up, a new Darkfall website, screenshots from our current build, in-game movies, and of course our regular content updates. We'll also give the Darkfall community members the opportunity to become more actively involved within the community, and with the game.

In the meanwhile we're doing our best to get everything ready, and we'll do what we can to keep you up to date on Darkfall's progress.

Thank you for your continued support.

-The Darkfall Team

[Ferox]

Thanks for the update RW and AV

[^J^]

I'm glad to hear everything's moving along, but take your time with it =) I'm sure everyone's willing to wait if it means Darkfall can stay the way it was intended to be

[Gunther TheBlack]

No need to rush things

[Lancaster]

Great to have some news

[Pokeroo]

Shame, really- I was hoping to jump in.. Ahh well, probably for the best... and so we wait! but 3rd person view? i thought yo uguys said a strict no on that business?

[Mayseth]

So when is Beta Tasos? :)

[Satorian]

An update at last.

Could have been announced earlier though.




TPV? <_< Wrong way in my opinion.

[Viranth]

Nono, 3rd person? That just ruins the entire backstabbing of people! Now you won't be able to sneak up on people, leaving assassins and people that can't go head to head in a fight useless =(

[chivas]

Viranth he said "third person perspective that can fit in with our gameplay design" :P

Thanks for the update and I can appreciate what you're getting at here.

Beta stages where you have no gameplay have always baffled me, because a non-professional tester is totally useless to the development process. He'll check it out for 20 mins and put it away until it's not only playable but also fun. Then and only then will he MIGHT be of some use as a server load. 99% of the "beta testers" just want to play.

I don't understand what all the whining has been about. I see good and steady progress and I think you guys are doing a great job. Don't be rushed.

[Naguk]

I'd say rush the product, why change the standard?

Oh yeah...

[Mayseth]

the latest being an optional third person perspective that can fit in with our gameplay design.

Notice the 'gameplay design' part? It probably means it'll be FPV but from behind the character, ie. even if you can rotate 360 degrees you won't see players behind you. It's called a fog of war.

Live with it you FPV activists ;p

[Gunther TheBlack]

Originally posted by Viranth@Sep 30 2003, 11:57 AM
Nono, 3rd person? That just ruins the entire backstabbing of people! Now you won't be able to sneak up on people, leaving assassins and people that can't go head to head in a fight useless =(
They say optional tpv.
Maybe tpv can only be used when standing still or perhaps you get armor or hp handicaps when using tpv. They can implement it so that the main view will still be FPV.

[Mayseth]

What a stupid idea Gunther :) Penalize someone because they prefer a different view than you? That seems mean.

[Viranth]

Maybe tpv can only be used when standing still


That's kind of what I don't want. Usually people try to backstab someone who's not moving, but standing still.
And armor/hp handicaps? I don't think they'd do that just because people prefer that over FPV.
I'm just wondering why because assassins and people with little or no armor will rely on not being spotted, and with TPV they will have a much harder time sneaking up on their prey.

[Mayseth]

Unless it's implemented how I said, where there's a fog of war that won't let you see behind you or to far to the sides.

[Caramon13]

"the latest being an optional third person perspective that can fit in with our gameplay design"

Great idea, obviously they read the boards =]

So when's the expected player beta going to begin?

And when will the beta registration be available? I'd feel better just having my name in the list.

[Agrovale]

TPV is for peopel who can't live the thrills and speed at which fpv gives. it takes away from the feeling of not knowing what behind you, tpv takes that away. In fpv, you always keep moving and always checkign behind you, and tpv removes that vital element of emotional gameplay.

[NText]

Originally posted by Agrovale@Sep 30 2003, 01:01 PM
TPV is for peopel who can't live the thrills and speed at which fpv gives. it takes away from the feeling of not knowing what behind you, tpv takes that away. In fpv, you always keep moving and always checkign behind you, and tpv removes that vital element of emotional gameplay.
It is so easy to post only the cons to a tpv system.

Try this:
In a tpv system I can see my team's movements and thus can react better to sudden concentrated attacks on them. I can thus throw much needed healing at the right times and help the team be more than the sum of its components.

I guess only people who have done team PvP will understand this..

There are pro's and con's to both tpv and fpv - until we get to try out the options its impossible to say how well they have been implemented and pointless moaning about it.

[AshTheUgly]

Thanks for the update Tasos, much appreciated.

[Andonis]

Thanks for releiving alot of us Tasos everyone has been busting for a decent update, keep up the gw.

[Mieszko]

THanks alot for the update Tasos im sure alot of people have been waiting for it.

[Ren]

Originally posted by Tasos@Sep 30 2003, 01:52 PM
What you can look forward to in the immediate future as we move forward with our closed beta, is the beta registration process for individual players and for guilds to open up, a new Darkfall website, screenshots from our current build...
Interesting. So your beta registration process will also accomodate guilds? I think this is a good way to handle it. To often it becomes a willy-nilly distribution of guild invites at awkward times.

[Darwin]

Any news from Tasos or another developer is good news IMHO!

TPV "within our design" may be anything: scrying, astral projection, a short term spell etc. It may be good for the game, and not a pvp and sneak killer.

[GhostCow]

It's nice too have an update. Too bad this thread is going to turn into a fpv vs tpv debate

[Korzaad]

First, let me say that I don't know what RW has up their sleeves as far as pov goes, however, I really liked the way that they said DF was going to be FPV because it makes for a more overwhelming and chaotic battle environment, the way real battles are. An optional 3rd person view point is like optional tells, if you don't use it, your going to be handycapped and everyone is going to think your an idiot. I'll state my opinion, just in case anyone cares, that either they have to have no 3rd person view, or it needs to be very handycapped (fog of war, harder to see what you're doing in combat, less range on vision, ect)

[ChewY]

no need for 3rd person, this is part FPS after all and almost every multiplayer fps does not have 3rd person due to fairness.

[Veilroth]

A long awaited update... Thanks! :D Take your time guys :)

[soy]

TPV really doesen't bother me much.. Personally in bf1942 I prefered beta when it was in the game.. Cause then I could watch myself dance around as infantry. It really doesen't screw up any game mechanics, even if you are using it to watch behind you.. You still need to go back to FPV to aim.. Unless you're using a targeted spell I guess.. But in that case theres casting time and etc..

Anyways, whatever..

Just make the game fun and I'll play. I need somethin.. Tired of BF and halo just isn't holding my interest.

[BurgerKing]

Think we could make this update more of a weekly thing? I love getting new news!

It's great to know that they've been in tech beta for ALMOST A MONTH WITHOUT TELLING US. :rolleyes: What I'm most looking forward to "... is the beta registration process for individual players and for guilds to open up, a new Darkfall website, screenshots from our current build, in-game movies, and of course our regular content updates. " I love new stuff!

On the optional TPV:

If they can implement TPV that would offer NO ADVANTAGES, them I'll all for it. The FPS style combat is the biggest reason I want to play DF over every other game out there. I love CS, Quake, etc as much as I love MMORPGs, to combine the two is my dream come true. Giving people an advantage while in TPV would make FPV pointless. Only good thing about TPV - you can take screen shots of your character, period. Everything else about it just sucks (odd camera angles, peeking around corners, seeing whats behind you).

[Airius Droc]

Thank you for the update, it's appreciated. In the case of development status, no news is never good news. :)

[Dracul Fey]

ya we need weekly dev updates, and SCREENSHOTS, movies. bleh you all (rw) dont talk enough.

[foggen]

we want more, we want more, we want more, RIOT

[Mars]

Originally posted by chivas@Sep 30 2003, 12:58 PM
Beta stages where you have no gameplay have always baffled me, because a non-professional tester is totally useless to the development process. He'll check it out for 20 mins and put it away until it's not only playable but also fun. Then and only then will he MIGHT be of some use as a server load. 99% of the "beta testers" just want to play.
I completely agree. It's great to be in on the design process and have your opinion counted as the devs are tweaking their game, but I can't figure out why any player or game company would want to beta test an incomplete game. Why start a public beta on an incomplete game with known bugs? Fix the bugs, finish the game, and then let us have a look.

In the meanwhile we're doing our best to get everything ready, and we'll do what we can to keep you up to date on Darkfall's progress.
That's all we ask. Just keep us informed. B)

[Blade]

Guys, its obvious they wont put something in that will ruin the fps part of the game. I imagine that the TPV will be just right behind the character, so that you can see your toon (which is what most of the pro TPV people want) but you cant see anyone aproaching from behind.

[Yggdrasil]

Great, Nice to see some news from the devs :)

[foggen]

yes indeed, we kinda needed it :D

[Froam]

Thanks for the update... sounds like things are really pulling together :)

[Dozier]

please give us EXACTLY what you mean by a TPV that fits into your design, for the love of god *curses

[Flare]

Yey this makes me so happy this is a game im really looking foward to after Shadowbane.....ow

[kender]

its great to have a company give regular updates

best idea since most other games are very sparing with what they are doing/planning..

thanks guys for the hard work.. and hope to kill you in game for making me wait so long :)

[Dominus]

Nice to see some new info. I agree with a few other posters of said we should have weekly updates. Weekly updates will help satisfy our info cravings and thus make people a lot less cranky :angry:

[Critter]

good work guys. i think most of us would prefer to wait a little longer and have a better qulity beta to test.

[Bartacus]

Ofcourse we don't like to wait, but what we specially don't want is something woth not good quallity.

And I also prefer weekly updates with screenshots and maybe little ingame movies.

But I would be most satisfied when all racial descriptions are online...

[Nitzel]

Thanks for the update Tasos can't wait to see those screenshots and movies should give a great insight into how everythings progressing

[Anainn|Glondar]

First and foremost, thanks for the update. I am soooo looking forward to beta. :)
Secondly, has it occured to anyone that tpv may only be being developed for specfic events, such as running in a town / city? Just because they are working on tpv does not mean that you will always have the ability to use tpv.

Just my 1 cents worth.

[Zeralith]

Thank you for the update!
It's good to hear from the Darkfall Devs.

Downloadable in-game movies, will be awesome!!!

..... Nightrunners of Anainn, Leading the Mahirim Pack (http://www.anainn.com/df)

[malarkie]

i cant wait to see some good ingame movies....hopefully they will have some of PvP action :D

[Khazym]

Heh,
Cant wait for beta to start and game to get underway.... then I can totally neglect rl again! :D

[Ramlarh]

thx was Wondering what was goin on :D

[Drakhan]

Yay good news.
Cant wait :)

[Barid_bel_Medar]

Excellent, has there been any posting as to whether or not there will be roleplay servers?

[Dominus]

Heres a question for ya Mr. Tasos... When we gonna get some new race(dwarf) lore?!

[Johan Kingsblade]

I have been checking everyday for a status update. Im sure im not the only one. Keep them comming! :D

[Strelor]

man i realy cant wait for this game to go gold...hell beta is just as good to get me a fix =P This update brings hope to me and my lack of mmorpgs at the moment. (canceled my SB account a month ago)

[Satan]

I've been sick the past 2 days, and then I read this and was instantly better!

THANKS DARKFALL DEVS!

(was a great and needed update)

[Neonixz]

Coolies. :P

Glad you guys keep us updated.

[itzkurt]

Good to hear an update on the issue.. we've all been going nuts over it. One thing that I really admire is the honesty the DF team has shown in their interaction with the community. No fluff.. no shady business.. just straight forward answers. I can damn near wait forever with the level of professionalism the devs have shown. Big ups to DF.

TPV.. I'm all for it *if* you can maintain a level of balance (which you obviously seem to feel the same about).

[Alistair]

Great to have an update, you folks seem to be continuing on in the same path to glory :D Take your time and by all means set a new standard for the genre! Some of us have been wating a long time for it to happen, hehe.
--Alistair

[SkipMeister]

Thanks for the update. Looking forward to how the game developes during beta.

&nbsp; is the beta registration process for individual players and for guilds to open up

Just what we don't need, entire guild systems let into the beta so when the game goes gold they can mop up the non beta testers on their server like we saw in ShadowBane. Alot of players left over that one within the first couple of months of SB's gone gold life.

The monster guilds will kick and scream for not letting them in in mass but let them. They shouldn't have the advantage of learning the ins and outs of the game as a unit from server wipe to server wipe. Those not in beta will never be able to catch up for a year or more, literally, and many accounts will be lost over it.

SkipMeister

[tphatt]

I like the idea of third person view...U GUYS THAT R AFRAID OF IT R JUST A BUNCH OF LOOSER'S THAT CANT PLAY A GAME WITH OUT CHEATING OTHERS OUT OF THE FUN IN THE GAME...everyone that ever played a game knows that in FPV there r just TO many blind spots to make a PvP game any fun!
It may be fun for the wimpy Im a theif cause Im no good at PvP melee combat but it sucks to those of us that like to mix it up in true gory fashion. ;)
So I say nay to FPV and bring it in TPV if U got the Cahone's B)

[xeron]

Originally posted by Gunther TheBlack@Sep 30 2003, 11:53 AM
No need to rush things
Definitely... I remember being impatient about shadowbane's release, but yeah, we know how that turned out... Take your time please :) I'll find other things to occupy my time with until its release.

[Harmor]

I agree with Xeron. Please take your time and polish the game.

Eventhough Shadowbane, AC2 and EVE have fixed many of the problems since I last canceled my accounts, I'm not going back and I will not go back and I'll encourage my friends not to go back either.

As a software developer I know its usually the publishers who force the game out...and not the developers. Its really unfortunate when a game comes out 4 months too early...

[Raheed]

i say take your time but you see SB also took theirs for the most part i mean they had like 4 years lol 2 of which we have no clue what they where doing but i will give DF to the end of 2005 but i should also see some massive changes not like oh we made to so you can jump 1 foot instead of 4 inch if thats all the improvment we got after 2005 i will hunt you all down and kick you square in the nutts ok thank you bye bye.

[qePs]

Originally posted by tphatt@Oct 13 2003, 05:44 PM
I like the idea of third person view...U GUYS THAT R AFRAID OF IT R JUST A BUNCH OF LOOSER'S THAT CANT PLAY A GAME WITH OUT CHEATING OTHERS OUT OF THE FUN IN THE GAME...everyone that ever played a game knows that in FPV there r just TO many blind spots to make a PvP game any fun!
It may be fun for the wimpy Im a theif cause Im no good at PvP melee combat but it sucks to those of us that like to mix it up in true gory fashion. ;)
So I say nay to FPV and bring it in TPV if U got the Cahone's B)
Uh, this makes no sense at all. It's harder to play with FPV and how would you cheat out others with that view? It's the same for everyone. To me it looks like you are the wimp since you are afraid of being backstabbed. Get yourself some cojones.

[Mortikhi]

Where's the Beef?

[tphatt]

Its not about weather or not the veiw is the same its the prefference thats at issue brainiac...! <_< It is clear to me that this game will be full of ignorrant ass people that think that the only ways is there own! well those of us that preffer a different perspective should be aloud to have one with out rassing from the ignorent mass's or what seems like faciast idiots! On a lighter note I am looking forward to this game and all...I repeat ALL that it has to offer. ;)

[Andonis]

I beleive tphatt dons't know the reasoning behind the FPV element , player immersion plays a big role, read all the reasonings behind it first, I am not anti-TPV either if it is implemented correctly I beleive it would be a fine option to have, and as its been said before DF is not for everyone so don't expect it to tend to everyone's needs tphatt.

[Thundertrod]

Just because their is A third person view dos not mean that.
The game will render players and objects that you don