Update April 15

[Tasos]

-Darkfall's Siege System
-A rebuttal by Claus
-The new guy
-Travels on Agon

find it here (http://www.darkfallonline.com/devspeak/april15.html)

[Gaintlord]

link is fixed :)

Tons of stuff today! I like how you guys are trying to fix everything right.

Claus
Our main concerns have been:
- Countering/balancing 3AM raids
- Countering/balancing the use of Zerg tactics
- Increasing the risk and investment of the aggressors
- Lessening the penalty for loosing a city


This sound very good and shows you are trying to make every thing work!!! Keep up the good work!!

Also forgot to welcome the new member "Kostas Diamandis"! Have fun :)

[Mas]

I'll give it a try: <RPG Vault link> (http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/506/506327p1.html) B)

Claus saying what needs to be said.

*edit*

Oh wait its fixed :D

[itzkurt]

Woot.. the regular updates are very nice. Glad to see the devs opening up to us. Cheers.

Travels on Agon
Starting this week, we will give you a new perspective on the world of Darkfall. In a regular feature called Travels on Agon, written by BT Oren, you will get a close look at places you can visit when the game launches, as well as the people and monsters you'll encounter while there.

The travelogue will visit a different a place or region every 14 days. In addition to text-based observations, rich selections of graphical material (including screenshots) will indicate what the various locations and creatures look like in-game. As the series progresses, we will also use the travelogue to highlight and explain key aspects of Darkfall's gameplay.

I think this is a much better way to introduce new graphics to the community. It gives them more meaning rather than just being new eye candy. Awesome update.

[Archibald]

GL to -the new guy ;)

looking forward to reading and polling the travels on agon
(wonders if travel times will be included in the travel diary) ;)

[Phooey]

Sweet, thanks for the new info Tasos! Best of luck to the new guy, and I can't wait to start reading all of BT Oren's upcoming "Travels on Agon".

[Spawl]

The travelogue will give a different subject every 14 days and will provide information about the areas before the game launches. How long could this go on? Does this mean it will be something that is dropped well before the game is gold or is this an indication that beta testing and launch is earlier than some on the boards think?

Hmmm, more questions.

[Exodeus]

Originally posted by Spawl@Apr 15 2004, 08:15 AM
The travelogue will give a different subject every 14 days and will provide information about the areas before the game launches. How long could this go on? Does this mean it will be something that is dropped well before the game is gold or is this an indication that beta testing and launch is earlier than some on the boards think?

Hmmm, more questions.
hehe, good thing you brought it up :D saves me from having some angry faces :P

I am glad tho there finally is some action :)

[Jaggid]

I have liked the thought processes of these devs from the beginning, they see where others have failed and correct the issues.

That is one of the biggest problems with DAoC, the alarm clock raids there is no way to stop it unless you are lucky enough to have enough people online at the time.

[Niccoli]

I cannot believe the comment Mark Jacobs made. No, wait, I can. Just makes me that much LESS likely to check out Mythic's new game when it comes around. Obviously, he doesn't get it, which explains a lot about the many mistakes DAoC has made.
~RANT ON~
Trials of Atlantis for example, huge mistake. For a game that is supposed to focus on "Realm vs. Realm", their first two expansions focus mainly on PvE??? Didn't they have a mission statement, do they know what their game is about?? I thought I did, but with their last two expansions, I don't see it. Shrouded Isles was cool because it added a few races and new classes. Trials just added a ton more grinding (master levels and artifact levels). And after 6 months of people "grinding until their eyes bled" they are rewarded with nerfs that bring the Trials 'add-ons' down to a barely worth bothering level. Definitely not worth the months of time people put into them.

Perhaps Mythic will actually learn eventually to test things at the 'high end' or 'end game' of an expansion so they can realize in advance if its 'balanced'.

I didn't play Trials of Atlantis at all, fortunately I had already left the game. Friends of mine however stuck with it until the flurry of nerfs came through.
~RANT OFF~

Sorry for the rant, its just annoying when developers obviously don't get what the players want to see or what they see is lacking.

Claus, I can't sum it up any better than you did in your rebuttal. Way to go, you rock!!

The fantasy genre will never be bland to me, no game yet has gotten it 'right' yet. How can it be bland if no one had done it well??

The other announcements are exciting as well. Welcome Kostas Diamandis, more artists means more variety. Always a good thing. :D

[Morlem]

Yay! Particularly liked the story with screenshots and was happy to see that the orks spoke using real words and complete sentences. I'm not keen on RPing by acting stupid, and I'm glad that Orks are portrayed as civilized in their own orkish way. =)

I think the Lizardman shaman is the first higher rank npc I can recall. I liked that his appearance was only slightly different from that of the other Lizardmen, differentiated only by the neato hat. I hope I can wear the hat after killing a shaman and mock the Lizardmen!

[Virtra]

Great ideas Devs, I really gotta hand it to you on how you're dealing with the public. Of course the real test is when we start gettin in beta, but offering an informative hand to the public goes a long way.

[Jangang]

Nice set of updates. Keep em coming. :D

[Darkmatter]

Welcome to Darkfall, Kostas :)

What a rush seing all the updates..this made my day!

[Alistair]

Great updates. While i, personally, find it quite irritating to have to wade through all the BS to get to the info and screenshots of the game, i have to admit you guys are doing an EXCELLENT job with the stories and the way information is revealed in them.

Keep up the good work!

--Alistair

[kehmesis]

I really love the travels on agon feature. It was really interesting and a fun read. Keep up the great work!

[Teth]

Much love for the new Travels on Agon section. The first one was very interesting, and I'm hoping we see some of those terrain effects in-game. Claus' statement on the Waterthread boards isn't anything very revolutionary, although it does tell us that they've learned from Shadowbane's terrible, terrible errors.

What really warmed my heart, though, was Claus' rebuttal to Mark Jacobs. Oh man, those are my sentiments to the nth degree. I propose we make some sort of pagan deity out of Claus that we can idolatrously worship on specific days. He speaks divine pravda. :ph34r:

[Preston]

Originally posted by Teth@Apr 15 2004, 12:58 PM
Much love for the new Travels on Agon section. The first one was very interesting, and I'm hoping we see some of those terrain effects in-game. Claus' statement on the Waterthread boards isn't anything very revolutionary, although it does tell us that they've learned from Shadowbane's terrible, terrible errors.

What really warmed my heart, though, was Claus' rebuttal to Mark Jacobs. Oh man, those are my sentiments to the nth degree. I propose we make some sort of pagan deity out of Claus that we can idolatrously worship on specific days. He speaks divine pravda. :ph34r:
I agree, when Claus speaks his words are pure gold, just gold.

Great work Razorwax, beauty to my eyes to see all these updates!

[ryan10230]

Sounds good

[mudge80]

I've seen a lot of siege threads that I have not chimed in on since I have not had any siege experience in a game. I'll be interested in seeing what the veterans among us have to say about this. Looks good to me though.

I think claus's response to Mr. Jacobs is right on the mark. Im already bored to tears at the same old same old on SWG. Its not the races, I love orcs, elves, etc... its the game mechanics. (Though the Mahrim are a bit different)

Travels on Agon is a wonderful idea! I'm already playing the game in my head with respect to the interesting places and persons that you have already told us about. The world you have created as well as the experience you are preparing for us has me very excited. I look forward to the first stop!

Thanks again for the updates! :)

[Mhorham]

Very mature responce Claus. You got class man B)

And I think you were spot on about the existing mmorpg's being dry and boreing. I quit daoc because it was a silly leveling game with some other stuff taked on to it at the end. Mythic cant count me as one of their subscriptions. I think their game was unplaned and directionless. It is a very "Small" game.

[Uzik]

Very nice. I just wonder if in the travels page that orkish should be capitalized as Orkish lands because it shows ownership?

The story was very intertaining though and i cant wait for more of them to come.

[Decius]

This should be a nice feature that we can all look forward to regardless of how the polls turn out.

[Elric[GoD]]

Everytime Tasos posts an update, I salivate more and more for this game. Also, Mark Jacobs can't hang with Claus. :ph34r:

[Virtra]

hmmm april 22nd... tick tock tick tock... :P

[Virtra]

Today's the day (at least it is for me) can't wait to hear about the Mino's.