Release the Kraken!!

One of the things I really wanted to see in the Darkfall expansion was the Kraken.  From the patch-notes:

The Kraken:

A new huge sea monster that eats ships for breakfast has been added to the world.

As usual with Aventurine, not much information to go on.  Where is he?  What does he drop?  Lots of questions but no answers.  Thankfully a European guild has faced the Kraken, bravely engaged it and were summarily executed for their temerity.  Not only did they face it, they filmed it, much to my delight.  I present to you, THE KRAKEN:

A few thoughts here.

• He is HUGE
• He is MEAN
• Graphically, he seems to be very well-done.
• I can not think of another MMO that has something quite like this.
• Many, many boats and swimmers will be lost to this monster.
• Queue the Jaws theme.

Come on Aventurine.  Patch NA-1.  NOW.

(The link above will allow you to purchase Darkfall, in addition I will get paid 20% of the purchase price.  This does not and will not taint my views of the game.  If I don’t like something about Darkfall, I have no compunctions about saying something about it.)

Edited to add another new Kraken video:

Some Things Never Change…

Even in Darkfall.

The Conquer the Seas free expansion was released last night on to the European servers (NA servers to get it today) and with them come a long, long list of patch notes.   There are some very cool features added; wildlife, new melee abilities, new ships and siege system but all anyone is talking about on the Darkfall forums are the nerf to magic.

A little background for those of you who do not play Darkfall, magic was horribly, horribly overpowered.  Melee and archery use was a rarity because you could destroy targets at range with magic.  AoE magic was completely overpowered.  Players would eschew archery at ranged because magic did not require the same steady aim that archery does.  Archery required a dead on hit to do damage, while many magic spells had “splash” damage, which allowed for damage even if the target was not directly hit.  This turned Darkfall into a magic heavy game, in which melee was reserved for finishing off opponents.

They fixed this in the expansion.  Melee can now use abilities that give them bonuses when fighting magic users, many magic abilities were given a cooldown, LoS now affects magic and even heavy armor give anti-magic resistances.  Magic is finally where it needed to be, with AoEs being effective only in large-scale combat.  Melee players and archers now have a fighting chance.

Of course, the forums are now full of whiners who can not believe that their precious magic is now not an instant I-win button.  They claim fervently that magic was over-nerfed and is useless now.  Are they correct?

I don’t know and neither do they.  The patch came out late last night and no one has been able to test it yet.  They may be correct but at this time no one knows for sure, yet they still make ultimatums demanding changes.  Can we not get a chance to test the changes before everyone loses their ever-loving mind?  This reminds me of the WoW forums everytime a change is announced to a class.

Calm down people.  Test the changes and then give constructive feedback to Aventurine.  Quit going bananas before we see what effect the change truly have in PvE and small and large scale PvP.  Take a deep breath, load up Darkfall and test.

This is the biggest reason why players make horrible beta testers.  We are simply too invested in our characters.  Every nerf or change to our class or play style is viewed as an affront to our dignity.  We can’t understand why it has to be our class or play style that needs to be nerfed, when obviously that other class or play style is much more powerful…at least in our eyes.

As far as balance within the game, I really think that the less the developers listen to our rabid ramblings the better.  We simply have no ability for rational thought when it comes to balance.  Whine first, test later.

(The link above will allow you to purchase Darkfall, in addition I will get paid 20% of the purchase price.  This does not and will not taint my views of the game.  If I don’t like something about Darkfall, I have no compunctions about saying something about it.)

Darkfall? Really?!?! Darkfall?!?!?

Darkfall Online is my current MMO of choice.  Yep, the same Darkfall Online that was ridiculed as vaporware.  The same Darkfall that was slaughtered in that bogus Eurogamer review.  The same Darkfall that Syp (of Bio-Break) said he didn’t play because he had good taste in games.

Yep, the same Darkfall that I am loving right now.

Darkfall is rough around the edges.  In some places (the U.I., character animations) it is really rough around the edges.  But, it has snared me none the less.  I am having lots of fun in the game and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

There are a lot of reasons for this.

First of all, I see so much potential in the world.  Agon (Darkfall’s world) is huge and non-instanced.  Of all the MMOs I have played, it feels the most like a real world.  It will seem even more alive after the newest patch, which adds deer, rabbits and other non-combat animals running around.  The game is perfect for those who like to explore.  There seems to be something new around every corner.  Dilapidated ruins, dank caves and undead tombs all make an appearance and contribute to the feel of the world as a real place.

Secondly, it’s PvP.  Total, unforgiving, only the strong survive PvP.  This is a turn-off for a lot of people but for me it is amazing.  I love PvP, always have.  I love ganking and getting ganked.  I love the sense of danger inherent in a true PvP game.  I loved it in DAoC, I loved it in WoW and I love it even more in Darkfall.  It is even better in Darkfall because there are no safe zones and when you die your entire inventory can be looted.  I am always looking over my shoulder in Darkfall, making sure that I come out of any PvE encounter with a good amount of health so if I get jumped I can fight back.  No other game gives me a feeling of constant danger.  Darkfall does.

Finally, and probably most importantly, Darkfall is like no other game I have ever played.  There is no other game like it on the market right now.  I have played “theme-park” MMOs for years and don’t get me wrong, I love ‘em.  I loved DAoC, I enjoyed WAR and I loved WoW (before the expansions especially) but I realized that I am burned out on them.  They are all the same at the core.  Questing is the same, leveling is the same, combat is the same and the endgame is the same.  The graphics change.  The races change.  But the core of the game does not, theme-park MMOs all have that same core.

Darkfall is totally different.  There are no levels, combat is in first-person (third-person while in melee) and there is no “click” to target.  There is no “endgame” as normally defined in MMOs because you can literally jump into the same content that players who have been playing for months in your first few days.  There are no instances to farm and the “holy-trinity” of tank, DPS and healer do not exist.

It’s refreshing enough that I can overlook the “rough around the edges” part.  The faults I find in Darkfall are not gamebreaking and in many ways Aventurine reminds me of Mythic in the early days of DAoC.  A small company just trying to find their way in a corporate dominated gaming market.  I can appreciate that, hell, I can cheer for that.

In a market of copycats, Darkfall is really different…

And, for me, that’s a good thing.

(I am going to add the same disclaimer that Syncaine adds to his posts about Darkfall:  The link above will allow you to purchase Darkfall, in addition I will get paid 20% of the purchase price.  This does not and will not taint my views of the game.  If I don’t like something about Darkfall, I have no compunctions about saying something about it.)