What Gaming Should Be

As an avid lifelong gamer, I try to describe what has worked well and poorly in games I've played, and in any given gaming scenario, to define how it could best be handled as a result.

Author: reillan

I got into Darkfall around the end of January, so I haven't been playing as long as some, but some of you who haven't gotten in yet may still be jonesing for more news, so I'll provide what I can.

Installation

When I first got the e-mail link to the game, I was so excited I fired up my computer and tried to start the download, despite the fact that it was 11pm and I had to go to work the next day.  After a bit of frustration trying to log in properly to download the file, I finally was able to do it.  The initial download file is small and came across quickly.

I clicked on the icon, and watched in horror as my download speed appeared.  It was downloading occasionally at up to 100k/s, but this came in bursts, and would on the next burst drop to 0, or go back up to only 40, and so on.  After trying for a few minutes, I shut my computer off and went to bed.

The next day before I went to work, I fired it up and left it sitting all day. Download speeds appeared to be as bad as before.  Until I got everything downloaded and got into game, they remained that way.  However, to Adventurine's credit, patching speeds have improved significantly since then - my last patch downloaded at around 800k/s.

First Impressions

The game loading screen and such have fairly bad graphics, reminiscent of something from the days of Wolfenstein 3D or Doom.  This concerned me unnecessarily, so I hope they'll work a bit on improving these.  Once I finally got into the game, I thought the graphics looked a bit hokey as well - buildings had sharp black lines to tell you exactly where they were, ledges had the same.  And then there was the difficulty of learning the UI (which is why I wrote my other lengthy post about it) and trying to figure out what I should be doing.  There is absolutely nothing, at least in beta, to helpfully tell me "hey, come speak to me."

There was a NPC character standing fairly close to where I spawned, and since this was the only character around, it seemed like the one I should talk to.  I walked up and tried clicking and such, but because I didn't understand the UI, I failed miserably in my attempts at communication and walked away.

At this point, I started to become a little depressed about the game.

But I persisted, exploring to the west a bit (I started in the western-most Elven city), and after seeing several more NPCs, I realized that only my lack of knowledge had prevented me from successfully speaking, and I went back to the beginning.  Now I was able to communicate and accept two quests.  Yes, just as I thought, the NPC closest to your spawn is the one who is designed to help you get your start in the world.

It was about this point that I decided to run in windowed mode instead of full screen, and it made a huge difference.  The big black lines I had seen earlier, that made everything look hokey, are simply not noticeable in a tighter resolution.  On release, I'll play as high resolution as my computer will let me, as a result.

So my first impressions were that the UI is not user-friendly (it's not) and that the graphics sucked, but the first I found I could learn my way past, and the second really started seeming more natural as I went through the game (additionally, because of the fairly natural passage of daytime and nighttime, the graphics started looking even cooler as time progressed).

What's good about the game

There's a lot to say for the game in terms of what's good, the first and foremost being that it really is your own skill that determines whether you live or die - more or less.  I'll get into the bad parts of this later, but the good news is that if you're willing to apply yourself, it'll be much more up to you, and much less up to how buffed your character is with equipment and skill points, that determines whether you'll rock.

The graphics really do grow on you, and now I look at them and think they're amazing. 

If you're into these sorts of things, city building and crafting are very important to game play and great if you're the kind of player who can't get equipment any other way. 

You can hear enemies long before you see them, usually - this means that you can often sneak up on someone, or at the very least avoid them more easily. 

What's bad about the game

While skill is the largest factor in determining your success, there are little things that you may simply not know, things like the reach of your weapon, that have a very large impact into how well you do.  Those who were in the beta longer and studied them more intently completely owned me everywhere I went.  This caused a problem in that I simply didn't have a desire to go out and get beaten down every time I spawned.

The alignment system really isn't a deterrent.  Because there are chaos cities and vaults in the wilderness where you don't need to be stuck inside a city, no one really cares if you're red, gray, or blue in alignment.  Sure, if you're in one of the starting cities it's a bit important, but outside of that - nope, not in the least.  The best you can hope for out of it is that if you're in a starting city, you have slightly easier access to wood and herb farming nodes and thus you can farm these to your heart's delight without fear (generally) of losing your stuff.  If you stay close to the vault, too, you can drop your stuff in it before your opponent kills you.

There is no way to get away when you're attacked.  Your opponent moves just as quickly as you do (and, oddly, sometimes faster) and the person chasing has the advantage of aim and ranged attacks.  Running away is one of those key abilities that every game should have - because there are times when you simply are outgunned, outmaneuvered, etc. and need to regroup and try to get yourself back in the game.  That doesn't happen with Darkfall.

One of the reasons it can't happen is because only when you're moving forward are you at your fastest.  If you try to run at an angle, or backwards, suddenly your speed drops off completely.  There's a reason why the Quake series of games had you moving in all directions at the same speed - because that gives you the greatest maneuverability and the greatest chance to fight on your terms rather than your enemy's.  Adventurine needs to learn that still for DF.

While crafting is cool, the resource requirements have at times been too high.  Adventurine has worked to fix this, but it's possible we could see them too high again in the future.  Just be aware.

What's wrong with slower movement?

First, as I already stated, there are times when you need to run away.  I'm going to assume that everyone accepts that as true.  In a game like Darkfall, where all movement other than straight forward is penalized in speed, that means that your only hope is running straight away.  However, your opponent can run just as fast and use weapons in the process, meaning that a straight line away is not exactly desirable either.

So you have to make a choice to try to turn right and left, to try to get away at an angle.  So, let's say that every second you can move distance X:

So every second, I cover this much ground.  Now if I turn to the right or left, my opponent can turn to pursue me without having to turn as much:

This means that if you try to turn, your pursuer will be able to catch up even more, regardless of how you turn.  Turning is basically suicide for anyone attempting to flee.

If you could strafe at the same speed as you run, then it would be no big deal - you suddenly break into an angular direction with no loss of speed and you can change that direction quickly and easily.  Perhaps more importantly, you give your attacker no indication of where you're going to go.  This means that he has to constantly react to you, and if you make multiple course changes quickly, this will give you an advantage.  But when your body actually has to turn in order to change direction, you're making a big wide circle, easy for the attacker to see and adjust to.

In Darkfall, at least, there should never be any reason why your prey should escape you.  And I posit this is bad, because sometimes when you're getting attacked, you need to get away.  There should always be a chance to escape.

Lastly: a note about realism.  The poster below said that you can't move at the same speed in real life, so it's more realistic this way.  Perhaps.  However, you also can't murder people at a whim without expecting some serious retribution.  Retribution in Darkfall is not serious, nor is it permanent.  If you chased me, I would head to some place crowded and well-lit, so that everyone could see, and that visibility would make you less likely to hurt me.  Darkfall doesn't care about such things.  Further, there are things I can do to you even while being chased that would slow you down, things that are not in Darkfall - such as trying to trip you, knock you or throw you to the ground, kick behind me, grab things and throw them over my head, and so on.  Finally, in real-life you have momentum, and that momentum is not easy to change.  If I am ready for it, I can use your momentum against you, to get you going the wrong direction, to trip you up, etc.  Since Darkfall has none of these things, it's not a reasonable argument to argue what is "realistic" - the game is just a game.

Introduction
DFUI is one of the most confusing and frustrating aspects of the game, purely because it is a completely different animal from every major MMO before it. In most MMOs, the mouse performs a function similar to that of a Windows or Mac desktop – that is, it is used to click on various things on the UI – but the mouse is barely involved in controlling the character. MMOs typically allow the player to swing the camera view wildly about, without turning the character, so that there is a disconnect between mouse activity and character activity. However, for the sake of laziness, it is usually possible to also control the character by using the mouse and holding down a button – for instance, holding down the right mouse button might allow the mouse to control character facing, and holding down both buttons might cause the character to move forward.

DFUI works differently, however, because of a different mindset in the creation of the game. First, the creators of Darkfall do not apparently believe that free camera movement is conducive to PvP, so the free mouse look feature is taken away. As a result, moving the mouse causes the character to move. But, this creates an additional dilemma – when the mouse and character weren’t directly tied together in other games, it was easy to click on various elements of the UI, such as icons for skills, but because the mouse is now tied to movement, it becomes impossible to move the mouse anywhere other than the center of the screen.

There is still a need to use the mouse, however, for some things such as resizing windows or moving icons. As a result, the DFUI utilizes a toggle system – you can toggle the mouse to be actively controlling the character, or you can toggle the mouse to be controlling the UI – but never both at the same time. And here’s where the frustration can come in – while toggled for controlling the UI, nothing (mouse, keyboard, etc) can be used to control the character. Either you’re controlling the character, or you’re manipulating your interface, but never both at the same time.

This means that you can’t move the mouse to click on an icon to, for instance, cast a spell or change equipment, because you have ceased to be controlling the character, and making those changes would be changing the character (there is a point where this blends slightly – you can drag stuff to or from your character while toggled for controlling the DFUI, meaning it is possible to equip swords, bows, and so on, but it is not the fastest method of switching).

Moving your character
You switch between character movement and UI manipulation by clicking the right mouse button. Simply click it to gain control of the UI if needed, or click it again to take over character movement. You can move straight while in UI manipulation mode by simply pressing numlock (as with most games). You won’t be able to look around you, but you will be able to, for instance, look at your world map or

Character movement is driven by similar mechanics to other MMOs – W moves forward, S moves backward, and A and D strafe left and right. As I said, this will only work while you’re in character movement mode, and will do nothing in UI mode.

Using skills and spells
One difficult aspect of this is “how do I use my skills?” This problem is two-fold, but I’ll explain why shortly. The first obvious answer is – “Press numbers” – the skill bar utilizes number presses, just like with most other MMOs. So, let’s say you put your sword and shield on numbers 2 and 3 respectively. You’ve been using another item – perhaps your bow – and you need to switch to your melee weapons. While in character movement mode (it won’t work in UI mode), simply press 2 and 3, and you’ll equip both sword and shield.

It becomes complicated, however, because of a mindset of “Equipping” vs. “Using.” When you press 2 to equip your sword, you’re not actively using your sword – you’re simply putting it in your hand. You have to draw the sword by pressing R before you can use them at all. Then, once it’s draw, click with the left mouse button (all of this must be done while in character movement mode) to swing the sword, and it swings in the direction that you’re pointing with your mouse at the time you click it. So, if you’re clicking somewhere other than your target, you won’t hit it. A bow works similarly – clicking while the mouse is aimed on a target causes the arrow to fire at that target (although there is an arc that the arrow takes as it flies, so it might hit the ground before it reaches the target). For both of these things, the equipping and using system seems fairly intuitive.

Where that intuition breaks down is on every other skill. When you want to rest, you have to use the “Rest” skill – but to use it, you have to first “equip” the skill by pressing the hotkey for it, and then left-click to initiate it. Just pressing the hotkey for the Rest skill will leave you standing around looking stupid.

This is slightly more complex when it comes to spellcasting. To cast a spell, you have to first equip your mage staff, then draw your staff by pressing R, then equip the spell to cast, then left-click to actually cast it. This is a fairly lengthy process when you’re first learning, but spells like Mana Missile can be cast quickly at this point by simply continuing to click with the left mouse button.

I want my loots
Loot is also a function of UI manipulation mode. This means that to loot bodies, you have to walk up to their tombstone, drop into UI, open your bag (if it’s not already open), click on the tombstone, and drag the items one at a time from the tombstone to your bag. This can be difficult if you’re in the middle of combat, since you’ll be unable to move your character while looting.

On a side note – nothing marks the loot as “yours,” even having the window open. If someone else runs up and starts looting as well, they could grab items you’re trying to grab. Grab what’s most important to you first.

Harvesting
Whereas looting is a function of the UI, harvesting is a function of character. This means that when you harvest, you have to be in character movement mode. Simply equip your harvesting tool (preferably by using a skill bar button), draw it (since it works just like a weapon) and attack with it when you’re facing the harvesting node. Your character will begin harvesting the node. Fortunately, there is no looting when you’re done harvesting – the resource is immediately transferred to your bag if you’re successful.

There is a small amount of confusion that arises from looting and skinning. Skinning is done on the tombstone just like looting is, but like the rest of the harvesting skills, it takes place in character movement via the use of a skinning knife. If you want to loot and skin, loot first, then toggle to character mode, equip the knife, draw the knife, and attack the tombstone. (Note: You can only skin a given tombstone once. Other resource nodes can be used multiple times, and will give you a message when they’re expired).

Selecting a target
Don't. Seriously, you can't - the DFUI doesn't work that way. In traditional MMOs, you click on an enemy, and then you can click on a spell or a skill and that ability will automatically go off toward the target. So if you want to heal someone, you select a member of your party, press "HEAL" - and boom, they're healed.

Adventurine seems to think that kind of gaming takes away from a person's skill, so in the DFUI, you never simply click on a target and begin using your abilities. Clicks don't "lock on" to a target as they do in other games - if I click on an enemy target, nothing seems to happen, and nothing will.

Darkfall is all about AIM. You aim at a target and use your skill - if you're reasonably close, your skill affects the target. This is easy when the target is stationary - resource nodes, tombstones, and talkative NPCs will all stay put, waiting anxiously for you to act. Where this gets very difficult, of course, is combat. Because combat is very tied to character placement, distance and movement are critical. Weapons that give longer reach, regardless of their damage, will mean that you have a greater ability to hit an enemy that's trying to stay outside your range, or one that's dancing around you. Additionally, strafing and moving rapidly around your target could make them face a different direction when they finally swing, keeping you outside of their attack arc.