I have put togethe a guide to getting starting in Darkfall here:
 
Darkfall Survival Guide
 
I will be updating with more information, and some videos as soon as the beta servers come back up.
 
Enjoy.

Nice guide.

Quests mark in the map where you have to go?

 Yes, they put dots on your map. At least the starter quests do. I haven't done a whole lot of them.

The world is big enough that they are really needed for a nub. People starting out would get totally lost in the wilderness.

bump for a good guide.  I remember reading it in the beta forums when you had the image of the guy smacking the other.

Heh, the first post I read in that "survival guide" involved placing yourself in the path of a guy shooting magic missiles in the air (by climbing the tree his back was against) just so that he could be tagged and that you could kill him, helped by the towers.

I stopped reading right there.

If your average survival guide involves what pretty much amounts to exploits to deliberately trick others into attacking you, just so that you can attack and kill them, I'm afraid I'll have to take a pass on this game. 

Because this is ridiculous.  Fair fights? "Oh, we don't want those. We'll trick this guy into fighting us."  If Aventurine isn't paying attention, they're idiots, and deserve the bankruptcy headed their way.

I'll tell you what will happen with Darkfall:

Phase 1: Roving ganksquads drive away any PvEers (if they don't get bored first), economic players, and, yes, PvPers who don't approve of ganking.

Phase 2: Large guilds take over, dispose of the ganksquads, and quickly kill off any political struggle in the game by taking over chunks of the map.

Some give it three months before it starts plummeting.  But with such advance publicity by people gravitating around the game, I'm not sure I'd give it that long.

If you're not paying attention to what they're saying outside of the Darkfall "community" (which is pretty much like an open-doors gangsters' convention in 1920's Chicago: "Okay, we're all gangsters, now can we go back to killing each other?"), I'll clue you in: They're glad Darkfall exists (so no vaporware trolls there, though some have been skeptical) because it will give the sociopaths a place to play far, far away from where they'll be playing. 

And no, it's not necessarily WoW they're playing; I'm getting the indication that there are many PvPers who are concerned about what is going on here.

And while I don't necessarily agree with the "sociopaths" part, guides such as these don't reassure me in the least.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

Heh, the first post I read in that "survival guide" involved placing yourself in the path of a guy shooting magic missiles in the air (by climbing the tree his back was against) just so that he could be tagged and that you could kill him, helped by the towers.

I stopped reading right there.

If your average survival guide involves what pretty much amounts to exploits to deliberately trick others into attacking you, just so that you can attack and kill them, I'm afraid I'll have to take a pass on this game. 

Because this is ridiculous.  Fair fights? "Oh, we don't want those. We'll trick this guy into fighting us."  If Aventurine isn't paying attention, they're idiots, and deserve the bankruptcy headed their way.

I'll tell you what will happen with Darkfall:

Phase 1: Roving ganksquads drive away any PvEers (if they don't get bored first), economic players, and, yes, PvPers who don't approve of ganking.

Phase 2: Large guilds take over, dispose of the ganksquads, and quickly kill off any political struggle in the game by taking over chunks of the map.

Some give it three months before it starts plummeting.  But with such advance publicity by people gravitating around the game, I'm not sure I'd give it that long.

If you're not paying attention to what they're saying outside of the Darkfall "community" (which is pretty much like an open-doors gangsters' convention in 1920's Chicago: "Okay, we're all gangsters, now can we go back to killing each other?"), I'll clue you in: They're glad Darkfall exists (so no vaporware trolls there, though some have been skeptical) because it will give the sociopaths a place to play far, far away from where they'll be playing. 

And no, it's not necessarily WoW they're playing; I'm getting the indication that there are many PvPers who are concerned about what is going on here.

And while I don't necessarily agree with the "sociopaths" part, guides such as these don't reassure me in the least.

First of all the guy was AFK macroing. I see being able to kill AFK macro/botters as a damn good thing.

They have changed the alignment system some to address the issue of accidentally flagging grey, and have done so in a manner that will still allow players to deal with AFK botters, even in town.

Darkfall sounds like it is not the game for you. The developers have always intended it as a niche game for a particular audience. I am one of those people, and I can assure you I am not a sociopath. Have fun playing whatever game has features you are looking for.

As for your predictions based upon a very limited understanding of both how the game works, and how the developers are approaching it, time will prove you wrong.

---

Originally posted by oddjobs74
This sounds like a game that would sell out and be very popular in France. LOL
RUN away.
If you see someone, RUN away.
If something is beating you, RUN away.
Always have enough materials to facilitate your successfull RUN away.
If there is any question, RUN away.
At all times you should RUN away.
If you are fighting a mob and a guy comes near you, RUN away.
If you are runing away, RUN away better.
LOL sounds like a blast..

---

This is the exact impression I've had from all of the videos I've seen of the game thus far. PvP is more like a game of tag than anything else. It's a combination of a Monty Python sketch and a Benny Hill chase sequence. The in game music should be Yakety Sax.

Good guide.

Unfortunately the game should have the mezzes you find in so-called carebear games like WoW and Warhammer which prevent people from running away from a fight. Otherwise the game will be like pre-nerf SWG when they had Jedi who would always be running away from a tough fight.

Like any game with FPS combat standing still will get you killed quickly.

The main reason I emphasize running away so much is that new players used to other MMO's will have the tendancy to stand and fight when they shouldn't. And doing so will result in a big setback.

Once you have learned more about the game, you will know when to fight and when not to. But a newb will hold on to their gear a lot better if they get used to running away early and often.

The most important survival tip IMO would be cutting up your credit card, so you don't actually buy the game..

But hey iam sure there is other great tips also.

Originally posted by gotung88

Originally posted by Vetarnias

Heh, the first post I read in that "survival guide" involved placing yourself in the path of a guy shooting magic missiles in the air (by climbing the tree his back was against) just so that he could be tagged and that you could kill him, helped by the towers.

I stopped reading right there.

If your average survival guide involves what pretty much amounts to exploits to deliberately trick others into attacking you, just so that you can attack and kill them, I'm afraid I'll have to take a pass on this game. 

Because this is ridiculous.  Fair fights? "Oh, we don't want those. We'll trick this guy into fighting us."  If Aventurine isn't paying attention, they're idiots, and deserve the bankruptcy headed their way.

I'll tell you what will happen with Darkfall:

Phase 1: Roving ganksquads drive away any PvEers (if they don't get bored first), economic players, and, yes, PvPers who don't approve of ganking.

Phase 2: Large guilds take over, dispose of the ganksquads, and quickly kill off any political struggle in the game by taking over chunks of the map.

Some give it three months before it starts plummeting.  But with such advance publicity by people gravitating around the game, I'm not sure I'd give it that long.

If you're not paying attention to what they're saying outside of the Darkfall "community" (which is pretty much like an open-doors gangsters' convention in 1920's Chicago: "Okay, we're all gangsters, now can we go back to killing each other?"), I'll clue you in: They're glad Darkfall exists (so no vaporware trolls there, though some have been skeptical) because it will give the sociopaths a place to play far, far away from where they'll be playing. 

And no, it's not necessarily WoW they're playing; I'm getting the indication that there are many PvPers who are concerned about what is going on here.

And while I don't necessarily agree with the "sociopaths" part, guides such as these don't reassure me in the least.

 

First of all the guy was AFK macroing. I see being able to kill AFK macro/botters as a damn good thing.

Oh, I agree, kill the little blighters. In fact, the game should allow you to without resorting to such tactics.  However, the way you put it just send a very strange message that all you need to do is to get the other guy to hit you first, and based on what you can read on these forums, it's something that is getting exploited to no end.

They have changed the alignment system some to address the issue of accidentally flagging grey, and have done so in a manner that will still allow players to deal with AFK botters, even in town.

Not sure how that will work out, though.  They are, after all, unproven developers.

Darkfall sounds like it is not the game for you. The developers have always intended it as a niche game for a particular audience. I am one of those people, and I can assure you I am not a sociopath. Have fun playing whatever game has features you are looking for.

You're right, it's probably not for me.  It looks like small guilds and unaffiliated players are just fodder for the rest, and I'm a bit concerned about that.  Besides, based on what I read here there is a lot that I would have liked to see in the game that just isn't, like trading (besides, my cynical side tells me, "what's the point of being a trader if the other guy can just kill you and loot your sorry corpse instead?").

As for your predictions based upon a very limited understanding of both how the game works, and how the developers are approaching it, time will prove you wrong.

Depends on whether it's Shadowbane or EVE.  Shadowbane was a very stagnant thing once the major alliances started taking over, though I only played when it was F2P and the Asians pretty much controlled every server but two.

EVE, well, I have my doubts about it as well (though I've never played it).  The vastness of space just prevented one side from having a stranglehold, but 0.0 was pretty much controlled by two alliances (not sure how recent events will play out, though), so there wasn't much of a political struggle there, just a perpetual war between two oversized factions.

 

There were 2 big things that facilitated huge zergs in Shadowbane.

1) Summon Chains and Tree Hopping allowed giant armies to quickly get anywhere

2) Unlimited bind spots on Tree's meant one town could serve as the base for the entire zerg.

In Darkfall teleporation is extremely limited. An army can't defend a city on one side of the map then attack another on the other side of the world five minutes later.

Clanstones also have limited bind points. Zergs will need many cities and hamlets for all of their players. If they try to create a zerg with only one major city, the players that can't bind there will feel like second class citizens, and the zerg will split up.

Finally, when you are involved in a siege ALL of your cities become vulnerable. Combined with no insta-travel zergs will have to split up to defend all of the cities in their territory.