Last week I was able to interview many of the major alliance leaders in the game, and get their take on the game so far, as well as the political landscape. I asked each one the same questions, and until now, they did not know how each other answered them.

I hope you guys enjoy the read, as it was an absolute nightmare trying to pull this off. If you enjoy the read, please click the bump button at the top of the article.

You can find it HERE.

Thanks!

good reply buddy

Excellent write up ...... thank you for the insight.

~Hairysun~

I was very impressed to see that guild leaders were willing to admit that "exploits/hacks/cheats" and "advertised features not being in game"  were problems.

Overall a good read and an insight into the politics of the game that many players don't see.

While not everything works in game, it's a deeper game than many people give it credit for.

nice one Paragus

lets hope that alliance communication improve over time also i propose you to make other article about alliance warfare in 1 month and keep a small track of major political changes

i let here yesterday map

I might have some good news for you Cosy.   One of my guild officers is some sort of computer science related major, and he has to make some sort of web app for a class project.   Apparently he says that video game related things have been done in the past, so I suggested to him to make an interactive influence map.   Basically it would chop the world up like a jigsaw puzzle, assigning a shape to each of the game's cities and hamlets.   The tiles can then be changed to different colors to reflect the influence of whoever controls them at any given time.   If the thing works out, your job might be a bit easier.

Originally posted by Paragus1

I might have some good news for you Cosy.   One of my guild officers is some sort of computer science related major, and he has to make some sort of web app for a class project.   Apparently he says that video game related things have been done in the past, so I suggested to him to make an interactive influence map.   Basically it would chop the world up like a jigsaw puzzle, assigning a shape to each of the game's cities and hamlets.   The tiles can then be changed to different colors to reflect the influence of whoever controls them at any given time.   If the thing works out, your job might be a bit easier.

//sry for thread derails

nice i really need help my web and photoshop skills are limited (this is firs major thing that i done in photoshop)

i work on a "2.0" version of actual map this is like a part look like http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/5717/progress.jpg all that zone are shapes once is done this will be ready for SVG format also i hope that will make the actual raw files down to 500-600 mb to 1,8 GB like now

what i really want is a API from AV so the map can update itself :)

//

on your article ask ppl about moving on a second server or a NA server in my opinion a second server will kill the actual game play will split clans and will be "losers" server the actual server keep "all the monkeys in one barrel" and this make player to deal whit problems dont avoid them, ppl have 2 major alternative deal whit a unlikely situation or quit the game

things that come in my head about a second server
when some player/clan get killed really hard they can just go on another server and start a new life there
if there is a NA server will bea more vulnerable to late night raids the actual server have ppl from all the world and that will provide ppl for all day
 

It may not necessarily be a "Losers" server.   There are a lot of reasons for moving even if you are in good shape.   My clan is leaning more towards moving and we have a hamlet.   I have some of my guild who live in the western part of the USA, and they get pings of around 200ish, while people in Europe are getting pings of around 50 (so I hear).  Also for prime time in NA, say around 7PM - Midnight, most of the EU people are asleep.   It would be much easier to find PvP during my prime time if everyone else was from my general region of the world.

Nice article. I like the strategic associations with Civ4 - something similar to Eve or Planetside, where its not just how fast you shoot/kill but also how good are your strategies and politics. Good read!

Originally posted by Paragus1

 Also for prime time in NA, say around 7PM - Midnight, most of the EU people are asleep.   It would be much easier to find PvP during my prime time if everyone else was from my general region of the world.

this is more a population problem and will help you on siege things if your city in on siege on your work hours there will be more EU player that NA so a clan whit lets say 50% NA  50%EU players will have the numbers *defend* a city almost 10h each day

also the ping is a major problem but can be "solved" if AV spend some money is a service like Limelight (this was quite good for eve players)

Lest we forget, Paragon also has the "ear of the devs" and is super cool cuz he gets published on MMORPG and other websites!

Don't worry Paragon, we didn't forget your pompousness :) It's nice to see you are back promoting the crappiest game out right now. Does the "ear of the devs" come with a paycheck?

Originally posted by HerculesSAS

Lest we forget, Paragon also has the "ear of the devs" and is super cool cuz he gets published on MMORPG and other websites!

 

Don't worry Paragon, we didn't forget your pompousness :) It's nice to see you are back promoting the crappiest game out right now. Does the "ear of the devs" come with a paycheck?

I have no problems seeing the flaws of DF, and I think that Paragon tends to have a balanced and fair evaluation of DF ( with just a touch of fanboiness, but all in all, his articles are the ones to read for the current state of affairs in this game ).

Your milage may of course vary....

Originally posted by Hammertime1

Originally posted by HerculesSAS

Lest we forget, Paragon also has the "ear of the devs" and is super cool cuz he gets published on MMORPG and other websites!

 

Don't worry Paragon, we didn't forget your pompousness :) It's nice to see you are back promoting the crappiest game out right now. Does the "ear of the devs" come with a paycheck?

 

 

I have no problems seeing the flaws of DF, and I think that Paragon tends to have a balanced and fair evaluation of DF ( with just a touch of fanboiness, but all in all, his articles are the ones to read for the current state of affairs in this game ).

 

Your milage may of course vary....

 

 

These seem to be the major pros and cons of the game as it is today.  Taken from the interview answers of the Clan Leaders.
 

Pros:

- Full loot PvP
- Mounted Combat
- Skill Based Advancement
- No Name-tags Overhead
- Collision detection
- Aimed Archery and Spells
- City Building
- Need for Diplomacy/Politics
- Massive Siege Warfare
 

Cons:

- Exploits/Cheating/Hacks
- Ordering/Buying of the game
- Missing Advertised Features
- Lack of Working City Siege Features
- The Grind
- Macroing
- No Doors/Gates for Cities
- Lack of meaninful/varied Political Options
- Poor Design of Cities
- Non-optimized Server for Massive Siege Warfare
 

(Since the Exploiting/Cheating/Hacking was mentioned by 2 different leaders of the Major Alliances that Paragus interviewed as being one of or their biggest issue in DarkFall... I hope that settles the debate about it being an "insignificant" or "rarely seen" issue). 

Originally posted by xzyax

 (Since the Exploiting/Cheating/Hacking was mentioned by 2 different leaders of the Major Alliances that Paragus interviewed as being one of or their biggest issue in DarkFall... I hope that settles the debate about it being an "insignificant" or "rarely seen" issue). 

i just want to comment this

it seams to me that AV dont have a automatic detection tool for repetitive actions and player movement

GM answer to macro reports = so other player have to report this
GM need to see a speedhack/teleport hacker "live" so even if you reporta GM have to see the hacker doing something

so AV need to develop tools to generate log for each player and i dont know how this will affect the server

Nice write up and outside of the goons they were some nice responses. Good to see not everyone has on rose colored glasses about the game. But if the game does come down to 2 mega alliances then it will be doomed as things will stagnate to a point. Still do not see the upside to the game but your write ups are still nice and well thought out. Never ask the goons a question ever again though.

Originally posted by parrotpholk

Nice write up and outside of the goons they were some nice responses. Good to see not everyone has on rose colored glasses about the game. But if the game does come down to 2 mega alliances then it will be doomed as things will stagnate to a point. Still do not see the upside to the game but your write ups are still nice and well thought out. Never ask the goons a question ever again though.

I would not worry about mega alliances. Some of the most powerful alliances in EVE were taken down by a group effort with 4chan and Something Awful...two groups that are basically just monkeys carrying AK-47s.

Nice right-up at any rate, I liked all the responses, even the Goon's. They just go to show that even in the Chaos that is any Goonsquad group, there is always a central dash of Order.

Very good write up.  It shows what this game is about.  PvP.

Originally posted by cosy

Originally posted by xzyax

 (Since the Exploiting/Cheating/Hacking was mentioned by 2 different leaders of the Major Alliances that Paragus interviewed as being one of or their biggest issue in DarkFall... I hope that settles the debate about it being an "insignificant" or "rarely seen" issue). 

i just want to comment this

it seams to me that AV dont have a automatic detection tool for repetitive actions and player movement

GM answer to macro reports = so other player have to report this
GM need to see a speedhack/teleport hacker "live" so even if you reporta GM have to see the hacker doing something

so AV need to develop tools to generate log for each player and i dont know how this will affect the server

 

I agree with you...
 

However, according to Tasos they already have the necessary tools.

"Detection is very simple on our end."

forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php

By my count he's made at least a half-dozen different statements about Exploiting/Cheating/Hacks & Macroing.  Considering Aventurine's usual stance on communication... that's an almost deafening roar of feed-back on the subject.

He usually says something to the effect of how easy it is for them to detect those doing it, and that they will ban the offenders without warning. 

Trouble is... Reality and Tasos don't get along very well. 

Originally posted by ChaosTeen

Originally posted by parrotpholk

Nice write up and outside of the goons they were some nice responses. Good to see not everyone has on rose colored glasses about the game. But if the game does come down to 2 mega alliances then it will be doomed as things will stagnate to a point. Still do not see the upside to the game but your write ups are still nice and well thought out. Never ask the goons a question ever again though.

 

I would not worry about mega alliances. Some of the most powerful alliances in EVE were taken down by a group effort with 4chan and Something Awful...two groups that are basically just monkeys carrying AK-47s.

 

Nice right-up at any rate, I liked all the responses, even the Goon's. They just go to show that even in the Chaos that is any Goonsquad group, there is always a central dash of Order.

IMO goons have a bigger chances to win because the goon mentality
goons are very hard to grief also goons say we are terrible playing this game etc and this leave the enemy whit few ways to smack them or laugh at them in clan discussion forum

Originally posted by Paragus1

It may not necessarily be a "Losers" server.   There are a lot of reasons for moving even if you are in good shape.   My clan is leaning more towards moving and we have a hamlet.   I have some of my guild who live in the western part of the USA, and they get pings of around 200ish, while people in Europe are getting pings of around 50 (so I hear).  Also for prime time in NA, say around 7PM - Midnight, most of the EU people are asleep.   It would be much easier to find PvP during my prime time if everyone else was from my general region of the world.

But if you have both NA and EU players in the same guild, wouldn't you be able to defend your city/hamlet more "around the clock", so to speak? Wouldn't that be a good thing?

Paragus if i am not mistaken your clan formed/joined a new alliance can you say any words about that ? how you will deal whit bigger alliance and stuff

Sure.  We joined Savage Alliance about a week and a half before they got wrecked.   We were originally attracted to join them because many of them were North Americans, and had plans to migrate to the NA server down the road.   We were also under the impression that they were mostly going to stay as Ork / Mahirim.  We took part in some sieges with them, one I wrote about against Kill Cult, the others were defensive to protect the Redeption / IMAGE city, and again at the BKB city the night it was ultimately taken.

The people in the alliance were good guys, but their communication and coordination needed some work.  Exodus Syndicate is a guild that we have pretty much teamed up with since the game started because both of our locations were in very close proximity to each other and Moonclaw.   We also fought against them in AoC, and in that game I think we had a mutual respect for each other as competitors.   Exodus seemed to be kept out of the loop in SA, much more than we were, which struck as odd.  There was a meeting of alliance leaders (wrote about this as well) and they were not there for whatever reason.

During our time in Savage Alliance, while we were all located somewhat in the same quadrant in Agon, the distance between us and Exodus and the rest of SA was starting to become an issue.   There were many occasions were us and Exo would get attacked and the rest of SA would not be able to get to us, or get there too late.   The same could be said about us and getting to them on some occasions, but I always tried to make sure Inquisition made a presence when their cities were on the line.

After the blowout at the BKB city, many of the other guilds in the alliance began to reexamine their place and their future in SA.  Many guilds started to peel off and go their different ways, so us and Exodus went back to square one and decided to focus on a more localized alliance.   We teamed up with a lot of smaller guilds who base themselves out of Moonclaw, and are currently in what they are calling the "Primal Alliance" I think (not sure if that's the name they decided on).   This situation currently is ideal for us because at any given time, most of the alliance members are within 2 minutes of both our hamlets and Moonclaw. 

We currently are not sided with either Hyperion on CotC, so we can pretty much do whatever we want.  Most of our battles lately have been about restoring order to our part of the tribelands against a bunch of renegade wolf guilds who have set themselves up in a nearby town.  We still have close contact with another group of guilds allied a bit south of us, so we are prepared to back each other up if the shit hits the fan.

Paragus GL whit the new alliance and thx for the info

today i saw Hyperion forums and saw this and this just wondering if on diplomatic contact ppl must follow some kind of protocol ?

nope... you're free to negotiate whatever treaty or NAP (non-agression pact) you like.

btw these seams to be alliance numbers

Cairn - 749
CC - 1295
Cerberus - 238
Death - 653
Dawn Guilds - 162
Dusk - 1023
The Forest Republic - 334
Hyperion - 1663
Latin Federation - 750
Primal - 381
SA - 459
SB - 297
Stasis - 827
Yssam Coalition - 624