DF1 is dead and DF2 is not yet born.

Thus, Darkfall is... not?

Regarding the whole "pvp sandbox" thing, just read some threads on these boards and you'll get some input. You'll get everything from people claiming DF1 was a full-fledged sandbox and the best game ever to others saying it was a themepark and a deathmatch arena/"gankfest"/whatever.

Originally posted by ereyethirn
I'm sure many people on here have played at least the original darkfall, however I am unable to find anwhere anything about the game other than its sandbox and it has open world pvp. Is it simply an open world pvp sandbox game or is there more to it than that? 

DF 1.0 had to stages of life.

The launch was plauged with everyone fighting over a few nooby spawns.  Anyone can loot a tombstone, theres friendly fire, and the criminal system barred you from using npc towns (there were chaos towns however for criminals)

The end result was a lot of people who would have enjoyed the game left due to an inability to progress.  This stage was DF's most populated time.

Second phase was after most people left.  Those who stayed were hardcore FPS pvpers, the game lacked snadbox PVE'ers.  The pvpers macroed their skills up, which would have taken 1-2 years of normal play to do.  NPC towns were empty, noobs never had anything of value.  Noobs were not targeted by vets with macroed skills, and if they did get ganked, were never looted beyond consumables,regs, and gold...and even then most could tell by the loot that they had killed a noob and often led to a conversation and free gear bags ect.

This phase of the game was mostly pvp politics and clan holding wars.  The game was lacking random open world pvp due to a massive world size, the fact that most were in clans that had holdings, and pvp was either seiges or going to raid a holding/nearby farming mob spawn where you knew people would be.

Throught he corse of the years the devs consistantly removed grind, as the current players being pvp FPS'ers promised that grind was the reason few played...every time they made the grind easier the pop remained the same.

What the new version will be is 1.0 with a smaller world, roles over everyone can be everything at once, slight combat mechanics like crosshair wobble and momentum (no one knows how this will effect gameplay), my assumption is that this is an effort to remove the quake style combat and make it more mount n blade ish. Also new graphic effects, mob spawn make over and stuff like that.

So what is Darkfall in a nutshell?  Its a full loot pvp sandbox that offers clan holding seiges, naval warfare, and the standard full loot cycle of life (grind for stuff to make gear, gear dies fast through pve use or pvp loss)  Use a skill against a valid target and it gets stronger slowly.  Skill gains are super fractional.  This means that the mis-perception that vets are unstoppable can be over come by the vet missing one shot and you landing all, one missed shot negates roughly the gap between a player with 50 stats and a player with 100 stats.  I was bad at pvp (i lack FPS skills) and my maxed character would lose often to newer players who could continually move and land shots on me while i fumbled and missed important skills.

Play this game if you are not afraid to lose easily replacable gear, enjoy siege warfare endgame, and enjoy clan politics that often would involve 3rd parties crashing a seige, siding with you because they hate the other clan more, or against you because there was a secret backroom deal which will be denied by the 3rd party clan who may kill a few of the people who hired them to appear to be a neuteral party there to loot (scroach) tombstones of the involved parties.

Endgame like this has infinately more replayablility than standard raid/pvp queue.

Oh also, there are semi instanced dungeons and open door dungeons.  Semi instanced youll need to port in to the open world dungeon, open door is you just walk right in.  There are "endgame" dungeons and spawns that offer mats to make the top tier gear and are very difficult...especially given there is friendly fire.

the original DF (1.0) was really innovative as it was one of the first mmos to combine fps combat, large seamless world, full loot mechanics,and sandbox elements like the ability to build houses, cities, boats, player crafting, control lands, etc.

back when it launched it was very ground braking, and a lot of people were very excited.

unfortunately some of the core game mechanics were flawed in principle and the game became nothing but an endless skills/stats grind just to "keep up" and not be at a disadvantage against those that did grind, as pvp pretty much was the only end game content. 24/7 macroing, and swimming against a wall became a necessity if you wanted to remain competitive in pvp, and a very large gap between nubes and vets started to show itself. most nubes were looking at months and months of grinding just to be be viable in pvp. Also the lack of classes (everyone could max any and every skill) made everyone exaclty the same, which make for a very bland experience. when everyone is the same nobody feels unique. most of us like to feel unique in some way, or at least have a defining role.

DF UW (2.0) is the same game re-launched ( Dec 12 now)  with some of the core mechanic changed, hopefully for the better. everything is wiped and the map will be different. also graphics have been upaded a bit. the grind has been curbed for the most part and "classes" of sorts have been added to create diversity.it also seems like they have added 3rd person view for combat for a more M&B feel( not confirmed).

by today's standards DF doesn't have a whole lot of sandboxiness to it as the building, crafting, and actual impact you can have on the world is not as in deapth as other sandboxes. however, it's still a great full loot pvp game with a very strong guild oriented backbone that simply just doesn't have a lot of competition in today's mmo market.

This is Darkfall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbIFSwrns0U

Darkfall is the game where everything matters and every moment ingame can be significant.

Your clan matters.

The city you own matters.

Your alliance matters.

Your skills matter.

Your stats matter.

In Darkfall you are the content and when you look back on it you dont think hey I'm great I did all the quests, its hey we defended our city for our mates and we had a ball. And then 5 minutes later you get your arse kicked when some bastards bring their ship to your city and blow the hell out of it. And then you came back and steal their ship and blow the crap out of their city.

Bring on DFUW.