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In terms of graphics, game balance, flexibility of play style and competitive PvP(and ease of access to the PvP game), GuildWars knocks WoW into the floor several times over.
WoW does have a much more developed quest system and more idle content (such as the entire crafting system) but this is not generally so suited to the casual gamer - it requires a huge time investment. GuildWars also has some area's that require investment of time, but they are not critical to progress in the game. When it comes down to pure content, WoW is the Walmart of the MMO world, but when its about actual game balance and the quality of content, GuildWars would be the Target of online games. At the end of the day, each game appeals to it's own audience. |
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Player rankings are now calculated in an off-line process every Tuesday at midnight CST. The on-demand rankings were killing the database, leading to lag in-game and slow web-site response times. Hopefully, this change will improve performance for everyone in-game and on the website. Additionally, when viewing your rankings from your profile, if you select the category link it will display the rankings table with your rank highlighted in red. Making it so much easier to compare your rank against your friends. NOTE: This does NOT affect your in-game rank or prestige calculations. This change only affects the "website" player to player rankings. ---------------------------------- What this means for you: There has already been a marked decrease in the amount of perceived lag when in-game. It is, admittedly, by no means perfect, and the development team are still working on important back-end changes to hopefully improve performance for the next release version. However, the game servers should be a lot more stable from now on. |
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Population increase in the real world tends to offset the increase in supply to a degree, that and we also waste a large amount of the resources that are available.
Unfortunately, most MMO's tend to lose population over extended periods of time rather than gain, although the two major exceptions to this rule would be in WoW and EvE, yet even they are likely to hit the same roadblocks eventually. |
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They might buy the IP, engine and technology just to prevent another company getting it, but they wouldn't bother investing in developing it.
Look what EA did with EnB which was still a viable project when they closed it down. They aren't going to waste money developing a tile with a user base as low as DarkSpace. EA and the other big game publishers are only interested in cash-cows and mostly generic game titles and themes. Believe me, DS would have been shelved long ago by any commercial developer. They simply aren't interested in niche products or markets. |
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That is true.
When you create an account you are immediately in 'Demo' mode which means you can gain statistics and badges, but those gains will not be calculated into a prestige(exp) total. 'Demo' mode is not subject to any time limits, you can play like this for as long as you like although access to certain game features and the larger ships is restricted. This does not mean that 'Demo' players are ineffective - they play important roles. When you do create your account and activate it, you will get sent a 14day 'trial' coupon. This simply allows you the full privileges of being subscribed for 14 days. You will still only be able to access the ships that your statistics have so far earned, yet you can redeem this coupon at your own leisure (ie. create an account, play for a month unlocking badges and stats and then use the coupon and gain access to any prestige you have so far earned) You do NOT need to submit any credit card details to activate your account or to redeem a coupon. This information only ever needs to be provided if you wish to actually pay the $9.99 a month subscription cost. We are able to support this because we have a very active game staff (Moderators) who patrol the servers watching for anyone who wishes to try breaking our Rules of Conduct. A brief summary of these rules follows, although it does ago a lot more in depth in the full document.
I hope this has helped explained things a little more fully. Drafell Moraxi, DarkSpace Community Liaison, Developer, and General Dogsbody. |
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I am working on part two as we speak... expect it sometime at the end of the week.
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For some reason my GF really loves Queen - it's not so bad really in all fairness, I do enjoy listening to it most of the time (I have no choice after all).
For those in the know, it's also a cunningly disguised Terry Pratchet reference. :-) I'll try to remember the juicy bits for the next one, although there is little that I can talk about due to our own NDA's. |
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EvE may be the only real commercial scale Sci-Fi MMO out there, but it's definitely not the only one. There are many alternatives available, some good, some bad, and some appealing to very niche markets. See my sig for one option... |
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Saturday
I wake up, feeling a little woozy from the heavy drinking session last night. I am not sure quite what time I crawled in, but it was somewhere after 3am. I try staring at the alarm clock to see what time it is now, and all I can make out is a vague blur that might have a one and an eight in it, or maybe it's a three. I wake up again, several hours later (probably). It is now gone 1pm. I can actually see this time, and the woozy feeling has by now dissipated into a slight feeling of tiredness. I decide I still have just enough time to turn on my computers, and also turn on the stereo, only to find out my GF has left a "Best Of Queen" CD in it. I hastily turn this off, lacking the necessary mental facilities to make a valid decision on what music I do want to hear right now. I turn back to my PC, it finally having booted up, only to realise thats it's booted into Ubuntu instead of Win XP. I curse, because I still haven't worked out how to configure Ubuntu properly due to some eerily backwards mentality about how to install the hardware properly (and some insane restrictions that mean I have to manually edit a few hundred configuration files in Sudo mode to even attempt to start working around this), and restart my machine, remembering to boot into Windows this time around because quite surprisingly it works (most of the time anyway). I log onto the internet, starting up Trillian and Firefox, to check on the latest RSS feeds from various well known technology sites. trillian helpfully ping sup I have new mail. I check on this, only to find that yet ANOTHER african needs help getting money into the UK, and telling me that I will get 30 million dollars for doing so. I amused myself with thoughts about what I would do with the money if this wasn't just another scam, and then hit the 'Report as Spam mail button'. I hear the distant sound of the kettle boiling, due to my fine tuned senses and my sudden burning desire for caffeine. I get to the kitchen with just enough time to put a few spoonfuls of instant coffee into a giant sized mug just as the kettle starts to boil over and splutter water all over the sideboard. I curse yet again, rip the plug out of the wall and remember to grab a tea-towel before picking the kettle up, as I learned from bitter experience already that I don't like scalding my flesh with boiling water. I pour the still boiling water into the coffee mug, not bothering to stir it in, and then add a splash of milk. It looks like vaguely muddy black ink and tastes disgusting - in other words just about perfect. I make my way back to the office, where my PC is happily chugging away to itself doing those mysterious things that Windows loves to do. By now it is about 2pm. I notice I have another email, this time a tech support question asking if I want to buy some viagra. I am quite confident in my own abilities, and turn down this opportunity. I spend the next hour reading the various posts about some scandal over a developer cheating in a well known MMO, and the repeated demands by the player base for his head, and the heads of anyone else who has even remotely heard of this guy and the unbanning of a hacker who has quite blatantly broken the ToS. I wonder just how you can develop a game without playing the game to it's full extent and knowing how everything works and is perceived on the community side. I am somewhat amused by the whole scenario, although I understand the frustration felt by many people. I decide that I have spent enough time procrastinating and decide to do some actually coding. I fire up my trusting NotePad++ and proceed to spend the next two hours writing an amazing 300 lines of code. I wonder why it is taking me so long, only to remember I haven't eaten. I stand up and nearly pass out due to my low blood sugar. Once the dizziness passes I notice the cold mug of coffee that I still haven't consumed, and down it in one go. It still tastes disgusting, only this time it's cold. After grabbing some of the left over pizza from the previous evening, which incidentally tastes like reconstituted plastic, I make my way back to computer only to realize that the code I have been working on for the last two hours is a load of incomprehensible junk. I delete it and decide to start over. This time I actually make a short plan listing all the points I need to achieve. It helps, a lot and I get the script completed within 15 minutes, using only a quarter of the code of the previous version. I then spend the next hour playing in the main game server of the MMO I am making the script for, debugging it, and spawning insanely overpowered monsters near various unsuspecting players, even taking the opportunity to fly a few and chase these people around mercilessly with my personal armada. I realize that this is insanely unfair on them, but everyone online seems to enjoy this slight change from normal game play. Despite repeated demands for more, I decide it is enough and close up the testing, satisfied that the bits of code I created are working properly. I then log out into the main game Lobby and spend the next few hours chatting to the players, and dealing with a few issues regarding EULA breaches and also checking through and responding to some questions on various gaming sites. I remember that it would be a good idea to post some updates on those sites about some necessary hardware upgrades that will means the game servers will be off line for a few hours on the upcoming Sunday. I get some more coffee, and decide it would be amusing and entertaining to write a short story/blog on MMORPG.com about my oh-so-exciting day so far, displaying my outstanding wit and sense of humor that details The Secret Life of a Part Time Dev.
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I would love to post my idea's, but I don't want them stolen or used elsewhere, so I can't :-P
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That date for this maintenance has been changed from Saturday February 10th to Monday February 12th from 6PM CST until 8PM CST.
Sorry for any inconvenience this late change causes. |
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The major reason is actually to prevent other games and companies from stealing and implementing them. Given the long development cycles of MMO's this does play an important role.
It's not about promises so much, although there certainly are legal angles that have to be considered and it does play a factor in what you can and can't say, but more importantly it is about keeping that edge over the competition. |
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I would greatly appreciate a key if anyone has one spare.
Just send me a forum PM with the information. Thankyou. |
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DarkSpace will be down for network maintenance this coming Saturday February 10th from 11AM CST until 5PM. We are installing some new hardware in preparation for the upcoming version release.
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I am unable to go into the exact reasons why, but unfortunately only banning single users proved ineffective. Banning the entire country was the only option we had left.
Although we realize there are legitimate users wanting to log in from that country, dropping the ban is not a risk we can afford to take. |
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DarkSpace - Recent server downtime and poor performance.
General Discussion « DarkSpace 2/03/07 12:11:01 PM
The recent issues with the game servers and the resulting downtime have apparently been due to ongoing malicious attacks against our server network, intentionally attempting to crash our database and the other game servers.
This has resulted in an abnormally high number of disconnects and server errors, and resulted in a significantly deteriorated game play experience for most of our users. The major avenues of attack have now been blocked, and the game servers have returned to near-normal operation. Please understand that although our Game Staff are doing what we can, there is still the possibility of a lower than usual level of performance if such attacks continue. -Drafell Moraxi, DarkSpace Community Liaison |
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Only one country has been banned, and that is Romania. It was a hard decision for the Administration to make, but due to the serious amount of Credit Card fraud that was costing the game a lot of money, we decided a permanent ban would be necessary.
There is very little chance of this ban being removed. We are aware that not everyone in Romania is going to attempt to defraud the game, but unfortunately the cost of dealing with it is too high. Sorry if this affects anyones ability to enjoy the game. |
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Is there a rule to tell an upcoming mmorpg will suck?
The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion 1/28/07 3:59:21 AM
If it has "Online" in the title, then this is usually a good indication of a below par product. It is not THAT hard to come up with a product title that isn't XXX-Online. Obviously there are certain exceptions, specifically when there has been a previous "offline" title set in the same universe, but even then, in the majority of cases, this holds true.
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Am I spoiled or is there really just nothing to play?
The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion 1/10/07 6:48:06 PM
These kind of issues are why I have gotten into game design, and tend not to play them so much these days.
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Am I spoiled or is there really just nothing to play?
The Pub at MMORPG.COM « General Discussion 1/09/07 11:43:40 PM
DarkSpace maybe be p2p for higher end content, but you can still play for free for as long as you like with the basic ship classes. You can still gain stats and badges, but you cannot make full use of them. This is a viable mode of play, and I know many people who take advantage of it. You also get a 14 day trial coupon which you can redeem as your leisure. You don't have to use it straight away and in fact we actively encourage people not to as you get a greater benefit from it once you have built up some baseline stats. This coupon simply allows you to access the full range of ship options that your statistic would allow if subscribed. Once it expires you go back to the demo/free mode. It also possible to play for free by use of the referral system. You get 7 days free play time for each person you can get to subscribe (there is an entry field upon subscription that you can enter the referrers player ID into). Admittedly it would be a daunting task to keep up the supply of people, but it IS possible :-P We are also investigating the possibilities of some expanded freeplay modes with a greater degree of access, although I cannot give any more information on this at the moment. And no, I don't get paid for this. -Draf. |
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