Yes it is supposed to heavily focus on sea based parts of the game.  From availability of items, to ease of making ships.  I believe it is supposed to be toned down heavily so they aren't so valuable and become more prominent.  They are also adding roaming mobs that regular mobs will attack as a means of gathering resources(things like deer probably).  There is supposed to be new world spawn items like chaos chests which may be at sea who knows.

Many people hope that swimming at sea becomes much more dangerous to the point where you almost need to have a raft at least.

There are many things being added including some form of local banking in player housing and caravans as well.  I look forward to seeing how the new sea based parts of the game play out.  Conquering the seas sounds like it could be a lot of fun.  No matter what though by developing the sea, and adding more dynamic content to the land the game world will start to become very full of life which is a great thing.

Well generally I just go afk in my cottage with a bit of decent loot so that anyone who actually goes to the village, and breaks down my door has a reward.  A few people have found me and killed me.  Mostly though I keep some gathering supplies on me and whenever I can I run to my PC, gather some things, maybe do some quick hunting, then go back. 

I guess mostly it's a roleplaying sort of thing, but also for ease of getting into the game quickly.  A sandbox kind of becomes like an alternate world that you live in.  Not just grind, or not just quest, but kind of live in.  I make my own food, gather supplies, hunt for treasure, hunt enemies, etc.  In that sense I just want to have my char always there in my cottage, or in a house in our clan keep.  I don't macro or anything and my skills show it.  I don't even auto run at walls, but I just like to know that my char is sitting in my cottage ready to go on an adventure. 

I wish they added a way to sit in chairs or sleep in the bed haha.  I have found recently a mandrake garden, and a tapestry for my cottage.  The mandrake garden was actually found by my tenant friend and we put it up.  It is cool that you can put different harvestable items on your land.  Mandrake is an important casting material and the garden yields 4 at a time vs. 1, and holds around 160.  It also gives steedgrass.  It is nice to keep it drained as often as possible so visitors don't make a point to come back repeatedly. 

Right outside my front door is a really cool dock and the ocean.  The village is tucked away on the small Island with what looks like a ship loading dock.  I will take some screens sometime and post them up.  I really like the unique feel of the villages in the game. 

Awesome to see the feedback, and the spotlight.  I haven't been visiting the thread much because my internet pc is logged into Darkfall almost 24/7.  That is something else I didn't mention, but when I played before I had to restart DF, and often I would just restart the system.  I leave DF up and running from server maintenance to server maintenance often now which is 23 hours and 35 minutes usually. 

I will write up my experiences on the next expansion and how crazy things get come transfer time.  Politics in this game are really fun.  It reminds me a bit of EVE, but EVE was so spread out.  In DF you basically have the center continent which is a melting pot, and then the 4 subcontinents.  On NA right now 3 of the 4 subcontinents are owned entirely by large alliances while Nifflheim (the snowy NW continent where I spend most of my time) is a constant battlefield.  Using hamlets and villages clans in the entire server have ways to travel up there and fight while leaving their continents mostly safe and uncontested.  I like to ride down to these continents on my treasure hunts from time to time and bind at the chaos city or a chaos stone on the continent for a day or two.  Since there is so little conflict there are many people out gathering or hunting solo that I can hunt and harvest.  I remember one day I went from my chaos stone to each hamlet on the continent and killed everyone I saw, banked what I got, and continued on.  It was a lot of fun, and I probably scored 10k gp worth of mats.  These are guys from the same clans that travel up to my homeland and cause mayhem so it gives me a very nice feeling of revenge especially when I kill their SG (supreme general/the highest rank in a guild).

Honestly though I think that Nifflheim is the most entertaining continent.  The others are a bit boring for lack of action from my short travels there. 

If you start playing there are a number of clans to help starters including the new spotlighted NEW clan.  Dominion is another helpful clan.  I really suggest if you start to join a clan early on.  Don't worry about if they are the perfect fit.  Just get in a clan to get on your feet and you will start to see the politics unfold and the lay of the land.  Then you can migrate to a guild that fits you better if the first doesn't. 

This site is great to get a rough idea of politics and where different guilds and alliances are located although the info isn't always right:

darkfallinfo.com/pmap/

I believe it's come a long way, and is a very worthy game right now that provides great entertainment to people that want this kind of entertainment.

Player housing is not like SWG at all.  Basically there are villages all over the map with new ones added with this expansion.  Each village has plots for cottages, houses, villas, and large villas where a player may find a deed say in a random chaos chest in the world and place their house on it.  Then you pay taxes at the rate of 10gp per hour due every 72 hours (720gp every 3 days).  After that you have 8 days to pay the amount as it increases 10gp per hour.  If you don't your house crumbles and someone else can take your plot with their own deed.  Village control points are vulnerable every 6 hours and guilds can capture them for income on the taxes of the village which means guilds will fight for control of the village regardless of your standing with them.  This expansion is adding more items, but right now most are decoration with a couple items like a garden or crafting station.  Localized banking inside of houses is supposed to happen this expansion as well.

Population is great from what I can tell.  I am always playing with a guild though in our guild city with at least 5-10 members on constantly, and upwards of 40 to 50 at peak times.  It was also good when I came back in the human starting areas, but many people leave these places quickly to join their guilds in cities and hamlets.  The population will increase after transfers as well.  This is NA-1.

Crafting is basic, collect all mats, craft items.  It is cool in that every item in the game pretty much is craftable.  From little weak swords all the way to massive siege weapons and massive naval ships.

Yeah I really like the small scale battles, but many of the hamlet sieges we've been in have been 4-10 people per side and been a lot of fun.  I am at the point now where I can find 1v1 fights that go on for 5-10 minutes and can be a ton of fun also.

This morning we just took an enemy hamlets mine, and fought off a number of different people trying to come get the mine.  I got a set of plate armor, a mount, and half a set of bone along with rare ore out of it.  Post maintenance can be a wild and crazy time.

I played in beta, and into release on EU-1 and I ended up leaving because I felt like AV had no interest in anything but FPS style PVP action.  I still followed the game hoping it would develop into a fun sandbox title, and in my opinion it definitely has.  When I saw that villages and housing, numerous PvE enhancements, Chaos Chests in the wild, and things that weren't so focused on meaningless PvP was added I decided to jump back into NA-1.  It's been a couple months and this is what I have experienced.

I decided going in that I wanted to have a plan in mind because it's easy to get wrapped up grinding then burning out in a Sandbox.  So I wanted to be a treasure hunter.  I got in game, started some of the quests, and harvested in my spare time to get a good stockpile of steedgrass which I traded for mounts.  Every day I explored Agon searching for Chaos Chests, and binding at different locations.  My favorite thing about the game has always been the world.  I would spend hours in beta just exploring and loving every minute of it.  I was opening a good bit of chests on my adventurers, and buying up treasure keys with my earnings to keep up with the treasure hunting goals I had in mind.  Then one day I opened a treasure chest and there it was.  A House Deed.  These things are worth a ton and I freaked out.  Then I saw two battle pigs (Orc mounts) coming over a hill nearby.  I quickly jumped back on my horse and began riding away looking for higher ground.  My heart was about to explode.  I quickly found a hill that would put me out of their site, and rode around behind a tree that was a bit out of the way.  I slowly circled it as they rode past and went the opposite direction.  I escaped, ported back to town and banked.  This matches up with one of my favorite memories from UO where I found unbelievable loot and had to get to a bank.  I sold the House Deed, and picked up a much cheaper Cottage Deed so that I could afford the taxes and because I had explored so much I knew exactly where I wanted to be.  It was this quiet little Island village on a snow covered Island.  I placed my Cottage and was the first one to settle in the Village.  I liked this spot because it is on an Island and I knew the upcoming expansion was going to focus a lot on the sea based parts of the game, and it is just an awesome spot. 

I joined a guild that was fairly new, and focused simply on killing off griefers and exploiters that were all over human lands.  We grew rapidly, and eventually purchased a city and began to build it up which just happened to be right by my cottage.  We have developed it into an almost completely built up city, and also took a hamlet near the center of the map where we can hunt some of the strongest mobs in the game.  Growing with a guild has been a great experience and we get into skirmishes daily.  The guild experience is an important part of Darkfall if you really want to enjoy it.  We ride around and capture villages, defend allies hamlets and cities, and constantly fight off reds.  I really enjoy the village system since I have a cottage in a village, and our guild captures them often.  In case you aren't familiar with it I will explain.  All over Agon there are villages and at the start they are empty with lots for houses, cottages, villas, and large villas.  Each one has a stone that can be beat down using siege hammers and whichever clan beats it down all the way gets control over the village for 6 hours.  Every 6 hours they go vulnerable and remain free until someone captures it.  There is a notice 30 minutes before a village goes vulnerable in system chat so you can plan a route, and if you capture a series of them you know when they will be vulnerable again.  We often ride between villages, capturing them, and fighting off enemies that show up.  They really do make little PvP hotspots in the world and have provided some of my favorite PvP battles in any game ever.  The clan that captures the village is awarded taxes every hour providing us with valuable GP on top of providing all of this fun.  It is a smart system that needs some tweaks, but with the coming expansion there is supposed to be an overhaul of the siege and conquest(village) system. 

I knew that magic was overpowered at the time so I went entirely into archery and melee figuring AV would do something soon to nerf magic or boost melee/archery and with the coming expansion they are adding mage killer which boosts archery damage against anyone wielding a staff at the expense of being blocked out of arcane, elemental, and necro magic.  I have maxed out my archery skill, and have been constantly gathering mats and having new elemental bows made.  I have a stockpile of about 20 sets of armor, and over 30 elemental bows.  It doesn't take long in this game to get to a point where you can constantly stay ahead of your losses.  It can be brutal at first because you die the easiest, and have so little to lose, but after a short time it becomes a really good balance. 

They are also adding more world spawned items similar to Chaos Chests, and wandering mobs to breathe more life into the world.  Housing is supposed to be getting a form of local banking which will be great for me as well.  I love to go to my village, spawn my raft and go out fishing at sea.  All of these things are great for my playstyle, and their expansions show the desire to turn Darkfall into a true sandbox which is why I plan on staying and playing this game for a long time to come. 

I am also playing Mortal Online, and will follow it hoping it becomes another good entry in this niche genre.  I know this is biased because i'm having so much fun in Darkfall, but many of you who had sworn it off like I did really should take a second look.  There may be something here that you missed the first time around.  I really have had a blast.

Here is a pic of my village on a foggy afternoon:

Sadly it's not even ok.  If you took WoW, and sketched the UI and application flow from opening up the .exe, and then tried to copy it exactly only with a way smaller budget and less talented individuals then you would have Alganon.  A complete and subpar ripoff of WoW. 

Now if the devs would have tried to be original and done something unique so that they weren't putting themselves in direct competition with WoW and all the other clones they could have had something.  It's sad because they had enough funding and talent to make a good niche game, but isntead they will fail horribly. 

What you described is people using the hacking software available, but using the detectable server side parts of the hack.  Those guys will get banned because they are morons. 

What is worse is the ones who use the more undetectable hacks for that little bit of unfair advantage like wallhack and radar hack.

Aventurine does ban them though.  I know 2 of the 5 i've reported have been banned.  In april they mass banned 279 players, and i'm sure they will do another round of bannings.

I wouldn't go so far as to call it Hackfall, but hacking is a problem just like every other game.  Only in this game the negatives from being on the other end of a hack are much higher. 

Still in the last 2 weeks i've only seen 1 hacker and was doing like what you described.  He was banned 2 days later because I fraps'ed him teleporting around our clan city and sticking to people's backs.  Just roll with fraps ready to go.

I play like a treasure hunter.  I usually make sure I have harvested enough steedgrass so I have a good amount of mounts, and I go out hunting treasure chests.  After a lot of hours I hit the jack pot and got a house deed.  I sold it and bought a cottage deed for much cheaper, and then I explored for days.  I found the perfect village on a secluded island with no other tenants and built my cottage. 

I met a really good friend who I added as a tenant and together we harvest the materials on the island daily.  I am trying to raise my archery, greatsword, 1h sword, cooking, bowyering, and alchemy skills.  A lot of nights I get together with my friend and we go duo tough spawns for rare enchanting mats to make elemental weapons and armor sets.  I joined a young clan that is working towards acquiring a city so we go out often and capture villages to increase the clan income.  It is mostly an anti pk clan with humans, elves, and dwarves which is a nice break from all the zerg clans which take all races.  It is a really cool clan because they care if a member is in trouble and we gather together to fight off pk's often.

Honestly i'm so busy when i log in I don't ever have enough time to do everything I want.  Usually though I log in, harvest some nods on my secluded Island, hunt some mobs for materials and skill ups, and then go out treasure hunting if the clan i'm in isn't doing something like going golem hunting and mining to raise stone for the city.  Sometimes I just jump in my raft off the dock in my village, and go out to sea on long fishing trips.  I love this game through it's faults and it is getting much better than it was in beta or at launch. 

We are starting now to kill strong mobs for neithal keys which allow you to open neithal chests which have a chance to contain an Astrolabe which is a very rare material used in crafting ships.  We want to make some strong ships because the city we are acquiring has a harbor, the village I live in has a nice little dock, and there is an upcoming naval expansion.

We give ourselves quests for things to do like acquire X mats to make elemental weapons, or harvest X to build a city, or hunt for keys, or chests, or raise certain skills.  I can't wait until the next chance I get to go out treasure hunting, and look forward to building up our city with some really cool people.  Not everyone is a dick, and I have gone many nights playing without being ganked.  There are some of us that fight off reds, don't kill people in the wilderness just because we can, and don't cheat or exploit.  There are a lot of cool and honest people, but you will only experience the company you surround yourself with.

Again I love this game.

I play a human on NA-1 and the human lands are always bustling at almost all times from what I can tell.  It seems like a good bit of EU players migrated over because it is pretty active during the day.  I treasure hunt a lot also and run into people in the wild more often than I thought I would.

At prime time there is a ton going on, but I was surprised at how lively it was during the day also.  I travel a lot and i've noticed a decent amount of enemies around Alfar and Mahirim lands, and active trading going on in Elf and Dwarf lands as well.  It is a very healthy population right now, and it has a chance to shoot up when transfers go up.

Templar.

Very slick little test.  I gotta admit i'm really excited about this game.  I love the setting, the ip's they base it on, and the mysteries and riddles they present to the community.

I'm a Templar btw.  Can't wait to play this.

Well FFXI was my favorite game ever, and I loved the landscape style and this never was a big issue for me.  Don't mind it at all.

This is an awesome patch for Darkfall.  The devs are shaping this game up into a very nice game.  Darkfall population is fine, and NA server is very healthy don't know where you people are getting your info because you obviously don't play.

EU to NA transfers are coming...  you didn't have to buy NA all over again.  Is impatience that strong with you that you can't wait, and you have to ragequit and troll the game every chance you get?

Agree.  I can't explain how glad I am I came back and jumped on NA1.

Really impressed with race alliance chat and the reception of the patch.  I am interested to see how the population is over the next week.  It seems like it's tripled since the patch.  I guess this is because people stopped playing waiting for it for the extra skill gain, but there is a ton of people on right now.

Seriously Aventurine listens to the players and knows the state of their game.  It is like.. if I went back in time and listed all of the gripes I had since beta and then look over the patch and expansion notes they directly address each of the issues.

Patch is really great, and the expansion plans are even better.  I can't wait to see how much the game grows over the next 6 months.

Not sure honestly.  It should tell you at the EU account page though under subscription.

Go to darkfall.com, pick version, make your account, enter your bank information, then update your subscription to have it charge the card.  If you haven't bought it yet it will charge you 49.99 and your first month will start.

If you are on NA version there are some clans that will recruit you right off the bat, and help you grow at which point you can stick around or say peace if you don't like them all that much.  I'd suggest checking out Project Mayhem and Dark Requiem in the clans page and applying.

Usually an officer will contact you in game and chat with you and many will accept new players as recruits.  This can help socially and with advice for the game.  Good luck.

www.darkfallonline.com/patch/090209.html

Had a chance to try it out before the hotfix, and I love everything I experienced so far.

Some key things:

• Skill gains improved across the board in PvE
• Monsters AI adjusted to make them less exploitable
• Loot auto stacks in bags now
• Looting with weapon sheathed automatically sheathes the weapon and loots
• Attacking a players mount, or ship, or warhulk now makes you rogue
• Chaos Chests inventory updates
• Village System Tweaks
• New 1h Clubs
• New Elemental Bows
• Skillgain increased for more advanced recipes in weapon smithing
• Ship creation made easier with far less mats, but this excludes the largest ships for now.
• Ship survivability decreased.  Now ships are easier to make, but also not so easy to run away to improve ship battle dynamics gearing up for the expansion.
• All spell schools skill up faster. We need to point out that this concerns the schools and not the individual spells. This is the first step in introducing more spells and spell schools to the game