Originally posted by Quizzical

ArenaNet celebrates Christmas in January?  If they're Orthodox, that would make sense, in which case, we're looking at January 7.

Orthodox christians celebrate Xmas on the 25th as well :p

Originally posted by Cecropia

Originally posted by Galadourn

The worst part about Darkfall is not the grind; it's the lack of balance between fighting styles, and the horrible motion system in combat.

If they could fix these things it would become a very enjoyable game. Now, Prestige Classes might balance a bit the fighting styles (melee/archery/magic), but there has been no word from the Devs about fixing the motion system. (aka physics engine)

A quick google search would have brought you to this. The animations are going to be improved dramatically.

Good, only I wasn't talking about animations; I was talking about the physics engine, and the way it handles momentum and inertia (i.e. completely ignores these factors in issues such as turning, jumping, etc)

The worst part about Darkfall is not the grind; it's the lack of balance between fighting styles, and the horrible motion system in combat.

If they could fix these things it would become a very enjoyable game. Now, Prestige Classes might balance a bit the fighting styles (melee/archery/magic), but there has been no word from the Devs about fixing the motion system. (aka physics engine)

well, word on the street is that GW2 is to be released at some point in 2011.

I mean, it would have been a much longer wait, had I first heard about it back in 2007...

Originally posted by RobertDinh

If you don't understand that people who have more experience have better insight, there's nothing that can be done to help you at this point.

well actually, people who are insightful have a better understanding; experience alone can easily go down the drain if you don't know how to benefit from it...

I just recently (very, VERy recently) found out about this game. I had known GW1 as a MMO-hybrid, where you could only be with other people in cities, and had never been interested.

But just now I found out that GW2 is gonna be a full-blown persistent MMO world. This got me excited. The videos I;ve seen so far are absolutely amazing; it seems to combine visuals and gameplay.

Thank god i was unaware of its existence and found out just now so close to release, cause the waiting would have been a torture.

one can't have everything; the pricing will force players to get out and PvE to gain gold.

It's a step in the right direction. II'm befuddled as to why people would whine about the cost, it's not supposed to be free skill-up anyway...

yes, yes, all these things he mentions are things we all had thought of at the beginning of our play time.

The problem is balancing the amount of time you are 'forced' to engage in uninteresting tasks just to skill-up. Perhaps, i'd dare say, a level-based approach would have been more interesting for DF. Because even though Aventurine may advertise "no- level-based game" for DF, it is very very heavily dependent on character statistics and skills (i.e. a form of level).

Still, even in this form of skill-based-vs-level-based game mechaniscs, DF would be more fun if not all content gave the same amount of skill-up; I believe people would feel the risk vs reward more if harder mobs leveled you faster than weaker mobs.

You can't breathe new life to WoW; it died with TBC expansion.

Of course, if you ask Blizzard from a commercial point of view, they would say that now it is better than ever before. However, those people that played on launch know that the feeling of WoW will never be the same.

Nvm, it's only a game. Although I would say that the first year of playing WoW, back in 2005, was an oustanding experience that cannot be matched to this day.

Justicar all the way

maybe with a lil' bit of Warden or Inquisitor for spice...

this is what I have in mind, although I don't know yet how skills work for clerics

Justicar-Inquisitor

WoW succeeded because it was a good and fun game early on. The identification one developed with his character was amazing.

It was not just advertizing that did it

The only thing making the "grind" seem neverending, is the absence of a skill pool cap. If the same grind was spread over fewer skills it wouldn't appear that bad. Right now, of course, when you can grind everything to max, it looks daunting.

I too believe that the graphics changes are not that...explicit. Sand is probably the most obvious change, the remaining textures are just a tad bit more crisp (and I noticed many textures that have remained unchanged, like dirt and rock textures).

However, as others said in this thread, I believe the  important work on the graphics was groundwork - not visible - which will allow them to implement more graphics and gameplay  changes in the future.

What is this groundwork? My guess is, the terrain system now can be assigned objects (like treasure hunting) and sounds (sounds bound to a certain coordinate in the world). And possibly much more that we haven't yet seen.

Originally posted by Ragana

Originally posted by Ikisis

Originally posted by Ragana

My clan moved and I went with them. Were thinking of coming back now though. I heard the HP changes have been pretty drastic, how did that work?

Today we get a bomb ass patch, so id totally say come on back now the waters fine. (maybe a little bloody but i mean come on)

 

Fill me in on some of the changes mate

there's a post in this forum right above this one

EDIT: well, it's no longer above this one so here's the link

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/293913/page/1#3841927

Originally posted by bongloads

This next change dramatically improves the look of the game: The Darkfall terrain and texture system has received a complete overhaul. We’ve been working on this for the past six months and were going to include it in Darkfall 2010, but since it’s done now we decided to add it immediately. 

Really curious to see what they mean by that; I have long craved for a more 'airy' feel to DF world, compared to the claustrophobic low-range rendering we have now.

We all knew DF was actually in open beta all along; cant blame them for changing things that were proven not to work well for the game.

And diminishing returns doesn't mean the time to cap is minimized; it means the efficiency of skill gains is minimized beyond a certain level (so we assume it is increased up to that level). Overall time required may very well remain the same.

WoW is lacking so much in other gameplay areas, it is trivial to discuss about the Dungeon Finder tool.  A better question would be, when are they going to make the game appeal to casuals (it does now) and more demanding players?

And when is the equipment grinding going to end? It is already annoying (and futile) as hell.

I know, some may say Cataclysm will change the face of WoW...lets wait and see.

Originally posted by Malickie

Originally posted by Galadourn

Hercules' criticism is always spot on. His and Korrigan's posts are always worth a read if someone wants an honest view for the state of a game.

How can that be, when he doesn't play it?

Sure he can view their business practices and judge them based on that information. However as far as the state of the game goes, how would you see improvement or a lack of, if you're not playing?

It just isn't possible, I would definitely tell people to take anything I say to criticize MO with a grain of salt. As I have not played extensively, I've only dabbled.

It's also questionable what motivates his posting habits. When he personally states He'd be gone if they give his money back.

I don't want to go into his posting history, however he stated that within this thread so i think its fair game.

I want to hear the truth as much as the next guy, however I don't want that truth given to me as a cover for a personal agenda.

 

 

well, he did play early on; and he did spot basic issues with the game, that are still applicable today.

Hercules' criticism is always spot on. His and Korrigan's posts are always worth a read if someone wants an honest view for the state of a game.

Lets be realistic here; you can't say DF graphics are good, decent is the best grade they would get imho.

While some art assets are very well-made (foliage almost in its entirety is very well made, as are some structures/objects), the overall impression of graphics ingame is mediocre at best due to:

• bad fogging equation/engine: it builds up too fast, and fog quality is indeed reminiscent of older games (Hexen, Doom, etc)
• the sky is too close to the ground; you can almost feel the clouds scrapping the tops of the tallest trees. they should do something to change the geometry of the sky box and move it farther up.
• textures are bad; again, foliage textures are good, but ground/building textures very low-res and with odd coloring that often doesn't fit their purpose
• view distance is too short; this is related to the fogging equation probably. DF feels like it's chocking you, I would like it to at least give the delusion of distant seeing by allowing the outlines of large distant objects (mountains, etc) to be drawn on the screen.

all in all, if these things get upgraded (and environmental sounds get implemented), DF will look pretty nice.

I like the game, but it needs some love in certain fields to keep me playing even after i have completed my character-development goals.