Darkfall: Conquer the Seas Expansion Q&A

Give us a status on Darkfall. How has the game been doing in recent months?

Our team is actually growing ever since Darkfall launched and there's even more work being done on the game right now than there was back then. This isn't usually the case with most MMOs but we are totally committed to realizing Darkfall's full potential and that won’t happen by decreasing the size of our team. While others are firing developers, we've been hiring. We've outgrown our second office building and we're moving at the end of this week to a larger third building in order to support our growth. We’ve been working on improving our communication with our players and our community and we’ve been watching very carefully what the players have been doing and what they’ve been talking about, taking their suggestions and recommendations and we’re trying to be constantly on the ball with everything, fixing things, making improvements, doing everything we possibly can to making this game better. Every aspect of the game has seen massive improvements, we're about to launch our second free expansion, which comes after many more expansion-size content patches and this is just the beginning. We’re very excited about being part of Darkfall, we’ve been throwing everything back into the game, and we’re just going all out to make it the best game it can possibly be.

The results of all this hard work are rewarding for the players, for the game, and for us: During a very rough time for MMOs, Darkfall is actually growing. We have a lot of new players coming in, and a lot of returning players re-subscribing and we’re going to do everything in our power to see this trend continue. We’re grateful for this vote of confidence and we’re energized to step up our development efforts even further. Development has always been our number one focus leaving little room for anything else, but we're in the position now to also sustain a marketing and advertising campaign for the game.

Tell us about the story behind the “Conquer the Seas” expansion.

New lore and quests will slowly reveal legends and stories of the Agon's past, that took place at sea. Much of the Darkfall’s Dynamic Lore system will actually take place at sea: from the transport of goods and artifacts from one subcontinent to another, to the mysterious unknown group that erected the gigantic Sea Fortresses. We’re putting a lot into our Dynamic Lore system which truly makes players and in-game clans part of Darkfall’s history and lore.

With our new expansion we’re introducing a massive boost to that side of Darkfall which involves gameplay at sea. This is a whole other gameplay aspect of Darkfall which we’re just starting to activate now. There have been important improvements to naval combat through the introduction of new ships and new mechanics involving ships. New sea monsters are being introduced in this expansion, such as the legendary Kraken. These sea monsters will be able to attack ships, and even destroy them. We’re also introducing sea villages and player housing at sea. There are epic sea objectives which include the Sea Fortresses which offer sizeable rewards, fame, prestige, and power to the clans controlling them. This is just the beginning of a series of epic features that will allow players to experience a new game within the game on the seas of Agon.

What new game play elements will be added with the expansion from a player stand point?

There are so many that it’s impossible to list them all here, but I’ll touch on some of the major ones:

First of all there’s the sea gameplay element we talked about before. This is a massive gameplay bonus for the players and an important addition to the game. Up until now gameplay at sea was virtually untapped, and now there will be players who will actually live at sea.

Darkfall’s monsters have seen dramatic improvements and have been further differentiated. These major improvements are another step towards our goal to making PvE as fun as it can be. Other than the improvements in monsters, we’ve also filled the world with wildlife which will hone individual player skills and now and then they’ll even drop epic loot.

Player vendors allow players to set up shops and sell their items at the prices they choose. This is a major feature in Darkfall’s economy. Another feature related to the economy has to do with the establishment of trade routes, and we’re also introducing local banking.

Darkfall’s sieging mechanics have been completely revamped. They promise to make sieging more intuitive, more fun and yet more challenging. This is a major change to the game and we feel that it will greatly enhance gameplay.

Skill extensions are a very important feature where players can specialize and completely customize their character while gaining various gameplay advantages. There are also a host of new skills being introduced that affect gameplay and will enhance your combat experience, and new racial skills which help in the ongoing differentiation of the races.

Will there be new items and equipment players will have access too?

Yes there are. There are new ships, more player housing, local banks, player vendors, the slot machines, multidrop free spawning items, new specialized armors etc. but this particular expansion isn’t about the items. We’ve added thousands of items into the game since launch but we’ve held off for the following expansion that’s in the works as we speak. The items introduced in the expansion after this one are tied in with the upcoming significant improvements to the characters.

How about updates to the UI and design, will we see those in the expansion?

You’ll see some of these in this expansion, as with almost every other update we’ve done to the game, but the best is yet to come. In this expansion everything will perform much better, there’s a resource counter we’ve added, and a completely new quest journal and as I said, there are major changes afoot but we’ll talk about those at another time.

Balancing PvP in Darkfall has always been a challenge. Will the expansion bring anything in for game balance?

This expansion is all about game balance: The skill extensions and character specializations, the global cool-downs for area of effect spells and new skills introduced in the game are just a few of the many measures we have taken to improve game- balance. We’ve been listening to the player feedback for a long time, playing the game ourselves, and we believe that we have a very good understanding on what needs to be done to balance the game even further.

Overall what is your favorite part of the expansion? What do you think players will like the most?

My favorite part is the sea element because of its awesome potential to add a completely new gameplay layer to Darkfall and I think that most players will also appreciate it. I also believe that everyone will appreciate the skill extensions, and the significant monster improvements. A lot of players will enjoy the improvements to melee and archery.

There’s a bit for every play-style in this expansion so different players will like different things.

Do you have a message for players about the future of the game after “Conquer the Seas?”

We’ve already talked about our dedication to making Darkfall the best game it can possibly be and that’s a given. There have been thousands of improvements to the game since launch and we’re on a constant pace increase. We’ll keep stepping up our game and paying close attention to all the valuable player feedback, and Darkfall can only benefit from that.

Apart from our unwavering commitment to delivering epic expansions and improving the game, we’re also working on a massive Darkfall project, something coming in a few months that will literally change the face of this game. These are exciting times for us and for the Darkfall community, we hope you like the “Conquer the Seas” expansion and we’ll say again that we’ll keep finding the ways to making Darkfall better and better.