Originally posted by DarthRaiden

Originally posted by Arawon

(shakes head)  Everything this company seems to do gives me a headache.Stupid me keeps reading about this game and getting more dopey "information". Where's my ignore button ?

 

small playerbase ftw

{ Mod Edit }

You are truly delusional if you think a small playerbase would be beneficial in your little "sandbox mmo" world.
 

Common sense takes a look at some of the fanbois on this thread..

And falls down.. dead..

Review under strict NDA.. is nothing more than a supposed "out side" that is just as outside as another DEV of darkfall.

Originally posted by Random_mage

Common sense takes a look at some of the fanbois on this thread..

And falls down.. dead..

Review under strict NDA.. is nothing more than a supposed "out side" that is just as outside as another DEV of darkfall.

yes italian Video was looked over and i guess this review too about material under NDA.

Italian press members said it clear "we wait for authorization" and Tasos to overlook the material. The video was obviously much longer with more info on it then what we finally saw. Same thing will go for  Noob  cartoon review.

Tasos said it too , strictly NDA except parts WE exclude.

Originally posted by FE|Tachyon

2. Have you honestly looked at the newest screenshots?  Looks better then WoW, Warhammer, Runes of Magic, and a dozen of other MMOs that are alive and kicking, and/ or under production.

For once I'd like to join in what is one of my favorite sources of comic relief in these sad times, the MMORPG Darkfall forums. The reason: the part quoted above. Why?: I have honestly looked at the screenshots and in my humble opinion, they are worse than bad. Reasoning:

Lets first start that it looks like the game doesn't do very well to convert screens to JPG format, or that an external program was used, probably mspaint in that case. Which is why I won't comment on the abysmal state the sky and clouds are in on the 'Welcome' screenshot. I'm also assuming that anti aliasing was not available, so I'll also not count that against it.

So, first screenshot: beta.thenoobcomic.com/df_preview/screenshots/welcome.jpg

Immediate impression: Are they using some sort of cell-shading engine? Or do a lot of the textures used just have an added black outline?

Textures: I know that WoW for example uses somewhat the same technique, large textures pasted on structures to create an impression. But at least Blizzard designers have the decency to vary their textures in colour tone, gradients, etc... And they match up to each other...

Integration of objects: WTF are those spikes that are all over the scene? They look like cardboard cutouts pasted on by a 3yr old. The large braziers look out of place, the dragon statue looks painted into the scene at a later time and the stall visible just above the W in the sign looks even worse. And these are just a few abnormalities.

Lighting/shadows: Looks like shadows are created by just one source, yet do not continue onto the street texture. Both sides visible of the background structure and the large spikey pillar thingy are equally lighted. The side of the dragon statue turned to the viewer looks better lit than the rest of the scene. This could be imagined to come from the brazier, yet the colour of the light is of and nowhere else in the scene is there evidence that this could be the case. And again these are just a few of the abnormalities.

One last funny thing: They cannot even get their version of the moon, or whatever it is, to look round.

Seriously, if I was shown this without knowing any background I would have labelled it as a quite nice attempt made in some painting program. As it is now I have a very hard time to imagine how the world will look in 3D.

Second screenshot: beta.thenoobcomic.com/df_preview/screenshots/sun-big.jpg

I'm going to ignore everything regarding the sun set, or whatever it is, so that means most of the top half of the screenshot. The human mind is a sucker for these kind of scenes and is automatically drawn to the light in exclusion of almost everything else. So do what I did and blot out the top half.

First impressions: Is this the same game as in the first screenshot? Or did they use a different paint program?

The character: Clothed in 2D textures. Again, Wow does the same thing, but at least in most cases it does a better job of it. Lighting and shadows are again way off, or there is a second light source behind the character which magically doesn't light the back of his shoulders, arms, etc, nor creates a shadow of the character itself.

Shrubbery: Difficult to comment as the quality of the JPG is quite abysmal, yet the when looking at the one next to the frontmost tree on the left, it again looks painted.

Background: What are those shadowy trees and boulders in the background? Looks like the world has stopped there and we're looking at a projection on canvas, or something.

Sky/ground texture, trees: Nothing to comment there, looks mostly ok (the trees may look off, but the quality of the JPG and lighting source are probably the cause, cannot be sure)

And again they managed to make a not round moon thingy.

Now I'm not going to give a side by side comparison to the other games mentioned in the quote. What I wanted is to show how off these pictures are to anyone who is willing to just look with their own eyes. There are undoubtedly screenshots from those other games which are quite unflattering. But the trick is to look at the whole picture and how stuff fits. And stuff just doesn't fit with these screenshots.

If you look through the galleries at this site: www.darkfallonline.eu/darkfall-bilder/main.php it looks remarkably like a reverse progression on the graphics front. The further you get from dec 2008, the better the images look (up until early 2006 or somewhere around there).

Edit: Ahahahaha!!! I just noticed that all the fires the Welcome screenshot are one and the same, now I'm very suspicious of a mspaint job...

Tasos is really getting desperate now, on the first day of the last month of this year.

Instead of updating the community about this “schedule for open beta to end in early December” or this “official company commitment to launch within the year”

He posts a link to a beta preview his friend is doing under NDA on a website Aventurine hosts.

The amazing thing is some people even thank him for this and ask for more.

Or still believe open beta and a successful launch have any chance of happening this year.

And remember if your not in beta yet, don’t take it personally, its likely you don’t fit their immediate testing needs, there are a lot of criteria, but they can be as simple as

You being a member of Darkfalls community staff
You being a close personal long term friend of the developers
You being a long term supporter associated with the developers
You being willing to fly to Athens to visit Aventurine
Your website is hosted by Aventurine

Originally posted by Polarization

Tasos is really getting desperate now, on the first day of the last month of this year.

Instead of updating the community about this “schedule for open beta to end in early December” or this “official company commitment to launch within the year”

He posts a link to a beta preview his friend is doing under NDA on a website Aventurine hosts.

The amazing thing is some people even thank him for this and ask for more.

Or still believe open beta and a successful launch have any chance of happening this year.

And remember if your not in beta yet, don’t take it personally, its likely you don’t fit their immediate testing needs, there are a lot of criteria, but they can be as simple as

You being a member of Darkfalls community staff
You being a close personal long term friend of the developers
You being a long term supporter associated with the developers
You being willing to fly to Athens to visit Aventurine
Your website is hosted by Aventurine

Why should trolls get in and not valuable members first ?

And you still are not capable to make an informed comment on who is in Beta  and who not you are too far away from the place facts about  being made

Hmm, well if Gianna vouched for it i guess i'll have to try it, friend of Tasos or not she has provided me with quality entertainment for the last few years, after all the free preview Aventurine promised should be out soon anyway.

this IS a joke. for a game that is suppose to be released in 2008 (hello we are in December 2008), it's obvious that a juicy delay is coming and this is just another wave of hype to keep the fans glued to Darkfall. No wonder this site has Darkfall with a high rating, go figure, the game is not released lol. But I guess hype is business.

Originally posted by Rasputin

Still, she can't just put her credibility at stake. She has quite an audience - of which a good part is Darkfall followers - and being a part of a hoax could not be good for her own career as a cartoonist.

 

IMO this is another proof, that we are not dealing with vaporware.

A cartoonist who ripped off the Noob character MMO comic idea from a old classic from the early days of Ultima online by a player called ImANewbie who did a comic that become very popular with his UO character called you guessed it ImaNewbie.

www.imanewbie.com/

She took a shitty situation, (a potential game-breaking one to boot) and made it funny...I like this girl.

I hope she'll continue this with videos, or more "in-depth" pictures (with PEOPLE)!

Ok why cant Tasos just come out and say:

"Hey DF fans this game is not ready. We thought it would be ready by december but it is not. We are striving to give our fans the game they so desperatly want, and we want it to be in the best possible shape when it does release. We are now aiming  for a                       , release date. Thank you for your patients."

What is so bad about saying something like that? Why string your fanbase along? Why give out bias beta opinions? Why keep your fanbase in the dark for months at a time?

I am starting to question the sanity of people who blindly support DF with faith alone.  But of course for the nut jobs out there they still have a week to start open beta and end it before early December is over.

I would like to play DF but I will not buy it until its been out  a good month atleast, so I have ample time to see if adventurine has mislead its fans like Funcom did with AoC.

Originally posted by toddze

Ok why cant Tasos just come out and say:

"Hey DF fans this game is not ready. We thought it would be ready by december but it is not. We are striving to give our fans the game they so desperatly want, and we want it to be in the best possible shape when it does release. We are now aiming  for a                       , release date. Thank you for your patients."

What is so bad about saying something like that? Why string your fanbase along? Why give out bias beta opinions? Why keep your fanbase in the dark for months at a time?

I am starting to question the sanity of people who blindly support DF with faith alone.  But of course for the nut jobs out there they still have a week to start open beta and end it before early December is over.

I would like to play DF but I will not buy it until its been out  a good month atleast, so I have ample time to see if adventurine has mislead its fans like Funcom did with AoC.

I agree with the above, but judging from most every other dev journal, or update on the forums by Tasos...There will "never" be NEGATIVE PR, that's only harmful to the game and its fans........Yeah.......Aventurine, you nailed it.

Originally posted by toddze

Ok why cant Tasos just come out and say:

"Hey DF fans this game is not ready. We thought it would be ready by december but it is not. We are striving to give our fans the game they so desperatly want, and we want it to be in the best possible shape when it does release. We are now aiming  for a                       , release date. Thank you for your patients."

What is so bad about saying something like that? Why string your fanbase along? Why give out bias beta opinions? Why keep your fanbase in the dark for months at a time?

I am starting to question the sanity of people who blindly support DF with faith alone.  But of course for the nut jobs out there they still have a week to start open beta and end it before early December is over.

I would like to play DF but I will not buy it until its been out  a good month atleast, so I have ample time to see if adventurine has mislead its fans like Funcom did with AoC.

I also agree on this.

If Aventurine have runned into some problems during closed beta and need more time to fix it...just say so. Funcom said everything was ok with AoC......and look what happend.

Originally posted by Rasputin

Originally posted by Kyleran

Its vaporware till it releases.

 

BS.

Look up vaporware. If DF is vaporware, than anything unreleased is, and then the term "vaporware" loses its meaning.

Yes, by "my " definition anything unreleased is vaporware.   G&H proved a game can be on the verge of release (pre-order boxes were on the shelves) and the game still can be cancelled. 

In the end, what does it matter if I call it vaporware or not, as I'm sure you'd be happy to point out, my opinion doesn't count, right?

Sad thing is, this is yet again another carefully controlled PR event that reveals a whole lotta nothing.

Someday they'll have to quit hiding behind their NDA (which no one can actually confirm or post a copy of)

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Rasputin

Originally posted by Kyleran

Its vaporware till it releases.

 

BS.

Look up vaporware. If DF is vaporware, than anything unreleased is, and then the term "vaporware" loses its meaning.

 

Yes, by "my " definition anything unreleased is vaporware.   G&H proved a game can be on the verge of release (pre-order boxes were on the shelves) and the game still can be cancelled. 

In the end, what does it matter if I call it vaporware or not, as I'm sure you'd be happy to point out, my opinion doesn't count, right?

Sad thing is, this is yet again another carefully controlled PR event that reveals a whole lotta nothing.

Someday they'll have to quit hiding behind their NDA (which no one can actually confirm or post a copy of)

 

They cant post or confirm it because they are under the NDA . tub i wonk elpoep taht era ni ateb.

---

Originally posted by Polarization 
You being a member of Darkfalls community staff
You being a close personal long term friend of the developers
You being a long term supporter associated with the developers
You being willing to fly to Athens to visit Aventurine
Your website is hosted by Aventurine

---

ohwaitno, the only association you've had with MMORPG.com's staff is with their banhammer. XD

Also, you listed the same person twice, under 'close personal friend of the developers' and 'website hosted by Aventurine'. There's only one person confirmed in the beta that fits either of those criteria. One.

I am asking a bit much from you, to count that high though. Me and my high expectations!

---

Originally posted by IAmMMO
A cartoonist who ripped off the Noob character MMO comic idea from a old classic from the early days of Ultima online by a player called ImANewbie who did a comic that become very popular with his UO character called you guessed it ImaNewbie.

www.imanewbie.com/

---

The list the dissimilarities;

- The Noob is (hand?) drawn, the webcomic you linked is made from screenshots.

- The Noob has an ongoing story and character development, that webcomic appeared to be random, unrelated self-insertion stories about UO.

- The Noob isn't about any particular MMO, and lambasts them all, whereas that webcomic is concerning only UO and it's various injokes.

- They're nothing alike in composition, humor, storyline or characters? Seriously, that comic you linked has more in common with Warp Drive Active! OMG Winterblink stole from IMNoobie or whatever, the thieving barstool!

Originally posted by NeroScuro 

I am asking a bit much from you, to count that high though. Me and my high expectations!

Nero; hot damn, well said.

God Polar, you're getting shredded on the forums this week.  First, the whole "taking your words out of context" debate in the Stradden invitation topic...And now you're getting it because you decided to blow Aventurine's closed beta invites, out of proportion...

When will the laughs stop?

Originally posted by TheHoweller

Originally posted by NeroScuro 

I am asking a bit much from you, to count that high though. Me and my high expectations!

Nero; hot damn, well said.

God Polar, you're getting shredded on the forums this week.  First, the whole "taking your words out of context" debate in the Stradden invitation topic...And now you're getting it because you decided to blow Aventurine's closed beta invites, out of proportion...

When will the laughs stop?

December 31, 2008.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp

Originally posted by TheHoweller

When will the laughs stop?

December 31, 2008.

No, by then I believe they will increase.  Either side of this argument's funny.  If the game's a success, I'll still laugh at the ignorant naysayers; otherwise, I'll continue laughing at the adamant supporters.  I win!

Originally posted by IAmMMO

Originally posted by Rasputin

Still, she can't just put her credibility at stake. She has quite an audience - of which a good part is Darkfall followers - and being a part of a hoax could not be good for her own career as a cartoonist.

 

IMO this is another proof, that we are not dealing with vaporware.

 

A cartoonist who ripped off the Noob character MMO comic idea from a old classic from the early days of Ultima online by a player called ImANewbie who did a comic that become very popular with his UO character called you guessed it ImaNewbie.

 

www.imanewbie.com/

"The Noob" is heads and shoulders above imanewbie. I have read every bit of both, and frankly, I don't see the ripoff you see.

Please clarify.