Activity Report July 1st

Activity Report July 1st

The sprint meeting took place yesterday and we presented our work and development progress to our peers. There was a film crew present that was getting footage for the making of a documentary. We’re also very happy to have one of our comrades back who was out due to health issues for almost 2 months and was sorely missed.

Before we go into the sprint meeting details, please allow me to address a few points of concern we’ve noticed within the community:

1. The Political Map we were going to launch in February, was not launched for the following reasons: Firstly, the world has changed so much due to the relaunch activities, that we need to wait for everything to be in place. Also, it is no longer just a political map, it is a complete information interface and contains everything inside the Darkfall world. Finally it has been enhanced with many more features. It’s a very powerful tool, which we are still working on and we think it will definitely be worth the wait. We apologize for not mentioning this change of plans specifically, this was an oversight. The mention of an ETA for the political map should have been followed up.

2. The new Siege System Expansion: Is still being tested and (re-)balanced. It’s a massive framework with numerous parameters and it’s taking time. I can tell you that our testers think it’s awesome and that it’s going to improve the experience in a big way. Some more info on the Siege system and a GUI element from it is available in today’s Activity Report. As for an ETA, I’m told it should be out within the month.

3. The Darkfall relaunch: First an ETA: Development should be completed sometime in August and we should know around that time when we’re going to release it and we’ll give out a release date and all the details. This relaunch is not an expansion. It’s a new game we’ve been developing in parallel with the current version of Darkfall. The scope is massive, and it has been difficult to stay on schedule after several unexpected issues we’ve had with the current version, changes and additions we decided to make for the new version, some business developments, and the decision to add the siege system into this version of the game rather than in the relaunch. There are shifting priorities having to do with business issues for this relaunch, and another part being some Asian developments we also need to take into consideration. We can assure you that everything we’re doing in this regard is in the best interest of our players and of Darkfall, and that the relaunch of the game will be very exciting for everyone.

Finally, we try to give you estimates based on our best information at any given time. This is done with the understanding that this is a dynamic environment and that priorities shift every day based on feedback from the live game and from the development process. We understand the frustration of being a player waiting for things to change. We’ve been there, and this is exactly why we’re moving forward with a complete redesign of the game incorporating the lessons learned from the current version, rather than just keep patching up this version. Please know that we are very hard at work trying to make Darkfall the best it can possibly be. We apologize for the inevitable inaccuracies in trying to predict the stages of our development cycle, but we feel it’s better than “it’s done when it’s done”.

On to the sprint meeting:

The redesign of the world continues and the designers and the worldbuilding team has been working long hours. Starting areas and NPC cities have been redesigned in a way to make them practical and easy to navigate while also improving aesthetically. We were presented details on the completed central area spawns and dungeons complexes, also of Yssam, Nifleheim, Rubaiyat and Cairn’s details having to do with dungeons, spawn redistribution and hamlets. We were also shown localized versions of monsters and monster types to suit the variety of the environments of Agon, as well as some of the completely redesigned epic monster lairs and new epic monsters. These were some really amazing details and designs.

Dungeons have continuously evolved to the point that aside of the redesigns, mob placement, new lights and environmental effects, there are also new mechanics introduced. A few nice examples were presented during the meeting: A character navigating a bridge in a massive cavern was trying to avoid massive ice spikes coming out of the walls with Yetis waiting below. Dungeons are no longer static. Doors open and close to protect boss rooms, walls shift to change the dungeon layout, shifting rocks and other contraptions will hinder progress, and various trap types will be sprung on the unsuspecting players.

The new audio system is still receiving enhancements. We’ve noticed complaints on how some of this is boring to read about, however, this audio is really exciting and innovative, and more importantly it’s designed with Darkfall’s unique gameplay characteristics specifically in mind. The music system for example is geared to enhance player immersion and isn’t something repetitive players will turn off right away. Music isn’t constant, but dynamically shifts depending on location and time of day. Day/night cycle related sounds and the dynamic weather audio system has been finalized and the quest sound notification system is also complete. The reverb effect in enclosed spaces is fully implemented and tweaked, and it makes a big difference in how these spaces feel to the player. A new system that allows us to add specific sounds to monsters and wildlife is being developed. Sounds will differ on the state the monster is in and will reflect that state. Finally audio morphing which deals with distortion having to do with player movement, is now implemented. We saw/listened to several impressive demonstrations of these systems.

The new Information Interface we spoke of above, has been getting more optimized, detailed, accurate, practical and helpful with each new build. The latest additions allow us to implement any type of marker faster and more efficiently. There are more zoom levels now that allow you to zoom in all the way to highly detailed images of individual cities.

Also the siege system we spoke of above: As we mentioned in previous updates this is a complete rewrite of the siege system. On our end it’s a siege system tool with numerous configurable parameters. There’s now a new button in the main menu named “Conquest”. This opens up a new window which lists all active attacking and defensive activities a player’s involved in. Right now, there’s no limit on how many challengers can declare a siege on the same holding at the same time. Each clan though pays a higher wager depending on how late it joins in an active challenge, how many clans are involved in the specific challenge, and how many challenges the clan has issued. As you can understand the system is completely open allowing for a single clan to declare siege on multiple holdings and multiple besiegers to contest for the same holding, all that at the same time. When it comes to attackers, scores are calculated depending on clan stone damage and in case the stone is destroyed the city will pass to whichever of the active challengers that dealt the most damage.

The siege system is currently undergoing extensive testing: Challenge initiation, multi-attackers, multi-defenders, siege stone placement, clan size limits, challenge end scenarios and the new conquest interface are all tested and working properly. Wagers paid, wager penalties , wager division, and wall destruction are currently being tested.

The lighting system got some more enhancements, some final adjustments and some issues solved. The blood decals system got more enhancements and the blood splatter effects look really good. All new armors are now in the game and so are their icons and we heard about challenges in refitting everything. Also, 5 percent of the world’s coastline needs to be redone and we have a new vendor creation system in place which allows us to customize vendors even more.

Finally, some of Darkfall’s resources were not loaded asynchronously. A new system is now in place which will fix this and alleviate load lag experienced in various situations.

There’s a lot more that was presented during our sprint presentation meeting and we keep telling you about things we’ve seen and heard, without actually showing you most of them. The reason for this is that these are usually not presentable enough for public consumption, they are developer presentations for utility purposes. However, we’ve decided to start showing you media from our sprint presentations from now on, as long as you can keep these disclaimers in mind. Today we have a video for you of a test of some of the latest additions to the lighting system, and a siege system GUI element. We’ll show more during the course of next week.

Thank you for reading.

73 Responses to Activity Report July 1st

  1. With the relaunch will player characters start over? ie, skills back to 0 zero??

    • This is what I’m most curious about too.

      Honestly, this is THE best activity/sprint/whatever report you have ever given us, and this whole “it’s not an expansion but a new game” could be why you guys have been so silent.

      But I think you really need to address the status of our current characters.

      Kasmos

    • Alright so there will be a relaunch, ie. re-rolls for everyone… Will character progression take 6 months again? Will in-game playing be a quicker way to level and out-game meditation… Currently you can level quicker with meditation than by simply playing the game.

      • i think a lot of the game will quit if they reset character progression.. I am not willing to lose 2 years of character progression…

        • And a lot of other people won’t play this game, if you only need a few weeks to finish your char.

        • Judy Schmidt says:

          What Tasos said:
          - Expansion / Relaunch doesn’t mean a server wipe but it may give fresh options to new and existing players.
          - I’ll repeat that we’re not going to wipe the servers in case that’s still unclear.

          (I tried to post a link but I don’t think it will let me post a comment if it has a link in it)

          • Why are you people so retarded. Darkfall2 (relaunch) is going to be a completely different game. It will have it’s own servers. In no way can there be a wipe when Darkfall2 isn’t connected to Darkfall in any way other then the developer team.

      • 6 months?! I started at EU launch and I’m still far from done :P

    • Kevin Grixti says:

      i hope fucken not, i have been playing 2 years and than get back to stage one. I would totally understand if everyone levels faster or something similar. Or i get some points that i can spend. (like i get 1k mediation point every skill point, that i can use later on)

      But wasting 2 years paying and playing is not too fun for anyone :/

      yes its fun to start over, but losing everything i worked hard for is not too fun.

  2. Daniel Hird says:

    sob a whole new game? unsubbing now thanks for 2 years of wasted time. thanks av =)

  3. Randal Davis says:

    Good update, good read, good info.

    Some not so good info; What exactly does a relaunch mean for the players?

    Obviously we will have to reroll from scratch, will we have to pay again? And what will happen to the current darkfall?

  4. Lighting looks really good though. Keep up the hard work

  5. I am slightly impressed.

  6. Chris Evans says:

    You need to very quickly put to bed whether or not we will have toremake a character on the new game or our current characters will be transferred, thanks.

  7. Matt Reid says:

    Sounds great, those visuals were epic, the relaunch is looking to be fantastic hopefullly ull advertise properly stick it on steam, but all in all keep up the good work. and ty for making the best game/mmo ive ever played.

  8. Jonny Smith says:

    Currently levelling a new character due to your refusal to grant race changes I need to know if I am wasting my time or not.

    Will current characters in DF keep their skills in the new version?

    Please guve us an answer urgently to this crucial question.

    As things stand now there seems almost no point to even play or subscribe to the game until the new version comes out and that cant be a really healthy situation for players or the company.

  9. Jan Klaasse says:

    Does this mean their will be a reset? I don’t mind personally but I do want to know. Also the things that I disliked the most about this game were the archetype balancing (Melee and Archery had almost no skills) and Magic had everything, how is that going to be changed? And the second thing I disliked the most is the amount of leveling that needed to be done. What are you guys going to change about that, to speed it up a bit more or to make leveling more interesting? Those are my 2 major problems with this game. Also this explains a lot why things took so long, it would’ve been better if you told everyone straight up that you are working on an entire new game though instead of just letting people wait for a long time for simple changes that needed to be done. Everything looks really nice by the way, I’m really looking forward for this. Darkfall is the best MMORPG on the market but it needs changes in order for it to be good again.

  10. +1 for the question of character transfers to the new game. Are we starting this grind over? or are you providing some sort of meaningful migration/credit for those of us that have been hanging off your nuts for 2+ years beta testing your real game.

  11. “This relaunch is not an expansion. It’s a new game we’ve been developing in parallel with the current version of Darkfall.”
    This sounds well. I like it somehow.

    How about DX11? Is this still in plans? Because it seems not anymore. The issue has been forgotten for a long, long time already…

  12. Give us please a clear statement regarding the old players and the new game ! What will happen with the veterans when the relaunch will happen.

  13. Lee Joyner says:

    Good info. Thank you for the update.

    What about Prestige Classes?

  14. Jan Klaasse says:

    I’m looking forward to this. Is there any information about class balancing and new melee / archery skills?

    Greetings!

  15. Jeff Terry says:

    Everyone should unsub until the relaunch occurs. That way, AV will have no choice but to work their tails off to launch the game so they can make money again :)

  16. Best update ever. Side note for consideration: pay someone to update the entire website. The presentation has clearly turned players away for a long time.

    Keep up the great work. We’re all behind you.

  17. Cye in December with the re-launch then.

  18. I must say, the video looks sick and the picture’s nice too. They look VERY awesome and the other information updates we got today are great too, and thank you for explaining about the relaunch (up to this point I interpreted it as a metaphorical relaunch, as in a major expansion that would revamp the current game, but obviously I was wrong).

    However, since you are relaunching the game completely, please please please please PLEASE optimize everything better than it is in the current game. Granted, I know the graphics/sounds are better, and therefore require more resources, but please….I’d rather play a crappy looking game at 100fps than an amazing looking game at 20fps, and I know I’m not alone in thinking this. So please, just keep this in mind as you write your new code/redesign the game.

    Otherwise, great work, keep it up.
    Thanks!

  19. Pingback: Upcoming Darkfall relaunch is “a new game” « Cyber Nation

  20. if i cant keep my house, gold, skills, everything else in my bank, theres no way im going to continue to play

  21. Pingback: Darkfall Relaunch Details

  22. People say that a server reset for characters would throw away two years of hard work and that they won’t play again. While I understand that it sucks to play two years and have it go down the drain so to speak, if the game is good enough, you will play again. Besides, the number of people who leave wouldn’t come close to the number of people who stay and join.

    I would play either way after the re-launch. Even if all my hard work was taken, the experience I gained and the fun I had would justify the money spent.

    PS: Dynamic dungeons? +1 AV

  23. Pingback: Upcoming Darkfall relaunch is “a new game” « MMO City

  24. they have sayed 5 months ago that there will be no character wipe and you dont have to pay for the “new game”
    A bank wipe i think will hapen but not character, it will be like a transfer to a new server, only the character and skills will be transfered.

  25. Pingback: Upcoming Darkfall relaunch is "a new game" | Massively

  26. Will we get a new server? Eg. EU-2?
    Will the relaunch cost money?

  27. Dave Hatch says:

    So many dumb questions with obvious answers.

  28. Dave Hatch says:

    Wow that lighting looks amazing! I haven’t played Darkfall in awhile but all these changes are making me consider buying a new system and getting back into it at relaunch.

  29. Pingback: Darkfall Relaunch!? | Ganked Networks

  30. Man you can have everything ive done in a year as long as the game as it is gets fixed.

  31. Xillydor says:

    Jummy.
    Hope everything gets deleted! Atleast its cheaper then going to church for losing agliment.

  32. So that means i will be unsubscribed until after August because why playing it now when we get a new game with hopefully fixed mechanics and not these boring WoF knockup spamming.

  33. Sentius Nox says:

    I’m not going to lie I’m vary impressed AV. It seems ur finaly doing somthing. best post ever by u guys. good job and keep it up. the new lighting btw looks epic. =D

  34. Bear says:

    That’s great Df2010 is not an expansion anymore it’s a new game. What does that mean for all of us that have played since beta trying to level our characters. Some of us aren’t power gamers and have lives. Me playing an hour or two a day I still don’t have any offensive spells surging. Also what of in game assets like housing I worked for two years to finally buy a house and now it’s not worth shit?

    • Judy Schmidt says:

      Quote from Tasos:
      - Expansion / Relaunch doesn’t mean a server wipe but it may give fresh options to new and existing players.
      - I’ll repeat that we’re not going to wipe the servers in case that’s still unclear.

      (I tried to post a link but I don’t think it will let me post a comment if it has a link in it)

  35. I hope characters get reset. Most vets never earned their “skills” legally by playing the game anyway so fuck those that are going to bitch about having to start from square one.

    If you ever sat on a blood wall, auto-swam or glitched out a mob to raise your skills you have no right to complain about losing your “work” at levelling your character.

    I like what I have read, but at the same time I have my doubts until AV delivers.

    Oh, and I expect a free week or more of game-time when you finally release this expansion so that I can come back and play test. If you have the confidence in your product you won’t mind doing this for your long term followers that are unsubbed due to all your broken deadlines and promises.

  36. A few questions…
    1) Will everyone start from scratch with characters? (I assume yes)
    2) >>>>>>>>>>>>Will I have to pay 50 bucks again to get the relaunch? I have to be honest here, I would feel pretty ripped off for buying a broken game, then still being charged for the “fixed” product. I hope something can be done about this.<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

    Other than that, I'm glad you are trying to fix everything and make it all better. Might have saved a few players along the way had this been announced earlier though.

  37. Will it have a new name? Darkfall 2 or something like Darkfall: Awakening

  38. Matt Goebel says:

    This is outrageous. How are you going to completely screw a veteran thats been playing this game for 2 years? I have a house and put my time in farming and raising my character. Now we are having to go through more bullcrap? I’ve been loyal to darkfall for 2 + years since the beginning of Europe release. I’ve suffered terrible lag, the terrible start of the server including bugged mobs, bugged cities, and people exploiting. I’ve been loyal to the staff and the developers and this is how they are going to treat me? Your going to make me start all over? Your going to wipe my house and my entire bank to play this new game? I’ll be happy to never play this game again with that kind of treatment. I’ll also try to take my entire guild with me. I’m disgusted.

  39. what will happen with player houses?

  40. Pingback: В августе Darkfall ждет перезапуск | MMORPG Игры

  41. Martin Erber says:

    Guys and Girls, its an Expansion but you can see darkfall with all these complete changes and content + technical overhall as a “other” game yea like a complete new game. Dont worry every char will have the stats and skills like you have now. Most of the darkfall players finished the Meditation System, and the others have 2 month time to finish it. Why should they delay skills or chars when the subscribers payed for? This point needs no discussion.

  42. Dunno why people are not so interested in the sound and music changes.. I think that will make the game so much more lively and polished :)

    And as for the people who think it is going to be a wipe of characters; no I don’t think they’d do that :P That is a way too bold move.

  43. Tasos 10-18-2010

    “All our resources are dedicated to the development and future of Darkfall1 (that’s what I’ll call it for the purposes of this post to avoid any confusion).
    We’re currently working on a major expansion to Darkfall1.
    We haven’t diverted resources to a Darkfall2 game.
    Even if we had, it would take years to complete and we would not stop full development of Darkfall1
    We have no plans of replacing Darkfall1 with a Darkfall2
    If you asked us what’s after Darkfall we’d include Darkfall2 in our answer because we think that Darkfall has a future, it’s the logical progression of things and this is basically what I was referring to when I spoke at the HGDC.
    I mentioned Darkfall2 at HGDC after I talked about all our current activities, and then closing I briefly mentioned what’s in the future for Aventurine, long-term plans and thoughts. It was a brief mention, I didn’t make an announcement, even though it was presented as such.
    Our development works in such a way that all assets made today are reusable and upgradable for future generations of Darkfall, so yes we’re keeping the future of Darkfall in mind while we work on this version of the game. It doesn’t mean that we’re working on a new game.
    Expansion / Relaunch doesn’t mean a server wipe but it may give fresh options to new and existing players.
    I’ll repeat that we’re not going to wipe the servers in case that’s still unclear.”

    No panic friends

  44. Bear says:

    Het Tasos remember a yearago when you f’d up and mentioned DarkFall2 and then had to write a huge post on the forums to calm down the masses and keep them from quitting paying to play a game that they thought was dying?
    Well yeah

  45. Pingback: Upcoming Darkfall relaunch is 'a new game'Power Your Mind Blog

  46. Andrew Parks says:

    we better not lose our cribs and toons, i have a fully decked out cottage and a maxed out toon. id totally quit and ask for a refund.

  47. Just wanna say it all looks and sounds extremely promising! I dont care if there is a wipe w/e..

    All would be back to square one, without 1000′s of powerhouses running around and destroying every new players day.. (Yes im one of those new ones)

    Im not playing atm, havent played for months because of the huge leap between new and old..

    But im definitly coming back for the relaunch!

  48. Ryan Hale says:

    none of this sounds impressive at all the visuals are barely an improvement, why not try and fix some of the core mechanics of the game like the broken skill system, lets have a skill cap please.

  49. Sean Sych says:

    MAKE THE NEW SERVER BACK ON WEST COAST SO I CAN HAVE GOOD PING AGAIN

    DO SOME ADVERTISING SO THERE ARE CARE-BEARS FARMING I CAN GANK

    BETTER NOT BE ABLE TO TURN THOSE SHADOWS OFF. IF SO FUCK YA FINALLY REAL STEALTH

  50. Darren James says:

    its going to take more then the introduction of dinamic lighting to get me to come back….. idiot developers.

  51. I’d say overall the response has been pretty positive in these comments. Should be a good sign that you’re on the right track, Tasos.

    /sarcasm off

  52. This sounds pretty good, to be honest. Darkfall is a mess so any amount of major updates is good.

  53. Shane Stout says:

    Looking forward to the WIPE if it happens :) will finally be caught up to the rest of you jokers :P

  54. Pingback: Upcoming Darkfall relaunch is ‘a new game’ | MmoGah

  55. Pingback: Darkfall 2.0: The reset « Hardcore Casual

  56. A wipe and relaunch. Nice.

  57. Jon Lashua says:

    So sure DFII sounds good but will there be support and updates for DF1? If not, that’s a sure fire way to piss off all your vet subs… Just saying

  58. its not the game that’s broken,the problem is the players, i have never seen such a disgraceful community. even if you relaunch the game that doesn’t change players way of playing: using alts to leech mines, massive bank staring in city’s waiting for income because they are to scared to go out alone, selfsieging, crying on the forums for a wipe or other things that might benefit them. Just a few examples, have a nice day

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