Before we get started with the questions, I want to take this chance to thank the Darkfall team for helping us improve the level of communications between the Development team, and the fanbase.
Please remember to stop by our image gallery to see the new screenshots we have up.
Now on with the show…
1. So the stance where you can build a ‘house’ almost anywhere has changed?
I’m glad you’ve asked this question. We feel that the way we’re doing it represents the spirit of building anywhere a lot better than letting players place a house or build a city randomly. Darkfall has special considerations, some of which follow:
“Building anywhere” in most games means trying to find one of the remaining flat and barren areas on the map and putting buildings on it that more or less look like everyone else’s mess. In Darkfall you have cities and buildings hanging on the sides of mountains, on top of mountains, on wild land formations, on river deltas,with waterfalls and rivers running through them, on small islands etc.. Every one of them looks and feels unique. When you see it, you know which one it is just by looking at it in a screenshot.
We have many awesome handpicked building locations that you wouldn’t be able to build on if you were “free to build anywhere”.
The sheer number of structures possible in each Darkfall world is also a concern. Each Darkfall world has the capacity for more than 10 thousand simultaneous players, therefore several times that number in total world population. Multiply that by the number of characters each account can support and the possible number of buildings in the world goes up to hundreds of thousands. Even though our world is huge, random building could make things ugly.
The world is content packed. Wherever you go, there’s something going on that could be disrupted by random building. The Darkfall terrain is all hand crafted, extreme and unique. Everything is hand-placed. You won’t be building on some auto-generated flatland that looks like most of the rest of the world. You’d be stepping on an artist’s hard work and possibly on terrain features that we don’t even know are there.
The technology allows for random building. We’ve chosen not to allow it based on carefully weighing the pros and the cons. Of course, just like with anything else, this decision will be evaluated through testing and feedback by the players.
2. Can you elaborate on building houses and towns?
Depending on the location, you can build walls, defenses, towers, shops, moats, inns, guild houses, clan housing, housing, temples, harbors, and much much more.
3. So if you get knocked out, you can’t even release?
You can release. The idea that you can’t is a misunderstanding.
4. How do you know if someone is good and evil?
There are many ways of knowing. Appearance is a dead giveaway, if you’re human and see an Alfar for example. You could also know by reputation, by probability based on the area you’re in, the company the character you’re wondering about keeps, their disposition towards you, your experience as a player, your gut feeling etc.
If this isn’t enough, there’s also a clear visual indicator on IDing the character š
5. Can you tell us anything about paralyzing attacks, there is quite a lot of grey area?
We have them, but they last very little, giving only a slight window of opportunity, they can be dodged, resisted, and you can’t be paralyzed repeatedly. Just as with everything else we’ve tried to make this feature make sense, having wondered “what the hell were they thinking” one too many times in games we’ve played.
6. What can you tell us about thrown weapons in Darkfall?
Here’s an example of a thrown weapon: the thrown potions: they can stun, blind, explode and cause damage, create smoke or fog screens etc. The effort is to make thrown weapons fun and effective (if you’re good), and not just some gimped skill that you can’t really use in combat.
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2 Exclusive Screenshots! Click for full view.
Published: May 26, 2006 02:44 pm