I haven’t had much time to get into Darkfall since I was able to purchase a copy a few days ago, but I feel early impressions of a game are still important even if it’s only 2 hrs. To me Darkfall Online made me feel the same way I did when I got my first hand-me down car when I got my license. I knew it was a piece of shit, but I was glad to have it.
Right off the bat on the games first loading screen there was already a resolution bug. I know it’s only a minor thing that doesn’t effect the game at all, but it does speak volumes about how polished the game is and that’s none, zero. I’m sure there’s a ton of bugs more important than this one which is why it’s probably still there, but common, do you really want the first thing the gamer sees about your game to be a bug?
After you created your character, I selected the wolf race Mahirim, you start out in a little town where you’re presented with a 6 page tool tip guide that’s pretty much tells you how to move and drag and drop items. A pretty useless guide, or so I thought. Once I closed that I didn’t see my character so I though maybe it was still loading, I didn’t realize at the time that you start out in first person mode. After a few seconds I tried to move and saw my cursor move but still no character. I then right clicked and was suddenly able to move. This is where reading the tool tip guide would have helped cause I didn’t know there was a button to switch between movement and interface mode.
So after I got acquainted with how that works I was ready to start on my journey. Since the game gives you no direction I decided to try to find the closes NPC and get a quest. Once I found him and got 2 quests I was ready to go, but again I found more things that bugged me. First, it takes 3 clicks to get to your quest description. You first have to open your journal, then click view quests, then select the quest you want and click description. I don’t know if it’s just me, but every time I open my journal it took around 5-6 secs, even though there’s nothing in it yet. It was taking me around 10-12 secs to get to my quests description because of the slow loading and because there’s no quick quest widget where you can easily see your active quests.
Aside from the slow loading journal/quest book, the mini map bugged the hell out of me also. There are icons all over the map but no legend to tell you what those icons mean. Then when you mouse over a dot as I did in the screenshot it doesn’t tell you either, just gives you the coordinance. Telling me what it is would be a hell of a lot more useful.
Moving on, literally, I started to move towards my first quest’s objectives when I was hit with another annoyance. Running. I’m not complaining that I have to run, that’s a given when playing a MMORPG, but as I ran it felt like I was being held back by a giant rubber band. Randomly it seemed my character would run and slow down constantly. It must be the lag but it happens every single time, on multiple days even when there was no one around me. I know it doesn’t seem like a big issue, but honestly the running annoyed me more than anything else, by far.
Now we come back to the interface and movement modes. As I was working on my quests, I had to loot some goblins bodies. After you kill something, a few seconds later a tombstone appears that you can loot, but to loot you have to sheath your weapon. Having a no “loot all” option, something I actually like, you need to open your bag and quickly drag and drop the loot from them before someone comes by and takes it first. Once you’re done looting, you’re back in interface mode, so you first need to right click to get back to movement mode, then click R to re-arm yourself. I might be getting picky here, but I don’t like having to click 2 buttons to get back to fighting mode. After I’m done looting why can’t there be one button that gets me back quickly.
That’s basically it so far. I’ve done about 5 quests and played for about 2 hrs which has left me with a pretty bad impression of the game. I’m going to continue playing until my free month expires, however at this point I think it’s going to be pretty hard for Darkfall to win me over.
Don’t even know why you bothered but I guess someone has to play it. Good luck!
All that and you still haven’t been ganked yet?
:p
The number of clicks for you loot a corpse is intentional. They want you use a lot of time with no weapon in hands looking to a tombstone and a bag while someone can be geting close to you from behind. And too other players can loot the tombstone WHILE you are looting the tombstone, so who is faster draging the itens gain them.
My advice: learn to drag itens faster. Other advice: read the “pretty uselles guide” again and again.
With time you learn to click at the use key (F) automatically. That will make you loot faster.
The problem you are having with runing speed problably is that you are using splint and stop to use it. You run clicking at W or using Num Lock. For splint you use left shift. If you don’t mantain left shift clicked you will stop splint. You too will lose splint if your stamina goes to 0. I advice you read the “pretty useless guide” again. Other advice: don’t waste your stamina if you really don’t need it, you will need it if you need splint for escape PKillers
That other spots you see on the map are NPCs that can give quests and sell itens and skills. You will not get their quests while you don’t complete the quests that come before at the sequencial quest line. When you compelte that quests you gain a quest for go talk to that NPCs and then their spots at the map change colors and get marked by arrows.
You can make the quests line at the 3 starting cities from your race. I advice to you do them, you will gain more than one starting armor and more bags. Use the bags only inside the bank, don’t wnader with them, they serve only for separate the itens.
The quest line is the same at the 3 starting cities, so all that quests will send you to kill goblins. I advice to you train your skills first with the goblins before go for the tougher mobs. Remember that goblins scout is the easiest goblin and goblin shaman is pretty hard for kill when you are starting, so go for the goblins scouts and if possible stay clear from the other goblins.
While you are killing goblins, try store some sets of spare armor and weapons you get from goblin loot inside the bank. Armor and weapons will break eventually when their durability get to 0. And you can ever be PKilled and lost everything.
Go to bank frequently for drop your loot. You never know when a player from other race will come for kill you. It is frequent that happens, they know the players are farming goblins and other mobs, so it is faster to get that itens killing the farmers. Take note that that is a reason because this game will give a hard time for the chinese farmers.
Get a weapon and a staff from the goblins for you use. You get no skill up from your starting weapon. And you need a staff for cast spells, because you start with two spells (heal self and mana missile) you cannot use while you don’t have a staff.
Don’t get too much angry when someone eventully kill you and loot all your itens. DFO is not item centric. Gear helps, but character skills and “personal” skills help more. Yesterday I escaped an ork that hunted me, I was on foot and the guy mounted, attacking and hiting me.
I escaped just because everytime it come close for hit me I fought it and hit its mount and because I used the terrain for my defense, trying run between trees and rocks, while I tryed to get near the city. I survived, mantained my loot (from the goblins I was farming) and gear and the guy had their mount lose half hp. I think the ork stoped to attack the farmers for some time after that, it problably don’t wanted to risk to lose the mount.
So, last advice: try run like a mad will make you just get hit from behind and that give more damage and will make you get dead for sure. You cannot escape an enemy on mount, so fight him, maybe you win.
Ah… and of course, after I escaped that ork, I stoped my character some minutes inside the city, because I had to drink something and wait for the adrenaline inside my blood get down a few.
Heheh after reading the above comment I was thinking ‘wth does “splint” have to do with moving’. Then I substituted an R and voilà! Yeah makes sense now. The reviewed was sprinting and running out of stamina so he’d slow to a walk until his stamina was built up again.
Only played for 2 hours and already you gave up… I’ve been playing for a few days now and i’m having a blast.
Next time do a longer try-out period instead of just giving up so fast.
The things that you say are annoyances (quest journal taking a long time to open, minimap icons not telling what’s what, drag looting) are all deliberate for hardcore gamers and pvpers. these all add to the realism of the game, and I like these features a lot.
Yeah, doing the 14 day trial now.. its pretty awful, and this is from a guy that loved UO in 1997.
This game is absolute cow shit.