Start separate threads for each topic in the community forum so the discussion doesnt become a quagmire.

Decent update but.. nothing about self sieging, #1 issue that is destroying the game at the moment, PLEASE – FIX or at least mention what you want to do about it short term, because put it to long term and it will damage the game severely.

Prestige class :
I don’t care about class or not in game, because the most important is the balance between class or play-style.

Capital cities become the only starter areas :
why not but you need to make the area around it interesting (lot of mobs for newbies)

Other NPC cities could become a nice PvE spots with medium mobs but no guard towers.

Holdings control the lawfulness or lawlessness of an area :
YES! sandbox feature.
But you will need to move soem holdings away from NPC cities. There are currently many holdings too close to NPC cities.

Dear Tasos,

This is by far the BEST report you have given all of 2011. I Dearly thank you for this communication and am really happy today because of it.

Thank you for finally replying to us about Prestige Classes. Thank you for shedding light on all of those awesome changes to crafting, items and clan cities.

Everything you have said in this post I agree with 100%

My only question or concern. What are you going to do with the current starter cities? They are Lesser cities than the capitals. What purpose will they have now?

And do something with the GOLD SELLERS.

Yes to allowing clans to decide whether or not the area around them is lawful or lawless. If they choose to make it lawful, perhaps there could be some sort of reward involved in killing enemy races within their area.

Towers in NPC cities are fine as is. They don’t need to be insta-death towers.

Yes, excellent idea. Allow vendors in NPC cities as well! One of the main things this game needs is immersion however. If perhaps multiple vendors could be allowed in a city, each with it’s own customizable sign, we could actually see some marketplaces that would encourage player interaction, and of course, meaningful pvp if players chose to raid the marketplace.

Yes to a salvaging system.

Yes to quality of ingots determining the quality of the weapon. We need more customization in crafting though! It’s simply use x to create y at the moment. There’s no availability for player creativity and personalization.

And please, add rare ingots to village rewards…it would be an easy way to create some great hotspots for small scale pvp, which is exactly what this game desperately needs.

In terms of specializations: Aquashot should not be a specialization. It’s been said many times before, but this does not create diversity. It’s merely a nuisance. A player shouldn’t be able to easily escape a fight in the water because a player pursuing him doesn’t have a certain specialization.

We need an archery spec please! As of now, a mage killer does A LOT less damage in archery against an archer who still has all of his buffs.

Destroyer spec is fine, although stickybacking needs to be addressed. Because of haste, it’s a bit unbalanced. Perhaps add a small knockback (like the polearm’s) to all weapons. If anything, greatswords need to be balanced. There’s a reason -everyone- uses them.

Magic needs more balancing as well. Mainly knockups, fizzles (remove them), and WoF spam. A great solution would be for Rage to make you immune to the effects of fire knockups and WoF’s.

Where to begin?

Lawlessness Controlled By Clans

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this concept – why even introduce such an idea? What would be the point of it? Why would a clan NOT turn their holding area to lawless? Just for the sandbox feel? No one wants to lose alignment and every holding is owned by an ARAC clan, so why would anyone want their holding area to be lawful? It certainly wouldn’t act as a deterrent for attackers. I don’t mind such a change, but there are more pressing issues at hand.

Tower Deadliness (safety)

Again, what’s the point of this? Not once have I ever heard a new player say “Man! These NPC towers don’t do enough damage!”. Blue blocking, a problem that has plagued Darkfall since launch, would be more of a problem than ever. As it stands now, one can still live after hitting a blue blocker once. With increased tower damage, hitting a blue might ensure death and exacerbate the blue blocking problem.

You really couldn’t have worded this part any more worse either. Safe haven? Do you even remember what Darkfall is about? No safe havens! The very thought of making more of a safe haven out of NPC cities makes me think that AV really has lost their grip on Darkfall’s core concept. Whatever plans you guys have at making NPC cities safer, tread carefully because you’re close to losing your damn game. Increasing tower damage is a pointless change, blows my mind as to how this takes precedence over some of the more important fixes that need to be made in-game.

Clan Vendors

Where are you going to put these Clan Vendors? In player holdings? Keep in mind that as soon as players hit system, the holding’s inhabitants chase them down and kill the intruder(s). No one is going to stop and ask “Are you here to buy something?” when a player comes into their holding. On top of that, once a player buys something from a Clan Vendor – what’s to stop the inhabitants from just killing that player and taking it back? The holding’s bank is probably closed so customers would have to go elsewhere to bank their purchases. There are different dynamics behind vendors in holdings as opposed to vendors in villages because there is a no tolerance policy for outsiders in every holding. If this is your idea, you need to rethink it. Consider putting Clan Vendors in NPC cities, give us reasons to stay blue.

Recycling Items

This should have been implemented a long time ago.

Specializations

Here’s a breakdown of your specializations;

Guardsman – I don’t think a single Darkfall player uses this. I’m sure this was intended to be used in conjunction with 1 handed weapons but seeing as you made 1 Handed Weapons obsolete in stand alone viability, there’s no reason to pick it up. By making 2 Handed weapons the standard weapon, you released this specialization of any use.

Unfazed – A good specialization, very helpful for new players in PVE.

Indestructible – No comment, as I’m not too familiar with Indestructible. What I do know is that many new players ditch it not long after picking it up because damage from other players is simply more than the protection gives. It’s not an issue of the protections not being enough, it’s more about the damage output by most players (i.e. Mages) is too high.

Destroyer – Probably the most useful current specialization. I have a lot of fun as a Destroyer but since Day 1 of Conquer the Seas, it’s been widely known/agreed upon that Destroyers have a difficult time in solo PVP. Destroyer is a group PVP role that can turn the tide of a battle, but it has it’s problems when fighting alone. Many of these problems deal with the damage gap between bows and mages, I’ll elaborate on this in the Mage Killer section.

One issue that plagues Destroyers (as well as everyone else on the server) is fire knockups. This needs to be changed and again, it boggles my mind as to how you can start thinking about other fixes before this one. There is a unanimous sentiment among Darkfall players that fire knockups are ridiculous and need fixing – it’s probably the biggest problem in current Darkfall combat. A player should not be able to literally juggle their opponent from 100% health to dead (and believe me, that’s a common occurance). Everyone and their mother uses fire knockups right now because it is the end all of easy kills. Mages need a way to get players off of their backs, sure, but three knockups is too much. Once a player lands a knockup on me, my fate is completely out of my hands – I can’t move and I can’t outdamage my opponent from the air.

Mage Hunter – Much like Indestructible, damage output from mid level to high end players is too high to make Mage Hunter of any real use.

Mage Killer – Mage Killer is almost always picked up in conjunction with Destroyer, and this is also where most of Destroyers’ problems come from. Unless I’m using a decent Silverbranch (i.e. a 12k+ gold investment), I hit staff targets for mid 20′s with Mage Killer. Mid 20′s simply doesn’t compete when Mages are spamming spells that hit for low 30′s to mid 40′s per hit.

You guys only made things worse for Destroyers/Mage Killers when you increased the mats for Silverbranches. They are just too expensive now to use in casual PVP, and it puts bow users at a noticeable disadvantage to any decent mage. Many players ignorantly talk about how the 12k cost for Silverbranches is nothing compared to the reagent costs of getting spells to 100. What about us players who leveled our magic but still decided to go Destroyer/Mage Killer? This renders that argument null and void, as we’ve spent gold in both worlds.

Mages have too many tricks up their sleeves to make the average Destroyer/Mage Killer a viable solo PVPer. The combinations of blinds, Wall of Forces, fire knockups, and hard hitting R90 spells make bows inferior.

Master Scout – This perk doesn’t even work. It’s been tested again and again, identifying distance is the same for everyone. Mirdain’s special ability is the extra ID range, even theirs doesn’t work. Yet another glorious example of AV’s competence.

Mana Shield – No one uses it, period.

Conclusion;

AV’s track record shows that most of your ideas are not thought out very well – this should be apparent to you when you see that most of your specializations and content (i.e. Ice Dragon and Trade Routes) are completely unused. I suggest putting some extra thought into the upcoming changes you’re making. If you bring in any DF player to AV HQ in Athens and ask them whether or not they want fire knock ups or tower damage changed first, that player would likely slap you in the face. I’m sure there are debates on these issues happening behind the scenes but the fact that you have yet to mention it once in your “updates” makes the community think that you intend to let these issues pass unchecked – a serious mistake indeed.

We have no clue we dont play our own game and have no idea how to fix it.

Please give us some ideas to help.

Summation of the above blog.

On crafting, please read.

The real issue in crafting is with mob drops and durability. currently people use very low durability gear and mob drops in pvp because it means less risk and there is no disadvantage. This can be fixed simply by an making items stats dependant on durability NOT chance in crafting, and not higher rank ingots. Durability should be important in pvp not just for pve.

For example a r60 greatsword mob drops for .80 damage is just as effective in pvp as a low roll .80 crafted one full durability. With my idea instead of random damage roles in crafting giving it between .80 and .84 damage; a full durability sword is max damage .84 and as it wears down the edge dulls until at low durability it becomes lowest damage .80 like the mob dropped sword. This means no more spending expensive mats crafting weapons which often have no value.

This should also be true for armour, a full durability set of infernal should get a fairly large stat advantage over a set about to break. This idea means risk vs reward, a concept which should be KEY in a FFA full loot pvp, but is shockingly lacking or absent in most aspects of darkfall!

“We’re still in crunch mode trying to reach our sprint milestones.”

Good luck.

Put your content where your mouth is. This blog is like a teenage angst diary sometimes. Full of stuff that won’t ever happen.

Don’t get too mad though, AV. I’ll be the first one to throw out praise when you start kicking ass. Until then, ill enjoy telling the truth.

I disapprove of the ingot change. Although it works well in UO the change wouldn’t really do anything in DF unless you changed every item in the game.

“We’re also considering making rare ingots less random in the sense that they will define the quality of the item they are used to create. So higher rank items will require higher rank ingots.”

They already require higher rank ingots for higher rank weapons. Increasing the amount means changing mines etc… there really is no point. Besides, controlling different mines means battles for different assest. Asset control should always increase in importance in the game not decrease!

As for the lawless and unlawless, clan control seems well. Dividing areas of the game could actually hurt the game either by removing content from “chaos clans” or people would simply just ignore the red and blue mechanic like many do now.

Good to hear the prestige class and armor specialization are both entering the game, but honestly any opinion on that is impossible with out specifics.

Moster cap damage is probably for the best unless you let things one shot people. THAT IS NEVER FUN.

Clan vendors would work for some people, but it seemes like a pvp reducing mechanic. This would create even more inactive cities for selling points or free passes into a city which already happens for trade anyway.

Recycling could be useful, but isnt really needed. If something is so low that you would recycle it anyway you shouldn’t get much from it.

As for the others complaints about balancing magic just zone em out. Each tree already has its advantages they are just to blind to see em.

Ok, AV wants feedback, so let’s give them some:

Lawless areas – This is NOT a Fix for the Alignment system. It is STILL broken, and one of the major hurdles to overcome before DFO become the MMORPG it was intended, instead of the MMOFPS with a Grind it is right now.

As Lawless areas are merely a mitigation of the harshness of the Alignment system, it needs to be severely curtailed. NO WHERE on the central continent of Agon should be Lawless. If you wish to be here and be a killer, you’re Red. Deep ocean areas to be lawless could be good, as the Ship Area Damage device use would give Alignment penalties is a mistake that would be mitigated enough by this, as well as that the Sea Towers could very well be Lawless. Possibly the Subcontinents as well, but this is quite a big deal. Letting Player Cities be Lawless depending on choice, is NOT a good option, in the same way I wouldn’t want the Chaos City area in the central Agon to be Lawless.

Making Towers deadlier in NPC Cities – They are already deadly enough… unless you got loads of Arcane Resistance from Jewelry. What is needed to be done is simply to remove the Arcane Damage type from the game, give Jewelry Mental Resistance instead of Arcane, give all spells doing Arcane damage to do Blast, Piercing or Mental damage instead, and then have Mage Towers do
1) First shot: Debuff all resistance of a random damage type.
2) Second and following shots: Heavy damage ray of the damage type you are now debuffed from resisting.

This is a bit more complex programming solution than just up the damage, but will counter most counterstrategies as well as make the game less complex by removing a totally reduntant damage type.

Clan Vendors: Having Vendors in Clan cities/Hamlets is a great lubricant for Alliance trade, and as such is very good to have. Letting these be “Hiring slots” in the “Market place” only hirable by Holding owner clan members, would be even better and more “sand box”.

We do however also need hirable Vendor spots in NPC Markets for Blue trade hubs, as well as make every NPC Merchant into a “Local Auction House” where everyone can sell things on commission, so even Newbs and non-merchants/crafters have a sale outlet for minor amounts of resources. This would make other roles than just fighting roles have a viable place in the character cast of Agon.

Recycling items to gain resources from them would be good. Have posted about that in the Suggestions forum as well (in Power to the Crafters!) where I suggest a total change of the resource system by including Firewood as a resource for melting Ore, smithing Weapons and metal Armor, as well as cooking food. Recycled items with wood components would then give Firewood and not Wood, which would be more realistic as carving something already carved into something else, is quite difficult. Of course, cutting up Timber into Firewood as well as making Wood into Firewood, and having Firewood be a byproduct of making Wood out of Timber, are also good addtions to the system, as well as having Ashes be a possible byproduct of any Firewood use, so there will be a “natural source” of that spell component as well.

A multiple Ingot quality system would also be interesting, especially if you remove the “Random Rare drops” from regular Metal Mine nodes, and make Metal Mine nodes of different ratings to drop different quality Ore, would also be interesting. Especially if the nodes were clustered together in remote areas, so one need to go and put together a mining party and travel a bit to get good Ore, not able to mine mindlessly in NPC city viscinities.

Redefining the Enchantment quality system is however a bit risky. It is already decently functioning, (don’t fix what isn’t broken,) and those parameters you talk about could befuddle the clearness of what one need to get where. That there is already several types of the same qualitytype of ingredient is good, but have the same monster type grant different quality types? That would mess up “Farming” of monsters.

Raising Damage Caps is good, as I find them somewhat ridiculus in themselves. A limit to how much damage a hit can make? That should be inherent in the variables of the system itself.

Improving and redesigning specializations/extensions is good, as this is a newly implemented system that needs to be constantly redesigned to be maintained. Adding, changing, improving, nerfing, is all part of making the system better. You need to do this with the Title system as well, which would do well with some “Racial Titles” only holdable by Blue people and such, and could be used as a small tool in a campaign to restart the Race Wars.

Prestige Classes is of course part of this system as well, and is to be integrated in the “customization web”, as all parts need to be considered and adjusted to make the final results be what one want. The Armor systems locking out skills is however something I wonder about a bit… hard limits are harsh in a Sand Box system, as positive and negative modifications should be enough. But, who knows, it might work well enough anyway. Just saying it is risky.

Hope these comments will be read and appreciated… have a lot more where that came from in my treads on the DF Suggestion forum, where I discuss a LOT of detail, which are important as it is there that the Devil lies in wait to mess things up.

/Lord Zeb