Update March 2nd
March 02, 2012 
Resfelm 
A short update, Tasos had to be absent today so we took his prep info for this update and posted it:
Second week for this sprint finishes today and work continues at a good pace. Many Darkfall 2.0 development tasks are ongoing, others we presented last week.
Implementation of the Market System continues. The developers have paid close attention to your feedback on this feature both in favor or against it and they do understand some concerns about the courier system. As a matter of fact your concerns have spurred quite a few heated debates in the studio. When we have more information on this we will make it known.
Other ongoing tasks include the back-end storage and persistence implementation, updates to the graphics engine, modeling and animating monsters, world building tasks and the new training areas.
The design team is now working on the crafting system. Changes, improvements and additions have been planed for the entirety of the crafting system which in conjunction with the market system will provide a self regulating economy, more opportunities to profit even for new players and accessibility to items without the need to be a crafter yourself. To give you an idea of the direction design is headed, this week we would like to talk about boats in relation to crafting.
First of all, the workbenches in all NPC holdings now provide more options to anyone that has the appropriate skill to use them. At the same time, we have introduced a new category of sea vessels that we internally call utility vessels. This category includes some ships you may recognize from the current version but also two brand new ones. A beginner ship crafter will be able to only create a simple Raft. More advanced ship builders will have the option of creating the famed Launch which will serve as a small boat for small parties and clans that want a taste of naval warfare.
Fish Trawler and Coastal Runner
Higher up the list is the Fishing Trawler. This vessel, as the name suggests, is used for fishing. The single canon at the front provides some defense in case of unfortunate encounters with pirates or sea monsters. In Darkfall 2.0 you can fish only with a fishing boat and fishing equipment has been removed from all other ships. Another all new boat is the Coastal Runner. This sleek vessel bears no canons and cannot boast an enduring hull but makes this up with speed. The Runner is the fastest ship that sails the waters of Agon and is mostly aimed at transporting personnel across the sea as fast as possible.
Finally, a ship builder that has maxed his skill, even if he has yet to obtained the mastery version of it, will be able to create the Sea Scraper. Sea Scrapers are towards adventurous types of characters that want to try their luck at sea. As apparent by the name, this ship scrapes the bottom of the ocean, while moving quite slowly, bringing to the surface objects of variable worth. From treasure maps inside bottles, to ship building materials and even the odd boot of some unfortunate sailor, the Scraper does not discriminate. Just make sure you can defend it against would be pirates that covet the treasure in its holds.
All these ships will be craftable in all NPC holding workbenches.
The ship building mastery will open up all the ships aimed at naval warfare. There will be changes in these ships as well in terms of speed, armor, maneuverability and other features giving each one an area of expertise.
Hopefully you can see the direction we are taking crafting in and there are already designs for similar changes to siege equipment and mounts.
We would also like to thank you for all the constructive feedback on the forums.
Great update!
This is great!
Unlike shortbows and other crafted items that people grind and toss away…. these boast will serve to get everyone out on the water and enjoying naval combat and adventure.
Great update!
ETA on beta and where do we sign up? =] ~hopeful~
A really good update! Continue this way.
I’m looking forward to Darkfall 2.0
!!Just hope that the delays at the EU-1 server will be fixed soon!!
There is one thing that in my opinion went really wrong with Darkfall, and that is that you advertised that you could specialize in whatever skills you wanted, if it was pure melee, magic or a hybrid you could play as you liked, no class restrictions. But what happened was that no matter what you had to have magic, and some spells to even be able to survive a fight. Focusing one thing only was pure suicide, and it rendered the point of no class restrictions to nothing as it ended up being only “one” class :/ just saying this bugged me and my friends A LOT.
sounds cool
Nice update.
Good that progress is continuing on many fronts. Very nice that you have discussed the feedback regarding the Courir system, as well as that the Market system continues. (Do hope that even if the Courir system is implemented, that you cannot buy things for transport in Enemy Race NPC cities, nor Player Cities that are Enemies to your Clan/Alliance.)
Do however hope that you listened on my earlier comments when you presented the Crafting system, and instead of a linear Crafting Quality where every Rare metal denotes a step, use a heterogenous approach with a full colour palette for colours. (I.e. that number of Rare metal ingots determines the high end items, which do not need to be up to R9; that each Rare metal has certain benefits, such as increased Resistance to a certain damage type or improved efficiency in Transformation into Elemental weapons (Leenspar=Fire, Selentine=Cold, Veilron=Air/Lightning, Neithal=Earth/Acid, Theyril= Holy & Unholy) and for a full colour palette turn Theyril into Gold colour to have a base palette of Yellow, Blue, Red, Black, White, that in a Alloy system can be combined into Green, Purple, Orange, and paler/darker versions of these with Veilron and Selentine, for at least 20 different colours on the metal of armours and weapons.)
In regards to the Boats, I do think that the Runner will despite it’s lack of cannons be quite popular among Player Pirates. (Who need cannons when you got fireballs? And, you don’t want to sink the ship you are to take over?) And that the Fishing Trawler should not have it’s cannon in the prow, but in the back, as it is a defensive weapon that shoots at agressors while they try to get away from them. And, that the Sea Scraper should be renamed to Sea Dragger (as dragging is the correct term, not scraping).
Also hope that the Boats will have Cargo Space when they are produced, and not as a add-on (having lockable doors can be an add-on), and why not separate the metal requiements in components for Cannons, or even make it so that Cannons can be placed on the Boats in slots aftwerwards, to make the cannon-crafting skill a more sought after commodity. Not to mention that ALL ships need to have the ability to accelerate to a higher speed if going straight, for Travel needs, and not only that the new and fast Runners are implemented.
But, all in all, looking forward to seeing the results.
nice, more ship’s, and ones that aren’t just combat focused, I applaud.
As you have, I have also thought about the Courier system, and my conclusion is:
A Courier system would ONLY be good if:
- IF Regional Banking was put in, with one region for every Racial territory, subcontinent and one for the dark spot in the middle and it’s Chaos cities, each region having it’s own “Global Banking” system, where every character and Clan has a bank account (up to 11 bankaccounts/person, with access to 22 bankaccounts with Clan Bank access). Each Player city should be assigned to a specific area, with cities in the border areas on Agon belonging to Race True Clans being able to be assigned to Own Racial Area bank if it is close to the own border. (Gold can be Global.)
- IF the Courier could only deliver goods within one Region, by Lore using it’s connections in other cities with Marketplaces and sending items through the Bank system, as Players would use a Clan Bank for a transfer.
- IF the Courier service still took a decently sized fee for their delivery service (as a nice littel Gold Sink, acceptable as it is for services rendered according to choice).
- IF it is optional, and a Player can still go and fetch their item in the city it is in.
The Courier system will not function with either Global nor Local Banking, need to take out a fee to grant merchants a little edge and compensation for their time if they run around collecting items for getting together orders, and should be a Gold Sink and not something Player Clan cities get money income from like the Workbenches. (The NPCs also needs wages, and don’t pay tax on “tips”.)
mate do you have a twitter?
Good for shift crafting, but this is sort of a fringe crafting skill that people tend to only master as the result of the grind of a clan as-is, so isn’t as big of a deal as just about all crafting skills, which are rather horribly broken.