Official March 29th Newsletter

We are pleased to present a sneak preview video of Custom Roles, an update of our latest patch, the changes at Aventurine and our exciting offers for the weekend. CUSTOM ROLES TEASER VIDEO

Darkfall removes class and gear restrictions and embracing a free build system.

Old Class System

Darkfall Unholy Wars was launched on April 2013 with a character development system that followed traditional role based system. These role included melee heavy Warrior (Tank), high mobile and range based attacker know as Skirmisher, a spell damage dealer known as Elementalist and finally a healing class known as Primalist. Beside common skills, all other skills/spell were specialized and only usable by 1 class/school combination. (NOTE: Each of the 4 classes were further specialized using a system known as ‘schools’. The official manual covers it well)

There were also restrictions in place on which class can wear what type of armor or use what type of weapon effectively. Different skill and spells were bound to a particular weapon. For example, a warrior had to equip plate and a one hand/two hand melee weapon to execute most skills.

The class based system served its purpose because it defined a strict role for people, however, balancing it became increasingly difficult. Each offensive and defensive skill needed a counter move by 3 other opposing classes, and the impact of each spell/ability needed to have damage based on who is on the other end. Realistically, balancing so many spells/skills, 4 classes, 3 school customization, with 4 types of armor in 4 tiers with 8 types of weapon of 4 different tiers is not possible( to balance remove this)given the number of permutation and combination involved.

Player can customize stats distribution

The current class system also impacted PvE because certain classes had a big disadvantage. For example, those who chose (past tense) to be a prime had a difficult time killing mobs as a healer. Killing higher end mobs as a mage was also a challenge due to low resistance where damage/survivability didn’t scale compared (past tense) to a Skirm/Warrior.


Aventurine (AV) the maker of Darkfall have finally decided to remove all class and armor restrictions!

Daedrus' Tales series unveiled

Daedrus Dragoneye journey in Agon.  (Click on the images below to read about the exciting journey)

Hapless Hadar and the Port of Grivendale

The Song of Wanderlust

The Lustmord Report: May 21st Economy Patch.

So far, 2014 has been a great year for Darkfall: Unholy Wars.  We've received the Chaos School, the Sinspire Dungeon, the Area of Influence System, new Village Control Points systems, Levy Collections, among other things. All of these have been well received by the community.

On May 21st,  AV released the New Economy Patch. Here's what it's all about:

The New Grind

 

 

These items can be found in greater abundances in the lower tier danger zones, while in the higher tier zones you'll find more essences.

If you aren't familiar with it, essentially the new economy system includes Inferior Raw Mats in the low level danger zones that need to be converted to Regular Raw Mats, that in turn need to be converted to Rare Raw Mats, that in turn need to be converted into Rare Refined Mats.

On top of that, there's a new conversion item for each type of mat. As examples, if you want to create wood from lumber, you'll need Linseed from a bush. If you want to create cloth from wool, you'll need Lye from a tree.  If you want to create the rare variations of these mats, it will require even more of the conversion materials based on the rarity of the end product!

Example-

Livestream Questions and Answers with the Devs!

Incase you missed it, here is the livestream Q&A with the Darkfall Developers.

Player provided Transcript of the livestream (not exact)


What happened in AV with communication?
- Post tomorrow

What is endgame gonna be?
- PvP battles, politics and economics generally.
- Holding worth should affect character power (cast speed, attack speed, armor), as well as abilities that can be activated

Suicide Sheep does it again!

Spotlighted at Darkfall Official Facebook.  She is beasty Primalist (healer) who also plays hard mode using First Person View! 

Community Talk: State of Agon Episode #3 (NA Edition)

Players have come together and decided to create a new "talk show" series about Darkfall's current affairs.  Enjoy the third episode.  Show cover custom class, balancing, mentoring system, game economy, etc. The show is intended to spark more interest in the game from non players and have a rich debate about various changes to improve the game.

Here's a little background information on these honorable guests!

Diana

24 Years old
Started Darkfall with the release of Unholy Wars.
Tournament commentator and State of Agon Host.
Combat/Siege leader of Lux,TFK and now SUN
Was in the British Army for 7 years.
Feel free to call me Dan

Darkfall introduced an unique "crafting orders" to help new players and those who dislike crafting

In Darkfall every single armor and weapon above junk level (R00) are player crafted.  Unlike other MMORPG mobs or boss will not drop any weapon or armor that player can wear.  Also there are no repair system, so eventually all gear durability will reach zero and break (disappears) as you use them.  On top of that it is a full loot PvP game so if you lost in a fight, you enemy will gank you and take everything you carry with your (anything kept in the bank is safe).  Therefore crafting is fundamental and very important for all players.

Crafting is also a very difficult to level (skill up to make higher tier gear) because it requires players to craft hundreds of items.  It is a massive task to gather many types of basic materials, rare essences to make refined materials which are then used for making mastery level weapon and gear.  Before player can make mastery level gear, they have to purchase these "crafting abilities" which requires player spent prowess or "Experience Points" in traditional MMO terms. This becomes specially difficult for new and casual players because they need to choose to invest prowess (XP) between "buying spells to get stronger and useful" or "buy crafting abilities to craft good armor and weapons".

Darkfall Server Wide Statistics Compiled

Ever wonder how many gold coins changed hands? How many clans exists in the game?  How many times people ganked each other in PvP?  How many duels happened?  How many wars were  declared?

Here is all the official statistics released for Darkfall Unholy Wars. Make sure to click "read more" to load all of the stats. 

Territory Conquest the occurred in last 12 months.

Number of Active Clans in each server

Small scale combat on a high ridge.

Heart pumping small scale fight that took place at a high altitude. Landscape and elevation is very relevant in Darkfall Unholy Wars and environment adds a lot of depth to PvP Combat. This epic feeling comes from the fact that DFUW is zoneless/instanceless unlike other MMORPG. Enjoy this nice video.

Community Talk: State of Agon Episode #2

DFUW Players have come together and decided to create a new "talk show" series about Darkfall's current affairs. . Enjoy the second episode.  Show cover custom class, balancing, mentoring system, game economy, etc.

One of the strength of Indie games/developer is that they are small, efficient, accessible, and they can take chances with many types of experiment to become innovative.  I have personally conversed with the developers of Darkfall many times, which is unimaginable for most big studio games.  Indie project also have their fair share of issues mostly lack of resources, missing deadline, slow to patch games. Good thing is they are more open to criticism and they are more willing to listen to the player base and act accordingly.  Player can have a much bigger impact and say on the direction of the game design etc.

Good old city raid in NA by Dark Side. What Darkfall is all about!

Elysianfields spent a day with Darkfall Developers at Aventurine S.A

Elysianfields visited a highly secretive fortified facility located in Athens where Darkfall development takes place. He had opportunity to ask question, take pictures, and reveal some secrets. Here are all the details below with Pictures in here as he reported in the official Forum.

Yesterday I (Elysian Fields) made a visit to AVs offices after an invitation I received. I would like to share my exp, photos, news learned with all DFs community.  I'm really sorry for my poor English I'll describe as best as I can.  Av is situated in a modern multi floor building 30 minutes away from the Olympic stadium were the Olympic Games of Athens were made 10 years ago.

AV HQ from outside 

"Once inside First thing you see is the big reunion room (photo) with a big poster of DF , it was outside the room where Unuldur received me and showed me all the place."

Here is the secret War room where all the debates and important decisions are made!

Conference Room

Look at that poster!

 "All devs, GMs and people inside the offices (they are around 40) received me with a smile and intention to answer every question concerned the game. They told me I could photo everything and later on I could show all my photos in the forums for all of you (with the exception of a poster that contained all discussions made and future updates). Second floor is divided in departments (communication, technical support etc) and all of them work as one with Tasos in the role of the big bad wolf! "

Mobs to farm for dyes

Special thanks to Suicide Sheep for creating this spreadsheet.
Don't forget to check Suicide Sheep's Darkfall video collection in Youtube. 

Alchemy Common Dyes	Drops from
Goblin Green	Goblin Fighters
Scumling Brown	Scumling
Sickly Green	Zombie Shamblers
Vibrant Violent	Wisps
Frozen Blue	Heielhim
Imperial Gold	Bandit Assassin
Rage Red Dye	Hobgoblin Grunt
Soulless Cyan	Skeleton Warrior
Gooey Violet	Matayin
Muddy Brown	Kobold Strongmen
Ogrish Green	Ogre Bully
Rotting Gray	Grave Shot
Forest Green	Forest Prophet Runechanter
Icy Cyan	Vargashi Defenders
Light Copper	Severii Centurion
Night Blue	Night Hags
Alchemy Mastery Dyes	Drops from
Beastly Gold	Beastmen Warlord
Blood Red	Darkbrood General
Bone Brown	Darkbrood Warlords
Jungle Green	Jungle Stompers
Sinister Violet	Sinspire Squires
Tombstone Gray	Gravelords
Divine Cyan	Menhir Sentinel
Royal Copper	Hand of Khamset
Undergrowth Green	Forest Walker
Greedy Gold	Sir Davosh the Damned
Ocean Blue	Kraken
Roaring Red	Fire Dragon
Blinding White	Ice Dragon
Erebus Black	Imperator Jabaoth (Demon)
Removing Dye	Drops from
Turpentine	Hivekin Foragers / Brownies

For latest updated check the spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OdeL-rcHtmqUu6XB-xjciEASFg-QPpzxH63-NIhBclA/edit?usp=sharing

Lustmord's Custom Dyes Review.

For years, Darkfall players have been asking for armor dyes to set themselves apart in the world of Agon and customize appearance. In line with their vision of shaping Darkfall: Unholy Wars into the greatest sandbox game on the market, Aventerine has released an the armor dye system in the April 29th patch.

Photo by Candy Flip

For those who are not familiar with it, the custom armor dyes consist of 30 individual colors pigments. Each pigment drops from a specific mob in the world, and a stack of 5 pigments can be crafted into a dye using Alchemy, and Alchemy Mastery. You can then apply the dye to an individual piece of armor's primary or secondary color scheme. I was never very good at math, and I have no idea how to begin calculating the total combinations possible on a 10 piece armor set, but it's ALOT!

When the patch released, players rejoiced and set out into the world to discover these pigments, and create their dyes, compiling lists of mobs that drop them, and sharing pics on the forums.

Photo by Luxferro

Photo by Licam

Players discovered that many of these pigments were assigned to mobs that were relatively untouched prior to the patch. Gooey Violet pigments, for example, drop from Matayins while Rotting Gray pigments will drop from Grave Shots. Mob spawns that previously had little value in the world became locations of interest for many players. This was definitely a good move, in my opinion, to increase individual value on unused mobs.