"Gaze upon yonder ancient wonders of the world and marvel!
Now lets go kill the inhabitants and take their stuff."
Human Chain Armor in Progess
We would like to carry on with our little tradition of showing you some teasers concerning the new armors.
The human male and female versions are still the ones currently being worked on, mostly due to the fact that they needed the least tweaking/changing compared to the other player models. We will of course also show you the other races and the new armor as soon as we can get our hands on some renders.
Please keep in mind that only part of the artist team is working on upgrading armors and player models. Parallel to these changes there are a lot of additional tasks the art team has on their plate.
Without further ado, here is a render (out of game) of the current chain armor versions for both male and female human models. Don't forget to check out the higher resolution.
New Player Protection
We're introducing a new feature possibly as soon as the next patch which provides optional protection against player attacks to brand new players. This functionality is very limited and only lasts a few hours but it should be enough to allow someone logging into Darkfall for the first time to learn to control his character and to get his bearings while still having proper access to the live game.
Here are the specifics:
If you're a new player entering the game for the first time, newbie protection is on by default. There's an option to turn it off if you don't want it.
You won't be able to damage other players and other players won't be able to damage you.
You can only damage monsters.
The protection only lasts for a few hours of gameplay. There's a visible count-down timer. You'll get a warning before the protection expires
The protection is active only in the racial starting areas. If you wander outside your starting area, you'll get a warning and if you don't return within a couple of minutes, you will lose the protection.
There's a visual indicator that signifies you're a new player with protection on.
You can trade and interact with NPCs without restrictions
You cannot use any items that cause structural or player damage (battle spikes, warhulks, cannons, ships etc.)
You cannot use mounts
You cannot unspawn objects
You cannot teleport
You cannot use Runestones
You cannot use portals including Nexus
You cannot create a clan
You can give and receive buffs and heals
You can join a clan
Newbie protection works only for new accounts
You cannot skill up on other players or be used to skill up on
One of the myths about Darkfall is that players prey on newbies. The Darkfall playerbase on average has displayed great sportsmanship and most players go out of their way to help someone starting out. This has been reported many times (in disbelief) by new players and various media trying out the game.
We believe that the newbie protection feature is consistent with the nature of Darkfall, where without "softening" the game it allows new players a few hours to start navigating Darkfall's learning curve and to be able to concentrate on learning the basics. It also lets veteran players and clans looking to help new players know when someone is completely new. Finally, it's an optional feature so that experienced players can turn it off if they want to jump right in.
This feature is something we've been contemplating for a while; we've done quite a bit of work on it and have tried to consider every possible aspect before deciding to implement it. We'll monitor this feature closely and quickly make any necessary adjustments.
We're also working on many new features and enhancements to help new players adjust to Darkfall much faster, and we'll never stop striving to improve the initial experience. This feature is coming in time for a large influx of new players to the game and other initiatives geared towards new players.
Tasos - Darkfall Developer
Patch Notes January 28
Fixed several issues relating to virtual address space.
Fixed handling of unstable and drifting system clocks.
Fixed a problem where you could, in certain circumstances, sprint without losing stamina after performing a double jump.
Fixed a bug where you could not destroy a city structure, if it had been disabled before a conquest challenge was initiated.
Fixed a bug where sometimes the disabling blow effect did not show up on players.
Changed so that if in game mode you press any of the shortcut keys to toggle i.e. mini map/paperdoll, these windows will not show up again in GUI mode.
Fixed a problem where your mount would stop if you tried to sidestep while mounted (you should not be able to sidestep while mounted).
Fixed tool tips for items placed on player vendors.
Fixed a bug that let you bind stone recall, house recall and teleport while doing a trade route run.
Fixed a bug in the persistence of trade route runs.
Fixed a problematic village in 'three pirates' where the large villa was placed inside a regular house.
Fixed so that healing spells or buffs that land on targets back do not produce blood anymore
Fixed a bug that could block player trading, if the player who initiates the trade dies before the trade is accepted by the other player.
Fixed a problem regarding the clan boards.
Added system message for damage on clan stones and siege stones.
Changes to Sea Fortress Timers: Sea Fortresses go vulnerable again after 3 days with a random factor of +-4 hours.
Quest fixes.
Quest updates.
Visual updates to trees.
Visual updates to rocks.
Visual updates to harvesting and skinning tools.
More Kobold spawns have been introduced around the starting areas.
Monsters strafe and run away less often.
Fixed a bug that caused some mobs to stay in run mode and never stand still.
Increased reagent drop for some low level monsters.
SFX Updated for the following:
Water Magic:
--------------
Ice Storm
Clear thoughts
Blizzard
Cold Shield
Cold Ward
Frostbite
Delayed shot
Slow
Necromany:
--------------
Bludgeoning weakness
Mental weakness
Piercing Weakness
Slashing Weakness
Undeath
Unholy Caress
Unholy Flames
Vampiric Touch
Other:
--------
Mortar Cannon Impact
Player Water Splashes
Cold Damage Impact
__________________
-Read it again-
Kjetil - Darkfall Developer
Gets my vote for best Vid! and it's damn funny.
Jan. 28 2010
New from the DF Spotlight
We know, we know, you all are very curious to see what the changes to the character models will look like.
Today we have a little preview for you. Keep in mind that this is still work in progress and the humans are the first models that are being worked on with all races getting a revamp.
For now she still has one of her old haircuts but new hair options and other additional features will be introduced with the updates too.
One of the improvements is a slightly higher polygon count while still keeping the performance of the game in mind. Additionally, the proportions have been slightly changed.
On top of having new and additional armors as mentioned in a previous spotlight, the nude states of all characters have been improved.
And yes, the improvements, of course, will also include animations.
Without any further ado: Here is the promised preview.
Don't forget to click here to see the full sized version!
Art Department talks about one of the things they are currently working on
The artist Team under the wing of Henning Ludvigsen granted us a bit of time to talk about one of many things they are working on for this year.
It seems the department is in over drive and is working feverishly on upgrading already existing assets but they also have some additional nice surprises up their sleeve, we were told.
As mentioned though, they allowed us to take a glance at one of the things to come:
What we were shown are upgrades to both player models and armor.
Not only are all the armors and player models either being improved or completely redone, they also informed us that new armor models are being added.
The Gandalf wannabes might be delighted to hear that this also includes adjustments to robe models and special new caster armor they are working on.
Of course this overall update to the player models will also include new faces, general details and new and additional hairdos for all your customization needs.
Henning particularly mentioned that they are planning on giving special attention to certain races in terms of character models.
They also assured us that the updates are being done while being in direct contact with the programmers to ensure that the playability remains optimal.
And as mentioned, that is only glimpse of things they are going to surprise you with this year. They were generous enough to provide us with an impression of the new leather armor and full plate in progress.
