PvP Gameplay
I expected: Good
They delivered: Fantastic
Reason: It’s the total package. The “hardcore” consequences with the political landscape combined with how completely open it all is make it for one of the best PvP experiences ever. Add in the fact that they made the oblivion style combat actually work, mounted combat work, sieges, ship combat, and almost everything they promised have really made this an experience that every future PvP game will have to live up to.

Server Stability + Communication from Aventurine
I expected: Bad
They delivered: Total crap
Reason: Didn’t have to be Nostradamus on this one. The server queues lasting 3+ hours, server downtimes every day, ninja patches with no notes, and almost a total communications blackout make this category a stinker of massive proportions. The worst of any company I’ve seen actually.

Overall
I expected: Good
They delivered: Good/Great
Reason: There is something about Darkfall. It has that really important aspect that reaches out and grabs on to you to keep you playing. There is something special about all they’ve accomplished with taking PvP combat and gameplay to new places. I don’t think I’ll be able to go back to a game that doesn’t capture the same quality of PvP and potential on this scale. I’ve been saying this a lot: “Darkfall is better than I expected”. Although they could have, and really should have in 7 years, reached the “Fantastic” status, the server issues combined with the systems that fell short (like the skill system) make Darkfall Good/Great. I don’t expect much from Aventurine. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took them a year to overhaul the skills system. But the fact that I can set those things aside and still play a very functional and very fun game is the key.

Server Stability + Communication from Aventurine
I expected: Bad
They delivered: Total crap
Reason: Didn’t have to be Nostradamus on this one. The server queues lasting 3+ hours, server downtimes every day, ninja patches with no notes, and almost a total communications blackout make this category a stinker of massive proportions. The worst of any company I’ve seen actually.

Default Update March 21st and Patch Notes
Since Darkfall’s launch we have been dealing with issues round the clock, and we’ll continue to do so in order to improve your gameplay experience with every day that goes by. We read all the support requests and are aware of every issue that comes up and we want to thank you for your excellent feedback.

The queuing has been addressed and resolved. The lag and sync issues some players were experiencing have also been addressed and resolved. Random crashes have been all but eliminated. We will give all player accounts a total of 34 days free play included in their initial purchase to compensate for any inconveniences caused by downtime.

An issue we are facing now is with more Darkfall availability. The reason we had throttled the availability in the first place was to avoid queuing. At some point we hit the threshold where queuing begun and we needed to increase capacity. Now that we know more, we’re working in advance so that queuing doesn’t become much of an issue again. We hope to be able to open up for more sales sometime this week; again it will have to be a limited amount of copies to allow a smooth integration of new players into the game. We will announce when this is ahead of time.


We are also working on opening up new servers to meet the demand. This is not as simple as some forum posts suggest. Darkfall has a huge and very complex infrastructure. There will be announcements when this is nearing completion.

We have been permanently banning all accounts that we detect are using 3d party software exploits. Still, there are a few people don’t understand this and continue installing and using these exploits. You will definitely be banned if you do this. No appeals and no excuses are accepted.

Macroing: We are working to address it at its source, but until then we need to enforce our policies. Before we do that we will appeal to players not actually playing the game to log off rather than leaving their character in-game. This will allow more people to be able to enjoy Darkfall instead of unmanned characters taking up server space. If you’re skilling up by not playing the game as it was intended, you will be kicked and repeated offenses will result in a ban.


Our patches to date mostly contained bug fixes, and optimizations. We will start posting patch notes, as we are moving towards more gameplay specific enhancements.

You may get a “lobby outdated” message after this patch. This happens if you have an outdated version of the lobby. You can correct this by installing the latest version:
http://www.eu1.darkfallonline.com/dl/Darkfall.exe

Here are the latest patch notes from Kjetil:
• Clan Vault permissions have been updated so privates can no longer view the contents.
• Clan Smithy now has more craftable options enabled.
• More craftable warhulks have been added.
• Stationary Cannon damage output has been increased. Fixes problem some players were facing when cannons wouldn’t do proper damage during sieges.
• Siege hammer damage on clan stones has been increased.
• Warhulk weapon damage has been enhanced.
• Ship cannon damage has been increased
• Guard towers can no longer be blocked/parried
• All widescreen formats are now fully supported
• Bowyer Mastery can now be bought from the blacksmiths
• Vendors now sell more items including repair tools
• Server lag issues are fixed.

Thank you for reading,

The Darkfall Team