24 replies to this topic

[Tiberius Doohan]

Can anyone tell me what has happened to the Agony Darkfall site?  I have not been able to access it in quite a while.  Not that I have been able to get into the game anyway I just wanted to keep up.

[Sever Aldaria]

Ah. Rells quit Darkfall and the clan is now run by myself, Hael, and Breg (friend of Gant Stryker and political mastermind). Hael's built the new website here:

http://darkfall.agonyempire.com/

Also, lilly (Hael's girlfriend) modified the Agony hydra logo to be more Darkfall-ish.




Brief recap of events in Agony to this point:

The first several weeks in game consists of us hanging around the Dwarven npc cities learning the game, exploring, making money, skilling up, defending against pvp raids, and launching our own raids west into Mahirim terrirtory.

A few people then decide to explore the jungle sub-continent of Yssam and find a player city under siege. They talk to the defenders (Covenant of the Phoenix [Stasis Alliance]) and jump in the fight helping them defend their city.

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A few days later
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Breg meets Lys Noir (currently our French and French Canadian counterparts) and forms a relationship with them. Shortly afterward, Lys Noir declares war on Juevos del Diablo and challenges them for their island hamlet between the main continent of Agon, and the northern ice continent of Nifelheim.

Political Map (3/23)

Agony travels to the island by raft to aid them in their siege where Lys Noir uses the first Warhulk hover tanks in Darkfall to destroy the clanstone and win the hamlet for their own.

Political Map (3/24)

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Over the next few weeks
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Agony/Lys Noir comes to the aid of the Stasis alliance on Yssam wanting to join the Stasis Alliance and take a hamlet or city for Agony. Many leaders of the Stasis alliance don't want to fully accept Agony and Lys Noir into the alliance unless they're being sieged and want our help.

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The next day
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The Dark Hand of Valor decides to siege a city of Stasis. Stasis offers the city to them if they would join them and Agony/Lys Noir decide to turn away from Stasis after we consistently fought for them bringing 1/2 as many numbers as they brought though they had roughly 5-6 times our member count.

The Dark Hand of Valor being a friend of ours with a defence pact between us, Agony/Lys Noir defend The Dark Hand of Valor's hamlet while they go to siege Stasis' city on Yssam. Agony/Lys Noir along with Hyperion clans (many of which we had fought against the previous day when we were with Stasis Alliance) dug in and defended the Dark Hand of Valor's hamlet from attacking waves of the Goons and Stasis Alliance clans (most of which we fought alongside with the previous day).

When asked who our targets were and weren't, the response was "Basically our friends are now our enemies and our enemies are now our friends". !lol

Breg explains our actions in an official statement:
http://forums.darkfa...ad.php?t=170391

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Several days later
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The Dark Hand of Valor, now secure with their new city on Yssam as a member of the Yssam Coalition, allows Agony to siege and take their hamlet on the northern coast of Yssam. Agony/Lys Noir obtain one of the richest hamlets in the game having 3 resource nodes (a mine, a farm, and a quarry) and a harbor.

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Over the next few weeks
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Agony/Lys Noir build the farm and quarry and begin saving up to build a harbor potentially unlocking a shipyard to build the first ships in Darkfall. Agony/Lys Noir begins to suffer multiple raids by Sinister of the Lords of Death LoD alliance. Agony/Lys Noir join the Latin Federation, an alliance in the Dwarven lands of the main continent of Agon to obtain allies for siege defense. LoD alliance raids Lys Noir's island hamlet destroying their bank. The next day, Lys Noir and clans of the Latin Federation retaliates with a raid on the Sinister city incapacitating their Keep. Sinister retaliates by incapacitating all the buildings of Lys Noir and Agony's hamlets.

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A week later
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LoD challenges Lys Noir's island hamlet and takes it for their own. The Latin Federation are disorganized and begin to fall apart as several clans leave the alliance. Agony seeks help in defending their hamlet from seiges by joining the Hyperion alliance.

Political map (1 week ago)

Agony/Lys Noir weather raid after raid on the hamlet repairing buildings and defending against raids of superior numbers to the best of their abilities while launching raids against the LoD island hamlet that was taken from Lys Noir.

Lys Noir attack the LoD bank on the island hamlet with a warhulk. Fraps is taken and a video leaked on youtube which made the Agon Tribune news and was the first public known use of a warhulk.

Darkfall forum thread

Agon Tribune article

Youtube video (terrible music. Obviously I didn't make it)  :p

LoD alliance responds destroying the Agony hamlet bank and incapacitating the buildings. Agony/Lys Noir rebuild and repair.

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2 days ago
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Sinister challenges Agony's hamlet. Agony calls on the aid of Hyperion and, though the rest of Hyperion was very far away, Hyperion sent an army of 120 soldiers to help defend. Instead of bunkering down in the hamlet in defence, the Hyperion army chased a LoD strike force of ~50 west across the river where the main LoD army of ~100-150 moved in from the south catching the Hyperion army in a cross fire and cutting them down showing the importance of tactical military troop movements when pvping with a large number of people. LoD take tha hamlet.

A tactical analysis and summary of the Battle of Skogul on the darkfall forums:
The Battle of Skogul

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The Present Day
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Agony/Lys Noir decide to head south to border of the Human and Alfar lands where Hyperion's main front is focused on killing the Goons and their alliance (Coalition of the Chill'n). With no hamlets to defend nor buildings to lose, we will be the main aggressive force pushing the Hyperion front as we seige the nearby goon cities and hamlets leaving their buildings in ruin.

We went from one front line to another because that's where we like to be... where the action is.

[Strauss]

I thought this had been canned, if you have a chance Sev can we hook up and discuss?

[Sever Aldaria]

Yep. Check your pms, Strauss. We'll hook up on vent sometime and talk about it.

[Cerias Shadows]

Sounds quite exciting!

[Blood Thorn]

Nice write up Sev!

I'll add that last night, Agony, Lys Noir, and a clan named Bloodfest started the reign of terror last night by raiding the clan city owned by eXile (who is a member of the Coalition of the Chilin).

Grumel Steelforge - Darkfall

[Keellan]

There aren't any free trials or buddy passes available yet right?

[Atlas Elestra]

Correct Keellan.

If fact I was unable to purchase the game, and got discouraged from trying as they keep opening up new subscriptions when I can't be online.

A subscription to Darkfall is harder to get than enrollment in one of our classes.

:(

[Sever Aldaria]

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A subscription to Darkfall is harder to get than enrollment in one of our classes.

:(

Yes, but unlike our pvpu classes, the decrease in availability is causing a decrease in demand as people are giving up trying to buy it.

[Spinward]

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A subscription to Darkfall is harder to get than enrollment in one of our classes.

:(

Yes, but unlike our pvpu classes, the decrease in availability is causing a decrease in demand as people are giving up trying to buy it.

Yes, they are really cocking it up :(

[Lord Gabriell (Acobar)]

I was going to give it a try a few weeks ago. I asked a handful of buddies in Eve about it and they said Darkfall has went the way of Warhammer. I just assumed no one was playing it anymore and by the comments about getting a subscription I now know why. :)

The shop still shows "Temporarily Sold Out", which is an amusing state of affairs for a upstart MMO. I do understand they have to consider server load and all that jazz, but they should have ironed this out before going live.

[Sever Aldaria]

Yep. Should have but didn't.

If anyone is interested, a friend of mine has 5 months left on his Darkfall subscription but is too busy for MMOs right now so he's wanting to sell it. 5 months worth would be $75 USD forgoing the initial $50 USD purchase. Let me know if you're interested in this and I'll hook you two up.

I'm also in possession of 2nd account (friend of mine decided Darkfall pvp required too much focus for him as he just wanted "mess-around pvp") if any Agony member would like to take that. You just have to pay the monthly subscription so you can forgo the initial $50 game purchase. :)

I'd rather give the "free" account to someone that's sincerely interested in Darkfall from what they've read/heard/seen but hasn't been able to buy the game as opposed to someone who thinks "meh, I'll try it out and see if its any good".

[Sever Aldaria]

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I was going to give it a try a few weeks ago. I asked a handful of buddies in Eve about it and they said Darkfall has went the way of Warhammer. I just assumed no one was playing it anymore and by the comments about getting a subscription I now know why. :)

The shop still shows "Temporarily Sold Out", which is an amusing state of affairs for a upstart MMO. I do understand they have to consider server load and all that jazz, but they should have ironed this out before going live.

"went the way of Warhammer"

Well, it seems to people that less people have been logging in in the last 2 weeks but not for the same reason as Warhammer. Warhammer was great fun for a few months until you got to level 40 and realized there's no end game and nothing to do. Darkfall has an endless sandbox endgame like EVE so its like... "there's nothing left to do". Major problem is that I think it still feels like a beta. Its very playable and fun, but there's still a lot of balancing they have to do, and a lot of features they haven't implemented yet, and bugs and problems they need to fix. Add on top that sales are still limited and it makes it feel more like a beta.

The first 1/2 month or so there were lots of problems with AV allowing too many people to purchase the game and their server hardware wasn't upgraded and optimized (which came later). Lots of people complaining about several hour long queues that people had to wait in. After the server optimizations, there were no more queues and lag seemed much less of an issue. Now there's less people that have logged in or cancelled subscriptions because there's still lots of balancing that AV haven't done yet (magic and naked fighting are the 2 that come to mind). AV should be opening the store more because there are many people whose subscriptions haven't run out but who aren't logging in.

Though AV have handled their game opening horribly, its still a fun game that they're slowly making better and better each week and has a lot of potential but people want their cake and they want it NOW.

Big patch today so we'll see what sort of changes that brings. Hopefully they un-bug the Czech Heros' hamlet so we can take it. (Czech Heroes owns the hamlet but only 6 members that left and the clan doesn't exist for people to declare war on and challenge it but the hamlet is still claimed by the *dead* clan. Happened before with a city that they fixed with a patch. Seems they can only fix those sort of database issues with patches.

[Tonto Auri]

Sounds interesting, however, the way they distributing it, not looks enjoyable...
Looks like they want to "implement it all now", which not going to happen in the one moment at all.
I think i saw enough of the MMO games to tell outright that steady evolution of (relatively) stable releases every several months is a good way to go.
However, your note, that it's much like EVE in the way it define "endgame", intriguing me. Since EVE for me is no more, i'll keep Darkfall in mind. Will see what it would rise into.

[Alcazabedabra]

Hey, cool. Darkfall looks... dark. I like it.

Be sure to post when subscription becomes available.

[Atlas Elestra]

I'm interested in Darkfall and all, but I really don't knwo how much time I'd have for it.  I mean I don't get to play EVE enough as is...


Actually a major reason for the accounts being sold how they are is that AV is under capitalized, and Cant' afford the extra servers etc... that they need have thier launch meet the demand.

[Mystic]

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A subscription to Darkfall is harder to get than enrollment in one of our classes.

:(

Yes, but unlike our pvpu classes, the decrease in availability is causing a decrease in demand as people are giving up trying to buy it.

Yeah I've majorly lost major interest because of this. Is it reeeeaally still worth waiting for AAAND learning a new game and the money associated with it?

[Sever Aldaria]

I'd say if you're only somewhat interested in Darkfall, then you should probably wait 2 months before trying to get in to let them work out more things.

If it does look very interesting to you, then go for it. It's a fun game (more so when you play with friends).

[Mystic]

LOL. Another two months to let them sort out more things doesn't sound very promising. I'm definetely interested but it's EXTREEEEEMELY hard to maintain that interest level with the current state of affairs. I'm hoping though. !lol

[Sever Aldaria]

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LOL. Another two months to let them sort out more things doesn't sound very promising. I'm definetely interested but it's EXTREEEEEMELY hard to maintain that interest level with the current state of affairs. I'm hoping though. !lol

Nah, I mean... forget about it, and then 2 months later be reminded about it and then try it out

[Sever Aldaria]

The 5 month account has been bought. If any Agony member is really interested in Darkfall then I still have an extra account to give away.

-Sev

[Gant Stryker]

I managed to sub to Darkfall last month. I still have a very active intrerest in Eve, which takes alot of my time, also my wife is between novels (she is a writer) and when that happens she wants me to play Everquest with her a few times a week. So take my comments from the point of view of "casual" darkfall player.

1) The game world is well made and attractive, with varied terrain and decent overall movement and combat mechanics. The game is full loot and items decay. The combat is fairly twitchy. There is no autotarget, and you have to move around alot, adjust aim, be careful to avoid friendly fire (given and recieved). While this adds realism, it definately gives the advantage to generic 14 yr old who is used to playing Halo, vs 42 year old me who plays turn based strategy games....

2) The crafting system is integrated with the combat portion. You almost have to be a crafter of some sort to make yourself a better pvp'r and not just to replace damaged/lost equipment. for example, as your logging skill goes up by cutting trees your strength and wisdom stats increase. Everyone becomes in a sense, part carebear, part pvp'r.

3) The game is skill based, like Eve, however instead of a timed increase, you have to actually work at a skill to improve it. This means you always see people running macros to get better at core skills and afk running into walls or swimming at a rock, or shooting arrows at a tree, or magic missiles into the air. For the casual player you will fall behind the curve rather quickly, whereas Eve you keep gaining sp, even if you don't gain actual experience in using those sp's.

4) The world has no safety net. While this sounds cool on paper, it puts new players at a svere disadvantage. Imagine if Eve was all 0.0 from the beginning, and all you could fly was an Ibis most of the time. Fine if you start when everyone else is in Ibis's but bad when they are all in Battleships. Death penatly is mild (aside from total loot drop). You coudl leverage yourself up to a decent set of skills in amonth or so, but woudl spend significant time macrioing, and playing.

5) Because of 3) and 4) you have to spend alot of attention to playing darkfall, afk is bad even in cities, and you will be ganked a good portion of the times you leave a city, really just a matter of when, not if.

6) To succeed the game needs a critical mas sof like minded players. Having Eve Agony players trickle in seems to have kept us from hitting a critical mass and really taking off.

7) The teamwork aspect is very good, large fights quite fun but if you can only log in for an hour a day at lunch and there is 2 people on vent you will be very limited in what you can accomplish.

As has been noted the game is very much a work in progress and given a couple months, and a more open registration process has a lot of promise. but if you don't have significant time to put into it you will not be able to advance very well. Because of this I am letting my subscription lapse for now and will give it another look in a month or 2 if my time frees up.  

[Sever Aldaria]

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Imagine if Eve was all 0.0 from the beginning

A more accurate analogy would be, imagine if EVE was all low sec and you could be killed in stations! The only truly safe place is offline.

[Tiberius Doohan]

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my wife is between novels (she is a writer)

Cool!, not to hijack the thread but what is her area (fiction, historical fiction, mystery)?  My wife and I read a lot so one of us might be interested in checking her work out.  We buy books instead of going to the library so it may end up with a few real life ISKies her way.

[Gant Stryker]

I said she writes novels... she is still trying to sell her first, however if you enjoy poetry she has a book published and an d e-zine I can point you at.

Genre is women's fiction, the kind that doesnt involve much bodice riping, and is heavy on empowerment. Her latest book is about several women who are revitalizing a small town library, with some resistance from local government, their stories, etc.