| Developer(s) | Aventurine SA |
| Publisher(s) | Audiovisual Enterprises SA |
| Designer(s) | Claus Grovdal, Henning Ludvigsen, Ricki Sickenger, Kjetil Helland, Erik Sperling Johansen |
| Engine | Darkfall Proprietary Engine |
| Version | 1.0.37 |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release date(s) | July 13, 2009 February 26, 2009 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG, Online RPG, MMOFPS |
| Mode(s) | Open PvP Multiplayer |
| Media | DVD disc and a downloadable package |
| System requirements | Windows XP/Vista, Pentium 4 2.5GHz, 1 GB RAM, 12 GB hard disk space, PixelShader 2.0 compatible 128 MB graphics card |
| Input methods | Keyboard, mouse, gamepad |
Skills
Darkfall departs from the conventional MMORPG paradigm of character levels as the main form of character progression, favouring instead a broad skill-based system[4], similar to that found in games such as RuneScape, Ultima online, EVE online and Asheron's Call. Skills and skill proficiency determine a wide range of a character's capability in the game, including weapons and weapon skills, a few special attacks, spells, and archery, all aspects of player crafting, as well as more basic facets of gameplay, such as the ability to swim, craft various items types, and to ride and control mounts.
Skills may be learned from NPC trainers in the game, however certain skills will require other skills as prerequisites. Without exception however, skills are improved (raised in power) through actual usage in game.
Playable races
There are six playable races in Darkfall, divided into 3 factions. Unlike other MMORPGs, racial choice does not heavily influence character choices or progression options. Each race begins play in their own homeland, and have their own unique storylines, histories, and racial alliances/enemies. It is possible to form mixed-race clans of opposing factions, however racial alignment adjustments (see 'Alignment') are always in effect.
While certain races have friendships and hatreds with other races in Darkfall, these are not strictly enforced upon the players, and it is possible for allied clans to declare war upon both their own race and their racial allies. Declaring war against a clan will prevent players of the declaring clan from sustaining alignment penalties associated with attacking and killing players of the opposing clan, regardless of race.
The races, organised by faction, are:
- Alfar (dark elves)
- Orks, Mahirim (wolf men)
- Humans, Mirdain (forest elves), Dwarves
- Str: Increases damage dealt with melee weapons,and moderately affects max health.
- Vit: Grants a bonus to max health and moderate bonus to stamina. A high vitality may slightly reduce the effects of poison and bleeding.
- Dex: Increases archery damage and may reduce damage taken from area effects.
- Quick: Slightly increases melee and archer speed and may reduce damage taken from such attacks. Also Grants a moderate bonus to max stamina.
- Int: Increases the power of spells and greatly affects max mana. It also improves resistance against mental attacks.
- Wis: Grants a bonus to all crafting and harvesting skills. Also moderately affects max mana, and grants a slight resist bonus against curses.
Receiving physical or magical damage from other players, NPCs or other objects cause the loss of hitpoints until that player is incapacitated, at which point there is a certain amount of time during which that player can choose to declare themselves dead and return to their last "bind point", or they may be "finished off" by force, or revived by another player. Unless revived, the player dies at the expiration of the incapacitation timer.
Likewise, the casting of magical spells requires and expends mana points, and the execution of various physical activities, such as sprinting, the swinging of weapons, and casting of spells expend stamina. All three of these statistics are regained over time at varying rates, and may be rapidly regained through the use of healing and other restorative spells, potions and items.
In terms of racial differences, the order of races with respect to the strength statistic is: ork > dwarf > mahirim > human > mirdain (elf) > alfar (dark-elf), while for intelligence, the order is the exact reverse: alfar > mirdain > human > mahirim > dwarf > ork.
PVP
Darkfall has been designed from the outset as a full-loot PVP game, meaning on death players are able to fully loot other players of their gear and gold on their person. The ability to fully loot other players has been factored into the game as an important facet of the RTS-like logistical meta-game between warring clans.
The ability to fully loot other players is a significant departure from other, contemporary MMORPGs, such as World of Warcraft and EverQuest II, in which the quest for better gear is the primary driving force for of player character improvement once maximum level has been attained. In Darkfall, character skills are the primary driver of character improvement, and gear also plays a large role in determining a player character's overall power. In some respects the looting system of Darkfall resembles that of EVE Online, which allows players to loot much of a destroyed ship's gear from the wreckage.
Friendly fire and collision detection are always in effect in Darkfall. Combined with a real-time combat system, Darkfall's combat is anticipated to provide a more realistic combat experience than other fantasy MMORPGs. The developers have opined that historically successful battle formations and tactics will be widely adopted and adapted for use in Darkfall. Likewise, area-effect spells and abilities affect enemies and allies equally, and so must be used with caution and discretion.
City building and conquest
The goal of Darkfall is its support for large-scale territorial conflict between player clans. To this end, empire building through the conquering of pre-made cities is expected to be a major part of the game. To promote such conflict, the developers have stated that there is a finite number of pre-made cities (97 locations-44 Clanstones, 53 Hamlets) within the world. The potential pre-made city and hamlet sites are marked in-game by structures known as clanstones.
These pre-made city sites are spread across the entirety of the world, and vary greatly in location, surrounding terrain, access to nearby resource nodes, and consequently, their ability to be defended by the owning clan. The developers expect certain sites, such as underground cave sites hidden by a waterfall, or a precipitous mountain-side location with a precarious one-way approach to be more highly coveted than other sites, adding to the potential for territorial conflict.
Player clans have full diplomatic control over their relationship with other player clans, and can declare war on other clans unilaterally. Clans that are at war with each other may kill each other freely without alignment penalties. Player-owned cities can be freely attacked and then sieged. Sieges last for 4 hours. In the first two hours the defenders may launch an attack on the enemy's shard holder or city. If the defenders are victorious, the siege ends. The attackers may attempt to capture the defender's city after two hours have passed. They only have two hours to destroy the clanstone. To this end, Darkfall contains a variety of different siege weapons such as cannons and siege hammers, all of which are player-crafted. There is a limit on the rate of destruction of a captured city of 1 building per day, however any number of buildings may be disabled at any time by bringing their structural integrity to zero.
The Darkfall world
Darkfall claims to feature one of the largest online worlds of any MMORPG created to date. The Darkfall world is comprised of a large, central continent named Agon, on which all 6 racial capitals are found, surrounded by 4 smaller continents to the north-east, north-west, south-east and south-west. In addition, there are numerous small islands and archipelagos. It was estimated by one of the developers before release that it would take roughly 8 hours for a human to run from one end to the other. In reality, the time to cross the main continent is closer to 4 hours, stretching the time to cross the map on a diagonal up to around six. (For comparison, Blizzard's World of Warcraft continent of Eastern Kingdoms is 3 hours from north to south.)
The world includes a wide range of diverse terrain types, including forest, plain, desert, ice, jungle/tropical, swamp, and wasteland areas. Every part of the Darkfall world has been handmade by the developers and not computer generated. Darkfall developers have stated that any/all terrain can be accessed and traversed by characters possessing the appropriate skills, e.g. mountains may be climbed by those who possess the ability to walk; islands may be reached by swimming.
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