I’ve created a chart for DarkFall skills and their requirements. It does not include spells nor skills that are available without prerequisites. I know it’s incomplete. If you spot a problem, just leave a comment here so I can fix it up!
The PDF version includes a list of all skills in the game.
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PDF format
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Version 1.00 – Updated 1/26/2010
My collection of notes on starting out in Darkfall are below. I hope some of these are helpful for those new to the game.
Reference Material
Crafting Spreadsheet
Magic Spreadsheet
Sinister’s Darkfall Map
Political Map
UI
The UI takes some getting used to especially with the way you’ll:
1 – press a key to get a particular weapon in hand – let’s say staff for this example
2 – press a key to bring out the staff (skippable if you were already in the wield/item out mode)
3 – press a key to select the spell you want to cast
4 – left click to actually cast
As you can imagine, switching between different weapons and tools quickly takes a bit of practice.
Long post, more after the jump..
Read more…
I decided to give Darkfall another try last weekend and with almost a week in it’s about time I captured a few thoughts. I’m playing with a friend who didn’t try the game on EU and it appears we’ll have a third joining us soon. So, some random observations:
- Steady improvement in their patches. While the game clearly shows it’s supported by a small development team, they are consistently making sound choices for changes and enhancements. It may take them a while to “finish” all the features they need, but they’re picking the right ones to work on.
- Last time I played an Alfar to group with a particular guild that was Alfar only. This time I went with a Human. I wanted something a bit less extreme and more of an all around sort of race that I could take in any direction. The Alfar are also at war with all races.
- Last time the guild I was in had selected a clan city that was way the hell on the south edge of the map on a barren, desert island. That was a minus. This time, starting out with the NEW guild we’re on the southeastern corner of the mainland. There’s a lot more variety in the environment, many more PvE options nearby, and more resources as well. Clan city location makes a big difference for initial enjoyment of the game.
- It’s still brutal. Bank often, bank often, bank often. Sticking around my clan city, I don’t get attacked quite as often, but it’s still necessary to always keep an eye out for strangers or listen for the sound of approaching mounts. I’m working on my armorsmithing so I can create better armor and feel a bit less attached to the armor I’ve collected. If I can craft more, I don’t feel so bad when someone strips me of my current set. I’m getting close to being able to craft scale mail.
- Gather/harvest and craft in the nude. Yep, naked people mining and chopping wood is still the norm.
- The skill progression has increased dramatically. Less grinding, less downtime, etc. Good changes.
- While two handed weapons are the must have of the day, in a tournament I saw a 1h sword and board guy go all the way to the finals. Other than dagger, unless you’re pushing for a min/max character I think it’s possible to just use what you want and adjust your style. The shield has some nice advantages that might work well in PvE too when farming mobs. I’m using 2H greatswords, but may mix it up a bit.
- With the changes in PvE such that mobs have different stronger and weaker defenses by attack type you need some variety. No longer can you just be good with one type of attack and spank ‘em all. I like this..
Darkfall has shown a lot of improvement this year with free expansions, bug fixes, and new features. For a detailed re-review see Paragus’ blog. I think I’ll add a few Darkfall newbie tip posts here shortly…
I’m still buried under a pile of games to play and not too much free time to enjoy them. Yet, I did want to mention that after years of hanging onto my Logitech MX 500 series mice, I finally found a replacement. The Razer Imperator could almost be considered an improved clone of the old MX 500. Internally, it uses Razer’s latest tech that’s inside all of their newer mice. Externally, it’s a slightly lower profile MX 500 with the excellent addition of the ability to slide the thumb buttons closer or father away. It fits great after adjustment, works well, and a little pricey. Overall, I’m happy to have found something to replace my gold standard. Now I just have to find the perfect keyboard…..
I haven’t had much time for gaming the last few weeks, but there’s so much out there that interests me. Here’s the list that I’m working through now and we haven’t even reached the Christmas season yet:
Yes, that’s two MMOs at once. I just don’t have the time for both, so we’ll see which one sticks around later in the year. Aion and Fallen Earth are much farther apart in the MMO spectrum than for example: Aion and LOTRO.
Yet, for the next week, I doubt I’ll log into either. Torchlight releases tomorrow and Borderlands today! Well, Borderlands for the PC that is. It’s already out for consoles and I’d probably pick the console version of that game, but I have a PC-only friend I’d like to play with.
While Borderlands is interesting, my ‘game of the week’ is clearly Torchlight. I’ve been waiting for that release all year and with early review copies in the wild there’s a lot of information finally coming out with details like Skills and Spells. There’s even a plethora of gameplay videos appearing at Runic Games Fansite.
Maybe I’ll post a mini-review for Torchlight… eventually 
I’ve been busy with Aion and dipping my toes into Fallen Earth a bit as well. I’ll write more about those later. In the meantime, I’d like to point out the Torchlight Developer Diary (part 1 of ?) that was released last week. October 27th is almost here!
A friend pointed out this new article today at gamasutra. It’s five pages of interview material with Brian Knox from NCSoft. Here’s a sample question:
Are patches going to be global and simultaneous once the game is out in both territories?
BK: We’re going to get them as close as possible. I think that everyone will be a little different in terms of the timing. If a patch is maybe heavy on some sort of content that maybe doesn’t require as much localization work as another patch, than maybe that one will be a little bit smaller, as far as the delta. There might be an instance where it’s best for all of us to launch all at once. I think we’re just going to take it on a case-by-case basis. It’s definitely our goal to stay within one to two months, as far as up-to-date.
A week has passed since Aion’s North American release so it’s time for an overview of my impressions. I’ve loaded a sample of miscellaneous post-release screenshots into the gallery if you’re interested. This one is a favorite from Sunday. I took it and many more like it in Gribade Canyon. The area is filled with giant mushrooms and waterfalls.
As you can see from the image showing my progress over the week, I’m a fairly casual player. On my server, Lumiel, you can see that 79% of the players are between levels 10 – 20.
The Good
I’ve had a lot of fun with my Sorcerer. Most of my time has been spent solo questing with a small amount of crafting. I’ve had a few pickup groups as well. I haven’t had a bad grouping experience yet. The in game community players are mostly friendly and helpful.
I’m not one to craft in most MMOs. I dabble a bit, but I’ve found crafting in Aion to be very rewarding so far. I did all of the crafting quests that became available at level 10 which gave me a taste of each crafting option. For my Sorcerer, I decided to focus on Sewing and Alchemy with a little side adventure in Cooking. While I’ve done just a little bit of Alchemy, I’ve put more effort into Sewing. This has worked out well as my Sorcerer generally has better armor from my Sewing than the drops I find at this stage of the game. At level 18, there’s a new set of cloth armor I’ll be able to use, so I foresee more crafting work orders in my future. I might tire of it at some point or the drops may become so good that I lose interest, but for now the crafting mini-game and associated gear are well worth the effort.
The questing has been entertaining and rewarding. There’s not a lot new to see here in terms of original questing. If you’ve played other recent MMOs, don’t expect a surprising new model. While it’s not awe inspiring, it is well done. The quest journal is nicely organized by quest type and location. The cut-scenes and sometimes lengthy quest information (read all the books, notes, etc.) provide a lot of background and immersion for those who want to dig into the details. It is important to note that you do need to explore on your own and also revisit areas that you may have previously cleared of quests. New quests will appear in old areas and not all quests are linked in a long, unbroken chain like in some other MMOs. Effort and exploration in this game brings rewards, so make the effort to explore and re-explore as you level up.
The Sorcerer has been a excellent class so far. I’m both itching to see the Abyss with this character and to play several other classes as well. Aion should keep me busy for at least the next few months. I have a short MMO attention span, so that’s saying a lot
The Bad
Queues – The situation has improved and NCSoft has commented several times. More recently, they’re adding a few new servers and over the weekend, I only queued once for about 10 minutes. Others have had more lengthy waits, but compared to a week ago, it’s getting better. While it’s not a permanent problem, it is irritating for those who land in a queue.
Private Stores – I like them, but I don’t like the way they’ve been abused. Until the recent patch limiting their duration, zones were littered with private stores being used to circumvent an afk logout. The new time limit has greatly reduced the clutter, but I don’t think we’ve seen the final solution for private store adjustments just yet….
The Ugly
The General Forum Community – It’s pretty terrible with QQing and a scattering of real issues. I wouldn’t recommend reading the General forums at aionsource or the official forums either. A better signal to noise ratio can be found in some of the sub-forums for classes, PvE, PvP, and more. For now, avoid this and this. I’m actually looking forward to five weeks from now when a segment of the players drop from the game and we can, maybe?, have some decent forum threads again.
Gold Spammers – I see this as the next big issue after queues. NCSoft’s in game options for blocking the whisper spam and reporting are poor. I saw this problem while playing Aion on China’s servers so I’m curious to see how quickly they respond to solving this issue. It’s bad enough that at times you may have to use your Friend’s list to mark yourself as invisible to avoid the spam whispers. If you haven’t disabled the regional chat yet due to its similarity to Barrens Chat, this may push you over the edge into finally turning it off…
The Three Line Summary
A great game so far that’s well worth a purchase if you’re looking for a new fantasy MMO that rewards taking risks and exploration. Expect it to be slightly harder than recent MMOs, but not overwhelmingly difficult. I’m having a blast and will share more of my adventures in Aion as they continue…
In an effort to deal with the many players abusing the private store feature in order to stay permanently logged in, they’re patching the servers today. The patch will add a limit to how long a private store can be used.
Official Notice at Aion Online announced via Twitter:
NA Version of the Notice:
We are bringing the servers down at 6:00AM PST (more), September 25th, for maintenance. The purpose of this downtime is to tweak the way Private Stores work. A timer of 30 minutes will be implemented to prevent these shops from being abused as a means to prevent disconnection and alleviate queues.The maintenance is expected to run no longer than 1 hour.
Thank you for your patience!
You might not have heard of Torchlight, but if you’re a fan of the Diablo series, Titan Quest, or similar games, you want to get ready for this one!
Torchlight is due to be released October 27. The team creating Torchlight has a strong pedigree including Travis Baldree (Fate), Matt Uelmen ( music for the Diablo series, World of Warcraft, and more) and others who developed Diablo I and II.
The October release is a single player Diabloesque game with random dungeon levels, pets, and a toolset that will allow players to extensively modify the game. Later, in 2011, a Torchlight MMO will be launched. To learn more about the game look over here and of course wikipedia. In the meantime, enjoy the gameplay videos below for each of the three classes. Diablo III might not be out for a a couple of years, but it’s ok. You’ll be busy playing Torchlight…
