Hi everyone, it’s good to be back on these updates, even if it’s just for this week, next week we leave for Korea to sign an agreement with our Korean partners. We’ll let you know about the details after it’s done, it’s very exciting news for the future of Darkfall. We’re back on Sunday April 8th, but next week’s update should contain some deals of our trip.

Our new Project Manager, Jonathan, just completed his second week with us. I think he’s doing a great job getting a handle on the current situation and fixing/optimizing some of our processes already. I think he’ll be very valuable for our final push to launch the game- and beyond that. I’ve taken something out of a brief weekly report he’s established which gives an optimistic message on progress: “Really happy with the proactivity levels of the team this week. Not sure who else has noticed but it took a giant leap forward compared to last week. There seems to be more communication and more co-operation with some people visibly “thinking outside the box” – this is great to witness and I hope it’s just the start.” Of course I cheated and picked the best part, there are always issues and disasters of varying size, but we’re all pulling together and facing them the best way we can. I hope that in a couple of weeks we can have a proper introduction, and possibly some community interaction with Jonathan.

Let’s look at some of the progress this week, including a couple of features of Darkfall 2.0 we haven’t talked about before:

A larger part of the team is involved in the user interface implementation and we’re at the point where the visual aspects of it are about to be implemented. We’re anxious to see it working, and we’re getting close. In combat mode the interface is minimal, providing a clear view of what’s happening in the battlefield, while the GUI mode is as informative as the player wants it to be through various customization options. As you know, the GUI has been a thorn on our side for a long time now, and we had to pretty much throw it away and make it from scratch taking into account all the lessons learned and the feedback we’ve had on it over the past 3 years. If we have to say how we feel about the 2.0 GUI, I’d say we’re excited about the serious improvements it brings to gameplay and the look and feel of the game- we hope you will be too.

We’re also currently implementing a point system into Darkfall 2.o, a new feature which we’ve been mulling over and designing for a while now. Points are a way for players and clans to better monitor their progress, their degree of success, but they also enhance gameplay by providing more options.

The first type of points you run across are player points. Most actions in the game, PvP or PvE related, harvesting or crafting, etc. grant, what we internally and imaginatively call, player points. The specifics are not available at this time, but players use these points to perform various actions in game. Essentially, playing the game provides a tangible reward that can be used to open up new possibilities and exciting new paths in a character’s career.

We’re also working on a player achievement system to give a better sense of purpose to new players as they are discovering opportunities the game had to offer. For veterans the achievement system provides an added incentive because it’s connected to the point system.

The point system isn’t just for players, clans can also gain points. Players in a clan will gain points both for themselves and for their clan while participating in certain activities. Successful clans get points and use them to grow and become more powerful. There are also clan achievements that provide an even greater incentive to complete certain goals. Clan achievements also feed into the clan points system.

The whole achievement and point system work as a driving force behind player choice. You still have the freedom to do what you want, whenever you want, there is no hand-holding and there are no forced choices. What it adds to the experience is an incentive and rewards as well as a sense of accomplishment by being active in the game in the ways you enjoy. For us this is considered a major feature of Darkfall 2.0 and we’ll present it in much greater detail as soon as we’re satisfied from our first tests.

Another focal feature that we’ve been working on this past week, is the village control system. While there is not much we can announce as details are being constantly modified, I’ll say that villages in Darkfall 2.0 are a territory control feature. They are connected with clan holdings and they provide rare and expensive resources to those who control them.

I’m not sure if it comes across properly – needing to be vague about it – but these are a couple of very important and very cool features which are going to add new dimensions of gameplay in Darkfall 2.0 compared to the current version.

Speaking of resources, we noticed concerns on the forum about the new crafting system. Some of you are worried that basing the crafting system on rare resources, and specifically ore, will benefit clans that own cities and the like. To this we reply that clan cities are no longer the exclusive, or almost exclusive source, of rare resources . Sea Fortresses, Player Villages and Resource Monoliths, all outside the relative safety of player holdings, will provide the bulk of materials for crafters to create the best of equipment with. In turn, these items will feed back into PvP, in a constant struggle for controlling areas and resources.

Thank you for reading.

Tacos