Darkfall Online Interview

Logan interviewed Claus Grovdal, Producer/Lead Designer for Darkfall Online about their upcoming MMORPG. This is a reprint of an interview originally published at Logan's site Reckon! news - more of these excellent interviews will be reprinted here at RPGDot in the coming days...

Q: What is your name and job title please?

Claus: Claus Grovdal, Producer/Lead Designer

Q: What things are being done to help the newbie? A tutorial like Everquest use to have, etc?

Claus: We are planning to do a tutorial quest as you log into the game for the first time. In this quest a new player will learn the most basic features of Darkfall.

Q: What will be done to keep 'd00dz' from banding together into 'clans' of roaming PK'ers?

Claus: Nothing. In fact we encourage people to form clans of roaming PKs. We believe that these guys will be the most fun and toughest monsters other players will find ingame, so why prevent them from forming their evil clans? Let them roam, find them, and punish them :)

Q: What will be done for those who don't enjoy PvP (or being stuck in thecities if they don't want to get gacked)? What would you say to people to rid them of the fear that the game will not become a 'gank fest' that drove so many customers away from UO?

Claus: If you dont like pvp, Darkfall may not be the right game for you. However, since the game is so heavily focused on clans ruling kingdoms, and almost every ingame items such weapons and armor can be made by players, we think that those that would rather stay out of the pvp can find tons of entertainment as traders or crafters in Darkfall in exchange for protection by a ruling clan. The biggest clans will need crafters and traders - and they will need lots of them to be successful. If you consider yourself a prime blacksmith of magical weapons, or a hard working farmer, growing food and rare herbs in your fields, clans will do all they can to get you to join them.

Q: Any sort of reputation system built into the game for NPC's? PC's? Is it possible for PC's to get bounties from a game mechanism to go hunt down other PC's who have been naughty?

Claus: We have an alignment and a fame system in Darkfall, and both NPCs and PCs can place a bounty on other players.

Q: Is there a skill ceiling in place, so I cannot become the "best ateverything" and have very real trade offs to choose? Or is it possible to be the best at every craft?

Claus: Right now there are no limits on skills and spells, so theoretically you could become the best at every craft. This will be tested before release though, and we may implement some kind of limits if we dont think it works.

Q: Is combat open ended, like I.C.E.'s system use to be? [I like a PvP system where the uber PK stumbles on someone obviously their inferior, and of course attacks. However due to extraordinary luck (on the order of 1 in 10000) the newbie pierces the PKs eye, killing the foul beast. THIS would make being a PK fun, since you NEVER know if you have a sure win.]

Claus: We dont have levels in Darkfall, so you will never see the level 50 guy beating up 3000 level 1 newbies without loosing a single hitpoint. In fact, our PvP system is designed so that 3-4 newbies could probably beat any single player in combat if they work well together, and have some decent PvP skills.

Q: Is the tradeskill system window dressing or a money sink? I.E. is the game set up so ONLY someone seriously gimped for fighting can obtain enough skills to become a master crafter?

Claus: We have no skill limits, so in theory you could be the best wizard, the best axe wielding fighter, and the best blacksmith at once. In fact our initial design of Darkfall stated that there should be no way to gimp your character. Nothing is more frustrating than spending 4 months building a character, then the developers patches say your weapon of choice, and you are stuck with a character that sucks in PvP. This will never happen in Darkfall, simply because you can then just pick another weapon, and within a few days you are on top again.

Q: Are there NPC's to interact with? If so, how varied are they? How manycharacter models will there be for release?

Claus: There are tons of NPCs to interact with, ranging from merchants and trainers, to NPC guards that the clan can hire to defend their cities.

Q: Can players design and build... A hovel, a house, a keep, a castle? If all of the materials were readily available, how long would it take to build a small (2br) house? How long to destroy it?

Claus: Players can build hundreds of different type of dwellings. How long it will take to build and destroy them has not been finalized yet. This is also obviously something we have to run extensive testing on.

Q: Assuming no mishaps with mobs or players, how long would it take me tocircumnavigate the world (if go from end to end if the world is flat) ?Could I even do so? Might I need to build a city, then build a ship, then cross an ocean, etc...

Claus: I have no idea. The world is absolutely huge though, so I wouldnÕt recommend trying ;)

Q: How smart are the mobs? I mean, if I keep showing up at their daycarecenter, luring single young monsters away to a nasty death, can I do this forever, or do they eventually take action? Is the mobs behavior static, or is there a pseudo random component? By this I mean, if I shoot a mob with an arrow, A) It always chases directly at me, back to the waiting hoards for slaughter, or B) 70% give chase, 20% attempt to use an evasive maneuver, and 10% run for help?

Claus: Our monsters are pretty clever, and we are spending alot of resources into making our monsters smarter than those seen in previous MMORPGs. Its too early to reveal any secrets though ;)

Q: Many games have attempted to slow their rate of level advancement byintroducing downtime. Players are very concerned about it. In EQ, downtime was severe - up to 20 minutes. In DAOC and AO, it is under 1 minute. I view this as an excellent trend. If I was the most powerful fighter possible in your game and wanted to rest after a nasty combat in which I was nearly killed, how long would it take me to get back my full hit points? Mana?

Claus: If you are just sitting there waiting for them to climb all the way up by themselves, I would say 2-3 minutes, maybe a bit more. But obviously we have spells to remedy this, healing potions, mana potions, healing kits and other sources of regeneration. Noone at Razorwax is a huge fan of downtime. Its just a waste of time. We want Darkfall to be fun, not boring.

Q: In AO, we were introduced to vehicles. These were not independent things that could be parked, stolen, sat upon, etc - they were very lame morphing of the character into the vehicle (i.e. man becomes car). In SOL (EQ) this will be repeated. In DAOC, their vehicles amount to buy ticket and sit on horse till it gets to the destination (whereupon it disappears) or jump off enroute. Will your game have vehicles? Will the character models 'morph' into the vehicle, be forced to only go along vehicle routes or will the vehicles be completely separate from the characters?

Claus: Our game will have horses (actually we have about 20 mountablemonsters, including flying ones), wagons and ships. And no, you will not morph into a War Galleon :)

Q: Will characters be able (upon release) to make vehicles? Enchant items?

Claus: Yes :)

Q: What about vehicular combat (the pride and joy of ALL vehicle owners)? Can I run someone over with an ox cart? A dragon?

Claus: Yes :)

Q: Will you have areas in your world which are extraordinary? IE - Dreamscapes, floating castles, etc?

Claus: We have other planes of existance, yes.

Q: Name three things which intrigue YOU about the gameplay.

Claus: Clan wars and conquest, fast action packed gameplay and the fact that almost everything in the game can be player owned.

Q: What are the death penalties? Will you lose experience? Skills? Items?

Claus: We are still very much debating this. I think we have to testdifferent penalties to find the right one. Right now there is no stat loss, and you keep all items worn and wielded, but you loose everything in your backpack.

Q: Will there be static spawns? Static loot?

Claus: Yes we have a few static spawns, but most is random.

Q: What is your favorite aspect of your game?

Claus: Clan wars and conquest.

Q: Aside for the fact that the game is not yet out, what is your least favorite aspect of your game?

Claus: Its a good question. I honestly cant come up with anything, and the reason is probably that if we found something we didnt like, we would fix it.

Q: What features will be coded into the game to allow guilds to be more than just 'glorified chat channels'?

Claus: Just about anything you can think of. I dare you! :)
(See follow up question following up interview - ed)

Q: How will long distance travel work?

Claus: Horses, wagons and ships. In addition we have teleportation spells.

Q: One of the major problems customers face with all released games is that of content. 2001 has a bad year for releasing games with actual content (AO, WW2OL, DAOC) - what can you say to reassure the nervous masses?

Claus: Read our FAQ then post your questions on our boards, we are serious about listening to ideas and suggestions from our potential future players, so come help us make your dreamgame.

Q: From the FAQ: "Can I play all races on the same account?

No. This is something we have discussed at length within Razorwax, and we believe that there would be too much unwanted spying going on: if you play an Alfar, for example, you may log on your Elf scout just to check if the Elven town of Charybdis is well defended at the moment or not."

Q: So would this mean that if I was playing an Alfar and you were playing an Elf I could not send you a /tell? Or you could not hear when I talk? To prevent spying?

Claus: Still undecided. But what it means is that you can only play one race on one account.

Q: From the FAQ: "You can even hook up with a few friends and be pirates,sailing your galleon around, plundering merchant ships and other pirates...">>>Any opportunity to become a pirate is a good thing. Since sailing is in, will there be currents? Varying wind at different times of the year? Pirate clothing? Parrot accessories?

Claus: LOL. I am going request more parrot accessories from our art guys now :)

Q: From the FAQ: "So what are Prestige Classes?...Paladins have to give half of their earnings to their church, etc.">>>I like that there are tradeoffs for various classes. On something like that, would the paladin merely receive half of the coin they loot? Would the total coin the monster was able to drop be halved then split among the group (thus penalizing everyone) or would just the paladins cut be penalized? Would the 'trade off penalties' always be just for the character in question or would they (like the old EQ experience penalty for hybrids before it was 'fixed') be shared among the entire group?

Claus: Only the Paladins cut would be penalized.

Q: From the FAQ: "Don't you fear that out of control player killers will ruin the game?

No. Being a random player killer of evil alignment is definitely possible, but also an extremely hard career. You will have enemies everywhere, and will have a hard time finding a safe city to sell/buy in..."

Q: What elements are in place to stop me from buying 2 accounts, 1 Mr.Respectable, and 2 Mr. Reprehensible, and keep my "woods guy" outslaughtering everyone, and use my good guy to resupply?

Claus: I could say we have some super secret way of preventing this, but that would be lying. However we would get twice the monthly fee from you, so we are happy :p

Q: From the FAQ: Can I design my own house?

Yes. [more info to come]

Q: Will this be a 'Lego block' style of building? Will it be possible to paint your house? How about painting someone else's house?

Claus: Yes its a lego block style of building, and yes you can paint your own house. You can not paint someone else's house though.

Q: Will you have character aging?

No. This is almost as bad as permanent death.

Q: Why? Would it be possible to allow someone to (if they wished, have a box they could check if they wish to) allow someone to grow older and older in appearance only? [That could make its own kind of prestige. If you see any withered, toothless, gimpy old men it gives you a good sign to run.] Or is that too graphics intensive at this time?

Claus: It would be possible, but we do not have this feature yet, and we have no plans for it. If enough players requested it, I am sure we could look into it. Dont count on it though ;)

Q: From the FAQ: Will Darkfall feature weather effects?

Yes. Expect realistic weather effects, such as rain, snow, wind blowing in the trees, wind blowing in the grass on the ground, thunder and lightning.

Q: Will weather actually matter? Will arrows accuracy be decreased in high winds? Will roads become impassable to all but foot traffic in heavy snow? Will snow actually accumulate or will we just see it fall (ala EQ)?

Claus: We are currently testing this, and nothing is finalized yet. It is a thin line between "cool feature", and "absolutely annoying".

Q: Will a large link entitled FAQ be added to the front page (of your site) any time soon?

Claus: Heh. Point taken.

Q: Any additional comments you would like to add?

Claus: Yes. I encourage everyone with an interest in MMORPGs to comeregister on our boards, and help us out by providing ideas and discussing

I am concerned about their PvP answers. Clearly, they are not yet familiar with the griefer. From a business standpoint that's the one $10 account that can get twenty $10 accounts to quit the game because that is what they like to do. When EQ was made, people flocked from the unrestricted PvP of UO to it. Later, UO even made certain areas non-PvP, newbies are immune to PvP, etc. Wondering if that thing about failing to remember history and doomed to repeat it will kick in.

Follow up interview questions:

Q: Thank you very much for the interview. To your statement: "What features will be coded into the game to allow guilds to be more than just 'glorified chat channels'?
Claus: Just about anything you can think of. I dare you! :)"
OK- here are three things off of the top of my head:
1) Automatic guild payments.
2) Ability for guild members to put things into a guild bank.
3) Ability for guilds to equip new members with optional 'newbie packages'.
Hows that? Any/all of those?

Hi there,
About the challenge:
All those and ALOT more.
We have 4 pages of design covering just the guild (well we call them clan) functions, so I am serious when I am saying that you will be amazed.

Q: Aside from that, I am concerned about their PvP answers. Clearly, they are not yet familiar with the griefer.

We are totally familiar with griefing in MMORPGs. However, Darkfall does not attempt to be a new EQ, a new AO or even a new DaoC; Darkfall is something new - a PvP MMORPG. We believe that players of MMORPGs are ready for a PvP based game, and thats what we are going to give them. We dont think that this is bad from a commercial point of view either. People love to kill other people in multiplayer games -> Counterstrike, Quake, Unreal, Red Alert, Age of Empires, Diablo, Warcraft II, UO, AC Darktide are all examples of this. And we here at Razorwax love it too, having played all those games (and still playing some of them) ourselves.
Our main challenge is to even the playing field, and make sure that the victims of griefers can easily deal out some payback.