DnL Early Preview
Christation, 2004-04-07

As a kid, I was obsessed with defying gravity, and consequently, incurred a great deal of personal injury. During the fourth grade, around ten years old, the plan was hatched with my good friend Courtney to hang glide off the roof of his house. The pre-teen logic was oh so solid to us: build the apparatus out of sticks, trash bags, and duck tape; run with everything I had down the side of his roof and jump; and if all fails, simply plummet into the above ground pool and try again. Well, of course the hang glider did not withstand the weight of my puny frame and underdeveloped brain; I fell harshly into the pool outer wall breaking my wrist. Discouraged, I never attempted this form of flying again, but to this day wonder how it would feel for the wind to catch those attached wings and hurl me over the tree tops. Thanks to the folks at NP Cube, we all will be able to get a sense of flying, virtually of course. And for those in colder climates, how about riding a shield across the snow covered country side?

Since this title is still in the development cycle (closed beta), I will attempt to provide insight into some of the more interesting features available in the current beta build and through future installments. Please keep in mind, during an early closed beta, practically most of the game features are not implemented yet as is the case here. We at MMORPGDOT will certainly be providing follow-up as the game develops.

The (Official) Backdrop

Dark and Light (DnL), http://www.darkandlight.com, is a real time 3D PC massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in the Heroic Fantasy and Medieval Fantastic worlds on a 15 000 square miles area divided in 10 Kingdoms of discovery and adventures and 2 protected learning Kingdoms. 2 alignments are opposed to impose their magic, the Dark one and the Light one.

DnL is a new breed of MMORPG. A world where you can be more than a just fighter or a mage, more even than a simple blacksmith or merchant. DnL gives you the frame to be what you want from adventurer to socialite, magic user to a politician, good or evil, all in a world that brings new meaning to Massive.

The Legend of Al Drifa is DnL's in game story and worth a read for immersion.

Inside DnL and First Impressions

As mentioned, the current build (.71) is in early closed beta to primarily test the capabilities of the graphics engine (an in-house custom engine named Mafate) and we testers number about one thousand fortunate. My MMOG experience has allowed me to participate in a number of alpha and many beta testing, and my impression of DnL compared to the others is quite positive. For example, I remember SOE's Star Wars Galaxies at this stage being more comparable to a late alpha build, so NP Cube is ahead of the curve I am sure.

Our character selection is limited to a single race, either male or female, and limited customization. I chose a female, naming her Alyal (which is often my beta testing persona), and set out for exploration of the implemented DnL world. Many elements will change in time as with any title in testing, but the sharp contrast between day and night particularly struck me during my initial logon, which I believe is intentional. Specifically, when darkness arrives, you get a sense you are experiencing more than just a change of light cycles, possibly something much more forbidding. My gaming rig is running the graphics version 6 (highest) engine with the recent nVidia released drivers version 56.64, and although the frame rate is a tad low, the engine is performing remarkably and there are still many optimizations to come. The vegetation and scenery is done very well, grass and trees swaying in the breeze below a partially intact moon. Speaking of the visual world, it is easy to see how this virtual place could effortlessly stretch out to the "The largest mmorpg you've ever seen!" as stated on the games official site. Fortunately, particularly for those who have experienced vast, uninhabited wastelands such as those in EVE, my sense is NP Cube has employed travel, mapping, land marking, and other means to present a sense of easily accessible massive areas for the player.

Travel

Here is where NP Cube gave us testers some goodies and I will pass along to you.

Snowboarding - Yes, I said snowboarding! Actually, I guess you could call it shieldboarding, but however phased, it is cool. As I mentioned at the end of the previous section, travel in a massive virtual world could really stink if handled like some of DnL's predecessors, so imagine my surprise the first time I was running between snowy hills and a snowboarder swished by me leaving a snow trail and kicking up a cloud of snow dust! Although there are some limitations, the concept and implementation so far is flat out awesome.

Hang gliding - Oh yea, and with no chance of me breaking my wrist again! To deltaplane, as it is called, is implemented fantastically as well, with more tweaks most likely on the way. Simply initiated and managed, you run down a slope, hit the ALT key resulting in the deltaplane deployment around the avatar, and navigate the skies with keyboard defined keys.

Balloon/Ship rides - These hot-air-balloon rides, without the hot air, travel to and from locations around the map. If the final version is similar to the current, as I suspect, you can equate this form of travel to teleporting but with the benefit of seeing the journey and drawback of the journey taking time.

Conclusion

Dark and Light is coming along well in my opinion, better than I anticipated actually. This preview did not cover any of the combat aspects, largely because little has been included to date, but I intend to cover combat and the PvP system in detail in a follow-up preview. Based on my experience so far, the great ideas to be implemented, and all the message board discussion and developer interaction, I would say this is definitely a title to watch.