Darkfall Online is a sandbox game – what that means is there is no set direction for the game populace to go. There is no leading along via theme park style quest lines to nudge the players along. And at the end of it all the ‘End Game’ is war and politics – not an endless game of cat and mouse chasing gear upgrades and prepping for the next raid. The game is open to any play style you so choose but be warned, those choosing a solo playstyle are going to be at a serious disadvantage without allies. Much of what can keep you alive in the game in any situation is the guild name attached to you. Those attacking you have to think hard about the political ramifications of killing you if you are part of a guild or an alliance of guilds. Will your death mean that their own guild will be seiged and killed by a larger, more powerful force?
There are many such alliances of guilds in Darkfall vying for power in Agon. Some alliances are growing so large and powerful infact that they risk collapse. Due to their being no game mechanic in place to help players identify who they are allied with or at war with it is getting more and more difficult by the day to keep track of who you should and should not be killing. Collapse of some of the larger alliances is more likely to come from internal guilds warring with eachother than it is from outside attack.
As Keen points out over at Keen and Graev’s gaming blog, “The Hyperion alliance (which we have found ourselves apart of) is growing bigger every day. The problem is that it’s growing too quickly and it’s not being managed properly at the top. A dozen (at least, last I counted) clans are all in this alliance but half of them don’t know the other half exist. This leads to clans killing other clans who are allegedly their allies.” This leads to arguments and most likely will lead to skirmishes between two guilds who are technically allied with eachother. The particular guild in question in this instance attacked several of our (Haven’s) membership in multiple encounters. In some of those encounters our members didn’t return fire hoping that our allies would realize their mistake. Instead, they killed our men and looted their corpses dry. On petition from our leadership, they simply replied that it was an accidental killing but they have a policy of not returning loot. Not very ally like.
The core of the problem is a missing game mechanic in Darkfall Online. While it does suck that we are allied with such people (I wouldn’t count on the alliance holding for long), the real problem is that they can claim it was an accident because it’s somewhat difficult to tell friend from foe in the game. Everyone despite guild or race is blue. The only people with red in their name are those who have killed significant members of their own faction. But even then, they may be in your guild or your alliance – so you still may not be able to kill them. The larger these alliances grow, the harder it is to keep up with who you can and cannot attack. First you have to read their guild name, then if it is one you don’t recognize you have to ask someone in your guild if they are friendly or not. If they don’t know you have to go check wherever you keep a list of your allies. That can be very dangerous and costly in a hardcore PvP world – especially if the person you are targeting doesn’t care whether you are friend or foe. Kill first ask questions later.
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