Darktide

Darktide is the one world of Turbine Entertainment's Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game Asheron's Call which allows unrestricted player killing. Two aspects of the gameplay of Asheron's Call, namely the ability to dodge projectiles and powerful healing abilities, allows the outcome of combat between players to be determined by the power of the characters and the skill of the players. The cost of death in player versus player combat can be high, and the threat of attack by another player infuses the world with a constant tension.

The history of Darktide has been shaped by strong individual players and player guilds. Prolific player killers quickly gain notoriety, and staunch defender's reputations grow as well. Monarchies which control important locations thrive. The storyline dictated by Turbine's monthly updates is optional, but fighting for survival versus other players unavoidably shapes the experience.

As one of the earliest (and arguably, most popular) servers in a MMORPG devoted specifically to player versus player game play, Darktide has influenced the development of later games. Most notably, the development team of the MMORPG Darkfall includes players of the Darktide server, and they have claimed it to be one of their influences.

Gameplay
The player vs player combat in Asheron's Call is fast paced and rewards player skill. The physics of Asheron's Call, unique among the current crop of MMORPG's, includes collision detection. When arrows are fired and spells are cast in games such as World of Warcraft and Everquest, the players fate is out of his hands: whether the attack succeeds or fails depends only upon luck and the innate defensive capabilities of the character. In Asheron's Call, the player can intervene and make the character step or slide to the side to evade an incoming object. Elements of the environment can be used to gain an advantage: characters can jump on top of buildings or step behind a wall, tree, rock etc to temporarily escape attack. By taking advantage of the many options available to him, a player with superior skill can consistently defeat a character of equal power, frequently beat characters of much higher level and equipment, and can prevail in fights against multiple opponents. The player must be completely focused on the action to do well.

Death at the hands of another player entails a trip to the lifestone, a temporary 5% loss of skills and attributes, the need to recast enchantments and loss of some of the more valuable items from the player's inventory. By maintaining a supply of high value, junk items, players can avoid losing the items they value most. Players can teleport quickly back to most locations. However it is always possible to lose an item that took years to acquire, and some places take considerable effort to return to. The penalty of death to another player can be harsh.

Several techniques for casting spells were discovered by players that were not originally intended by the developers. These discoveries gave mages the ability, unlike in other MMORPG's, to move about while casting spells. First was slide-casting, which allowed a mage to move side to side while attacking, avoiding arrows or spells hurled at him. This is still in the game. Next came God-mode. This technique allowed a spell-caster to move forward while casting, closing the distance to the target. Dodging a mage's lightning bolt is much harder at close distance, thus the likelihood of hitting the opponent was greatly increased. As a result of the rapid hopping done when God-moding, melees could not stick and land multiple blows, and arrows and war spells would rarely land on the mage, making him at times unable to be killed. In November 2001, about two years after the launch of the game, a patch was implemented which required the spell caster to complete his spell within a few feet of the point at which he began casting the spell. This change made God-moding obsolete.

Healing also plays a crucial role in determining the outcome of fights. All players have the ability to heal during battle by various means: drinking healing potions, using healing kits, or casting a healing spell (on yourself or on others). A player with 300 hit points can take thousands of points of damage in one fight, by regenerating his health using the available options. Deciding to heal at the right moment can change the outcome of a battle, potentially extending it a great time. Over the years, as character healing skill increased and new healing items became available, healing has become even more potent.

The organization of players into monarchies was accelerated by the realization that the patron-vassal relationship could be extended. As Turbine originally intended, a portion of the experience points earned by the vassal is passed to the patron to whom an oath of loyalty has been made. Some time after the beginning of the game, it became widely known that most of this same experience could be passed up to the patron's patron. And again to the next patron. Thus great chains of players could be constructed generating massive amounts of experience. Rate of advancement was greatly increased, as was the pressure to join large guilds.

Another discovery by the players affected game play enormously. High levels of spells called banes were present in the game, which greatly increased the ability of armor to reduce damage. These powerful spells were supposed to be rare, due to the hours and hours of research , and large amounts of money needed to discover them. The code behind these spells was cracked by the players, and a program was written and distributed which eliminated the need to do research. Soon nearly every player had the high level banes, which reduced melee and archer attacks to small damage. Mage's war spells were not affected by the banes, so they continued to do large damage and quickly became the dominant class.

Anti's and PK's
The alignment of most characters on Darktide falls into a few categories: those who kill other players without reason (random pk, pk or r-pk), those who actively oppose the random killers (anti or anti-pk) and those who do not randomly kill but leave the r-pk's to themselves (neutral).

Class Balance
Class balance has shifted over the years.
*beginning: archers with elemental arrows dominate, until the high level bane spells become widespread.
*early years: Mages very strong, archers weak, melees very weak
*recent years: Mages ok, archers ok, melees strong

Political/Social Timeline

*At release there was a mad scramble by many guilds to establish themselves. Black Rose with the benefit of early entry to final with their sentinel (Game Master) accounts were able to have characters in the teens before anyone else could get into the game. This early level advantage for Black Rose setup the first major power struggle on Darktide. One faction led by Debbie and Thunderstorm the other faction, The Mercs, led by Osium.

*The first flash point occurred near Qalabar at the Lugian outpost. It was a prime leveling spot for low level Mages. The Merc contingent of mages led by Mikey clashed with Debbie and Thunderstorm here, significantly out-leveled they struck a deal of mutual exclusivity. The Mercs would kill everyone not aligned with either group, Debbie's group was able to benefit indirectly through compliance.

*The stare down heated up as levels were gained, meanwhile, Osium the de facto leader of The Mercs at this time invaded and took Arwic from The Pluggers. Arwic was the most strategically important place in the entire world. It had access to cheap supplies, it was the gate to the north which held the lucrative Olthoi leveling grounds such as Black Death Catacombs. It also had the subway which allowed nearly instant access to most regions in the world.

*The guild Joy of Villainy takes the scene under the monarch Patryn(Nighthawk of wtfman.com) and makes Zaikhal their home.

*In the crater, Magma Golems were the point of contention. Debbie's faction had arrived first and they took a stand against The Mercs. After a short and brutal war, Mikey led the Merc mages to a decisive victory, resulting in the dissolution of Debbie's monarchy. Thunderstorm took up the mantle of leadership but they were relegated to ancillary importance on the server.

*Og emerges on Darktide under the direction of Kewtsquirrel thus beginning the macro era.

*Following The Mercs conquest of Debbie, they maintained firm control of all premier leveling grounds. Speculation as to why The Mercs began to withdraw from Asherons Call after a few short months still continues in some corners to this day. Some suggest that The Mercs felt their absolute power slipping away, others claim responsibility for inflicting shattering defeats. Others will propose they simply were not happy with future of the game given its current direction. In any case, The Mercs slowly withdrew through late January before the guild as a whole abruptly left following the stick melee patch.

*The first era of Darktide ended with The Mercs leaving, a vacuum of power was created and a struggle between various successor kingdoms with Loch and The-Feared battling for control on the server for nearly half a year. Ultimately Blood (Keepers of Chaos) asserted control and began their own era, partially due to the efforts of key players such as Pnot.

*Og and JoV merge.

*At the culmination of the Shadow invasion, a portal to a new dungeon opened: The Nexus. To unlock the entrance, many players, otherwise enemies, cooperated to assemble a key from fragments obtained from several Shadow Captains and Generals. This unlikely alliance fought their way through many obstacles, to finally reach the Nexus Crystal. Lop destroyed the Nexus Crystal, a victory which was announced to every player in the world. The prize given for this accomplishment, the Nexus Core Gem, would eventually yield a suit of armor unparalleled in all of Dereth. Lop, however, did not get to enjoy the fruits of his victory. His own vassal, Mistress of Desires, took the Nexus Core Gem before he could pick it up. The resulting Nexus armor was valued at thousands of US Dollars, and the sequence of events surrounding it was long controversial.

*Blood takes Kara from Black Rose.

*First Super Guild is Formed called GEN. Gen's first members are comprised of Nautica, Wilc and Telkis.

*AB War - Gen battles for a week straight against the anti's to take the lifestone. After the antis are weakened, along with fatigue setting in on the Gen group, Blood takes AB almost uncontested. Gen moves to Kara.

*NWA, the largest anti guild of the day led by Mortimer, changes their home lifestone from the safety of Kryst to death-trap of Hebian-To Sewers. In Kryst, the guild had a quiet, remote location. Hebian-To, on the other hand, was easily accessible as part of the Zhaikhal-Qalabar-Hebian-To-Cragstone portal loop. Its three lifestones are accessed by jumping down several stories. Due to the required jump, there is no way to run back to the top of the dungeon. There are exit portals; however, due to the pvp-combat portal use restriction, any hostile player entering the lifestone rooms would most likely have to fight to death. The lifestones are the scene of frequent, bloody 20+ vs 20+ battles, and the move serves to unify the guild.

*Aerlinthe quest battles.

*Anti assault on Blood's Stronhold Mountain Retreat.

*Formation of The Last Stand

*Olthoi Queen's Quest battles.

*Tusker Island portal room battles.

Patch Timeline
*1999
*October 31: Asheron's Call, including the Darktide server, opens.
*December: Robes added. Range of drain and harm decreased significantly.

*2000
*January: Letters to Celcynd exploit removed.
*February: Impious Staff and Atlan Weapons added.
*March: Sticky melee and Shadow Armor added.
*April: Nexus quest and armor added.
*May: Ayan Baqar added.
*June: Composite bow quest and Black Spawn Dens added.
*July: Aerlinthe Island and hollow weapons added. Shadow Armor nerfed.
*August: Shadow Armor combinable with Atlan Stones.
*October: Peas introduced.
*December: Rivers run red.

*2001
*January: Level 7 (war) spells added.
*March: Gems of Stillness and treated healing kits added.
*May: Pyreals made weightless.
*July: Singularity Caul landmass added.
*August: Housing added.
*September: Craftable Health Elixirs
*October: Dark Majesty Expansion. Marae Lassel landmass and Olthoi Queen quest added.
*November: Casting radius (fizz patch, God-mode nerf) imposed. Fellowship xp buffed.

*2002
*January: Cantrips (Majors/Minors) added.
*February: Shadow Armor un-nerfed. Portal Space/Invoker quest added. Nexus armor on Darktide deleted by Turbine, in response to duping.
*April: Multipe portal and lifestone ties now possible. Deadly hollows added.
*May Aerlinthe quest gives 12 scrolls.
*June: Spell research eliminated (spells now bought or found as scrolls only), spell duration increased up to an hour.
*July: Level 1 drain spells nerfed. Armor Tinkering added.
*August: Arcs introduced. Hollow and Deadly hollow weapon damage buffed, phantom weapons added.
*October: Hollow and Phantom bow added.
*November: Tusker Island added.
*December: Bobo quest (Tusker Island recall spell) added.

*2003
*January: Singularity Caul recall quest, attribute redistribution quest, and Valley of Death added. Stamina penalty for jumping during a pk fight increased.
*February: Sanguinary Aegis shield added.
*March: Experience points from creatures buffed.
*June: Mansion recall and weeping weapons added.
*July: Candeth Keep added.
*Sept: Loather's and Lures can now be cast by selecting player instead of weapon or shield.
*October: Elemental weeping weapons and Faltatacot ruin added.

*2005
*March: Throne of Destiny expansion.

General Trends
Gradually Darktide has changed from its initial harsh experience.

*Monthly addition of dungeons and other leveling areas made hunting spots plentiful- no need to fight for your place
*Addition of housing and increased number of bind points made defending hometowns unnecessary
*General game knowledge, acquired by experience or from websites made game play less challenging.
*Level and power inflation have made progressing in game take less skill and effort.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu