1. So the stance where you can build a 'house' almost anywhere has changed?

I'm glad you've asked this question. We feel that the way we're doing it represents the spirit of building anywhere a lot better than letting players place a house or build a city randomly. Darkfall has special considerations, some of which follow:

"Building anywhere" in most games means trying to find one of the remaining flat and barren areas on the map and putting buildings on it that more or less look like everyone else's mess. In Darkfall you have cities and buildings hanging on the sides of mountains, on top of mountains, on wild land formations, on river deltas,with waterfalls and rivers running through them, on small islands etc.. Every one of them looks and feels unique. When you see it, you know which one it is just by looking at it in a screenshot.
We have many awesome handpicked building locations that you wouldn't be able to build on if you were "free to build anywhere".

The sheer number of structures possible in each Darkfall world is also a concern. Each Darkfall world has the capacity for more than 10 thousand simultaneous players, therefore several times that number in total world population. Multiply that by the number of characters each account can support and the possible number of buildings in the world goes up to hundreds of thousands. Even though our world is huge, random building could make things ugly.

The world is content packed. Wherever you go, there's something going on that could be disrupted by random building. The Darkfall terrain is all hand crafted, extreme and unique. Everything is hand-placed. You won't be building on some auto-generated flatland that looks like most of the rest of the world. You'd be stepping on an artist's hard work and possibly on terrain features that we don't even know are there.

The technology allows for random building. We've chosen not to allow it based on carefully weighing the pros and the cons. Of course, just like with anything else, this decision will be evaluated through testing and feedback by the players.

2. Can you elaborate on building houses and towns?

Depending on the location, you can build walls, defenses, towers, shops, moats, inns, guild houses, clan housing, housing, temples, harbors, and much much more.

3. So if you get knocked out, you can't even release?

You can release. The idea that you can't is a misunderstanding.

4. How do you know if someone is good and evil?

There are many ways of knowing. Appearance is a dead giveaway, if you're human and see an Alfar for example. You could also know by reputation, by probability based on the area you're in, the company the character you're wondering about keeps, their disposition towards you, your experience as a player, your gut feeling etc.
If this isn't enough, there's also a clear visual indicator on IDing the character ;)

5. Can you tell us anything about paralyzing attacks, there is quite a lot of grey area?

We have them, but they last very little, giving only a slight window of opportunity, they can be dodged, resisted, and you can't be paralyzed repeatedly. Just as with everything else we've tried to make this feature make sense, having wondered "what the hell were they thinking" one too many times in games we've played.

6. What can you tell us about thrown weapons in Darkfall?

Here's an example of a thrown weapon: the thrown potions: they can stun, blind, explode and cause damage, create smoke or fog screens etc. The effort is to make thrown weapons fun and effective (if you're good), and not just some gimped skill that you can't really use in combat.

Shadow Walker2020- I would like you to ask them to specifically define what a clan stone does exactly. Its is merely a marker that allows clans to build a city or does it grant clans special protection making all clan buildings invulnerable?'

The clanstone is associated with town building; it's a point of gathering for your clan, and a very important part of the town.

Gunther TheBlack- Tell us about Guild Management?

We've spent a lot of time on the clan management interface, having been victimized by clumsy clan management as players in other games. The clan leaders, and those with permissions, use a control panel where they can control pretty much everything about their clan.

Darkmatter- How useful will resources be in the building process? Can structures be bought and built with no other resource but gold?

You need resources other than gold to build.

Malishan- How will buildable housing/town plots be marked, how will be find them? Will buildable plots only be town/city sized, or will there be space for a *few* hidden hideouts with only one or two houses?

You'll need to explore the map, there are hundreds of secret locations like underwater caves, small remote islands, hidden valleys etc. You don't need to build a town, you can have locations with just a couple of buildings.

What are the developers doing about housing destruction? Will it be a simple task of just hitting the house with a sword for an hour or just throwing a torch at the roof and sitting back and watching it burn, or will houses only be able to be destroyed by siege engine?

We never thought it was a good idea beating down a structure with a dagger. Buildings can be destroyed by deploying and using one of the many different types of siege engines we've got in the game.

Will there be a limit of how many hired guards a city can have in its garrison, or can we buy as many as we can afford?

The way it works is that there's a limit on the number of guards per defensive structure. I'm forced to be vague here and let you speculate as to what that might mean, basically because we're not at liberty to discuss this in more depth yet. I'd give you a number of guards per defensive structure too, but that's something we're still testing.

Can you base a clan out of a ship such that when you die, you respawn on that ship?

No, you respawn at a clan stone. I think that there was a misconception about the 'putting your entire clan on a ship' capability. It was meant to signify the size of some ships, rather than their core function. Ships are combat platforms and means of transportation. Some of them are certainly large enough to load up your clan, but the clan members that get picked off, have missed the boat ;)

So far, all I have seen have been right handed models. Do you have to declare what hand your character prefers at creation or can you wield your weapon in your right or left hand equally?

We support only right handed characters. An option of left handed characters would mean making new sets of animations and we're a small independent developer with limited resources ;)

Could you name all the racial mounts?

I'll answer this one next week. I'll remember to add it to the batch of questions you send.[/b]

You have said Mahirim will not have racial mounts as they can run on all fours. What can you tell us about the Mahirim movement speed as compared to a mounted character?

The Mahirim movement speed is pretty much equal with the other mounts when it's on all fours. Additionally they have the ability to ride other racial mounts.

One exciting feature of Darkfall Online is mounted combat. The Mahirim do not have a racial mount, so will the Mahirim be able to attack from their travel mode? (I have visions of a Mahirim lunging from all fours at the throat of an enemy.)

[p]Their attack is less powerful than other mounted attacks, closer to the power of attack of the other mounts rather than the attack of the rider. If the Mahirim chooses to ride another racial mount, it can inflict normal rider damage. You're right about the lunging from all fours at the throat of an enemy by the way. The Mahirim uses a bite attack.

This week instead of our normal Q&A We will give you the official descriptions on the racial mounts and have a first look at the Dwarven mount.

Orks - Death Pigs

The Orkish mount is an enormous, vile-tempered pig, who's black, oily, hairless hide has a texture like hippo skin. The death pig sweats constantly and profusely, covering its hide in a glistening layer of oily liquid which mixes with mud from the swamps of the Orkish homeland.

Dwarves - Garmir

Dwarven Garmir steeds resemble musk oxen, but with a few crucial differences. Their natural bone forehead plates are covered by solid iron plating added by Dwarven smiths. Small, pointed mithril studs protrude from these metal plates. Garmirs attack by raising their heads and bodies up to gain momentum before hammering down onto their enemy.

Alfar - Shulgan Drakes

The Alfar ride drakes, which are - in essence - small wingless dragons. Their bodies are covered in metallic black scales, and in shape Drakes resemble ordinary dragons, rather than Dark Dragons. Small stumps on the flanks indicate that drakes were able to fly not all that many generations ago, before they adapted to an underground existence.

Mirdain - Aerdin Cats

Mirdain mounts are enormous cats which have been bred for size, obedience and ferocity. Aerdin faces and bodies resemble those of huge Snow Leopards, and like those normal-sized felines, they have white fur with black spots, long, thick tails, and pale eyes.

Human - Mercian Warhorse

The Mercian warhorse is a massive, powerfully built beast which stands almost as tall as a human male. In combat, the warhorse has been trained to kick opponents with both hind legs and forelegs, and such a kick is just as devastating as - for example - fire breath from an Alfar Drake or a head-hammering from a Dwarven Garmir.

How does clanstone protection work? Is there a limit on the number of buildings a clanstone can protect? Is there a protection radius around the clanstone or does the protection cover the whole province?

[b]Are all trees susceptible to being chopped down? If so will there be sprouts taking their place?

Trees won't be visibly chopped down. It would be nice to have the time and resources to throw at this, but it would cost too much to implement for very little return. There are so many things in Darkfall that enhance the immersion that I believe we can safely skip woodcutting if we need to.

Dead, but not dead enough..

Darkfall's huge bestiary is a mix of the old, the updated, and the never before seen. This week, we take a look at how one of the true fantasy stalwarts is represented in Darkfall. Since the dawn of time (1974), role-players have been disassembling zombies in the tombs and graveyards of countless campaigns and settings. The world of Agon is no exception, with shambling belligerents awaiting an influx of fresh player flesh in thousands of unique, hand-built locations - from underground tombs and abandoned keeps, to ruined churches and evil shrines.

Garden variety zombies..

In Darkfall, regular zombies tend to attack in large numbers, while wearing no armor, wielding no weapons, and using only what limbs and teeth that the grave has spared them. As you can see from the image accompanying this text, there is quite a bit of variety in this regard, with some zombies missing limbs, lower jaws, or even large chunks of disgusting corpse flesh. Even inexperienced characters will be able to handle regular zombies, as long as they avoid being surrounded or grievously outnumbered. Unlike some other games, Darkfall features collision detection, so you'll have to chop your way out of any corners you let yourself be trapped in.

Zombie Warriors

Called from their sleep by powerful necromantic spells, Zombie Warriors wear armor, and sometimes carry shields, and they are capable of wielding weapons - albeit with limited speed and dexterity. In most cases, a Zombie Warrior's equipment has been scavenged from some long-forgotten mound or battlefield, and its effectiveness has been severely reduced by rust and rot.

Zombie warriors are more muscular than regular zombies, but otherwise similar, as if they were made from slightly fresher corpses. Zombie Warriors wear ill-fitting piecemeal suits of armor, which were clearly scrounged together from whatever was at hand at the time, before being hastily placed on the warriors.

An individual might wear a plate helmet, a chain mail cuirass, and plate greaves, for instance. All these diverse pieces of armor will be rusted and stained, betraying age and lack of maintenance. A breastplate might have a hole rusted right through it, for instance, while both of a helmet's horns may be broken off. Zombie warriors use weapons that are as improvised as their suits of armor, and which look as if their masters have gathered them from half-rusted, broken pieces of weaponry found in some battlefield bog.

Brains!

Zombie warrior set-ups:

Dire zombie..

Powered by vile and unholy magic, Dire Zombies are the most dangerous type of reanimated corpse. Their bodies are covered by bands of black cloth which has been inscribed with magical symbols, making them appear almost mummy-like, though neither head nor hands or feet are covered.

Dire Zombies carry no armor or weapons, but their hands are enclosed in swirling orbs of necromantic magic, with which they deliver powerful blows if they are forced into melee combat.

Dire Zombies are able to attack their victims with necromatic which they have been pre-imbued with by their masters. Dire Zombies tend to stand well back during a fight, blasting the enemy with magic, while the more conventional zombies take care of the close combat.