Well if you want to accuse us of over-hyping and being "sheep," I'll say you guys are overly attached to UO or whatever it is you play now and are simply afraid of something that will be better. I think this is a lot of the reason DarkFall is opposed by many UO players and players of other games. DarkFall offers something new and radical, completely different from anything that's out there, and you're either afraid of something different or afraid it will kill/hurt whatever games you play now. I guess this is a legitimate concern though...I definitely think because of DarkFall Siege will suffer a lot on population and sooner or later no longer be a part of UO.
As Rykus has said, the devs of DF aren't aiming to please your "average mmo player." This might seem a bad business decision at first, but there are thousands upon thousands of PvPers who feel the MMO world today sucks and have been waiting for years for something like DarkFall.
As for the graphics, I think they're just fine, nor do I see why anyone who players UO would complain. If you're playing this game, you should love the graphics in DF.
The floating ships are new to me too Revvo, but I don't see a big deal with them. I guess they're DF's version of Siege engines hehe. I've only watched it once, but I didn't see a machine gun on anything and I highly doubt that. There will be cannons but there will not be ordinary guns.
I'm sure any "skipping" will be cleared up before release. Some (not all) of the combat did seem a bit random and chaotic but I didn't see it as comical. I would have liked to have seen more tactics, formations, etc. used instead of blind charging though. And there is of course nothing preventing people from using formations and advanced tactics, though that might be unrealistic to expect in an MMO given the great amount of skill and teamwork that would take.
Buildings just "vanishing"...so what? It can't be perfect and realistic in every way. Did you expect rubble? I don't see why it matters. It might not be as appealing to the eyes as bits of wood flying everywhere and the building crumbling to the ground, but fancy eye candy isn't what DF is about anyway and lack of rubble certainly doesn't make me like DF less.
To answer some questions, yes, everything is lootable. I think you have some basic noob items you're born with that remain "blessed" (kinda like noob items in UO), but aside from that every single thing is lootable. I *think* there is thieving, but it's been so long since I read some of those old dev journals I can't remember for sure. There will also be many skills and many spells to choose from, many many more than UO.
Yes Patty, I think a non-combat Siege players would enjoy DF. The game is aimed at PvPers but it's also aimed at people who enjoy risk and challenge, who might not PvP but aren't afraid to die and don't enjoy playing in some safe zone crap game with no loot, etc...If all goes through as promised (and of course not all will, but hopefully most), DarkFall will have a good crafting system and crafters will be extremely important. It will have a challenging and fun PvM system. Explorers will love it as the landmass is huge and for other reasons. And more. So long as you're not afraid of a bit of risk and danger from other players, I don't see much reason why a non-PvPer wouldn't enjoy DarkFall.
The devs have stated DF won't be too demanding on system requirements, but we'll see.
Also keep in mind the game isn't even in beta yet (though it probably will be shortly), and the game will no doubt be improved before release.
hahah... Hi Dave...
a game that has been in development for 7 years. Just WOWzers!