Worlds Within Worlds

Nice articles on Dark Life Hamlet... Except it's Dark Wood not Dark World Unless it's changed name since I was last there. Which I do admit has been a while.

Great piece Hamlet

Soon the live version will be here, woo!

Pirate

Very nice story Hamlet, thanks
too bad I wasn't online when you interviewed pirate.
I'm really curious about what key features you think are better in DarkLife compared to other MMORPG's.
Hope we aren't planning to change those features in the final version

Sorry I wasn't able to talk with you on this story-- was
on deadline, and didn't think I'd be able to work in
your comments in time.

As for how Dark Life is better than most MMORPGs,
I meant in the aspects of solving the "kill stealing"
problem, and letting players take on monster AVs,
in PvP mode... let me know when that starts, because
I definitely wanna see that in action.

Just a minor note: DarkLife may be the first MMORPG to give experience for each blow, but RuneScape has had a similar solution to kill-stealing for a while now: when something is killed, experience points are given to each player that did damage in proportion to the amount of damage done. First shot at the loot is given to the player that did the most damage.

In a past life I played a cleric. I'm personally glad a system like DarkLife's or RuneScape's wasn't used or I would have never leveled.

EXP for each strike, as in Darklife, or EXP based on % damage done, as in RunScape, works fine when everyone is the same class. I'm curious how either system can scale up to multple classes though?

I think the "other" MMORPGs, and when we say other I think we all mean EQ, never implemented this idea because it would mean that all classes have to be capable of doing damage. As a cleric, I didn't even wield a weapon let alone attempt to strike anything.

I suppose clerics could get experience for healing other players. There are complications though and really depends on how the group system is set up. But I could see situations for "Heal Stealing" popping up.

I'm not trying to put down DarkLife or anything like that. It's just that Hamlet's comment about a strike based system being "better" ignores the relative complexities between DarkLife and "other" MMORPGs. The more complex a problem is the less elegant the solution will be ... Usually ...

I read a recent update from Mark and Pirate mentioning a skill based system as opposed to class. As for how they would prevent heal stealing perhaps building a party system and allowing heals to only come from a member of the same party?? Sounds feasible in theory at least...

I had never played Dark Life until recently. I like the solution to kill stealing though I find myself using hit and run tactics at times with tougher monsters. I look forward to seeing where they take this project especially with 1.2 around the corner

To asnwer your question how to levelup up as a healer, first let me tell you that we are NOT doing real classes, instead of that you can choose what skill(s) you want to increase each time you level up. Skills being:

-attack
-defense
-light magic
-dark magic
-magic defense
-speed

If you want to be a healer, level up your light magic and magic defense, and safe for the high level healing spells (or do the quests needed to aquire these spells)
You get EXP by fighting together with a warrior and let him 'share' the EXP he get's. You can share the gold and EXP you earn with 2 other people in the final version.
It might not be the best solution but keep in mind I'm trying to get as much as possible out of the possibilities offered by the rather limited scripting library, speed and memory of LSL. Some things are just not possible, or will be too buggy if tried, so I made some compromised and I hope the 'share' system will be enough to replace real groups. (I did try them at first but find out that too many things might happen when you are playing that could mess up the grouping)

By the way, I am pretty ill at the moment, and when I get better I have lots of things to do for study and work.
The progress so far is pretty good. I've got a whole new version of the backpack, the sharing system works, the magic system works, the levelup works the way I told you, the PvP is on it's way. I need to do some work on new shops, on giving gold, selling items to shops and other small things like that.
In other words the core of the new version is finished, but it might still take some time before it's complete. Sorry for the delay, but it will defenitly be done in the forseeable future

Yes, the XP system is a product of SL, not any great design decisions

However, I think you're all going to love DL1.0. Big area, lots of monsters to fight and a DW full of shops selling gear to keep you adventuring!

Pirate

Don't forget about events like tournaments and monster hunts.
And the battle arena to test your skills, quests, guilds and much more....
(but we'll start simple ofcourse)

Where can i download dark life?

I never heard about it...

tell me more

Read these entries, scisso, they should answer your questions:

http://secondlife.com/notes/2003_12_08_archive.php#20031208a

Can't wait to see what the future brings for DarkLife.

Though would be nice to have male/female armor. I look a little odd for an elf with that armor.

That is ofcourse no problem (female armor)... someone just needs to design it.
Mark Linden fixed my ISP problem (something wrong with routing) so I can play again!!! YAY
Darklife final is coming!