Dark & Darker

Mostly PC, but console and mobile too
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Troy
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Dark & Darker

Post by Troy »

Image

Making a thread for this one so I stop posting in general.

Dark and Darker is a medieval fantasy dungeon extract. Like Tarkov, but with Dungeons and Dragons style environment.

Rapping up playtest 5, which was put out entirely though torrent sites. There was a fair amount of DDOsing and server problems this go around. Still was an absolute blast and crack level addictive when the servers were happy. Yesterday I had a buggy few matches with just me in it. You'd think that would make it super easy, but I only made bank on one, and then died to monsters, traps, or the dark, on the others.

A few hours left on the playtest. I'm whacking dudes with quarterstaffs and dying constantly to super geared try hards and groups. Having a blast though. It's easy to put some scratch together if you can make an extract with a few loot rooms or dead player loot. But you have to make it through the dungeon and make it to a blue portal to do it. It's not easy.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

So this game has been going through the legal ringer. I kept hearing about this ruling or that but didn't see how the legal hurdles would get cleared anytime soon.

But today is different. I don't know why. Everyone is tweeting/posting and saying it's about to hit Early Access, this week.



e: IGN linked deleted, using the one from the game's official twitter
Last edited by Troy on Mon Aug 07, 2023 2:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Leisher »

This is a title I will actually consider for EA.

They're self-publishing and have tons of legal bills. It looked very, very promising.
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

From D&D Discord
Hail @everyone!
The Dark and Darker Early Access has finally begun! It has been a long and arduous journey, but we have finally made it to our first major milestone. We would like to thank all our fans who believed in us and supported us through the many challenges.
Through many trials and tribulations, we have toiled ceaselessly to bring the game to our fans. We are happy to announce that fans can now access Dark and Darker through multiple avenues.

Partnership
We have partnered with the wonderful folks at Chaf Games to make Dark and Darker available on their streamlined Chafgames platform. If you are interested in a platform with access to a large library of indie hits, please check them out! They also want us to note that ChafCash is only used to purchase in-game items. You do NOT need any ChafCash to purchase the Dark and Darker Bundle. Thus, please visit Chafgames to purchase Dark and Darker directly.

We have also worked hard on building our own platform, known as Blacksmith to directly service the game to our fans. Fans who wish to use Blacksmith to access Dark and Darker can purchase the game through our website at www.darkanddarker.com

Korean Game Support
Unfortunately, we encountered some challenges that couldn’t be overcome in time for the Early Access launch. As much as it pains us, we won’t be able to service the game in Korea because we are still awaiting a rating from the Korean Game Rating Board (GRAC). We will do everything we can to expedite this process as we have already been granted ratings from other globally recognized game rating boards, including the ESRB, PEGI, and CERO. We will officially support and service the game in Korea as soon as we can overcome this hurdle.

In-game VoIP
The in-game VoIP feature will also be temporarily unavailable at the start of Early Access. Our legal team wants to make sure all our agreements are absolutely perfect, especially when it comes to dealing with user data and third-party partners. We’ll let the lawyers do their mystical work, and once we get the proper agreements verified, everyone will be screaming through the Goblin Caves in no time.

In-game Shop
We want to address the elephant in the room and talk about the addition of the in-game shop. Our assumption when we started this company was that you could still build a lucrative business while being true to your fans. The in-game shop is our attempt at being realistic with the business of running an online game but trying to find a way to do it without resorting to random loot boxes and FOMO items. We want to offer players a fair way to support us while enjoying the game. Please let us know how you think we’re doing on this front. In addition to the in-game shop we’ve added a founder’s edition/add-on pack to show our appreciation to the loyal fans who’ve stuck with us through this crazy journey available through the platform you purchase the game.

A Work in Progress
Finally, we want to be very upfront and let users know that there will be many growing pains during the Early Access phase. Many key features are still missing and will be added in the upcoming months. We’ll be experimenting with the leaderboard system, and we’ll do our best to be transparent about the ranking schedules so players don’t get too stressed out. Just like our game, our launcher was built from the ground up, and they are both still a work in progress. Although we’ve been putting both the game and launcher through their paces internally, we know that there are bugs that may have slipped through the cracks. We ask for your patience and understanding as we do our best to respond and resolve these issues. Most importantly, we want to say thanks to all our fans around the globe, we couldn’t have done it without you!

See you in the dungeons!
IRONMACE
This is totally unexpected! I guess it's just out there in the world now, or they got a favorable ruling I missed??

Many had written this off for a year or more. It's 35 bucks and seems to be running well based on twitch being full of streamers for D&D. Game is best played with 1-2 others and isn't locked into any campaign or progression. So far they have done wipes to increase replay value and to balance the curve of player power. New Warlock class.

When it's good it's so much fun, and when it's bad it huuurts. You will die more often than Rust early on here. And sometimes with super useful loot you'll never seen again if you can't make it out that run.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Playing. Bit of a bottleneck to download but then it finished the last half of the file quickly.

Started off running cleric. Two games in. Overall, games seems smoother and more refined.

Died to a 3 man in my first game. Was doing ok but no big loss.

Extracted in my second game after the rest of the lobby wiped to skeletons! Made a cool 100 gold. Investing in maces.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Game going well so far, had a few extractions but mostly getting crushed by groups. They’ve put in some hot fixes and the servers seem to be running smooth, more so than the playtests.

Someone else bite the bullet and pick a class and help me! I promise to heal you or at least attempt to.
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Post by Stranger »

Troy wrote: Wed Aug 09, 2023 8:22 pm Someone else bite the bullet and pick a class and help me! I promise to heal you or at least attempt to.
I'd be all about it, but i've still got lots of hours to put into BG3 first. Definitely a game i've got my eyes on tho.
WORLD CHAMPIONS!!
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Having fun in both games but keep going back to Dark and Darker more often.

Still enjoying all the new things in EA. Hopefully going to get some further runs in this weekend. So far the loot has been scaled down compared to the last few play tests. Much harder to get Greens/Blues/Purple/etc. I'd only seen up to a purple myself.

So far in the EA cleric runs, most of my gold has been from goblets and jewels and stuff, but I did get a decent green spear which I sold for 75g, my biggest haul so far. Found a few lesser green items that didn't make it out of the dungeon.

I really need to find a Ranger/Fighter/Barbarian partner to wreck lobbies with.
Last edited by Troy on Fri Aug 11, 2023 6:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Leisher »

How big can your party be? 1-4?
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

1-3
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Quarterstaffs are rogue kryptonite, I think the swing pattern is just hard to dodge or unexpected.

I won a 1v3 today vs a pack of the little sneaky fuckers wielding a regular old q-staff. Bonk bonk bonk. They smoked the area which was hilarous, just running around swinging the staff in a circle while being blind!

It was still pretty early on but they had goodies! Got a magic spell book, green amulet, and gold loot.

I was really close to dead but luckily the last one sort of panicked midway and let me club him in the back.


e: it goes without saying that because you switch to the view of the person who killed you post death screen, I immediately began tea bagging all three of their bodies with such gusto I nearly got hit by a skeleton
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Switched to Fighter to make solo play easier. Cleric is a good class in team but a tough solo. Makes tons of noise casting spells, loots like a tortoise, and is slow of foot in a chase.

Fighter is more like a race car in comparison. I’ve been messing with a spear and bow load out.

Was getting hunted through a dungeon by a magic slinging wizard. I was trying to close distance but he was kiting me and slinging spells.

I ran ahead to the top of some stairs and he followed me around a blind curve. I jumped from the top of the stairs and landed a spear hit right on the top of his head. He shit himself and got the finisher in the back running away. Glorious.

I’ve tried the high roller lobbies as a solo but it has been a huge waste of my nicer gear and 100g ante each time I go. The monsters are just too damn hard.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Quick little baby wizard fight on the Dark line.



Trying to figure out why my capture makes the buzzing at higher volume .
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Post by Stranger »

Is the Dark line a shrinking perimeter like in fortnight? Looked like the wizard didn't even see you come out of it. Game looks pretty fun, you can roam dungeons as a group and run into solo or other groups i take it? I'd like to see some more clips of your gameplay.

Also, what do you use for video capture? I've never messed with anything like that but i'd like to record some of the shenanigans in BG3.
WORLD CHAMPIONS!!
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Stranger wrote: Thu Aug 24, 2023 6:43 am Is the Dark line a shrinking perimeter like in fortnight? Looked like the wizard didn't even see you come out of it. Game looks pretty fun, you can roam dungeons as a group and run into solo or other groups i take it? I'd like to see some more clips of your gameplay.

Also, what do you use for video capture? I've never messed with anything like that but I'd like to record some of the shenanigans in BG3.
I have only watched Fortnite, but I think it's a similar shrinking perimeter. You take damage outside the circle and things get darker, cloudier, buzzier. At the end of the round if you don't hit any exits or die before it closes, things just kind of go black and the "dark swarm" takes you.

I think the wizard was expecting me to only come counterclockwise around the pillar. He was charged up and by the time he realized I was about to be next to him he couldn't get a spell off without hurting both of us. Which he did anyway. It hurt pretty bad. Between one of the bow shots landing and him frying both of us with lightning he was a goner as soon as I got close. D&D fighter ability wise, clip shows me regaining health at the end with Second Wind - and having Action Surge up the whole fight up on "Q" and not using it to rush him. Mistake for me.

Recording was done on OBS Studio (free) and cut up using Adobe Premiere.
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Post by Troy »

I'll try to get some more clips together, I have some more kills and fights from the EA.

Another wipe of the servers is coming up on Monday. Tons of balance changes and tweaks in the first two weeks of early acccess.

7 patches, mostly class refinement. Health potions and higher level wizard scaling was both nerfed hard today. Top geared wizards were terrifying, probably still are.
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Some of the best fights I had as a solo were against the Rogue class. They can either be stealthy or extremely deadly. I got a few captured:

These are all in the solo map - goblin caves.

In last clip I was at razor thin health the entire time. If he'd had any better gear I'd be dead.

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Post by Troy »

First wipe of the EA, for levels and gear, was on Monday.

Have been working a lot but got a game or two on before bed.

They re added VOIP. So I’m hearing people talking all over and it’s much easier to get teamed up on in the solo lobby if two people meet each other early on in a map and talk themselves into an alliance.

People were talking about how loot was buffed a bit but I didn’t see much in the way of goodies. I did get a few kills that were extra juicy but I’m just gonna chalk that up to being a baller.


Wizard-about-die: “leave me alone man I don’t have anything”
Me, looting his corpse later: “LIAR!”
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Troy
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Post by Troy »

Second wipe of the EA tomorrow and big patch and balance/content update. Will be a nice reset of the playing field.

Hoping Druid class is out and Warlock is fully finished so I can give that class a try.

I got the richest I've been this wipe - about 1.5k gold.

Largely made it through a chance and random PVP encounter in the big crypt map. I caught a Fighter and a Ranger healing up in the dark zone by surprise while I was running and dodging another big group. I had my sword out and they had bandages in hand, I took advantage.

The Fighter had the nicest Barbarian kit I had ever seen just sitting in his inventory. Purple/Legendary items, all sold with 5 minutes or so on the player market. My deep regret is that in panic and trying to heal I didn't even have time to loot his Ranger friend.
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Post by Leisher »

What do you get in return on the player market? How does that help you develop? Does anything carry over from character to character or does all progress disappear on death?
“Every record been destroyed or falsified, books rewritten, pictures repainted, statues, street building renamed, every date altered. The process is continuing day by day. History stops. Nothing exists except endless present in which the Party is right.”
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