Darkeden
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| DarkEden | |
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| Developer(s) | SOFTON Entertainment, Inc |
| Publisher(s) | SOFTON Entertainment, Inc |
| Designer(s) | SOFTON Entertainment, Inc |
| Platform(s) | Windows 98/ME/2K/XP |
| Release date | SK 1997 |
| Genre(s) | MMORPG |
| Mode(s) | MMO |
| Rating(s) | Over 18 version and Teen version available |
| System requirements | Intel Pentium 3 600 MHz CPU, 256 MB RAM, Video RAM 16MB or higher (3d acceleration), DirectX 7.0a or higher, 800 MB free hard disk space and an Internet connection |
| Input methods | Keyboard, Mouse |
DarkEden is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing computer game in isometric projection or 3/4 perspective developed and published by SOFTON. It is the first MMORPG in the horror genre. The game revolves around the everlasting war between humans and vampires in a region called Helea located in a fictional country of Eastern Europe known as Eslania. The original version of the game, and the most advanced one, is the Korean one from which several other versions have been derived from such as the Japanese, Chinese, Thai and International versions. It should be noted however that the Thai version is currently closed.
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[edit] Story
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The plot summary in this article or section is too long or detailed compared to the rest of the article. Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot. |
Vlad Tepes, Elizabeth Bathory, and Gilles de Rais, three master vampires, form an alliance and enter the mountainous area of Helea, killing every person they find. They then attempt to awaken Lilith, the mother of all vampires, so that they can have her power. Opening her tomb does not awaken her, but it does create a cloud over Helea that blocks the sun, making Helea a dark eden for vampires.
The human world responded by isolating the region and sending in their militaries to try to rid the area of vampires.
The master vampires soon discover that the only way to gain the power they seek is to search for the pieces of Lilith’s soul, which were scattered about the area of Helea. Unwilling to share this power, they break their alliance and begin a civil war.
Later, an ancient race of people known as the Ousters awakens from their long sleep and are shocked to see what the vampires and humans have done to Helea. They begin to attempt to wipe them from the area.[1]
[edit] Gameplay
Darkeden is a hack-and-slash game, which requires the players to kill hordes of monsters in order to make their character progress. This character progression varies according to the different races with slayers only having to attack a monster/player to gain experience points whereas vampires need to kill the monster/player and drink its blood to gain the full extent of the experience points available while ousters just have to kill to gain these points. For the same monster, ousters gain more experience points out of them than vampires do even when drinking their blood. This is an aspect of the balanced system present in the game between the races having each a special advantage: the slayers sell the heads and skulls of monsters (one of the ways to make money in the game) at the highest prices to npc, the vampires drop the best items out of the 3 races, and the ousters get experience points the quickest.
The master/slave relationship is also present in the game but only concerns vampires and ousters. It is frequent that a low level player (slave or leecher) is power-leveled by a high level player (master) who kills monsters the low level would be incapable of alone and thus make him/her progress way quicker than s/he would have alone in another place. The experience points are divided between the members of a party for ousters and vampires wheareas slayers get a percentage increase. However, as far as slayers are concerned, only their attributes (strength, dexterity and intelligence) rise since they need to use their skills to gain experience points for their level. This explains why power-leveling on the slayer side is more unusual especially if the low level player is of the melee type. Nevertheless, this system of shared experience points within the party shows its limit when high level players are concerned although high level players tend to play alone rather than in groups as they often get more benefits from that (in the case of slayers they can hit the monsters longer and walk less and keeping the loot for themselves as the loot is simply dropped on the ground and anyone can pick it).
Unlike other MMO's, Darkeden doesn't compel the players to form groups to be able to survive in dungeons or hostile maps or to do quests that don't really work properly. Indeed, any player at some point or another is able to go on every map available and to survive the legions of monsters there on one's own. All the monsters and bosses present in the game can be killed by a single player with perhaps the exception of Gilles de Rais and Mikklizz. The quests are also essentially single player oriented such as killing a certain number of monsters under a certain time to get a special item. The only quest that compelled players to form groups was the family coins quest in which players had to form a team of 6 to be able to loot coins from monsters which would give them a possible good item once they trade 9 to an npc. Nevertheless, Race Wars, Castle Wars and Caligo Wars are events that pit players together (gathered either by race or by clan/guild) against others in massive PvE battles.
Darkeden is oriented toward PvP and offers it in its most brutal form. Except for few safe zones (green areas on the mini map), mainly the main camps/castles, players can be attacked without any restriction at any moment by other players. As a consequence nothing prevents a player having reached the last level of the game from attacking a player that has just started playing the game. It is also frequent to witness sieges and enemy players "camping" every now and then outside the safe zones. Nevertheless, in order to protect low level players from that kind of abuse, the Korean and Japanese version offers a non-PK server for the player to level without any risk of being attacked by another player and this until around the level 80 of the character when s/he'll be forced to come back in the midst of the pvp field.
One of the main characteristics in the play of Darkeden is the use of time. There exists three different time periods that regulate the battles in Helea. The first period takes place between 5h and 16h59 which is called day time or full day. During that period, vampires are at their weakest and slayers and ousters got the upper hand on them. The second time period happens between 21h and 4h59 which is night time or full night. It is during that lapse of time that vampires are the most efficient and causes the most damage to their preys. Finally, the periods comprised between 5h - 8h59 and 17h - 20h59 are the transition time during which slayers, ousters and vampires fight on the same ground. This system offers a very balanced game-play as a vampire can be completely annihilated by day time by a said slayer while when night time comes, this same vampire could dispose of him or her pretty easily (granted they are in the same range of levels). This time effect doesn't concern ousters vs slayers fights but it does with monsters who are considered "vampires".
Another particularity of Darkeden is the ability for players to change the race of their character in the middle of his/her progression. If a human is bitten by a vampire (player and mob alike) s/he will turn into a vampire unless s/he cures himself or herself before 6 to 12h depending on the version of the game or, in the case of the Japanese version, if the player is normally drained or drained if a vampire used his/her D bar. This can be done by talking to any npc that heals the character. If the character doesn't get healed, s/he will die when the countdown is over and all his or her equipment will try to go to his/her inventory. If full they will simply drop on the floor. When respawning the character will now be a new vampire (level 1) and will lose all his/her slayer's money. In the case of the vampire characters, they can decide to turn humans by talking to an npc that will do the work for them. Just like in the slayer case, all the vampire equipment will try to enter his/her inventory before dropping on the floor if full and will disappear after a certain time just like any other drop. The vampire money will be lost as well. Ousters, however, are the only race not able to switch. Nevertheless, if the changed character decides to go back once again to his/her former race (by being bitten in the case of a vampire turned human or talking to the npc for the human turned vampire) s/he will resume the level s/he had before the switch. As a consequence it is virtually possible for a player to have a same character that has mastered both the slayer side and the vampire side. However due to its tedious nature (losing most of the items and all the money at each shift and the long journey to gain levels) it is unlikely a player has actually achieved that in an official version.
[edit] Free-to-Play
The game offers the possibility for players to either play for free or to buy some points and get special advantages. According to the different versions of the game, the restriction for free players varied. In the case of the International server there was none as it was completely free and served as a beta version. As far as the Thai version was concerned, free players could only play on the outdoor maps and were unable to enter dungeons as well as being unable to wear double options items. They couldn't spawn their bike where they wanted and gained less experience points than paying players called premium players. The Japanese version enables free players to access everything the game offers whereas paying players get twice the experience points free players receive as well as the possibility to buy with these points special items to make their characters better (items to combine different options into one item, luck sets, or rented items to name a few). The Korean version and Global version are perhaps the most restrictive ones for its free players. For once free players receive the lowest experience points of all versions, they can't enter dungeons and some maps like Vranco City and can't access the hot spot of the activity of the game where all players gather and sell and buy items (Perona). In short everything is done in the original and Global version to make the free players become paying ones after experiencing some aspects of the game.
[edit] Different versions
Each version has its specificities and has supporters for each among the Darkeden community.
The Korean version (The Bloody Chronicles), being the original one it is by far the most advanced one with active GMs and regular events held. One has to be Korean to register. The game has 4 servers, one of which a non-PK server, that are accessible with the same character.
The Japanese version (Revenge of the Masters), hosted by NetMarble just like its Korean counterpart is one of its official alternatives (the second being Darkeden Global). The xp rate is slow though meant to be played that way with the most basic attack for a slayer giving 1xp point per regular hit for free players (and 2xp for paying ones). There are active GMs and events are organized too though less frequent than on the Korean. This version acquires regular updates as well. The Japanese version stands out from the others due to the fact that it is taking liberties not to follow the game evolution of the original version by making a selection of the updates they want to acquire. This choice became apparent with the will of the Japanese version owners not to take the often criticized new look of the character sprites and certain areas (mainly revamped Eslanian city) which has been there for quite a long time on most other versions while they're taking other recent updates such as "Hell Garden" (which became a permanent area instead of a temporary event place) or the upcoming "Menegroth" update of the summer. The game has 3 servers, one of which a non-PK server, that are accessible with the same character.
The International and Thai versions saw some players using their own version of the "hack and slash" with the introduction of hacks to annoy regular players ("hack the game and slash the fair players"). Since GMs were absent on the International version, it soon became out of control and eventually led to its closure. In the case of the Thai version, it closed a few weeks after some hacks made their way to the game. Nevertheless, a new version of the former International server opened on October 16, 2007 and has been renamed to Darkeden Global, under the management of Joymax Co. Ltd.
The Global version (Wheel of Fortune), was in Open Beta Testing around December 2007. This version also takes some liberties compared to the mother version, though a bit less apparent than the Japanese one, as it was the case with the nerfing of some ouster skills in order to adjust the balance between races according to players' requests. In order to catch up the other versions, the Global version offered its players a radical xp boost as well as the opportunity to experience the game as if all players were paying users. This had for consequences to have many high level players in few months instead of few years. Once this special event ended, the xp of Global went back to normal, which is similar to the Japanese and Korean version, and resumed its areas restriction for non paying players.
