Guild Wars 2

Is there any plans to include a Darkness Falls (DAOC) type PvE dungeon related to WvW in the future? I think i remember reading that maybe some original DAOC devs were part of Anet for quite awhile now and was curious about their stance on a cross-world accessible mega-dungeon with WvW linking accessibility.

I can’t remember anyone from DAOC complaining about Darkness Falls in fact it was possibly one of the best things added to the game, it gave an alternate avenue to PvP and PvE while giving a purpose to wanting to take Keeps beyond gloating (or karma farming). A WvX dungeon could also quite possibly fit the niche of small group roaming that feels currently lacking in the Invisible Zerg’s these days.

This would alleviate some of the problems with some servers owning everything all the time. In DAoC, you could either have your realm PvP’ing or in DF. Rarely, if ever, was a realm able to both farm DF and maintain a stranglehold against the other two realms.

You want to go farm nice loot? Okay, but better hurry, you’re not likely to keep DF for long if everyone has the same idea you do. And it would also give servers an incentive to try and win instead of merely staying in a particular bracket to farm karma/gold/badges.

Oh hell yes – Darkness Falls plx

Darkness Falls was the best fun I ever had in an instance, in any MMO. It died only when it wasn’t the best loot out there any longer.

The fighting inside it was epic. However, Anet would want to overhaul their kitteny agro system before they undertake something like that. Running past someone should not transfer agro otherwise people will just death train everyone.

Unfortunately even if they put in Darkness Falls they would probably put a queue on it and High pop servers will have people never able to get in anyway.

yes! very fun memories in DAoC Darkness Falls.

Do it! Do it now! I know you want to!

Can someone explain what this was specifically? How did it work?

Darkness Falls is a PvP dungeon in DAOC. Entrance is earned by the realm that accumulates the most points (for towers, keeps, battlegrounds, etc.). The realm already occupying the area is not removed and can log inside, making for some epic battles.

Transfer is encouraged because the people inside are not defending their realm, offering an opportunity for the other realms to take the lead.

The dungeon included it’s own items to collect and spend on equipment, etc., and some extremely tough boss mobs with suitable rewards. Fights at those mobs when enemy realms invaded were truly epic.

Fun times!

You are correct sir, Darkness Falls was great, everyone loved it, nobody complained about it. ToA was when the complaints started, while a great expansion, was timed poorly. You do not require a game based on mass pvp to go pve again just to compete.

Darkness falls was actually a balancer, as the winning realm ran into darkness falls to get some gear and such, leaving the rvr maps open for the losers to take easier.

I’m not sure this should be mixed in with the WvW maps. I know DAoC vets wax nostalgic about it, but there are already too many dolts that do nothing but hang around the maze and jumping puzzles in WvW, camping it or otherwise, when they should be out defending their server.

The difference in GW2 is that there are only so many player slots in WvW. Many of these players are just wasting slots screwing around that other players that actually want to PVP could be using. This sounds like it would only massively magnify the problem. There just are not enough players in each WvW map, borderlands or EB, to afford to have a large amount of them farming PVE mobs and bosses. It would seriously dilute the main fighting.

Pendragon, I think the point you’re missing was that Darkness Falls was its own instance. If something like this were implemented, you’d have to leave EB or one of the 3 Borderlands to enter the instance, freeing up space.

The entrance to DF was only available to whoever happened to own the most keeps, and when your side got access to it, you ran there as fast as possible while the other two realms would fight each other to try to get access to it.

Once you’re inside the action continues, since you not only had the mobs to fight, you had the other players that were already in there to contend with as well.

Personally I love the idea. +1

bumping this mofo with a +1 Darkness falls was amazing.. good loot good xp and always the chance for PvP to happen = Dangerous = excitement = fun..

Aye DF always took me back to my EQ Tallon Zek days +1 from me, lets do it.

there would not no incentive for a DF type dungeon. I mean what are you gonna do, run it 60 times in Explorer mode for a different colour set of armor ?

I approved of this request.

Upboat from me. DF was pure awesomeness.

Bloody.8769:

there would not no incentive for a DF type dungeon. I mean what are you gonna do, run it 60 times in Explorer mode for a different colour set of armor ?

Darkness Falls isnt a dungeon in the sense of GW2’s flavor of dungeons. Size wise, its more of just a regular zone (that happens to be a dungeon). The unique style of PvE with the threat of PvP, the content ranging from low lvl to max lvl, and the high end Raid-like bosses deep within are what kept people coming back for years.

Not to say this couldn’t backfire like it did in Warhammer Online’s “Land of the Dead” but i think WAR had a unique situation in that it was a terrible game to begin with. It seemed like they used their version of “darkness falls” as the ONLY incentive to make people want to defend keeps (which they didn’t anyway). GW2 already has plenty of incentives to make people want to stay in WvW.

Darkness Falls was definitely a PvP balancing tool. You fought hard in PvP to gain realm-wide bonuses (for those not in PvP as well), and in addition you fought to open the coveted dungeon. The winning realm would high-tail it to Darkness Falls, thus leaving the PvP frontiers open to those in 2nd and 3rd place to square things up. Sometimes Darkness Falls could remain in one realm’s control for a few days. Sometimes the other two realms swooped in and used the opporunity to take many keeps and towers, thus turning the tables in hours or minutes.

I remember getting the call over Alliance: WE HAVE DARKNESS FALLS.

People ran from all over, dropping everything to get inside. There was no cap on the population. If 200 or 1500 people got in, they got in. It was large enough to handle the load. It was exciting to know that enemy inside Darkness Falls would be there and no reinforcements would be arriving for them.

If ArenaNet offered a reward for WvW points, other than wang swinging and forum flaming, it would also help level the match-ups with disparaging population imbalance.

Here is the problem I am not seeing anyone address with a DF style dungeon.

What servers tend to be winning? The higher pop servers. Via night crews or simply more people willing to be in WvW the fact remains. So those that are winning in overall control get access to DF and move in. The theory being it means more space for the other 2 teams to reclaim, in truth those big pop servers just fill those spots with the people waiting in queue and continue to dominate the maps. Meaning those winning, now keep winning AND have access to the new dungeon un-challenged.

The only option would be to make it the same instance and population as the current maps, which is basicly what we have now but without the PvE content. We have an area that removes players from the active battlegrounds to allow the other servers to even the balance. The problem currently is this is not restricted and is accessible from multiple places. They need to lock it down so it works like DF with majority control of the zone, then locks the people in once they lose that control. Also they need to make the dungeon run HARDER but give more rewards so you actually have to dedicate time and resources to getting through, but want to dedicate those resources for the rewards.

Right now the rewards are nice for a small group but not for an army and it is easy for an organized group to get those rewards in a short time so it never really takes people off the battlefield.

DF was so good, possibly the best addition to any MMo to date.

- Superb loot
- Dangerous and exciting because of possible enemies
- Possibilities to go ganking
- Epic battles down in the depths of it when the team farming got encountered by the team who just got entrance
- Gave a reason to go take keeps other than for points. Even the losing team would have a reason to go and try.

DF? yes please!

+1 … DF was full of great times. With everyone being bumped up to 80 there wouldn’t even be any griefing like in DAOC’s DF (low-lvls getting steamrolled by cap players). But even then, that’s what made it awesome… that constant sense of danger, always looking over your shoulder.