Settling in Darkfall
I traveled with the Goons this weekend as we relocated from their previous base of operations in Janhalek to a new location in the frigid northlands. I was still in the elf starting lands when the announcement went up in vent that the move would be taking place later that day. Both the old and new locations were equal distance from me. I could head south to Janhalek and then travel north to the new town. I had heard that traveling north took me through a bit more perilous territory so I ventured south.
The journey was uneventful but took the greater part of two hours on foot. While I saw a lot of wildlife, I saw very few enemy camps while sticking to the coast. Making the swim from the mainland to the island of Janhalek took over a half hour in itself. I could have asked for someone to bring a raft for me but I wanted to try to do it all on my own.
I arrived in Janhalek about fifteen minutes before launch time and had some time to meet and greet with the Goons before about ten of us got on a raft. The raft ride was pretty fun as we all laughed and joked while fishing and watching for the kraken. There was word that a trio of ships was assaulting the city we were heading to and as a raft we were pretty much sitting ducks. We made a wide angle entrance into the city and luckily arrived after the assault was over. Just hearing word of it made me excited.
When we tried to bind to the city, their stone was out of bind slots since their keep was destroyed from the attacking ships so myself and a handful of other people rode north to a hamlet to bind. It was terrifying as we left the city because about a hundred people on mounts were rushing straight at us. Luckily, they were just allies returning to the city.
I took another hour to get acquainted with the area and learn a little more of the game. I found a nice troll spawn about ten minutes away so I worked on my skills a little there.
Yesterday afternoon when I logged in, the owners of the city were about to make an attack on a neighboring city. A group of Goons had offered to join the charge and I decided to go with. My skills are still at abysmal levels but I wanted to see an attack for myself. I rode down from the hamlet to the city just in time for the army to take off. It was about ten Goons and a hundred other people heading out in this charge. We were told on vent that the enemies were some of the most skilled players in the game.
The destination was nearby and it only took about twenty minutes to get there. Unfortunately, our attack was very unorganized. It was more of a "everyone charge this point, okay now everyone head to this point, okay now everyone go to this next point" instead of "group one take this point, group two take this other point, etc". After about ten minutes of fighting, a full retreat was called. I fired of a ton of arrows and did hit someone with one arrow for 13 points of damage. I may not have contributed much, but I contributed!
When we returned back to the city, I went back to that troll camp to work on my archery some more. As I have only been in the game for about a week, I find myself being overly cautious. Especially in this location which is not just new for me, but the entire guild, I am wary to leave the troll spot for farming because I do not know what will annihilate me yet.
The hardest thing for me currently is just deciding on what skills I want to work on. It is weird playing this game after so many theme-park games because in Darkfall, there is just so much I can do that I do not know what I want to start first. I keep getting gamer ADD and working on one skill for five minutes before getting distracted and working on something else. I know eventually my completionism tendencies are going to kick in and I am going to start focusing hard on one or two skills at a time until I max them out.
I am having a lot of fun in Darkfall and I am excited to become more familiar with the area and the mechanics and more comfortable with taking risks.