Darkness Falls: The Crusade

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Darkness Falls: The Crusade (1999), known informally as DFC and DF2, was an internet fantasy MUD-style game developed by Mythic Entertainment, and which has been hosted by America Online, GameStorm, and Centropolis Entertainment. The game was a sequel to Darkness Falls (known informally as DF1) that was offered on the AOL and Gamestorm gaming services. The game is in large part the intellectual concept behind Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot.

The game world consisted of 3 individual realms: Good, Chaos, and Evil; each associated with a primary God: Niord, Ra'Kur, and Arnak respectively. The object of the game was to obtain the other two realms 3 orbs (informally known as Idols) and return them to your own realms shrines and to protect them. There were 3 types of orbs, one for each realm: Knowledge, Power, and Strength. Knowledge gave that realm a 10% increase in experience points gained per kill, power gave a 10% boost in magical abilities, and strength gave a 10% boost in physical combat skills to whichever realm maintained possession. There was also a 4th continent known as Kaid that, depending on the current in-game situation, either rotated between realms or was open to all at once. The maximum level obtainable was 75, an increase from DF1's level 50 max, and was only obtained by a select few individuals and was largely subject to which class they were.

This game is no longer available as of early 2006 along with all other games offered on the Mythic-Realms gaming center excluding Dragon's Gate.

The DFC community still thrives in the developing world of Cyra. This game is largely based on the same type of play as DFC, but has many enhancements. Currently the game has passed through its early alpha stages and is in the process of being re-written for a renewed alpha. The game is being built around the idea that DFC had, which is that even a MUD can be fun when presented through a rich client with a good graphical user interface.

In June 20, 2006 Mythic Entertainment was purchased by Electronic Arts. They are currently working on Warhammer Online and Dark Age of Camelot. [1]

The Classes:

Evil:

Evil realm was unique in the fact that their classes could wield any weapon they chose instead of havig to speacialize in only 1 as the other realms did. Evil realm also thrived in darkness and received penalties for going into the light.

Bael-Elves: There were two bael elf guilds. One guild consisted of necromancer casters with the ability to focus energy into massive damage spells (a skill known as Tap). The other is a predominantly healing-based class but one that could still do significant offensive damage. All bael-elves were limited to cloth armor.

Demons: Demons were split into two guilds. One was based on melee combat and was basically a crafter class, having the ability to create armor, weapons, and other constructions. The other was spell-based and could use the skill Tap (however it was to a lesser extent than bael-elves) and was utilized as the armor enchanters of the realm. The combat class wore studded leather, whereas the casting hybrids wore plain leather.

Vampires: The vampires were separated into two guilds. One guild obtained a stealth ability to drain a target and was predominantly a rogue based class, where as the other guild was a hybrid class that was predominantly spell based. Vampires were able to wear studded leather armor if they were a member of the Nightstalker guild(rogue based), or plain leather armor if they are a member of the Blood Coven guild(spell based). Vampires also had the ability to 'scry' their target, meaning locate their exact location through spells (though you must be equal in level or bigger than your target).

Skeletons: The main warrior class of the evil realm, this class was the only class in the game with the ability to double melee targets (double meaning to hit a target twice, and melee meaning to hit two targets). Combined, it was possible to hit two targets twice each round. Skeletons were able to wear any armor but specifically focused on platemail for its high defense rating.

Zombies: The secondary warrior of the evil realm, zombies are extremely difficult to kill as they could only be killed by magic. However, if their hit points hit 0 due to physical damage they would be knocked out with a second hit. They also had the pummel skill(hits targets for DMG and fatigue) and massive health regeneration. Zombies were able to wear all armor except for platemail (until later in the game's life).

Imps: The primary rogue-like class of the evil realm, they specialized in backstab, a highly powerful skill that would often leave its victim with no hit points. They were integral in obtaining orbs (or Idols) as only they had the grapple skill which was required to break into the shrine. Imps were limited to studded leather armor and below.

Werewolves: Werewolves are violent berserkers that can do massive damage at the cost of a major defensive loss. However, in most instances they would use their shape shifting ability to do battle. When 'in-form', werewolves had extremely high defensive ratings(especially higher-level forms), but lower attack ratings(again, higher-level forms did more damage); with a quick attack timer. Werewolves were limited to cloth armor, however when shape-shifted, the form's statistics took precedence.

Chaos:

Goblins: Goblins were the craftsman for the chaos realm, specializing in every craftsman and enchanting type ability. They also possessed the ability to craft bombs which, when thrown(casted), could hit multiple targets in one room and inflict massive damage. Goblins had the ability to wear chainmail and below level of armors.

Trolls: Trolls were violent berserkers that, due to heavily weighted offensive bonus points, could do extreme damage to those much higher in level then themselves. However, this ability costs them a great deal of defense and the lack of bonus points in other areas was a disadvantage as well. Trolls could wear any armor type, and could wield two-handed weapons in one hand.

Lizardmen: Lizardmen were the warriors of the chaos realm. They had the ability to double targets, as well as a fire-breathing attack that inflicted massive damage to most other classes. This breathe ability was on a secondary timer, limiting only movement after the attack. Lizardmen could wear any armor.

Orcs: Orcs were the healing class for the chaos realm. Having weapon abilities and pain spells at their disposal, they were a formidable foe. Orcs had high defensive ratings and could wear studded-leather armor & below.

Ogres: Ogres were the major spell casters of the Chaos realm, able to focus large amounts of energy using the Tap skill. However, they had lower power(mana) than their evil & good counterparts. To counter this, they had specialized wards that increased energy regen for allies in the room, as well as other wards that benefited allies. Ogres also possessed the Scry spell. Ogres could only wear cloth armor.

  WARDS:
Every type of ward had 4 levels to it.  Minor, normal, improved, and greater; each level increasing
 its benefits.
POWER WARD:  When sitting on a power ward, power regeneration was massively increased.
ENDURANCE WARD:  When sitting on an endurance ward, fatigue regeneration was massively increased.
HEALING WARD:  When sitting on a healing ward, hitpoint regeneration was massively increased.
COMBAT WARD:  When sitting on a combat ward, offensive(hand-to-hand) abilities were massively
 increased.
MAGIC WARD:  When sitting on a magic ward, magical abilities were massively increased.
Lethargy WARD:  When enemies would sit on a Lethargy ward, their attack/skill timers were increased.
ANTI-SCRY WARD:  When sitting on an anti-scry ward, you are unlocatable by the scry spell.

Kobolds: Nearly identical to imps in statistics and abilities, besides the fact that kobolds had the ability to 'farsee', or look into the next room without actually walking/sneaking into it. Kobolds also had to train specific weapon types, and had a massive dexterity bonus. Kobolds could wear studded-leather armor.

Gnolls: Gnolls were a support, ranger like class that primarily used bows and could volley arrows from neighboring rooms. Gnolls were limited to studded leather armor. They also possessed summonable pets.

Good:

The Good realm was different from that of the evil and chaos realms in that its many races weren't limited to a single class(Guild) and were not limited to armor restrictions. Good realm also received penalties when they entered a dark room without sufficient infravision.

Races:

Tamians: Pure humans, they could not see at all in darkness and relied on darkvision/nightvision spells to survive at night. They had good all around attributes but primarily focused on strength. Tamians could play all good realm classes excluding monk.

Elves: Elves had infravision(the ability to see in the dark) and were specialized towards magic usage. Elves could be any class excluding paladins and rogues, which left them Wizards, Craftsmen, Priests and Rangers.

Half-Elves: Human Elf hybrids, not as magically proficient as elves, and had less strength than tamians but had infravision. Half-Elves were limited to becoming Priests, Rangers, Wizards, Craftsmen and Roges and could not become Monks or Paladins

Dwarves: Dwarves were incredibly strong, but also quite slow. Dwarves were limited to being priests, paladins and craftsman, they were also able to carry massive amounts of materials. Dwarves also had infravision.

Gnomes: Gnomes were extremely dextrous and best suited for rogues, however they could also become craftsman and priests. They also had infravision and additional fatigue regeneration.

Kilanese: Kilanese were unique in that they could only become monks, a ninja-like class and were also the only race that could do so. Kilanese however were basically humans.

Classes:

Rogue: The thief of the good realm, specializing in stealing enemy orbs and the backstab skill. Rogues also had the chance to train platemail armor.

Ranger: a self-explanatory support class that relied on bows and the volley ability similar to that of gnolls. They also possessed summonable pets.

Priests: Priests provided the healing class for the realm and were also able to use decent holy damage spells. Their light buffs were vital in battling the evil realms dark buffs.

Craftsmen: Also self-explanatory, craftsmen provided the good realm with armor and weapons as well as defensive and offensive constructions. They also had the unique ability to build golem pets to battle alongside them.

Paladin: Paladins were the warriors for the good realm and had the double ability. They also possessed many self-shielding/buffing abilities granted to them by their god Niord. They also possessed summonable storm-pets, and spells to heal their allies, however these spells did not work on themselves.

Wizards: Wizards were the offensive spell casters for the good realm, specializing in many elements and could use the tap skill. They also had the ability to summon massive storms that could hit up to 8 targets at once. Wizards also possessed the Scry spell.

Monks: Monks were martial artists by nature, the sole class in the game to possess that attribute. The attribute utilized chop and kick commands and did not require weapons to do damage and in fact required the user to be holding no items. They also possessed extreme defensive capabilities. However, in certain situations, they were at a disadvantage as they were not provided the defensive boost of holding a weapon or shield. Monks lacked natural infravision but were able to cast self-buff spells that gave them partial infravision.

REALM POINTS/REALM RANK: Perhaps the funnest aspect of the game was PKing, or player killing. Each time you killed a member of an opposing realm, you gained a certain number of realm points(formulated using your level, opponents level, your realm rank, and your opponents realm rank). As your realm rank increases, your skills got a boost (1% to all skills at lower realm ranks, eventually increasing to 3% to all skills per realm rank). Max rank was attainable at 65,000 realm points, and provided a 37% increase to all skills.

The game had some bugs and lacked regular programming fixes or funding despite costing $9.95/month. It also had minimal customer support offered through Mythic and it was terminated eventually, without warning, despite a large player-base.