Q&A with a leaker!

"Collision detection sounds like an annoyance if used in hubs to block entrances and such."

Not really. Most entrances are fairly large and vendors are all outside, or in the open near a building or tent. The places you could block people off are also the places the person doing the blocking could just be killed. It also feels good to trap people, and scary to get trapped. They did a good job with it and it fits with how the world is entirely realistic.

"You've mentioned melee alot, but how does it pan out against magic and ranged (bow) PvP? Is it hard to coordinate attacks with more people?"

It can certainly be confusing. I suggest a voice chat program, but that is pretty obvious. There are no names over people's heads like most games as you likely know. Since you have to mouse over, it just looks like a bunch of people running around. So you have to be careful with who you are hitting. I imagine the more people out there the more challenging this will be.

I think bow PvP takes the most skill and is the hardest to determine the attacker with if they are attacking you. If you start getting hit with arrows they stick into you, so you try to look over where they are coming from, by then, usually a couple more are in you. While Magic glows and is pretty noisy, so it is easier to react quicker to it and find cover.

Magic and Archery takes arrows and components to use, so that balances it some as well. Melee weapons even wear out, but very slowly, and I think everyone will have some melee as a backup.

For an individual I suggest picking one of the main three melee weapons and skilling up with it. There will be times when you just have your no drop weapon, so you might as well be good with it. You can change stances fast, magic to melee, and most people will use all kinds of skills.

"Can you give examples of what can be harvested and a simple crafting recipe (like a sword)?"

No sorry. Not much of a crafter. I suspect everyone will be a bit of a gatherer even if they are not a crafter though. I also believe the reports of almost everything you see potentially being crafted is possible, but I do not know if that is implemented yet or not.

"Nice that they stuck to what they planned with NPCs dropping sensible stuff, it must have been very boring to itemize though!"

That is one of the coolest things about Darkfall. I often just think, 'how would that work if this were a real world', and many times that is how it works in Darkfall. Makes the world feel more real.

-leakreader2