Anyone Playing This?

Smirch · August 2006

Been eyeing this game for a little bit, but haven't seen much activity on the forums about it. From what I can tell its something like a faster paced EVE online with a concentrated focus on pvp. Can anyone give me the scoop on the game?

I'm mostly curious about the amount of ships and the advancement system, (skills or levels etc). Thanks guys.

Miexon · August 2006

got to the official site, games like this usually have their player base all in their website

jackocomp · September 2006

HI there, well having been playing this game now for about 3 weeks I think I can give you a little bit of an idea of the amount of people etc.

On a usual night/day/time there is about 30 - 50 people on the main MetaVerse Server and there can be 15 on the other 2 servers.

This doesn't sound like many when compared to the likes of EVE or WOW but there is usually a bit of action happening and if there isn't all you have to do is go to one of the other factions systems and they are warned of your presence straight away so you usually get some action then.

The interface is not as complex as EVE's interface and learning it usually only takes a day or so at the very most, I have found that it is a game where you get more aquainted with the other players since there isn't thousands of them online at one time.

The total user base is about 72 thousand and it is made up of people of all ages and sexes, the mods are usually very helpful and can nearly always answer any questions you have about laying the game etc.

Now when you start the game you start as a Midshipman and this gets you access to the very basic small ships like Scouts, Light Transports. You gain prestige by doing certain things like fighting other players or by capturing planets and then building them. Players also need to aquire credits to do mods to their ships and this can be done in a number of ways, one of them being mining ore from planets with a Engineering ship or an extractor ship. This also gains you prestige.

Moving through the ranks is not as easy as it my seem because you can also loose prestige for being killed or shot and for loosing your shp by running into planets.

Some aspects of the game can get very boring after a while and unless you stay active you will get bored of the game very quickly, when you first sign up you receive a 14 day coupon which is a trial subscription and which allows you to build up your prestige to gain access to the bigger and better ships, the 14 days will enable just about any player to get to at least a rank of Captain. The system keeps stats of many things the player does including killing others, being killed, the amount of jumps you do, self destructs, etc etc and unfortunately unless you subscribe after the 14 day trial period you will not be able to move up through the ranks, however your stats are still kept and if at any time you do subscribe you will straight away be given the rank of the amount of prestige you have built up.

My suggestion to people is logon to the game and give it a try the download is only 50Mb and unless you are on a dial up connection downloading it will only take 30 minutes give or take depending on your speed. Give it a try if you dont like it just delete/uninstall the gam from your system and just dont go back.

Having played many games of this sort I would have to say tht it is one of the better ones I have played and I would give it a 8 - 8.5 out of 10....

SecretOpz · October 2006

I must say that this game's online community is horrible and not newb friendly. The controls are on a 2D plane, and the lag is often horrible. The updates are slow to come(even when users exploit various parts of the game). I don't recommend this game.

Though the free 14 day trial speaks for itself.

jackocomp · October 2006

Originally posted by Smirch

Been eyeing this game for a little bit, but haven't seen much activity on the forums about it. From what I can tell its something like a faster paced EVE online with a concentrated focus on pvp. Can anyone give me the scoop on the game?
I'm mostly curious about the amount of ships and the advancement system, (skills or levels etc). Thanks guys.

Ok although I am only a player in the DarkSpace game I hve managed to gain the rank of admiral in the game which is about 3 ranks from the highest possible rank which is Grand Admiral.

I will attempt to fill you in on the advancement system as best I can.

Ok when you first join the game you will be a midshipman this rank doesn't give the player access to many of the ships and the ones you do have access to are really very basic and needless to say the smallest of the available ships. These include scouts, 1 type of frigate and transport ships.

Also when you start off unless you use the 14 day free trial where you are given 50,000 credits you will be in the negative on credits which will stop you from being able to upgrade any of your ships defences (eg. shields, weapons etc). You can earn credits by mining the planets and selling the minerals to the nearest starport, you can also make credits by salvaging items that are left over after a ship is destroyed (eg. the minerals it is made from or the actual weapons, drives etc that were part of the ship)

As in every game the further you go in the game the more you can do or the powerful the things you can access are, now the advancement system is based apon your prestige which you get for doing all sorts of things including building on planets, attacking other enemy ships. Your dvancement also however depends on you receiving badges which you also get for things like building, attacking other ships and doing just about eveything you can do in the game.

Gaining these badges usually happens when you have received 50 then 500 and the last of each of the badge groups you receive when you have managed to do whatever the requirement is 1000 times. These requirements are not set at the above numbers for all the badges and if you want to find out more about what the requirements are for the others you can do this by looking through the players manual which is probably something that all new players should do anyways.

It can take a player any amount of time to move up through the ranks depending on how active you are in the game, and there has been players that have managed to get through to Grand Admiral within a 12 month period so I am told. The requirments for moving through the ranks are as follows:

40 Prestige = Ensign

80 Pres = 2nd Lieutenant

160 Pres = 1st Lieutenant

320 Pres = Lieutenant Commander

It basically doubles each time you move up a rank until you get up to 81920 at which point you become a GRand Admiral. Once you get a rank you have to continue to work on keeping that rank because being destroyed, Running into Planets and scrapping buildings on friendly planets can all go towards having your prestige reduced.

The above is about as basic as I am able to make explaining the game advancement system to you, if you want just logon to the DarkSpace website and join the game, once you verify your email address you will be sent a 14 day free trial coupon that will allow you to get a pretty good feel for the game. DarkSpace is not as fast paced as Eve and it doesn't have half the active players that Eve has, it is also not for everyone due to the size of the player base and the nature of the game.

At this time DarkSpace is in a Full release of the game but there is currently also a new beta version in trial and hopefully a new version of the game will be released within the next 3 months or so, most of the other players in the game are helpful, and if they can will help you out with a few credits to get you going.

However as in all ther games there are other players who will go out of their way to try and cause you problems, luckly enough the main server is big enough for you to stay away from most of these people, the ones you can't stay away from you can always just ignore.

DarkSpace has the potential to be a very good game with the right sort of backing, so have a look at it if you feel you would like to try it and who knows you may decide to spend $9.95 US per month to become a subscribed player which will enable you to continue to gain ranks and get better ships.

SecretOpz · October 2006

However as in all ther games there are other players who will go out of their way to try and cause you problems, luckly enough the main server is big enough for you to stay away from most of these people, the ones you can't stay away from you can always just ignore. DarkSpace has the potential to be a very good game with the right sort of backing, so have a look at it if you feel you would like to try it and who knows you may decide to spend $9.95 US per month to become a subscribed player which will enable you to continue to gain ranks and get better ships.

Well, it is a fun game, but they need a way to turn all chat off

As their "ignore" option doesnt work for about 2 hours after you click it.

As for the potential, unless you make it against the rules to talk about anything other than the game there are always going to be players that continually talk about offensive material(and the admin/mods dont care as long as it doesnt offend THEM).

Anyways, the chat is full of sexual inuendos, talk of women, alcohol and oftentimes other stuff that should not be discussed in a game-setting.

This game can be fun, if you:

Take the lag out
Take tha chat out
Find a way to make the factions equal in players and strength
Make the metaverse smaller
Change the rules drastically.

jackocomp · October 2006

Ok you are right with what you say and unfortuntely I don't have the power to do anything about wht you are talking about except by using the "ignore" option, which I use to it's fullest.

It is sad that a game with this games potential is being let down by the way some people decide they feel they have to refer to women and to many other things but I guess the best way to show your dislike of this is to vote with your feet and not play the game.

There is a DarkSpaceAsia which is a smaller community and which has different people playing it, maybe you could give that a look as at this time I am in the stages of now playing more on DS-Asia than I do on DS-NA.

Just incase you would like to have a look at DSA I will include a link, oh also if you do decide you would like to play on DSA you will have to download the client for that one again, it is about 38Mb in size and only takes around 10 minutes to download.

http://www.darkspace.net.sg/

If you decide the above one is no good for you also I hope that some time in the future you decide to give it another look in because I personally think the game could do with more people like you.

SecretOpz · October 2006

DSA is a better community, I went there once. The fact that you need to join a fleet to join the metaverse is ingenious and helps prevent faction-hopping. The metaverse is sized to the amount of players there are(also was good layout until recently).

Anyways, Darkspace needs to follow the path that DSA has. My suggestions to Darkspace is widely based on what I seen in DSA, but Darkspace does not seem to care. The customers are the ones that keep the game alive, but if the developers do not listen to the players, I doubt DS will survive much longer. I even seen in the forums a player-created metaverse map contest idea, and I seen one that would be perfect, but I doubt darkspace would implement it, even though it is what most of the players would like to see. Its not that hard to load a new map into the server.

jackocomp · October 2006

Originally posted by SecretOpz
DSA is a better community, I went there once. The fact that you need to join a fleet to join the metaverse is ingenious and helps prevent faction-hopping. The metaverse is sized to the amount of players there are(also was good layout until recently).

Anyways, Darkspace needs to follow the path that DSA has. My suggestions to Darkspace is widely based on what I seen in DSA, but Darkspace does not seem to care. The customers are the ones that keep the game alive, but if the developers do not listen to the players, I doubt DS will survive much longer. I even seen in the forums a player-created metaverse map contest idea, and I seen one that would be perfect, but I doubt darkspace would implement it, even though it is what most of the players would like to see. Its not that hard to load a new map into the server.

Hi Yet again.

well u are right in everything you are saying. However faction jumping is not really a problem as long as the person or people doing it are not doing it to disable planet defences (which had and does happen)

As for the competition for th maps and the wallpaper yes it would be great if darkspace north America would run something similar as I know for a fact that there are a lot of people that would create really good maps. Why they dont run these sorts of things I have no idea.

ImoRtHeX · January 2007

Can you unban the Countries that have ban ? "It will bring you more money and more ppl " Thx

Drafell · January 2007

Only one country has been banned, and that is Romania. It was a hard decision for the Administration to make, but due to the serious amount of Credit Card fraud that was costing the game a lot of money, we decided a permanent ban would be necessary.

There is very little chance of this ban being removed. We are aware that not everyone in Romania is going to attempt to defraud the game, but unfortunately the cost of dealing with it is too high.

Sorry if this affects anyones ability to enjoy the game.

ImoRtHeX · February 2007

Your decision whas correct, but cant u ban onnly the one`s who did it and not and entier country ? I`m shamed with that, I cant stand my country beeing baned from DarkSpace becouse of some crackheads.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ANY WAY PPL PLAY THIS GAME ITS THE BEST YOU CAN FIND , TRUST ME I`M BEEN PLAYING GAMES FOR LIKE 8 YEARS, AND THIS IS THE BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Drafell · February 2007

I am unable to go into the exact reasons why, but unfortunately only banning single users proved ineffective. Banning the entire country was the only option we had left.

Although we realize there are legitimate users wanting to log in from that country, dropping the ban is not a risk we can afford to take.

holycannoli · February 2007

I played this game years ago. Started in 2001. It's highly addictive. I'm sorry to hear the community as of late is less-than-stellar but back when I played it was one of the best if not the best online gaming communities around.

The only problem this game has is that it's almost all PvP and that won't appeal to everyone. The lag that everyone was experiencing was due to malicious attacks (disgruntled Romanians? I'm just throwing it out there).

I think when the next patch is released or at least beta tested I will return and see how things have progressed. This game is very addictive and a lot of fun if you're competitive and can work as part of a team when needed. I've been known to exploit the tendencies PvP players have in order to conquer systems (like everyone jumping one of my team's bombers who just jumped in to annihilate a planet of theirs, only to realize he was a decoy and that my target was the planet they all just jumped away from They lost their shipyard that way the fools! And after a while the whole system)

This game can be a blast!

mrxinstall · February 2007

From what I have seen in the last however long this game is as good as dead, all it really needs is to be laid out.

I think you are right this game was a good game a few years back but now however it's race has been run and I truly don't believe it will ever make a come back to a point where it will ever have any more and a hand full of players online at the one time.

ImoRtHeX · June 2007

Don`t u think that in 6 years the security in my country got modified ?, got better, who do u think that will risk 2 fraud when u will get 7 years in prisson if u are cought with 1 pirated dvd (and almoust 9 if u atempt 2 cc fraud) . But what can I say u guys hate my country so much that u dont what us 2 play, in the past 3 years I try 2 make u guys understand that we just whana play your game like the rest ... I cold of easaly change my ip and play .. buy how wold I pay 4 my account if u don`t accept money from my country. And let me remined u that I lost some money 2 back then, becouse of your ban, and I still whana 2 play.

EvilScribble · August 2007

In short, the DarkSpace development team is probably almost going out of business and can't risk having some frauders logging in their servers to play their game. There are several ways to prevent fraud such as accpeting only payment methods that reduce such activity including Paypal and other merchant services. Banning a whole country isn't getting you anywhere, the game is already 5 years old anyway.

The game is PvP based, and you basically find yourself constructing buildings on your faction's planets, defending it and bombing other planet's defenses when you can and capturing as many planets when possible. You can also equip your ships with better armaments as your prestige increases. You gain prestige from doing the activities I've listed above. There are lots of ships you can choose from including Construction ships that build defenses and other infrastructure to Frigates and Destroyers that search and destroy.

I personally wouldn't pay $9.99/mo for this game, but that's just me. A F2P - Item Mall model would suit it real nicely tho.

Drafell · August 2007

The continuing level of fraud coming from this one country could well have caused Palestar to go out of business had we not reacted to prevent it in future. It wasn't just one payment method which was affected either, there were multiple methods which were being used to defraud the company, despite our use of industry standard practices and measures to prevent it.

Fraud is a major issue for small companies in particular, as one incident can equate to a much more significant proportion of revenue than it would for a larger company. Larger companies are able to take the hit from fraud to some degree, and it is indeed factored into their accounts as an expected factor of their business, but for smaller companies this is not so easy. In our case, we are not talking one or two incidents, we are talking about double/triple figures on an active subscriber base of a few thousand, all from one country. It was costing us more to deal with than the revenue accrued from that country, and so the decision was taken, and not lightly, to ban that country from using the services provide, due to the abuse of a minority.

The policy is reviewed constantly, but it is unlikely we will revoke the ban in the near future.

It is a regretful decision, but we feel it is a necessary one, and we apologize for those who will not be able to use or take advantage of our services because of it.

Violert · September 2007

You're going to make a lot less money though, because I bet a lot of people from Romania were paying, too.

Drafell · September 2007

It's a simple revenue issue. The cost of dealing with the fraud was far in excess of any foreseeable revenue from that country. We have been burned once, only a fool puts his hands into the fire a second time.

Vladan · October 2007

Banning a whole country is completely unnecessary. Many (big) online companies (such as Netfirms for example) have put a system to prevent credit card frauds by requiring you to make a visual confirmation of card possesion by sending a scan or photo of the card after each purchase request. Also, country ban can only be done by IP, which is extremely easy to circumvent, especially for those with a little higher degree of computer proficiency (in which category most of the frauders fall in).

So, basically, what you have accomplished is only negative, and you gain nothing from it, only loose honest customers.

Nightdragon8 · February 2008

only a few people really play this game anymore. I liked the community. But pretty much as soon as EvE came out, and a patch that really changed the way the game was played (in many people's opinion in a bad way.) They pretty much jumped ship.

And the "devolopers" you are talking about is 1 person, who is the only coder. To be honest he does listen to the people its just alot of things happened in his personal life so he couldn't devot as much attention to the game. Great guy and wish him the best.

But yea this game is pretty much on the dead side.

Drafell · February 2008

One developer?

Lets see...

We currently have:

Richard "Faustus" Lyle - Lead Programmer / Owner
Drafell - Content Manager / Community Administrator
Shigernafy - Web Developer / Content Developer / Community Administrator
BackSlash - Content Developer / Portal Developer
Smartin - Content Developer / Community Moderator
Nat - Content Developer / Sound Engineer / Community Moderator

Richard does almost all of the coding for the core game engine (Medusa) and the hosting platform (GameCQ), as well as being the owner of the game itself and the relevant IP.

My role is kind of difficult to describe. I am not really a programmer, although I have a good enough understanding of C++ to work with the source code. I seem to be overseeing most of the content changes, which includes designing and implementing updated ship layouts, weapon damage values, and pretty much re-balancing the entire game system from the ground up. In addition I am also working on improving some of the in-game effects (both visual and audio).

Shigernafy takes care of a lot of the website development, as well as assisting with content development and balance changes.

BackSlash is assisting with developing the new layout designs and improving the GameCQ content management system (the game Lobby and update manager).

Smartin is helping with implementing the balance changes.

Nat is assisting with implementing the balance changes, as well as creating and updating the audio effects.

Everyone mentioned above also does a lot more that isn't listed, and I cannot avoid mentioning those in the player base who have been invaluable in helping to provide testing and feedback, and even providing us with some source material for inclusion within DarkSpace.

We try hard to actively include the community in the development process.

Almost anyone that wants to get involved can.

voltron1 · July 2008

Wow, DS is still alive?! I got to say, when i saw ds on the game list with a even semi-active forum I was stoked. Unfortunatly, after reading some of post in the forums I realize not much has changed since I got fed up and quit.

First, Draf is nice enough, heck all the mods/admins in ds are (excepting backslash who who is the most arrogant man I've ever met) but you can't really trust most of what draf says. Draf has a tendency to give news on the slant. Like what was said about have several devs. While true they may all be "devs" no of them are really working on ds. Also, that bit about wanting input from the commuinty and letting them have a say.....yea your free to post in the forum any idea you have, but it's gonna get ignored either because no ones doing anything, one of the other factions says no, backy doesn't like it, etc.etc. Besides, the only thing the community ever really wanted was a patch..a hot fix...an update...anything at all... I mean most of us would have been satisfied with a semi-vague time table of when we could expect something. What we got instead was more than a year of "the patch will come out in two weeks tm". (bleh i can't remember how to make the trade mark symbol)

Second, Ds has crap loads of problems. Tons of lag,de-syncs, disconects, uber noob ships(you get real frustrated when your battleship lands a full salvo on a scout ship and does no damage), exploit ship set ups, broken ranking system(it's more than possible to move from ensign to admiral in 4 days), broken money system(when your ship is destroyed you get a full refund of your credits, so whats the point of having them?), faction hopping, low player base(often times you will find yourself alone in the mv), many flamers in the forum, cursing, harassment, the list goes on for quite awhile. Now, draf may dispute some of these , but i was there and I believe i spent more time in game than he did.

Third, all the above makes it sound like i hated ds, I didn't but, this is a third party site so I was honest about the game and it's drawbacks. The truth be told, after playing a few other mmos(EVE included) DS still blows them all away. It is a truely awesome game once you get in to it, and now that I know it's still active I'm gonna re-join. Hopefully, draf won't hold this against me when I ask for my rank back.

Drafell · July 2008

I hate joo voltron! :-P

With regards to the [apparent lack of] development, I advise you to take a look at the [url=http://beta.darkspace.net/index.htm?lang=en&sid=&module=files.php]Beta client[url].

There is only one member of the Development team who hasn't contributed something within the last month, although that's due to issues not related to DarkSpace itself.

There have been a large number of changes and improvements, and we are really close to being able to roll out version 1.500. In the last month there have been in excess of 149 individual bug fixes and balance tweaks, and 36 new builds for players to test.

Version 1.500 is already a vast improvement over the release version of the game, however we are not yet satisfied. There are a few critical issues that still need to be addressed, although we cannot give an eta on how long this will take. It is entirely possible that the new version could be rolled out within a week. But then again, another issue may crop up that we have to resolve, and that could delay us for another couple of weeks or so.

If we could give an accurate TTL for 1.500 we would.

Drafell · July 2008

Oh yes, another member of the development team:

Doran - Community Administrator / Content Developer

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