All Posts by surfing.stef

 As promised, here is the latest podcast, an exclusive interview with Sam Redfern, game designer and lead developper of the game. 

Here it is

 Here are the links for currently available podcasts.

Episode one

Episode two

Episode three

An interview with Sam Redfern, designer and lead developper of the game is planned soon. 

Quoting Sam Redfern, lead developper and designer of the game:

It's nearly 6 months since the last official update, and the most significant feature you might be interested to know about is the introduction of pedestrians. 



The introduction of characters-on-foot allows players to get out and run away from a broken car before it explodes, engage in carjacking fun, and also to turn over a 'turtled' car. I spent some time working on pedestrian-specific features, for example they can crouch down behind cover and the game automatically figures out an angle from which they can fire rather than blasting away into their cover.

I have also spent significant time improving the Artificial Intelligence of NPC cars and pedestrians. They now have much improved pathfinding, as well as tactics - getting their peds to seek out and fight from behind cover, getting their cars to move themselves to their optimum range for their weapons, getting them to avoid becoming isolated in a combat.

If you're interested in reading up on some of the in-game happenings from a roleplaying perspective, our player-run bi-weekly (in game = bi-monthly) Darkwind Gazette is a good place to start: Darkwind Gazette

The 2046 season has just started, and runs for the next 12 weeks. So now is a great time to try out the game again, and try your chances in our 13 different leagues and ladders, all of which are free to play in. This season sees the introduction of pedestrian combat leagues, including a paintball one. Leagues

A warm thank you to the community as well for providing brand new vehicle texttures, this was needed and it has become a reality.

You guys rule. 

Yes, that's right, pedestrians (characters on foot) have been added live a few days ago.

Users submitted screenshots

Lead developper and game designer Sam Redfern spent an extra 12 hours shift to squash all those nasty little problems that appeared on the public release, Sunday, March 30th.

Unlike other online games, in Darkwind: War On Wheels (and legs ), new concept and ideas are permantly discussed and polished with the community. It brings a very unique touch to the gameplay.

So far, and until we are sure no other bugs from the integration of pedestrians code has happened, they are only available in town events.

Next big step will be wilderness integration, and this will lead to new features such as mutant beasts.

What are you waiting for?

Sam Redfern, game designer and lead developper for the game, recently announced code development had started for characters on foot.

This is a long awaited side of the game, many of the players have been waiting for.

Despite the fact it will certainly need a couple of months to reach the final milestone on that point, comments and expectations are discussed within game forums.

Here is a preview screenshot, from an internal test:

Game's forum topic with the announcement.

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At the same time, hostile bugs were presented . They are  a common threat to the characters exploring ruined city of the wilderness, to gather some necessary resources.

Game's forum topic with the announcement.

Mike480: yes, the game is free to play for regular events (races, deathraces, arena combats), you can also participate in socuting with a borrowed vehicle (see Roundup 2044 thread).

For such things but the latest, you don't need to own a car, hence you can't until you subscribe.

The free part is a lot of fun already.

Quoted from Sam's latest email:

It's January 2044 in Darkwind, or 24 years post-apocalypse. But the signs aren?t good.. recently the Daytime Aurora started to appear again over the Northern Desert. The last time this happened was in the years leading up to 2019 when the sun wreaked havoc on the world.





The developers have been very busy in the past 12 weeks, and below there is a list highlighting the key new features that you might be interested in.

News and New Features Added in the Past 12 Weeks
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Our 5th town (Firelight) has been added. This is a uniquely pirate town, with some special rules which make it more attractive to ?evil? players ? for example they become local heroes by killing bountyhunters, allowing them to get the first choice on rare hardware in the mechanic shop.





Player-owned camps have been added, allowing hardware production, resource extraction and farming. This allows us to continue the gradual shift towards a dynamic player-driven economy, and the emergence of new sources of gameplay and income are showing ? for example, we have our first occurrence of one gang?s mechanic characters being paid a wage to work in another gang?s camp; we also see an upsurge in the need for resources such as Car Parts and Fuel, and the need for players to make cross-continental trade runs to supply these to the camps. We are currently discussing the mechanism for attacks on other players camps, but it is certain that this will raise the ante on pvp play hugely. Camp attacks are likely to involve multiple skirmishes over a number of days as well as sieges and resource blockades. The recently added NPC contract attacks have already added some spice to pvp politics.

A lucrative new type of mission has been added: the trader escort. Your gang may be hired to accompany and defend a trader squad between two towns.

Our gritty post-apocalyptic roleplay has been boosted with the introduction of drugs. Your characters may become users or addicts of various substances, from mundane things such as alcohol and steroids, to the psionic-inducing 46-Ys and the psychotic combat drug Zerk. Each of the drugs has short-term effects on your character?s in-game abilities while under-the-influence, as well as longer-term effects on their skills, abilities and training.

We ran an event over Halloween where special spooky decals were to be found on wilderness-looted vehicles. These won?t be available again for a long time, so those that were gained by players have become collector?s items. The decal system has also allowed custom badges and racing insignia to be dynamically added to cars in-game.

Significant improvements have been made to the driving AI, especially in the wilderness.

The detail and variation in weapons has been further enhanced in several ways, for example  with ?internal spread? and ?damage versus soft/hard targets? factors, and with variable reload speeds (see http://www.dark-wind.com/weaponTypes.htmlhttp://www.dark-wind.com/chassisTypes.php)

The community has continued to grow, with the Darkwind Gazette taking on some great new editors. Other players are making Darkwind Podcasts (http://www.dark-wind.com/podcasts.html )and running the Darkwind Wiki (http://www.graymattercomputing.com/darkwindwiki/doku.php).


2043 League Honours
-------------------

Once again Advanced Race Labs have been the most successful autoduellers, scooping two of the three major leagues (race and deathrace) as well as the deathrace ladder, the Northern Summer League and the two minor leagues running in Elmsfield and Gateway Truckstop. The other major league (combat) was won by Fish Heads, regaining this title for the 3rd time in 4 years. The race ladder and combat ladder were taken by Forsaken and The Reeking Pukes, while the inaugural season of the Northern Semi-Pro Combat league was won by Xander of Advanced Research Labs. Here?s hoping for a competitive and bloodthirsty 2044 season ;-)

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Thanks for reading, hoping to see you on the track..

Sam,

Lead developper and game designer

And to conclude this, non-subscribers are now permanently allowed to borrow a car for scouting for a very small (in game) fee.

New URL for podcat: www.dark-wind.com/podcasts.html

Another one is soon to be released, by players, for players.

A community podcast (37 mins) is available here:

Darkwind podcast

We are renewing the Halloween scouting fest until January 2nd.

Until then, non subscribers can borrow a vehicle for a small (in game money) fee, and participate in a very exciting part of the game.
With their brand new armed combat car, they will be allowed to join or to venture alone in scouting events, around the relatively safe area of Somerset, one of the Northern towns of Evan.

Beware though, scouting is not a dog walk, pirates and mutants are looking for your skulls to celebrate the end of the year!


Sam and Stephan
Core Developpers

Roads blocked by broken mountains and shattered earth. Hidden by radioactive mist and clad in poisonous gas that seem to seep and rise from the very ground itself. Resting on a small island in a sea of lava. Or, perhaps, locked away for eternity in the calm eye of the wildest darkwind storm that has ever ravaged Evan.

You`ve heard the rumours. And you are not alone. The Darkwind Gazette has heard them too. Buth not until recently, did we believe for a second that there might be truth hidden away beneath the layers of lies, hearsay, tall tales and lava.

But after a new wave of reports of a place high up in the mountains, a town hidden away where no town should be, a haven for bandits, pirates, mutants and deviants, began to trickle back to the civilization of northern Evan, we decided it was time to stop leaving well enough alone. Just like any proud wastelands warrior would never leave a member of the Rudeboys to swagger back to his bandit camp alive, the Darkwind Gazette would not let those few wisps of information escape our grasp and flee back the way they came.

So, in a bold move unprecendented in the journalistic history of Evan [and possibly in the history of mankind], the Darkwind Gazette selected two of its finest cars, two of its equally fine drivers and reporters, hired members of the Forsaken, the most trusthworthy protection avaliable on this side of Sarsfield, and left known lands to set out on a journey with a single pursuit in mind:

To bring to you, our rabid readers, the first report in history of what transpires along the

<b>The Road to Firelight</b>

We left Badlands Truckstop a murky, dusk-clad afternoon. The convoys of traders and small bands of roaming bandits that usually inhabit and infest every turn of the road in the near vicinity of Badlands Truckstop were conspiciously absent, and the eerie silence that had settled across the land pressed in on our vehicles, and filled our hearts and minds with  a fear-laden sensation of ominous foreboding.

That foreboding sooned turned to embarassed realisation as the first members of the Badlands Rudeboys came thundering out of the hills, just a few miles south of Badlands Truckstop. It`s entirely possible their interest in us can be ascribed to a healthy interest in things normal for any badlands bandit - the Forsaken tanker pickup riding in front, brimming with the black gold of the wastelands, the possibility of Gazette profits hidden away in our trunks, or simple the sheen of our brand new, and very desireable, Gazette vehicles.

Yes, it is entirely possible, and under most circumstances, it would have been probable. But none of us could disregard the looks shot our way when we walked into the Grainne Uaile and asked for a car brave enough to take us far to the south. So while it is possible the Badland Rudeboys came for us for the same reasons they attack just about anyone who attracts their attention [being alive is usually a good way to achieve this effect], it is just as likely one of those sideways looks from the Grainne Uaile travelled a long way, beyond the gates of Badlands Truckstop, and found itself accompanied by a sizeable sum of money, when someone payed hard cash to make sure that the prying eyes of the Darkwind Gazette would never reach the one place where criminals and misfits are still free to ply their awful trade - Firelight.

So, we did what any reporter faced with overwhelming odds in unfriendly territory would have done: pointed our cameras out the back window, waited for the enemy to get close enough for some good close-up shots, and ran like radioactive strains on the wind!

Of the unbearable days and desolate nights out in the wilds I need not speak to any of our readers who have ever been lost in the wastelands. Suffice to say that we travelled for days, through terrain more inhospitable than the most dangerous roads between Badlands and Morgan, on the run from an enemy as persistent as ever-present, under a sun determined to finish what the Solar Apocalypse once started, and with a constantly thinning supply of water and food. Not to mention photo reels. To this day, I believe that had it not been for the burning need to know that fuels any true journalist, the respect and neutral standing that the Gazette officials carry in the wastelands, and the selfless and ardent protection offered by the brave scouts, drivers and gunmen of the Forsaken, the Darkwind Gazette would never have been able to reveal to you what it is about to reveal.

Yes, of those unbearable days and desolate nights I need not tell you any more.

But I will show you, in high-resolution pictures, with descriptive captions:



This snaking road, christened the Serpentine Pass by early explorers, offered just as much protection from enemy fire as it was hazardous. I could not say if the blessing was greater than the curse.

The enemy that so doggedly kept on our heels seemed to always grow in number, in spite of the the countless of cars and lives contained within The Forsaken mercenaries bravely disposed of.






And then, just as the sun broke from the darkened clouds, we finally emerged onto flat ground.

And this is the sight that met our eyes...



Among broken buildings far too old to have been erected at any point during the last hundreds of years, we fought a final, bitter battle. When it was over, ten enemy vehicles littered the plateau we had emerged upon, in various states of disintegration. The four last remaining cars of our once proud convoy turned yet another bend.



And as cars of which like we had never seen emerged from the mists behind us, painted in dancing colors of black and smoke, their shapes as quick and shifting as the darkwinds themselves, the road beneath our wheels became straighet, and smoother. In what now seems like a fleeting and distant dream, we fled along that road, thundering past one broken building after the other, the wolves at our heels coming constantly closer, our goal just as distant and fleeting as the myths that surrounds it. The brave warriors of The Forsaken was between us and them, the night grew thick and solid, and time churned and slowed, until we could no longer remember a time when we had not raced along that distant and desolate higway, pursued by cars the color night and bone, lost in a rolling mass of bodies and souls, a stygian ocean of sliding dead, one being at one moment, a collection of dreams and memories the next.

And then, time returned.

They came in all around us. And they died all around us.



But two Forsaken cars, even piloted as they were by the finest warriors we have ever fought with, could not stand against the tidal wave of vehicular darkness that crashed down upon us. And as I felt the impact of the first two machine gun rounds striking the rear of my Gazette Sunrise, as I cursed myself, my burning need to know and my folly in ever believing in something so foolish as the myths of Firelight, the mist parted, and something rose from the darkness like the radiactive rays of the unforgiving sun burns away the night over the wastelands when morning comes.

It was a city.

Glenda Dickinson of the Edgerunners and Cheryl Thompson, still flanked by the proud and stalwart protectors of The Forsaken, finally reached the gates of Firelight. Inside its walls, they found shelter from the hordes of the Badlands Rudeboys and the far more mysterious and fearsome enemy they encountered on the final road to Firelight, but instead faced dangers far more subtle, and insidious, than any car canon-equipped mutant buzzer...

Our Firelight Feature continues in the next edition of the Gazette, in Firelight Feature pt. 2: Firelight, Firefight and Fireflight
- The Darkwind Gazette</i>

[If any of our readers desire the services of The Forsaken, you are welcome to visit the office of the Darkwind Gazette in either Somerset or Elmsfield, and we will put you in touch with the right people. Better yet, ask around for a man named Gubby, and you might just find yourself lucky enough to be riding side by side with some of the finest guardians the Darkwind Gazette has ever entrusted its people to.]

<i>Text, concept and screenshots by Ayjona</i>, in game graphics.

Get ready!

Only a few days left for training.

PsychicSoftware and Darkwind: War On Wheels developpers are delighted to announce free gameplay on scouting events for Halloween.

As we want all players accross the world to be able to experience this normally  [i]subscribers only feature[/i], this part of the game will be free for non-subscribers from October 31st, 12:00 pm to November 1st, 12:00 pm GMT. A complete turn around the clock.

We will provide free vehicles for all, as you may remember, non-subscribers are not allowed to own vehicles and customize them. You will have to bring your own gang members though.
This is a unique opportunity to test this part of the game, that is not otherwise available, and to meet our special squad of Halloween vehicles!

What are you waiting for? if you are not yet a player, register now for free, train... train... and train again yourself to be ready.
Once done, head on to Dexter's to hire a few more characters.

We are looking to meet you outside the town on Halloween!

Sam and Stephan
Core Developpers

Happy new year! It?s January 2043 in Darkwind, and a new set of leagues are just starting. This is a good time to get in on the game if you have hopes of league glory...

The developers have been very busy in the past 12 weeks, and below there is a list highlighting the key new features that you might be interested in.

But first, a quick mention of the league honours from 2042. Advanced Research Labs gained an unprecedented clean sweep of the three major leagues - Somerset`s Race, Deathrace and Arena Combat Leagues. Kudos to Alocalypse! Xander of Advanced Race Labs took two of the Evan Ladder victories (Race and Deathrace), while Fish Heads won the Combat Ladder. Fish Heads also took first place in the minor Summer League, while the two minor Autumn Leagues were won by the Toecutters (Elmsfield League) - and Advanced Race Labs (Gateway League). This season we?re adding a new Semi-Pro arena combat league which runs from February to July, 2043.


News and New Features Added in the Past 12 Weeks
------------------------------------------------

New Age Gamer magazine published a 4-page interview with me about Darkwind in last month?s issue (NewAgeGaming-Darkwind.pdf)

The Darkwind Gazette is a new bi-weekly player-written newspaper covering all sorts of in-game topics and news. Here?s the first two issues: November 2042 and December 2042

Lots of new types of vehicles have been added ? we?re now up to 47 - see chassis Types.

Numerous new weapons and addons such as nitro boosters and rocket boosters have been added ? we?re now up to 51. The new ballistic weapons such as mortars have added tactical variability to combats since they can fire over obstacles.

Improvements have been made to the driving physics, including slipstreaming/drafting and handbrakes.

Custom events have been added, so players can create their own race/deathrace/combat events and define their entry fees and prizes. ?Pink slip? challenges are also possible, allowing the winner to take the loser?s car.

A number of additional wilderness maps and a number of new racetracks in Elmsfield and Gateway have been added - this is Gateway?s Trench, for example:

NPC Contract Attacks and Bounty Hunters have been added, spicing up the PvP intrigue and increasing trader-versus-pirate tensions.

Specialist skills have been made available to high-skilled characters ? see specialisms.

Many environment objects (buildings, trees, etc.) are now destroyable ? this is a precursor to the addition of player-owned camps, which is a feature currently under development.

Integrated Browser ? currently in prototype, we?re streamlining the gameplay process by embedding a web-browser within the game client, so you don?t need to switch applications when you want to do some gang management or set travel orders, etc.


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Thanks for reading, hoping to see you on the track..
Sam and viKKing

We are offering a special bonus to subscriptions purchased between now and September 10th, 2007. (i.e. for one week).

You'll see the details on the Subscriptions page.
Basically, we're giving an extra 2 weeks subscription time for each 3 months purchased. 

Here is a brief summary of the latest updates:

1) Added characters specialization above skill 50.
It improves characters uniqueness.

2) More than a dozen of new vehicles.
Including an ambulance and a firetruck that are really nasty beasts to fight with.

3) Revamped some parts of the website.
We still need more work on that part.

4) Tweaked weapons and NPCs.
They will certainly be tweaked again. Weapons now have different reloading time.

5) PvP free zone for new comers.
Venture in the wild without too much troubles, PvP balancing is in the work too.

6) New week-end league.
A short one for casual gamers. Firt one is this week-end! Come on!

7) Passengers transport.
Taxi missions and squad transport a reality now.

8) Vacation mode for players leaving the game up to 3 weeks.
Yep, up to 3 weeks without having to ay the food for your gang mates.

9) Destructible environment.
Now, you won't break those concrete barriers with that small car dude! But take care of that sign in the U-turn.

10) more... I certainly omitted a few things, sorry. But join us instead of reading! With one update every week, I'm losing track sometimes; and from a racing point of view that's a bad thing.

What to come next and not too late:

Players owned camps, vehicles (again? when are we going to stop?), Fog Of War (you can't see me if I'm out of sight), race betting, some sebsite changes... and some of players expectations and requests.

Originally posted by maltais

This game is kinda pathetic...I mean its kinda nice for a the first hour or so but then  it drags...I was surprised when i came on here and the Admin posted about his game and hyped it..Never seen other people do that, normally just people waiting for it to open...But then you come on and complain about people givin your game bad reviews...And you acctually said u have fun playing it ..Would hope so since u made the crappy thing...Come on and put me down for giving your game a bad review..Look at its rating up top..Rather play WoW and pay some money and have fun then waste my time or disk space on this crap..Couldnt even make decent cars