Ironmace, the developer of Dark and Darker, released the first update for the first alpha test of the game, which includes many fixes and adjustments to the content.
The game, which was removed from Steam due to a legal dispute with Korean publisher Nexon, is currently being tested by its community with downloads provided via torrent. To download the update, you have to find the link on Twitlonger.
Nexon certainly seems to be fighting this distribution method, as the tweet containing the original alpha was removed due to a “copyright holder report”. That being said, the torrent is still available. in discord (pinned to the general chat channel).
On Discord you can also find a description of what to expect from the patch and a set of update notes.
In our rush to show off the Ruins map, we moved a little too fast and pulled it out before it was fully ready. We realized that we need more time to achieve the standard you expect from us. For this reason, we’ve decided to try it out as its own standalone experimental location, much like the Goblin Caves. We need your help to test the map and give us feedback so we can better incorporate it into the game in the future.
Experimental Ruins will have a similar Survival of the Fittest rule set to Goblin Dungeons, except for parties instead of just solo adventurers. We have removed the stairs to go down and only escape portals will appear for the strongest or most devious adventurers to survive. Due to the increased intensity of the new Ruins map, we have adjusted the balance so that the loot dropped from this map is now better than the first floor of the normal difficulty Howling Crypt dungeon. Loot from the Normal Inferno dungeon will still be better than loot from the Ruins.
Since Ruins will become a standalone location, the normal dungeon mode will revert to the original Crypt format until Inferno that was encountered in our previous playtests. We may have gone a bit overboard with the new lighting schemes as well, as we were excited to make each of the new setups have a different feel. We’ll continue to experiment with the lighting and visuals in the future, but for now we’ll stick back to a more classic fantasy look as they better suit the tone of our current monsters.
We’ve also added the return of Valentine to give testers an easier way to test some of the higher graded items due to the greatly reduced drop rate for this playtest. We also fixed some annoying bugs and improved the balance a bit. We apologize for the lack of polish on this playtest compared to previous ones and promise to use this as a teachable moment. We will continue to work on bug fixes and balance improvements for the duration of this test. Thank you once again for all your support.
- ‘The Ruins’ has been changed to a single layer dungeon.
- The ‘Normal’ and ‘High-Roller’ dungeons in ‘The Ruins of Forgotten Castle’ are renamed ‘The Howling Crypts’ and revert to their previous appearance.
- Fixed an issue where players could get stuck in infinite matchmaking when a server list was not selected.
- Fixed an issue where Bard’s Tranquility would not properly heal players.
- Fixed an issue where arrows and bolts could not be sold in the shop.
- Fixed an issue where Jokester, Holy Aura, Slayer could unintentionally stack.
- Fixed an issue that could cause the flashlight to stay on while worn on the waist.
- The blue light has been changed to yellow light. – Removed fog from dungeons.
- Resting now only restores health that can be recovered by resting.
- Achilles Strike duration changed from 2 seconds to 3 seconds, movement speed reduction changed from -40% to -10%.
- Shield Slam movement speed reduction changed from -10% to -20%.
- Hunting traps now have a longer duration and skill checks trigger more frequently.
- Japanese can be used again.
Alpha testing will continue until April 19.
Ironmace has recently shared a large number of documents on the development of dark and darker to bolster their case against Nexon, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the future. In the meantime, fans can at least enjoy the alpha test.