In a somewhat unexpected move Darkfall spokesperson Tasos has announced they will be introducing the ability to train certain character skills while offline. Is Darkfall trying to emulate EvE's success with this system?

"The unnamed feature mentioned in the last activity report has to do with offline skilling. A lot of thought has gone into making this feature meaningful, useful, and balanced. The purpose of offline skilling is curbing macroing, giving newer players a better chance to close the gap, and to cut down on some of the tedious repetitive tasks that exist in the game."

Tasos goes on to emphasize how careful they want to be with the introduction of this system:

"We're hoping to launch it as soon as our next patch in a couple of weeks so there's been a lot of activity around this feature, developer cooperation, feedback from everyone concerned, statistical analysis and all kinds of number crunching. Of course, the most important feedback will come from you, our players, and we're sure there's a lot more to be learned from your experience using this feature. We'll also try to share more information with the community and get some feedback before we launch it."

The fallout in the community was immediately felt and Talos quickly added a clarification:

"A small clarification: We're not looking to upset the game's balance by adding a convenience feature and this is why I mentioned there's a lot of thought and balancing going into this. So on offline skilling, we'll start with a small amount of skills and gradually expand it, and obviously many skills won't be included."

We're curious to see how this will impact Darkfall Gold in the long run.