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Dark Age Of Camelot: Alternate Rules Server
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
The Camelot Herald has a post from Producer Jeff Hickman regarding the details of a brand new server type being opened for Dark Age of Camelot subscribers. For many, the low-point of the game to date has been Trials of Atlantis. Thus, the new server, among other details, will be free of most of what the expansion added.
| We are very pleased to announce our plan for the next server type for Dark Age of Camelot. We've made this decision based on your feedback from our polls and Herald feedback forms thank you all for your passionate and detailed feedback on these issues.
The new server type will be called Alternative Rules and has two main features: no access to Trials of Atlantis and ranged buffs. Here are the details: Trials of Atlantis: ToA zones will not be available, nor will Artifacts or Master Levels. You will be able to play ToA races, however. Ranged Buffs: All concentration buffs will have a range limit of 5000 units, and will be available only to the buffer and his groupmates. Anyone outside of the group cannot receive concentration buffs. /level 20: This feature will not be available on this server type. Our schedule is to launch two of these servers on or around July 14. We will pre launch the servers two days early for anyone who has an active account as of July 1st it will give those players who already have active accounts a 2-day sneak preview of this new server type. Thank you all for your feedback we have received on these issues, and we hope that this server type will provide an interesting alternative ruleset to Dark Age of Camelot. The work doesn't end here, however please keep the feedback coming. |
An interesting move...
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
DAOC may yet be worth playing again.
The only question.. the new DAOC servers, or Roma Victor?
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Looking forward (cautiously) to: Age of Conan, Dark Solstice, Armada Online.
Will soon try: Guild Wars
Overall: Amazed and bewhildered at the current sad state of the artform of gaming.
Sound be interesting. It really did seem that Trials of Atlantis really screwed up the game for a lot of people due to how long the trials took and how it unblanced Realm vs. Realm. Well it was already unbalanced at times anyway. I might come back for this. Now if they only allow you to play on this server without having the ToA expansion but allowing you to install Catacombs though.
Is there anyway to find that out? If you can play with just the original game, Shroud Isles, and Catacombs since ToA isn't on this new server?
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
I being the hardcore DAoC fan that I am, think the new servers are goin to be great because I for one dislike TOA. Very annoying leveling a second char. and having to get artifacts all over again, the scrolls, then level them, and then you have master levels..*snore*
Also the buff bot issue will even things out for all players very hard now adays to play due to the fact that everyone has a buff bot
Very interesting rules indeed!
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Wonder if it is going to be a PVP server or just a normal RVR server...
I'm looking forward to this also. I just recently reactivated my account after a six month layoff and reading about these non-TOA servers couldn't have come at a better time... I'm hoping that this will level the playing field for the casual gamer who just doesn't have the time to commit to all the TOA stuff. Cheers to Mythic for listening to its customers! I'd also be interested to see if you could run Catacombs sans TOA...
Feanor.
"It's not that there are too many fools. Its just that God does not distribute lightning properly." Mark Twain
Basicly the problem with the Trials of Atlantis expansion is that it introduce further levels for skills. Think of it like Everquest's AA system. The thing is that the Trials were so hard and time consuming that it made it difficult for a lot of people to even complete let alone attempt them. Since they required a lot of peopel at times I think. So those that were able to put in the time(which was a LOT) got the benefit. Normally this wouldn't be a problme but Dark Age of Camelot at it's core is all about Realm vs. Realm combat when you get to the higher levels. PvP but on a larger scale.
On each server there are three realms. All fight each other to control the relics of the other factions. They do this by raiding relic keeps guarded by high level NPC guards. Players attack them or defend them. Not to mention taking other keeps along the way. This takes place in each Realms frontier areas, where you can raid the other frontiers of the other realms. Each relic grants special bonuses to the realm that controls them. Also the more keeps a certain realm controls they gain access to a special dungeon called Darkness Falls (which can be hunted in by anyone over 15(you have to stay near the enterances) I believe. You hunt in them to collect special coins that can be used to buy some nice equipment, weapons, or skills(not sure about that really)).
These Master levels that came in Trials of Atlantis, that make your characters even more powerful, really unbalances the actual Realm vs. Realm combat. With the original worlds in each realm and the Shroud Isle that each realm gained from that expansion pack, that didn't happen. I might be off but this is the reason a lot of people didn't care for TOA.
Realm vs. Realm is extremely fun when everyone is on a level playing field or is able to gain the same skill in a decent manner. When that changes it becoems unfair. No matter the server, one realm tends to suffer from the lack of people and that realm tends to suffer more when ti came to Master levels since the other side would have more people willing to get them.
It's almost the same way a good deal of people from my understanding didn't care for the Shadowlands expansion for Anarchy Online cause it unbalanced things to much in an unfair fashion.
The game is dying and they don't have a clue about how to save it. So instead of trying to save it, they just made a new server type in hopes of drawing enough people back long enough to make a few extra bucks until they get their new games up and running.
Mythic have always lead the way to try bold new moves, and to that I can only
Fine tuning your servers in such ways is definitely heading in the right direction(even if I show myself no interest in DAoC for now).
Eventually a company will make a 100% PvE non-raiding server, and they will gain a silly me and the staff here will say: ''At last, Ano is not using our bandwith anymore!''
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
heh.. the 2 things i could not stand about the game, buffbots and /lvl
might have to go back for a bit myself.
I am so glad that Mythic has removed TOA on the Alt rule server.
No ToA + no buffbots + no /level = mmorpg heaven
Can't wait!
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Introducing FUN, a new guild which will be residing on the upcoming new server!
http://daocfunguild.bravehost.com/index.html
At least the /level command should have been open to all and not just those that had a character over level 50. I know I played off and one since DAoC came out yet my highest character was 38 or 39 with several others below it on other servers. It sucked seeing that /level command used simply because I didn't take all that time out of my life just to get one character to 50. I had seriously though of buying an account for that purpose, and that's the first time I ever considered that.
I don't think they thought the whole /level command through enough. It solved the population problems in the realms to a degree but caused others. Especially sinc epeople used the command to play in the battlegrounds and you were screwed if you could no long enter them which happen when when you were level 35 - 50 caus eanything below 50 in Frontiers meant you were going to die anyway
Same I left DAOC around ToA release cause I couldn't stand that most people were MAX'd out and the /level command.
Definately re-subscribing before July 1st to play the new server early.
Uhhh, yeah! Making new servers is how they are going about it. I don't know if you actually play this game, but everytime I log on I hear people talking about the new server(s) and how excited they are about them.
And how would they "save it"? A lot of people like it the way it is too. At the end of the day, it's impossible to satisfy everyone, at least they are trying to satisfy most people.
I'm not going to debate on the "game is dying" comment, because the success of a game is really rather relative and based a lot on opinion, but personally, this game has a strong player base, large developer backing it up, and is still quite dynamic in the industry. I feel DAoC is a long ways off from dying.
BTW What are they going to name the new servers?
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...but time flows like a river...
...and history repeats...
-Leader of "The Fighting Irish" in DAoC on Hib/Kay-
I'm not surprised that people in game are exicted about the new servers. When I last played a lot of people didn't care for ToA and wished it had never come out. It was the same feeling when people talked about Shadowlands for Anarchy Online how they think it screwed up the game. ToA was one huge time sink that unbalanced the games main focus which was Realm vs. Realm, I don't think anyone can honestly say it wasn't and it didn't do that.
Shrouded Isles was great cause it added content for everyone, the high level content wasn't such a huge time sink when it came to exploring it. I think Catacombs was the same in how it was setup. ToA was kinda the blacksheep I think that just frustrated people.
ToA is what drove me from the game.
They took everything that sucked about EQ and put them all in one very poorly designed expansion.
A shame really, it was a good game. Who knows, I may try it again too. Doubtful though. They had their chance and really really blew it with ToA. That it's taken them this long to figure that out is just scary.
Well, I have yet to hear anyone excited about the new servers. Most are unhappy that it will just further drain the already declining RvR population. The cluster I am on is pulling about as many players a night as each server was when they clustered them. The game is on a downhill slide and it isn't stopping. These new servers will bleed the already strapped clusters and servers of players and if further clustering doesn't happen soon, it will only accelerate the decline in the population.
So, instead of fixing the problems with the game that is causing the population to decline (major time sinks in ToA for one), they just make a new rule set server to go for the quick cash grab they will get from those players who reactivate for a few months before realizing there were many reasons other than just ToA that caused them to quit. At one time they were committed to keeping DAoC going for years to come, but with the quickly declining population, and now the rights to the Warhammer MMORPG, they are just trying to squeeze as much money out of DAoC as possible before they have to pull the plug.
Firt of, Daoc still has the best PVP design in my opinion. I have tried many mmorpgs after I quit Daoc ( because of TOA) close to a year ago; and yet I haven't found one that could stand up to Daoc PVP standard. When TOA was released, It shifted the game focus from PVP to PVE. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't mind working hard in PVE to earn my new skills or nice gears. But make it into many short steps, so that players can get together and get it done in an hour or less on each step ( like the old epic set quest in daoc). How many of us can sit on our butts 12 hours everyday trying to get something done in a game?
For those who like to play with boring AI, try EQ or WOW, you will not disappoint. Daoc is meant for gamers who like a real challenge, playing against a real brain. The new servers will bring the PVP focus back to the game, I dont see how it would help in declining the game's population. The only problem that Mythic need to worry about now is how to get the words out to all the old daoc players who left because of TOA and the PVP lovers from other mmorpgs.
Opening new servers WILL hurt the population on old servers. There are many players who will quit before they start over, and if the population drops any more than it has, quitting is what they will do. Mythic has found a great way to bring in some short term cash, but they still haven't addressed the real problems on the majority of their servers that are causing the steadily declining population. Instead of taking the easy (and very SOE like) way out, they should just buckle down and fix the time sinks in ToA. I know of almost no one (maybe the PvE server folks) who would be upset if artifacts and MLs were made much, much easier. Making a new server doesn't fix the game, and if they don't fix the game, it will continue to decline. And no new server with a few returning players (most of which will quit again within a matter of months) will save the game.
I like DAoC. I don't want to see it fail. But seeing them ignoring the majority of paying players in order to hopefully bring back people who have already quit the game at least once doesn't fill me with much hope.
tim and pete