Dark Age of Camelot is getting a free-to-play mode called 'Endless Conquest'

Solicfire

The fantasy MMO Dark Age of Camelot has been around since 2001, even through the demise of original developer Mythic Entertainment in 2014. Last week, producer John Thornill of Broadsword Online Games, which took over the game prior to Mythic's closure, announced big plans for 2018, which will include the rollout of a new free-to-play option called Endless Conquest. 

"The Endless Conquest will be a new account type that allows players to enjoy Dark Age of Camelot through level 50 (and beyond) for free, without a paid subscription, forever," Thornhill explained. "Endless Conquest players will be able to level all the way to 50 on a limited selection of classes, participate fully in RvR [Realm vs Realm], and earn Master Levels, Champion Levels, and Realm Rank—to a point." 

That "point," detailed in the FAQ, would be restrictions on character slots, classes, home ownership, tradeskills, XP and coin gain rates, and other aspects of the full game, some details of which are still being nailed down. But the core elements of DAoC, including access to all expansions up to and including Labyrinth of the Minotaur (which, for the record, came out in 2006) are all there. Plus it's free, which is always a positive. 

Endless Conquest is currently limited to new accounts, although the developers are giving thought to enabling owners of lapsed accounts to transfer over. 

The new mode also opens the door to an "alternative ruleset server," although that's still a long way down the road. "As things stand now, there are two major obstacles preventing the launch of one in the near term (as in this next year)," Thornhill wrote. "The first is that everyone seems to have a different view of what the perfect alternative server ruleset would include. We knew this going in, and feel confident we can deliver a ruleset that would be both highly engaging and appealing to a wide swath of former and new players alike."

"That being said—as we have previously stated, we would never create an alternative ruleset server unless we were confident in the Ywain server’s population and health. This is the second and much more challenging obstacle. The Endless Conquest is going to be a huge step in overcoming it." 

Dark Age of Camelot: Endless Conquest is currently expected to go live in the fall of 2018.

DARK AGE OF CAMELOT DISCORD SERVER: https://discord.gg/e2t9ZN

Mendel

I'd love to play DAoC again, but the items targeted as restrictions for F2P players are typically the types of things that appear in cash shops in other games.  Character slots, bank space, certain classes, housing options, and XP rate bonuses are pretty much standard stock in almost every store I've seen.  I think I'll take a wait-and-see approach to see where this is going, as much as I'd love to give this another try.  Chances are, though, the hype train will be boarding soon.

Viper482

No classic Emain server, no Daoc. 

Kyleran

Viper482 said:

No classic Emain server, no Daoc. 

There's already one of those currently in play, they need something a bit diifferent I think.

Kyleran

Mars_Orbital said:

needs graphical face lift more then anything else. 

Along with a reworked UI.

Solicfire

Viper482 said:

No classic Emain server, no Daoc. 

They are looking into bringing in a new server but it's based on the population. If the Ywain servers don't improve in population there isn't a point for them to bring out an alternative rule set server. I understand players want this now but in order for that to happen the Ywain servers needs to have a rapped population increase and it seems Broadsword solution is to make free accounts but have account restrictions. 

Not everything Broadsword has done is perfect but at the end of the day they've kept this game going. If it wasn't for them this game would of gone ages ago with Mythic. 

I would try the game out on a 14 day trial and see what you think of the new changes. 

Albatroes

https://www.mmorpg.com/dark-age-of-camelot/news/endless-conquest-limited-f2p-announced-alternative-ruleset-servers-1000046881

Thread made on the 28th, article published on this site on the 26th.

Solicfire

Mars_Orbital said:

needs graphical face lift more then anything else. 

They are always trying to improve the Graphics but since this is such an old game it's very hard to bring it up to today standards of online gaming. 

Berenthetired

Solicfire,  Merlin Server? 

Hariken

LOL this game is so old. I remember playing it when it came out with friends and we had a good time. But again its so old and some of the game play systems will not go over well with today's spoiled mmo players. And they are going to have f2p restrictions too. This is going to fail badly unless it comes with a huge modern over haul.

Solicfire

Berenthetired said:

Solicfire,  Merlin Server? 

Yes that's correct bud sorry don't come on here much hehe.