The OP said he's interested in PvP, so I'd ignore the suggestions to wait for DDO. Iirc that game will only included instanced coop play.
For PvP, Id say go DaoC if you like large scale battles. If you are a serious hardcore grindaholic jump on L2, and if you like balanced, team based PvP go for Guild Wars.
I am not sure what You have choosen but It looks like you are pushing in the way of DAOC. I have played DAOC ever sience it came out. I have also tried serval other MMORPGs and DAOC is the only one I hvae always came back to. I will try to give you a rundown of the game from a gamers perspective. I will also try to explain some things that are specific to the game. (I play Albion and that is it so if I make refrences to nothing but Albion I am sorry.)
PvE - There are currently 3 main PvE lands for characters to explore. The first land comes from the original game(no expansion packs required). This land has everything you need to get to lvl 1-50(50 is max level). It is also the hugest land in the game. It has alot of content with punly of mobs(enemy NPCs) to kill. Also it offers a good chance to group with other lower people who have just joined the game as well. The next land comes from the Expansion pack called Shrouded Ilse. This land offers Mob killing for all levels in the game but it is generaly used for higher level characters to level or farm. It is a bit smaller than the orignal land that comes with the original game. The thrid land is very new to the game and is called Catacombs. This is a great place to get to lvl 1-50 because it offers a new way to EXP instead of old fashioned grinding. They are called task dungeouns. All you have to do is talk to as "Task Master" some where in the zone and he will give a kill quest. Sometimes it will be to kill one mob or ten of a certain mob either way when you get it down and go back to him to turn in the quest you get a GREAT EXP bonus which really helps the EXP grind. There are also other land but I will explain them a little later.
PvP - If you like PvP then you will love this game. But lets start out with the basics. The most common thing in this game you can do is you can challenge another person to a duel. Where you and you fellow realmmate can duel for fun. When 1 person kills the other person the duel is over. Now lets ge into the feature that makes DAOC shine. It is called RvR(Realm vs Realm). There are three realms in the game and they are all enemy's. You can choose which realm you want to play when you enter a server. At lower levels you can participate in Battle grounds. This is a place where only certain level characters can fight. There are five battle grounds all geared to certain levels. The lowest battle ground is level 20-24 the next BG is 25-30 and so on all the way up to level 41-45. At higher levels you can participate in RvR where there is no level restriction but mostly levels 45-50 join in on this. This where you can take keeps(castles) from enemy realms. The RvR land is huge had has serval keeps to take from other realms. You can also take one keep in BG.
Raids/Endgame - DAOC has the best endgame i have ever seen IMO. The most basic raid there is is a Dragon raid. You get about 16-25 people and go kill a dragon. The next thing that came in the Trials of Atlantis expansion pack is called Master Level raids. These raids are done with any where from 8 people to 100+. There are ten MLs altogether and each ML has 10 specific steps. When you complete a Master level you gian a new unqiue ability that helps you with PvE/RvR. Another thing unique to DAOC is the feature to get artifacts from Trials of Atlantis. Artifacts are wepons/armor/jewelery that you can level up by kill certain mobs. Each new artifact level give you a new ability fro the item. you can level the artifact up to level 10 and you can have as many artifacts as you want. But 2 of the same artifacts can not be used by the same person. There are also many other raid I havent covered that are unique to DAOC.
There is still alot i haven't discussed but this should give you a general overview of the game from a gamers perspective.
Originally posted by Ashkent i played DAoC for about 1.5 years, back when it 1st came out. i recently tried it again with the trial and i don't remember the controls being so clunky and the graphics really need updated. after playing WoW and its its smooth controls and interface, i had a hard time trying to play DAoC again. if they would fix that stuff and get more players i might play it again. The population is just too low for me to want to go back to it again. There's no way they'll ever get their population back though.
Ash: Did you download the updated graphics engine for the trial? (no I don't know why they don't just include it ) The free trial is the old Isles trial. It's been recoded to allow you to USE the graphics updates with TOA but they're not in the trial. You have to download them. The TOA update REALLY spiffed up the graphics and the UI. It's MUCH better than the trial w/o them.
Anyone who tries the DAOC trial would be VERY well served to download the graphics engine update for it so you can experience the new graphics first hand. They re-did the ENTIRE game with them too. So the whole experience is improved.
Also: If you DO buy the whole game (epic box) you will find that the graphics are even better than the TOA enabled trial graphics even if you downloaded them. Because the Catacombs expansion improved on them again. I would rate DAOC's graphics as excellent. Not quite as good as EQ2 or Ryzom's but certainly very good in their own right.
Elnator,
What exactly do I need to download to get the newer graphics? Can you give me a direct link to it?
Comments
The OP said he's interested in PvP, so I'd ignore the suggestions to wait for DDO. Iirc that game will only included instanced coop play.
For PvP, Id say go DaoC if you like large scale battles. If you are a serious hardcore grindaholic jump on L2, and if you like balanced, team based PvP go for Guild Wars.
I am not sure what You have choosen but It looks like you are pushing in the way of DAOC. I have played DAOC ever sience it came out. I have also tried serval other MMORPGs and DAOC is the only one I hvae always came back to. I will try to give you a rundown of the game from a gamers perspective. I will also try to explain some things that are specific to the game. (I play Albion and that is it so if I make refrences to nothing but Albion I am sorry.)
PvE - There are currently 3 main PvE lands for characters to explore. The first land comes from the original game(no expansion packs required). This land has everything you need to get to lvl 1-50(50 is max level). It is also the hugest land in the game. It has alot of content with punly of mobs(enemy NPCs) to kill. Also it offers a good chance to group with other lower people who have just joined the game as well. The next land comes from the Expansion pack called Shrouded Ilse. This land offers Mob killing for all levels in the game but it is generaly used for higher level characters to level or farm. It is a bit smaller than the orignal land that comes with the original game. The thrid land is very new to the game and is called Catacombs. This is a great place to get to lvl 1-50 because it offers a new way to EXP instead of old fashioned grinding. They are called task dungeouns. All you have to do is talk to as "Task Master" some where in the zone and he will give a kill quest. Sometimes it will be to kill one mob or ten of a certain mob either way when you get it down and go back to him to turn in the quest you get a GREAT EXP bonus which really helps the EXP grind. There are also other land but I will explain them a little later.
PvP - If you like PvP then you will love this game. But lets start out with the basics. The most common thing in this game you can do is you can challenge another person to a duel. Where you and you fellow realmmate can duel for fun. When 1 person kills the other person the duel is over. Now lets ge into the feature that makes DAOC shine. It is called RvR(Realm vs Realm). There are three realms in the game and they are all enemy's. You can choose which realm you want to play when you enter a server. At lower levels you can participate in Battle grounds. This is a place where only certain level characters can fight. There are five battle grounds all geared to certain levels. The lowest battle ground is level 20-24 the next BG is 25-30 and so on all the way up to level 41-45. At higher levels you can participate in RvR where there is no level restriction but mostly levels 45-50 join in on this. This where you can take keeps(castles) from enemy realms. The RvR land is huge had has serval keeps to take from other realms. You can also take one keep in BG.
Raids/Endgame - DAOC has the best endgame i have ever seen IMO. The most basic raid there is is a Dragon raid. You get about 16-25 people and go kill a dragon. The next thing that came in the Trials of Atlantis expansion pack is called Master Level raids. These raids are done with any where from 8 people to 100+. There are ten MLs altogether and each ML has 10 specific steps. When you complete a Master level you gian a new unqiue ability that helps you with PvE/RvR. Another thing unique to DAOC is the feature to get artifacts from Trials of Atlantis. Artifacts are wepons/armor/jewelery that you can level up by kill certain mobs. Each new artifact level give you a new ability fro the item. you can level the artifact up to level 10 and you can have as many artifacts as you want. But 2 of the same artifacts can not be used by the same person. There are also many other raid I havent covered that are unique to DAOC.
There is still alot i haven't discussed but this should give you a general overview of the game from a gamers perspective.
Ash:
) The free trial is the old Isles trial. It's been recoded to allow you to USE the graphics updates with TOA but they're not in the trial. You have to download them. The TOA update REALLY spiffed up the graphics and the UI. It's MUCH better than the trial w/o them.
Did you download the updated graphics engine for the trial? (no I don't know why they don't just include it
Anyone who tries the DAOC trial would be VERY well served to download the graphics engine update for it so you can experience the new graphics first hand. They re-did the ENTIRE game with them too. So the whole experience is improved.
Also: If you DO buy the whole game (epic box) you will find that the graphics are even better than the TOA enabled trial graphics even if you downloaded them. Because the Catacombs expansion improved on them again. I would rate DAOC's graphics as excellent. Not quite as good as EQ2 or Ryzom's but certainly very good in their own right.
Elnator,
What exactly do I need to download to get the newer graphics? Can you give me a direct link to it?
Thanks.