Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Dark Age Of Camelot: "The Island"
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
On the Camelot Herald, DAoC Executive Producer Jeff Hickman has introduced an upcoming addition to their Realm vs. Realm combat system that they hope players will enjoy. They call it "the island", as it will be a central location that physically connects the three RvR zones.
| Q: Will the Island be connected to the regular game?
A: No and yes. This is supposed to be a fun, central point where people can fight for the heck of it. There are no keeps, control of the island doesnt count on a scoreboard, and no targets to fight over. Its like a battleground, but with one key difference: if your realm should come under attack, youre only a run/swim away from defending it, and it will take very little coordination to switch from informal play on the island to serious siege warfare on the frontier. We wanted to leave the keep warfare immediately accessible, but as we all know, some nights its hard to coordinate a war and youd just rather kill people. |
You can read about it here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
After almsot 10 years now playing mmorpgs. This has to be one of the dumbest ideas ive seen for a update i've seen. some will argue that it is not. Come on Mythic time for a new game. DAOC is starting to show its wear and tear it can longer compete with current mmorpgs out there and to come.
And what exactly makes it the dumbest ideas for an update? Just curious, if you're going to throw something out like that with no backing to it... For the record this is a direct response to player feedback and all we're doing is giving the players what they want...
Anyway, like I said, I'd love to hear your reasons why this is such a dumb idea...
Richard J. Cox
"There were much of the beautiful, much of the wanton, much of the bizarre, something of the terrible, and not a little of that which might have excited disgust."
What made pvp worth while was the feeling that there was a war and you fought for a purpose, not just to kill people. Blech. Why not just make an arena and call it an arena and leave it unconnected with the old game. Anything which encourages people to pointless pvp is a lame idea in my opinion. They can get that on the pvp server. I love RvR, not pointless PvP.
My thoughts on the island are kind of mixed, but I will back them up with reasons unlike some.
First, it seems to me Mythic might be trying to phase out its boats routes with this idea. I don't know yet if they actually plan on removing the boat routes after they get the island going, but it would seem that if they want to utilize it to the best of their advantage that would be a smart move.
One of the problems I have with this idea is that they are proposing to set up an actual bridge between the island and the beachhead keeps. That just sounds really weird, having a bridge reach across open ocean. I think something more suitable would be to make a land bridge (could be a series of islands, sandbars, and/or shallow water) that players can run across to get to the island. This would seem a whole lot more natural geographically and would allow players to enter and exit off it into the ocean at will, something that might not be possible with a constructed raised bridge, falling off the bridge might mean you have to swim the rest of the way
.
I also believe that this would be an excellent way to re-try the whole frontier village idea. With the two milegates on each realms side of the island it could work as a fort with a frontier village squished in the middle that the enemy can pillage. I also think it would be fun to put in a few "havens" in the interior of the island. They could be small fortifications or old ruins on hill tops that could be defended, but easily accessed by an attacker, sort of a place for groups to make a "last stand", but not drag out like a siege. Whatever they do, please Mythic put some extra stuff in it, we won't appreciate a barren land with nothing interesting in it. Also if some of the terrain could be more tank friendly(rocky hillsides, ruins, thickly grown forests like they have in Domnann) that would be great.
It's got a lot of, dare I say the word, potential to it. It could be a great new addition to RvR or it could be DAoCs biggest eye sore in the frontier.
.....................................
...but time flows like a river...
...and history repeats...
-Leader of "The Fighting Irish" in DAoC on Hib/Kay-
Like the above poster said, it needs to be more than just an "island".
There needs to be a reason this island is here. Not just to be an emain wannabe thing, it needs a purpose.
The ocean may need to be shrunk just to do this island too....
I played DAoC from the very day it was released and like many others, with ToA and a lot of frustration I quit...
I tried EQ2 which even though it is nicely made and has great graphics, never really managed to catch my soul like DAoC once did. Also I realized that I cannot play pure PvE. The zoning took ages and the quests were a bore.
I then switched to GW which is a nice game in general with graphics and quite a balanced PvP though it just isnt RvR. The game is however lacking in two areas for me. First its just too easy everything adn secondly, it seems to be a mass of children playing which in itself is understandable since they game seems to be targetting that group. I prefer a more serious approach like in DAoC. Additionally GW uses 100% instanced PvE which left me feeling lonely...In DAoC you can run into almost anyone anywhere! That makes more sense to me in terms of actually participating in a living breathing world.
I recently came back to DAoC to give it one more try and I have to admit that the game seems to have improved. Yes the graphics arent really up to par but they are ok. What DAoC gives me that no other game seems to offering is the feeling, the aura and the commitment about what you are doing.
I have been exploring the new Catacombs and I am impressed. The game now drops another type of seals similar to what we got used to farming in DF but they decided to stick to a single kind which i agree with. The interconnectivity in the catacombs is great.
The game has also been improved since I quit with many small but nice features like, faster movement speed, in-game maps, quest offerers are clearly marked, instanced dungeons and tasks, new very good quests, new classes and a lot of nice items that have also been improved graphically...and probably alot more which i havent figured out yet.
I was reading about the island and I find it a good idea but like a previous poster, I agree that it cannot just be barren but need some ruins etc to allow tricky manouvering and stand offs. Maybe its not a place where all will want to go but I can see its purpose being a little similar to the battlegrounds we can choose to spend some time in as we level up, learning to master our skills as well as the deadly skills of the enemy realms.
Reading about the new and upcoming expansion and that there will be some new type of improved weapons and combining it with the fact that mythic has reinforced their DAoC staff gives me the impression that they have decided to push the development of DAoC forward to meet todays standards because even though other games may look better, for me there is nothing like the feel of fighting for your realm in DAoC. I have also been reading about complaints that PvE is a bore and honestly I disagree. PvE in DAoC is great. Not too easy and not too hard. Not too fast and not too slow! It takes time to get to level 50 and beyond but its worth it and it feels wonderful to one day say..."Ding 50!"
For all who have spelled out that DAoC is dead (me included)...open your mind, go back , have a look and give it your honest try. You may be surprised!
For me, I am back in Midgard but on a new server, in a new friendly guild (as only DAoC has given me so far), giving the Albs and the Hibs the sweet taste of my relatively high cave specced Shaman in the Thidranki battlegrounds (level 20-24 i believe)
Myth! You are on the right track! Dont mess it up this time like you did with ToA and people will come back to the best fantasy MMORPG ever made!
Thumbs up!
Anaqim