What made DaoC RvR great?

Toferio

I hope mods bear with me for putting this in pub section instead of the DaoC forum, since last topic there is over a year old.

Sadly I missed the golden age of MMOs and the highpeak of such titles as EQ, DaoC and shadowbane. I keep hearing about DaoC RvR being great, but could someone sumup what was unique with it, and what contributed to it being called one of best PvP games ever, from design point of view, please?

I'd appriciate input about smaller mechanics which contributed to the bigger picture, rather then "because it had 3 factions".

Adamantine

I never played DAoC, but from what I could gather about that game:

1. There have been three factions fighting each other.

2. Each faction had their unique set of classes.

3. Meaningful full world PvP with the chance to aquire special buffs for your own faction.

4. Apparently Tanks have been very useful in PvP too, which is not something that usually happends.

Also, NOBODY ever since has bothered to make a three factions fighting each other game again. They always go with only two factions.

Caldrin

Originally posted by Adamantine

I never played DAoC, but from what I could gather about that game:

1. There have been three factions fighting each other.

2. Each faction had their unique set of classes.

3. Meaningful full world PvP with the chance to aquire special buffs for your own faction.

4. Apparently Tanks have been very useful in PvP too, which is not something that usually happends.

Also, NOBODY ever since has bothered to make a three factions fighting each other game again. They always go with only two factions.

Tho thats gonna chagne with The Secret World

DukeTyrion

There were quite a few things that made DAoC great, which have never really been recreated fully in other games.

 

1) 3 Factions. A nightmare to balance, but if one of the 3 factions every got too carried away, ther other 2 would almost combine efforts to bring them down ... well I say that, what actually happened was the other 2 factions killed the powerful one first, and only then turned on each other!

 

2) Everyone had their own battles and parts to play. Whether you were a roaming 8 man group, a guild of 24, an alliance of 100 or just 3 guys going out to take a tower, it always made you feel you were part of the bigger fight. In DAoC I never felt that my conquests were pointless, even if our adventures were short lived.

 

3) RvR and PvE overlapped. There were some who prefered only PvE, otehrs who prefered only RvR, but in the main most people got enjoyment from mixing PvE and RvR. PvE would bring new rewards to use on the battle field, whilst RvR would brnig RP's to boost skills, some of which would only really be used in PvE.

 

4) Fluff. There was oo much more added in DAoC going on, such as housing and trophies, Dragon hunts the likes of Darkness falls (mixed RvR and PvE zone) that it felt like there was always options for your way forward, as apposed to the likes of WoW which tells you to Raid, or RvR, or GTFO.

 

5) Community. When you are one realm fighting against a common enemy everything feels a little bit more like home. You might have thrown someone a heal or a buff and they often rememberred. All this modern cross server random crap has really taken away from the feeling of community.

 

I am hoping that EQ:Next will have all the ingredients for multiple end game progession and the sense of cummunity, but it will obviously be lacking in the RvR department. 

ProfGetz

I played a long time ago, and I consider DaOC to be one of the best RVR games ever. 

What I liked about it?

Battlegrounds with a point.. Destructable/repairable keeps and towers, siege engines, boats, large world, housing was cool as were the personal "shops' that one could have. Crafting was an adventure. Laughed my ass off when my buddy  was tring to craft something and it was blowing up.

Seriously, three factions made it all work. Sadly, other MMO devs missed that lesson.

It just felt more like an adventure and less of a grind fest. Could just be nostalgia talking though.

I'm actually thinking of resubbing to take a look around again.

Unknown

3 factions of wildly different skill types.

The anonimity of who you were fighting.

The Ck complete with doors to smash and walls to knockdown.

The simplicity of the characters and limits to what they could do which cut down on the huge variences that plagues all pvp settings.

 

But this was all in the 20-24 bg for me. I couldn't standed the leveling or the thought of what it took to do the endgame.

Loktofeit

Aside from a nice bit of diversity to the factions, keep control, random PvP encounters, and the separation of the PvE crowd from getting railed while trying to carve a piece of wood, the three faction system allowed for very strong elements of gameplay that are non-existent in two faction games - diplomacy and choice.

While the lack of talking to opponents in game was a great feature at the time as it countered the much loathed foul-mouthed smack talking very prevalent in PVP, no one had any illusions about the politics between the sides occurring on the boards and other external channels. The sides made agreements, carved lines and set limits that otherwise aren't really doable in a two faction systen. Collusion and consipracy between factions is only possible if there are 3 or more factions.

More importantly, players are making their own choice as to who they wish to fight and not fight. They aren't simply fighitng the other guys because they are the other guys, but because they have specifically chosen to fight that side. A chosen goal is always more meaningful and important to someone than an assigned goal. DAoC allowed players to choose their opponents, choose their allies and act on their decisions accordingly.