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Part of what is missing in Dark Age.
Conskript
Member Posts: 6
Fresh Blood. 
Its too confusing to install the clients and pick it up, its rare to find in stores too.
They should do origins, repackage the game and "Re-Release" at a mid summer point to bloster populations.
Sadly, I think that most people leave due to the RvR being "Unfair". Its kinda like being a freshmen in college on a sports team, there is a certain amount of abuse and experence you need before being a big dog on the starting line. However, this game will give you the biggest pvp rush of them all when you get it down.
- Kyng 
Comments
The client is pretty confusing, but is not too hard to figure out. But I can see this turning off a less patient customer. They should probably re-do it and stream line it a good bit.
I am currently living in Jasper, Texas and this is a deep east Texas small town. But believe it or not the Game Stop store chain had it in stock when my wife needed a copy. I also noticed that Walmart here stocks it.
I don't think the game is too hard to get into. You can go to the Battleground that is appropriate for your level range, and while the other 20 somethings are likely to be seasoned vets leveling up an alt, you can just tag along and get the ropes. My first few times out I got my ass kicked royally, but had a blast none-the-less.
If Warhammer is a major hit (lol "if"), then I have a feeling EA-Mythic is going to throw some funds at this classic MMO. Maybe even a few devs. In the coming years I think DAoC will be updated and kept as fresh as can be. See the UO graphic updates and the many tweaks this game has received.
Just my 2 cents.
I miss the good ol' days when nerds were actually intelligent.
When I played I always felt that the new people would not properly utilize the Advice channel built into the game. I've listed myself as an adviser every time I log on and there are usually plenty of others around with me who are more then willing to answer just about any question the newer people might have without ridicule that one can sometimes get when asking in the "general" chat. However I also think that for the most part DAoC has at least had in the past some of the best and friendliest community out there who were overall nice and willing to lend a hand.
I think that some people just get overwhelmed and are too afraid to ask for help due to their experiences being soured by previous games. I can however no longer speak for the community since I have been away from DAoC for the better part of a year. Not sure it is the way I left it but it was at least decent when I was there.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
The /advice channel is more like a /general channel now... I have seen a few questions asked here and there and usually they seem to get a response.
Right now is an awkward time to begin DAoC. The best time to start would be when Origins comes out because you'll have a ton of other returning players starting new characters. Right now all the low level characters are alts who are blazing through content on their way to whatever BG their player plans to park them at.
DAoC is one of the best games on the market, but Mythic has done a lousy job over the years with the expansions and were waaaaay too slow clustering the servers. (Clustering is sort of like Merging, but not quite... the 3 realm RvR setup makes merging difficult since you can only have characters in one realm on each server).
Anyways, I think anyone interested should wait for Origin. If you want to get a jump start, then play on the Classic cluster, but be aware that once Origins is released, the Classic cluster is probably going to take the biggest population hit. The TOA clusters which have all the expansions are a lot more difficult to get caught up in for RvR (Master Levels, Champion Levels, Artifacts, Dragon equipment and especially Realm Levels).
I love DAoC and played for years. My biggest complaint are the template nerds... Some people really bust out the mathematics in this game to min/max their characters for RvR. I've always hated that level of character micromanagement... but I got by without it for the most part (mostly by being in a good guild with some folks who didn't mind helping you put a good set of ideal equipment together).
Retention rates in Dark Age are abysmal, why?
Becuase the game is a massive SOLO GRIND!
From 1-50 you either:
- Go to town, collect instance Q, go to instance which is in a static location, clear out instance which 9/10 is mapped exactly the same as the last 900,000 you've done, return to town, get another, rinse repeat.
- Grind mobs at static gameworld locations.
- Do tasks which involve; going to npc, running to mob, killing mob, returning to NPC, repeat.
THIS IS NOT FUN!
How can it be made more fun?
#1 MORE player interaction, it distracts you from the grind and makes it more bearable, how can this be achieved, well it needs an influx of more players, its a vicious circle, you need more players for it to be fun but they're not having fun becuase theres not enough players. Solution?
Make Dark Age of Camelot Original FREE!
Do what Anarchy Online has done to great success, it revived their game.
#2 Make several instance locations (you know, the cave/tree/zone you run to to get inside), dont just have one, its boring. Have mobs and NPC's with storylines outside inside and around the instances, and at the end have a mega boss who IS difficult, interesting and rewarding, not just the same as the rest but with a different name.
#3 Add the option for "group instances" with the NPC, give it much more loot more XP and make the instances INTERESTING!
For me, as a new player, this would bring me back to Dark Age of Camelot. As it is, 1-50 has no distraction from the grind, and frankly spending weeks (casual gamer) making all that mind numbingly boring effort is not worth all the "amazing" 50+ content OR my $9.99 a month (or however much it is).
I cannot stress this enough:
Make Dark Age of Camelot Original FREE!
It WILL bring back players!
Will it happen? Probably not, seems to me Mythic are done with DAoC. Pity really.
---
Let me answer some of your topics...
Don't think the install is confuse... however I played since it was released...
Doubt they will re-release the game... they have focus on WAR atm, and after Catacombs, looks like EA/Mythic doesn't care less for the customers...
The RVR.... oh the part I miss the most on this game... I used to have so much fun, even being an albion... for my very good luck I met some great ppl and then the RVR went to a higher level... FUN all the time being part of the zerg... and yes, the RVR is the BEST... I remember when on RP server Guinevere used to be 150 live players on each side of the zerg... the servers could handle 450+ players on the same zone...
I wish you guys, who still playing, the best luck!!!
It is hard to find in stores now unfortunatly.
I agree to an extent with the view on a free game.. Hell who wouldn't. Perhaps if WAR is very successful , you may see some billing changes in a year or two , but i would not hold my breath. Still it would keep it alive.
I have been back for a few months now, and my biggest beef to date after returning (3 years off) on the classics is the x-realming that goes on. It is no secret.
Realm Loyalty was a wonderful aspect of this game in its day.
I think (hope!) the Origins server will bring back that realm loyalty we all once shared. I remember when you could fight all night just to get a hold of a relic or DF.. that was sweet. Now if you dont have the relics or df you can just wait 5 and roll over to that realm and do what you want there. Or even worse, and i am sure almost everyone has done it, when there is a ck take in a bg, you just roll over to that flavor of the day and play along for the exp. Not the "us vs them" anymore I guess. Ah well.
Still enjoying it even if i do have to kill 900 000 mobs to hit 50. I like mob grinding better then quest grinding tbh. Personal Pref.
Just my 2 cents.
The game itself is great, it just needs a helping hand and the developers need to step in and fix some of the blatant BS that goes on and I think the game might back some of the things it has lost.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
FYI, the best way to level up now is with the BGs. The mobs in the BGs give 150% xp and killing players nets even better XP.
Also there is now rested XP much like WoW.
It has become much much easier to level up now.
- - "What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?" - -
I disagree with the grind of DAOC. Yes, you can solo, but I've found getting a group is actually rather easy if you try. Second, you can really get to "the fun" fairly quickly in DAOC compared to other games. It took me 13 hours /played time to go from 1 to 39 without any help or cash or anything, just like a newb. I spent my entire time in RvR zones, either frontiers, BGs or Darkness Falls. I left these areas 4 times to solo some IDs for aurulite because I wanted some cheap / good levelling gear. I am guessing, at this point, that I will be 50 by the time I reach 36 hours /played. If you do the math, at 3 hours a night, 3 nights a week, that's 4 weeks to 50. You could also do that in 9 days if you just did 4 hours / night.
So you can also stop along the way and pvp for some fun and still gain levels faster than you can grinding. Anyhow, the game is easy now, and you can really have fun levelling if you just ask questions and get to the right places.