Saturday 14 August 2004

Pic of the day: A bright new future for the formerly so Dark Age of Camelot?

DAoC renewal

Long-time readers will remember how I used to write about Dark Age of Camelot every few days and use screenshots from it to illustrate other topics. These days, of course, City of Heroes fills that role. But that's because CoH is so good, not because DAoC has become worse. In fact, I'd say it has recently become better.

There was some disappointment when Mythic Entertainment released the second for-sale expansion pack, Trials of Atlantis. It did not quite fit in as well as the first had, and ... Well, there were lots of small grievances that I don't have an opinion on. I only bought a box to try out the supposedly improved user interface, and I found little difference.

In contrast, the latest expansion is free, and concentrates on the game's core strength, the realm war. (DAoC is basically a clash of civilizations, as the Norse, Irish and British myths give rise to three different kingdoms locked in a struggle for power.) New Frontiers is, as you may guess, a place where the three realms can clash even more. Supposedly it allows players to help defend their realm even before they reach the maximum level, something that was kinda risky before. But don't quote me on that, I hate player vs player and avoid it whenever possible. In fact, I've played mostly on the cooperative server since the day it was opened.

Another new feature interests me more, although I am sure it will be more controversial. In order to attract more casual players, you will now get free experience points and gold if you level up slowly.

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When you design online role playing games, there is a difficult balance to keep. Players want to be rewarded and see progress. Typically this takes the form of leveling up, although there are also other rewards such as items and trade skill increases. If this happens too slowly, players get bored and frustrated. They leave, and warn their friends: "The game suxx."

However if leveling up is fast, lots of players reach the highest level in a few weeks. They may feel they have "finished" the game, and move on to the next. You don't want that when you live off their monthly subscription fee.

DAoC is kinda special in that the real game begins when you're "grown up". Although you can go to the frontier from level 20, you're not likely to last very long there. You are basically free realm points for the enemy, so you would be doing your country a favor by staying home and sticking to the training grounds. (Well, that was how it was before New Frontiers, at least.) Life begins at 50, or a little before if you're a group-oriented class. And even then you may want to spend some time getting "uber" items, because you don't want to carry that mundane bargain shield when your opponent comes toward you brandishing the Brilliant Flaming Holy Blessed Sword of Fortified Soulrending... (OK, I made that up, but I've seen stuff like that. Itlandsen the overly defensive Paladin actually has some stuff with a long list of titles like that.)

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The first thing Mythic did, more than a year ago, was to introduce the /level command. Anyone who has a level 50 character can skip the childhood for his subsequent characters and take them to level 20 right from the start. If you settle in an underdog realm, you can go straight to level 30! And you get free armor and weapons to match, although they are second-hand and thoroughly mundane.

Of course, this favors existing players, and the game does have a pretty good player loyalty (although City of Heroes has nabbed some of us.) But new players are likely to feel rather lonely and kind of biased against. In order to help people level without the elite groups from when the game was new, there is now free XP and gold.

First, there is now a much higher "camp bonus". Ironically this is a bonus for not camping. By moving into an area where the monsters have not been hunted lately, you get much higher XP. Not only is this bonus increased, it also lasts longer. So if you're a lonely newbie in a mostly empty land, you'll get lots of XP. You can hunt greens for near the same XP we got from blues when the game was new. (Green are the weakest enemies you get XP for, blue are the normal mobs that you should be able to chain hunt if you have OK equipment.)

And it doesn't stop there. If you level so slowly that you spend a week or more to gain one level, you get one level free, and a gift of gold so you can upgrade your equipment to match your level (more or less). However, you can't just sit at the ale house. You have to earn one level to get one free, you just can’t get more than one freebie a week.

Well, actually you can. Once again you may want to look for "underdog" realms (this varies from server to server, a list can be found at Camelot Herald). Depending on how hard pressed the realm is, you can get down to just two days wait for a freebie. Of course, if you manage to level every other day after you hit 20, you're definitely not what I'd call a casual player. But this is a double tool: One use is to keep casual players from switching to City of Heroes (famous for being easy to play during lunch break as you can just jump into action). Another use is to restore balance between the realms, at least to the point where people don't give up and quit because they are always outnumbered. Generally, it is all about getting people to stay. And I think it may be pretty effective.

Of course, this is bound to upset some people. They have worked hard for their levels, and now these tourists get half the levels as reward for laziness! Well, it is kinda true. But then again, you can do the same yourself at any time. Just create a new character and be lazy to your heart's content! ^_^

Now if only City of Heroes had something similar ... but then again, they don't need it yet.