Sunday 27 January 2002

Pic of the day: A landscape that dwarfs even trolls. (Here, my troll character kneeling in front of a grave on the seashore. Screenshot from Dark Age of Camelot.)

Midgard revisited

I've played Dark Age of Camelot since the middle of December, and naturally I started in Midgard. This realm is based on Norse mythology, loosely but clearly. But after a while I moved to Albion, based on British Arthurian legend, and I liked it better. I found the monsters more gradually challenging, and the players generally more friendly, cooperative and fun-loving. I have also tried to play on Hibernia, the magic-dominated realm based on Celtic mythology. I expected it to be even less macho. But for some reason, my character lags out and goes linkdead almost immediately there.

Today I have revisited the old server and my Midgardian characters. Well, actually I made a couple new characters. The game has a fairly long (if not so steep) learning curve, and I found that I could do better with the knowledge I have today.

***

It may be just me, but I find it slightly ironic that in Midgard, race and class are bound more tightly than in Albion. It sure does not correspond to the real world equivalents of those countries. The reason is, of course, that Albion is closer to historical times, and so its characters are more realistic. They are all variatons of humans, while three of the races of Midgard are only humanoid.

The most striking example are the trolls, which all start with a strength of 100. They also have a good constitution, but are slow and clumsy. (The sum total of points are the same for all races.) Only two basic classes are available for trolls: Viking (warrrior) and Seer (healer). And it is only as warriors that they can use that strength; a healer is more of a support character, casting spells from behind the lines.

During my earlier visit in Midgard, I had created a troll healer. But this was no success. Trolls are expected to be less than social, and other classes expect them to be warriors. Finding a group for a troll healer turned out to be difficult, and fighting alone as a healer was no walk in the park either. This time I followed convention and my troll character "Jamagokka" is a warrior.

Another thing I have learned is to buy new equipment early on. The economy of the game is slanted so that new players earn little money, so there is little reason to save the coppers for later. The contribution from those early hours will be negligible, compared to the benefit of buying a real weapon at level 3. (The first two levels are almost automatic - they don't last long and the fields near the towns are teeming with suitable mini-monsters for slaughter.) I bought a good axe at level 3, and it did cut well indeed. It cut in half or less the time I took to kill a monster, and thereby the amount of damage I took in each battle.

Basically, to play a troll well, you have to think differently from the gentle Breton cleric. This is as it should be, I guess.

***

While some knowledge could be carried over from Albion to Midgard, not all was valid. I noticed once again how the realms seem to be made independently after some point early in development when the interface and basic game structure was in place. Not only do the landscape look different, and the architecture, the players and many of the monsters. But there are subtle differences in the classes. While they roughly correspond to the same 4 types in each realm (warrior, mage, rogue and healer) there are some different assumptions. In Albion, intelligence is a defining factor in mages. But in Midgard it is piety: Their magic comes from the gods, or so they believe.

In fact, all advanced classes in Midgard are assigned to one of the Norse gods. (This may be one of the reasons why I felt more comfortable in Albion, where the Church ruled supreme in religious matters.)

An intriguing effect of the religious binding in Midgard is the concept of the "thane" class, the followers of Thor. They are full-fledged warriors, but with the ability to cast weather spells. At a minimum, a brand new thane can cast a small lightning bolt every 30 seconds. This is eminently useful because you can use it to "pull" a monster from a distance, without attracting the entire pack. (And in case the pack should follow suit, you have a good lead on them and can get away.) In Albion, the corresponding effect is "armsman" class which can use a crossbow. The spellcasting warriors in Albion are the paladins, who have clerical spells. You have to adopt a whole different strategy.

I also noticed that the magic systems are very different, they are simply not based on the same thinking. It is like two different games with the same basic interface. Despite the same command system, the two realms have a different "look and feel". Very well done, indeed.

Despite the graphics that almost makes me homesick, I don't think Midgard will ever be my true home in DAoC. But I guess I may visit now and again.