Sunday 4 May 2003

Pic of the day: The isle of Aegir has several remnants from the ice age and before, such as this mammoth, rendered in great detail. (Screenshot from Dark Age of Camelot, Shrouded Isles.)

Shrouded Isles revisited

I have been playing Dark Age of Camelot since shortly after its release one and a half year ago. So it was only natural that I wanted the first expansion pack when it came out early in December last year. What I really wanted Shrouded Isles for was the new player classes, which had several innovative features such as life-tap spells and multiple pets. (After most players have bought SI, the weakest of the old classes have been upgraded to compete somewhat better against the new ones, but mainly by strengthening existing features. The new classes are still unique.)

For those who have graphics card with the nvidia chip set, the expansion pack also improves graphics. If you have a Ti3 or better, you should see more fluid motion as well as greater detail. And not least, it is now possible to run the game in full-screen windowed mode. Basically this means that it runs as a Windows program instead of taking over your machine; you can at any time switch to another program or to the desktop and do other stuff (such as looking up online maps and guides for the game!) then switch back. Needless to say the game goes on while you are switched out, so don't do that in hostile territory...

I have tried out all 3 new races and 5 of the 6 new classes (not Savage). They were kinda cool, but in the end I am still mostly playing my Overly Defensive Paladin. That's just the kind of guy I am! But there is one side of the expansion pack I have paid little attention to. This may be my loss indeed, for the actual land masses of Shrouded Isles are well worth a visit.

The new races have starting locations on the "isles", one for each realm. These are not small islets but rather like small countries, with cities and villages and forts and, of course, dungeons. I hurried to gather enough silver to get back to my favorite low-level grounds on the mainland, so I did not have to learn a new territory over again. There was, I believed, enough to learn if I shouldn't be confused by geography too. (I get totally lost unless I can see some familiar landmarks at all times.)

This Saturday night my Paladin traveled to Avalon, the shrouded isle of Albion. Actually I did not go to Avalon City, but to the village of Wearyall. My senior paladin Collitinius had a quest that required a group, so I joined with a couple others to assist him. As I was now level 41 the difference between us was no longer so great – the maximum level is 50, and the last few levels are very slow indeed. He gave me a crafted shield that was slightly better than the one I already had. We hunted undead together before the rest of the group arrived, and I was surprised to see that the village was surrounded by blue-con monsters (that is, slightly below my own level) and a very few yellow (around my own level).

I stayed behind in the village, and the next morning I ventured out of the village in the other direction. Almost immediately I started to run into Drakoran patrols. And this is my text for today, dear congregation. The real story of the Shrouded Isles.

***

When originally released, DAoC was unique (and it still is) for its approach to player killing. In some games, you cannot kill other players. In others, you are rewarded for doing so. There are even some where you can volunteer to kill other players, but only those who have volunteered too. Those who Just Say No to player killing cannot be touched. A nice approach, but DAoC has another. It is a game divided into 3 realms, based on 3 different mythologies of ancient Europe. And like these lands in the dark age, the 3 realms are in a state of perpetual war. Midgard (Scandinavia), Albion (Britain) and Hibernia (Ireland) are locked in a war of attrition, where might and magic must be dedicated to the defense of the lands and raids against the enemy. So you cannot kill, steal from or otherwise hurt the inhabitants of your own realm. Cooperation is hard-coded into the game ... they simply cannot be targeted for destructive actions.

In DAoC, society was in a state of war, a war against other players. Since these could not communicate with one another and even their name tag only described their realm status, they were much like Non Player Characters. Killing was kinda impersonal, at least, but you still had to contend with the skills and equipment available to a fellow human player.

With Shrouded Isles, invading forces from the evil outside the known world have swooped down on the sacred homelands of the 3 realms. For Albion, Drakorans have conquered most of the Isle of Avalon. Hy-Brasil, the sacred island of Hibernia, has fallen to the evil Fomorians. And the island of Aegir, sacred homeland of the troll fathers, has been attacked by the ice-age brutes called Morvaltar. The invaders are played by a new advanced artificial intelligence that emulates familiar player tactics such as combined groups of healer, mage and warrior, sometimes a rogue type too.

I was delighted to find that you could get some of the same excitement that you get from playing against human opponents, but without actually causing anyone grief. Certainly this is not everyone's cup of tea, but it is definitely a selling point.

***

I guess the best way to explore the new lands is to create a new character, then move further and further out from the starter area. I have resolved to do this to my new Valkyn huntress, to explore the isle of Aegir. But this won't happen overnight. The lands are pretty large, and leveling is pretty slow when you go alone. I haven't even explored more than a fraction of the original DAoC lands, most of it in Albion and some Hibernia. Midgard is still mostly blank to me. So it may seem a bit pretentious to start exploring the new territories.

However, these are areas done with the newest state of the art technology, and it shows. The artificial intelligence is better, as I mentioned. The landscape is more detailed, so beautiful in places that I just stop and stare (and take screenshots). DAoC was cutting edge already; SI is on the very point of the cutting edge, quite possibly the best you can get in PC gaming today. It would almost be a shame not to pay it a visit.