Solothores
Loyal Freddie
- Joined
- Dec 23, 2003
- Messages
- 55
Not yet here, If I see right... here the gameSPY report:
Source: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dark-age-of-camelot-catacombs/552406p1.html
This year's annual "Dark Age of Camelot Roundtable" event focused on Mythic Entertainment's newest expansion: Catacombs. Devoted followers of the MMORPG steeped in mythology and literary fantasy were recently treated to New Frontiers, a free expansion to the game's realm-versus-realm combat. Catacombs, on the other hand, will be a full retail expansion, and promises to make more substantial changes to the Dark Age of Camelot experience, allowing the game that has stood the test of time and survived in the face of stiff competition to compete with the latest entries in the genre.
It's a Busy Life in Camelot
With each retail expansion, Dark Age of Camelot has undergone a subtle yet significant facelift, and Catacombs has quite the makeover in store. First off, the game's minimum system requirements will be increased, since the new graphical enhancements make use of DirectX 9 technology. The game world will look considerably more vibrant, as aging building tiles were replaced by new, ultra-detailed textures, and the greatly enhanced, dynamic lighting used throughout. Older stomping grounds have received the remake treatment as well. Stonehenge, for example, was completely redone, although kept to the same size and scale. The mossy textures on the standing stones are much more realistic, based on photos of the actual druid ritual grounds/alien spacecraft-landing site. Improvements have also been made to such graphical features as running water and the use of colored light sources.
Time-honored haunts have been redone to keep the game's visuals consistent, and anyone revisiting the Coruscating Mines in Hibernia will notice the differences -- from the greatly enhanced use of multiple light sources, to the revamped monster models. Previously underwhelming spiders look genuinely menacing now; these arachnids look much scarier thanks to higher polygon counts and detailed, death shroud-like textures. Adding to the atmosphere are hanging spiderwebs and other visual details, like small, inconsequential creatures that serve as both background color, and occasionally, as comic relief.
Oh, Shut Up and Go Change Your Amour
Stealing the veritable thunder from Dark Age of Camelot's enhanced environments are the new player-character models, sure to excite the Dark Age of Camelot players who have been drooling over the character models in other competing games. The models have been revamped from the ground up, with a more solid working skeletal structure, breathing and blinking animations, and facial details that stand up to a close inspection. Newly created and older, pre-existing characters will be visually conceived through the use of a series of sliders that control such features as nose, mouth, and pointy elf ear size. There is also a wide selection of race and specific skin tones for each character to choose from. Armor and clothing has also been reworked considerably, so there should be an unheard of amount of aesthetic diversity once Catacombs is released.
While the older areas have been improved, most players will likely rush to be the first to fully explore the new locales. As the name implies, the Catacombs expansion focuses on new subterranean areas for players to explore. Each of the three realms has its own new friendly city for adventurers to use as a base of operations; Midgard has the Kobold Undercity, Albion has the Inconnu city, and Hibernians have the Shar city. These new areas can be reached safely by low-level characters, say level five or so, and provide a convenient entry point to prime hunting grounds that should serve even the highest level parties.
We were able to take a closer look at Midgard's new areas, including the friendly player city, the route that is taken to the new hunting grounds, and the second Kobold Undercity, lost to a mysterious force that is possessing the Kobolds and subverting them for some nefarious purpose. The friendly Kobold Undercity itself is quite massive, made up of a considerable series of interconnected caverns providing adventurers with all the needed services of any major city, including tradeskill masters, merchants, and quest-giving NPCs.
Heading towards the Midgard frontlines will lead players to the largest single object created thus far in Dark Age of Camelot, a Viking longboat, long since turned into a ghost ship. The ship dwarfs nearly anything you may have seen before, measuring in at several stories high and stretches on for as far as you can see. The ship is surrounded by roving bands of bandits and grave robbers, the standard troublesome fare that can provide a distraction to groups looking for some quick action. Once you've actually walked the plank and stepped on board, the danger comes in a more incorporeal form, as the ghosts of long dead warriors mistake you for tomb raiders as well, and are more than happy to try and enlist you into the ranks of the dead.
Just a Little Bit of Peril?
Players will find that there is a multitude of new quests to undertake in the new expansion, about 350 in total, most relating to learning about the dungeon areas and discovering the backstory behind the Catacombs. The Kobold Undercity, for instance, is one of two Kobold cities, but the other lost contact a while ago, ever since the populace started becoming possessed by some evil force. There are other creatures to worry about as well, including a new race of humanoid fungus men who don't play nice with strangers. If you can brave the dangers of the catacomb frontlines and find the other Undercity, you'll see that it has been twisted in not so subtle and quite evil ways, complete with ritualistic designs, spooky red-tinged lighting, and all the other trappings of foulness.
While many will be excited about the new player-character visuals, revamped environments, quests, and exciting new locales to explore, it is quite likely that the most popular new features in the Dark Age of Camelot Catacombs expansion will be the new classes. Albion will receive one new class, while Midgard and Hibernia will both receive two new classes, part of Mythic Entertainment's efforts to balance out the realm populations for realm-versus-realm combat. Each of these two realms will gain one standard class and one special female-only class with a flavor all its own.
The Zealot
Albion's single new character class is the zealot, an evil cleric of sorts. Zealots originate as standard acolytes in the Church of Albion, but find their way to the dark side and convert into followers of Arawn, lord of the underworld. Zealots wear cloth armor and use flexible weapons, and can make use of fighting styles, combining spell focus effects with their attacks for high damage potential. Their initial rejuvenation spell line is turned into Hellsfire once the class conversion is made, adding direct damage spells to their healing capabilities. Their other specialization line is a series of buffs that fall under the title of "Demonic Attrition."
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The Warlock
Midgard players will likely be quite excited at the potential offered by the newly introduced warlock character class. Warlocks have access to three spec lines: cursing, hexing, and witchcraft. Curses are primary spells, hexes are secondary, and witchcraft falls under utility spells. Warlocks also follow a different set of rules than other casters, and bring new game mechanics to the table.
Whenever any primary spell is cast, Warlocks can combine it with any secondary spell for no power cost, essentially creating a free spell combo.
All primary warlock spells take four seconds to cast, regardless of dexterity.
Secondary spells can never be cast on their own.
The utility line of magic allows for chambering spells and casting with other spell modifiers, such as greatly extended range.
Primary spells encompass bolts, direct damage, roots, and heals. Secondary spells include lifetaps, damage over time, snares, spread heals, point blank area-of-effect spells, power regeneration, and nearsight. Utility magic allows for chambering spells, up to five total, and the casting of primers, or modified secondary spells.
Chambered spells are cast before combat, and take the form of floating magical indicators that rotate around your warlock's head. These spells can then be cast instantly on demand, without interruption. Thus, a warlock can walk into combat as both a veritable spell powerhouse, while also signaling to all opposing enemies exactly what is in store for them, making them a very attractive target. It will remain to be seen how viable the class is in realm-versus-realm combat, although the prospect for them to be quite useful if played well is tremendous.
The Valkyrie
Midgard's special female-only class is the valkyrie, a class that has been in popular demand since the game's original release. What makes this fighter-mage hybrid class special is its cone-shaped area attacks. Valkyries were designed to cut a swathe into the center of enemy forces, and let loose with these cone-shaped attacks, be they direct damage, cone snares, or dex quick shears or acuity shears. Valkyries, who draw their power from Odin himself, will also be able to resurrect the dead, thanks to their Call from Valhalla. Valkyries utilize swords, shields, and spears, and will have three or four unique fighting styles to specialize in.
The Vampiir
Hibernia's new character classes draw from the realm of the unliving, beginning with this half-vampire. At their core, these characters are a leather-wearing fighter class that make use of a piercing weapon, specifically the rapier, in its right hand. Vampiirs dual-wield, in a sense, because their left hand is a weapon all its own, used to cast their own form of magic. A Vampiir's magic doesn't draw from a standard power pool like other casters, and is instead fed by the blood of enemies (gained in combat, of course). This character design should be highly familiar to anyone who has read Michael Moorcock's stories of Elric of Melniboné or watched the seminal Vampire Hunter D anime films. Vampiir magic comes in the form of attacks, self buffs, and crowd control. Empty reserves can be gained with an initial ranged attack, but Vampiirs will mostly have to earn their spell energy through melee.
The Banshee
The final character class being introduced in the Catacombs expansion is the wailing banshee of mythological fame. The banshee is a cloth-wearing caster class whose magic is sound-oriented. In practice, these screams take the form of point blank area-of-effect spells. Different screams will yield different results, some of which have not been seen before in other class types. One type of moan, for instance, is a call to befriend, which turns otherwise neutral monsters into realm guards, who will come to the aid of the banshee when faced with invading forces. Another banshee shriek works as a fear spell of sorts, forcing all enemies to move away and out of her eardrum-piercing range. Banshees can also target their screams from a considerable distance for some effects, being able to inflict a form of nearsight on archers from afar if the situation warrants.
Shall We Explore the Catacombs?
Mythic Entertainment has upped the ante with the Catacombs expansion, bringing a substantial graphics upgrade and a considerable amount of new character and locale variety to a game that has been steadily improving since its original release in 2001. Dark Age of Camelot: Catacombs still hasn't reached the beta test phase, but as soon as testing is in full swing, we'll have more on its progress.
Source: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/dark-age-of-camelot-catacombs/552406p1.html
