daoc death ??? ==> Warhammer

[Pirkel]

ello , its been along time

Not long enough.

Bye

 

[Pirkel]

I bet you £100,000 that in 48 years Daoc will be dead.

I'll take you up on that bet.

All I have to do is open a freeshard on the 21st of august 2054 and I win an easy £100,000

Off course by then £100,000 is pocketchange so it might actually cost me more then I'll win so maybe I won't bother

 

[Ogrelin Blodig]

well, since Warhammer is a couple of years away I see no problem with ppl leaving to play it.

 

[Aeoric]

well, since Warhammer is a couple of years away I see no problem with ppl leaving to play it.

Agree - I don't think anyone truly believes Warhammer Online will be out on time.

As such DAoC has at least a year to two years of life (assuming WHO is a DAoC
killer).

I think that as with anything, job, GF, hobby - that after 4-5 years - people start
to look for something else. Especially as remaining competitive in DAoC is such a
time consuming thing.

They (finally) made the ML's easier, and arti encounters etc etc, they improved the
Epic armour so that low-income chars can walk out in something better than ROGs

A little too late ? yes imho

I think a bunch of people left because the PvE in DAoC is so boring, and that PvE
was ultimately neccessary to get yourself a char that could begin to compete.

Some left because of realm imbalance

Some left because of population imbalance

Some t055ers whine about NF, when in fact NF is almost identical to OF, but the
areas are connected rather than having to sit on a pad for 10 mins to port to
Odins/Emain. You don't get the "old favorite" of logging on, running to AMG to
find it infested with 50 LoS ignoring shrooms, and sit there for 45 mins until
there are enough people on to rush the gate. You get a realmwar map so you
can see where action is.

I don't see what people liked about OF, I thought it was fucking awful. 10 mins
to port was stupid, 1 milegate was stupid.

Ok there were more fights, but then again there were 3k people online at peak
time. Because 80% of the ones in RvR were roaming Emain/Briefine, you got lots
of fights (and surely that's the reason we RvR).

So the only thing I can think of that seems to be the issue is that because all the
lands are connected, people can roam further and the action is more spread out,
combine that with a lower online population and you get fewer fights.

hence - agramon, the new emain. no towers there, no keeps. if thats what you
want - roam there (as people are doing nowadays). there is a non-adding policy
observed by the majority for all you honour-bound leet crews.

The truth is - there aren't enough people online, regular groups running to make
it feel as populated as old emain. and there are certainly far less solo'ers (in hib
and mid).

That said - it's the summer, more people will be back soon.

Fundamentally, for DAoC to have any longevity going forward:

GOA need to invest in getting more players
Realm imbalance needs fixing
Further reduce the amount of PvE time required to be competitive
DAoC community that like fg vs fg, arrange Agramon nights (already being done)
Something similar for solo'ers that like 1 vs 1's

Mythic need to concentrate on fixing RvR issues rather than expansions
(re-dressing existing classes was a very positive step, as people already had
the chars (mothballed), ML'd, ToA'd but not group friendly - with the new class
revisions they have made some classes competitive in groups, so we are now
getting more interesting class mixes in new group setups)

Population imbalance needs addressing
(not by making the underPop realm OP, as they have in the past), it would be
too impractical to offer people the 'equivalent' char (level, RR, item template,
ML, CL etc on a different realm) - so how could they do it ?

perhaps give 1-month window offers where you can /level40 chars in the
underpopulated realms. Perhaps free trials with the ability to /level45 or even
/level50 1 char on the account (actually this would be more like an incentive
to draw new players to the game).

Make RR 1-2-3-4 easier to reach (yes I know it's easy to get for people who
have already played the game) but 30 RA points would mean that they would
at least feel they are starting to become competitive. Perhaps do this by
dropping the RP's required to achieve RR1-4, OR by turning a 'flag' on that
checks to see if you are under a certain number of RP's and multiply the RP's
you recieve by a modifier.

Make the ML's even easier - perhaps do-able by a group (heresy - yes I know)
so that small groups of friends can go through them together. Perhaps with
the exception of ML9 or 10 so there is still an 'epic' feel about it.

For those that like BG or epic raids, upgrade Sidi drops, mobs and AI to make
exisiting game zones like Sidi and Krondon enjoyable (and worthwhile) again.

Introduce an in-game equivalent to Teamspeak or Ventrilo.

All this would allow more players to reach 50, ML10, CL5, templated more
accessable, as well as RR4 - would mean that going from nothing to minimally
competitive wouldn't be a 3-4 month process for a casual player. In-game
voice-comms (DDO, CS:S, BF2) are common and make a HUGE difference.
Imagine being a noob, and joining a group - all of a sudden you can hear
and speak (by default) as soon as you join, would make both RvR and PvE
much more enjoyable, productive etc...

Mythic need to come up with something that will draw players back to DAoC
(not more PvE), so it needs to accentuate their biggest asset - the best PvP
aspect of any MMORPG. What could they do to make RvR even more appealing?


And of course - more widespread advertising from GOA...

any ideas ?

 

[Aloca]

Hopefully all my old guildies will reunite in WAR.

 

[Asgornius]

Every time a new game comes out, we have a 'DAoC Will Die' thread.

DAoC peaked at 250,000 subscribers (worldwide) in the first half of 2002. Numbers immediately fell off down towards 200,000, but peaked again at 250,000 in autumn 2003, staying at that level for over a year until December 2004 - when Warcraft was launched. Since then, numbers have declined significantly (and steadily) to current levels of about 120,000 subscriptions worldwide. Assume considerably less people playing than that, because of buff-bot accounts etc.

Will Warhammer impact on DAoC in the same war as Warhammer? I'd guess it will take players away, but probably not to the same degree as Warcraft did. I imagine EA/Mythic see Warhammer as a weapon against Warcraft :-p

Asgornius
GM of Blood Eagles (Exc) -- talking with his RL job hat on ;-)

 

[Aloca]

Every time a new game comes out, we have a 'DAoC Will Die' thread.

DAoC peaked at 250,000 subscribers (worldwide) in the first half of 2002. Numbers immediately fell off down towards 200,000, but peaked again at 250,000 in autumn 2003, staying at that level for over a year until December 2004 - when Warcraft was launched. Since then, numbers have declined significantly (and steadily) to current levels of about 120,000 subscriptions worldwide. Assume considerably less people playing than that, because of buff-bot accounts etc.

Will Warhammer impact on DAoC in the same war as Warhammer? I'd guess it will take players away, but probably not to the same degree as Warcraft did. I imagine EA/Mythic see Warhammer as a weapon against Warcraft :-p

Asgornius
GM of Blood Eagles (Exc) -- talking with his RL job hat on ;-)

True but you realy want to play the "old" game when the same company make a new game with similar setup but much better and nicer?

 

[luribeauty]

I cant wait for the same people to start whineing about things on WAR coz there never happy when things change or they have to work to get things, and believe me this will happen.

 

[Laryssa]

148 albs and cenci !

poor luwi

 

[Aloca]

148 albs and cenci !

If censi doesnt start playing WAR i fly over and :touch:

 

[-Hayfever-]

Agree - I don't think anyone truly believes Warhammer Online will be out on time.

As such DAoC has at least a year to two years of life (assuming WHO is a DAoC
killer).

I think that as with anything, job, GF, hobby - that after 4-5 years - people start
to look for something else. Especially as remaining competitive in DAoC is such a
time consuming thing.

They (finally) made the ML's easier, and arti encounters etc etc, they improved the
Epic armour so that low-income chars can walk out in something better than ROGs

A little too late ? yes imho

I think a bunch of people left because the PvE in DAoC is so boring, and that PvE
was ultimately neccessary to get yourself a char that could begin to compete.

Some left because of realm imbalance

Some left because of population imbalance

Some t055ers whine about NF, when in fact NF is almost identical to OF, but the
areas are connected rather than having to sit on a pad for 10 mins to port to
Odins/Emain. You don't get the "old favorite" of logging on, running to AMG to
find it infested with 50 LoS ignoring shrooms, and sit there for 45 mins until
there are enough people on to rush the gate. You get a realmwar map so you
can see where action is.

I don't see what people liked about OF, I thought it was fucking awful. 10 mins
to port was stupid, 1 milegate was stupid.

Ok there were more fights, but then again there were 3k people online at peak
time. Because 80% of the ones in RvR were roaming Emain/Briefine, you got lots
of fights (and surely that's the reason we RvR).

So the only thing I can think of that seems to be the issue is that because all the
lands are connected, people can roam further and the action is more spread out,
combine that with a lower online population and you get fewer fights.

hence - agramon, the new emain. no towers there, no keeps. if thats what you
want - roam there (as people are doing nowadays). there is a non-adding policy
observed by the majority for all you honour-bound leet crews.

The truth is - there aren't enough people online, regular groups running to make
it feel as populated as old emain. and there are certainly far less solo'ers (in hib
and mid).

That said - it's the summer, more people will be back soon.

Fundamentally, for DAoC to have any longevity going forward:

GOA need to invest in getting more players
Realm imbalance needs fixing
Further reduce the amount of PvE time required to be competitive
DAoC community that like fg vs fg, arrange Agramon nights (already being done)
Something similar for solo'ers that like 1 vs 1's

Mythic need to concentrate on fixing RvR issues rather than expansions
(re-dressing existing classes was a very positive step, as people already had
the chars (mothballed), ML'd, ToA'd but not group friendly - with the new class
revisions they have made some classes competitive in groups, so we are now
getting more interesting class mixes in new group setups)

Population imbalance needs addressing
(not by making the underPop realm OP, as they have in the past), it would be
too impractical to offer people the 'equivalent' char (level, RR, item template,
ML, CL etc on a different realm) - so how could they do it ?

perhaps give 1-month window offers where you can /level40 chars in the
underpopulated realms. Perhaps free trials with the ability to /level45 or even
/level50 1 char on the account (actually this would be more like an incentive
to draw new players to the game).

Make RR 1-2-3-4 easier to reach (yes I know it's easy to get for people who
have already played the game) but 30 RA points would mean that they would
at least feel they are starting to become competitive. Perhaps do this by
dropping the RP's required to achieve RR1-4, OR by turning a 'flag' on that
checks to see if you are under a certain number of RP's and multiply the RP's
you recieve by a modifier.

Make the ML's even easier - perhaps do-able by a group (heresy - yes I know)
so that small groups of friends can go through them together. Perhaps with
the exception of ML9 or 10 so there is still an 'epic' feel about it.

For those that like BG or epic raids, upgrade Sidi drops, mobs and AI to make
exisiting game zones like Sidi and Krondon enjoyable (and worthwhile) again.

Introduce an in-game equivalent to Teamspeak or Ventrilo.

All this would allow more players to reach 50, ML10, CL5, templated more
accessable, as well as RR4 - would mean that going from nothing to minimally
competitive wouldn't be a 3-4 month process for a casual player. In-game
voice-comms (DDO, CS:S, BF2) are common and make a HUGE difference.
Imagine being a noob, and joining a group - all of a sudden you can hear
and speak (by default) as soon as you join, would make both RvR and PvE
much more enjoyable, productive etc...

Mythic need to come up with something that will draw players back to DAoC
(not more PvE), so it needs to accentuate their biggest asset - the best PvP
aspect of any MMORPG. What could they do to make RvR even more appealing?


And of course - more widespread advertising from GOA...

any ideas ?

Nice idea and an intresting read!..I agree with these notes and i think it would help DAOC alot! Specially the MLs being group'able but sitl the epic feel with ML9 & 10.

 

[eble]

Every time a new game comes out, we have a 'DAoC Will Die' thread.

DAoC peaked at 250,000 subscribers (worldwide) in the first half of 2002. Numbers immediately fell off down towards 200,000, but peaked again at 250,000 in autumn 2003, staying at that level for over a year until December 2004 - when Warcraft was launched. Since then, numbers have declined significantly (and steadily) to current levels of about 120,000 subscriptions worldwide. Assume considerably less people playing than that, because of buff-bot accounts etc.

Will Warhammer impact on DAoC in the same war as Warhammer? I'd guess it will take players away, but probably not to the same degree as Warcraft did. I imagine EA/Mythic see Warhammer as a weapon against Warcraft :-p

Asgornius
GM of Blood Eagles (Exc) -- talking with his RL job hat on ;-)

where on earth do you get those subs numbers, I haven't seen subs numbers that high for years?

A couple of facts I think might have been overlooked, firstly WOW never has had to date any PVP like DAOC, hence a lot of people tried it and 'some' came back, WHO will have enhanced PVP to WOW (tho it appears they are rushing through some changes or somethig to WOW) so the ones that liked the new look of WOW (check screenies of WHO http://www.warhammeronline.com/english/media/screenshots/) will love WHO and its not a cartoon and will have PVP from the start.

Second and probably most important to us left playing DAOC, how quickly you all forgot EA has bought Mythic, dont think for one second they will worry about stopping DAOC servers once 'someone' deems its no longer viable, DAOC will be keep ticking along until WHO arrives, if that takes off as expected (could be a pile of shite) then Mythic resources would go to WHO and not us I'm afraid.

Interesting times ahead.

Eble

 

[eble]

finally found some links of graphic comparisons