DAOC Expansion: Shrouded Isles Information

[Lanceloc]

I thought I'd post some very interesting information I found on the IanStorm DAOC website about the DAOC Expansion to be released in December. The website is here http://www.ianstorm.com/camelot/

Dark Age of Camelot Roundup Notes!
- Posted By Jagmas - 2:31:41 AM

Hey folks. I have a quick update regarding DAOC's expansion Shrouded Isles. This is information that was shown to us yesterday. More will be coming soon!!

Shrouded Isles will feature an updated graphical engine (using NetImmerse 4.x)
There will be three new island continents available.
There will be three new playable races and six new character classes (two for each realm).

NetImmerse 4.x Series Details


* Will help keep Camelot fresh.
* Faster framerate which will provide more onscreen characters at a time.
* Utilize on card texture management and mipmapping of newer video cards.
* Monster and player animations will be markedly smoother with the animation blending. The example we were given was that animations and transitions between them would be seamless.
* Water effects will have ripples and players will be able to leave wakes. Players will also have with the ability to go underwater in new areas.
* Cliffs and more vertical terrain.
* Reflective surfaces such as ice/water world areas.

3 New Continents Overview


* One continent per realm.
* Six zones per isle.
* One major city per isle.
* At least two dungeons per isle.
* New quests.
* New monster models.

Hibernia Continent - Island of Hy Brasil

* Was described as a wooded paradise.
* It is home to the Sylvan, who are teachers of nature lore to the Celts and Firebolg's.
* It has been recently devestated by attack of the Formorians, a race of evil demon like creatures.
* Sylvan will be the new playable race for Hibernia.

Albion Continent - Island of Avalon

* The former home of learned Avalonians.
* Island has been recently invaded by the Drakoran, half man, half dragons.
* As a result Avalon city has been reduced to smoking ruin.
* Drakoran are in league with Morgana Le Fey.

Midgard Continent - Island of Aegir

* Ancient home of the troll fathers, they are the mythic precursor of trolls and kobolds.
* Aegir has been invaded by the Morvaltar, a prehistoric human race wiped out by the troll fathers.

There will be more to come soon!

 

[Lanceloc]

some more ....

Dark Age of Camelot Roundup Notes Continued
- Posted By Jagmas - 12:08:47 AM

Here's another small update from the notes I had. Please note, all information contained here and in the prevous update can change on a whim or could even be possibly bad information depending on my state of mind at the time. =)

Seriously though, please remember that this information is not something set in stone until final release and everyone is happy.

Playable Races

Hibernia - Sylvan
From the Isle of Hy Brasil, the Sylvan show a special affinity with plants. Tall and slender, the Sylvan have barklike skin and their hair colors are from the natural colors of trees.

Midgard - Valkyn
The Valkyn resemble prehistoric humans who worship the earth mother. They were described as a breakaway clan of Morvaltar (hope I spelled it right) and are characterized as being sinewy and dextorous.

Albion - Inconnu
Inconnu are small gremlin like albino creatures who are servant of Arawn. They were described as having a natural affinity to the dead.

Player Classes

Six total new classes.

Two per realm.

New classes are a mix of melee, spellcasting and hybrids.

Hibernia Classes

Animist - can be considered good all around spellcasters with direct damage spells. They also specialize in plants.

Valewalker - didn't get much on this class, but can basically be considered melee mage.

Midgard Classes

Bonedancer - primary cloth armored class that can reanimate the skeletal remains of animals and use them as pets.

Savage - described as a light tank that can use the hand to hand combat skill.

Albion Classes

Necromancer - described as a chain armor wearing cleric of Arawn. Able to specialize in 1h slash weapons with undead pets, life transfers, and life taps.

Reaver - didn't get much here. =(


I want to give special thanks to Mark Jacobs for putting together a great roundtable, Matt Firor for taking time out to chat and Scott Jennings for also taking time out and providing timely information.

 

[Lanceloc]

And finally!

Camelot Round Table Report
- Posted By Auric - 10:43:45 PM

Mythic Entertainment held their first Camelot Players Luncheon this past weekend in Washington D.C. and we can safely tell you it was a success. The day started with a keynote from Mark Jacobs (the President of Mythic) the company and its background, along with comments on its future. Then came the goodies, a slideshow presentation that overviewed the following: The new Expansion, the new Renderer, the new Races, the new Classes, and the two new Skills: Spellcrafting and Alchemy.

The New Rendering System

They revved up the Expansion on the projectors to show us what Camelot Hills will look like with the new Renderer featured in the expansion. Even in the original lands, the new effects were evident. Rippling water (even a wake when your character wades through it) and more detailed trees showed off just a few of the new perks to the current lands. One of the nicest updates I saw was the Animation Blending. This allows your character to seamlessly switch between states without appearing to just ‘pop’ into place. Going into combat mode was very smooth and not choppy as previously experienced. Even while running you character will react to spells and attacks without breaking the running animation.

Newer lands & scenery will include two layer textures which will allow for more detailed environments. Examples of this might be hieroglyphs, scratches left on the walls from a mysterious creature, etc. Some of this was shown in a new underground city that will be included in the expansion.

Then we got to see the new reflective aspects of the expansion through the ice dungeon that will also be included. The floor sparkled with life, reflecting the cave walls as you walked through. Transparent stalactites hung from the ceiling, obscuring your vision down the cave. Some very nice eye candy was that of a fossilized dragon contained within the dungeon itself. Many ‘ooooh’s and ‘ahhhhh’s could be heard in the crowd. Great stuff.

The update to the rendering engine will also allow Mythic to add more jagged terrain than presently exists in the current lands. Think of cliffs, steep mountain sides, rather than the rolling hills that we all know and love. Cliffs will even offer limited climbing in certain spots. Imagine a bandit camp up on top of a mesa, and the only way to get there might be to scale up. Nifty.

Spellcrafting
The Art of Imbuing

You will not be able to Train in Spellcrafting if you already possess a Crafting Skill. Mythic has already announced they will be allowing you to remove/change your skill slots (reseting all of that skill to zero) in order to aquire one of the two new crafts. It was said Spellcrafting will only be available to pure casters.

The art of imbuing will affect: stats, skills, resists, hit points, powers, magic bonus and special recipes that can be added to player crafted items. The same caps that current affect the player, will still apply with any imbued player items, though it will be possible to make items of up to 105% quality. In theory, it will most likely be up to 50% cheaper to make/craft your own items, rather than purchase them. There are 10 gem material types that *should* never cost more than 20 gold.

Example of items needed to Imbue and item:

- Leviathan Blood
- Draconic Fire
- Ground Giant Bone
- Essence of Life
- Pal Gem
- Mon Gem

Example Recipe:

- Imperfect Fire Essence Gem (Str 10)
- Imperfect Pal Gem (Material 5)
- 17 Magical Dusts, Essence of Life
- 5 Tempers, Draconic Fire
(can be placed in any item with a vessel cap of 7 or better)
- Total Cost: 2 Gold, 85 Silver, 60 Copper

All low end Alchemy and Spellcrafting ingredients will be available at Merchants and NPCs (Dropped)… All high end ingredients will be dropped by NPC Mobs.

Spellcrafting will only allow four slots for gems, and capped but the number of points available to that item. (Example: An item may have only 21 points to use, and one gem might cost 13, etc).

We really liked what we saw, to the point that one of our group (whom had stopped playing) was getting excited about playing again because of the potential.

Alchemy
The Art of Transmutation

Ahhh… the art of mixing potions, making mushroom clouds and the mortar and pestle. This skill craft will allow you to produce: Dyes, Poisons, Magic Potions/Poisons, Procs, Particle Effects and Special Recipes. Potion power will always be lower than personal buffs. Mythic mentioned that Alchemy will be available to hybrid characters.

Dye and poisons will be available at a low level skill, which means 1-600 (all other will be above this).

Examples: Poisons will need:

- Herb or Animal Component
- Binding Agent
- Vile
- Mortar and Pestle

Magic potions will need:

- Herb or Animal Component
- Reagents
- Vile
- Mortar and Pestle

Alchemy will be restricted by money available to the player.

The Art of Camelot

During the first session we attended, there were many questions from players regarding many details of the current game. Some tid bits:

“Will there be any new helmets” - There will be new helmets.

“Can there be a /hood command or something to allow you to raise and lower your hoods?” - Has been on fix list for sometime but is always pushed back. The bottom line was ‘eventually’

Some comments were made as to the texture quality of some of the epic armors. Why some looked awesome, and others sub par. Despite Mythic agreeing, Epic Armor art will most likely not change as there are too many things on the to-do list.

The dreaded question of having a white dye was brought up as well. While they said that there is almost no chance of white coming in the future, they *are* looking for ways to make dyes better. A wedding gown robe was mentioned as a possibility for the future.

The Guild Housing was briefly discussed and we discovered that most of the Housing Art is done, and that there will room for Guild Emblems to be introduced in Guild Housing. They like the idea of Guild Banners on the war field, and it was on the wish list.

General Updates Coming

During the first session Mythic mentioned that one of their current teams will be working on RvR combat. They would like to lesson the affects of mezz and stun to allowing RvR to last longer. There will also be a new dungeon that will be RvR only. Entrances and exits will be from the frontier lands. They will be primarily RvR and not PvE but that has not been finalized (Would be neat if it was both).

Fletching:Bolts are coming soon! (There was much rejoicing)

In Closing

Plans for beta will be late summer and a release for the expansion is scheduled in six months. We personally can’t wait. Mythic was a gracious host and refreshingly honest about any and all topics discussed. We look forward to the future of Dark Age of Camelot and Mythic Entertainment.

Vivant!

 

[Tesla Monkor]

Nitpicking:

* Aegir has been invaded by the Morvaltar, a prehistoric human race wiped out by the troll fathers.

For a wiped-out race they sure are good at invading. ;D

 

[Lanceloc]

I just wanna see some pics of the new engine.

 

[Lanceloc]

Theres some more information here http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=32152623

 

[SFXman]

Yup, read all that now... thank you VERY much for the link! No time to comment on stuff now... but some of it was awesome shit!