Roo Stercogburn
Resident Freddy
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2003
- Messages
- 4,486
Well been playing a few weeks now since reactivating. I didn't use the 8-day thing. I seem to remember an email some time ago but I binned this. This will be old news to many players and a dreadful read for doomsayers or those without a lot of coffee to help them through it. If you feel a need to scream then hurry along to offtopic, there's some fun stuff there.
Anyway. What's hot and what's not...
New PvE content...
-------------------
I'm finding a reasonable amount of new content. A lot of it is minor variations on the same old lvl X mobs in camps - effectively same thing, different skin. Some of it is mobs that do strange and unexpected things (nearly got owned by a grey last night. Very funny and I was impressed at the change. More of this type of thing please).
The Darkness Rising quest line. Best PvE thing in DAoC ever...but too short. If Mythic were testing the waters with instances and more involving quest chains I hope they remember this for WAR. This was simply the best PvE experience there has been to date in DAoC. There just wasn't enough of it.
Difficulty adjusted dungeons: two thumbs way way up.
Task dungeons: take the tedium of mob camping and put it in an instanced dungeon. Nice idea as it cuts out a lot of running around. Its good as far as it goes, but it might be interesting to take this a step further and have a variety of quests in these places. Again, can be done from a random selection of the usual suspects - escort, kill x type, retrieve x from mob y, etc, but fundamentally its good. Just needs taken a stage further for more variation. Randomise the layouts too please. Another thing would be to put in AI controlled group that needs help battling through to a specific mob or goal. (Heh have one turn on the group later on for more chaos). Actually I can think of a way to implement whodunnit type instances for some fun based on this.
Basically these levelling places are a good start.
Bonus XP for already having a lvl50. <claps approval>
Bonus XP for just about everything if your guild is busy on the frontiers. Excellent. Cash to guild when you kill mobs: awesome.
I didn't see any bonus XP for having an SM called Roo but I'm sure Mythic are already hard at work on this. I look forward to the patch notes.
Realm travel - oh sweet joy. Teleporters to many places, boat as well as horse routes for variation. Catacombs links between many dungeons. This is a lot better than it used to be. Perhaps make the skalds at the various in-realm towns able to provide a speed buff (or is this available? I wasn't too thorough checking this). I remember in a couple of SI Areas there were flying mount taxis, I think some more of this could have been done in places.
Bin the ticket system though. The interface should be streamlined so you just click and go, none of this intermediate step messing around with tickets.
If a bit more variation was wanted, then sometimes have a music class be the taxi so insted of running along on a mount you could have a skald/minstrel/bard run your char to a place. This is also a good way to have them give a running commentary on the areas to new players. Since these fellows tend to be lurking around bindstones these days thats the obvious starting point. Music classes, not players lurking around bindtsones that is
Map & Warmap. Yay. This is good. Better in fact in many ways than the mapping system in WoW. It would be nice if it was zoomable and you could tuck it away in the corner of your screen rather than dominating it. If this was done it would be even better. Works in most instances. This also, is very good. It could be made a little clearer on the warmap which keeps can be teleported to. Just a quick aid and a small point. Experienced/hardcore players will know this by rote.
Needs a little work...
--------------------
Lvl4. Er, hello? Someone find a dev and administer the wet kipper of doom. Lvls1-3 tick along and then lvl4 is the same deathfest it has always been. I just don't understand it. This isn't a learning curve for new players: its a barrier. The free level thing takes care of it if you wait a day but dear god I thought the balance issues for this level would have been sorted long ago.
Pet & Mob pathing. Find the aforementioned dev and get something tactical and nuclear shaped. Mobs hiding in walls and fighting pets. For example - pets running the long way round Fensalir Faste and through walls and pulling half the mob camp. These are fundamentals that should have been fixed a long time ago. There's no excuse for still having basic programming mistakes like this in a game that is over 6 years old and sees ongoing development.
Zoning. Hrm. I realise this is a holdover from the original game but its one of the things that shows DAoC's age. Perhaps more judicious use of Gothis and channelers to cut down on zoning steps. For instance, make it possible to go straight to the throne room instance instead of having to zone into Jord, then zone into instance. Same goes for border keep gothis. One outside please that can take you straight to your capital city or home would be appreciated. I fully accept that zoning may be impossible to remove due to the original programming, but its irritation factor can be reduced.
Interface. Its getting a revamp I know, but its one of the most immediate things that shows DAoC's age. Its still better than the likes of SWG etc but needs polishing, possibly even some Mr. Muscle. Camera control especially needs some loving and access to fix any mistakes made to be easier and more intuitive. No command that exists in game should be only accessable from command strokes. Anything and everything should be accessable from one menu or another, even if you have to drill down a few levels to get to it. Target aquisition in particular needs some work as this is rather dreadful compared to other games.
Buffbots. Oh dear. Still not been properly addressed this. I notice various attempts to keep those extra accounts open while still making non buffbotted players willing to play. The fact remains that asking a customer to pay for two accounts to enjoy an equal playing experience is just plain wrong. It will never be fixed in DAoC properly especially as that extra revenue is crucial with population being down, we can only hope come WAR Mythic have learned their lesson.
-------
<Deep breath> RvR...
I can't really say much about the updated RVR content as yet. I've been out to play a few times but my gear is woefully out of date and its almost embaressing trying to fight with current setup so I've been rather focused on the PvE side of things for now. Its good to see stealthers aren't thte wtfpwn classes they used to be and that there is more variation in what people choose to play. Actually I've been turned down for groups because I don't have a buffbot or access to one. If Mythic (or GOA) are serious about getting people to reactivate I think we may have found a stumbling block for many
Couple of things I'd like to see...
--------------------------------
Customisable epic armour
This is purely a personal thing. I realise many will just roll their eyes. From a roleplay point of view it would be very nice. Epic armours can be almost a class defining thing - a badge of office, a uniform, an strong visual ******d sign of what that character is. As updates come and go, its left behind. Very far behind and as such undesirable in most situations. It would be nice if epic armours could be customised for abilities or imbued with the abilities of another armour. For instance, take your old SM epic chestpiece and imbue a nice ToA armour you've had into it. Effectively all you are doing is giving the ToA armour the epic skin of the SM armour and then destroying the original armour piece. Same goes for crafted. Graft the epic SM skin onto the crafted armour and destroy the original epic piece.
This is the kind of thing a roleplayer would love
New skins on housing. A little more variation in the housing market - a couple of different shapes of house at each size increment and more control of interior walls/floors. The Midgard housing espcially looks like a student's fleapit after they've just been evicted. Medieval is fine, primeval less so.
-------
Enough rambling. I've deliberately avoided class-specific issues and focused only on general gameworld/mechanics/gameplay from what I've found.
There are some very nice things in DAoC now. Despite the less than great things I've mentioned, reloading this game has overall been a very positive experience so far.
Anyway. What's hot and what's not...
New PvE content...
-------------------
I'm finding a reasonable amount of new content. A lot of it is minor variations on the same old lvl X mobs in camps - effectively same thing, different skin. Some of it is mobs that do strange and unexpected things (nearly got owned by a grey last night. Very funny and I was impressed at the change. More of this type of thing please).
The Darkness Rising quest line. Best PvE thing in DAoC ever...but too short. If Mythic were testing the waters with instances and more involving quest chains I hope they remember this for WAR. This was simply the best PvE experience there has been to date in DAoC. There just wasn't enough of it.
Difficulty adjusted dungeons: two thumbs way way up.
Task dungeons: take the tedium of mob camping and put it in an instanced dungeon. Nice idea as it cuts out a lot of running around. Its good as far as it goes, but it might be interesting to take this a step further and have a variety of quests in these places. Again, can be done from a random selection of the usual suspects - escort, kill x type, retrieve x from mob y, etc, but fundamentally its good. Just needs taken a stage further for more variation. Randomise the layouts too please. Another thing would be to put in AI controlled group that needs help battling through to a specific mob or goal. (Heh have one turn on the group later on for more chaos). Actually I can think of a way to implement whodunnit type instances for some fun based on this.
Basically these levelling places are a good start.
Bonus XP for already having a lvl50. <claps approval>
Bonus XP for just about everything if your guild is busy on the frontiers. Excellent. Cash to guild when you kill mobs: awesome.
I didn't see any bonus XP for having an SM called Roo but I'm sure Mythic are already hard at work on this. I look forward to the patch notes.
Realm travel - oh sweet joy. Teleporters to many places, boat as well as horse routes for variation. Catacombs links between many dungeons. This is a lot better than it used to be. Perhaps make the skalds at the various in-realm towns able to provide a speed buff (or is this available? I wasn't too thorough checking this). I remember in a couple of SI Areas there were flying mount taxis, I think some more of this could have been done in places.
Bin the ticket system though. The interface should be streamlined so you just click and go, none of this intermediate step messing around with tickets.
If a bit more variation was wanted, then sometimes have a music class be the taxi so insted of running along on a mount you could have a skald/minstrel/bard run your char to a place. This is also a good way to have them give a running commentary on the areas to new players. Since these fellows tend to be lurking around bindstones these days thats the obvious starting point. Music classes, not players lurking around bindtsones that is
Map & Warmap. Yay. This is good. Better in fact in many ways than the mapping system in WoW. It would be nice if it was zoomable and you could tuck it away in the corner of your screen rather than dominating it. If this was done it would be even better. Works in most instances. This also, is very good. It could be made a little clearer on the warmap which keeps can be teleported to. Just a quick aid and a small point. Experienced/hardcore players will know this by rote.
Needs a little work...
--------------------
Lvl4. Er, hello? Someone find a dev and administer the wet kipper of doom. Lvls1-3 tick along and then lvl4 is the same deathfest it has always been. I just don't understand it. This isn't a learning curve for new players: its a barrier. The free level thing takes care of it if you wait a day but dear god I thought the balance issues for this level would have been sorted long ago.
Pet & Mob pathing. Find the aforementioned dev and get something tactical and nuclear shaped. Mobs hiding in walls and fighting pets. For example - pets running the long way round Fensalir Faste and through walls and pulling half the mob camp. These are fundamentals that should have been fixed a long time ago. There's no excuse for still having basic programming mistakes like this in a game that is over 6 years old and sees ongoing development.
Zoning. Hrm. I realise this is a holdover from the original game but its one of the things that shows DAoC's age. Perhaps more judicious use of Gothis and channelers to cut down on zoning steps. For instance, make it possible to go straight to the throne room instance instead of having to zone into Jord, then zone into instance. Same goes for border keep gothis. One outside please that can take you straight to your capital city or home would be appreciated. I fully accept that zoning may be impossible to remove due to the original programming, but its irritation factor can be reduced.
Interface. Its getting a revamp I know, but its one of the most immediate things that shows DAoC's age. Its still better than the likes of SWG etc but needs polishing, possibly even some Mr. Muscle. Camera control especially needs some loving and access to fix any mistakes made to be easier and more intuitive. No command that exists in game should be only accessable from command strokes. Anything and everything should be accessable from one menu or another, even if you have to drill down a few levels to get to it. Target aquisition in particular needs some work as this is rather dreadful compared to other games.
Buffbots. Oh dear. Still not been properly addressed this. I notice various attempts to keep those extra accounts open while still making non buffbotted players willing to play. The fact remains that asking a customer to pay for two accounts to enjoy an equal playing experience is just plain wrong. It will never be fixed in DAoC properly especially as that extra revenue is crucial with population being down, we can only hope come WAR Mythic have learned their lesson.
-------
<Deep breath> RvR...
I can't really say much about the updated RVR content as yet. I've been out to play a few times but my gear is woefully out of date and its almost embaressing trying to fight with current setup so I've been rather focused on the PvE side of things for now. Its good to see stealthers aren't thte wtfpwn classes they used to be and that there is more variation in what people choose to play. Actually I've been turned down for groups because I don't have a buffbot or access to one. If Mythic (or GOA) are serious about getting people to reactivate I think we may have found a stumbling block for many
Couple of things I'd like to see...
--------------------------------
Customisable epic armour
This is purely a personal thing. I realise many will just roll their eyes. From a roleplay point of view it would be very nice. Epic armours can be almost a class defining thing - a badge of office, a uniform, an strong visual ******d sign of what that character is. As updates come and go, its left behind. Very far behind and as such undesirable in most situations. It would be nice if epic armours could be customised for abilities or imbued with the abilities of another armour. For instance, take your old SM epic chestpiece and imbue a nice ToA armour you've had into it. Effectively all you are doing is giving the ToA armour the epic skin of the SM armour and then destroying the original armour piece. Same goes for crafted. Graft the epic SM skin onto the crafted armour and destroy the original epic piece.
This is the kind of thing a roleplayer would love
New skins on housing. A little more variation in the housing market - a couple of different shapes of house at each size increment and more control of interior walls/floors. The Midgard housing espcially looks like a student's fleapit after they've just been evicted. Medieval is fine, primeval less so.
-------
Enough rambling. I've deliberately avoided class-specific issues and focused only on general gameworld/mechanics/gameplay from what I've found.
There are some very nice things in DAoC now. Despite the less than great things I've mentioned, reloading this game has overall been a very positive experience so far.
