Hickman on WAR and DAoC

[Tallen]

Lots of Warhammer wiffle, but theres a few lines about DAoC, the last paragraph being the most interresting, if not that illunminating.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?game=11&feature=3534&page=1&bhcp=1

 

[Pertan]

Hope it means something, perhaps with jacobs gone they can actually do something good, don't think so though

 

[Ctuchik]

ooh a sequel... well maybe now when EA is in charge it may even be possible..

hell i'd even take a rewrite of DAoC up to todays standard and relaunch it..


actually i think i'd prefer the second option. a revamp of DAoC is probably to be preferred over a DAoC 2 that most likely wont be the same.

 

[Thadius]

Simple, scratch TOA, bring back old frontiers and you will have a playable game.

Yes there will be vampires and stuff, but they should be hit with a nerfstick!

I liked to play the classic servers when they were about, although it just didnt seem right in new frontiers.

 

[Gahn]

Update graphic engine with revamp of old frontiers (all connected toghether).
All mobs in PvP area neutral.
Revamp of RAs.
Rebalance of some classes (Warcocks springs to mind, but Reaver with actual heal procs + loltap styles = laughable also [same goes with comparable classes], Vamps brought in line etc).
Put valuable equipment in Tradeskills (with revamping of secondary skills), Artifact Crafting!.
Relics to give different bonuses not applicable directly in PvP (Maybe Money + Access to special goodies).
Get rid of super Drops from Epic Mobs / timesink to get ready to RvR, give PvE type ppl titles/Tome Unlocks to play with.

Just a quick list outta my mind.

 

[CorNokZ]

All mobs in PvP area neutral.

You're a natural hib.. Surely you'd still keep fins agro?

 

[Genedril]

All mobs in PvP area neutral.

Ahh the abuse that you could put that to - It'd be great .

 

[GReaper]

It would be nice to have more meaningful and regular updates again. Ever since the big crunch where Mythic put in a huge amount of effort to get WAR ready it seemed like most of the updates have been little tweaks.

 

[Cadelin]

There is nothing on DaoC. Its the interviewer saying things and him "smirking"

Also what he says about WAR completely misses the mark. The 3 big mistakes were:
The first 10 levels were too easy?!
The mail system wasn't good enough?!
There was no economy?!

Those first few levels should be quick. They are only useful for brand new players to find their feet. Most experienced gamers can handle more than 1 spell/ability and don't need the first levels to drag out.

People didn't play together because there was no need to. Not because the mail system was a bit crap...

The final point is also part of a much larger problem. There was and still is no end game. In most games the economy is run by high level players farming useful things etc The fact that there was no end game meant that there was nothing useful to with your cash.

 

[Tallen]

There is nothing on DaoC. Its the interviewer saying things and him "smirking"

Oh dear, come on now, he does talk about DAoC.

He implies more than he actually says, but he does say they are hiring more people for the DAoC team which is encouraging. Plenty of people, myself included, thought they were downsizing the DAoC staff, this might not be the case.

 

[Ctuchik]

There is nothing on DaoC. Its the interviewer saying things and him "smirking"

and him smirking could just as well mean that they are working on something big, just that he cant actually say anything yet.

 

[CorNokZ]

a smirk can also mean you buy the cute girl in the bar drinks all night only to go home alone..

Don't get your hopes up

 

[- English -]

YouTube - DAoC Albion Frontier and mainland in Crysis Sandbox

old but on topic

 

[- English -]

YouTube - DAoC Midgard frontier in Crysis Sandbox

 

[Cadelin]

Oh dear, come on now, he does talk about DAoC.

He implies more than he actually says, but he does say they are hiring more people for the DAoC team which is encouraging. Plenty of people, myself included, thought they were downsizing the DAoC staff, this might not be the case.

He says nothing and he doesn't imply anything either.

You can hire one person but if two people leave you are still downsizing.

 

[civy]

Bottom line is Mythics revenue streams are drying up. As I see it they have three options

1. Try to increase existing revenue
2. Develop a new revenue stream
3. Go bust

Warhammer while new is beyond repair IMO. Too many peeps have had a bad experience with it to give it another go.

UO is old with a dedicated player base. I've never played it but its numbers seem to be solid and peeps only leave when they die

DAoC again is old. Players look back on it as the best MMO they have played but most wont return to the game in its current state. Mythic took it down a road that alienated most of the players.

Their best bet for survival IMO is max return for least investment. Rewind DAoC back to its high point, give it a full face lift, new gfx, new UI, improved net code and release it as a new game. Those of us that have played it in the past will see it for what it is but, we are a small percentage of the MMO community now, a large part of which is always looking for a new game.

 

[Tallen]

He says nothing and he doesn't imply anything either.

You can hire one person but if two people leave you are still downsizing.

Yes, he does. You can't say he says nothing, then in your next sentance accept that he actually has said something.

Obviously it's not a massive statement, no one is saying it is, but since the launch of Warhammer there has been very little from EA on the future of DAoC. While this is not an admission of anything concrete, the implication from the rest of the article is clear that they have some kind of plans for the future of the game.

A LOT of players thought Ywain was the end of it and there would be no more development, we were being put out to pasture until the population finally dwindled to an unsustainable level. If nothing else this implies that maybe, just maybe, there is a future for DAoC. Remember it's still arguably the only mmorpg to ever get pvp/rvr right, perhaps they screwed the pooch with ToA and NF, but they had it right at some point.

I understand downsizing, if your downsizing generally you don't replace those who leave unless they are key staff. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, again it's the implication im talking about, why say they are hiring staff to the DAoC team when in fact all they are doing is replacing lost staff? Maybe it's to be deliberately misleading, but maybe not. I don't know for certain, and neither do you.

 

[Cadelin]

Yes, he does. You can't say he says nothing, then in your next sentance accept that he actually has said something.

Clearly he speaks, I am not trying to say he did the whole interview in sign language but he doesn't actually say anything concrete. (or he could have said nothing and we wouldn't be any worse off.) The point is in 6 months+ if we come back and nothing new has happened we can't say: "Hey you promised us you were working on something new!"

Obviously it's not a massive statement, no one is saying it is, but since the launch of Warhammer there has been very little from EA on the future of DAoC. While this is not an admission of anything concrete, the implication from the rest of the article is clear that they have some kind of plans for the future of the game.

A LOT of players thought Ywain was the end of it and there would be no more development, we were being put out to pasture until the population finally dwindled to an unsustainable level. If nothing else this implies that maybe, just maybe, there is a future for DAoC. Remember it's still arguably the only mmorpg to ever get pvp/rvr right, perhaps they screwed the pooch with ToA and NF, but they had it right at some point.

I understand downsizing, if your downsizing generally you don't replace those who leave unless they are key staff. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't, again it's the implication im talking about, why say they are hiring staff to the DAoC team when in fact all they are doing is replacing lost staff? Maybe it's to be deliberately misleading, but maybe not. I don't know for certain, and neither do you.

He implies things because it doesn't cost Mythic anything and keeps some players happy. If he said, "we have no plans for DaoC other than to keep the server up and running", some people would leave there and then. If he says something like: "People often say that they prefer the Old Frontiers and that it would be really good to put this back." Some people will keep on playing simply because they believe that OF is going to be re-introduced.

Look at it this way, if Mythic were re-investing in DaoC they would tell us. If they were expanding the development team in order to implement new things and get old players back and new players in we would get emails, there would be grab bags, there would be all sorts of information. This hasn't happened so don't expect anything new.

 

[Fast]

There is nothing on DaoC. Its the interviewer saying things and him "smirking"

Also what he says about WAR completely misses the mark. The 3 big mistakes were:
The first 10 levels were too easy?!
The mail system wasn't good enough?!
There was no economy?!

Na the biggest mistake was here "sadly the video interview was lost"

But ya lets pray for daoc origins, daoc gfx upgrade, daoc2 because daoc will prolly still be making money when WAR servers turn to dyvet.

 

[Ctuchik]

perhaps they screwed the pooch with ToA and NF, but they had it right at some point.

i never really saw the issues most ppl have with NF, sure i have very fond memories of OF aswell, and i loved to camp MG's in a RR defense/attack.

but for the most part i think NF is a great thing as it takes away all the bottlenecks and adds some strategic value to the zones.

in OF the only strategy you needed to have were to be more then the enemy at a MG.

and the fact that ppl arent taking advantage of it cant be blamed on Mythic.

 

[Thadius]

Its the fact a lot of people want(and still do), insta rvr action.

With OF, you could simply port to emain/odins and run around and find action.

New Frontiers is not like that, granted you can port to specific keeps, but you still have to run a fair bit to get any action. People did try the insta rvr, especially on dyvet when it was starting to go tits up, but that was ruined by ac raids

 

[Ctuchik]

Look at it this way, if Mythic were re-investing in DaoC they would tell us.

and they probably will, when they have a readymade plan. for all we know, it might aswell be something thats just up for discussion at the moment. and mythic NEVER mention something if its that early.

they give hints yes, but they dont say anything concrete about it.

and even when they do have a proper plan they dont say anything for a while anyway. i mean, they never announced the expansions untill they were well underway.

so why should this be different?

 

[civy]

i never really saw the issues most ppl have with NF, sure i have very fond memories of OF aswell, and i loved to camp MG's in a RR defense/attack.

but for the most part i think NF is a great thing as it takes away all the bottlenecks and adds some strategic value to the zones.

in OF the only strategy you needed to have were to be more then the enemy at a MG.

and the fact that ppl arent taking advantage of it cant be blamed on Mythic.

I’m not sure why but NF seemed to take away a sense of ownership. Maybe I’m just a masochist but, scouting the frontier was a large part of the game for me. It just didn’t seem to be worth it in NF. It could be the removal of choke points or the porting to distant keeps I’m not sure.

Then the relic system was a backward step, in NF its more like warhammer fort takes, a steady push, there was no surprise and it seamed to me little planning.
OF on the other hand was a strategic strike. I remember well the planning that went into RR’s. Softening up keeps in advance, moving large numbers through the frontiers without being seen, guilds each with their own task, guild A take this keep and group B that keep etc. All hitting at the same time.
A call to arms in OF when a relic raid was discovered was something to behold, never in a MMO have I seen a realm muster for the sole act of defending “my precious”. Dragon and SI raids would be abandoned on a rumour, In NF it was meh we may come when we have finished.

OF keeps while technically inferior to NF keeps were just more fun for me. I preferred the more simplistic approach. Find a unclaimed keep and 2 or 3 peeps could take it. You paid a price for leaving things vulnerable.

Maybe I’ve put on my rose tinted glasses again or I just couldn’t adapt to NF. When they opened NF on the beta server I bitched and whined and then started my hunt for a new MMO. NF owes me 2 years that it forced me to spend in WoW pveing

 

[Thadius]

Aye, another time a alb relic attack was when all the prominent infiltrators had rams and while the outer door was being taken and all resistance nulified, the infils would set up and start to bash the inner door in a coordinated attack.

 

[GReaper]

OF was all about people and useless siege fluff was kept to a minimum.

If you wanted to defend a keep which was under attack you had to group together and run as quickly as possible. Your group had to rush through the same entrance that the enemy was attacking. You couldn't just port to a nearby keep and take an easy route through a side door. Going solo would probably end up with you being ganked by the attackers.

Emain was perfect for Alb/Mid fights. If Albs got too confident and pushed too far towards MPK then eventually a few groups of Mids would be able to push through and kill those who were too close to MPK. Was a bit sucky for Hibs, but they could always run with Bard speed to Emain!

Fighting other players is more fun than humping towers/keeps all day.

 

[Amphrax]

Just change New Frontiers to Old Frontiers and I'm happy...

I really really really dont wanna start all over again on a new game... well not for the 5th time!!!

 

[Zita]

I think only changing the frontiers back wont be enough. Many people still wouldnt come back. The only way to get DAoC with huge populations again to release it as a new game with advertisment. I'd buy it!

 

[Soazak]

I don't think any of the changes would make a huge difference tbh, I think it just needs advertising (perhaps to the extent WAR was...) and that would bring in players old and new. Plenty of people are happy with NF, the new classes etc, but most of the world doesn't know this game exists

 

[Mauness]

Just change New Frontiers to Old Frontiers and I'm happy...

I really really really dont wanna start all over again on a new game... well not for the 5th time!!!

to be fair, how many people said they wont start again after dyvet died, then they moved to german, then to us etc etc

id love a daoc2, with a new engine and an overhaul of the casting system.

 

[TheBinarySurfer]

I don't see them doing a DAoC 2 - just based on EA's track record in the past and it being a huge and uncertain investment of cash at a time when the gaming industry (like most sectors) is struggling badly.