New Players

Alan

Fledgling Freddie
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On returning to DAOC, ive started a new account, and have to say - Mythic/GoA are not making it easy for new players.

Yes there is a lovely quest that gets you from 1-5 and returns some great equipment, and then you can play with the instance dungeons so leveling is not a problem, but obtaining usefull items is !

Ive leveled with my friend from 5-15 last night using the instance dungeons, in all this time no items dropped, we ended up having to buy L50 equipment from the CM's and have to replace it every 2 leveles due to degrading.
- There is no low level <50 items on the CM's
- There have been no drops in the instance dungeons, just a few pieces of armor with no stats and very poor quality
- Around L12 the instances became much tougher and death rate shot up until we started to use higher AF and DPS, but at the cost of degridation.

So... my question / point
Are we missing something, are there additional quests at say 10, 20, 30 that you can do to obtain a set of armour and weapon - or does the game really see you through to L5 then ignore you until L50 in its current state ?
 

Mauness

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there are the catacomb area quest, which give out some armour/jewels etc, same as around older placer or SI.

Saying that you could also move to salis plains, more fun and you will get armour/wepons drops etc :)

Also found it anoying that nothing drops in a ID, but the money was just enough to buy new armour from a merchant, so guess thats how they planned it
 

old.Whoodoo

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Whats changed since 1.38 there then..nothing, but there is better xp, free levels, better cash dropping and a whole host of easier quests for items in cata, so I cant agree at all here. Compared to the original 1-20 grind, things are far easier, you like many are just too used to having things handed on a plate, the fact you have to buy L50 items to "survive" is laughable.
 

Alan

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old.Whoodoo said:
Whats changed since 1.38 there then..nothing, but there is better xp, free levels, better cash dropping and a whole host of easier quests for items in cata, so I cant agree at all here. Compared to the original 1-20 grind, things are far easier, you like many are just too used to having things handed on a plate, the fact you have to buy L50 items to "survive" is laughable.

I didnt say I purchased L50 items to survive, I just stated that the ID's got harder around L12 and there was insuficient information for a new player to re-kit themselves, and due to the age of DAOC there is little if any low level items on the CM.

Im just looking at this from a new persons prospective (which is what Mythic / GoA appear to want to improve) l

As for things being easier - have you leveled as a new player, with no money, no guild, and only bumping into 2 other people from levels 1-15 : thats a far different matter from 1.38 where the server was teaming with other players.
 

Jeriraa

Fledgling Freddie
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When Catacombs went life I had Arulite dropping rather frequently in task dungeons and could get stuff that way.

But now it seems that there isnt ANY Arulite dropping anymore in task dungeons. Only from the static instances.
 

Espen

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well.. in task-instances you dont get any loot except cash. if you want loot you better head to a static instance and kill there.. they drop aurulite wich you can hand in.. except for that theres several quests you can go through aswell.. http://daoc.warcry.com/index.php/content/quests/ then just put in yer levelthingys and search.. it aint harder then that :)
 

Alan

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Having downloaded cata's and not having a box copy - could anyone give a quick run through ?

I found this post from VN Boards - does this about cover the instancing ? So I could go to Mithra in alb and look for a red line on the map that would take me to a place where drops and auraldite stuff is ?

VNBoards said:
There are two types of instances that I know of so far. One is instanced dungeons. They are instanced areas connected to the 'classic' dungeons we leveled in before, and they are designed for groups...though I was able to kill mobs around the entrance of one with a solo character, and collect some aurulite (what I DO with the aurulite, I don't know yet, heh).

So, you might want to grab a couple of people and head for whatever classic dungeon is right for your level. Once there, check the map, and you'll see a red bar. That's the entrance to that dungeon's instanced area.

The other kind of instance I have found is Task Dungeons. Those are available from level 1 onward. Find the 'Task Master' -- an NPC who I have found right next to the bindstone in my starter town -- click on him, and accept his task
 

Espen

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Tears said:
Having downloaded cata's and not having a box copy - could anyone give a quick run through ?

I found this post from VN Boards - does this about cover the instancing ? So I could go to Mithra in alb and look for a red line on the map that would take me to a place where drops and auraldite stuff is ?
thats the general idea yes :) but im not sure if it works with a standard ui.. try checkin out www.derida.de for that ui... and if youre rolling a toon on Hib Excal (vampiirs are REALLY easy to level up.. specially if youre 2 vampiirs.. ) let me knwo and ill give ya some tips and some cash/rogs..
 

Escape

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/map works with the standard UI. I cant remember if you get dungeon maps too, but if you go into keltoi/mithra, you'll see 2 wooden doors somewhere inside, which you go through to access the instances.

Item/armour drops are still crap though(for new players). There's not enough aurulite dropping to keep all of your armour, weapons and jewelry up to date. The few drops you get in instance dungeons are low quality, so they're useless anyway.


P.S. Three types of instances; Those in the classic dungeons, those from tasks and the dungeons in the Catacombs area.
 

Alan

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Escape said:
/map works with the standard UI. I cant remember if you get dungeon maps too, but if you go into keltoi/mithra, you'll see 2 wooden doors somewhere inside, which you go through to access the instances.

Item/armour drops are still crap though(for new players). There's not enough aurulite dropping to keep all of your armour, weapons and jewelry up to date. The few drops you get in instance dungeons are low quality, so they're useless anyway.


P.S. Three types of instances; Those in the classic dungeons, those from tasks and the dungeons in the Catacombs area.

Well anythings gota be better than merchant 85% stuff :)
 

Fana

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I strongly agree that its hard keeping your equipment even reasonanly up to date before level 40+ or so (when level 50 gear starts to turn red at least) since, as you say, there isnt any to be had.

I started a valkyrie when Cata went live and wanted to exp it oldschool (no bot, no twinking etc), but that quickly failed when i discoverd i could not upgrade my armour and weapons with the means provided for me - my armour would drop to greencon before i had enough money to replace even one part of it from the npc merchants, and i didnt make nearly enough aurulite to be able to buy equipment suitable for my level. Neither was there any lowbie armour on the CM's in the housing zones, just as you say. This problem is even worse after level 25 when there is not even npc nonmagical armour/weapons to buy, only DF and aurulite stuff, which is very hard for groupless newbies to come by.

I ended up twinking from my mains after all.
 

old.Whoodoo

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Tears said:
As for things being easier - have you leveled as a new player, with no money, no guild, and only bumping into 2 other people from levels 1-15 : thats a far different matter from 1.38 where the server was teaming with other players.
Hate to say this but yes, well he is guilded, but has received no items at all from either my alts, or from the guild, totally solo the old fashioned way (heretic btw), so yes its doable. I quest for items, like we used to, and use the cash i get for merchant gear.

Only now at 24 is he wearing anthing from an alt, and thats just aurlite gear for thid.

I agree things area little bad, groups are not easy to come by, but guilds are, and thats the one thing that all new players should be pointed at. Any decent guild will help low players, even if just a little, it all helps.
 

GReaper

Part of the furniture
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This is one area where WoW is far superior to DAoC. A rather large amount of quests in WoW give you some sort of armour/weapon as a reward, usually its nothing uber but something that'll keep you going very nicely in PvE for a few levels. You can also see the reward you'll get BEFORE doing the quest, so you can decide if you need the item or can just skip the quest.

For the solo player, Catacombs possibly makes it a bit awkward to get items. The majority of mini quests only give exp and coin as a reward, as do the task dungeons. Auralite drops from the group instance dungeons, but these are supposed to require 4+ people in a group to do?

One potential idea is for these mini-quests to give players a RoG item which is suited to their class every time they complete them. Nothing too overpowering, just a class specific rog after every quest which will keep their character going. This means Mythic aren't forced to go through all the quests adding loads of items, whilst at the same time giving a nice reward for doing a quest.
 

Iceflower

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A side effect of always being behind with gear when trying to level the oldfashioned way is that you get disgustingly long downtimes after each mob. It feels like you spend 2/3 to 3/4 of the time online watching the healthbar slowly inching its way back to full health. That is one thing you notice immediately after spending some time in WoW land where it is the other way around.

The rog idea was a pretty good one, its disappointing to nail a named one in the instances and only get some coin for your effort.
 

Alan

Fledgling Freddie
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The other point to my first question was information.

There are ways to kit out your character through 10-40 but its hard to find that information in game, you have to trawl forums and community sites. Having an alt is fine as you know where the quests are, but this post is intended to highlight the problem for NEW players.

We managed to do one of the Catacombs dungeons, loads of orange+red mobs and obtained over 300 Aurulite so can use this to equip the characters, but finding this information shouldnt have been so hard :)
 

Alan

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GReaper said:
This is one area where WoW is far superior to DAoC. A rather large amount of quests in WoW give you some sort of armour/weapon as a reward, usually its nothing uber but something that'll keep you going very nicely in PvE for a few levels. You can also see the reward you'll get BEFORE doing the quest, so you can decide if you need the item or can just skip the quest.

For the solo player, Catacombs possibly makes it a bit awkward to get items. The majority of mini quests only give exp and coin as a reward, as do the task dungeons. Auralite drops from the group instance dungeons, but these are supposed to require 4+ people in a group to do?

One potential idea is for these mini-quests to give players a RoG item which is suited to their class every time they complete them. Nothing too overpowering, just a class specific rog after every quest which will keep their character going. This means Mythic aren't forced to go through all the quests adding loads of items, whilst at the same time giving a nice reward for doing a quest.


Or failing that a quest that GoA add in, which could be completed at 10,20,30 to return a set of armour and a weapon - again nothing special, just some 95% RoG stuff.
 

Fana

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Iceflower said:
A side effect of always being behind with gear when trying to level the oldfashioned way is that you get disgustingly long downtimes after each mob. It feels like you spend 2/3 to 3/4 of the time online watching the healthbar slowly inching its way back to full health. That is one thing you notice immediately after spending some time in WoW land where it is the other way around.

Indeed, this is where WoW shines - hardly any downtime in pve.

Mythic really should consider implementing food/drinks in daoc as well, or change Alchemy to be a viable substitute - i tried using health regen pots i twinked down from my alchemist, but they are not very useful since they last a very short time, dont really make alot of difference, are expensive to make for the level they are useful on, and take alot of inventory space.

Ofc, this wouldnt be a problem if there were groups for newbies in this time and age, but sadly enough there arent. DAoC is designed with grouping in mind, whilst WoW is the opposite - its just too bad that in daoc there is no people to group with while in wow there are plenty when its not strictly needed (from 1-60 that is).
 

Illtar

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Fana said:
Indeed, this is where WoW shines - hardly any downtime in pve.

Mythic really should consider implementing food/drinks in daoc as well, or change Alchemy to be a viable substitute - i tried using health regen pots i twinked down from my alchemist, but they are not very useful since they last a very short time, dont really make alot of difference, are expensive to make for the level they are useful on, and take alot of inventory space.

Ofc, this wouldnt be a problem if there were groups for newbies in this time and age, but sadly enough there arent. DAoC is designed with grouping in mind, whilst WoW is the opposite - its just too bad that in daoc there is no people to group with while in wow there are plenty when its not strictly needed (from 1-60 that is).

However..

When you get to max level after a while of leveling, WoW sucks royally becuase they completely screwed over the pvp side of the game, where daoc on the other hand works out rather well.

Other than that People are generally much nicer to each other in daoc, while most people dont give a shit about each other, and use EVERY chance they get to rip off others, by some halfway scam...

Atleast thats my expierence from Ravencrest horde side, where some of the major PvE guilds are the worst arrogant egoistical ***holes ever.
 

Thadius

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Its all this pling

I know its the fastest way for some people but for all those that dont have access to a pl char, this game is long, slow and boring

I havent once been in a exp group with my mincer who is 38 now, mianly been solo and the odd once I was with my cabby friend of mine
 

Dorimor1

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I found the experience leveling old style quite the opposite infact. This was when I first rolled my Warlock, I basically soloed to 12, all I really did was tasks, downtime was no problem at all because I regained power quite quickly, and the mobs dropped like flys. From then on I went to Burial Grounds, I loved the quests, they gave really nice stuff and up to 3.5 bubs, I did all the ones possible, I had the occasional duo, and when solo it was still very easy to drop mobs. Ofcourse from 20+ it was easier to get groups.

I was experienced, so had a vague idea of how to play the class and what to do, so I don't know what it's like for the new player or what in Albion.
 

Fana

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Illtar said:
However..

When you get to max level after a while of leveling, WoW sucks royally becuase they completely screwed over the pvp side of the game, where daoc on the other hand works out rather well.

Other than that People are generally much nicer to each other in daoc, while most people dont give a shit about each other, and use EVERY chance they get to rip off others, by some halfway scam...

Atleast thats my expierence from Ravencrest horde side, where some of the major PvE guilds are the worst arrogant egoistical ***holes ever.

Indeed. And if only DAoC used a few of WoW's pve features (mainly the stuff that minimizes downtime, without using a bot, like food, drinks, bandages and easier access to potions etc) it would beat WoW in every aspect really :) (well maybe not classbalance, but then again daoc is designed with RvR and not PvP in mind).
 

Sharma

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Harder for new players? You're kidding me!

Ok it's probably because I leveled a vampiir but still, I had the easiest time ever leveling it and keeping myself kitted out, it's ok to slow down your leveling a bit farming some aurulite but its easy enough keeping yourself kitted up to the level 30 equip which still lasts a nice amount of time and the bonuses on it are great, once you hit 35 or so, youll have enough cash to buy some really good equipment.

That's how I did it, soloed all the way to 50 on my own with no help, in around 1 month, playtime at 50 was around 7 days..

I think it's really easy to get started now, i'm doing great in my opinion so far with my vamp and im having a great time, i'm not making ToA a grind by taking it as it comes, so far i've done ML1, GoV, SoM and GS, may not seem like a lot but in my opinion it's made it a lot easier for me to get back into DAoC and i'm having tons of fun doing it.

Catacombs has made 1-50 so much less of a grind now.

My 2p.
 

Cavex ElSaviour

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old.Whoodoo said:
Whats changed since 1.38 there then..nothing, but there is better xp, free levels, better cash dropping and a whole host of easier quests for items in cata, so I cant agree at all here. Compared to the original 1-20 grind, things are far easier, you like many are just too used to having things handed on a plate, the fact you have to buy L50 items to "survive" is laughable.


i dont completly agree, since its easier to level, you level faster, hence its also harder to keep up with equipment in the lower levels.
 

Shanaia

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Think this thread perfectly points out 2 points where WoW is better then daoc (and someone said the only 2 points :p .. not my words)

1. Gear .. while leveling you're constantly renewing your gear .. .this feels very rewarding and helps you along
2. Downtime .. it exsists in WoW but it's a LOT less then in doac .. don't see why the health/powerregen couldn't be a lot higher in pve zones .. in rvr it could be unbalancing but in pve it wouldn't unbalance stuff it would just make pve more fun

And yes I agree with topicstarter .. played quite a bit of low level daoc lately ... all on servers where I didn't have any provider chars/money etc .. and xp is no longer the problem .. getting decent gear to be able to xp is
 

Phuzzy

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I've seen a lot of new players since I started here 3-4 months ago. All of them are gone again now of course. As one of them so succinctly put it to me before he quit ...
"It's like ...
I'm a new player.
The established players don't want me.
GOA doesn't want me.
Why fight against the tide?"
 

Deepflame

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Last night I played with a friend from DAoC and a new guy I invited via trial account. He obviously didn't have Catacombs, so we had to exp in SI. It took us 5ish hours to get to level 8. Catacombs instances are nice, but not all new players have access to them. He also can't get Aurulite to kit out his new character. Adding to that, we started anew on Excalibur so we didn't know anyone with money or equipment. :p It's that we were a fun group, if I had to solo this I would have given up at level 6, it was that annoying.
 

Espen

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Deepflame said:
Last night I played with a friend from DAoC and a new guy I invited via trial account. He obviously didn't have Catacombs, so we had to exp in SI. It took us 5ish hours to get to level 8. Catacombs instances are nice, but not all new players have access to them. He also can't get Aurulite to kit out his new character. Adding to that, we started anew on Excalibur so we didn't know anyone with money or equipment. :p It's that we were a fun group, if I had to solo this I would have given up at level 6, it was that annoying.
did you guys make Hib chars? if so ... contact me on either Espen or Feithur ingame and ill sort ya guys out :)
 

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