Some Questions?

[Clipz]

Do you think I can spoof the trial into letting me play on the US server?? (It goes public today - any ideas wot time zone today is )

How strick is the signup and address details??

If I can get it working and decide to stay on the US servers can I get any copy of SI and ToA or do they have to be US versions?

Last question should I go US or just wait and buy the new gold pack and play on the Euro servers??

PS - Will I like this game?? I have played AC2, SWG, Eve, AO, Horizons but apart from SWG none have kept me playing more than a couple of months max!!

 

[Vae]

If you are referring to the fileplanet 7 day trial I think that it is US only anyway.

If you decide to play in the US you'll need US copies of DAOC, SI and TOA (or the compilation box set) since you'll need US Cd keys.

Bonus of US:
Faster Patching
Better customer support
More servers (including co-operative) but server population is lower

Downsides of US/Euro Upsides:
Europe gets Goa only events/content.
US gets to beta test patches - see the problems with Toa master levels and the recent nerf to those artifacts that people have been leveling for the last month. In Eur we can better plan and avoid these problems.
Server population is higher so RvR is more active.
Only 2 English servers


Then of course there's your opinions of the different populations...

As for whether the game will keep your interest or not...
Well its kept my interest for 2 years despite a brief excursion to Horizons which wasn't fun at all.
The PvE is fairly fun and the level cap is only 50 which can be quickly achieved once you know what you are doing. The key to the game is the Realm vs Realm combat since you are playing against other humans. You have bad and good days in RvR but imo this is still the best out there at the moment.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Im sure there will be a "Gold Edition" for Euro real soon, the 2 questions you are really asking are:

a) Will I like DAoC?
b) Should I play on Euro or US?

Heres what my answers would be:

a) Firstly, ignore 90% of the crap you read on these forums (prob incluing this hehe), DAoC has a lot of the major elements of the games you have mentioned, and more. Most people agree the PvP is by far the best in any MMORPG to date, and indeed reading through ppls ideas on others in this genre it will still beat the new upcoming ones liek Ryzom and WoW in this department. The PvE side can be a little tedious, mainly thanks to the /level commands and lack of low level grouping these days compared to the good ol days before buffbots.
But still the game is fun, it really depends on your play style, the amount of time you are willing to sink into it and what you look for in an RPG.
Judging by the games you have played, I would say yes, DAoC will impress you.

b) To answer this question, firstly where are you from? If you are in Euro, then obviously playing euro means you get to know people from your locality, and background. Not everyone can get on with the yanks, and im sure they say the same about us.
Secondly the advantage they get is to have the game at its latest release. Yeah they get all the new toys before us, but....they also get all the bugs. With the upcoming nerfs they are about to receive (see other threads about TOA resists etc) we get to see them cringe badly as they have spent many hours slaving over their templates and armour only to find its going to be useless in a months time. So swings and roundabouts on the technical score too.
One common moan on these forums is about customer services, youll see a lot of whining about that compared to the US, whereas they get in game CSRs and we get an email system thats very flawed. But if you read the VN boards (the US version of these boards) they moan just as much. So ignore it.

As for trialing, well thats up to you, if its free why not, youll get a taste for the game, but its limited as far as numbers of players, groups and ofc you will be low level, and therefore not get to see a lot of the realms. You wont see places like Avalon City, Tuscaren Glacier, Darkness Falls etc, which on the main servers are the hubs of activity. I doubt you will even get to see much in the way of RvR (realm vs realm), so really this trial will only let you see a little PvE.

Make your own mind up, but my suggestion, if you are in euro, wait for the Gold edition DAoC and come play, get your first month free of subs and at least get a decent taste of whats here.

 

[Clipz]

Thx for your reply.

Sorry I meant can I even signup to the US trial from a UK address. Only one way to tell I spose

The lvl cap seems very low...is there any means of progressing your toon further?? e.g any special abilties you can gain post lvl 50 or RvR skills to increase??

Cheers

 

[old.Whoodoo]

One other thing, if SWG kept you amused, then DAoC will do even more, lots of DAoC players have gone there, and come back when they saw the amount of bugs, glitches and the boring exp grind and constant macroing to acheive goals was like watching paint dry.

 

[Night]

Gold edition is out at www.play.com

 

[Clipz]

Thx old.Whoodoo

I think I will like the RvR side of this game but what numbers can you get upto in a battle. In SWG there was about 200 of us and it was great we all met up to attack a rebel base and we all got very excited. Thing is when we got there my PC locked up with lag for a few mins before I emerged at a cloning centre with about 60 other people lol

So what the largest battles on DAOC like?? What the LAG like??

Another major part of any MMOG to me now is the GUI. Is DAOC up to scracth?? This is the ONLY thing Horizons did right

Thanks for the link Night - Gameplay also have it down to for release on the 25th. Looks like I'll give this trial a go and order the gold pack for later this month.

Thanks for you help all.

 

[Vae]

Thx for your reply.

Sorry I meant can I even signup to the US trial from a UK address. Only one way to tell I spose

The lvl cap seems very low...is there any means of progressing your toon further?? e.g any special abilties you can gain post lvl 50 or RvR skills to increase??

Cheers

The Level cap might seem low but 50 in Daoc is more equivalent to 100 in Horizons etc. It's a nice obtainable level too which means you can get out into RvR and be competetive.

Post lvl 50 you earn realm points for killing realm enemies and progress through 10 realm ranks (divided into 10 realm levels) - You start as RR1 and can get to RR11 (well RR10 Level 9 anyway). Each level gives you a realm skill point which you can spend on realm abilities which are either passive e.g. +6 str or active e.g. full instant heal every 30 mins.

At RR5 there is what is referred to as lvl 51 since your armour and damage increases as though you'd gained another level but you don't get any more hits or spec points.

Also in Toa there are masterlevels which I guess you could see as an extension beyond lvl 50 of which there are 10 giving new abilities too.

 

[Jonaldo]

Thx old.Whoodoo

I think I will like the RvR side of this game but what numbers can you get upto in a battle. In SWG there was about 200 of us and it was great we all met up to attack a rebel base and we all got very excited. Thing is when we got there my PC locked up with lag for a few mins before I emerged at a cloning centre with about 60 other people lol

So what the largest battles on DAOC like?? What the LAG like??

Any more than about 30+ people and DAoC lags like a bitch tbh. It's funny people still call the pvp "RvR" as it's not only impossible to get anywhere near the numbers for a true "Realm versus Realm" battle and if you try to get a large force together people complain and moan as they only ever want to run around in single groups which kinda defeats the whole object of the "Realm".

And it's not just low end machines either I have a 2.2ghz processor, 1gb RAM and lots of nice HD space for swaps etc, GFX card should be able to handle it all but this game just doesn't handle large numbers well

It's fun for a while tho, but not forever.

 

[Clipz]

Cool that all sounds good...thx

 

[Vae]

In Toa the graphics interface becomes XML based and you can design your own (or use one from the net).

Lag gets bad during relic raids when you have 300 people all in one zone and has been known to kill the server in the past.
Most of the rest of the time lag is fine. It can get bad during large keep takes i.e. prob 60+ players in one place but there's been a lot of 24 vs 24 size fights with little lag.
I'm not sure how this compares to SWG but lag is a hell of a lot better than Horizons.

 

[Clipz]

In Toa the graphics interface becomes XML based and you can design your own (or use one from the net).

I like the sound of that!!!

 

[nocte]

daoc lag is nothing compared to going into Bestine or Coronet on Farstar galaxy, in either one of them you can be lagged and not go anywhere for 10 mins... daoc is slightly better :>