Start some new server?

[ford prefect]

IMO DAoC has had it's six years in the sun, and now people are bored with it and have moved on. Add to that the woeful customer service from GoA over the past few years and the rather dubious in game choices they have made, why on earth would people want to come back?

DAoC is in it's final death throws, merge the remaining servers and let it die in peace imo

 

[old.Whoodoo]

DAoC is in it's final death throws, merge the remaining servers and let it die in peace imo

People said UO was dead, but people still play, why people have to keep saying its dying is beyond me, its not, other things have come along, and people move on, nothing more.

 

[Everz]

Just look at US cluster.. all but classic are barely hitting 1000 each night..

 

[ford prefect]

People said UO was dead, but people still play, why people have to keep saying its dying is beyond me, its not, other things have come along, and people move on, nothing more.

DAoC has had a good run, and I'm sure it will still be around in two or three years in some form, but it has had it's time and will never be as popular as it once was, reguardless of action taken by Mythic or GoA, and so the population will just continue to drop on all servers.

GoA and mythic are profit making companies at the end of the day and will now start to focus on Warhammer more and more, and rightly so. Devoting a lot of time and money on a game that has maybe 60 - 90,000 subcribers world wide when they can devote those resources into making the next WoW would be a waste and make little financial sense. WoW has an estimated 8 million subscribers world wide (Yes I know it blows), but that surely has to be the market that GoA and Mythic are aiming for, so why waste resources flogging a dead horse.

The only long term solution for DAoC has to be clustering existing servers and giving the rulesets on them that will make the majority happy, and then let it fade away, in the knowledge that it was a pioneering game and a job (by and large) well done.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

DAoC has had a good run, and I'm sure it will still be around in two or three years in some form, but it has had it's time and will never be as popular as it once was, reguardless of action taken by Mythic or GoA, and so the population will just continue to drop on all servers.

GoA and mythic are profit making companies at the end of the day and will now start to focus on Warhammer more and more, and rightly so. Devoting a lot of time and money on a game that has maybe 60 - 90,000 subcribers world wide when they can devote those resources into making the next WoW would be a waste and make little financial sense. WoW has an estimated 8 million subscribers world wide (Yes I know it blows), but that surely has to be the market that GoA and Mythic are aiming for, so why waste resources flogging a dead horse.

The only long term solution for DAoC has to be clustering existing servers and giving the rulesets on them that will make the majority happy, and then let it fade away, in the knowledge that it was a pioneering game and a job (by and large) well done.

I totally agree, the servers should be fully clustered and restore the once great population. Its just the doomsayers have been saying its dying for the last 4 years, it gets a little tired hearing it.

I am sure that some hardcore fans will keep playing, some due to restricitions on PC requirements, some because WAR isnt going to be their cup of tea, but as with games like UO, people will still be here.

 

[Chrystina]

People said UO was dead, but people still play, why people have to keep saying its dying is beyond me, its not, other things have come along, and people move on, nothing more.

DAoC is not dying ... it's DEAD already for a long time ... :touch:

 

[old.Whoodoo]

DAoC is not dying ... it's DEAD already for a long time ... :touch:

See what I mean

If its dead, why still read this part of FH?

 

[Golena]

Remove ToA, remove SI, remove CLs etc., give all realms a good once-over gfx-wise, remove NF and get back to OF (minus the waiting time on the pad)... and we talk.

I really think everytime I see someone suggesting this that they completely 100% missed what made the difference between OF and NF.

The landscape was much worse for playing in back in the days of old frontiers.
What made OF great was the one thing you want to remove (that 15 min wait on the pad).

See instead of simply porting out of the nearest keep with their loltapper, people understood that if they ran out and tried to nuke the nearest thing and died they would have a 15 min wait to try again (not a 30 second wait).
Being killed actually meant something other than a 20 seconds rebuff at your bot. That meant people actually spent the time trying to make a pug, even if it wasn't a great one.

The problem with NF is that grouping became more downtime than soloing, because with soloing there is no downtime. That meant your realm mates became your enemy fighting for RP's, instead of the people that saved you from 10 mins afk on the port. That, and that alone is what killed the spirit of the game, so why go back to those days and remove probably the most important point of it?

 

[ford prefect]

Golena said:I really think everytime I see someone suggesting this that they completely 100% missed what made the difference between OF and NF.

The landscape was much worse for playing in back in the days of old frontiers.
What made OF great was the one thing you want to remove (that 15 min wait on the pad).


You probably have a point there. The port wait was always a good place to find a group, find out what was happening in the frontiers and have a chat to friends before the action started and plan ahead. It didn't do the game any favours when they removed it.

 

[Chrystina]

See what I mean

If its dead, why still read this part of FH?

it's entertaining and gives me a necro feeling

 

[Ctuchik]

To be quite honest, I would seriously consider playing if there was a server that was reset meaning everyone started at level 1 and rr0, however its going to be impossible.

u had classic for that and see how that turned out.

 

[Everz]

u had classic for that and see how that turned out.

yes, currently hitting 2.5k each night on US servers.. around a 1000 more then any toa server on US.. next?

 

[Esselinithia]

About 20% of total population on US servers play on classic. I perfectly see that players who play classic are a relative minority, AND fine tuning tha game to help people who like classic wouldn't attract new types of players so wouldn't fix the population problem.

 

[Ctuchik]

People said UO was dead, but people still play, why people have to keep saying its dying is beyond me, its not, other things have come along, and people move on, nothing more.

ppl have been saying EQ is dying to. but they are on their what, 20:th expansion now?

 

[Ctuchik]

yes, currently hitting 2.5k each night on US servers.. around a 1000 more then any toa server on US.. next?

this isnt US, or the US boards. so they dont count here.

 

[Thadius]

this isnt US, or the US boards. so they dont count here.

No, the classic here was ruined by wankers like vae vistis and other French guilds who ran around with 3fg on stick

 

[Flintlock]

I haven't read this posting through and probably this is covered but I know them free servers can be setup on a home computer. I logged onto my mates and the game ran great. Instant 50 - all TOA stuff - great gear and off we went. Was a blast. Not sure if it is legal. You could have different events and take turns to host. Something to think about. Try out some new ideas for the real game and pass the conclusions on.

 

[Esselinithia]

Freeshards are illegal and can be very different from live servers both in how various checks (LoS, range, etc) are done /can influence classes like bainshees/, pop rates, data about mobs, etc

For Code of Conduct and community management related tests: freeshards wouldn't work anyway, since the community is different and you don't have to solve most prblems

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

Freeshards are illegal and can be very different from live servers both in how various checks (LoS, range, etc) are done /can influence classes like bainshees/, pop rates, data about mobs, etc

For Code of Conduct and community management related tests: freeshards wouldn't work anyway, since the community is different and you don't have to solve most prblems

What's illegal or not is not Mythic's or GoA's decision.

You might want to read something about separation of powers in democratic countries.

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

No, the classic here was ruined by wankers like vae vistis and other French guilds who ran around with 3fg on stick

Or maybe it was killed my the cause of all fuck ups: the assumption (that the french give a shit about play styles).

 

[Esselinithia]

Manisch: You might want to read the laws governin copyright.

The EULA describes what can you do with the software, the moment you use it for something else, use it without a licence, create derivative works without permission, you break copyright laws and it IS illegal.

 

[Lamp]

To be quite honest, I would seriously consider playing if there was a server that was reset meaning everyone started at level 1 and rr0, however its going to be impossible.

The rp farmers would get the rps, the TOA farmbots would farm the loot and it would just be like Prydwen in 3 months time.

A SI option is a no go as Sidi took up all the time for armor and stuff.

I would personally love a server like Sidi but none of the 1337 farming stuff was there. Perhaps an epic only server just for shits and giggles, no 100 buttons to press etc.

Would also like to ban moc if possible, that shit is dull

Quality. Well said m8

 

[Raven]

i quite like the idea of a server where everyone is level 1 in trainer gear, then i dont have to put the effort in to win




actually i could just go and play the sims because i am clearly not cut out for MMOs

 

[Thadius]

i quite like the idea of a server where everyone is level 1 in trainer gear, then i dont have to put the effort in to win




actually i could just go and play the sims because i am clearly not cut out for MMOs

If that was a dig at me, I was making suggestions what to do with a DAOC server.

Its what makes people quit, they get bored with one server and cannot be arsed to do the same ml grind, level 1-50 grind etc

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

Manisch: You might want to read the laws governin copyright.

The EULA describes what can you do with the software, the moment you use it for something else, use it without a licence, create derivative works without permission, you break copyright laws and it IS illegal.

Most of the EULAs are worth jack shit as they are often written by amateurs and they collide often with local laws. And those apply.

Freeshards are not illegal. It's perfectly viable to emulate server behaviour. As long as no source code has been stolen to achieve that emulated behaviour you won't be able to stop anyone connecting his legally paid copy of the game to different server than a Mythic/EA or GoA one.

That's the case in Germany, where I am using the software. I don't care much about some broken law system elsewhere. In Germany such behaviour as I stated is not covered by criminal law and if you want to prove me wrong by starting a civil action here in Germany, go get it tiger.

 

[Esselinithia]

The EULA can say you can't run such shards and cannot use the daoc client to connect to such shards, and cannot modify the files (including the update.dat).

The moment you break these terms: you have no valid licence to run daoc. Yet you still do and that is where it becomes illegal.

 

[Thadius]

The EULA can say you can't run such shards and cannot use the daoc client to connect to such shards, and cannot modify the files (including the update.dat).

The moment you break these terms: you have no valid licence to run daoc. Yet you still do and that is where it becomes illegal.

Then modyfying files such as the UI ones is breaking the EULA?

 

[Kami]

yes unless you're running them in the custom UI section - which is permitted.

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

The EULA can say you can't run such shards and cannot use the daoc client to connect to such shards, and cannot modify the files (including the update.dat).

The moment you break these terms: you have no valid licence to run daoc. Yet you still do and that is where it becomes illegal.

And I say the EULA is worth jack shit. What part of that don't you understand?

I know a bit about software licensing as I had to deal with the DVD Video Forum and the CCA while developing a standard-supported DVD Video player under Linux.

Modifying a text file is not illegal, what should be illegal about it? You don't even have to modify it, you could just make a different DNS record for the server that is in the 'update.dat'.

What has the EULA of the client to do with whatever you wish to run, such as a DoL-Server? Nothing.

Once you have gotten copy of a software you can do a lot with it and it is covered by law. You can disassemble it and write your own additions and stuff. As long as you got the copy legally in the first place and you don't start selling such a modified version and demand money for it there should be no problems.

See 17 USC 117 for US related law, see European Software Directive for Europe related law - both are the slap in the face of most EULAs.

Please don't come back with some more smattering to the discussion. Before you start to scare others here with illegal or not you could just inform yourself properly.

Just so you know - I don't play on a freeshard nor do I intend to, so I am not biased in this discussion. I like professionally ran servers with awesome support provided like by GoA the way better solution (oh the sarcasm).

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

Then modyfying files such as the UI ones is breaking the EULA?

It's not, the EULA is broken in the first place.

As long as you don't modify the original client in the way that it lowers the quality of service you can do what you want with it really (provided that you got the copy legally and are not distributing the changed version and demanding money for it).

You can rewrite the client from scratch with the knowledge about the client-server protocol and so on and even demand money for it when it's running with a DoL-Server. "Copyright protects the expression of an idea, but not the idea itself. That is why you can do reverse engineering to figure out how software works and then write your own program to do the same thing" - LWN: Software, reverse engineering and the law - plenty of more decent articles if you are interested.