Trials of Atlantis - Your questions please...

Sigurd

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Now I finally have ToA on the US servers, I thought it might be helpful to people still stuck in the monkey-run servers if I answered a few questions on the expansion... first I'll cover a few pros and cons of this second expansion pack...

Pros:

Graphics - the trees in particular have been changed for the good, and basic landscapes spruced up once more, to the point where I almost got lost in camelot hills because of the differences :eek7:

New Areas - in particular Stygia (the Egyptian based area) but all of them really, are beautiful, and make the original DAoC areas look like a child's cartoon.

Underwater - being able to swim underwater is fun, for a small price you get a potion with 3 charges that last 30 minutes (these enable you to breathe underwater until the timer runs out) and increase swim speed too. Fighting is... different... you'll have to fiddle with your view a bit.

Races - as a lot of websites already have the stats listed, I won't go into those. The looks of these races, however, are of a high standard - the Frostalf I was a little disappointed with as there is only one decent face (imo) and the females look like muppets, but the Shar are nice - think Darth Maul with more spikes - and the Half Ogres were a great suprise... easily the best looking of all "big" races, something which is very hard to tell from screenshots (yes their faces are ugly, but they're half-ogre... it's not like you'd expect an ogre to win Mr. Universe) and the animations, especially for the Half Ogre are great - so nice that I found myself wishing I didn't need armour with my new mercenary, as he looked better without.

Travelling - there are many new options to travel in ToA - boat, shark, free genie teleport and supposedly flying mounts, which I've yet to come across. Sharks can be found in all of the main ToA towns, underwater next to the docks. I've yet to use one myself, but they're supposedly very useful. Boats are rarely used for basic travel between lands in ToA, their chief purpose is to be used to get from SI to ToA and the Haven in ToA to one of the main towns, which all have genie teleporters (called djinn or something pretentious) these teleporters are great, because they allow you to teleport between the main ToA towns or to your frontier portal keep free of charge - and without a load screen (this doesn't mean this is instant, it still takes a bit of time to load)


Cons:

Difficulty - this is DAoC on hard mode. Nothing in ToA is easy, or quick - journeying alone anywhere can be dangerous, even within sight of the towns. Expect to spend a lot of gold buying back con...

Artifacts - they look great, they are great, but damn are they annoying to get. First, you must find the actual artifact. This is a time consuming and dangerous process - for example, to obtain the Crocodile Tooth you must kill a chap called Itet - on allakhazam it lists him as being killable by one full group. After much imploring, I gathered a group around me and off we trundled to find Itet and other monsters for other people's artifacts. After a great deal of searching, we came across Itet. Someone said something about attacking him underwater being easier (not mentioned on allakhazam) so we swigged our water potions and jumped in... only to find one eager beaver in our group had already dashed after Itet, apparantly intent on getting the credit so he would be able to use the artifact. Itet killed him quickly, then butchered the group one by one, chasing the survivors to the nearest town, where he butchered the inhabitants and was finally killed by a high level NPC guard and several groups. Now this was just to get the item - once obtained you must find three scrolls (or varients such as "journal" - each part will have Name's Notes, 1 of 3) which drop off specific kinds of monsters after some time farming. Easier, you might think? Perhaps, if you can: reach the place alive, farm mobs that are often orange/red solo, have a decent range pull, and are prepared to sit for 6 hours or so for some of the rare scrolls. Once all 3 scrolls are obtained, you may activate the artifact... providing, apparantly, you have the "credit" for the encounter - this I have not experienced yet so I can't shed any light on it. Once activated, you can begin the joyful task of levelling your artifact - an artifact usually takes an average of 2 hours per level, so that's 20 hours of fun before you can get full use out of your artifact - add that to the hours spent farming scrolls, finding the artifact etc... getting bored yet? You will...

Master Levels - Mythic went a little psycho with these. I sailed for Atlantis, arrived, ported to the Havens (one useless starter area isn't enough for Atlantis, so Mythic designed two...) and spoke to a friendly NPC - who proceeded to give me a list of what I must do to obtain Master Level 1. Perhaps the best comparison of this would be for those of you who read the Discworld series, in the Last Continent where Death asks for a list of the dangerous animals in XXXX... and gets buried under a pile of books. Yes, it really is that long. Every time I thought "ok, I'll be off to look for.." the NPC would say... "and then you can kill..." and my heart sank. You see, there are (I believe) 10 Master Levels, and each one has 10 steps, most requiring a small (or large) zerg to complete. Much merriment will be had, I imagine, from getting to ML10, by which time you will probably have hired someone to kill whoever contemplated the Trials of Atlantis expansion. I know no-one in my server who has bothered to do more than a couple of Master Level steps, most people preferring to stick to artifacts (which are, shockingly, a relatively simple goal compared to Master Levels)

Finally, there is The Lag. ToA lag, as it is lovingly known amongst our server's residents, occurs all the time. You can be running happily through a zone of purple, aggressive monsters, stuck to your bard and trusting them to see you through, when suddenly everything freezes and you regain control in time to see a 12 foot lamb-headed lunatic swinging a club at your head. This happens to at least one person every few minutes or so, although fortunately the monsters are usually low enough to pull off... if not, group wipeout, and everyone praises ToA again. At first I thought the lag was due to the new graphics, as I for one can't bare to play the game on anything less than maximum graphics quality, but after fiddling with the settings I realised... it's the lack of zones. You see, ToA is zoneless. Just like a new realm, unless you're in a dungeon (presumably) you won't need to zone, and with all these new special effects and beautiful scenary, your graphics card will be chomped rather badly. Of course it does help lowering the settings, but not as much as it should...


Overall, ToA didn't really shock me. I had heard of the bad and good parts in advance, and was prepared for nearly everything except the toughness of the monsters (I really think Mythic should fire the person who thought up invisible monsters...) and the ridiculous nature of artifacts... nontheless, it remains a must for all DAoC fans if only for the graphics/new races.
 

Easdown

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 24, 2003
Messages
59
argh i hate half ogres ive been palyin alb/guin for about two weeks now and i cant stand the sight of em, they are ugly noisy bastards with a hunch, they suck and i hate em !

havent got toa on us servers cause i dont have a high enough char to get any use out of it.

what are artifatcs anyway, what do they do?
 

Darkzler

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 28, 2004
Messages
87
yeah, it would be great with a free trial of like 3-7 days so you know what you are buying, since i just started playing it i don't feel like spending alot more money but i wanna get a taste of it first =)
 

Spremuta

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Feb 4, 2004
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Darkzler said:
yeah, it would be great with a free trial of like 3-7 days so you know what you are buying, since i just started playing it i don't feel like spending alot more money but i wanna get a taste of it first =)
give me a link for the trial pls
 

Gelid

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Feb 3, 2004
Messages
161
I assume you need Shrouded Isles to play ToA?

Also ToA apparently needs 2.4 GHz or something so can you load the game up on the Shrouded Isles client? I'm loathe to pay for the expansion pack, a new motherboard, a new processor, gfx card and hunk of RAM just for one bloody game, and apparently a very rustrating one at that!
 

Korax

Fledgling Freddie
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Jan 9, 2004
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335
Master levels are called master levels right?
If everyone could get them they wouldnt be master, they would only be like... level 50 - 60 :p
 

kain

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 22, 2003
Messages
85
The one thing I'm dreading....

I hear much of of the ML's need exping, killing stuff that grants ML exp and it's like leveling all over again.

So now you have to level your stuff (artifacts), plus do a certain amount of leveling to pass trails.

I think mythic called it "smelling the roses", personally I see it as one big time sink just to be competative.

plus from what I hear it's horrible for low population servers as it takes atleast 1 fg (very well ballanced) and probably 2 fg's for the rest of us to do.
 

feac

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 22, 2003
Messages
116
use crafted breathing potions 20 charges and each lasts for a hour (unless u die) or get ML 2 in Sojourner
 

Paynad

Fledgling Freddie
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Jan 7, 2004
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2
Are you limited to the number of artifacts you can have? I was under the impression they only level if you have them activated is that true?

Paynad
 

feac

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 22, 2003
Messages
116
you can have as many artifacts as u like but once you activate 1 i.e belt of the sun you cannnot activate another belt of the sun, also untill they are activated you can trade them and buy them off cm's but you must have credit for doing the encounter in order to activate the artifact credit shows up in the /quest list, once activated then u need to have the artifact equiped and kill what ever type of mob/enemy and time of day or sex of mob is required to lvl it up

scrolls list= http://www.toascrolls.com/scrolls/
artifact list= http://www.classesofcamelot.com/Artifacts-Search.asp
ML artifacts and quests= http://www.visionofsages.net/toa/index.shtml
UI skins & mods= http://www.daocmods.com/pn/index.php

the more artifacts u use at 1 time and its very hard to cap all your skills and stats, and thankfully we are getting 1.67 with toa so farming scrolls is no where near as bad as it was with 1.66
 

Falcon

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 23, 2003
Messages
89
I have personally now led some master level hunts and they're really not that bad. With 3/4fg you're looking at 6hours per master level (Some maybe a little longer, some a little less) but that's 10 quests, there's absolutely no reason ML raids couldn't be split in 2 at all either. The only step I've encountered so far that needs a large amount of numbers is ML4 step 2, where you need around 80 people (but it is kinda fun, you gotta capture and hold 3 setian forts before making a final assault to kill the pharoah ;))

I know a lot of my guildies suffer the lag problem too but I don't on my main machine, 3.2ghz, GeForceFX5950 256mb, 1gb RAM. I haven't noticed it on my other machines either but as I'm mainly botting on them I haven't tried them enough to be sure. Mythic claim you can turn the graphics settings down to SI detail levels and I think I've seen the option too also but I haven't needed to. The lag issue seems largely related to spec of PC, detail level and perhaps drivers so it should be something you're able to eliminate.

The key is to not misunderstand the master levels, they're NOT essential, there's no real game altering I-Win button in the master levels, some abilities are nice and better than others and if someone puts in 100 hours to get ML10 I think an ability like bodyguard is very well deserved but at the same time you can live without them. Artifacts have more of an impact and some are nasty to aquire and level but again remember that if the enemy can get it so can you, if you don't want to put the time in you don't have to, but don't be upset when someone who has put the time and work in has an advantage. Don't worry about ML XP either, on my raids I've gained ML XP by just helping people re-do a couple of easy steps who haven't done them to get sheperding xp, you can gain the ML XP required in about 20 - 30mins that way.

You can have one time of artifact per char, so you can have multiple artifacts but only one of the same type.

Agree also that I spend far more on constitution now but I also find myself racking up far more cash, although this is partly because I've found myself involved in the great scroll trading industry ;)
 

Sigurd

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The problem is, some of us can't play the 6 hours straight required for a master level - especially since it's debatable whether they are worth it or not, compared to artifacts. I find myself unable to make much money as a blademaster, with no buffbot, by farming scrolls - I've never even seen a scroll drop, and even if I got any, the best way to sell them is through your own house... which again costs a lot of money. I don't think it's fair to say that you shouldn't complain if you get killed by someone who has more time to waste farming artifacts etc. than you though... considering we all pay the same base money to play this game.
 

Pin

One of Freddy's beloved
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Messages
874
Sigurd said:
The problem is, some of us can't play the 6 hours straight required for a master level - especially since it's debatable whether they are worth it or not, compared to artifacts. I find myself unable to make much money as a blademaster, with no buffbot, by farming scrolls - I've never even seen a scroll drop, and even if I got any, the best way to sell them is through your own house... which again costs a lot of money. I don't think it's fair to say that you shouldn't complain if you get killed by someone who has more time to waste farming artifacts etc. than you though... considering we all pay the same base money to play this game.
If you didn't have as much time to play the game as the next man:

You will be killed in RvR due to him being higher level than you;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having Realm Abilities that you don't;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having SC and you in epic;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having more experience about the situations;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having Master levels and you not;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having artifacts and you not.

The game takes time to play, it always has and always will - just like every other similar game available.
Is this bad? No. It would be shit if everyone was the same (like the SC status quo that we have lived with for months).

So what if you pay the same fee to the game company? If you play for 1 hour a month, should you expect to beat someone who plays 4 hours a day? That would be silly.

So....

QQ
 

kain

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 22, 2003
Messages
85
Althrough I don't like it at all, I understand why a hardcore gamer should be able to beat me (a casual gamer)... time=reward

but it's just the attitude I don't like from the hardcore people, an uber 1fg may be damn mighty but your ass is still going to be ran over by the mases of this MMORPG.

but thanks for the answers, I was worried about the ml experience thing and I think I can get one artifact leveled (guard of valour).
 

Pin

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kain said:
Althrough I don't like it at all, I understand why a hardcore gamer should be able to beat me (a casual gamer)... time=reward

but it's just the attitude I don't like from the hardcore people, an uber 1fg may be damn mighty but your ass is still going to be ran over by the mases of this MMORPG.

but thanks for the answers, I was worried about the ml experience thing and I think I can get one artifact leveled (guard of valour).
Yup, some people's attitude sucks. And so does the attitude of people that cry about losing for whatever reason imo.

Anyways, some of the artifacts level off the same mobs, so you can level more than 1 at once.
 

mts

Fledgling Freddie
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Dec 25, 2003
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Pin said:
If you didn't have as much time to play the game as the next man:

You will be killed in RvR due to him being higher level than you;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having Realm Abilities that you don't;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having SC and you in epic;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having more experience about the situations;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having Master levels and you not;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having artifacts and you not.

The game takes time to play, it always has and always will - just like every other similar game available.
Is this bad? No. It would be shit if everyone was the same (like the SC status quo that we have lived with for months).

So what if you pay the same fee to the game company? If you play for 1 hour a month, should you expect to beat someone who plays 4 hours a day? That would be silly.

So....

QQ

Good post.
 

Sigurd

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Messages
911
Pin said:
If you didn't have as much time to play the game as the next man:

You will be killed in RvR due to him being higher level than you;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having Realm Abilities that you don't;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having SC and you in epic;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having more experience about the situations;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having Master levels and you not;
You will be killed in RvR due to him having artifacts and you not.

The game takes time to play, it always has and always will - just like every other similar game available.
Is this bad? No. It would be shit if everyone was the same (like the SC status quo that we have lived with for months).

So what if you pay the same fee to the game company? If you play for 1 hour a month, should you expect to beat someone who plays 4 hours a day? That would be silly.

So....

QQ

It should take less time, you know it, everyone except the most hardcore of geeks knows it... I mean, I don't pretend to go out much etc., but I still don't have much time - and real life will always come first - why? Because this is a game. Obviously certain advantages should happen if you put time into things, but not to the extent where you must spend 25+ hours on one item, for example. However, as it is at the moment, we can still compete, just by using tactics and your knowledge of the terrain. The way things are going, I wouldn't be suprised if this changes in the powergamer's favour. And to clarify... I'm not talking about people who play 4 hours a day (I often play more) but people who play 12 hours a day or more, every day.
 

Pin

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Sigurd said:
It should take less time, you know it, everyone except the most hardcore of geeks knows it... I mean, I don't pretend to go out much etc., but I still don't have much time - and real life will always come first - why? Because this is a game. Obviously certain advantages should happen if you put time into things, but not to the extent where you must spend 25+ hours on one item, for example. However, as it is at the moment, we can still compete, just by using tactics and your knowledge of the terrain. The way things are going, I wouldn't be suprised if this changes in the powergamer's favour. And to clarify... I'm not talking about people who play 4 hours a day (I often play more) but people who play 12 hours a day or more, every day.
So it takes you more time to get the stuff. months instead of weeks. you're not greatly disadvantaged by this. Just like it took longer to get to 50. The point is, you aren't supposed to 'be able to compete' immediately, but you'll get there if you want to.


anwyays. I can't wait! :drink:
 

Sigurd

Banned
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The joke is though, it takes less time to farm money and buy the scrolls for example, than to find them yourself :p
 

rynnor

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Whats the re-spawn time for the artifact mobs in toa?
 

Sigurd

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It varies, anything from regular mob respawn times to 24 hours (I've yet to come across one that takes that long myself though)
 

rynnor

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Cheers Sigurd - I'm really looking forward to TOA now - theres some damn nice artifacts for any healer subtype - Egg of Youth for 1000 radius area effect res then healers embrace cloak for 33% 1500 radius heal and remove res sickness - all for no power - woot :)
 

York

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Pin said:
So it takes you more time to get the stuff. months instead of weeks. you're not greatly disadvantaged by this. Just like it took longer to get to 50. The point is, you aren't supposed to 'be able to compete' immediately, but you'll get there if you want to.


anwyays. I can't wait! :drink:

Although getting a group to actually do these quests is gonna be heaps easier in the first few weeks, the casual gamer who plays every now and then will have a hard time getting groups a month or so after release.

But its a mute point, its gonna be this way regardless.
 

rynnor

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York said:
Although getting a group to actually do these quests is gonna be heaps easier in the first few weeks, the casual gamer who plays every now and then will have a hard time getting groups a month or so after release.

But its a mute point, its gonna be this way regardless.

True to an extent although if your in a decent guild it shouldnt be a problem plus if the cash is good I and others will probably continue to hunt here in random/guild groups.

And its actually not all that difficult to get some of these artifacts - after that you can either farm TOA mobs for the scrolls you need or buy them with cash and then you just have to get the right kind of xp for your artifact - some sound dead easy requiring xp gained in a group of 3+ - I cant see how these are out of reach of casual players? unless you only ever solo?

Master levels are a bit different though...
 

SFXman

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rynnor said:
Cheers Sigurd - I'm really looking forward to TOA now - theres some damn nice artifacts for any healer subtype - Egg of Youth for 1000 radius area effect res then healers embrace cloak for 33% 1500 radius heal and remove res sickness - all for no power - woot :)
:eek2:
Right...
 

Sigurd

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Egg of Youth only gives a 1000 radius mass rez at level 10 I believe... and now it's capped at 8 people, put it's a full health/power rez and costs now power to cast....
 

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