Mmm, new server types...

[Ankh Morpork]

Personally I've never enjoyed rvr as much as I do in NF

/Ankh

[Cernos]

If there was a non-ToA server on offer I might actually consider playing again, as I could play on a more casual basis. I realise that a lot of people liked ToA, but it wasn't for me. There's some good aspects to ToA of course and some raids were fun. But overall, in balance, I feel that ToA killed the game by introducing unbalanced ML abilities, unbalanced artifacts and far too many community fracturing issues like artifact camping, artifact stealing, huge ML raids where 100 people have their time wasted by a handful of people who don't listen to instructions etc etc etc.

And then there's the greed. Greed has always existed in the game (which is why I stopped doing Legion and Galladoria raids) but ToA just made things a lot lot worse and caused outbursts of greed and ill temper in even the nicest of people.

That is ToA's biggest failing - it was intended to make people co-operate with each other and build community spirit, but actually had the opposite effect much of the time. I've played on four different servers and ToA-related issues and arguments have pervaded all of them. Human nature is human nature of course, can't blame Mythic for that, but you can blame Mythic for not realising this and designing the game accordingly.

But the problem is that Mythic have used ToA ML abilities and certain artifacts to try and correct class imbalances (which is clearly a flawed approach to class balance). Remove ToA and class balance gets even more screwed up than it already is.

They should sort out the buffs situation too. However the problem for this is that all of the new Catacombs classes are designed to compete under the assumption that all their opponents will be buffed. Remove those buffs and the Catacombs classes become even more overpowered than they already are.

In short, these changes would be welcome if they addressed related issues like class balance. But they won't, so unless they do these new server types can't work.

[pikeh]

Personally I've never enjoyed rvr as much as I do in NF

/Ankh

agreed.

[Cryn]

I'd be interested to see a non-ToA server type just to see if people are right. I'm in two minds about ToA. I hate the way it put alts more or less out of my reach (within the context that I HATE the long raids and extra grinding), and post-ToA class imbalances, though no more extreme than previous imbalances are particularly destructive in my opinion, because they encourage a solo mentality. But then again, the ML abilities introduced new styles and tactics (group stealth, brittles, traps, titans, storms, mezz poison, etc), and that kind of diversity is a good thing in a combat-based game.

Other people seem much less conflicted and have been shouting for ToA to be pulled since before it even hit Europe. So, I'd be interested to see if they are right, and whether they stand up and be counted if they are wrong.

I wouldn't want to see NF pulled. Would be nice if they can optimise their client-side performance, but other than that it seems like an all around improvement over jogging Emain 24/7 in original frontiers.

[Lieva]

ooh have you seen this weeks friday news?

WE get to vote on these servers and GOA will pass the info to mythic

[Nostalgica]

Where?

[Minkyra]

Well as a casual player since the game began i am now almost onto my 3rd level 50 char. I can see what people are getting at but it is in essence like the arms race, self perpetuating. You will always have people that spend a huge amount of time and be the best of the best and then there's the casual player. My motivation, the people i play with.

I hated RvR with a passion on mid/excal it almost stopped me from playing but NF has brought some balance back to it, but it is still about people, and the reall issue with MMORG is that it is Virtual so people can do what they like and rarely have to face the consequences so then co-operation becomes a problem, this was particualrly acute on excalibur.

The thing that really got me about ToA, which I like a lot, is that Artifacts are unblanced so that you get people dripping with all the top gear and the artifacts only do good things, a way to bring balance would be to give them negative effects as well as positive thus making people think. Eg can't be healed...or extra sensitive to certain attacks, you need balance.

The MLs are a bind because you have to do them start to finish realistically or at least in big chunks. I would like to see a system whereby you could do them in stages and have port points so you could port out and then port back in at a future time <?time-limited> but I really like the idea of MLs, perhaps they should limit some of the abilities to PvE? though i do not favour that, there needs to be incentives for doing them.

I would like to see more events and this is where realm invasion could work if they where run as events with a series of pre-events leading up to it, eg spying missions for stealthers into the other realm, merchant trading, magic conferences with intrigues and then eg a tournament for the fighters, again with intrigues. But there would have to be a point, eg capture or return an item/person otherwise it would be a bit hollow

The other thing i would like to see is guild quests.

At the end of the day it is pretty much what we make of it, but to be all things to all people....now there's an idea that would keep the well groomed executives at the large software houses up all night. Realistically i guess what we will see is a range of MMORGs becoming increasingly more focused on what people want to pay for. Though it is encouraging that they actually ask for our views.

And finally more role-play.


any way my tuppence worth.

[Lieva]

Where?

same place you voted for clustering

[Lairiodd]

The MLs are a bind because you have to do them start to finish realistically or at least in big chunks. I would like to see a system whereby you could do them in stages and have port points so you could port out and then port back in at a future time <?time-limited> but I really like the idea of MLs, perhaps they should limit some of the abilities to PvE? though i do not favour that, there needs to be incentives for doing them.

The reason ML have to be done in chunks is also that getting a group together to do specific steps would be hard. It is eas(ier) to get a group together to do say all the group steps for a specific ML than it is to get a group together to do 10 random ML's. This is self-fulfilling effect as since people do ML's in blocks, everyone either has a block done or not.

This is one of the annoying things about a failed ML attempt. If you get all ML steps bar one, you generally have to re-do all the ones you have already done as the next raid won't be to just do that step, it will be to do the entire ML (or bg steps or whatever).

I don't know how to solve that problem. ML leaders tend to frown on people only comming for a single step and as you say it is hard to get to do a single step anyway.

[Jor]

Maybe it's a question WHEN you actually started your DAoC playing... as for me I am with DAoC for quite a long time now and enjoyed the early months more than the last.

- Everybody did the epic to get good armor.
- Crafters really added useful stuff, where are they now since ToA?
- I loved OF (I don't say that I hate NF, but whenever I open a gate in Ligen or Cain and see the old graphics I WANT TO GO THERE)
- people went RvRing with dropped armor and weapons - and we had big battles for sure!

On the other hand lots of nice stuff was "invented" and diversity is good I think.

I probably would vote for a "classic DAoC / OF" server

I like the idea someone mentioned that player crafted gear should get a boost as the questable/epic things.