Daoc is gonna die?

[Radu]

Daoc should concentrate being a group friendly game. New ppl cant get grp. many people is very picky about their grp mates class/spec . RVR is even worser, getting grp with certain classes is damn hard. The powerlevel kills the possibilties of new ppls.
yes, Daoc is dieing, it is obviuos, that was the reason to make server clusters in US and here too.

[Aran_Thule]

I liked the expansions, when the game started there was very very little for characters to do at 50 except RvR, you also have to remember that with ToA we got spoon fed it, we had walkthoughts, explanations and maps, we knew what to expect and what to do, effectively we were spoilt and didnt get the chance to explore the unknown.

Main problem is lack of new blood and the differculty for them to fit in.
Imagine someone joining and wanting to play a bard, what chance do they have if they cant find groups and other people to hunt with.

What is needed is for a large number of people to join at the same time so there are people to group together.
but unless GOA do an advertising push/offer this isnt going to happen.

[Xest]

anyways ...
If I interpret the original posters intent ...
What does DAoC need in order to extend its lifespan & make it more accessible to a wider public?

Personally I don't think the answer is in continually adding new PvE zones which largely only replace the old zones.

Personally I think RvR needs to be made more accessible & fun for a wider section of players. Mythic have tried several ways of doing this, with varying levels of success, but none have been really successful. RvR remains as it always has been - only really fun for an elite few, & nothing more than an occasional pastime for those of the rest with the highest masochism/frustration thresholds.

I disagree, maybe things are different on Prydwen but on both MLF and Merlin where I've played most on US NF definetely increased accessibility to RvR for a lot of people, there's plenty of random groups around now, stealthers are spread much further and wider instead of clustering into 10fg at AMG now also. I think many forget how few people could RvR before NF when it was limited to maybe 3 or 4 gank groups per server.

Levelling is definetely easier thanks to Catacombs, just dinged 50 on my sorc and it took me 1 day, 25mins to ding 50, ML2 and Champion Quests chapter 3, baring in mind that it took about 5/6 hrs for the champion quests alone, maybe another 4 - 5hrs for ML1 and ML2 that means level 50 took around 14 hours max, sure that's with powerlevelling, but pre-Catacombs with powerlevelling you'd be looking at 1 day+ alone for level 50.

[Sharkith]

a lot of what your saying is happening, and the sad thing is it is happening without many of us knowing it. There is a level 15-16 eldrich whose name I am lost on who has contacted one of our guild (Fiehdel) in desperation. He is chain dying at the moment and seems to be in a hopeless situation. He is new to the game and if some of us don't find him he is likely to leave.

There are others. Some have come back fairly recently after GOA deleted their old account and they too found it very hard. Another thing that is hard to do is spot the new players. I ran sessions once or twice a week along with a few other people trying to find new players after around 1 month of finding none I stopped doing it. At that time I was staring into the abyss of ToA.

As for content and playing - it has become an RvR only game. I confess that I came to this game for those reasons and now I have finally got as far as rr4-5 on two characters I am not seriously likely to want to go and do it all again. The mistake of this game has been to make it hard to get to the end point. I am so tired now having aimed to achieve this (all artis almost levelled) that I find it hard now to see the game in any other way.

Fiehdel a good friend of mine and a long time respected member of our guild had a totally different approach to the game and is on the verge of leaving. He is leaving because the game is geared towards RvR and a lot of other reasons he could cite himself. I cannot speak for him directly but my recollection of his perspective is that it fits your's Dallanah and this is a good topic. He feels the content is everything and that the game has promoted the easy mode too much. His views stand in direct opposition to mine. I can actually agree with him but my aim with this game was the endgame of RvR. His wasn't insterested in that and by the time I got out of the other end of ToA I could not help but think he was right.

So how can the game be saved? By making RvR more accessible to a wider public as OohhoO has just said? Or by revamping the content?

In my perspective other games far surpass this one in content and there are new games in the offing - Darkness and Light for example that would suit the player orientated to this style of game more. If DaoC was to ignore its biggest selling point - RvR, then that would kill it.

Unfortunately it seems that this is the only perspective that seems feasible and like Dallanah I am not sure it will promote the game in the long term. I have been so sickened by ToA that I am about to reduce my actual playing time to my FG nights only (2-3 nights), ideally it would be 2 nights. I am doing this because I want to go and focus on a different game where I started with a very different set of objectives. I do it also because my view of the game has been 'reduced' to an RvR perspective and that is unfortunate and you can guess it might not be long before I am not playing should the FG's fall through.

What are you to do? When you set out on a journey it is important to finish - I have always been taught that and I still value it. Now I have finished I realise however that the journey was not what it promised the end is but perhaps I might have been better off setting a different objective?

regards

Sharkith

p.s. damn an essay sorry.

[Craft]

RvR Battlegrounds,

Maybe an idea would be to put Full Groups against each other into an arena, or small map with vantage points and the like, or even 'instanced' dungeons, full groups roaming around there with danger at every corner would be quite fun, also a kind of capture the flag idea like from Quake would be good, both Groups enter the instance then one team is designated to recover the flag, this would give players much more rps say 3,000 per member alive and 1,500 if dead when the flag is recovered and brought back, this would give balance to the FG vs FG, this idea has been pretty well implemented with GuildWars, but again alot of random groups, again if you wanted 1 vs 1, you could go into a lobby area and challenge various players, the names would appear (typo? ) and you could challenge them, then if they accepted then you would both be teleported to an instance based on the number of combatants, either open field, dungeon or maze for example, even if players had to 'put up' a certain ammount of rps to fight people then who ever wins gets the kill rps say 1,000, and then the aggreed rps ammount, this would ultimately make players want to try and kill and challenge the 'best' of each server, this could be well recorded via XML information, even instance capture the castle would be good, with a time limit and certain resources available players would be forced to rush the opponent, therefor if you dont know what sort of task your going to be called in to do alot more well rounded groups would fare better as if its open field then a pbaoe group should fare as well as a general group.

/rant

Sorry for going on, i just think that there are alot of different ways to help players 'find' solo fights, duo fights and FG vs FG, they just sign up to it, the Leader of the FG would select the 8 vs 8 option and away we go, they receive challenges, even 8 vs 6 would be good, just to see how good you realy are

[Erce]

all things die, fact of life.

Daoc has certainly lessened in importance for me, since the incident which i won't mention. PLaying other games, still log on now and then for a guild night, but I have to say just about all in my guild are findin other things to do atm.

[Gamblor]

all things die, fact of life.

Sorry saw this and though of something i saw last night

"Death is certian , Life is not"

Was watching OZ frist season =)


Sorry for getting off topic. :satyn1:

[Luz]

Yes daoc will "die" as in it wont grow only shrink slowly slowly...

A new player stands no chance in daoc if he has no friends. The PvE content has grown but the "system" has stood still since as long as I can remember.
HELLO THERE ISNT ANY FUN SITTING 5 MIN AFTER EACH AND EVERY MOB!!

You can argument the "end-game" of a game forever but it does nothing for the fresh and new players. The road up to the endgame must be working first.

I personally could never ever imagine XP´ing a new alt in DAoC since trying WoW to lv34.
I tried, I did make a new nature druid as I tought that would be least downtime and most fun stuff.. and that sucked crap.

I guess some odd player will outlast the lonelyness of PvE in daoc every now and then, but that would only be if he didnt try any of the other games out there which has alot more rewards early on in the game.

Keep in mind the topic and also what does all them expansions really offer a NEW player? Yes, new classes. Cata = new quests and instances.. and thats all. SI has no dungeons for lowlvls. ToA has nothing at all for low players. And it doesnt matter because 99% of whatever can be offered is abandoned, you can XP an entire day without ever seeing another person, in an MMORPG??

[Craft]

you can XP an entire day without ever seeing another person, in an MMORPG??

Word.

Another thing: Exp Guilds, where have they gone, Marsh Horde is a good guild for that, but for the new players comming in and starting at say level 1, most players now have level 50's so level a character to 20 using /level then either:
1. Get some decent gear and go to Thidranki,
2. Get some gear and run to fins ( or any other viable pl spot )
3. get some decent gear and go to Catacombs for some solo exp and quests

So unless we nurture the new players the game will be left with old players resenting the game for lack of groups, exp opportunities and meeting new friends in a MMORPG! madness..

[Shi]

HELLO THERE ISNT ANY FUN SITTING 5 MIN AFTER EACH AND EVERY MOB!!

As Luz says, downtime is the key word.
DAOC sucks bad at that.

I got never bored by DAOC content and i could genuinely thrilled explore lands and do quests, but having experienced once a normal lvling to 50 killed almost all enthousiasm in me for it.
Then restarting in mid or alb again brought some freshness as class like Boendancer and Necro were already much different in that aspect.
But i don't think abandoning your original class is the key to enjoyment in a game....

Gonna have soon 4x 60 in WoW, and i this with no pain whatsoever.
Sure there is occasional boredom, repetiveness in WOW, as in other games.
But the fast pace & fun gameplay makes up for it.

I got Catacombs at release in US, 1 week of it and that was it.
Zzzzzzzzzzzz, downtime is the gender killer here.
Still DAOC isnt the worst, go try Lineage 2 if you look for some mind blowing grind experience

would you pick a trabant or a ferrari if offered for the same price?