No, I just reworded it for what you really meant.


Plus, 0 out of 6 of your ideas would bring anything to the table. DAoC is old, it's not going to all of sudden get 20k new subs just because it gets a mail system. Nor at this point in time would they honestly be able to handle that many new subs. If daoc's pop went up, they'd have to make a new server. Once a game reaches this point, nothing is really going to 'save' it. It will mostly likely hold it's current pop for a few more years. Nothing to date has to offer what daoc rvr does, and thus people liking daocs rvr will likely stay. Once something comes along that does, while you may see a dip in the population, hardcore/diehard daoc fans are still going to be playing daoc. The only thing they'd ever leave for is DAoC2, and that is never going to happen, so accept your fate as an oldworld MMO. EQ is still around, and I bet you most of those who play are diehard EQ fans that will play the game until the servers go down. And correct me if im wrong here, because I honestly haven't looked at EQ in years, but I'm pretty sure they don't have a mail system, they don't have updated graphics or character model movements(which btw was already done with toa/catacombs for daoc), or any other idea you posted. These things just don't happen, so give it up.

Im not saying I wouldn't like something like a mail system, but I would much rather have that time fixing broken things they already have to/should be work/ing on. It's just something that is NOT needed. You present fluff when we need bugs fixed. FLuff only comes along if you have extra $$$, and, lol, daoc does not have that.

 

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There are far more than 3k active DAoC players. Some are only online at 3am and others only on the weekend and others only at 6pm. But. . . even if all 20k subs were to be considered active, losing most of the existing subs to have a game that could rise up and have more than 200k and keep rising, is worth the change. IMO it would be better for all the existing players to be gone and for the game to have 250k subs again than to keep the existing players happy and have the game vanish in a year or two.


The challenge with remastering DAoC is that almost no one on the boards has ever posted a comprehensive and logical plan that seems to understand the needs of the typical MMO player. Most people post eclectic lists of suggestions that contain some selfish wants, contain some mutually exclusive wants, contain some good but only marginally developed ideas, contain things that enhance horribly bad things in the game, contain suggestions to modify fluff that has been shown to have mostly no effect on subscription numbers at games, etc.. . . and quite often many lists that people create do not include any reference to changing things that have caused grave damage to the longevity of DAoC.


For years and years now people have been taking a shotgun approach and randomly copying things from WoW and randomly adding their own twists to a game and then hoping the end result becomes the next WoW. Eclectically designing a game is not how winning games are built. To have a winning game design one needs to understand the needs and motivations of all the different psychologies of the potential MMO players and one needs to be able to give others what they need even if it is what that individual designer would rather not have in the game for their own play style (This is most defiantly where almost all fail. Almost all are far too selfish to allow others to also have fun in their own way).

 

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This horse is so dead it is just sad.


DAoC did at one time have advertisement. It did not help the game. Noob players would try out the game, get pissed off at Mythic’s stupidity, lies, unfixed bugs, neglected UI, etc. . . and leave. Over the last decade upwards of a million have tried out this game and most of them did not like what they found.


Advertising cow poop as if it were a fine delicacy at your new restaurant may bring in customers but after the customers tast the cuisine almost none of them will return. For the typical MMO player DAoC is cow poop. Sorry to point that out to you if you happen to love what DAoC is today but for the typical MMO player, DAoC is most defiantly not what they want in a game.


Almost all the MMO players that would love what DAoC has been twisted/deformed into . . .well they are already subscribers. It is sad that those who love the twisted game of DAoC can’t seem to grasp that most MMO players would hate what DAoC is today but that is the truth.

 

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I agree with a great deal of your post. None of the 6 listed ideas would save the game. Mythic/Bioware could not handle huge numbers of new subs. Many hard-core players will probably never leave unless it was for DAoC2, but that will never happen . . . .etc. . . I agree. It is all spot on.


The only thing I would adjust a bit is the thing about EQ and mail. EQ has had mail for a very long time now. They added mail in Feb of 2005 and in May 2005 they even put in a patch that would forward game mail to your real email account so you could read the game mail if you were not in game.


I think that there is a difference between fluff and things that remove frustration. While DAoC does not need anything in the way of fluff (though Mythic/Bioware keeps doing fluff) many noobs expect things like mail. Also, there are always posts showing up on the boards, and things said in game, about players wanting to transfer things and being taken to the cleaners (for a decade now this has been a problem).


One of the big things that has harmed this game over the years is word of mouth from pissed off players. The game not having a mail system is something that eventually leads to many noobs being annoyed.


Because of housing, mail is not as important anymore but many players do not want to play Sims (housing) but they do want easy and safe ways to transfer gear/plat to alts even when their guildies are not in game or when their guildies have nothing better to do than to leave their group and go to the city and help with a transfer. Then there are the many noobs that want to transfer things long before they have the plat to own a home.


WoW is an inferior game yet it has over 10 million subs. WoW has better implementation and WoW does not tend to piss off massive numbers of players. One of the big differences between the implementation of WoW and DAoC is what some would call fluff but I would term “Player friendly features that eliminate or reduce frustration”. IMO adding something like an extra dozen colorful mounts that run just as fast as the old mount and carry just as much . . .that is unnecessary fluff because it does not eliminate frustrations and it does not fix game problems, etc. . . . Mail though, Mythic should have added that a very long time ago.


It is true that there are many things that still need fixing and Mythic/Bioware has limited money for the game but mail should be fairly easy to code and they could assign some noob intern to do it. A great deal of the code for mail aready exists and adding NPC interfaces would not require modifying existing game code very much (no more than putting any other NPC into the game).

 

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Well thank you for correcting me then. As I stated I haven't played it in yeeeeears. Back when I played it you had to leave stuff on the ground and hope someone didnt sneak by and loot it.

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The main problem involved in mail is resources. First they'd have to implement, then they'd have to test for a while, then they'd have to implement it to live servers. And before Live servers they'd have to figure out a way to keep spammers from filling your inbox etc.

Assuming that all goes to plan, it still is going to cost $$$. And hardly anything they do goes according to plan. Don't get me wrong, mucking around with 10-15 year old code is no easy feat. But fact is, it never does. So they'd then have to spend more resources fixing it.

Does it take out some frustration? Probably, but it will add more before it's completely implemented.

I agree that DAoC lacks a lot of what MMO players expect to find these days. If it hadn't been for Mark Jacobs, some of these things may have made it to DAoC. But with im sure around 90% of daocs profits going to a game that never released, and a game that shouldn't even really have been started, those features are not to be found.

And it's no fault of DAoC (that has relied greatly on community and the players to solve their own conflicts) that people steal loot etc. DAoC was made in a different time, and it had the community to support what it may have lacked, and in some cases, may have made people friend you because you were nice enough to help them out. But things happen when you can make 100 toons in one realm on the same server. Or when someone can just use a trial to get to 50/ml10 go lead a raid, disappear with the stuff, trade it later, profit, and never be seen or heard from again.

A lot of changes to DAoC have produced unforeseen results. Clusters, /level, class balance changes etc.

Either way, you never know what might happen. DAoC is going to still be here for a while.

 

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I find it hard to believe the number of subscribers has declined in 2011.

 

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Look how much DAOC changed from 2001-2011.


All that's left to be implemented is my ideas.


To stand another 10 years they may have no choice.


Evolution is inevitable. You know this to be true.

 

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But your ideas are terrible.

 

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How about any of this?


Fix Death System so that,

You atleast spawn within the zone which you had died.

Not turn into a spirit and resurrect at the exact location which you had died.

Not suffer resurrection sickness from being killed by a combaton.


Fix Travel System so that,

Your run speed will be the same in all zones.

Sprint will be a 50% speed increase for 15sec.

(Low level mount 50% speed increase.)

(Advanceed level mount 75% speed increase.)

(Level 50 mounts 100% speed increase.)

 

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