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when daoc first came out, there was no xp or cash for killing people and there where no realm abilities. all that stuff was done while the game was developed through patches.

anyway, pvp was a blast at that time, even without any incentives besides killing people and e-peen fame.

 

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i dont recall that far back, i was 10 or 11? i forget, either way, my point stands, there was even less then, other than bragging rights and the thrill of the fight~

 

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Your paradigm is incorrect. In the beginning the game had a lot happening in the Frontiers and there was very little incentivizing RvR. The more Mythic focuses on incentivizing RvR the more the game dies.


It may seem counter intuitive but for the RvR game to thrive the PvE game needs to thrive. The challenge Bioware has today is the PvE game in DAoC is mostly pointless. Yes there is a huge amount of PvE, but not only is the PvE buggy and the UI still clunky, there is no reason for players to do 99% of the games PvE. Today leveling in DAoC is wham bam thanks for the almost instant level 50.


I do not see Bioware ever fixing the horrendous damage that has been done to the games PvE and the old method of fixing the challenge the Frontier is having (Clustering) has been all used up.

 

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If anything the game needs less RvR incentives.

If you strip away all the individual RvR incentives from the game you still have the most fun and dynamic PvP combat available on the MMO market. The game was the most fun for me at the beginning, and not because it was new and awesome. The game was fun back then because there was nothing distracting me from how cool and amazing the combat mechanics felt. The casting system with its hard interrupt system and long duration CC was something I still love to this day. The melee system, largely based on reactionary/positional styles and backup styles, was innovative and challenging, and if you wanted to get the most damage out of your swing, you had to know the system as well as how to manipulate and position your character to get the style off. The person who was better won the fight.

Or, you could bring a friend to even the odds; group battles back in the day were a ton more fun. Yeah, it's nice to know that I can manage 5 hotbars worth of abilities every fight... but the game feels more like work than fun when, at the end of the fight, we lose because someone forgets to blow one of their 30 timers. Simpler has always been more fun.


It started with RPs, then ToA bonuses came out and took it to a whole new level. Now you needed certain items or additional abilities to be competitive in RvR. It wasn't about who was the best player, it was about who had the best character.

I think DAoC needs to be taken back to the basics. My 2c.

 

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Something new needs to be put in the game, or it will continue to dwindle until it's time to pull the plug.

 

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This is a little rose colored but it's still worth a +1.

 

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You are correct when you say, “it will continue to dwindle until it's time to pull the plug.” That is the games destiny as set in the first year of its existence. For 9 years Mythic (and now Bioware) has tried to figure out how to fix the game and the only solutions have been bandaids that have not stopped the decline.


Far too much damage has been done to the game. Actually the game could be fixed, but not in this reality. Not with EA/Bioware being what it is.


The only way to fix the game (and repopulate the game) is to roll back most of the RvR/PvP incentives, remove most of the rapid leveling, completely neuter the bot, eliminate the ability to PL-farm Plat/PL-experience, fix 99% of the bugs, create a much better UI, create a tremendously better guild/alliance UI, eliminate most of TOA (and rework the rest), rework all the drop tables so that noob players do not need to level a farming toon just so they can afford to outfit the toon they really want to play, eliminate the experience death penalty, optimize quest and mob experience/cash/drops, eliminate the group PvE penalty, replace the stupid RNG, restructure the teams working on DAoC, ELIMINATE EASY MODE leveling/gear-gifts/plat/etc. . . ,. . . . . Most of the listed changes would totally piss off the few remaining RvR/PvP centric players (and it would piss off those who rely on easy mode) and as the RvR/PvP centric players departed, the population would drop to almost zero.


Once the changes are made the game would begin to draw large numbers of PvE players and the Frontiers would again be populated, which would bring back the PvP/RvR centric players, but there would be a lull where almost no money was coming in and I doubt that EA would put up with the lull. Also, I doubt that EA/Bioware would spend the money it would take to actually revamp and fix the game.


For the most part fixing the game is moot because Mythic (now Bioware) has shown that (1) they do not really have much of a clue as to what is causing the games decline and (2) they have shown that they do not have a clue what the typical player needs in a game. (many on the boards have the same challenges.)


Don’t believe me that they still do not have much of a clue, just look at their expert handling of the Pendragon Ring contest (they truly do not think that their incompetence harms the game population). Or how they shut off the old Herald before ever getting the new Herald up and running (again, they really do not think such things matter or they would not take the incompetent action). These people do not have a clue (can you imagine if Kaspersky or Norton or Firefox or YouTube or etc. . . were managed like Mythic/Bioware manages DAoC? With all the bugs, silence and incompetence?). I had hoped that Bioware would change things but it seems that Mythic has infected Bioware with Mythic's fatal disease.


While there is a way to save DAoC and rebuild it so that DAoC is much bigger than its past glory, based on EA/Biowars history there is no way IRL to save DAoC. EA/Bioware is functioning with an incorrect paradigm so DAoC is destine to get ineffectual bandaids that help it limp along toward the graveyard.


They need a new paradigm.

 

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Just cancel ability to realm hop... or put it on a meaningful timer(1week? 1 month) Idc... only enjoy playing 1 realm anyway. But would stop relic hoppers, and hopefully even out the population.

But I guess there could be more incentives to RVR... considering a lot of the population is r11/r12 and a few r13s... it's basically just RPwhoreville because the only thing left is realm ranks.

Making titles seen from any realm would be nice... ie, if you see an LE, or some kind of LE-wannabe tag, and possibly some negative connotation for a fg hitting a solo... might bring more solo'ers around, and more 8mans actually looking for other 8mans to fight...

idk... I come from both ends on this one... get zerged while soloing, but also do the same... but WHY NOT?? they do it for RPs... and I do it for RPs... :/

 

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