Would take a major investment on the part of the people that run the free shard to make it run half as good as DAoC. There is a reason they are called "free" shards. I did a lot of free shards with UO.

 

-----signature-----

Indeed

 

-----signature-----

Uthgard is decent, but not flawless.

PS: how many bots in your numbers? i'd say 30-35%.

 

-----signature-----

If GW2's WvWvW is at all good, then yes it will be the final nail in the coffin of DAOC. Why pay $15/month to play a 10 year old RvR game when you can pay once to buy GW2 and play it with no monthly fee from then on?

 

-----signature-----

No monthly fee makes me question the game. I don't really like F2P models. As I'd rather spend 1 lump sum than dump small bits of money here and there.

And the reason DAoC is still so appealing to me is because I am established in it. I like being able to log in and play many of my different characters and them all being templated and decent rank. Starting over, at this point in my life, isn't something I look forward to doing. If DAoC died I'd be back to only playing console games or single player games on the PC. I'm done trying new MMO's. Too busy with my life.

 

-----signature-----

QFT.


To compare Uthgard to live DAoC is just laughable. Damaja is just mad that Mordred is a ghost town. 1k population on a weekend means nothing, what is it during the week? 100-200? There's more people playing the battlegrounds during the week then all of Uthgard and let's not even mention hard mode leveling. laawwwwwwwwwwwwl

My post was directed at GW2. Nice reading comprehension.

 

-----signature-----

I bolded the part which mattered just so you could comprehend.

Uthgard has -no- defense penetration. If you have 1 weapon spec you penetrate blocking equal to a Troll Warrior with 50+20 hammer and 400 str.


Uthgard has broken interrupt code. There is like a 2 second time in which you can rupt someone, but that rupt fades so quickly you can free nuke through an archer shooting you for example (with no cast speed bonus! or dex cap!)

Uthgard has essentially bodyguard in the form of guard since there is no defense penetration. You will see 75%+ block rate unless you DW, making melee against a guarded toon there useless.


Casters die to 1 hit + viper 3. Since there are no TOA bonuses etc, yet they still have NF RAs, that means things like viper3 are INSANE.


No Speed Warp, offensive casts don't break speed correctly. That means that a 3 charge tank group can speed 6 straight into you and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Amnesia will not break speed.


But offensive casts always drop your speed. Yes, even a PBAE that doesn't hit anyone will drop your speed on uthgard. That means that on opening inc, if you go for initial cast, youre gonna drop your own speed but not drop the enemy speed.


I could really go on forever, Uthgard is so bug ridden it isn't even funny. But its patch setting is still better than live. Though imo neither are worth playing.

 

-----signature-----

Probably not; DAoC, imo, is not financially viable now - as measured by the EA accounting stick.

Reason: MJ and Lorri both said that extreme measures - laying off staff etc. - had to be taken c. 18 months ago and even then it was 'a close run thing'.
Since then the EU servers have gone. So DAoC is now operating with half the players (EU and US player numbers being about the same). This means less revenue.

So if the accounting yardstick was run over DAoC again ..... you have to assume that DAoC would be closed.

So I reckon that DAoC is being kept open - again - because if it was closed this could be deemed to be 'bad publicity' for SWKotR.

Now 3-6 months after Star Wars has launched things may be different. EA have announced the closure of several studios recently so the cost pressure is still there and this may prompt a closure notice - maybe in October 2012 say if they give 3-6 months notice.