krothic2001 posted:
So, for ~10 years I played DAOC. I guess that makes me one of the few "lifers" of the game, but finally I got tired of seeing nothing new except for an occasional overpowered ability added to an already overpowered class. What did I do? Went to Rift. BUT, for SOME reason, I miss DAOC more than I missed my first dog when it died.
First, I'd like to touch on things about DAOC that frustrated me (and countless others) to no end:
1. Relics - Stupid reward, imo. Any realm who captures relics did so because they had numbers (most likely), and now that zerg is 20% stronger. The bonuses need to be changed or lowered.
2. Population problems - Not always the biggest annoyance, as there were 2 realms that could always counter the one "overpopulated" realm.
3. Class balance - again, not always the biggest problem for me personally, as every class has a bane.
4. NEVER any new content - speaks for itself... and when new content would be added it would just piss the community off even more, thus subscriptions would drop.
5. Complete lack of passion from the developers... Once population dropped, there was no effort to rebuild it, just to keep the current subs happy.
6. Gear - It really WAS annoying that, to be viable, you basically needed the same set of gear that everyone else had (i.e. ml10 roffle-procs. etc).
7. PVE - While they needed new content and experiences, all they did was make the "grind" to 50 take literally 2 days (for some, less). This truly destroyed DAOC for me.
8. PVP - As noted on #7, it was all made WAY too easy. You could go out as a rr7+ and fight a rr1-3 with the same MLs, CLs, and gear as you (and half the time get stomped). My nightshade, at rr3, would DESTROY rr10+s all the time (even tanks) without landing a Perforate or Backstab.
Now, I'll list some things that I love about DAOC, and that NO other game has even come close to rivaling.
1. 3 realm dynamic - It wasn't all about finding the enemy faction and f***ing them up. Strategy was required, and the unexpected always happened.
2. Smooth interaction with your character, such as; movement, abilities, etc. Sure there were glitches occasionally, but welcome to MMOs.
3. This is personal... NEVER in a MMO have I had so much fun as when my void eld (rr6) would duo with a rr6 bard and DESTROY entire groups because we played well together.
4. Class Balance - as listed in the "Cons list", every class had it's bane, and a skilled player could successfully take out any class, as long as they knew their class, whereas in games like Rift, if you're a DPS -vs- a Cleric, they will DPS the hell out of you while keeping themselves full health, and unless you're a class with stun and silence you lose, no matter your skill level.
5. Community - Never have I made so many true friends ONLINE. There are several people that I met on DAOC, that I now consider some of my oldest, dearest friends. In no other MMO have I been able to make this type of connection.
6. PVP - Keeps, seige, water battles, bridges - there was really no end to the fun you could have in the Frontier, and while the zergs were often a problem for those of us who preferred to duo or smallman, there was always SOMETHING we could do. DAOC pioneered and invented the term Realm-vs-Realm, whereas other games have always (and continue) to rely on battlegrounds, arenas, or warfronts.
7. Functionality - DAOC pioneered the best combat system I have ever seen. SO much better than a timered stick and smack. The use of positionals, strafing, and combat tactics in general were integrated flawlessly.
8. Game content - FLAWLESS realm lore and storyline for anyone who cares to follow it. Hibernia's Celtic legends, Midgard's Norse mythology, and Albion's Arthurian setting were done perfectly and beautifully.
9. Strategy - Enough said - If your "raid" is well put together, you will have stealthers watching and sending you intel, so you know where to most effectively strike next, etc, etc..
10. Expansions - It's been a while, but as far as the PVE aspect of the expansions (SI, TOA, Cata, LOTM), the new content was, once again, beautifully determined and executed. The legends of Atlantis were all there, with an interesting spin for epic encounters and new items. For Shrouded Isles, ach realm is called to assist a smaller allied realm against a large enemy (Fomorians, Drakorans, Morvalt), and discover amazing new areas that were, sadly, under-appreciated and under-explored.
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All in all, DAOC is still the best MMO experience I have ever had. Sadly, times have changed and modern entertainment is all about the eye-candy. Games like Aion, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Vanguard - they all were visually stunning, but had no real content, thus failed very quickly. DAOC was an extremely powerful name in the MMO world for so long, but alas times change. From 2004 to 2008, subscriptions dropped from 250,000 to 50,000. As of June this year, about 5,000 estimated open accounts remain. For this, I DO mostly blame the developers (Mythic, EA/Mythic, Bioware/Mythic). Nothing has been done to resurrect DAOC. There is no marketing, no significant updates (save those to keep the current population happy). I guarantee that if Mythic were to release the fabled "DAOC 2" with new graphics, new content, new everything, the name alone would bring so many people running and screaming to subscribe.
I guess the point of this post was just to lament the loss of not only a form of entertainment that kept me involved for 10 years, but also for a name... DAOC brought me friendships, imagination, and entertainment. To see it all but dead, especially to me, is nothing short of depressing.
Regardless of how fast you level up there is a huge gear up grind and RR grind which effectively makes you stuck for a while at a lower level. There is definitely a constant battle with rewarding players for rvr success but not rewarding them too much.
The daoc core template is pretty solid and I enjoyed it and still do but in a more limited capacity. What they should do is make a doac 2 for sure and try to stick to some of the core features that make the game unique and enjoyable. Warhammer although not daoc 2 tried to make RVR better but they totally screwed it up. Like by making the RVR areas too small and making 0 delay to return to the battle and just 2 sided etc.
I will just stick to testing out how adorably neko I can make my charr or how leafy green a sylvari can be. 
The last thing I need is to speand hours on the character creation screen like in Aion. 
Not sure exactly how the game lore will explain things but similar to Guild Wars, most PvP events take place in 
|| WAR 
|| Aion 
|| Guild Wars 2 