this.

the learning curve is so high.

It's also very hard to learn proper controls and there is nothing teaching you to do it except for that fan made daoc 101 video on youtube

 

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Maybe new players can afford to buy the plat from websites? I dunno it seems that is the only way to get the plat these days considering money drops really slowly in dungeons.

money from coin drop has never been that good in camelot... its salvage/trinket and sell lewt that makes the most money in camelot.

 

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I am just saying, for me to return to the game and template my toons I spent about 160 plat which came out 40 dollars or so at my expense. Mainly because I don't feel like farming, but I sure got back in the game quick with my average gear.

Couple of things.
before a toon goes out to RvR he needs lv50, basic template, cl10 or have the bar moving to the right (that's an extra 200 hp), ml 4-10 class and role depending and as close to rr3 as possible (IE Battlegrounds).
From the battleground you learn how to play your toon, what your role in a group is and what toons are wanted at 50.
You should be able to get a guild there which will help with template ie crafters

Minimum RA = LW1, minumum gear = endo pot, water pot, tin foil hat, horse and saddel bag with 2 pieces of siege (ok the last is my deal)

This is a group game not a solo one, solo if you like but thats up to you.
You can not spec 50 cave on your shaman (or staff in the friar example) and expect a group to run you, get over it.

As to the template, you don't need end game gear to compete, Dragon slayer, Dragon weapon, champ weapon, Player crafted, basic artifacts, even Epic dungeon gear (TG Sidi) are affordable and readily available.
You get ML10, Levi, seasonal quest items, rare x10 loot drops etc as you play, join raids, or buy from other players (you do gain gold from killing elfs you know).
At RR5 you work on a template to replace your starter temp, by that time you should of figured out whats is important and have access to a few or all of the leet gear you think you have a right to right out of the gate.

Play what ever class is fun for you, yes even a thane can add to a group if played right, play it wrong and expect to get called out on it "mezz braking lag hammers of doom".

 

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I just downloaded DAoC along with a couple friends to screw around for a bit. I haven't played in years, since WoW came out really. I can tell you all the #1 reason why no new players will play this game is the UI. Everything else is secondary. Templating, game mechanics, the complicated specs and classes, yes compared to newer, more "modern" mmos like WoW DAoC classes are complicated, but none of this is as important as updating the games UI. It is in desperate need of an update.


#1 Simple things like using the map are an exercise in frustration. It doesn't scale with display resolution. When this game came out hardly anyone had a widescreen monitor, but 1920x1080 is the standard now. Nothing in the UI scales and the map is barely useable because everything is so small. UI scaling, especially for the map needs to be implemented, this is a really basic thing that affects the game experience in the first 5 minutes of logging in.


#2 Tooltips. The whole clicking on an ability or spell and getting an empty useless tooltip and then having to press a hotkey (shift i) or click info to actually see what the hell the spell does is really stupid. This is totally unacceptable if you want anyone to try your game, much less play it.


#3 There is no cast bar. This personally doesn't bother me, but everyone else I know that I've convinced to try DAoC loses their shit over it.


#4 Health bars and targeting. They are too small and the box holding bars for you and your target is really bad. Back in the day this wasn't a big deal and like the cast bar thing doesn't bother me, but every person I know that's tried DAoC just freaks out in disbelief when they get in game and see the unit frame.


These are the main problems for new players and even returning players like myself. As old as the game is the graphics are actually really nice with character models and armor sets better than WoWs in some cases. These 4 UI issues though are a deal breaker. They stop people from even considering the game in the first few minutes of logging in. I would gladly re-subscribe if there as a major UI update and even the friends and guildies from other MMOs that I convinced to get trial would give it a serious shot if the UI wasn't so bad.

http://bobsui.koamon.com/downloads.html
http://vnboards.ign.com/user_interface_board/b22592/p1

About the UI, your correct, it is outdated.
I doubt very much any effort will be put into updating it and using a custom built UI or making one yourself using the tools provided is your only option there.


Speaking to the other new games... they lack /face and are two realm action fail / fail imo

 

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The only thing I posted that is helped by custom UIs is the size of health, target, and party bars. Custom UIs don't solve the map/scaling problems, tooltips, or cast bar.

That is a good list, for the UI. I think there are other game problems (huge problems) that also cause noobs to give up in disgust but if we are just looking at the UI, I would add two things to your list:


1. Keyboard customization needs improvement. Both the UI for customization and the keys that can be bound and what the keys can be bound to need modification/improvement.


2. There are to many slash commands that are not handled by a UI. I do not have a problem with /commands being available for those who want to use them but almost every slash command needs a UI interface for ease of use. (Example: /settle 10000000)





The really sad thing, there are many different “#1 reasons why no new players will play this game”. The UI is just one of many #1 reasons. It really would be great if all the other reasons were secondary things, but that is not the case.

 

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Also, I know of no noobs that check out a game using a custom UI. Almost 100% of new players, unless a friend that already plays loads the game onto the noobs computer and also loads a custom UI, almost all noobs start the game and get their first impression using the standard UI.


First impressions are everything.


If the UI feels clunky/neglected/old/outdated/etc. . .and the keyboard cant be set up the way the noobs needs, then all the great custom UIs mean little or nothing.


Edit: continuing on this UI subject. The last few games that I tried out and then found that I hated. I never once thought, “I wonder if I would love this game if I loaded up a custom UI and try out the game again?”


If my first impression was, “I hate this stupid game”. I just left the game and deleted it from my HDD to free up space for some other new game.

 

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