Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
What do you think of these features?
Semi4 posted:
Idealistgamer posted: True, but I believe these features would attract so many new subs. I'm thinking DAOC could hit 10k active within a year with these changes.
While you are correct in identifying one problem, there are many other problems that would keep players away.
1. Bugs. Unfixed, long standing bugs.
2. Min/Max
3. Needing two accounts to really have fun. Yes, yes . . . I can already hear some readers “but, but, but . . .npc buffs. . . .†Well, let me see you running through TOA with an npc buffer/healer in tow or let me see you PLing or farming plat with an NPC buffer/healer keeping you alive or etc. . . . then well talk about how DAoC is just as much fun without a bot.
To promote the use of bots and to push players into paying for a second account, Mythic designed some parts of the game to be best played by a botted player. It is what it is. (For those that want to say, "but, but, but . . . POTS. . ." Sorry but no, pots do not = bot. Because Mythic was afraid botted players would throw away the bot in favor of the pot Mythic made sure pot(s) do not = the bot. Plus most noobs do not have the gold for pots.)
4. Most MMO players are PvE centric (in that, even though they PvP 20% to 30% of the time which helps keep the RvR population at a fun level, 70% to 80% of their focus is on the PvE game) and Mythic’s PvE game was ruined long ago.
Today a player, no PLing, can level to 50 in less than 3 days /played. For the tiny niche market that is PvP centric, such rapid leveling through PvE is great. Heck the tiny niche market of PvP focused players would be more happy with /level-50. For the PvE crowd, which numbers in the millions, rapidly breezing up to level 50 makes the DAoC PvE game kind of pointless.
The PvE in most of DAoC's old world has been made obsolete by the expansion pacs. TDs were not the worst idea Mythic ever had but putting TDs into the game was not their brightest moment.
Also, rapid and easy leveling has contributed to realm hopping. In the past when it took a 20 to 40 days /played to level just one toon to 50, players mostly focused their attention on just one realm because almost no one had the time to level up toons in multiple realms. Now, with rapid leveling, almost anyone can level up and fully outfit toons in all three realms.
5. Many PvE centric players love questing and DAoC’s questing system was broken long ago. Long ago Mythic made most of the old world quests obsolete when normal grinding in the Xpacs would provide better gear/exp/gold than the old quest.
Then, there is more than one questing system. A noob goes through the tutorial and learns a questing system where the maps even have a GPS system that hand holds the players through each quest. Then, shortly after the tutorial, the player hits the old questing system where the Quest log can’t even keep accurate track of quest instructions.
So, along with improving the UI and providing more features (like mail, a better LFG system, weapon icons that change color when poison is applied to a weapon, etc. . . ) there are other problems that would need to be fixed or the population would never grow.
Bugs needing to be fixed is stating the obvious. The ghosting, flight jumping as well as other glitches.
I'm talking about making the game more user friendly to bring in new blood. To raise the population.
I'm talking about the entire UI being revamped to fit today's player standerds.
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
What do you think of these features?
The only thing in that I'd like to see and have been sending in feedback for years about is the positive and negative effects to be seperated. It would make it much easier to see what's effecting you or what you might have lost like that, especially with the scads of effect icons you can have on you sometimes. The rest is just fluff that is pretty much meaningless other than the convenience of the mail system for those few one one account and no house. The need/greed thing is a joke, 95% of the time everyone hit need in WAR.
therinS Title:Camelot Vault Staff
Artist Posts: 161 Registered: 2006-1-4 04:27:28
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
What do you think of these features?
Semi4 posted:
Idealistgamer posted: True, but I believe these features would attract so many new subs. I'm thinking DAOC could hit 10k active within a year with these changes.
While you are correct in identifying one problem, there are many other problems that would keep players away.
1. Bugs. Unfixed, long standing bugs.
2. Min/Max
3. Needing two accounts to really have fun. Yes, yes . . . I can already hear some readers “but, but, but . . .npc buffs. . . .†Well, let me see you running through TOA with an npc buffer/healer in tow or let me see you PLing or farming plat with an NPC buffer/healer keeping you alive or etc. . . . then well talk about how DAoC is just as much fun without a bot.
To promote the use of bots and to push players into paying for a second account, Mythic designed some parts of the game to be best played by a botted player. It is what it is. (For those that want to say, "but, but, but . . . POTS. . ." Sorry but no, pots do not = bot. Because Mythic was afraid botted players would throw away the bot in favor of the pot Mythic made sure pot(s) do not = the bot. Plus most noobs do not have the gold for pots.)
4. Most MMO players are PvE centric (in that, even though they PvP 20% to 30% of the time which helps keep the RvR population at a fun level, 70% to 80% of their focus is on the PvE game) and Mythic’s PvE game was ruined long ago.
Today a player, no PLing, can level to 50 in less than 3 days /played. For the tiny niche market that is PvP centric, such rapid leveling through PvE is great. Heck the tiny niche market of PvP focused players would be more happy with /level-50. For the PvE crowd, which numbers in the millions, rapidly breezing up to level 50 makes the DAoC PvE game kind of pointless.
The PvE in most of DAoC's old world has been made obsolete by the expansion pacs. TDs were not the worst idea Mythic ever had but putting TDs into the game was not their brightest moment.
Also, rapid and easy leveling has contributed to realm hopping. In the past when it took a 20 to 40 days /played to level just one toon to 50, players mostly focused their attention on just one realm because almost no one had the time to level up toons in multiple realms. Now, with rapid leveling, almost anyone can level up and fully outfit toons in all three realms.
5. Many PvE centric players love questing and DAoC’s questing system was broken long ago. Long ago Mythic made most of the old world quests obsolete when normal grinding in the Xpacs would provide better gear/exp/gold than the old quest.
Then, there is more than one questing system. A noob goes through the tutorial and learns a questing system where the maps even have a GPS system that hand holds the players through each quest. Then, shortly after the tutorial, the player hits the old questing system where the Quest log can’t even keep accurate track of quest instructions.
So, along with improving the UI and providing more features (like mail, a better LFG system, weapon icons that change color when poison is applied to a weapon, etc. . . ) there are other problems that would need to be fixed or the population would never grow.
DAoC is great, but you know what would be even better? If it were completely different!
I swear, half of your posts echo that feeling.
1. Agree, bugs galore.
2. Min/max is a part of the game. However, I have aggreed that the performance gap between buffed vs non-buffed could be reduced....some.
3. “but, but, but . . .npc buffs. . . .†DAoC is meant to be played with a group. Having a balanced group is easier than playing with, say, all tanks or all casters because it is then BALANCED. It is the intention that clerics/healers/druids cannot level as well solo, to encourage grouping. The group has stuff they need, and the buff class has stuff they need. Mostly just heals. Pots are tremendously effective compared to non-buffed play, and in between NPC and bot buffs. Affordable too, after a few levels under your belt.
4. Yes, quick XP has decimated the need for groups, and kills off the PvE content quickly.
5. Yes, it would be great to have ALL quests updated to the new box system. If it does not give way points very well, a few typed lines describing where to do it should suffice.
Mail system, maybe. Thats what housing is for. I know, most peeps cannot afford a house till well into their 40s if they buy pots and gear instead. Make a friend. Join a guild. Then you can trade with peeps you know until that house is affordable.
Weapon icon color change for currently poisoned weapons = excellent suggestion.
Updated UI. Buy rights from a currently active custom UI, modify it a little, boom. Good stuff. Viddi is a good start, some better stuff without overloading options for a new player, like Bobs or Eggi ( I love both).
There is an LFG window, but it seemed to have ceased being used a few months after it was implemented. I loved it when it was used before, but it could be expanded to include public BGs as well. I may have to start checking it out again, I forgot it existed.
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
What do you think of these features?
therinS posted: DAoC is great, but you know what would be even better? If it were completely different!
I swear, half of your posts echo that feeling.
Lol. . . it may seem like I want a completely different game but I love DAoC.
I would like bugs fixed, more player friendly features and some of todays balance with more of the game from what it was like around the time of SI.
Mail system, maybe. Thats what housing is for. I know, most peeps cannot afford a house till well into their 40s if they buy pots and gear instead. Make a friend. Join a guild. Then you can trade with peeps you know until that house is affordable.
Mail is also good for keeping in touch with others. In other games I often keep in touch with group-mates/guild-mates/etc via game mail. If I do not have their irl email and if I am not online at the same time they are online, if the game does not have mail there is no way for us to keep in touch.
It is nice to log in and find mail from friends waiting.
Updated UI. Buy rights from a currently active custom UI, modify it a little, boom. Good stuff. Viddi is a good start, some better stuff without overloading options for a new player, like Bobs or Eggi ( I love both).
Good idea. Some players create great things.
I often thought that game companies are totally missing out, missing the boat. If, long ago, Mythic had taken the top 50 contributors (players that create great www info sites or UIs or programs like Charplan, etc . . .) and give those players free subs for life, the cost is tiny compared to the return those players would provide the DAoC gaming community. Many great contributors that departed for other games would still be playing DAoC and creating content for the DAoC community if those players had free subs.
-----signature-----
The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is.
Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can,
and keep moving. - Ulysses S. Grant
Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
What do you think of these features?
Idealistgamer posted: Bugs needing to be fixed is stating the obvious. The ghosting, flight jumping as well as other glitches.
I'm talking about making the game more user friendly to bring in new blood. To raise the population.
I'm talking about the entire UI being revamped to fit today's player standerds.
Bugs are only one of DAoC’s many problems.
As I pointed out, because of all the other problems your solution will not increase subs.
There are many reasons players grow to dislike DAoC. Addressing only one of the many reasons will not fix the game enough for noobs to sub and stay. While it is true that PvE centric players want a good user interface (an interface with a multitude of player friendly features) it takes more than a UI to keep players in a game. The game of DAoC is horribly lacking (horribly flawed) for the typical MMO player.
Your idea is good, but it does not address enough of the problems.
You can put expensive designer clothes on a pig and it is still a pig. Over the years DAoC has been twisted from its start as a brilliant game with huge potential, into an old pig that has wallowed in far too much mud.
DAoC has only a niche sub base because it has been twisted to cater to primarily a tiny niche market. Changing the UI, while a very good and necessary idea, does not change the type of market that DAoC caters to. Change the UI all you want and the game still only caters/attracts a tiny niche market.
-----signature-----
The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is.
Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can,
and keep moving. - Ulysses S. Grant
Only the dead have seen the end of war - Plato
This put into Dark Age of Camelot would blow both WoW and WaR out of the water.
Not just in your hearts, but on the charts.
yes, yes, yes I know the bugs & lag have to be fixed first. We all know this.
I totally agree with that. I think that is exactly what Daoc is lacking: an easy accessable and user friendly UI. Among the things you have mentioned, it would also have to include a better quest journal, consistent quest boxes, mail system, updated inventory, etc. Custom UIs are not a solution, in my opinion the whole UI System needs an overhaul.
The graphics are great, same goes for the combat system, which is the best in the market (no global cooldown, style chains, interrupts...). PvE in Daoc is also great due to the well thought-out class system. It's just the old players, that lost the desire to participate in that part of the game.
Buff bots have to go tho. Sell that overhaul as Daoc 2, include a fresh Server with 1 Realm per Account like it was in the past and watch the sub numbers grow.
Sadly this was less than a year before WAR launched, after this point the amount of updates DAOC received dropped quite a bit and most of the staff were concentrating on the WAR crunch.
Emblurr Title: The Velvet Sledgehammer Posts: 8 Registered: 2002-4-6 22:02:39
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
What do you think of these features?
Date Posted:1/1/00 12:00amSubject:
What do you think of these features?
therinS posted: 2. Min/max is a part of the game. However, I have aggreed that the performance gap between buffed vs non-buffed could be reduced....some.
Uhm, it's not just buffs. The power afforded to your character by gear in DAoC is higher than I've ever seen in any MMO. Pet procs that often do more damage than the class that procced them. Lightning Storm proc which takes off half your opponent's life when it procs. HoT chest procs for some classes can literally negate all melee damage dealt to the chest from some classes. For example, If you're an Armsman with 3300 HP, the Timeless chest heals 1100 HP when the HoT proc goes off. If you factor in the second proc, any hit to your chest for 146 or less is actually doing on average zero damage. You have to min/max your template with expensive items and on many classes you have to search for RoGs with the right stat combinations, or you get rolled.
