Hello all,

I've played Dark Age on and off since 2001. Like many of us, I haven't been able to shake the realm warfare that I basically grew up with, and while I would love to come back to the community (for the millionth time), I have some understandable reservations. I'm looking for a very honest update (I know I will get both those blindly upset with and in love with the game, but I welcome all comments).

My real concerns can be expressed in the following questions, really...

1. The game is old. How is the population?

2. I have a handful of RR5ish characters, but assuming I wanted to start with a fresh 50, how long would it take to get to a competitive state (in terms of both RR and equipment)?

3. I live for guilds in this game, and while I don't have the time to start one ground up, I will have a solid amount of time to help work with an existing group of people, if I could find one. Anyone have any update on guild sizes, activity etc?

4. I heard, from my brother actually, that the current state of the game is extraordinarily Midgard-heavy. I've heard these things (along with every other complaint) at every other opint in the timeline of my DAoC experience. How true is this? How is realm balance?


Any other information would also be welcome. I understand that there may a lot of these "game dead?" questions on the board, but I'd like to test the waters before I dive in with another good friend of mine.

Thank you!


(Oh, and I don't have the trial period, because I let my brother fool around with it a few weeks ago.)

 

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1) Couldn't really tell you as i havn't been playing for a couple of months. Last i was on the population was pretty healthy though.

2) It depends on how well you know the game. I could probably get a char 1-50 and decently templated (as in anything except ML10 items) in two weeks, solo with no help or money if i wanted to even with my limited play time. With help you can get to level 50 in less than 8 hours and be RvR ready shortly after that. All you need to be rvr ready really is level 50 and a decent template, the rest comes as you go (champion levels, master levels etc)
RR is more important for some classes and playstyles than others, but it isn't as big a deal as some people would make you think.

3) Ask around in /region, /advice etc and I'm sure someone will pick you up.

4) Population wise alb has allways been the largest realm. Last i played mid was arguably the strongest realm, but meh... Hibernia is the underdog and thats one of the reasons I prefer playing hib.

 

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Thanks for your response!

I'm actually less worried about getting to 50 (ive done it god knows how many times), as I am about the discrepancy between high rr and low rr players in RvR. Gone are the days that RR4 was decent and RR 7 was godly.

Any other thoughts?

 

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tldr

 

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It depends on the timezone you play... EU it's a massive massive mid population.. US it's albs everywhere...

Hib is indeed the underdog... although they can also net a big showing if the relic situation is 'right'.. ie.. enough people with hib toons, but playing your mid/albs is generally preferred it seems, unless you get 20% extra dmg or have easy ports to action. (just to give an idea.. think the spam yesterday on beno was 85 hibs, EU time).