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E3 2003: Dark Age of Camelot
Dark Age of Camelot
Foundations/Trials of Atlantis
Developer: Mythic
Publisher: Vivendi
Release Date: Q3 2003/Q4 2003
Fantasy MMO
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Dark Age of Camelot - Div Devlin (05-19-03)
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| Sanya checking our badges! |
Every time I see Dark Age of Camelot, I get drawn right in. It's a love/hate relationship in all honesty. When I was first introduced to the game at the E3Expo in 2000 I was hooked. As several of us went into beta we enjoyed our time. Upon release, power gaming for two weeks straight to hit level thirty or forty, burnout set in. That's bad. Now, almost three years later were seeing an entirely different game, and damn it beats a lot of the competition hands down. With it's upcoming second retail expansion the “Trials of Atlantis,” and player owned housing in the free downloadable expansion “Foundations,” due out next month, Mythic is giving us a real good feeling of love. It helps that both Sanya Thomas and Scott “Always known as Lum the Mad” Jennings let me give them a hug. Even if according to Scott Jennings I'm too smarmy when posting news.
One of the strongest parts of Dark Age of Camelot and Mythic is their dedication to consistently take care of the players. Unbeknownst to them, so they claim, Mythic has set new standards within the MMO industry that players actively follow, and compare other games against. Community Relations is always open to players of DAoC with Sanya Thomas always working or lurking someplace to keep players abreast of situations they may start a revolt over. When it comes to in game support you will never get the dreaded “I can not help thee with that,” or automated response mails stating “We are aware of your problem, this ticket has been closed.” Members of the Mythic Team lead the market and industry when it comes to player support, even when a disgruntled player like myself cancels their account.
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| This old House. My House. |
It's about ownership!
As we met up with the Mythic folks at E3, and after exchanging tales of days gone by, we got to take our first look at housing. So far, only one game has actually offered true player housing with options to decorate to a designers tastes. Mythic seeing that the way to retain players is to give them what they can call their own. They do this with the upcoming housing expansion, which will offer a full variety of 'working' player housing tools. Consisting of four different styles of homes for each realm, players will be able to purchase a simple house and go as large as a mansion designed for guilds. Each home will have fully customizable gardens, and options to place guild banners near the doorways. Interior designers will have a field day with place-able objects from beds, and tables, to bookcases and trophies that can be mounted on walls, as some examples. If your guild slays the uber dragon, and you have the requisite skills, you can place the head on the wall!
Aside from the aesthetics of home ownership, plans are also in place for houses to serve a purpose. Not only will there be secure chests, which add more storage space for players to bank items, as well as vendor spots to follow for players to sell items. There is the possibility that guilds may have teleporters and bind stones to travel to the realm vs. realm areas, but I was easily distracted from hearing the answer to this. Land plots will be huge, with no foreseeable problems for spacing as players do the mad-dash-land-grab for the best spot. Also, areas will be pre-designated so that the countryside is not loaded down with homes.
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| Underwater Adventures! Shipwreck. |
No More Taxi Service!
Mounts are another aspect coming to Dark Age of Camelot that will take the game to the next level that will be fully controllable. While not expanding on how this will work, players will be able to eliminate the taxi service and horse routes currently in game, and travel on horseback to the locations they like. Also being added since it will be an adventure at sea, will be ships! Were wondering if players will also be able to ride the sharks coming within Trial's of Atlantis.
Underwater Adventures?
The largest part of the game's upcoming expansions is in fact the Trials of Atlantis that will open the game to a whole new dimension of player enjoyment. Designed more so for the high level players with nothing to do, Atlantis will add a new realm, expanded quests and of course, underwater adventures expanding the game with even more features.
The basic premise of the expansion is that the citizens of Atlantis knew that their civilization was drawing to an end, and set up nine trials for future explorers to uncover so that they could get to the capital of the lost civilization that will consist of epic style quests an a continuing storyline as you learn more about the lost civilization. In one example, were shown the lost written language carved on stone, that players would be able to decipher. Some of the runes will have direct meanings and interpretations. As players learn more, and they gain skills (?) in the language, they will automatically have the text translated. New creatures, and puzzles will abound as well. We enjoyed the hidden aspects of the sunken ship in one example, which will have mobs that need to be defeated.
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| Lost Atlantean Tales |
Eye Candy!
As I was about to launch into detailed questions about the upcoming changes to the game, Sanya quickly noticed that I could be easily distracted by items on screen that were “shiny,” which would in turn elicit the mandatory “Ooh Ahh” reaction from me; also a great way to dodge the “No Comment” answers. The graphics look great and the work they have been putting in really shows between the new and old areas. As well as the graphics overhaul, the lost realms of Atlantis will also have all new styles to their buildings, giving a different feel to the architecture. A couple of items which really stuck out and I enjoyed watching were the rays of sunshine shooting down into the water as waves overhead rippled.
Final Thoughts:
While we didn't ask in depth questions about the changes to the PvP system, we were more then impressed with the changes being done to Dark Age of Camelot, with myself on the verge of a becoming a drooling fanboi again. My daughter is already hooked and ready to start playing again. From the mouth of babes, comes words of wisdom. I hear the Dark Side calling. As soon as time permits, I'll being reactivating my DAoC account(s) to try out the new expansion to take part in the expanded high-level questing systems. Overall, it's going to be refreshing from the norm of Fantasy S&S MMO gaming.
[Housing Gallery] [Atlantis Gallery]
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