Chance for DAOC to return?

[Lusitan]

your best choice of a return for a DAOC PvP type of MMO, is the currently in BETA - http://www.primeonline.com/ - Its SyFy tho

[Feranor]

I was playing last night, we did 8v8's for about 6 hours... and it was always different groups. Lost once to some dirty x7 Bainshee + 1 Bard team who just zerged us instantly. The game is better than it was 8 months ago when I played, so I don't know if we're playing the same game Feranor ^.^


I also quit DAOC to go back to WoW because Classic servers WERE dying.. I miss them and the people, Lamorak <3

Might be the different timezones, we're all playing European prime time and almost all groups are in IRC together and except for the occasional PUG there's just nothing going on. We did sometimes play US PT but that usually meant mainland zerg since no one was on Agramon.

Let's see...Started playing DAOC when it was released in 2001ish (2002?) Rolled a runemaster on the nordic side. Realized my only job was to stand there and channel one spell. Realized how stupidly imbalanced and OP it was. Watch mythic ignore it until there next expansion a year and a half later.

Ya DAOC is totally the PvP game of choice.

Although I guess with only 4000 players and 10 years of development they could have done something right? Cause there release track record was shit.

While the game was completely imbalanced at the start, it had something no other game since then has had: focus on actual PvP. Besides, DAoC has changed a lot since when you apparently played it.

As it happens I've played a Runemaster (new toon after rerolling Mid for the umpteenth time) until about 2 months ago, it's Midgard's utility caster with plenty of spells to use. Nearsight, Root, Base Debuffs, Bolts, Cold Debuff + Baseline Nuke, AoE for clearing pets, ...

Here, have some 8vs8 (I'm the Friar):

[Wyrmrider]

From what I understand, DAOC's PvP is famous because it started the "RvR" model -- three factions (which means a shifting balance of power), fighting in a MASSIVE open-world PvP environment, with meaningful objectives to be won or lost. It's a model that really captures the "massively multiplayer" spirit and has the potential to be epic like nothing else. I'm sure there were/are class balance issues, and I'm sure SW:TOR's instanced battlegrounds will be good, but those topics both completely miss the point.

To answer the question... I seriously doubt it, the game just looks and feels so dated. Don't get me wrong, it actually made me smile when I tried it -- felt very much like a graphical MUD. But it's hard to get new people into this sort of thing.

A DAOC II would be a cult hit though. RvR players are pretty passionate about it, and they haven't gotten much love from recent MMOs. (Example.)

Best bet in the near future is probably Guild Wars 2's "WvWvW." EDIT: Or Prime, yeah.

[Sackman]

From what I understand, DAOC's PvP is famous because it started the "RvR" model -- three factions (which means a shifting balance of power), fighting in a MASSIVE open-world PvP environment, with meaningful objectives to be won or lost. It's a model that really captures the "massively multiplayer" spirit and has the potential to be epic like nothing else. I'm sure there were/are class balance issues, and I'm sure SW:TOR's instanced battlegrounds will be good, but those topics both completely miss the point.

To answer the question... I seriously doubt it, the game just looks and feels so dated. Don't get me wrong, it actually made me smile when I tried it -- felt very much like a graphical MUD. But it's hard to get new people into this sort of thing.

A DAOC II would be a cult hit though. RvR players are pretty passionate about it, and they haven't gotten much love from recent MMOs. (Example.)

Best bet in the near future is probably Guild Wars 2's "WvWvW." EDIT: Or Prime, yeah.

I enjoy the massive world pvp type thing, closest wow ever got was Alterac Valley back when you only played people on your server - the games that could span days of constant fighting until someone won.

That is the type of thing I hope GW2 provides, as I was very disappointed when WoW dropped that. I do love RBG ctf but the fun of AV's where you could log out, go sleep and return to continue the battle.... as you said its the type of thing that captures the massively multiplayer aspect... and WoW really doesn't do that anymore, it's very much like a 3d server browser now.

I remember doing castle wars on Lineage 2, similar type of thing, eve online also has it with corporation and alliance wars. Eve has it a lot in fact but you need to be into that very micro heavy type of game that is aimed at the older generation.

[jaxus]

Secondly, saying DAoC had the best pvp ever is such a relative term. I really wish people wouldn't use such terms. In my personal opinion, Mass zerg PvP (RVR on DAoC) wasn't the best pvp ever (for me).

I agree, it is relative, but I found lots of non-zerg PvP as well. It just required you to know where the "organized" guild pvp groups ran, and go to those places. Because of the varying skill level, the organized folks generally fought out in the open, and the zergs just, well, zerged from keep to keep. Sometimes as an organized group you'd run into one of those zergs. You'd probably die. Sometimes you'd get lucky and your group of 8 would stick it to a zerg of 20-30.

If you wanted 1v1, you could find it on the bridges near the outer keeps, after "new frontiers." Before that, on my server, the 1v1s were always at the Hibernian mile gates. Why everyone had to always come derp around in my realm, I'll never know.

I enjoyed DAoC. The claim that the MLs were harder than heroic rag is a joke though. I made it through all of the MLs and Champion Levels (all what, 5 of them?) without an issue. The game's PvE got a big boost with Trials of Atlantis, but otherwise really was rather lackluster. The MLs as well as artifact hunting made it enjoyable. I spent the vast majority of my time PvPing and enjoyed it a lot.

I wouldn't pay money to play it now though. For one, the graphics engine is just too damn old. It wasn't that great looking to begin with and it became dated quickly. Making trees and water look better could only do so much. I remember they upgraded the character models at one point, but really by then it was too little, too late.

I'd play DAoC again just to go back and remember the fun stuff, but not for $15 a month.

BTW, I was a furbolg druid, I ran with two guilds on my tiny server (Nimue), Devastation, and when that guild wasn't running, a guild on the same "cluster" as mine called Eulogy. If anyone remembers me rolling over your face, you have my sympathies.

[Toxigen]

As good as DAoC was, it's too old now to make any kind of decent comeback, if they ever made a DAoC2 it would have a better chance.

If I had to go back to an older game, I'd rather be playing Asherons Call...

AMEN, brotha! Best MMO ever made, period.

If I knew 400-500 people were going to resub / start fresh on Darktide, I'd start all over again.

[jaxus]

Remember AC2? No? Yeah, noone else does either.

[talnorosh]

Personally DAoC had and always will have the best pvp, ive found wandered around and found 1v1s and 1v2's and 1v8's 2v8's zerg pvp everything, if your skilled it doesnt matter how many people are on your side or on their side, theres a chance for you to take people out. Also no stacking stuns for 30seconds like in WoW, get stunned once your immune for x5 the stun duration. Just lets me play my character, the pve is easy and its goal is to get you what you need for pvp, friendly mature people. Most of the time people got a spare buff bot lying around and they will help you out its all around just a good time for people, i know ill be resubbing again soon here

[Eled.]

I personally believe PVP is more interesting than PVE. Bosses do the same stuff every attempt where in PVP, everybody plays differently, making it more fun. There is over 100 class/race combo's in DAOC, and over 80 keeps/towers to attack/defend, with the reward of Darkness Falls with an insane boss at the end with awesome loot. And then the obvious three world dragons, that are surrounded by PVP, and take over 80 people to kill. So in that sense, PVE is harder in DAOC than WoW.. So your argument about "F$#@ PVP" is invalid (not saying that's what you said, just saying in general)

P A T T E R N.

Learn that word.

Gameplay is what makes a game interesting, or not. It's what channels players' behaviour ; most of the time, your pvp players aren't anything but a small bunch of simple patterns.
No, it's not necessarily a biggest deal than an AI driven mob.

No, I don't take the second part of your post seriously.

[Khelendros]

I agree, it is relative, but I found lots of non-zerg PvP as well. It just required you to know where the "organized" guild pvp groups ran, and go to those places. Because of the varying skill level, the organized folks generally fought out in the open, and the zergs just, well, zerged from keep to keep. Sometimes as an organized group you'd run into one of those zergs. You'd probably die. Sometimes you'd get lucky and your group of 8 would stick it to a zerg of 20-30.

If you wanted 1v1, you could find it on the bridges near the outer keeps, after "new frontiers." Before that, on my server, the 1v1s were always at the Hibernian mile gates. Why everyone had to always come derp around in my realm, I'll never know.

I enjoyed DAoC. The claim that the MLs were harder than heroic rag is a joke though. I made it through all of the MLs and Champion Levels (all what, 5 of them?) without an issue. The game's PvE got a big boost with Trials of Atlantis, but otherwise really was rather lackluster. The MLs as well as artifact hunting made it enjoyable. I spent the vast majority of my time PvPing and enjoyed it a lot.

I wouldn't pay money to play it now though. For one, the graphics engine is just too damn old. It wasn't that great looking to begin with and it became dated quickly. Making trees and water look better could only do so much. I remember they upgraded the character models at one point, but really by then it was too little, too late.

I'd play DAoC again just to go back and remember the fun stuff, but not for $15 a month.

BTW, I was a furbolg druid, I ran with two guilds on my tiny server (Nimue), Devastation, and when that guild wasn't running, a guild on the same "cluster" as mine called Eulogy. If anyone remembers me rolling over your face, you have my sympathies.

You probably didn't do ML4.2 right after launch then. It was insanely hard when it was first launched. To the point where it took over 100 people to actually clear that stage of the ML. It was nerfed about a month after launch. Not to mention that Apocalypse (in Caer Sidi) at launch also required at least 100 people to down. And on that particular fight coordination was a serious issue. And as bad as Apocalypse was that was nothing compared to Olcsagean in Galladoria. Poor hibs were unable to kill him for months. He was pretty much unbeatable (I think there was some bugs at play in that encounter though). But yea the content was as hard as heroic rag when it first came out. It was just hard in a different way. Obviously no encounter back then was as mechanically complicated as fights are now, but the difficulty was more in coordination and getting everyone to move properly or to avoid certain attacks or time certain attacks. Stop all DPS at certain phases etc. And with 100 people, that was sometimes a near impossible task. I used to run Legion and Caer Sidi raids every Friday and while it wasn't stressful like raiding nowadays is due to people being jerkwads, it was hard coordinating everything, and then you had to deal with the whole loot issue, often times dividing loot at the end of a Caer Sidi raid would take upwards of 2 hours.

[Wildmoon]

What you mean by dying? If you mean WoW is not at 12 million subs anymore then yes, it's dying. Even if WoW have only 4 million subs, it's still the largest mmo so I don't quite understand what you mean by dying.

[jaxus]

On my server at the time ToA came out, we basically took about 10 guilds that were good at PvP, got them together and blew through the MLs as needed. It was a coordinated effort. Coordinating was the hard part though. With that many competent people, getting it done was not. It simply required a couple people to take the time and effort to explain things. It has been a long time though, maybe I've forgotten how hard it was.

[Kagonos]

I love remembering DAOC and all the fun I had there. It was my first MMO and I loved the SHIT out of it. I was mostly PVE focused leading 200+ person ML raids and dragon raids on my troll warrior... Claiming only trophies to decorate my guild hall with prestigious trophies. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. PVP was pretty fun too, but it was never something I was too good at until the warlock was released. I ended up with 10 or so 50s and was very sad that the game had died down so much. I remember when my guildies were talking about WoW and how that's where they were when they weren't on DAOC. I resisted, I even tried WoW back in the first couple weeks of release when it was so buggy you couldn't even stand it!

I think I finally ditched DAOC in WoWs 2nd or 3rd year of existence and I haven't looked back. I still think on it fondly, but having tried all there was to try in DAOC and subsequently done the same in WoW, I can say, that in my opinion, WoW is simply a superior game. Yes, some aspects are monotonous, and there are certainly aspects of DAOC that I liked better (I loved artifact farming and scroll farming, for example) but I would not come back unless there was a significant effort to increase the player base and overhaul the graphics/add new (genuinely new) content. I'm not interested in going back purely for nostalgia, and $15 a month for an inferior product is ludicrous. Especially since I ALREADY pay that now.

It's clear that you like DAOC and that's great, but a VERY small community shares that opinion, and not many of them will be found here.

[Caiada]

You probably didn't do ML4.2 right after launch then. It was insanely hard when it was first launched. To the point where it took over 100 people to actually clear that stage of the ML. It was nerfed about a month after launch. Not to mention that Apocalypse (in Caer Sidi) at launch also required at least 100 people to down. And on that particular fight coordination was a serious issue. And as bad as Apocalypse was that was nothing compared to Olcsagean in Galladoria. Poor hibs were unable to kill him for months. He was pretty much unbeatable (I think there was some bugs at play in that encounter though). But yea the content was as hard as heroic rag when it first came out. It was just hard in a different way. Obviously no encounter back then was as mechanically complicated as fights are now, but the difficulty was more in coordination and getting everyone to move properly or to avoid certain attacks or time certain attacks. Stop all DPS at certain phases etc. And with 100 people, that was sometimes a near impossible task. I used to run Legion and Caer Sidi raids every Friday and while it wasn't stressful like raiding nowadays is due to people being jerkwads, it was hard coordinating everything, and then you had to deal with the whole loot issue, often times dividing loot at the end of a Caer Sidi raid would take upwards of 2 hours.

No wonder it's remembered by most for it's PvP. That sounds like a physically painful experience.

[Khelendros]

No wonder it's remembered by most for it's PvP. That sounds like a physically painful experience.

Heh. [old man voice] kids these days are so spoiled. [/old man voice] DAOC had nothing on EQ. And EQ was and still is considered the pinnacle of raiding. While its true most WoW MMO players would hate the "old way", it was actually alot more of a social experience and generally alot more fun. Raiding nowadays, now thats painful.