Originally posted by xFortunadox
1.  There is nothing wrong with the game engine.  It is used by many games including Oblivion.  At best you could say update the artwork on character models and make the details easier to see.  If you look closely at items in the game they are very detailed, espically if you look at things from ToA on.

When I meant update the game engine, I mean fix the los bugs, the server choke.  More of the game's mechanics.  They might have been decent back in 2001, but nowadays it needs to be updated.

K>>Oblivion isn't an MMO..and this game engine needs some work. Characters movement lacks the fluidity that WoW has, and there's far too much lag, ghosting of players and general weirdness for a game this old.  LOS exploits still abound... mages can lag-cast mercilessly and I'm on a decent XPS gaming laptop....its not me...its the game...

2.  ToA is already optional and you can avoid that by playing on Classic.  Cats/DR does not add uberitems.  They are still ToA/spellcrafted and the occasional "epic."  LotM adds some in the Lab that are nice.  Cats is the best DAOC expanasion and LoTM brings in a new type of RvR that is very popular.  All these changes would do is kill what is left of the subscriber base.

No, these expansions continue to increase the ability of the characters which do not need to be increased.  Playing on classic requires you to get mp armor/darkspire items with 1 or 2 epic items.  This is establishing a broken set of items in order to compete which will continue to ruin the game if it's not stopped.  Every mmo that releases items in expansions is faced with this problem.  All you can really do is learn to keep the power of the players as balanced as possible.

K>> But what would an expansion offer, if not better items and gear.  The only thing that needs to be avoided is making the new items inaccessable to other players by forcing them to run PvE instances or epic mob runs to get them.  I own Lab gear on some of my characters (purchased from housing merchants) yet I don't have Lab expansion...thats the way to keep it fair....

3.  This will gimp many classes in PvE and will do nothing by drive most casters from the game.

It's true that it will gimp many classes.  But if you want this game to live, you are going to have to get rid of these spells.  One of the largest complaints in this game is how the battles boil down to which group gets their mez in first.  After that it's merely /assisting on support classes and the group is dead before they even get an attack off.  Purge helps, but  having it up when you need it is too risky.  I'm not saying to remove the spells from the classes and give them nothing in return.  I'm looking for balance here.

K>>I'd favor making purge available more often, and increase the amount of time for immunity . I'd also make it so if you were mezzed in a fight... immunity would also extend to roots/stuns as well... this would take some work to balance...but it would remove some of the power of the mezz.....

4.  A single animist cannot defend a keep!  There are dozens of ways to handle animist.  You would be better off removing these classes because they will be unable to play in PvE or RvR.

An animist with a pot of boiling oil has defended an entire keep for 3.5 hours.  When they finally plowed down the door with trebs instead of rams, they found a set of shrooms stuck halfway in the wall in which you couldn't cast on them, but they could cast on you.  Eventually the guy logged off and they took the keep.  This has happened several times as well.  Classes that don't just exploit geography but the overall physics of the gameworld do not deserve to be able to make over 3 pets.  Remember that all of these class changes will be countered with other abilities that will hopefully balance out the game.

K>>It sounds like you ran into an exploter, which of course needs to be fixed, and not really a flaw in the game.  But I agree, spamming pet classes is a bit much... I'd put a few more limits on animists pets...and esp on theuri pets...they should get like 3 each..and if they cast more the first ones die off.  (also, castable pets should die with the caster...and not outlive him/her)

5.  Adding bonuses everyday will be time consuming on having to bring the servers up and down.  Assuming you could avoid that people would just eventually not care.  There is already double XP in SI currently.  Most people are just too lazy to explore.  After every expansion the same areas have always been camped in the old zones for the XP. 

Which is exactly why WoW has 7 million customers.  Their PvE is actually interesting and challenging.

K>> Many people would argue with you on this, and say that WoW Pve is actually boring and repititous. I enjoyed it myself...until I had done it 6 times on both sides of the fence... now I'm sort of worn out on all the running around and questing... and btw...lets stop saying WoW has 7 million customers...they inflate those with Chinese figures, which is run by a vendor.  take those numbers out and we're at 2 to 2.5 million tops.  Good to be sure... but just not as overwhelming as Blizz likes to paint it.

6.  Best items are not random.  Best items are artifacts, crafted, darkspire, ToA ML loot, and a few items from epic mobs.  Quality matters very little sense it is the bonuses that people want most.

And the items would be changed to where the monsters who are supposed to have the good items actually have them.  For some reason mythic decided that PvE is meant to simply exist and that RvR is the only way to grab people.  Again.  WoW.

K>> Er .. yes, PvE is supposed to be a supplement to the RvR game... in fact, it was created as an alternative to the EQ model (which WoW follows).  Sure... WoW has more people...but not from its model... lots of other reasons contribute to its success....still doesnt mean there arent lots of people looking for a PvP based game model....and not PvE... Mythics big mistake was trying to appeal to the EQ crowd by adding in TOA....

7.  Increasing the difficulty of mobs will not accomplish anything.  It might make people group more but that is it.  Most people want to level fast.  This is why they do TD and classic areas.  If they wanted a challend then doing Cats mobs would work since the mobs there are far more difficult comparitively, but it is a barren expansion.

It's good that it will make them group.  That's a major mechanic of the game.  TD's were the worst invention in the entire game's PvE and has completely hollowed it out.  If ToA was the first blow to DAoC's population, Catacombs was the shockwave that followed.

K>> I'll agree here... instanced dungeons are a terrible idea.... they remove everyone from the game world and you end up with Guild Wars....  one of WoW's weakness is its dependence on end game instances..and th last thing this game needs is more of that. In fact, one complaint against WoW is peoples ability to solo to 60...yet many players love it for its ability to solo to 60... forcing people to group is a bad idea.... and one of the weaknesses DAOC had in the beginning,...you couldnt accomplish anything without a group... and it sucked.....  Epic dungeons and monsters should actually drop good, cash earning items like rare dyes, respec stones, unique looking armor or whatever, but nothing of consequence like uber weapons that unbalance the overall pvp game.  

8.  You can practically level from 1-50 using quests already.  But, if you remove Cats/DR you will remove the best of those quests and certinaly 30%+ of what is in the game.

I'm removing those expansions because they became the single source of new broken items and exp.  Task Dungeons level your character up far too quickly.  A servant necro with a buffbot can pl a character to 50 in 12 hours.  I can guarantee that that was not mythic's intention when they created the necro back in SI.

K>> OK, if you can really power level a character to 50 in 12 hours..that needs to be fixed...but you scare me when you say slow down the leveling... since the Pvp is what its all about..I'm not interested in the long time sinks it takes to create a viable character.  My first DAOC character years ago was an Infiltrator... took me over 3.5 months to get him to 50....  Now..with two accounts and double experience (and some help from my son) I've got 4 level 49.5's (in CV) and one level 39 Ranger (in Molvik) and I'm having a great time doing RvR with them... which was my goal...not to beat myself to death for months trying to get to 50 so I could pvp (no BG's back then)

9.  Charging this small of a fee will not get people into the game, it will bankrupt it.  The cost does not keep people away.

EA will not go bankrupt and they will not close it down until WAR comes out.  If DAoC were to close down, WAR would be delayed for a long time.  Camelot spokesmen have already said that they do not want EA to control the game.  Only to fund it and promote it.

K>> I concur....lowering the cost won't bring people back...if you can afford the hardware to play this game...you can afford 15.00/month to play it.... I doubt many people left the game because they were spending too much money.    If you really wanted to get people to try the game again (for the first time) add something crazy like a /level 50 command to the free  trial...and restrict those characters to a special rvr zone where only /level 50 characters could go.  Put it on a time limit... you can only play a character like this for 10 days..then its deleted forever.... It would give people the flavor..and perhaps encourage them to give it a try.  But truthfully, to my knowlege, no MMO has ever recovered its audience once the people leave.... because people like new things...and won't try something they perceive as old.  Face it... if you had the money to spend, and could buy either:  a) A new, 2002 BMW    or b) a new, 2007 BMW   you'd buy the 2007, even though both cars would be perfectly funtional and get you where you wanted to go.... because the 2007 might have more new toys...

10.  Not sure what this adds other than a "cool" factor.

It adds more in depth scope to the PvE aspect.  It's not required, really.

K>> Never enhance the PvE... always put more into the RvR/PvP.... (sorry, i was an old Mordred player, and I so miss it)

11.  Why?  Plate armor is just about looks.  Mid/Hib have the same armor equivalent to alb just different looks: cloth, leather, chain, plate - just different names and different looks but they are all the same.

Well, plate has a higher AF and absorb rate than chain, leather, cloth etc.  But since there are so many af buffs in the game now, you're right.  It really doesn't change much at all.

K>>  Bah, never made a pure melee toon.... who cares about heavy armor? 

12.  Why?  There are barely any classes without this that can train sheild as it is.  BM can, not sure what else off hand.

Good.  Training in shield should be rare.  But actually, I made a mistake.  Hybrid characters do need to have shields.

K>> I don't mind shield...I just hate the stuns associated with them...they should add to AF/Defense, but not stun people senseless or block all arrow attacks (I'm a Ranger, can't stand that blocking)

13.  What is the difference between than and having to get level 2 now?

I agree with you on this one.  I can see this taken out.

K>> Ditto

14.  This makes it harder on casters and since you have removed stun and are going to nerf their damage, you are just making this a tank paradise because casters will be easily killed by everyone.

Yes.  I've removed stun, nuke, nuke, nuke=dead <insert classname here>

K>> Actually, WoW gets by with limited stun/mezz/root effects (they have some) and casters seem to survive quite fine.  My son has a mage that can more than outlast any melee based on his quick reflexes.... Mythic could take a lesson here... just because a tank closes on a mage doesnt mean the mage should end up dead.... quick escape tools like blink, frost nova etc are the trick to survival...

15.  Why?  You can already SC items with restist and find items with resists.  You can spen RA to increase your magic resistence.  If you want to encourage grouping then adding this will hurt.  Grouping with a support class gives you massive resistence to spells.

There is a difference between abosrb and resist.  Absorb applies first to the original damage, and resist applies to the damage that will actually damage you.

K>>huh, what were we talking about?  I'm getting distracted....

16.  All you are going to do is make it take 2 swings to kill the caster instead of 1.  I am not sure a tank can hit a caster for that much anyway.  This change will help to lengthen melee battles but your changes already gimp every caster in the game.

Yes, an armsman can hit a caster with a polearm for around 1100 assuming it's a positional.  My changes allow for casters to have to think instead of casting CC, then a damage spell and annihilating anything they target.  This is bad.

K>> Heck, it should probably take more like... 4 or 5 swings to kill the caster... that's the point I think..battles should last longer... I love fights of 2 minutes or more.......

17.  In RvR perhaps, but in PvE you are just going to make it longer, slower, more dangerous, and in many casses outright impossible.  If groups need to have more casters this means less room for classes that have no role - like assassins. 

That's the thing.  Groups won't be so caster based anymore.  You'll actually see assasins grouped more often than before which was never.  I also haven't posted the changes to the assasins.

K> No one has solved the problem of assassins being not so useful in Pve.... except maybe DDO which made them necessary to take out traps so the group could progress in the dugeon....

18.    No it won't.  It will make travel slower and more annoying.  It will just encourage more 8 man groups waiting at choke points for the slow people instead of roaming around because well, you are moving so slow.  The reason people "zerg" is because PUG get destroyed by professional 8 man groups.  These people not only have perfect templates, but are on voice chat.  They have played for months together.  Everything is perfect.  You can't put together a group of strangers and expect them to be a cohesive and effective unit.  Even if you can get group PUGs this change does not for them.  In fact if you want to help keep siege, then you will want to encourage zerging.

1)  There would no longer be a perfect template.
2)  Voice chat would help, but isn't going to make a colossal effect at this point.
3)  Zerging does not promote siege situations.  It encourages people rolling over other people solo'ing over and over.

K>> Zerging is fine...as long as both sides are equal in numbers.  DAOC never really had this...was quite possible for your 25 man zerg to suddenly run into a 40 man zerg on the other side....suddenly making the game very unfun.  Voice chat is the wave of the future, and a requirement of coordinated combat, both pve and pvp.  Time for DAOC players to get out of the Dark ages and get with the program.  Also, haven't seen a game yet that didn't have templating of some sorts....and if this the case, the solution is to make the best template easily obtainable by any player who puts in a decent amout of game time (no, it should require 80 hrs a month)

19.  I do not see what this does.  I think siege warfare needs a lot of help, but this doesn't do anything.  People are not going to wait around for 10 hours.  And tying it to RR simply helps already high RR get more.

This adds another event to the already interesting siege system in this game.  They can't just wait in the keep for 10 hours.  There will be people constantly attacking along with the border keep guards respawning over and over.  It will actually challenge people with a high RR.

K>>  Yep, siege warfare is still sor tof broke.... cant' have foiks standing around wating to fight...

20.  Crafting is sped up.  The cost is not high at all.  With the next patch all items in a certain tier will have the same imbue points so quality matters very little for most players anymore.

Spellcrafting costs are insane.  You need to take a look at housing and take a look at the armor there.  The prices are abominable.

K>> Crafting is broke....you really need to bot to level up a crafter over 1000.... you can't actually make money from crafting to level up over 1000..you have to supplement your income from farming, most of what you make is useless to other players and notice, most people who get over 1000 hate to actually craft.  I had a 1045 SC..and I would only make things for people who were guildmates or friends..cause I hated the time sink.  True, removing the quality issue is a big step to fixing this...but hey..we've been playing for 5 years (crafting been out for 4?) and they are just now getting around to making this change:? 

If you want real changes then you will want to remove /assist.  KK>> Very true.... this would be a huge change...take away /face as well... make people figure out where the blow is coming from

 If you want people to do sieges, then you need to make siege warfare worth it - that is why there are roaming 8 mans.  Make siege the best way to earn RPS.  Give it to people for helping and not just for killing.  Give it out over time and give it to both siges whether winning or loosing.  Give tanks more options such as siege towers you can bring up to the walls.  Add in crafted defenses for the attackers to hide being to avoid nukes, arrows, mez.  These changes are far more likely to accomplish a meaningful change in the game.

K>> Exactly. Siege warfare should provide greater rewards than 8 mans...and currently that isnt the case.... make it so everyone who assists in sieges gets mad rps vs those from solo kills...and even more for guilds that claim a keep or tower...and people will come back to sieging....

Removing /assist destroyes an element of strategy to the fight.  Roaming 8mans are becoming boring to even the most die-hard fans of this game because it is the exact same thing over and over.  Run with speed, mez, other side purges as much as possible, everyone /assists on the support classes that aren't mezzed and then they kill the rest of the group 1 by one.  Over and over for hours on end.  This game is supposed to be realm battles.  Not group battles.  If I want to fight group battles, I'll go to the battlegrounds.  If I want a battle involving hundreds of people, I should be able to walk around in NF and see a giant army sending rams, trebs and catapults at a keep filled with hundreds of other people.  That is what drew people to this game in the first place.  Also, if this game's PvE deteorates any more, there won't be a game left.

K>> Only trouble is...no MMO has solved the problem of having hundreds of players online in the same zone at the same time usually causes most computers to choke and die... (look at Final Fantasy, WoW, EvE and DAOC)   I remember being in 100 vs 100 epic fights and i could barely move....  same problem in WoW as well... too many players in one place...game comes to a halt....   there's a scientific reason for this..something about not being able to exceed some number of graphic objects on one screen or something like that.... but I dont believe we've resolved this yet....

Keeping things the same will only bury this game is the already open coffin.

K>> Sadly, while I do love DAOC... all good things must come to an end. Games, (like all software) must die and let everyone move on to the next one.  Mythic has placed all of their bets on WH.... sure ...DAOC will limp along awhile...hey, people still play UO and EQ 1... but DAOC's glory days are gone and can never be recaptured...