Originally posted by Fion

I tried coming back (with the free trial) last year but the game is all but dead. Even on the weekends server populations were in the mid 200's.

I don't know when you tried to come back, but it might have been before all servers (Euro&US) were merged into one cluster server Ywain 1-10.

I recently joined DAoC again and it is actually very very active. As Euros as well as US play together the server basically has action all over the place all day and night with 2 prime times. I would guess the pime times' populations to be around 2,500.

I love it. Just nothing matches its pvp system and you still have epic battles of 150 vs 150 with 50 from the third faction coming in from the side on a daily basis.

Try it out and see for yourself. Unfortunetaley you wont experience the real frontier RvR (castle sieges etc.) until you are 50, but you can get a pretty good sense of the combat and RvR system in the Molvik BG (Level 35-39). Molvik together with Cathal (45-49) tend to be the under-50 RvR battlegrounds nowadays. The other battlegrounds are mostly used for leveling w/o much pvp action (maybe some in Thidranki - 20-24).

If you start go though the tuturial to get some info on the game and then join the battlegound leveling at around lvl 15 or so. Try to get into a guild as well and experience at least a little bit of RvR before you decide to stay or quit again.

Cheers

If the game was free and you'r looking for a filler until...I'd say try it.

It's not free........... and the core concept of realm vs realm has been destroyed with cross realming(playing in another realm) in 5 minutes.

So players are killing their friends and guildmates .

If you are spoiled by modern games you will probably dislike DAOC.

I downloaded the game to give it a try. The UI is terrible by modern standards. It was painful to use. Tab targeting is only short range. So you have to click to target on enemies in PvP. The game does a stutter when strafing and turning at the same time.

In RvR players warp all over the place. It is also possible to be one shot if you get hit by a crit. Even if you don't it is quite common to be two shot. The cc is ridiculous IMO. You can get snared or mezzed for close to a minute.

Buying stuff is also painful. It makes SWTOR's auction house look amazing in comparison.

But don't take my word for it. Grab the 14 day trial and see for yourself.

Originally posted by Atlan99

If you are spoiled by modern games you will probably dislike DAOC.

I downloaded the game to give it a try. The UI is terrible by modern standards. It was painful to use. Tab targeting is only short range. So you have to click to target on enemies in PvP. The game does a stutter when strafing and turning at the same time.

In RvR players warp all over the place. It is also possible to be one shot if you get hit by a crit. Even if you don't it is quite common to be two shot. The cc is ridiculous IMO. You can get snared or mezzed for close to a minute.

Buying stuff is also painful. It makes SWTOR's auction house look amazing in comparison.

But don't take my word for it. Grab the 14 day trial and see for yourself.

I would suggest the custom UI's if you dislike it. However, I find it to be about on par with current game UI's. Only people that do not know how to target use tab targeting, you are supposed to pick the best target for your damage type not just what ever happens to be nearest to you. I would suggest looking up a video called DAOC Fundimentals to assist you in this.

 As for the stutter or warping all over the place, I would take a look at your ping to the server sounds like you have an issue there. As I do not get a stutter or warping on my game cept when I am deployed and login from a crappy connection.

 As for snared or mezzed, invest in Purge 3 then you do not have that problem. As for getting one shotted, please seek assistance on making  a good templet that will prevent you from that. I have played close to 10 years and only time I get 1 shotted is by a shadowblade 2 hand crit when I am sitting down. Of course you do not need to sit down to regain power or end anymore so that solves that problem. Super high RR's might two or three shot me, but that is part of a assissan VS caster, it's kind of what they do. Granted they die right after to the rest of my friends cause they are one trick ponies, but yes I got two shotted.

Buying stuff, yes we would like an auction house. Other then that the explorers are not to bad if you know what your looking for, if you are just going to try to find a random item but do not know the name it can be frustrating. There again friends or a guild will help this problem.

There should have been a disclaimer at the start of DAOC, WARNING THIS GAME IS NOT FOR THE EASY MODE CROWD. This game has a more complex fighting system than any other game besides a few like darkfall. Star Wars is easy compaired to DAOC RvR. Yes it is an older game however, graphics are not so far outdated that it looks bad, its just not cartoon look like most modern games IE Rift, WoW, Aeon to name a few. The UI is moveable and up gradeable, there is even a host of custom UI skins you can chose from if you do not like the standard one. I personally suggest this just because the upgraded maps help locate things faster and easier.

 There is a large learning curve to DAOC, the new tutorials and battle grounds assist greatly in this. However, if you are RR 10 and do not know how to play your class well, you just tab NUKE till dead, tab, nuke till dead. You can have great fun at the game, however I will beat you on a lower RR char if I know my class better. I will know how to counter what you are doing and how to beat you. 9 times out of 9.5 times. So learning the little things about your class makes a large difference. Like what type of armor is the class your fighting wearing? if I cast this spell on them it should do this but if not then I need another spell, which you know and have ready.

 Melee fighting is about positional and reactional styles,  for the most part its not just spam your attacks till dead. Its where are you standing, what attack did you do, what is the follow up, did you block or parry , what is the reactional style to that, is that reactional style also position based? Also did they block or parry and what is their reactional styles thaty might do to you?

This game is a thinking game, if you want a button mashing game then please play one of the 40,000 other games out there that do not have all that this game offers. We offer a challenge for thoes that enjoy beating someone, not based solely off of items, Realm Rank, and equipment, but off of your skill at your class vs their skill at their class.

Originally posted by Ghaval

There should have been a disclaimer at the start of DAOC, WARNING THIS GAME IS NOT FOR THE EASY MODE CROWD. This game has a more complex fighting system than any other game besides a few like darkfall. Star Wars is easy compaired to DAOC RvR. Yes it is an older game however, graphics are not so far outdated that it looks bad, its just not cartoon look like most modern games IE Rift, WoW, Aeon to name a few. The UI is moveable and up gradeable, there is even a host of custom UI skins you can chose from if you do not like the standard one. I personally suggest this just because the upgraded maps help locate things faster and easier.

 There is a large learning curve to DAOC, the new tutorials and battle grounds assist greatly in this. However, if you are RR 10 and do not know how to play your class well, you just tab NUKE till dead, tab, nuke till dead. You can have great fun at the game, however I will beat you on a lower RR char if I know my class better. I will know how to counter what you are doing and how to beat you. 9 times out of 9.5 times. So learning the little things about your class makes a large difference. Like what type of armor is the class your fighting wearing? if I cast this spell on them it should do this but if not then I need another spell, which you know and have ready.

 Melee fighting is about positional and reactional styles,  for the most part its not just spam your attacks till dead. Its where are you standing, what attack did you do, what is the follow up, did you block or parry , what is the reactional style to that, is that reactional style also position based? Also did they block or parry and what is their reactional styles thaty might do to you?

This game is a thinking game, if you want a button mashing game then please play one of the 40,000 other games out there that do not have all that this game offers. We offer a challenge for thoes that enjoy beating someone, not based solely off of items, Realm Rank, and equipment, but off of your skill at your class vs their skill at their class.

I found RvR the opposite of what you just said.

It was a bunch of people nuking each other from max range. Melee was for the most part irrelevant. Except to help clean up once on side was routed.

I'm not sure that it requires much thinking to start nuking from max range. We must have different views of thinking I guess.

I was told the opposite of what you said as far as gear goes. Why does DAOC have templates and template sites if gear isn't important? It seem more important than most games I've played.

I did not say you can wear any crap and be ok with it. I like it when people start casting on my warrior. I can stand there and with the healers I have you can nuke on me all day and hardly make a dent in my life. stuns or mezz does not effect me more then an annoyance. Max range... simple.. back up a little they will move forward and you can move behind a tree or something. Other then that push charge and say hi. Only time you should have a caster, left to free cast is during a keep attack, and then only if you do not have enough casters/archers to keep them busy.

 Gear up with the battle ground gear, that will get you decent, then depending on class and play style , while still in the level 49 battle ground, get arties and level them. By that time you should know generally what you need.

 However if I have basic gear, and you have the most expensive gear known to the game ( and some that are not ), however, all you want to do is start nuke on me from max range. You will end up mezzed, stunned and nuked or beaten down. This is a group game for the most part, not solo ( however solo can be fun also ).

Originally posted by Games888
GW2>Daoc and its free and u can pvp as level 1 against level 80.  All of the good players have left daoc long time ago the one still playing are afraid to leave their old char behind and play new mmo.

I played a long time ago, and was considered good.  I am not afraid to leave a char behind. I actually enjoy this game. I relize, appearently, you need a new game to make you happy. That is great for you. However, this was a discussion as to if the person should try DAOC. I am sure they know GW2 is out. Its posted over everything, much as WOW was, his question was not , does Games888 think there is any good players letft that are not aftraid to leave ther chars to play GW2. Let us stay on topic shall we?

Buff bots ruined this game. Most people have 2 other accounts auto following them lol. When people started doing this it turned into a solo game where no one wanted to group and play together any longer.

MMO's used to be about playing with other people. Now MMO's are all about solo playing in your world with other people in it.

I use pot buffs or the NPC buffs, never seem to have problems killing things with thoes. I do not care if I am missing 30 extra con or not. I am close enough to cap that it really does not make that large a difference.

 No need to  have a Buff bot to compete!

Originally posted by Atlan99

Grab the 14 day trial and see for yourself.

link for trial

http://darkageofcamelot.com/trial

You can have a go at the trial, but you won't find the DAoC that many fondly remember. 

That game's been gone for a long time unfortunately. I haven't enjoyed any of my recent attempts to get back in to it, they've made some bad decisions over the years.

In all honesty, GW2s WvW currently captures more of what I loved about DAoC than DAoC does in its current state.

I say its still worth it.

You just need to find a good guild.

It also helps if you start fresh with a group of friends :)

And some of us still do the PvE content, it's still very fun. The community is was what caused the downfall of this game.

I wouldn't blame the community alone....

You had BIOWare come in and replace (out of content) new idea's and game play without starting from the ground up. NPC's were moved around however; the  NPC giving the quest would state," report to NPC on top of the tower X,YZ," to only find out s/he was no longer there...  Anyway IMHO, I still love the graphics engine. It's concrete with a real feel. If you don't like it, go to WoW and play a cartoon.  

IF one is to change the game play, one must start at the bottom and work it's way up to ensure the entire game is in check. After all, you don't wipe your arse before you take a dump, do you?

IMHO, it was the opening of Atlantis and all those damn artifacts and of course those people that must feel the need to cheat to get ahead... I've never before seen a master solder in Thadrinki RvR Battlegrounds before.. (Level 24)... Please.

I am hoping that Bioware would open a basic old fashion DAoC server with no add ons.! Good old fashion crafting and Lore.

Again, this a all a question of taste.

PS

I was a beta tester for DAoC before the game ever was opened to the publc and brought my guild over from the orginal EQ.

I really don't think a new player would like Daoc. You'll always hear nice things about this game because of nostolgia people have for it, but by todays standards it is actually pretty bad. Class balance has always been horrible. You have classes like minstrel that can kill an small group by themselves and other classes like the archers that can only kill someone if they are afk. Archers were really fun at release but about 5-6 yrs ago the system was revamped , along with making armor more absorbant and heals cast faster , they went from snipers to scavengers. Minstrels on the other hand have been OP since release, they can charm a pet there own level, they have the only instant stun and it lasts 9 seconds and they wear chain armor. They can melee also but really you dont even have to. They also have aoe mez. If you're just starting out i would recommend minstrel as a first class, it takes very little skill to do well and will help you get used to the game.

Realm balance hasn't really changed at all since release. I logged in all 3 realms at primetime yesterday and checked out Molvik BG. Albion had around 70 players (15+ minstrels lol) Hibernia had around 35 and midgard had 7. There are a few people who still use buffbots but not many because you can just buy full buffs now from an npc. It's amazing it's been like 10 years and they still haven't fixed midgard. there melee classes are strong but stealth , caster , and healers are all inferior to the other realms, especially healers. So i would avoid playing midgard.

As other have said the UI is bad. You cannot scroll your camera in and out with mouse wheel you have to set a button to hold down then set buttons for up / down / in / out , so forget about moving camera in combat. Also no self targeting button for self healing, you have to click on yourself. Tab targeting is very short range so you also have to click enemy targets and thats very hard on there crumby server. Gameplay is extremely twitchy and you have people ghosting and warping constantly. I have a really nice PC and high speed isp so it is not my PC, it's there server. I can play newer games like Rift on high settings with no problem but in DaoC i enter combat and the screen twitches like mad.

Mostly what a new player would hate is the long duration mez and stun locks. New games have really gone away from this. I'd bet that stun locks probably causes more rage quits than anything else in this game. It's just no fun not being able to fight back. A large amount of your rvr time is going to be like this " you are mezzed , you are stunned , you are dead " It can also be the otherway around if your doing the mezzing and stunning but either way it's not very much fun. The game has an ability called purge but you can only use it every 15min and you will be CC'd constantly.

I loved this game at release but of course at that time there wasn't much else out there .Now there are much better games out there. There is a reason why they are down to half a server.

Originally posted by Senjinn

I really don't think a new player would like Daoc. You'll always hear nice things about this game because of nostolgia people have for it, but by todays standards it is actually pretty bad. Class balance has always been horrible. You have classes like minstrel that can kill an small group by themselves and other classes like the archers that can only kill someone if they are afk. Archers were really fun at release but about 5-6 yrs ago the system was revamped , along with making armor more absorbant and heals cast faster , they went from snipers to scavengers. Minstrels on the other hand have been OP since release, they can charm a pet there own level, they have the only instant stun and it lasts 9 seconds and they wear chain armor. They can melee also but really you dont even have to. They also have aoe mez. If you're just starting out i would recommend minstrel as a first class, it takes very little skill to do well and will help you get used to the game.

 

Realm balance hasn't really changed at all since release. I logged in all 3 realms at primetime yesterday and checked out Molvik BG. Albion had around 70 players (15+ minstrels lol) Hibernia had around 35 and midgard had 7. There are a few people who still use buffbots but not many because you can just buy full buffs now from an npc. It's amazing it's been like 10 years and they still haven't fixed midgard. there melee classes are strong but stealth , caster , and healers are all inferior to the other realms, especially healers. So i would avoid playing midgard.

 

As other have said the UI is bad. You cannot scroll your camera in and out with mouse wheel you have to set a button to hold down then set buttons for up / down / in / out , so forget about moving camera in combat. Also no self targeting button for self healing, you have to click on yourself. Tab targeting is very short range so you also have to click enemy targets and thats very hard on there crumby server. Gameplay is extremely twitchy and you have people ghosting and warping constantly. I have a really nice PC and high speed isp so it is not my PC, it's there server. I can play newer games like Rift on high settings with no problem but in DaoC i enter combat and the screen twitches like mad.

 

Mostly what a new player would hate is the long duration mez and stun locks. New games have really gone away from this. I'd bet that stun locks probably causes more rage quits than anything else in this game. It's just no fun not being able to fight back. A large amount of your rvr time is going to be like this " you are mezzed , you are stunned , you are dead " It can also be the otherway around if your doing the mezzing and stunning but either way it's not very much fun. The game has an ability called purge but you can only use it every 15min and you will be CC'd constantly.

 

I loved this game at release but of course at that time there wasn't much else out there .Now there are much better games out there. There is a reason why they are down to half a server.

 

... After reading all this I can tell you either sucked or have not played anything soon. I am a Runemaster or Hunter normally, I take a high RR minsteral with a red pet any day of the week. They do not seem to be the GODS of PvP you think they are. Mez and Stun.. get Purge 3 and STFU.  You can get that by what RR 2L4? Mezzed you are not dead, you just have to keep your head. Clearly something you can not even do when trying to explain the game. Stun is a bigger problem, mezz is gone soon as damage is done to you, stun stays till pruged or the 4-9 seconds is up. 

  As for the UI, its not that bad. Get the custom UI from Bob and you will be just like your precious WOW or any other game out there. Just and FYI DAOC when on full graphics is more comp hard then Rift. Should really look at the graphics before calling them outdated.

As a current player who just returned about a month ago, I say PLAY!!! I was a kid when I played original DAoC, and it's so much fun.  I even like the graphics honestly.  The game runs smooth, the social interactions are great, and its fairly simple. Just /who 50 and ask a veteran player a question, I've never been turned down on giving some advice.

Hey the more people that play, the better overall experience for everyone

Bunch of guys here all talk about how great the PvP is, and how DAoC is the best PvP game to date, yet they don't play it.

They also talk it up for every MMO that announced 3 faction PvP, but will state that DAoC today is nothing like it "used to be", and thus not as good.  However, every game that will be just like it is hyped to high heaven; even though they will be just like DAoC is today, but with updated graphics.

It's your typical themepark MMO with 3 faction persistant pvp battlegrounds. 

Draw conclusions from that.

Originally posted by Uhwop

Bunch of guys here all talk about how great the PvP is, and how DAoC is the best PvP game to date, yet they don't play it.

They also talk it up for every MMO that announced 3 faction PvP, but will state that DAoC today is nothing like it "used to be", and thus not as good.  However, every game that will be just like it is hyped to high heaven; even though they will be just like DAoC is today, but with updated graphics.

It's your typical themepark MMO with 3 faction persistant pvp battlegrounds. 

Draw conclusions from that.

I play, and say its a great game. And I agree its not like it used to be, but never said not as good. Just different. Its like if all bananas were merged with strawberries. You had not eaten one in 5 years... you might want to be warned that they do not taste like they used to, before eatting one.

 And draw a conclusion from this, your a person taht does not play the game trying to give advice to others about playing the game.. So what do I think of you at this point?