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THE HERALD

  • Patch Notes

    New Frontiers Update is Coming!

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    Banners have been raised, commands shouted, and battles fought. Towers have been razed, Keeps overrun, and Relics captured. What we’ve long called “New” Frontiers has hosted hundreds of thousands of players over its lifespan who have fought tooth and nail for every inch of terrain. So long, in fact, that New Frontiers has been in use much longer than Old Frontiers ever was. Which brings us to the point of this posting: On December 12th, 2013 The New Frontiers Revamp is coming to Pendragon!
     
    Below you will find our outline of planned changes. Click the ‘More’ Button to read on!
     

    Please note that these are not final patch notes, which will have the finer details, but the breadth and scope as well as the ‘what’ of the revamp will be made clear. In addition to the forthcoming patch notes, we’ll be doing a live Q&A session to explain the ‘how’ and ‘why’ for some of our changes as well as answer any other questions you all are certain to have.
     
    First, this revamp is only Part One. Part Two will focus on Keep fights, Siege mechanics, Relic bonuses, and overall Realm incentives for participating in the Realm War. Part One will focus on Layout, Porting, Boating, Movement, and RvR Objectives.
     
    Second, we want to take your feedback into account before and after these changes go Live. We want to get this right, even more than usual, due to the magnitude and fundamental nature of these changes. Please submit feedback, hop on Pendragon when the changes appear there, and participate in our to-be-announced Q&A session.
     
    Without further delay, here are the changes!
     

    Keep and Tower Layout

     
    The changes outlined in this section largely have to do with Tower removal, Keep and tower moves, and a few impassable area edits. Combined with the changes outlined in the Porting section, we hope to focus action into essentially the four zones of Agramon, Hadrian’s Wall, Odin’s Gate, and Emain Macha as the default state of the Realm War.
     
    These changes are intended to free up some space, in these four zones particularly – well as the rest, in order to allow for greater freedom of movement without running into NPC guards and safe areas. We view these changes as necessary given the amount of players we expect to be traveling and fighting within the zones at any given time.
     
    That said, the goal is not to prevent the Realm War from ever reaching the center zones or relic keep zones, but rather to require a more planned and staged assault of a realm in order to do so. And when that assault happens, still facilitate quick and predictable action around that invasion.
     
    Players should first break through one of an opposing realm’s milegates, then establish a foothold by capturing the realm’s dock (more on this later), and finally by establishing port to one of the 2 remaining beachhead keeps in each realm.
     
    Additionally, we want to facilitate predictable, yet still varied, action. Predictable can sometimes have a negative connotation but in our view here it is a positive. Predictable thoroughfares and locations that players can venture through and to in order to find action help facilitate player strategies and behaviors that are conducive to a Realm’s defense, offense, reinforcement, and general fun.
     
    Conversely, in the Frontiers currently it can be too unpredictable at times where an invasion will occur or a fight will happen that players can spend too long running, boating, or porting around just looking for an enemy to engage.

    Albion Frontier Changes:
     
     

     
    Hadrian’s Wall

    •   All Berkstead towers have been removed
    •   Caer Berkstead has been moved further east against the zone wall
    •   Erasleigh Outpost (4) has been moved north on top of the plateau.
    •   Benowyc Guardtower (1) and Outpost (3) have been removed
    •   Caer Benowyc, Benowyc Watchtower (2), and Benowyc Spire (4) have been set to a permanently “ruined” state with no guards. These structures can no longer be captured or attacked.

     
    Pennine Mountains

    •   Erasleigh Spire (3), Boldiam Outpost (3), Sursbrooke Spire (4), and Renaris Outpost (4) have been removed

     
    Snowdonia

    •   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
    •   Hurbury Outpost (3) and Hurbury Spire (4) have been removed

     
    Forest Sauvage

    •   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
    •   Renaris Spire (3) and Renaris Outpost (4) have been removed

    Midgard Frontier Changes: 

     
    Odin’s Gate

    •   A few paths have been cut through the impassable terrain near Nottmoor Faste.
    •   All Nottmoor towers have been removed
    •   Nottmoor Faste has been moved further north and west against the zone wall
    •   Bledmeer Watchtower (2) and Outpost (3) have been removed
    •   Bledmeer Faste, Bledmeer Guardtower (1), and Bledmeer Spire (4) have been set to a permanently “ruined” state with no guards. These structures can no longer be captured or attacked.

     
    Jamtland Mountains

    •   Glenlock Outpost (4) has been moved east across the river and just into the zone of Uppland
    •   Glenlock Spire (3), Blendrake Spire (3), and Hlidskialf Outpost (4) have been removed

     
    Yggdra Forest

    •   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
    •   Arvakr Outpost (3) and Arvakr Spire (4) have been removed

     
    Uppland

    •   Glenlock Outpost (4) in Jamtland has been moved east across the river and just into Uppland
    •   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
    •   Fensalir Outpost (4) and Fensalir Spire (3) have been removed

     Hibernia Frontier Changes:
     

     
    Emain Macha

    •   All Crimthainn towers have been removed
    •   Dun Crimthainn has been moved further west against the zone wall
    •   Crauchon Watchtower (2) and Outpost (3) have been removed
    •   Dun Crauchon, Crauchon Guardtower (1), and Crauchon Spire (4) have been set to a permanently “ruined” state with no guards. These structures can no longer be captured or attacked.

     
    Breifine

    •   nGed Outpost (4) has been moved west and north across the river
    •   nGed Spire (3), Bolg Spire (4), and da Behnn Spire (3) have been removed

     
    Mount Collory

    •   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
    •   Scathaig Spire (3) and Scathaig Outpost (4) have been removed

     
    Cruachan Gorge

    •   The boat dock and associated NPCs have been removed
    •   Ailine Outpost (3) and Ailine Spire (4) have been removed

     

    Porting

     
    Permanent Portal Keeps
    With this revamp, one of our major goals was to facilitate a more staged, progressive, and predictable avenue for attack, defense, and reinforcement. This means utilizing the Agramon milegates as natural defense points and the island of Agramon as a major thoroughfare. However, Agramon can only work if players have consistent and predictable access to the island.
     
    With that in mind, we will be introducing one Permanent Portal Keep inside each realm’s frontier with the following attributes:
     

    •   Unattackable and uncapturable
    •   Very High Level Guards
    •   Open courtyards with no inner keep
    •   Relatively close and equidistant to Agramon

     
     
    The following existing keeps in each realm have been altered to be PKs:
     

    •   Albion players will teleport to Caer Berkstead
    •   Midgard players will teleport to Nottmoor Faste
    •   Hibernia players will teleport to Dun Crimthainn

     
     

    Portal Ceremony

     The portal ceremony is back!
     
    Returning the ceremony, along with the permanent portal keeps, helps give the Realm War a more predictable reinforcement pattern that will facilitate realm organization and grouping.
     

    •   The ceremony will occur on the classic side of each realm’s border keep (where it’s always occurred) on top of the portal pad.
    •   When /releasing in the Frontiers now, players will zone back to the classic side of the Border Keeps as well. We realize zoning after each death can be an inconvenience but it should actually help increase performance over longer play sessions and on the game as a whole as zoning clears out a lot of the excess data on the game client and server.
    •   The ceremony will occur every 3 minutes instead of the old value of every 15.
    •   The ceremony will port everyone standing on the pad to the portal keeps mentioned above with no need to wear a necklace. Because of this, apprentice teleporters have been placed just outside of the portal pad that will see to your normal porting needs.
    •   There will be a teleport NPC inside each Portal Keep that will teleport you back to the classic side of the Border Keep.

     

     
    Portal Stones and Keep Porting changes
     
    Realm portal stones have been removed from the following locations and these locations can no longer be teleported to via the remaining stones:
     
    In Albion:

    •   Caer Renaris
    •   Caer Hurbury
    •   Caer Benowyc
    •   Castle Sauvage Border Keep
    •   Snowdonia Border Keep

      
    In Midgard:

    •   Fensalir Faste
    •   Arvakr Faste
    •   Bledmeer Faste
    •   Svasud Faste Border Keep
    •   Vindsaul Faste Border Keep

     
    In Hibernia:

    •   Dun Ailinne
    •   Dun Scathaig
    •   Dun Crauchon
    •   Druim Ligen Border Keep
    •   Druim Cain Border Keep

     
    Portal stones in the Relic Towns will now only teleport players to the classic side of Border Keeps.
     
    The remaining Portal Stones will function as before:

    •   The center keep in each realm, permanent portal keep, and two invade-able beachhead keeps in each realm can be teleported to with the standard 5-second wait time
    •   For the center and invade-able beachhead keeps, the requisite amount of towers will still need to be controlled in order to port.

      

    Boating

     
    In addition to porting and the layout affecting the flow of realm defense and invasion, boating is another important aspect. As such, the following changes and limitations have been placed on purchased boats:
     

    •   Docks and associated NPCs in the Relic Keep zones have been removed.
    •   Center Keep and Merchant Keep docks are still available.
    •   Center Keep docks will only have boat tickets available that take players to the mouth of their own realm’s river.
    •   Merchant Keep docks will only have two boat tickets available for purchase, one to each opposing realm.
    •   The drop-off locations of the Merchant Keep tickets will be on the opposite coast from the Portal Keep.

      •  In between Benowyc and Erasleigh in Albion
      •  In between Bledmeer and Blendrake in Midgard
      •  In between Crauchon and Bolg in Hibernia
    •   The Merchant Keep docks will be capture-able objectives. The Center Keep docks will not be capture-able.
    •   A realm will be unable to purchase boat tickets that take them to an opposing realm until that opposing realm’s dock is captured.
    •   When a dock is captured in 1 realm, BOTH other realms will be able to purchase tickets and boat to that realm. In other words, when the Benowyc dock is captured by Hibernia or Midgard, both Hibernia and Midgard will be able to boat to Albion.
    •   When a Merchant Keep dock is captured, the home realm will not be able to purchase tickets from either dock.
    •   Players already on boats when a dock is captured will be able to continue their boat ride.
    •   Merchant Keep docks will have asymmetrical encounters that control who owns them:

      • Defending realm Dockmasters will be protected by 2 orange-red guards and 1 red-purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than half a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time.
      • When a dock is captured by an enemy realm, the dock will be protected by 4 red-purple guards and 1 purple guard captain. These guards will have a small agro radius and be stationary, but once attacked will have long cast ranges and be difficult for less than a group to defeat in a reasonable amount of time.
    •   When a dock is captured, the opposing realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with their realm’s prescience node.
    •   When an enemy guard contingent is defeated, the home realm’s guards will immediately spawn along with the dockmaster and prescience node.

     
     

    Movement

     
    With the removal of permanent boating and the focus on running being the primary means of travel outside of the portal ceremony we have some exciting changes coming to movement speed.
     

    •   The Hastener NPC buff Speed of the Realm will be increased from 150% to 170%.
    •   The bounty gem speed buffs will be increased from 150% to 170%.
    •   The last level Sorcerer, Theurgist, Healer, Runemaster, Enchanter, and Warden speed chants will be increased from 156% to 176%.
    •   Mount Saddles and Armors will now have a +54% speed increase attached to them.
    •   When combined with a horse (which has a 150% speed bonus) the player will be able to travel at 204% speed – or the same speed as a Skald, Minstrel, or Bard.
    •   Mounts will maintain their multitude of restrictions and disadvantages:

      •  Players must stand still for 3 seconds to call their mount
      •  Shapeshifts will prevent being able to mount
      •  Mounts will not dive
      •  Mounted players are bigger targets
      •  Players will be unable to mount when indoors or underground.
    •   Mount Saddles and Armors are craftable items in the Metalworking line.
    •   Mount Saddles and Armors will all have the same 54% speed increase but will be differentiated by their art and use requirements:

    Crafted:

    o   Heroic Saddle (Champion Level 0) (still have to be level 50 for this)
    o   Heroic Light Armor (CL1)
    o   Heroic Medium Armor (CL3)
    o   Heroic Heavy Armor (CL5)
    o   Sinister Saddle (CL1)
    o   Sinister Light Armor (CL2)
    o   Sinister Medium Armor (CL4)
    o   Sinister Heavy Armor (CL6)
    o   Mystic Saddle (CL2)
    o   Mystic Light Armor (CL3)
    o   Mystic Medium Armor (CL5)
    o   Mystic Heavy Armor (CL7)

    Dropped:

    o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Saddle (CL5)
    o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Light Horse Armor (CL8)
    o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Medium Horse Armor (CL9)
    o   Albion/Midgard/Hibernia Heavy Horse Armor (CL10)

     

    RvR Objectives

     
    Ruined Keeps
     
    Ruined Keeps are meant as a break in the terrain and defensible locations that players in smaller forces can venture to try and hide from, defend against, or to ambush larger forces passing by. Ruined Keeps and Towers will also provide a Realm point and Bounty point bonus for fighting in and around them similar to normal keeps. Once again, there are no NPCs in or around these structures, the doors are open, and the keep outer walls have several holes in them.


     

    Capture-able Docks
     
    These docks provide a realm objective that rewards the capturing players with TBD items and other rewards and their realm with access to valuable boat routes. Preventing the capture of your realm’s Merchant Keep dock will also be the first step of preventing a full scale invasion.
     
     

    Milegates
     
    The Agramon milegates are largely unchanged with the revamp but will be much more of a focal point of action. They are each realm’s first line of defense and the first place to overrun when invading another realm. Milegate Doors will now remain permanently open. The guard house doors on the 2nd floor of the milegates will be more easily destroyed but still only function for the home realm’s players when they are up.
     
     
    Minotaur Relics
     
    Minotaur Relics in the frontier have had their locations and bonuses changed and one new one has been added. The restrictions on frontier Minotaur relics spawning and several of them requiring players to be grouped in order to hold them have been removed. They will always be spawned and available on the map now. The locations of Minotaur relic holders will still be displayed but the bonuses should now balance out this penalty more.
     
    Uruz (Agramon)

    •   Provides 10% bonus to RP/XP/BP/Coin
    •   No mob encounter
    •   Found in the center of Decayed Lands

     
    Farsia (Pennine):

    •   Currently 10% Heal Bonus
    •   Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder
    •   Now found on the plateau in between Benowyc and Erasleigh

     
    Thatanu (Hadrian’s):

    •   Currently 10% Heal Bonus
    •   Changing to 10% Heal bonus + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)
    •   Found in the same place south of Berkstead

     Benun (Jamtland):

    •   Currently 50% Siege Protection
    •   Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder
    •   Now found on the coast in between Blendrake and Hlidskialf

     Unver (Odin’s Gate):

    •   Currently 75% Siege Protection + 70.0 Essence Damage (which actually means damage to objects like doors/siege/fonts etc.)
    •   Changing to 10% Aura of Health + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)
    •   Moved west onto the plateau closest to Bledmeer

     
    Temel (Breifine):

    •   Currently 10% bonus to XP, BP, RP, Coin, and CLXP
    •   Changing to 50% siege haste buff for individual holder, siege lore buff to the group, and +75% siege protection for up to 20 targets in radius of holder
    •   Now found on the coast in between Bolg and da Behnn

    Mahir (Emain):

    •   Currently 10% bonus to XP, BP, RP, Coin, and CLXP
    •   Changing to 5% melee/magic crit + 3% RP/BP/Coin/XP buff (both group-only)
    •   Now found on the hill overlooking where Crauchon Outpost (3) used to be, behind the gorbachend encampment.

     
     

    Individual Objectives

     
    Doppleganger Quests have returned!
     
    The Doppelganger Quest makes its return as a permanent feature of the Frontiers. This popular quest will remain the same in how it generally works except for a few very important changes:
     

    •   Doppelgangers will no longer grant RPs or BPs when killed
    •   The amount spawned in each realm will be increased to 6 at a time, from a potential 24 locations and 1 of 3 in Agramon.
    •   Doppelgangers will instead drop a Realm-specific Shard

      • Doppelgangers in Albion will drop an Albion Shard
      • Doppelgangers in Midgard will drop a Midgard Shard
      • Doppelgangers in Hibernia will drop a Hibernia Shard
      • Doppelgangers in Agramon will have a chance to drop any of the 3 shards
    •   /Using these Realm specific shards will grant players a random shard piece that can be combined with the other 2 types of shard pieces into a very rare item.

      • Albion Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 1 of 3 items
      • Midgard Shards can be /used to obtain Shard 2 of 3 items
      • Hibernia Shards can be /used to obtain 3 of 3 items
    •   Players will need each 1, 2, and 3 shard pieces in order to obtain a complete item from the turn-in NPC. This will require players to venture to opposing realms regularly to be able to obtain these high-end items. There will be no leveling up or other process involved with the items once all 3 shard pieces are turned into the NPC.
    •   ML10 Weapons, some ML10 armor, other rare items, new Mythirians, and rare mount armor are examples of some of the obtainable items.
    •   The realm specific shards will also have a chance to drop stacks of rare alchemy components and siege ammunition instead of the item shard pieces.
    •   The standard Doppelganger quest rewards will still be available as well.

    Keeps

    In an effort to incentivize the Realm War, we have increased the bonuses realms receive for keep ownership. Additionally, we’ve altered the amount of keeps required for each bonus since the maximum amount of keeps a realm can ever own is now 13 instead of 21. Finally, realms now start off receiving the first 3 bonuses listed and will lose them as they are invaded.
       

    As you can tell from the picture, Darkness Falls access is once again only controlled by Keeps owned instead of both Keeps and Towers.

    What these changes mean for…

    Relics

    With the possible number of capturable keeps now reduced, there is 1 less keep than there are relics. For now, we will be allowing 2 relics to be placed in Caer Boldiam, Glenlock Faste, and Dun nGed. Part Two of the revamp will address this further.

    Labyrinth

    With Agramon being a major thoroughfare the Labyrinth has undergone a few changes:

    • The guards inside the Agramon Labyrinth towers have been removed.
    • Zoning into the Labyrinth from Agramon now takes players to an obelisk in Nurizane’s Crossroads.
    • Exiting the Labyrinth to the Agramon tower is no longer possible. This zone line has been disabled.

    In order to reach the safe areas within the Labyrinth, players will need to use the maze entrances and then run a short distance to the safe area. Using the Gateway spells or /release to return to the Labyrinth’s Bind Stone will work as they always have.

    These changes and those yet to come are designed to improve the RvR experience in many ways. We are looking forward to this update, and it is our fervent hope that you enjoy the ‘new’ NF experience.
     
    We’ll see you in the Frontiers!

    John Thornhill
    Lead Designer
    Dark Age of Camelot

  • General

    Hotfix

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    All Pictish Weapons have had their sell value reduced and their salvage value increased. Please note that this change does not affect Pictslayer Weapons.

  • General

    All Hallows Eve!

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    Witches, Goblins, Ghouls, and Demons! The time to imbibe your Costume Potions and run about the lands of Albion, Midgard, and Hibernia is upon us!

    The restriction on Costume Potions has been removed and will be reinstated on the morning of Saturday, November 2nd.

    Speak to the Crazy Old Lady in your Realm’s Capital City to obtain the potion of your choice! 

    We hope you have a blast in whichever form you choose! Happy All Hallows Eve to one and all, and we’ll see you in the Frontiers!

  • General

    Hotfix

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

     The Melodic Mantle of Samhain may now be traded in to Nera, the Ghostly Harvest quest NPC in Mag Mell. Handing the helm to the NPC will present players with the option to choose another Ghostly Harvest quest reward. 

  • General

    A Sinister Moon Rises!

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    October is here once again and that means haunted cities, costumes, and candy for the Realms and of course… the Pumpkin Moon!

    Festivities begin Thursday October 17, 2013 and will conclude Tuesday  November 5 2013.

    Follow the jump for a list of all the activities happening this year:

    • The Ghostly Harvest Quest offers players level 45 and up a dangerous adventure in the frontiers. Speak with John Tobin on the Cotswold Bridge, Foa Muldisson outside the Jordheim North Gates, or Nera by the road in Mag Mell to begin the quest. (Note: Players who completed this quest last year will now be offered it again.)
    • Treat sellers have been spotted selling sugary confections inside Meath, Erikstaad, and Caerwent.
    • The consignment merchants would like to show you their Halloween spirit! Pick up the merchant and place it back down on your house porch and he will change into a Halloween outfit for you!
    • Be aware adventurers! Ghosts haunt the streets of your capital cities as the pumpkin moon rises! Ghosts have also been spotted in Mag Mell, Aegirhamn, and Campacorentin Station.
    • The horses you once rode have joined the spirit realm. (This affects stable and merchant horses only – not player controlled horses.)
    • Something strange has happened to all of the puppies.
    • The pumpkins have been carved into jack o’ lanterns!
    • A trio of crazy old women have been spotted selling costume potions inside Camelot, Jordheim, and Tir na Nog.

      • The costume potions last 15 minutes each and come in a variety of flavors.
      • The costume potions work best if you remove your helm and armor.
      • You cannot digest another costume potion if you are transformed into any of the monster forms.
      • The costume potions’ magics are short-lived and the potions will be useless after the festivities end so don’t horde them.
      • Some of the costume potions allow you to take the form of the enemy, so don’t be scared if you see some in your capital city or housing zones, it’s just your realm mates playing dress up!
      • The costumes and potions only work while you are in the capital cities or housing zones. You cannot use them outside of these zones and if you leave the zone while in costume, you will lose the effect.
      • As always, the days before, during, and after Halloween these potions can be used in RvR (With Exception to Pixies, and ghosts potions, which are not usable in the frontiers ever)

         

  • General

    Brief Gaheris Maintenance

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    Edit 6:20PM: Gaheris is back online. 

    Gaheris will be coming down to rectify an issue with housing. 

    Downtime is expected to be about 1 hour. We will update the Herald when the server is back online. 

  • General

    It’s the Friday Grab Bag!! Wait…What Day is it?

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    Welcome to another edition of the Grab Bag! 

    Please click the ‘More’ link to review this round of questions from our fervent players. Among today’s topics are: pet buffs, upcoming events, and some information on the priority order for combat events such as blocking and evading. Read on, there’s some good information in there!

    Please visit the Post Count Grab Bag Submission page to submit question for our next Grab Bag on Frday, October 25th!

    Q: Some of the template programs give a Utility number based on the amount of stats on an item. I find this handy to tell the power of an item at a glance, and then I can look at the stats to decide if its an item I can use. Would you consider adding utility scores to items in game to help people see the sheer amount of stats on an item at a glance?

    A: We won’t be adding anything like this to the items themselves, but we would like to make changes to the UI system so that UI designers can add things like this to their custom UIs.

    Q: When can we expect the changes to legendary weapons?

    A: We are still planning to roll out those changes with 1.115, which is tentatively scheduled for the end of the year.

    Q: Archer block mechanics, it appears unless I engage arrows can not be blocked, why is it that I block 50% of melee blows and that arrows are at best 1%?

    A: We tested this with a RR1 L50 Ranger (50+9 Archery) vs. RR1 L50 Warrior (50+10 Shield) standing still, facing each other. The warrior passively blocked at least 2 out of each of 5 shots fired of each Archery shot type. This was a cursory test but it demonstrates that blocking arrows does not require engage and happens more often than 1%. 

    Q: Any chance on getting new weapons? Would be really awesome to see some new weapons to throw in templates or even update states on a lot of old TOA weapons that used to be good

    A: We can certainly look at this. Once the NF revamp is done and enjoyed a few weeks of being stable and fun, we’ll be shifting our focus back to endgame PvE content as a lot of it needs polishing and updating. Expect more weapons around then. In terms of Class Balance (because we know you are all wondering!), we’ll still be adding changes here and there but we’d rather not introduce huge Class Balance changes (like last patch) around the same time of something as impactful as a New Frontiers revamp.

    Q: How do player concentration buffs affect pets? (ie: druid base/specs on an enchanter’s pet)

    A: Strength buffs increase a pet’s melee damage.
     
    Constitution buffs decrease damage done to a pet.
     
    Dexterity buffs reduce a pet’s spell cast timer, decrease damage done to the pet and increase its chance to hit with archery and bolts.
     
    Quickness buffs reduce a pet’s melee attack timer.

    Q: Will there ever be any interest in giving incentives to boost the idea of 8v8? I understand the large scale of this game is ‘zerg warfare’, yet no offense to them- The elite players of this game do in fact 8v8, it is who has the better group of players to best the other group.

    A: We respect all play-styles. Certainly 8v8 combat can be some of the most strategic, rewarding, and compelling in the game. The idea of the various ‘best’ group setups comes into play heavily when we determine the direction of class balance and is also a big factor in our upcoming changes to the New Frontiers. Indeed part of our goals for those changes is to make NF a smaller and more engaging landscape for all players, including our fervent 8v8’ers. I suspect, however, that your question has more to do with incentivizing group vs. group fights in a general way.

    We’ve had wish list meetings where we talked about an Arena system (2 groups enter…1 group /rofls.) but features such as this would almost certainly pull players away from the Frontiers to say nothing of the fact that it would require the dedication of nearly all of our resources for a nontrivial amount of time – so we always return to the feedback and do our best to apply the resources we have to features and changes that are requested most often by the highest number of players. That said, we’re always open to suggestions, so leave feedback, start a thread on PostCount, or get a discussion going amongst your friends and realm mates. We’re listening.

    Q: What is the order of operations used to determine whether a combat swing hits the enemy? (ie: miss/fumble/block/evade/parry/etc)

    A: They’re checked in this order: target Evade, Parry and Block, then attacker Fumble and Miss.

    Q: I recently read somewhere that if a class has access to a certain level of armour (say plate), that any levels below that armour, except cloth, will give them the same absorb bonuses. People often run studded chests/sleeves because the procs are better or the stats fit, and I thought it was a trade off on defense – but is it in fact the same?

    A: It is a tradeoff with defense. An Armsman wearing Leather is going to get melee’d for a lot more than one wearing Plate armor.

    Q: All my artifacts have a /reuse of 15 minutes apart from Traitors Dagger which has a /reuse of 30 minutes. Why is this?

    A: There are a good number of spells which require revision and normalization. Customarily, longer re-use timers were an indication of a more powerful spell or ability, but what was true several years ago may not hold up in today’s game. We can look at adjusting these (and other) spells or abilities with a significant disparity in re-use timers. Please don’t hesitate to bring them to our attention via feedback or bug reports!

    Q: Why do we still have to lvl arti’s on test servers? They should be lvl 10 for testing purposes!

    A: We can look into a Mob or an item which grants Artifact Experience for Pendragon. It’s certainly possible.

    Q: Could we get some info on the next set of events planned? Halloween quest? Infernal merchant tents perhaps?

    A: Halloween event is just around the corner. We’ll then be capping the final piece of the Pict event at or just after the NF revamp. Once the dust has settled around that we’ll begin a brand new long-term event and quest line in addition to the usual seasonal events we do. And yes, we’ll do the Infernal Merchants again, but probably not until next year.

    ——-

    Once again, we thank our question contributors and our friends at http://www.postcount.net for their participation in the Grab Bag! We encourage you to submit more questions for us – there’s so much left to learn about Dark Age of Camelot!

    Until the next edition, friends – we’ll see you in the Frontiers!

  • General

    12 Years of Dark Age of Camelot – A Retrospective

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    A very happy birthday to you, Dark Age of Camelot.
     
    Twelve years ago today, hundreds of eager players caught their first glimpse of the newly released MMORPG: Dark Age of Camelot. What was to follow came as a bit of a surprise, both to players and Mythic developers.  Follow us on a journey through the history of a game that would go on to leave an indelible impact on a young and vibrant game studio, the hearts and minds of hundreds of thousands of players, and the entire MMORPG genre.  
     

    HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
                                                                        
    Mythic Co-Founder Rob Denton writes: 
    “Some parts of the Camelot server codebase and architecture go back over 25 years.  In 1986, I started my first game company with some friends and we purchased a franchise to the dial-up, text based MMORPG known as Sceptre of Goth.  That whole thing fell apart rather messily and we set out to code our own text based MMORPG.  Over the next few years, we wrote the initial command parser, character state system and back-end kernel for a new game known as Tempest.  This grew to become a commercial enterprise with 20 phone lines in my house connected to 1200 baud modems where players could dial in and play for $1 an hour.  Many of the core Tempest players became the first employees of Mythic Entertainment in the mid 90’s!
     
    Tempest evolved into the three-realm, PvP, text based MUD known as Darkness Falls.  In Darkness Falls, you could join the realms of Good, Evil or Chaos to fight for supremacy in a magical, fantasy world.  The Darkness Falls server and basic three-realm “RvR” eventually formed the server and base game architecture for Dark Age of Camelot.
     
    The graphical client for Camelot had its beginnings with Mythic’s initial first person shooter – Splatterball!  Splatterball was developed to run on the internet and AOL and featured three teams all fighting for the flag in various, fanciful arenas.  Splatterball used a “2 1/2 D” voxel based engine (look that one up!) with sprites to present pretty simple immersive graphics to the player.  We leveraged Splatterball to create our next graphical, fantasy based FPS, Magestorm.  Magestorm had three teams (see the pattern here?) with characters who leveled in power, fighting over various medieval dungeons to conquer resource pools to defeat the other teams.  Magestorm evolved into Spellbinder – and we were finally into the era of actual, model based 3D graphics!
     
    Everquest, the first popular 3D graphical MMORPG, hit the market in 1999 and was far more successful than anyone imagined.  We had been discussing the idea of a fully 3D MMORPG for a while and felt the time was right to start development in earnest.  DAOC was originally “Darkness Falls 3D” – a three realm, PvP game based on the Darkness Falls text based MUD.  Mark Jacobs, Mythic’s President, developed the wonderful idea to use the popular myths around Arthurian, Norse and Celtic themes as the base story. We mixed together the server and three-realm RvR from Darkness Falls, the graphical client from Spellbinder, and the story around Albion/Midgard/Hibernia and a star was born!”
     
    Humble is truly an appropriate term to describe our start as a small studio creating some of the first online multiplayer games. Stories of the elder days are still shared with old friends, new employees, and Mythic fans everywhere.
     
    Producer, James Casey writes:
    “Any early Mythic employee will tell you the story of their first day. You would be shown in, introduced to a few people then directed to your area where you would find a few packages waiting for you. Your first responsibility as a Mythic employee was to unbox and assemble your desk, chair, and computer. It made for a pretty memorable first day.”
     
     
    DEVELOPMENT
     
    With an initial team of 12 people, production began on Dark Age of Camelot.  By Closed Beta, 13 additional Engineers, Artists, and Designers joined the team to bring Arthurian Albion, Nordic Midgard, and Celtic Hibernia to life.
     
    The realm of Albion was created first, and our expectation in early development was that the well-known lore of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table would make Albion the “hero” Realm, to which most players would give their allegiance.
     
    Senior Producer, Colin Hicks writes:
    “The first zone we built during development was Camelot Hills. We used that zone to build out our game engine / terrain renderer as well as prototype our development tools. Of course, at first we had no tools! So I spent a couple weeks building Camelot Hills by hand, via text file, manually entering X,Y,Z, Rotation coordinates by hand for every tree, house, rock, clump of grass, etc. I would walk around the zone in game, finding where I wanted a prop, and writing down coordinates to enter in later. I would enter a bunch of props into the text file, then re-load the game to check my work. It was quite tedious, but also very exciting to see the world slowly take shape. The trees and buildings in Camelot Hills still use the same placement as that first layout.
     
    The terrain itself was painted with a grayscale image in Photoshop – one pixel in the image equaled one vertex of the terrain mesh, with lighter values being higher than darker. This was done by feel and trial and error – painting a bit, then loading the game to check the work, quitting out, then repeat. We did not have a true graphical terrain editor until after the Shrouded Isles expansion. By that time I could pretty much translate the grayscale image to what the terrain would look like in the game in my head. I sometimes still see a grayscale image when looking at terrain in real life!”
     
     
    The Realms of Midgard and Hibernia were developed next, almost in tandem. As designers poured their creativity and passion into the Realms, something quite magnificent occurred: our expectation of the “hero” Realm had been proven false.  Albion, Midgard, and Hibernia became living worlds, all three equally rich in feeling, steeped in lore, and with landscapes beautiful to behold.
     
     Senior Producer, Colin Hicks writes:
    “The first NPC / Monster encounter built was Mulgrut Maggot, the zombie in the graveyard in Camelot Hills. This was the first NPC that did anything more than just wander around. He had a path he followed, a group of skeletons to help him out, and a treasure table that dropped real items. It was a hint of what was to come, our ability as designers to create an immersive world for our players to explore and interact with.”
      
    Mythic developers gathered regularly to play their content, and from these sessions came many features that are to this day integral to the unique feeling of DAoC’s gameplay.
     
    Senior Producer, Colin Hicks writes:
    “The most exciting single moment during development was the first time a group of us Devs were able to get onto the server together, group up and try out RvR action. This was in a test zone, that later became one of the battlegrounds. We divided up into teams and had a howling good time chasing each other around the zone, setting ambushes, and trying to capture the bridge and keep in the zone. It was the first glimpse of the magic that could be three- Realm RvR. We knew at that point that we had something special.”
     
    Engineer, Matthew Doetsch-Kidder writes:
    “Players would be interested to know that stick, follow, face, and Q-Binds were suggested and implemented by some Engineers working on Camelot who played the game in development, and felt that the addition of these features would be very useful in both a testing and a playing capacity.”
     
    During development, the team certainly faced its share of challenges; Dark Age of Camelot was the largest endeavor to date for Mythic and in a market that was in its infancy.  So it followed that our solutions to some of these challenges would set industry standards for the MMORPG genre
     
    Engineer, Marty Brown writes:
    “You have to remember what things were like circa 2000. There were not a lot of resources out there for game development and we had to figure everything out ourselves. We were pretty experienced with networked games, but when it came to 3D, we were a bunch of newbies (well, except for Rob).
     
    Case in point: when Rob was working on the terrain system, he asked me to create a skybox. This was new for us, as our other games were either top-down and didn’t display a sky or just used a flat texture for the sky.
     
    My first thought was to create a big hemisphere (a Skydome seemed more appropriate than a skybox) that would be attached to the terrain. But I quickly realized that wouldn’t work. It would have to be so big that it would always clip in the distance and you would notice clouds getting bigger and closer as you approached the edges and so on. But then I thought if I just attached a small version of the dome to the player and made sure it was the first thing to be drawn, it would look the same and appear to be the same distance away all the time.
     
    It was really an “Aha!” moment when it worked. Since then, it’s always seemed funny to me that if you could see actually see other players’ Skydomes in game, everyone would be running around with a basketball-sized dome floating just over their heads.”
     
    As Camelot grew in scope, so too did the systems used to polish the many areas of the game. DAoC’s unique and wonderful combat system was inspired in-part by the table-top Role Playing Game Rolemaster. Camelot’s code is layered with years of new features and improvements on old systems. Many portions, including segments of programming borrowed from previous Mythic games, have remained exactly the same since launch. With a keen eye, one may find in Dark Age of Camelot sections of code which were borrowed from Tempest! Yet another example of how systems evolved over the course of development is the Monster Pathing system.
     
    Engineer, Matthew Doetsch-Kidder writes:
    “The pathing system in Dark Age of Camelot originated as a way for mobs to move around within Dungeons. Eventually, the system became robust enough that it was put to use throughout the game. The same pathing system is still in use today.”
     
    By the end of the summer of 2001, we had completed the three Realms, the combat system, the Relic system, and fleshed out the archetypes and classes for each realm. Dark Age of Camelot was ready for the world. 
      
    LAUNCH
     
    In all the excitement, a few things were overlooked. Some of these things were not insignificant.
     
    Engineer, Matthew Doetsch-Kidder writes:
    “We were rapidly approaching Beta and Launch, and it dawned on us that we didn’t have the servers we needed for a public release. When we approached Dell for the hardware we needed – we were denied. Mythic, it seemed, did not have sufficient credit. This was several hundred thousand dollars of hardware, and it was necessary. We ended up purchasing the hardware we needed out of the studio budget at what was close to the last minute.”
     
    After a successful Beta program, Mythic leadership and our publisher at the time, Vivendi Games, worked to determine the best possible approach to getting Dark Age of Camelot released to the public. Based on the climate of the market at the time, and the confidence they had in our product, Vivendi chose to make a 100,000 unit run of boxed product. They chose to place 50,000 units in stores across the country. This was the biggest event in Mythic’s history, and the whole office was abuzz.
     
    Engineer, Marty Brown writes:
    “Just after launch, I recall a few people running down to the local game stores to see the games being purchased by players. It was a very satisfying and exciting time to see the results of our hard work and creativity.”
     
    The folks in the office were watching too. We looked on in anticipation as the numbers on the servers began to climb.
     

     
    And then…


     
    And up and up!
     

     
    Within five days, the first run of box copies had flown off store shelves. Dark Age of Camelot was sold out! Our servers were filling to capacity, and things were running smoothly. Our Publisher immediately released the remaining copies, but the limited stock and slight delay came as something of a blessing.
     
    Engineer, Marty Brown writes:
    “We sold about 50,000 units within the first five days. We had not expected such a positive response, so our publisher (Vivendi Games) had made a limited run of boxed product. This, I believe, contributed to our very smooth launch. We did not get slammed all at once as do modern MMO’s, rather we enjoyed a very steady and gradual increase in players which allowed us the time to respond from a development perspective.”
     
    A few weeks later, Dark Age of Camelot proved to be the best selling PC game of October, 2001. Thousands of players were pouring in, and we added additional servers to meet the demand.


     
    In December of 2001, the Camelot Herald went live and thus began the flow of information from Mythic to our players and from our players back to Mythic. The overwhelming majority of this information cycle came via our beloved Community Manager, Sanya Weathers (née Thomas).
     
    Through its twelve years, Dark Age of Camelot has seen five expansion packs, countless large-scale feature-updates, and innumerable small fixes and additions. The number of players to experience the Realms of DAoC numbers in the millions and in 2010, Dark Age of Camelot received Ten Ton Hammer’s “Best PvP Game of the Decade” award.  
     
    While working on Dark Age of Camelot we knew that we had converged on a moment in space and time which would result in something truly magical. This feeling has stayed with us through the years and still echoes in the halls, meeting rooms, and offices of Mythic. Indeed several other developers have attempted to combine Dark Age of Camelot’s ingredients in a similar way in hopes of producing the same success, but in the estimation of many (ourselves included) no other MMORPG can match the magic of Dark Age of Camelot.
     
    ———-
     
    Producer’s Post Script:
     
    The history of Dark Age of Camelot’s success cannot be told without paying tribute to Mythic Founders:  Mark Jacobs and Rob Denton as well as all of the Mythic employees, too numerous to mention (many of whom are still part of the Mythic family), who helped pioneer the MMORPG genre by bringing DAoC to life. I have been a part of the Mythic family and culture for several years, and in that time I have had the honor and pleasure of working alongside so many of these excellent people. I have also had the opportunity and pleasure of working closely with the Dark Age of Camelot community who are in my estimation, the finest community of gamers to be found.
     
    I am currently the custodian of what is to so many, a great deal more than ‘just a game’, and it is quite simply a dream come true. I never tire of speaking with members of the original launch team and hearing their accounts of the early days of DAoC and Mythic – the game and studio I love so dearly.
     
    I hope you have enjoyed this retrospective as much as I have. Let us raise our glasses to all those who have served Dark Age of Camelot over the years, to our wonderful community of players, and to many years of Realm vs. Realm action yet to come.
     
    Faithfully yours,
    Talal Saad
    Producer, Dark Age of Camelot
     
     

  • General

    Dark Age of Camelot 12th Birthday Bonuses!

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    Happy 12th Birthday Dark Age of Camelot! 

    There’s more to come so keep an eye on the Camelot Herald for additional Camelot Birthday fun, but for now – the following bonuses are now live!

    On Normal Ruleset servers, the following bonuses have been added:
    100% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic zones and dungeons.
    100% bonus to normal BP in all NF zones.
    25% bonus to RP in all NF zones (including Darkness Falls)

    On the PVE Ruleset server the following bonuses have been added:

    100% bonus to normal XP gain in all classic zones and dungeons.
    100% bonus to normal BP gain in the capital cities.
    100% bonus to normal RP gain in the capital cities.

    In each Capital City:
    40% Bonus to Crafting Speed
    20% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain

    In all Housing Zones:
    20% Bonus to Crafting Speed
    10% Bonus to Crafting Skill Gain

    Enjoy the the bonuses, and we’ll see you in the Frontiers!!

  • Patch Notes

    Caledonia Hotfix and Event Update!

    Created by

    tsaad

    |

    An issue with the Portal Keep and Central Keep doors not opening has been resolved. Any player wishing to rectify the problem must log out and re-patch their client. 

    Additionally, the Caledonia event has been extended through Tuesday, October 8th! The Portal will be closed on the morning of Wednesday, October 9th, 2013. 

    We’ll see you in Caledonia!!