f13.net

Not that internal moves are unusual...but I can only wonder why DAOC is "staffing up" ;)

http://www.camelotherald.com/devblog/news_article.php?storyid=29


and this one...

http://www.camelotherald.com/devblog/news_article.php?storyid=28

I can only hope that they will either finally release the server that they had mentioned in the past (Origins? it was all pre-ToA with some minor tweaks) or that they are contemplating a DAoC 2.  

I would give them my money again for either option.  

I would not ever play WAR again.

I would strongly consider playing a DAoC server which had a pop of 2500+.  Although not right now.

Stupid WoW.

It's so when WAR is shut down, Mythic doesn't see all their most experienced people thrown out the door.

Or WAR has been told to cut costs now and internal restructuring is how they are doing it.

Cold, hard numbers are what cold, hard EA execs look at.

WAR is in a steep nosedive. I doubt they can avoid the ground without the wings coming off at this point.

Anyone at EA and Mythic knows there is
a. A lot of love/nostalgia/why didn't you make it like DAoC/we would play DAoC II if done right - for DAoC
b. A lot of hate/ignoring lessons learned before/wrong focus/bar-happy cockblock mentality is bad - for WAR

DAoC on life support, revitalized with Origins, or while they perhaps mull DAoC II as some WAR-DAoC phoenix - either one at least has potential for good, whereas WAR is guaranteed failure.

Making people care again about realms pride as a natural and PRIMARY force in-game is the key. It is daily dynamics of people against people that makes a game endlessly fun. No amount of content/shinies can compete with the variety based on that when done right.

Who really gives a shit at this point? All the kids want to know is...where is PAUL?!?!   :why_so_serious:

retrenching.  Smarter than he seems maybe.  Or he's still trying to climb the greasy SWOTOR pole so he can take all the credit for it as well.   Oh wait.

Making people care about your game world is a exercise in futility not learned since WoW came out because the industry has been on stasis as far as pvp is concerned. Players really care about having fun, you can tack on as much of virtual chest thumping as you like, many machoist will flock to it, but everyone else will turn their heads. Its really not a matter of getting people to hold a hill because its important and your women and children will be rapped and slaughtered and your entire race is in imperial if you DO NOT HOLD THAT HILL!! And more of a matter of how fun is holding that hill is? If not fun, don't bother, if fun then naturally people will always be trying to take the hill 24/7. But caring about their side winning?

No. Its again an exercise in futility to think that a player cares about players who aren't on their friends list/guild chat/doesn't know the vent channel. Sides in a conflict doesn't matter, making sure your group of buddies have a kick ass time mowing down the noobs does. That's what you can assume, bet your multimillion mmo on, make it accessible, and THEN make a profit that will last you longer then any pve grind fest ever will. Realm pride is bullshit and will last for 6 months at best, 2 years for nostalgia sake, and "are the servers even full?" in 3.

Aion is wearing the wings :)

Ywain went live yesterday.  I haven't checked the population numbers yet, but I'm quite sure it is over 2500.  I'll check it out this evening.

Two awesome changes that went live with Ywain yesterday (there were many others):

* You can now trade BP items.  This includes ML/artifact credit tokens.  What this means is that if you have a high RR character with lots of BPs you can instantly grant an alt full ML/artifact credit and have it ready for RvR within hours.
* There's now an NPC at the borderkeeps in each realm that grant a full complement of buffs for a small fee.  These buffs are better than Potion buffs, but not as good as buffs from a buffing class.  It's still better to use a buff bot if you have one, but at least this is a step in the right direction.  Now we just have to convince Mythic to increase the value of the buffs.

Is Ywain the transfer server?  I have an RR11 druid languishing on Gareth with well over 200k BPs... it'd be amusing to have him ML 10 and fully decked out inside of 30 minutes.

Yes.  Also, coming from Gareth there's a quest you can do before you transfer that grants ML credit.  It's intended to ease the ML burden for the Classic folks.

Ywain has ToA.  This guarantees I won't play even with the 30+ level 50 geared toons I have on all servers. 

ToA can kiss my ass. 

Why?

Because TOA was, pre-WAR, Mythic's single stupidest idea ever?

Item procs, Item /use2, ML abilities (ML 9 pets, FZ, etc), spell piercing, stat caps, and all the other things that changed the game mechanics post SI.  I'm forgetting 90% of it as I haven't played DAoC for over a year now, but I REALLY enjoy the strategy of fights on classic servers without all of the ML abilities and gear.  

I realize that they removed the greatest majority of the ToA grind.  That's not the rub for me.  I think the post ToA gear/ability situation plays very differently from a strategic standpoint than the pre-ToA or classic rule set game does.  This is especially the case in small group, 8v8, and stealth play.

I was just curious if your particular beefs had been addressed in patches since you last played.  Many of the ML/artifact abilities have been nerfed over the years and aren't nearly as bad as they used to be.  They do still change strategy and what not by their very existence of course, but not nearly as much as they used to.

I realized your point as soon as I started typing my response.  The old knee-jerk response to ToA was mostly due to grind... which has been removed for the most part.  For me it was a combination of things like auras, winged helm, etc. that really altered the fundamental flow of PvP in the presence of ML's.  I also have a deep hatred for BD's with ML 9 pets. 

Oh wow yet another thread where someone e-fellates Aion!

edit: Just checked your post history. You've managed to mention Aion in game threads for Fallen Earth, Guild Wars 2, and about 900 times on Warhammer threads.  :oh_i_see:

What is this Ywain thing? There seems to be like 10 versions of it listed.

A wing job, so to speak.

Ywain is a single server, but it has 10 "lobbies" clustered with it.  This enables you to have 10 toons per lobby per realm.  So I could theoretically have 100 different Albs on Ywain.  This is because many people had toons in the same realm on different servers/clusters and would not have been able to fit all their toons on a single new server.  This also enables Ywain to have 10 housing areas per realm to accomodate everyone.

Did you give yourself a :facepalm: before or after you clicked "Post"? If not, now's a good time.

There's currently 2400+ on Ywain right now.  I would expect that number to continue to climb as more and more people get transferred over and settle in.

That's tempting. I really never got to do it the first time. I just... the game very much feels part of its time.

As much as a DAoC 2 would be cool, given the current metrics used for a "successful" MMO, I don't think they could unlock enough budget to do the game right. All the fervor for DAoC, there were less people really into it than there are into Eve right now.

Paul is Dead.

(http://www.google.com.au/images?q=tbn:V1Yj-Lwbn8FWdM::cdn.idolator.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/beatles_-_abbey_road.jpg&h=94&w=94&usg=__rJ0y6IDw-KOwA4ZO4tBV__LBXqs=)

Ywain is averaging over 3000 people now and there are still people xferring over and getting settled.

for how long?
Makes the impression that some people are paid for these flying byes

At that rate, I'm giving it 3 months to see how many are still active at that point. That is tempting, but I've reactivated before just to regret it  :oh_i_see: