“Optimal” groups could come in a variety of forms and varied between realms due to the different combinations of abilities each class had. It was frustrating, but we had to learn to factor that lag into our we played – essentially stun them so they were stuck on one spot, then wail damage onto them hoping we take them down fast. In this time, and often when playing against US players who have a much lower ping of around 80-100ms, they have run away from our hit or even belted us a few times before we can react.
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What this meant was if we made our character use an attack skill, the server would register that key-press 0.8-1.0 seconds after we press the button and then communicate back to the game client on our PC that it either succeeded or failed. Stuns were critical, especially with our Aussie lag and melee classes trying to hit the enemy with upwards of 800ms-1000ms pings in fights with lots of players on the screen at once. That sounds broad but in groups of 8, if you didn’t have these core class roles covered, you were destined to be steamrolled by often perfectly formed groups from opposing factions. A typical group would require a buffing class (one that can cast spells to strengthen and protect all players in the group), a Bard which had a run speed song, crowd controllers (casting stuns and mesmerise), damage dealers and healers. There were a lot of tactics involved.Īs each realm had different races and classes available to them, to be remotely successful in RvR, you had to form a solid group of 8 players. “Stealthers” (classes with the Stealth ability) not only played a role with interception of reinforcements and stragglers, but more importantly provided good intel on troop movements to commanders – and hunted enemy stealthers to prevent them doing the same. In DAoC, strategies evolved to deal with and avoid exceptionally skilled groups, large groups and those that camped choke points such as the realm gates named in the picture above. This is a very different feel to PvP in other MMORPGs which are based on equal numbers.
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The RvR zone was a free to roam map where players had the choice of where to attack, when to attack and with how many players.
![dark age of camelot dark age of camelot](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hu1ImXiwwcM/maxresdefault.jpg)
Here the three factions fought for control of Frontier Keeps (outposts) spread across the RvR zone of Agramon (these days has been revamped and now known as Ellan Vannin) with ownership of “relics” from the large Relic Keeps being tied to faction-wide bonuses. DAoC’s three realms all had their own independent PvE zones as well as designated Realm v Realm zones, or RvR as it came to be known. PvP in previous MMORPGs traditionally had two sides fighting each other, whether it be Guild v Guild, Order v Chaos or basic ‘Reds v Blues’. Albion had an Arthurian lore theme with such races as Britons, Highlanders and Saracen, Midgard had a Norse mythology themed races of Norsemen, Dwarves and Kobolds and Hibernian’s had Irish Celtic legends of Elves, Lurikeen and Sylvan.
![dark age of camelot dark age of camelot](https://lutris.net/media/games/screenshots/Necromancer_Inconnu1.jpg)
Each realm featured multiple unique races suited to the lore of each realm.
![dark age of camelot dark age of camelot](https://mmos.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/dark-age-of-camelot-15-year-anniversary-news-banner.jpg)
His kingdom is split up into the three realms of Albion, Hibernia and Midgard, who are in a constant state of war with each other.
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This was possible because most of the game’s code was stored on Mythic’s servers (120 dual-processor Pentiums!) whilst the user’s client files focused more on powering graphics and texture loading.ĭAoC’s story is set in the Arthurian era after King Arthur’s death. DAoC was a 3D MMORPG along the lines of EverQuest, Asheron’s Call and Anarchy Online, however the graphics were a big step up for 2001. In this Part 5 I will be exploring more of the second generation of MMORPG’s with Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot.Ĭatch up on previous entries in this series:ĭark Age of Camelot (DAoC) was released in October 2001, developed by Mythic Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games.
![dark age of camelot dark age of camelot](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/camelotherald/images/a/a3/Golestandt.jpg)
We are going to take you down our memory lane as we explore our origins playing MMORPGs from the late 90’s through to today in a multi-part series. My favourite genre of games, and where some of our fondest gaming memories come from, is Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). There are a few of us in the Game on Aus community that have been playing games together since we were kids.