Grab Bag - September 13, 2013

Player Questions & Developer Answers

Talal: Yes. We talked about this some time ago and discussed a cadence for our features which included Patch 1.114, Mordred Transfers, followed by the return of the Re-Enlistment Campaign. It looks like we owe you the third part of this deal. I’d like to apologize for the delay and give you a little bit of information as to why you’re not yet able to re-enlist:
We very much wanted to time our Re-Enlistment Campaign with the release of our updates to the New Frontiers. A long story made short: our updates to NF are behind our initially planned schedule therefore the Campaign has not been initiated. When we are able to put forth our NF revisions, you’ll see the Re-Enlistment Campaign offered right alongside.

Talal: It has always been our custom not to directly advise players how to complete a complicated quest, where specifically to find a mob, or where to find an item unless there is a problem – however we love to offer hints. The item you seek still drops in the game, and the being you must vanquish also drops an item consistent with a person who is “overly concerned with their clothes and appearance in an excessive way”. I can also tell you that this being resides near entrance to city in the sky. Hope it helps =>

Talal: The simple answer is resources.

This suggestion is tantamount in no small way to activating an entirely new MTX (Micro-Transaction) business model for Dark Age of Camelot. I am personally a big fan of this idea, and have always put my support behind it, along with a number of other MTX options. I think it has the potential to strengthen the game, breathe new life into old characters, and certainly bring some decent profits which we can turn right around and invest into other much needed features (like a new UI! ).
That’s the upshot. The difficulty comes with the fact that wholesale changing the business model of a solid, longstanding MMO like DAoC cannot be done easily. It’s a process which requires approval at the highest level, resources that are currently allocated to resolving other requests for improvements to DAoC, and perhaps most importantly, consensus among the community of players that this is indeed something that people want.

John: This is a fairly significant change which would affect all existing templates. The actual change to the game isn’t as significant as the impact it would have on the player base, so a change like this would require player buy-in/approval by DAoC players. This is one of those questions which prompts us to remind players to leave feedback.

Talal: Well, as we’ve come to understand, I think we all have a different interpretation of the word “Soon” =>. It’s on a bug list, and is working its way toward the top. You can rest assured that when it comes across our plate for resolution, (and assuming you make a habit of reading the bug fixes and patch notes we put up on the Herald) you will certainly hear about it.

Talal: This is a fair point, and there have certainly been no shortage of issues where quests like this push players over the level cap for the Battleground in which they are fighting. This is very annoying. I know it’s annoying because it’s happened to me. Live. On Way Back Wednesday – I believe =x. We can eliminate these quests with relative ease. What will take just a little longer is implementing new quests for keep takes which players can pick up and complete, just like a standard quest. Ask this of us via feedback, and during our newly re-instituted Grab Bags – and we’ll make it happen.

Talal: a) Those of you that had followed the streams we’d do monthly may have heard me talk about the fact that we intend to turn our attention to crafting – primarily to enhance crafted Weapons which…let’s face it…are primarily used to fill holes in templates.They are, at least by modern DAoC standards, relatively unimpressive. Circling back to your question: changes to crafting (even what some might perceive to be small or easy changes) are actually non trivial engineering challenges. The crafting system was last updated…quite some time ago and it will require a full patch cycle to make meaningful changes like adding two crafted procs to weapons and armor.
But is it good for the game? What impact would it have on the dynamic of RvR? Are all, most, or even some players keen on the idea? It certainly puts us back in the hot seat when we are reminded of our assertion (made long ago) that crafted items would always be the best items in the game, but in the end, the players must tell us that this is what they want.

b) Yes, this is certainly feasible – and for my part – warranted for the same reasons I’m about to give for answer c.

c) Yes! We can do this. We can do this fairly quickly and fairly easily. And I believe we should. We did it for potions and there’s no reason that precisely the same logic shouldn’t apply to crafted procs with charges. It’s a boon for crafters, drives the economy in a good way, and makes life just a little easier on you brave defenders of the realm by reducing the number of pit stops.

Talal: We have the ability to enact bonuses to crafting speed, and skill gain. Normally, we see these bonuses activated during holidays, but there’s nothing to stop us from keeping them activated if the majority of players feel that there needs to be global adjustment to crafting.
You’d be surprised by the feedback. There are quite a few players that believe that we have injured the integrity of crafting by making it easier and more accessible. Feedback on this subject ranges across the spectrum, but the discussion can start right here on PostCount. Try to get as many opinions as you can about the state of Crafting in Dark Age of Camelot. The responses may surprise you as well.

Talal: This is purely a pathing issue. Mobs in DAoC sometimes suffer from battle fatigue, sun stroke, or too many contusions to the head and decide it’s best to stand in a nice, tight mezz cluster. Guard pathing is on a list of bugs and as with other bugs of similar severity, is making its way to the top to be investigated and resolved.

Marty: This is something we can look at if it is widely requested by players.

Talal: Certainly. Darkness Falls is a very exciting zone, and it’s still a very viable place to gain experience and RvR. We have discussed distributing high-end loot throughout the various zones, and we are actively working on this.

Talal: We’d love to make the BGs more meaningful to the entire RvR campaign. As it stands, the BGs are a great place to get experience, both literal and figurative. They’re training for level 50 and the ‘true’ realm war in the Frontiers but I agree that they can be much more than that. We have some ideas, and are always open to more. If it turns out that the NF revamp comes in phases, integrating BGs into later phases of the revamp is entirely possible. Post some ideas, get some discussions going and our trusted internal forum members will offer their contributions, as will the DAoC team.

Talal: This is something which we’ve put on hold while we work to build a better Herald which will have much more expanded features relating to player and guild stats. We know you’ve been waiting. We know it’s not been an easy wait, and your patience is not lost on us. Mythic is not infallible, nor can we claim never to have made a bad decision or stumble with our priorities, however I sincerely believe that we’ve always attempted to repair these missteps to the best of our ability. What you’re asking for is coming, and when it does our sincere hope is that it will have been worth the wait.

Talal: Is this still going on? We’d given this some attention recently and were given confirmation by several players that it had resolved their issues. If the problem is still happening, please let us know by leaving feedback or submitting a customer support appeal.

Talal: When bonuses are run, they are indeed run on both Ywain and Gaheris. It’s not impossible for something to have gone wrong with the last set of bonuses, and I’ll make every effort to ensure that Gaheris has the appropriate bonuses up when we run our seasonal events. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

Talal: I’m not quite so sure about re-skinning and re-naming items (is it worth it if they have exactly the same stats?) , but as I mentioned in a previous answer, distributing high end encounter loot throughout the game world is absolutely on the plate for the near future. We can include some early expansion dungeons and encounter areas in this list, and maybe even spice up the encounters themselves a bit.

Talal: We have been discussing increasing the general usefulness of the Guild Banner – and indeed many other elements of Guilds. We started by changing Guild Merit Bonuses and based on feedback it seems that it was (mostly) universally well received. We’re not done with our quest to improve Guilds. This feature could very easily be among the many things we have planned. Thank you for the suggestion =]

Marty: If you mean which areas of the body are hit most in melee, it’s Torso 40%, Legs 25%, Arms 15%, Head 10%, Hands 5% and Feet 5%.

Talal: A Sub Ruleset within Ywain would not be possible. Ywain is a cluster of 10 total servers, and the only areas that remain distinct are the housing zones. When you are in any other part of the server, you are all effectively on a single server.

A Free For All, multi-Realm RvR kill-stravaganza server is a great idea. It always has been, and there are many (many) players that loved and still love Andred and Mordred dearly. Alas it was evidenced by many years of critically low population that this type of server was no longer popular, so we did what we thought was best for the thousands of characters stuck on that server.

We had considered the possibility of allowing Battlegrounds on Gaheris to function as Mordred ruleset PvP zones, but this would not come without a fair amount of time and resources. Unfortunately, we very simply cannot afford to expend those precious resources on a project like that at this time. There’s always hope for the future, but I won’t say it’s going to happen soon. I won’t even say that it’s likely to happen at all, but I will say that if enough people cry out for this, and we see a very real demonstration of intent – we will absolutely put it back on the table.

John: Yes, as long as you anticipate the possibility of getting stat-debuffed by your enemies.

Talal: In my estimation, a big part of what makes Camelot such a compelling PvP game is the thoughtful distribution of classes and abilities. I am personally not a fan of mirrored classes, and we do not generally support the homogenization of class abilities across all 3 realms. The special abilities and eclectic arrangement of spells, styles, and abilities make for some extremely compelling engagements. This does not mean that we don’t identify imbalances or glaring inconsistencies. We have read and heard volumes of feedback from players, and the lack of a timed or concentration end reduction buff for Hibernia has not been an issue that we have seen raised very often at all.

Talal: This is a fairly broad question and I suppose it merits a fairly broad answer. We want to solve for the problems that are causing players to lose interest in the game.

· We know something must be done about action in the Frontiers so I can tell you with confidence that working on NF is ‘next’.
· We’ll also continue to make the game enticing for new and returning players by making once again interesting the journey to level 50 and 50+ RvR.
· We’re working to restore the Herald, continuing our fine tuning with Class Balance, and making an honest effort to re-connect with our community.
· It’s been long understood that our UI needs a great deal of modernization, and we’re investigating how to accomplish this without neglecting other parts of the game which have long needed some love and attention.

Because the ‘problems’ in Dark Age of Camelot are almost entirely subjective (save a few features on which we can get almost universal consensus), we try to address the issues that come up most often, and are considered a concern by the highest number of players.

TL;DR: ‘What’s next’ is navigating a road to a stable, balanced, and successful Dark Age of Camelot while on shifting sands. Difficult: yes. Impossible: no.

Talal: It’d be easy to write volumes on this topic, but to spare your tired eyes, I’ll do my best to cover the basics.

The problems (as we see them):
§ Too much battlefield real-estate - action spread too thin
§ Too many battlefield objectives – takes focus off engagements
§ Inability to find reliable action, primarily during lower population hours
§ Easy access to enemy realms – too easy to bypass players and move about the frontier


There are certainly more, but these are some examples of some significant issues. I don’t need to describe the implications, because you are experiencing them daily when you’re out there in the frontiers and feel like you should be getting more out of that experience.
The solutions (as we perceive them):

§ Provide players with the ability to find reliable action without compromising the realm war
§ Reduce the number of unnecessary battlefield objectives (just as an example – we could cut the number of towers in NF in half, and I don’t think anybody would miss them)
§ Changing the way players navigate the frontiers.

o Portal keeps, Agramon, boat routes, the Labyrinth and more
o Allow for players to move *rationally* within the frontiers in order to conduce strategy, realm cohesion, and a return to having RvR be a *realm-wide* endeavor.

This is a very small cross section of the discussions we’re having. It’s more appropriate to identify the goals we hope to achieve. Goals such as: preventing our changes from marginalizing any particular play-style. 8 mans, small mans, soloers, zergs. The challenge here is to come up with a solution that every player can embrace no matter which play style they prefer. I promise that you’ll hear more on this as it develops.
As for the time-frame, that’s always been a tricky question – but I’d much rather garner disappointment from the DAoC community for keeping our timeline under wraps than make a claim and not follow through. I won’t deny that this has happened, and I hate the feeling of breaking trust. I can tell you that we would really like to open up the NF Revamp for public testing as early as this Fall. You won’t have long to wait, but If you’re asking for a month and day, I’m afraid I cannot oblige.

TL;DR: We’re working to make NF more fun, and it’s coming soon.