Dark Age of Camelot

Dark Age of Camelot
Dark Age of Camelot logo
Studio	Mythic entertainment
Publisher	Mythic Entertainment GOA
Erstveröffent- lichung	August 29, 2001 February 1, 2002
platform	Windows
genre	MMORPG
Game mode	only multiplayer over the Internet : Fight against NPCs or other players ( PvP ) as well as realm against realm fights, RvR for short
control	mouse and keyboard
system advantages preconditions	PIII 1.4Ghz CPU 512 MB RAM 3-D card 56k modem
medium	CDs
language	English, German, French
Age rating	USK PEGI
information	Total players around 50,000 worldwide (April 2008), simultaneously up to 3,500 per server ( 3600 on the so-called Classic Servers )

Dark Age of Camelot ( DAoC ) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game ( Engl. Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game , briefly MMORPG) of the American game developer EA Mythic. The computer game can only be played online via the internet .

General

The base game and all add-ons that have appeared are now available for free download. As is customary with MMORPGs in general, a monthly fee is charged, which currently amounts to 10 to 12 euros per month. The servers, previously operated by GOA in Europe , were taken over by EA Mythic in February 2010.

Since November 2019, the game has been accessible to everyone for free with certain restrictions thanks to patch 1.126 Endless Conquest .

Gameplay

The player can choose one of the three warring realms Albion (old England around the Arthurian legend), Hibernia (around the Irish mythology) or Midgard (around the Scandinavian mythology) on each server and create various characters typical for the empire (e.g. B. Saracens in Albion, Norsemen in Midgard or the Celts in Hibernia that fit the empire). These characters gain experience in fighting monsters or other players in order to level up in stages (up to a maximum of level 50) and to learn new skills with each new level and to specialize in certain areas of their class (e.g. better healing or buffs, too Called buffs ). The classes are relatively highly specialized and limited in their skills, most classes only develop their full strength in a group where their skills complement each other.

As the game progresses, the focus is on RvR (realm versus realm), i.e. the battle between the three realms. There is also a special zone (the border area) in which each empire has a land area of ​​almost the same size, on which there are a total of seven fortresses with four towers each. Every tower and every fortress can be attacked and conquered by the opposing realms at any time (colloquially “raiden”), which sometimes leads to battles between several hundred players. The border area was graphically revised with the introduction of New Frontiers, towers were added, and a map now shows recent enemy contacts.

A special goal is the conquest of the relics, of which each empire has two empire-specific (e.g. Excalibur's scabbard and Merlin's staff in Albion). If opposing relics get into your own hands, they are kept in the fortresses and grant the conquering empire a special bonus.

The so-called BGs (Battle Grounds) d. H. Battlegrounds for the Dark Age of Camelot RvR system. There the access is level-limited in order to allow characters of lower levels to fight for realm with players of similar levels. So fight z. B. in Molvik players of level 35 - 39 of all three realms around a fortress, to which 3 towers belong. In Thidranki (level 20 - 24) there is only one fortress without additional towers.

Game world

The game worlds of the three realms are graphically designed very differently. Different monsters appear everywhere and the players have to solve other quests in order to collect experience points ( EP , Exp ). However, the structure of the empires is quite similar: In each empire there is a capital with trainers and guild halls, dungeons in gradations for the different levels and extensive areas.

• Albion with the capital Camelot is reminiscent of old England, precisely at the time of the Middle Ages. The architectural style reflects this in its multitude of castles, farmsteads and churches, which are strongly reminiscent of Gothic buildings .
• The kingdom of Hibernia is a playful world full of elves, Lurikeen and Celts and is reminiscent of the fabulous Ireland. The scattered groves and farmsteads are reminiscent of the playful architecture of the Elves' buildings from Lord of the Rings.
• In Midgard , the architecture is less playful. There are large snow-covered areas and simple buildings, which, however, are decorated with many carvings. The world is reminiscent of the Scandinavia of legends and myths.

Common to all three kingdoms is the border area. In this it is important to take over the castles and watchtowers of the opposing party and slowly but surely fight your way to the valuable places of worship of the enemies in order to ultimately take them. A special incentive are the bonuses that the entire empire can gain by successfully taking the enemy fortresses on a server.

Characters

Dark Age of Camelot is characterized above all by the large variety of player characters . It is now possible, as in most MMORPGs, to determine many external details, such as gender, skin color, height, hairstyle, eye color, face shape and even the length of a character's beard or braid. There are also a lot of different races and classes. The following lists are therefore a short summary of the possibilities to define your character superficially. The latter can not only be helpful when choosing the creation of a character, it also serves to identify character and real personality, as well as various tactical aspects, such as: B. the size.

Description of the character types

Each realm has different races, which in turn can learn different classes. Race and class are mutually dependent. Roughly warriors, sneaks, healers / supporters and magicians can be distinguished in all realms.

• "Warriors" (tanks; offtanks; hybrids) are characters who fight in the front row and mainly deal melee damage. There is also a distinction between full tanks, offtanks and hybrids. The first two act exclusively in close combat, whereby offtanks (offensive fighters) are concerned with high damage and full tanks on the defensive (at least that's how it is intended). Hybrids have a penalty in melee damage but compensate for this with additional magic. Either through enhancing spells and / or additional magic damage.
• "Stealers" are characters who are characterized by the possibility of hiding, stealth and the effective incapacitation of enemies, through bows or special attacks. A distinction is made between assassins and archers. The former mainly cause damage in close combat, sometimes appear in the middle of the enemy crowd, mix up individual opponents and then disappear again (if they are fast enough for that). Archers also have the ability to handle the bow and improve this skill as well. Your strengths are probably the long range and the ability to hide yourself from assassins. The archer class is not always exclusively specialized in the bow, however, there are also melee fighters among them, whereby it is more the defensive than the damage. Minstrels are a complete exception.
• Healers (supporters) usually do not intervene directly in the game, but help other characters in the fight. This can be done on the one hand by healing other characters, on the other hand by controlling attacking NPCs (crowd control). In addition, supporters can conjure up various reinforcement spells (so-called buffs) on other players. On the other hand, they can also steal the "Buffs" from opponents ("Buff-Shearen").
• Mages (casters) use special magical abilities to fight other characters in the game. You can use spells to damage the other characters as well as to summon a being (so-called pet, which can also be improved by the summoner or buffs and still have different skills among each other. For example, bone dancers have up to 4 pets, the magicians, Melee fighters or healers, but they do not have as high and special skills as real players) or use magic shields.

Listing of the races

List of possible races for the individual kingdoms (the abbreviation after the races shows the extension with which this breed was introduced)

Albion	Hibernia	Midgard
Breton Avalonians Saracen Highlander Inconnu (SI) half oger (TOA) Minotaur (LotM)	Celt Eleven Lurikeen Firbolg Sylvaner (SI) Shar (TOA) Minotaur (LotM)	Nordmann dwarf goblin Troll Valkyn (SI) Frostalf (ToA) Minotaur (LotM)

List of classes

Since July 2, 2009, the main classes can be selected directly when creating a character. The beginning classes are completely eliminated.

• Albion:
  • Fighter (Armorer, Mercenary, Paladin, Arawn Knight, Malmer)
  • Crook (scout, infiltrator, minstrel)
  • Magician (sorcerer, Kabbalist)
  • Elementalists (magicians, theurgists)
  • Novices (clergy, friars, heretics)
  • Disciple (necromancer)
• Hibernia:
  • Guardian (Fian, Champion, Swordmaster, Vampyr, Malmer)
  • Brigands (Vampire, Nightshade, Ranger)
  • Eleven (druid, bard and guardian)
  • Adepts (Vampire, Summoner, Eldritch, Banshee (only for female characters), Mentalist)
  • Shark Indian (Animist, Reaper)
• Midgard:
  • Vikings (berserkers, warriors, thunder warriors, skalds, savages, malmer, valkyrie (only for female characters))
  • Mystic ( rune master , necromancer, warlock, bone dancer)
  • Rogues (Hunter, Shadowblade)
  • Seer (shaman, healer)

List of professions

In the world of Dark Age of Camelot, a character can choose between several professions. The following professions can be chosen:

• Alchemist
• Spell wizard
• Armourer
• Bow maker
• Armorer
• cutter
• Besiegers

Since patch 1.87, every class can learn any profession. The maximum level of a secondary job is also no longer limited.

Virtual houses

In Dark Age of Camelot every player and every guild is able to buy their own virtual house. Just like in real life, all you need is money. If you have finally managed to collect the exorbitant amount when you listened to it for the first time, there are a few more things to consider. For example, each player can only buy or build a house once. In this, however, he is then also the master of the house in the truest sense of the word. The player or the guild can determine whether other characters besides him (or her) are allowed to enter his apartment, or whether this is a restricted zone for them. He can arrange the interior of the house as he likes (there is a lot of furniture and other furnishings that players can make themselves).

You can also design the direct environment around your own house, e.g. B. Plant hedges or place wells.

Furthermore, in this zone, in which there are only residential buildings, it is possible to trade with other players through house dealers. Here you put your own goods with a price in your own house dealer where players can buy them directly or via the market searcher (a search engine for all dealers on the server), the next time the house owner can pick up his money.

Extensions

Depending on the server location / operator, there are six or seven extensions for the game that are now available free of charge:

• Shrouded Isles (SI) was the first to expand the original game by six additional zones and three dungeons per realm (later a seventh zone was "added" by patch). In addition, a new race has been added per empire and two classes. As the name of the add-on suggests, these new areas are a self-contained island. Furthermore, the graphics have been improved with this add-on (e.g. better water effects).
• Foundations expanded the original game with three new "housing zones" for the time being. Willing players can buy and furnish their own houses in these zones. Later, six more zones were added by patch, so that currently nine zones are available per empire. With this add-on, the popular, own dealers have been integrated into the game, with whom you can sell items much more easily.
• Trials of Atlantis (ToA) turned PvM (Player versus Monster) upside down. In addition to the significantly improved landscape graphics (new textures, trees, water effects ...) a new race, twelve new zones and seven (sometimes very small) dungeons were added for each realm. For the first time, players were also able to explore underwater landscapes. With this add-on the artifacts (very powerful objects) and master levels were introduced. The master levels consist of nine times ten tasks, as well as a fight in an arena (master level 10), some of which are extremely difficult. If the player completes a master level, he gets a new skill for it.
• New Frontiers is the complete overhaul for the RvR area (Reich against Reich). The old “border areas” were closed and replaced by newly designed ones. What is new is that the border areas of the three realms are connected by an ocean and there are no more loading zones in the Reichskampf. The castles that players can conquer have been completely redesigned and can be upgraded and strengthened. The empire skill system was also redesigned. Many abilities have been revised, some have been deleted without replacement and others, new ones have been added.
• Catacombs (Cata) added an underworld to the realms. In addition, the player skins got a new look and five new classes were introduced. Albion received the Heretic - a cleric who renounced the Albion Church. Midgard is strengthened by the Valkyries and Warlocks. Hibernia receives support from Banshees and the Vampire. The Valkyrie and the Banshee are reserved for female characters. In addition, there are so-called instances in DAoC for the first time. Areas that create a copy of themselves for each player or group of players, so that the entire area can be explored without being disturbed by others.
• New Towns & Tutorial . Instead of alternating a paid and a free add-on as before, after Catacombs a lot of content was changed and added via individual, smaller patches (e.g. RvR missions). What can be called a free add-on, however, is the “New Towns” and “Tutorial” patch. The New Towns Patch only adds new house models and textures to the game. In terms of content, absolutely nothing is changed. The tutorial patch, however, adds a new starting area for each of the three realms, which helps through the first few minutes of the game with small quests and language support and explains the controls and the most important game mechanics.
• Darkness Rising (DR) was released in the US on October 11, 2005. In Europe, the long-awaited expansion was released on February 1, 2006. The add-on not only unlocks further revised dungeons and some new regions. The expansion offers new challenges that have to be conquered, especially for high-level characters. For example, you can visit the kings of the individual kingdoms for the first time and get your own freely controllable horse. The kings or their deputies are looking for the champions of the empire who can then reach the 5 champion levels by means of quests, battles against monsters or opponents. A special feature is that there is no compulsion, regardless of whether you prefer fights against enemy players, fights against monsters or quests, any kind of procedure enables you to advance through the champion level. Also worth mentioning are the champion weapons, which can be selected specifically for each class. What is new is the constant selection: if, for example, an armorer has decided on a two-handed sword, he is free to go to the royal armorer at any time and exchange it for a punch / thrust / cut weapon or a polearm.
• Labyrinth of the Minotaur (LotM) is the last expansion that was released in Europe in February 2007. Besides additions to the RvR mode (there are mini-relics that can carry the player, however, is then marked as a carrier for all to see on the map) and adding the RvR dungeon , the Labyrinth , which is the largest dungeon in a MMORPG is (!), the people of the "Minotaurs" and the class "Malmer" (English name "Mauler") were introduced. These are available for all three realms, but the new class first had to be unlocked by conquering a certain number of the new Mino relics from each party on each server. In addition, the number of champion levels has been increased to 10. Finally, there is an additional slot in the equipment for new magical items, so-called "mythical items".

Since October 2007 every Dark Age of Camelot account has automatically all extensions up to and including Darkness Rising. This means that this game content is automatically available to all players and does not have to be purchased separately (Shrouded Isles, Trials of Atlantis, Catacombs). Some dealers still have these extensions / packages on offer. If you take out a new subscription (e.g. with a test subscription), you only have to get the following extensions if you want to use them.

Between 2008 and 2014, the servers were constantly clustered due to a lack of players. In the meantime you can transfer your game characters from the EU to the US server.

Web links

• camelot-europe.com , (former) official European website
• Official website of the developer Mythic
• Official US info page
• Database for the items from DAoC
• Patch info for Endless Conquest

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.mmogchart.com/Chart2.html ( Memento from February 4, 2005 in the Internet Archive )