Miss Tweety's Dark Age of Camelot Preview
posted at 10:30 PM on Thursday, March 1st, 2001
| Publisher |
| Mythic Entertainment |
| |
| System Requirements: |
PII 266
~500MB HD Space
64 MB Ram
16 MB video card
Soundblaster Live! sound card or equivalent.All subject to change before final ships. |
| |
| Other Info: |
| Producer: Matt Firor Release date: September 2001 |
| Related Links |
| Official DAoC Site Crossroads of Camelot |
| |
Dark Age of Camelot, Revisited
When last we left the upcoming MMOG, Dark Age of Camelot, we were embroiled in a tortured analogy of shy girls at high school dances in their underwear, or something ridiculous like that. I was on crack. Forget it. What I saw last time was a skeleton, not a naked chick. Now she’s got some flesh on them bones. We’ve got gossip on the beta, the monster generator, dungeons, the new zones, rewards from PVP, and more, so come on and enjoy the ride.
(This time, I wasn’t just some random idiot walking in off the street, to be kept at bay with pointy sticks and smooth talking. This time I was a random idiot they KNEW. Matt Firor, producer man extraordinaire, allowed me and my fellow reporter Mako from Lum The Mad Incorporated to roam the complex and speak to the other life forms.)
Beta Madness
The beginning beta test has been in full swing for awhile now, so let’s not bother talking about it, when you could just go to the Camelot site and check out the links from there. I asked how the feedback was coming along, and the most repeated comment from the players is (quoting Matt here) “Man, it’s pretty… and man, it’s BIG.”
The world is indeed enormous. We got to fly around in god mode (well, Matt did while we watched, I think he was afraid we were going to drool on his mousepad), and even in super fast fly mode, there was no way we could cross Albion and Midgard and still do a reasonable coherent interview. The homeland of the Norse is just as lush and beautiful (and architecturally correct) as the Briton turf, but the superb lighting effects create an entirely different mood. The screenshots are nifty and all that, but they don’t have the same impact as seeing the game live. A screenshot is a still shot - one in which you can’t see the moonlight on the trees, the shadows filtering through the underbrush as you stalk forward.
I asked what the major point of contention among beta testers was, and no surprise, the answer was the death penalty. The beta tester message board at the time of the visit had two major threads. One entitled “The Death Penalty is Too High!” The other entitled “The Death Penalty is NOT Too High!” There you have it folks. You really can’t build a MMOG and make everybody love you.
I’m not sure I can fairly comment on the beta test. The game IS in test mode right now, with the developers meticulously testing each aspect of gameplay. All that’s being tested, though, is the combat system (magic and weaponry). While I applaud Mythic for their attention to detail (and all the small gods of gaming can bear witness that releasing a half-assed buggy combat system has been done already and we don’t want to see it again), I disagree with the assertion that PVP combat will not need to be tested as fully once PVE combat is finished. Matt told me that Mythic is “trying to make fighting a 40th level monster exactly like fighting a 40th level player, with appropriate stats, weaponry and armor. In a way, this is how we’re testing the PVP aspects.” This is terrific, in terms of monster tuning. But players are tricky bastards, and think of all sorts of twisted things not foreseen by the most brilliant of designers. In addition, can one really call it a beta test without cities and dungeons?
The border between Albion and Midgard will be closed until Midgard has been tested as thoroughly as Albion. Then and only then will we see the PVP aspect of the game - and at the earliest, that will be two months from now.
Midgard - Hope You Can Row
Water, water, everywhere. Lakes, streams, rivers all over the place, and yes, there will be boats. Once again, the world developers made attention to detail the phrase of the day, and anyone familiar with Scandinavian motifs and architecture will appreciate what’s been done here. At some point one wonders how many hands the artists have, because at no point is there evidence of corner cutting. You know what I mean - buildings cut and pasted, nothing changed but the scale and the colors. None of that going on. I look forward to turning my eagle eye on Hibernia, with its Celtic roots.
Yeah, Yeah, What About Dungeons?
Under Stonehenge lies a tomb. At first it appears to be tunneled out of rock, as though a giant rock eating badger had torn away enormous chunks with its teeth. You drop through a hole, and fall to the floor. You look up… and around. No beastly lair, but a palace! Great works of art adorn walls constructed with intricate stonework. A great statue of a dragon looms from the shadows, and the torchlight makes it appear to breathe. You go deeper, and you find that it is not a palace, but a tomb. Whispers on the wind tell you Merlin carved this place…
You in the back! Shut up! So I got carried away! I’ve spent the last four years of my gaming life thinking MMOG dungeons were all basically Castle Wolfenstein 3D in varying degrees of pretty! Leave me alone and look at the damn screenshots. Colin Hicks and his gifted crew are geniuses I tell you.
Here’s what sucks about the dungeon - those annoying freaking people who feel compelled to post screenshots of their every deed on every EZBoard on the planet are going to feel justified doing so on solely an artistic basis, and I will never again be able to read a message board without a cable modem.
Monsters - Whack A Mole, or Something Different?
Mythic keeps talking about their monster generator, and how it’s Different from the other contestants for your gaming dollar. So, how is it different? I asked.
The answer is deceptively simple - everything about it is dynamic. No one’s hunted a certain stretch of forest for awhile? The monsters there will give out considerably more experience until the area becomes inundated with hunters. Then the exp will drop off. Small areas can be hunted into temporary extinction, but the more people in a zone, the more monsters that will spawn. Hunting parties are thus encouraged to keep moving, keep exploring.
What did I like hearing? That if changes needed to be made to the monster generator, it’ll be done - without bringing down and locking the servers. Shards. Whatever the hell they plan to call it.
So, What Do I Get For Killing Other Players?
In my last report, I told you bloodthirsty murdering bastidges were going to collect the heads of your enemies and get realm points for them, redeemable for fabulous prizes such as titles. Yawn. The excitement, I felt, was going to come from taking over border forts and territories, and stealing the relics of opposing realms.
I also said I didn’t think the hard core PVP folks were going to care. At the heart of all conquest beats the motif of “What’s in it for ME?” Answer: Mythic’s planning more than just titles. Like…horses for conquering knights. Perhaps the ability to call a ship to transport your horde. Easier communication with large raiding parties, as befits a commander of an army. The possibilities include anything that might make movement and raid coordination better, faster, and easier.
Bear in mind that at this point in the interview, I had both the producer and the president of Mythic standing there telling me this stuff, and they phrased all of the above as “we’re definitely planning to do it.” This can be translated as “please don’t storm our office if it doesn’t make it into the game.” They want everyone to know that a game element is only going into the game if they can do it right and do it in a timely fashion. If giving their victorious warlords horses would mean delaying the game by six months, it ain’t gonna happen. I almost not really felt guilty hounding these two nice boys for definitive answers and probabilities. They’re dreaming big and trying to stay practical, a hard task for anyone, and explaining limitations to a layman must have been as fun as passing a kidney stone.
Oh, and they said 80% chance on the horse thing.
NPCs, Backstory, and Your Place in This World
Last time, we heard a little about quests, and the steps Mythic is taking to make each quest unique to each player. Since then, a whole new world of possibilities has been opened. Some of you who’ve attended the DAoC Dev Chats may have spoken to Travin, the world developer concentrating on the NPC/Quest aspect of the game. I was privileged to meet him, and talk with him briefly about the plans Mythic has for this previously underutilized aspect of the genre.
He tells me that Mythic has essentially turned him and the rest of the quest team loose, with no limits. NPCs will interact with you, the player, as an individual. If you, as a young character, encounter another young “person” and interact with him, he will remember you. You will both grow and mature, and “years” later he may have something to tell you. Another player, who took no notice of the boy, will never hear a word from the man that boy has become.
Items will also interact with you. It’s a magical world - there is no reason you couldn’t encounter a weapon or a jewel that talks to you, tells jokes, or warns you of danger.
It would be so much easier if I could simply quote the entire essay he sent me, so you could understand the enormity of the scope planned for this area of the game. It stands to be THE aspect that sets Dark Age of Camelot apart from the other games in development. As I don’t have permission to do so, we’ll have to be satisfied with this quote: “Our team here has taken the attitude that backstory is EVERYTHING! Forget the small petty story you see in the manual! Turn your eyes away from the 120 second .AVI intro telling you how hopeless the situation is! We plan to implement our story "through" our quests (before the manual is written). You can forget about "reading" up on the game to grasp the storyline... As you progress in levels and venture further and further out into the realm, our (your) story will grow! I continue to push the angle that a player should "know" why he or she is a member of Albion, and why someone in Midgard is such a hated enemy! When the two meet on the field of battle, both should know what brought them to that point and why they dislike each other so. That is my backstory, my goal...”
So Now What?
It’s pretty, it’s detailed, and it’s on schedule. According to them, Mythic and their partner, Abandon Entertainment, will be publishing this game within the year. I’m going to go out on a limb here, however, and say that in my opinion, September 2001 (the previous best guess on a release date) seems too ambitious, as this game is far more than the beautiful yet basic game I saw on my last visit. Given the passion and drive of this company (and yes, it does feel exciting in their lair), a Christmas release is likely.
And the sound effects kick ass.
Tune in later this week for details of my conversation with Mark Jacobs, Mythic President, on the origins of DAoC, passion for gaming, and what makes a gaming company retain nearly every employee they ever hire.
Our discussion thread on DAoC
|
