Dark Age of Camelot

Dark Age of Camelot

Original cover art
Developer(s) Mythic Entertainment
Broadsword Online Games
Publisher(s) Vivendi Games (US)
Wanadoo (Europe)
Electronic Arts (2006-present)
Designer(s) Mark Jacobs
Matt Firor
Rob Denton
Engine Gamebryo
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)
  • Mythic October 10, 2001[1]
  • GOA January 31, 2002[2]
Genre(s) MMORPG
Mode(s) Multiplayer

Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) is a 3D medieval fantasy MMORPG, released on October 10, 2001 in North America and in Europe shortly after through its partner GOA. The game combines Arthurian lore, Norse mythology and Irish Celtic legends with a dash of high fantasy. It is set in the period after King Arthur's death and his kingdom has split into three parts which are in a constant state of war with each other. DAoC includes both Player versus Environment (PvE) and Realm versus Realm (RvR) combat.

It was announced on February 5, 2014, that development of the game would be transferred from Mythic Entertainment to a newly made studio (Broadsword Online Games) who will take over all future development of the game.[3] Mythic was subsequently shut down shortly thereafter on May 29, 2014.[4]

Development

Early developmental concept art for the original playable races in the game. From left to right: Saracen, Avalonian, Highlander, Briton, Elf, Lurikeen, Celtic Human, Firbolg, Norseman, Dwarf, Troll, Kobold.[5]

The decision to develop Dark Age of Camelot was made in late 1999, with it originally being conceived of as a graphical MUD.[6] Mythic Entertainment president Mark Jacobs proposed the idea of using Arthurian legend since it was on the public domain and thus the company would be free of any licensing issues.[6] Total development costs excluding equipment leases was about $2.5 million[7] and took 18 months with a team of 25 full-time developers.[6] 3DS Max and Character Studio were used to create all models and animations within the game.[6]

Toward the end of development, Mythic found themselves in a tough situation as they had never borrowed money before and had no credit rating to lease the Dell servers needed to run the game. After being denied the lease by Dell, Mythic had to purchase each and every server using their development funds.[8] Securing a publisher was also a difficult task; as every publisher that Mythic initially approached rejected the game except for one, Vivendi Games. In 2014, Jacobs still expressed gratitude to Vivendi for taking a chance on the studio.[9]

During the game's prime, Mythic operated 120 dual-processor Pentium servers running Linux. Out of those, groups of six servers where devoted to running one world, or as the player saw it, one server. The servers were designed to handle 20,000 players simultaneously logged in at any given time, however, Mythic limited them to about 4,000 each in order to keep the world from feeling too cluttered. Mythic's cofounder Rob Denton stated, "If you have too many people, the worlds get too crowded. The last thing you want is to be bumping into thousands of people."[10] Much of the game's code was also stored on the servers, with the user client more focused on graphics and texture loading based on a data stream limited to 10 kbit/s per player.[10]

Gameplay

The player character riding a horse through the realm of Hibernia. The early 2001-era graphic engine and HUD design can be seen in this shot.

Character control is, for the most part, by means of either the mouse or keyboard. 'Quickbars' of 10 slots each can be customized with spells, weapon attack 'styles', or macros, and can be either clicked on or selected with the number keys to activate. Players choose from three realms: Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard, each based on different mythologies. Each realm has different races. Although each realm's classes differ in specific abilities, DAoC's classes are broken down into the four common RPG archetypes: warrior 'tanks', spell casters, rogues that use stealth, and healing priests. Hybrid classes, which combine skills from any two of the archetypes, also exist in all 3 realms. DAoC's classes are balanced at the RvR level instead of in direct comparison to the other realms' equivalent classes. DAoC classes are very rigid with specific roles, play styles, and specialization point allocations.

Guilds offer social, economic and PvE/PvP advantages that contrast with or exceed soloing and 'pick-up groups'. Each guild comes with its own chat channel, in-game ranking system, territory claiming ability, guild banking system, guild housing, emblem, and reward system in the form of guild bounty points and merit points. Each guild leader (or leaders, as the game provides for multiple leaders) can define their own set of rules and goals. The guild leader(s) can customize the privileges, (such as inviting new members, speaking in alliance chat, and claiming captured Towers for the guild) of each Rank within the guild. Furthermore, alliances can be formed between player guilds, which offer up a conjoined chat channel for all guilds within one alliance to communicate.

Realm versus Realm is the main focus of Dark Age of Camelot. The storyline revolves around what happens after the death of King Arthur and his united kingdom falling apart. Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard are in a three way war against each other and constantly war for control of powerful relics, keeps and towers, as well as control of the entrance to Darkness Falls.

Server types

The official poll which was used to ask the players whether or not they wanted the Origins server implemented

In order to combat the problems of dwindling population, Mythic began to initiate server clusters. This involved grouping various servers together, allowing players to interact with those from other servers. A server emulator project, Dawn of Light, lets the Dark Age of Camelot client the ability to connect to publicly registered, unofficial game servers. These servers can run different rule sets and have custom behaviors. However, these servers are not supported by Mythic and using them violates the Dark Age of Camelot EULA.[22]

Expansions

Mythic has produced seven expansions (which originally had to be bought separately, but are now free downloads) for DAoC. The expansions were not released on European servers (run by GOA), until typically months after the Mythic release.

Note: A patch is mentioned in this list due to its impact on one of the expansions. Also, all expansions are now included free as part of the main client download.

Storyline

Each realm has a unique but parallel storyline, which is expanded with retail expansions. The European distributors occasionally add their own writings and quests about the realms and their inhabitants.

In the original Realm zones, smaller cities in the realm need protection against monsters common to many other RPGs. Albion is menaced by undead raised by Morgana, Hibernia is torn apart by the Unseelie Court and Siabra, and Midgard by the treacherous Blodfelag.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings88% (24 reviews)[24]
Metacritic88/100 (18 reviews)[25]
Review scores
PublicationScore
CGW[26]
Game Informer8.5/10[27]
GameSpot91/100[28]
GameSpy92/100[29]
IGN90/100[30]
PC Magazine[31]
Gameplanet[32]

When DAOC first launched in October 2001, Mythic sold 51,000 copies of the game within the first 4 days,[8] outperforming their initial expectation of 30,000.[33] The subscriber base quickly rose up to almost 250,000 subscribers by July 2002 and then started to fall off to about 210,000 subscribers by January 2003. The Shrouded Isles expansion was released and populations climbed back up slightly, then in November 2003 populations once again rose to 250,000 with the release of the "Trials of Atlantis" expansion and remained at that level until October 2004 when market competition (Everquest II, World of Warcraft) caused these numbers to gradually decrease over time. As of January 2008, the estimated number of subscribers was 50,000.

References

  1. Dark Age of Camelot - PC - IGN. Uk.ign.com (2003-05-28). Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  2. http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/dark-age-of-camelot/news/33840.html]
  3. The Next Chapter for. Dark Age of Camelot. Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  4. Jason Schreier. "EA Shuts Down Longtime Game Studio Mythic Entertainment". Kotaku. Gawker Media. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  5. Camelot Concept Art. Web.archive.org (2001-03-31). Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Firor, Matt. "Post-Mortem: Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot". GamaSutra. Retrieved 2012-12-20.
  7. "Talking Crowdfunding with Mark Jacobs - The Free Zone at". Mmorpg.com. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  8. 1 2 Postmortem: Mythic Entertainment's Dark Age of Camelot. Gamasutra. Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  9. "Former Mythic boss eulogises the fallen Warhammer studio". Eurogamer.net. 30 May 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  10. 1 2 Cohen, Alan. (2003-07-01) Inside the Dark Age of Camelot. PCMag.com. Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  11. Camelotherald.com - Traditional Servers
  12. Camelotherald.com - Classic Servers
  13. Darkageofcamelot.com
  14. Darkageofcamelot.com
  15. Camelotherald.com
  16. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2009-01-24. Archived from the original on 2009-01-24. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  17. Schuster, Shawn (2008-06-03). "DAoC turns old school with their new Origins server | Massively". Massively.joystiq.com. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  18. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2009-02-07. Archived from the original on 2009-02-07. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  19. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2011-05-07. Archived from the original on 2011-05-07. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  20. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2009-06-27. Archived from the original on 2009-06-27. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  21. "Internet Archive Wayback Machine". Web.archive.org. 2009-03-21. Archived from the original on 2009-03-21. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  22. About Project • Dawn of Light. Dolserver.net. Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  23. Overview DAoC.com
  24. "Dark Age of Camelot for PC". GameRankings. 2001-09-01. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  25. "Dark Age of Camelot for PC Reviews, Ratings, Credits, and More". Metacritic. 2001-09-01. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  26. (Feb 2002, p.77)
  27. Game Informer (Jan 2002, p.93)
  28. October 26, 2001 7:13PM PDT (2001-09-01). "Dark Age of Camelot Review". GameSpot.com. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  29. GameSpy.com - Reviews: Dark Age of Camelot (PC). Web.archive.org (2002-02-14). Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  30. "Dark Age of Camelot". IGN. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  31. Dark Age of Camelot reviewed by PC Magazine. Web.archive.org. Retrieved on 2014-05-22.
  32. "Gameplanet - Reviews - Dark Age of Camelot". Archived from the original on 2 February 2002. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  33. GameSpy.com - E3 Coverage. Web.archive.org (2002-02-06). Retrieved on 2014-05-22.

External links

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