Comparison of Dark Ages of Camelot and Everquest
Improvements in Dark Ages of Camelot over Everquest:
Chat
- The chat system is a major advancement (it features most of the major
improvements of the Pernica design). System messages and chat messages are
in two separate windows (so combat messages don't scroll your conversation).
Switching between default forms of talk is much easier.
- (11/3/2001) We have discovered serious flaws in the Camelot Chat system.
Zoning disrupts group and chat (when you zone you are switched to your "main"
chat window). Each chat window maintains a separate buffer, thus if you switch
to "group chat" you won't see "chat group" messages!
Roleplaying
- Roleplaying means a lot of different things to different people and while
Dark Ages of Camelot fails to accomplish real roleplaying (developing
your character and interacting with the world results in permanent changes
in the world - i.e. what your character does actually matters long term),
DAoC comes a lot closer than previous games.
- Designated "roleplaying" servers (all public conversation must
be in character or you risk being booted off the server)
- The look of a character is more customizable. There is not a lot of variety
in initial character design (in Albion there are five races that result in
slightly different looking humans). Initially you pick a race (variation of
human), a face and hair color (not a lot of choices for face nor hair color).
Each piece of armor changes your look and they can be dyed (for reasonable
prices) to result in many color choices. The real difference from EQ
is that colored armor is available to the average player (although some special
colors are only available via questing).
- In the realm of Albion there are 12 classes: Armsman, Mercenary, Paladin,
Wizard, Cabalist, Theurgist, Sorcerer, Inflitrator, Scout, Minstrel, Cleric
and Friar. Each character has a lot of choice in how they develop their character
(you don't just automatically get skills, you choose what skills you want
to develop and train in them). Thus one wizard could be very different
from the next wizard (even if they are the same level). This is subtle but
in Camelot each character can be reasonably unique, whereas in Everquest you
have basically a dozen classes of carbon copy characters.
An economy that works!
- Tradeskills that are worth doing. Not only are all tradeskills profitable
immediately but they also serve as an important source of equipment because
player crafted equipment is better than NPC Vendor equipment.
- Equipment should be upgraded regularly resulting in a use for cash.
- Equipment wears out and needs repair - again resulting in a use for cash.
Playability
- Food and Drink are not required so there is no penalty for just logging
in and standing around chatting with your friends.
- All players can bind immediately (at level one). There is no torturous wait
until level 12 or 14 and no begging others to provide binds and no difference
between warriors and casters.
- Improved travel - No slow boats to wait for (or worry about crashing). Fast
long distance travel is accomplished by renting a horse.
- "Kill Stealing", while technically possible, does not seem to
be occurring. This is probably due to the ample supply of appropriate targets
for everyone (even on the most crowded servers). Another factor is the individualized
quests tend to avoid a large group of players all trying to get the same thing.
Even if another player does "kill steal" the experience award is
split (and thus not a complete steal).
- Maximum group size is increased to eight.
- All targets are automatically "conned" when targeted with a more
informative color scheme.
- Objects (weapons and armor) are also "conned" automatically with
a color code to let you know if it is appropriate for your usage or not.
- Many features reduce or avoid "twinking".
- Death is multi-tiered. The first death of a level is not as serious as the
next, etc. This reduces the pain of a stray accidental death while improving
the desire to avoid death.
Quests
- Quests and Tasks are vastly superior to Everquest. They are level
specific and come in several forms. Quests are longer and more involved. Tasks
are short (must be done within two hours). There is a built in journal to
keep track of your progress in a quest (no more forgetting who to contact
next).
- Questing does not require hours of research on "cheat"
websites.
Guilds
- Guild creation is much simpler and handled completely inside the game.
- Guilds have customizable ranks that can be assigned different abilities.
Disadvantages of Dark Ages of Camelot vs Everquest:
- Humans, Elves and Dwarves are permanently at war. You can not group together,
be friends, and you can't even talk to your enemies (nor can you even identify
them by name).
- No "guildwar" - there is no way to create a player vs player plot
and conflict.
- Guilds cost one gold to create. (one gold is serious cash for a new player
but a reasonable way to avoid a lot of trivial guilds from being created)
- First person view and changing view is a bit clumsier and more confusing
than EQ (there are two camera behind the player views that can confuse a novice
since they can't tell the difference immediately).
- Dark Ages of Camelot is more complex (primarily combat). Many players may
enjoy the more complex combat abilities and DAoC does a good job of easing
you into this, but still it's not as brain dead simple as EQ is.
- In Camelot a lot more thought to the creation and development of your character
is needed. In EQ you can be virtually braindead and not mess up your character
badly. In Camelot, while your character may not be "bad" they may
not suit what you wished to do! A simple example... as a craftsperson you
might think that strength is unimportant. But carrying around all those raw
materials uses up all your carrying capacity and often puts you over weight!
- Dark Ages of Camelot needs a more powerful PC.
- "Instant Death" still occurs (ok, technically this is no worse
than EQ - it's a serious flaw in both games)
- Level issues for grouping are more severe than EQ (a level 3 and a level
6 in a group results in essentially zero experience for both)
- Camelot's "/friends add <character name>" only works if
the character is online!
Comment
Mythic (Dark Ages of Camelot) focussed a lot of their design around the "realm
vs realm" conflict. Unfortunately this appears like it will be the one
part of the game that will fail (powergamers and PKers may love it). The biggest
problem we expect in RvR (Realm vs Realm) is "instant kill" between
mismatched players. It seems that most players are misunderstanding the nature
of RvR and comparing solo characters against solo characters. Realm vs Realm
is intended as massive group particpation where each class plays their
role (ie healers may be easy to kill but they are vital and hence the others
must protect them). Although Mythic talks about capturing forts and such, right
now this appears to be just another excuse for PvP combat. It's unlikely that
one realm will manage to occupy a location (fort) 24 hours a day, thus the same
old "log out and come back tomorrow as if nothing ever happenned"
problem still exists. Mythic has some great ideas here, let's hope they can
tune them and get the problems worked out. Although both Verant and Mythic speak
of "persistent" worlds, so far players can't make any real changes
that actually persist from day to day.
Summary
The two games sound similar (both games are MMORPGs that involve running around
and killing monsters). However the thought that went into the design of Dark
Ages of Camelot makes it a significant evolution. In comparison Everquest seems
extremely crude and obsolete. Dark Ages of Camelot hasn't captured "roleplaying"
(I doubt any mass market game ever will), but it is an incredibly more enjoyable
gaming experience.
Because of my interest and involvement in designing these games I tend to look
very critically and pick out flaws in gaming systems. Dark Ages of Camelot is
surprising me, while I see some serious basic flaws, I'm also seeing a lot
of great improvements and my enthusiasm is growing every day. From the first
day I played Everquest I hated it because they completely missed the potential
of such a great game. Yet obviously almost a half million people have enjoyed
a lot of fun (and frustration) for almost two and a half years in Everquest.
Dark Ages of Camelot is delivering multi-player fantasy gaming with a lot
more fun and a lot fewer frustrations.
But frustrations do remain in Camelot, two of the worst flaws (instant death
and level difference problems for grouping) of EQ remain in Camelot.
Dark Ages of Camelot has a much more friendly feel. It is much more
friendly to the casual player (you don't have to be a power gamer to enjoy many
of the nice little touches or to get critical, vital abilities such as bind).
Hardware Note
Some potential players have expressed concern about needing a powerful PC to
run Camelot. Granitbrow reports that it runs acceptably on his P3-450 machine
with only a pitiful old Voodoo 3 video card (he is upgrading his video). If
you hae a low end machine (under 500 MHz) I would highly recommend you have
256 Meg RAM and a good video card (GeForce chipset).
"Low End" hardware report from Granitbrow:
- P3-450
- 256 Meg RAM
- GeForce 2 MX400 (with 64 Meg Video Memory)
- SBLive Audio
- DSL connection
Granitbrow's Report:
The game ran smoother last night with the new video card installed. The images
were better and less muddy too. And I noticed a difference in the spell animations.
With the previous Voodoo3 3000 card installed, the world looked very muddy and
dull. Panning and looking up or down also was rather annoying. But it is definitly
playable as is.
Earlier in the week Granitbrow reported that this same system with a Voodoo
3 card was playable.
I've tested Camelot with one of my lower end machines:
- AMD K6-3 400 Mhz
- GeForce 256 Video (32 Meg Video Memory)
With 128 Meg of RAM this machine would not run Camelot. However after installing
256 Meg of RAM Camelot ran acceptably (turning is NOT as smooth as a really
high end machine). The graphics looked great, movement was ok and zoning out
of Camelot took a torturous 20 seconds (much slower than a higher end machine).
Most players running EQ should be able to match this with an inexpensive ($150)
upgrade of memory and video card.