Dark Age of Camelot; The Rise and Fall of MMORPG PvP Combat
Blogged in MMORPGs, Games by Matt on Wednesday August 29, 2007On October 10, 2001 a game that in my opinion set the standard for all Player vs. Player combat in MMORPG was released, titled Dark Age of Camelot. Mythic Entertainment, once a small independent developer known for their various online games, took a huge risk in developing such a game, and when Dark Age of Camelot was released they saw their hard work pay off.
When DAOC was released it quickly gained respect and notoriety from the MMORPG industry as well as from the players. DAOC was the first MMORPG to tie PvP combat into an organized, objective based system. In games prior PvP was based around unregulated combat anytime and anywhere, leading to the frustration of griefing. When DAOC introduced Realm vs. Realm combat many players had finally found the perfect PvP middle ground they had been looking for.
Albions defending a hole in a keep from the dirty Hibernians!
Players in DAOC could choose one of three realms to join; Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard. Each realm had its own strengths and weaknesses, Hibernia being the masters of Magic, Midgard being the kings of melee, and Albion filling the middle ground on both fronts. However at release the game was anything but balanced. Midgard were the kings of PvP combat at release due to their ability to chain stun other players, rendering them useless in combat. However, Mythic was quick to address and fix this problem.
The Good
The PvE combat in DAOC was the same old fair as Everquest except with one major difference, the downtime when hunting was much less, making the grind much quicker, albeit still long. In the early days of the game constant combat could be found in the frontiers regardless of level. However, as more players reached 50, the only way to compete in RvR combat was to be 50 also. Mythic eventually delivered Battle Grounds to the players allowing players of lower levels to be able to RvR against others that were within their level range, ensuring a full PvP game from character creation to finish.
Fatty Trolls fighting a Baddy!
What was it about DAOC that made it the “must have MMORPG” in terms of PvP combat? Simply put it was the first game to allow players to take part in organized PvP combat that wasn’t simply based around grieving or getting back at rival guilds. Instead, in DAOC you were fighting for your realm’s “well being” by maintaining and capturing other realm’s Relics. Massive battles of 75 to 150 players per side would take place at various keeps, the performance was surprisingly decent, don’t get me wrong there was lag, however compared to other MMORPGS and large scale battles the lag was very little, the only problem one might run into was their computer not being up to par.
Never before had their been a MMORPG that allowed so many players to participate in objective based PvP combat, and there still hasn’t been a game that comes close. The fighting was fast and frantic with the healing classes of every realm being tested to their abilities. Originally dying in a keep defense meant leaving your keep completely undefended if you were to far outside of the front gate, however eventually Mythic added Corpse Summoners to the keeps to allow players to be resurrected inside once they had died outside. This immensely aided in the ability to be able to successfully defend a keep attack if you died.
Caster classes excelled at defense from the walls, while a supported tank could reign havoc in the courtyard as well as in fighting in the tower on the way to the Keep Lord. The large scale PvP is what made DAOC what it is, and still is, however everything that is good must have some downsides.
The Bad
However, while DAOC has fantastic combat, Mythic made some huge mistakes from the beginning in regards to the combat. The most glaring problem is the blanket crowd control that is found in DAOC. Blanket crowd control being spells cast by characters that allow them to make players unable to do anything, fight, move, and so forth, for the duration of the spell, which in some cases can last well over a minute.
Over the course of the life cycle of DAOC Mythic introduced various realm abilities, character abilities that are purchased by earning points in PvP combat, that countered many of the woes of blanket crowd control, however they did anything but balance it. Abilities such as Purge could be used once every 10 or 15 minutes, depending on the level you had trained, that would remove all negative effects and crowd control from your character. Determination was also added which passively lowered the duration of Crowd Control by a percentage based amount by level of training. These abilities were nice, but they do not make up for the complete lack of balance that comes from blanket crowd control.
While Mythic added various abilities to try and balance the game , the glaring desparity between classes in terms of power and usability was quite possibly the biggest issue. Stealthing classes have always been considered overpowered since day one, and rightfully so. A fully buffed assassin can easily kill any other class without challenge, while a fully buffed caster was still at the mercy of his or her range. While the buff issue could be considered a moot point, the class desparity was horrible at times. A Cabalist was an Albion caster who used a pet as well as DDs, DoTs, and Debuffs to fight, however through the life cycle of the game the Cabalist was overlooked, and their damage and abilities stayed largely the same as they were at release, while other classes were added to the game and others were bumped up in power. The Mentalist from Hibernia suffered the same ill fate as the Cabalist as did the Spirit Master of Midgard.
While many of the caster classes of DAOC were left behind so were many of the melee classes. The Albion and Hibernian dual wielding classes, Mercenary and Blademaster respectively, were always a second tier class when compared to the Berserker and their superior dual wielding formula. Berserkers would hit 90% of the time with both weapons while the other two were lucky to hit 60%.
The Ugly
Perhaps the worse part of DAOC comes from the player base it’s self. Whether they’re cheaters, cross realming, griefers, or elitists, the player base in DAOC, as in any other games, is what can make or break a game. A game that revolves around realm combat, takes exactly that, the realm to fight, however many players in DAOC felt they needed to make the game competitive. Forming a solid “8 man” as they’re called in DAOC is the way to show just how “elite” you are at pushing buttons to unleash your “I Win” ability at just the right time. Normally, I would be all for competitive play in any game, however when you make that your absolute purpose without regard to your realm mates, it really kind of sucks when you’re realm is being beat by a red headed stepchild.
With the need to be the rulers of the “8 man” world comes the need to constantly reroll to a different realm and build a new super setup. With this rerolling comes the reality of cross-realming, players from opposing sides sharing information openly. Not only is it dirty, it completely kills the whole realm war aspect of the game. Cheaters have come and gone, and will continue as various map/radar programs are always coming and going.
Dark Age of Camelot is perhaps the crowning achievement in MMORPG PvP thus far, but where will innovation in PvP combat in MMORPGs go from here? Will developers continue to push the traditional formula of abilities set on a timer, or will we see new, innovative combat systems? Time will tell, but as of now the outlook is grim as most of the next gen MMORPGs are still pushing the same old tired formula.
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