Emain is back

I’m extra-busy with a bunch of stuff, so I went quiet for a bit despite there would be a lot to talk about.

I didn’t change my opinion about the decision to bring back “Emain” to provide an accessible playground where players can go without caring about the more complex PvP gameplay around the keeps. It’s still a short term good decision that will ultimately hurt in the long term.

From Sanya:

Anecdotally, the main concern among those I spoke with (who didn’t like the idea) was that “regular” RVR would be too drained by this Island. We hope that the design will make people gravitate to the Island when they’re looking for something to do, and that raids will form from the players in this natural staging area. Regular RVR is just a quick trot across a bridge, with no elaborate planning or logistics required.

Once again this is an extremely superficial view on the problems. Again the consequence is put ahead of the cause.

“The Island” (Agramon) isn’t bad just because IT WILL kill the RvR in the mainland. This is the consequence of a problem. A symptom. Looking at the symptom, and just it, is completely useless. What will naturally happen (the fact that people will prefer to go to Agramon instead of playing with the more complex RvR) should trigger a damn DOUBT. Why the fuck the players would prefer the “hot tub” arena when DAoC “is supposed” to offer so much more?

So, “The Island” is bad not “on its own”, but because it again shifts the focus of the designers on what DOESN’T MATTER. It’s again the usual workaround, a bandaid. The truth is that the complex RvR action in DAoC has the same “accessibility” problems of ToA. The players hate it simply because of this. It’s not accessible, and so, it isn’t fun. It isn’t fun as it should be. As it could be.

The strength of DAoC is not in a simple PvP arena where to farm the Realm Points. This feature is offered in a better form in other games and Mythic is doing a big mistake by chasing the trend and choking the true unique traits of their game. Instead of differentiating themselves, they, once again, chase the tail of other games without even the remote possibility to reach similar results.

The classic RvR has serious accessibility problems that undermine its potential. There are situations extremely static that need more dynamism in order to not bore everyone to tears like they do now. A quick PvP arena is not bad on its own but as a way to DISMISS these problems. To look elsewhere and ignore them. The players will like Agramon and prefer it over the rest (so it must be good? no, this is superficial), because the other part of the RvR has problems that weren’t solved. In the same way the players prefer the new classic servers with “no ToA” because the problems ToA had weren’t solved (effectively, I know they worked constantly on it, but not on the real, radical accessibility issues).

The result is that Mythic keeps wasting resources to invent fanciful workarounds when the game would need a completely different approach to face the real problems directly. The success of the game in the long term will suffer these superficial solutions that can only work in the short term and will damage the game in the long term (the unaddressed problems that choke the quality of the game).


Beside all this. I just finished a quick run around the isle on the test server and, despite the negative implications I’ve explained above, the design is nice. The movement around this island is rather intuitive. The terrain is well planned and for the first time not extremely flat and featureless. The impression I had is good and you would think that they learnt something from WoW in the way to shape the hills and valleys so that they finally matter for the gameplay and not just as a pretty scenery background. There ARE actually hills and valleys now and the line of sight will have a role since the terrain isn’t anymore a flat box. There seem to be space for some strategy and well planned encounters and ambushes.

So I believe that within the limit of the engine of the game they did a good work and even graphically the zone is nice despite it’s still a cut&paste of exisitng assets. Only the transition to the snow (the Midgard section) still looks rather bad.

The only negative note is the *extremely annoying* aggro that constantly breaks the groups and speed.

If anything, it looks like a very good Emain.

As another positive note they finally readjusted the power and health regeneration rate:

– We have increased the Health and Power regeneration rates at lower levels, to make leveling a more enjoyable experience for everyone. The increase is significant at lower levels and slowly rises back to its current state as you level your character.

– The penalty on power regeneration when power is below 50% has been removed.

The second in particular is a fix to something that was just “bad design” and nothing else. DAoC needs less of those quirks that just make the gameplay more frustrating.

The simplification of the ruleset should always remain a goal. DAoC has always been “complicated” without really adding to the gameplay, just too filled with odd quirks, exceptions to rules and special cases.

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