Dark Age of Camelot


Dark Age of Camelot is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game released in October 2001 in North America, and in January 2002 in Europe. The game combines Arthurian lore, Norse mythology, and Celtic mythology with high fantasy. It is set in the period after King Arthur's death, when his kingdom has split into three realms, which are in a constant state of war with each other. Dark Age of Camelot includes both player versus environment and realm versus realm combat.
Developed by Mythic Entertainment, the game is in large part an adaptation of a previous text-based game Darkness Falls: The Crusade. The development of Dark Age of Camelot was later transferred from Mythic Entertainment to Broadsword Online Games, a newly established studio, which also subsequently took over development of Mythic's other MMO game, Ultima Online. Mythic was shut down in May 2014.
As of 2019, a new "progression" server was revealed to be in development, which is said to be limited to the content from the original release, the Shrouded Isles expansion, and the housing zone additions. With regard to "Old Frontiers" returning to the game, the development team plans to poll the community for their preference.

Gameplay

The character is controlled by either the mouse or keyboard. The player can customize up to three "Quickbars" of 10 slots each with spells, melee or ranged attacks, or macros, which can be either clicked on or selected with the number keys to activate. Dark Age of Camelot class system is balanced at the RvR level instead of in direct comparison to the other realms' equivalent classes. Dark Age of Camelot 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 those of 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. Guild leaders can define their own set of rules and goals, and can customize the privileges of each Rank within the guild. Furthermore, alliances can be formed between player guilds, permitting them to create a shared chat channel for all guilds within the alliance to communicate.
Realm versus Realm gameplay is the main focus of Dark Age of Camelot. The storyline revolves around what happens after the death of King Arthur and the fragmentation of his former kingdom. 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.

Realms

Dark Age of Camelot has three realms, allowing a unique dynamic of RvRvR gameplay. Each of the three realms is inspired by historical folklore and mythology:
  • Albion is the Realm of knights and damsels, based on Arthurian mythology. Notable classes include the Wizard, the Paladin, and the Infiltrator. Areas of interest in Albion include Avalon Marsh and Stonehenge, which is located in the Salisbury Plains. Camelot is Albion's capital.
  • Hibernia is the land of forest and magic, based on Celtic folklore. Notable classes include the Enchanter, the Champion, and the Ranger. Areas of interest include the Valley of Bri Leith, Lough Gur, and Connacht. Tir Na Nog is Hibernia's capital.
  • Midgard is the land of the trolls and giants, based on Norse mythology. Notable classes include the Runemaster, the Berserker, and the Hunter. Areas of interest include Myrkwood Forest, the Vanern Swamp, and Muspelheim. Jordheim is Midgard's capital.

    Storyline

Each realm has a unique but parallel storyline, which is expanded with retail expansions. In the original Realm zones, smaller cities need protection against monsters. Albion is menaced by undead raised by Morgana, Hibernia is torn apart by the Unseelie Court and Siabra, and Midgard by the treacherous Blodfelag.
  • Shrouded Isles - each realm is called to assist a smaller allied realm against a large enemy. In Albion, the Drakoran have besieged the final strongholds of Lady Lile's Avalonians. Hibernia has come to the aid of Hybrasil, where the Sylvans face extinction at the hands of the Fomorians. Midgard's ancestral home at Aegir has seen the Last of the Troll Fathers hunted down by the Morvalt.
  • Trials of Atlantis - the ruins of Atlantis have been discovered, as well as a portal to another Plane where the ancient Atlanteans underwent their trials. The Trials remain in a form twisted by the passage of time and the departure of the denizens of Atlantis. Ancient artifacts wait to be discovered and have their power and secrets revealed by learned scholars. Familiar figures from Greek and Egyptian mythology make their appearance in a new land waiting to be discovered.
  • Catacombs - a nemesis has taken control of the power within the Darkspire, gaining control of most of the denizens of an underground realm's race. Arawn, previously referenced as an ally of the Avalonians and patron of the Inconnu, has had his realm overrun by revolting dead and enslaved Inconnu. The Shar are only able to hold their ground at the gates of their Otherworld citadel. The Kobolds have been forced to open the secrets of the undercity to outsiders in a desperate bid for survival.
  • Darkness Rising - the King of the realm has returned to fight back a growing rebellion. Further investigations reveal a conspiracy with a dark power behind the rebellion. To become a Champion of the Realm the player must defeat the demonic evil behind the unrest and return peace to the land.
  • Labyrinth of the Minotaur - the ancient race of Minotaur has returned to the lands of Albion, Midgard, and Hibernia to reclaim powerful but corrupt relics hidden long ago by their ancestors. Lust for these relics once brought about the downfall of the powerful Minotaur kingdom and their evil influence now threatens the kingdoms of Man.

    Development

The decision to develop Dark Age of Camelot was made in late 1999, with it originally being conceived of as a graphical MUD. 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. Total development costs excluding equipment leases was about US$2.5 million and took 18 months with a team of 25 full-time developers. 3DS Max and Character Studio were used to create all models and animations within the game.
Toward the end of development, Mythic found itself in a difficult financial situation: since it had never borrowed money, it lacked a credit rating sufficient to lease the Dell servers needed to run the game. After being denied the lease by Dell, Mythic had to purchase each server using its development funds. Securing a publisher was also a difficult task; 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.
During the game's prime, Mythic operated 120 dual-processor Pentium servers running Linux. Out of those, groups of six servers were 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, but Mythic limited them to about 4,000 each in order to keep the world from feeling too cluttered. 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.
Broadsword Games later released Dark Age of Camelot: Endless Conquest, a non-subscription style game account allowing players to play the game for free, with some restrictions on how many characters the player can have, character classes, as well as some services within the game. Their timeline originally placed release in fall of 2018, but "unforeseen issues and technological constraints" with the v1.125 patch has forced them to delay the release until early 2019. The user's prior accounts are eligible for Endless Conquest as well as new accounts.

Expansions

Mythic has produced seven expansions for DAoC. The expansions were not released on European servers, until typically months after the Mythic release.
  • Shrouded Isles - added 6 new classes, 3 races and a brand new land for each realm near the size of the old world, which also includes epic dungeons. This expansion pack is now a free download. GameSpot presented Shrouded Isles with its annual "Best Expansion Pack on PC" award.
  • Foundations - free expansion which added player housing and consignment merchants. Players are able to purchase four different sizes of houses and decorate them as they please. Houses also provided players with an easy way to store and transfer items between characters on the same account and realm.
  • Trials of Atlantis - added 3 new races and high level content and zones, and new terrain graphics for all areas of the game. A notable general feature introduced with this expansion was the ability to actually dive and explore underwater as opposed to simply swimming across the surface. This expansion pack is now a free download. The expansion featured items known as artifacts, and extra abilities known as "Master Levels". Artifacts, obtained through hidden encounters, only become useful when the player finds the three scrolls hoarded by Atlantean monsters. Furthermore, artifacts must gain experience in order to reach their full potential.
  • New Frontiers - remake of the game's realm vs. realm warfare. This included making the entire frontiers one zone, redesigning keeps and adding towers, and adding numerous types of siege apparatus.
  • Catacombs - added 5 new classes, instanced dungeons, and new zones and quests with an emphasis on faster and easier leveling. It also includes new player model graphics and new graphics for all the games' dungeons. The players may now download and venture into the depths of the Catacombs for free. This expansion can be downloaded via the website for no extra charge.
  • Darkness Rising - the expansion introduced Champion weapons, player mounts, Champion Levels and subclassing, new dungeons and instanced zones for the new Champion Quests and new graphics for the game world's models which are following the design ideas presented in Mythic's new graphics for the starting cities. Darkness Rising was also the first paid expansion for Dark Age of Camelot able to be downloaded. A has been created by GOA to showcase this expansion. Mythic also introduced a new island, called Agramon, which acts as a central island that connected the frontiers of the three realms. Unlike the rest of the Frontiers zones, there are no keeps and any player from any realm can open the gates that border the island.
  • Labyrinth of the Minotaur - features include a new race, a new hybrid class, a new RvR dungeon, Mythrians, and additional Champion Levels. The pack introduced the largest RVR dungeon in Camelot history with access by all three realms located on Agramon Island. Labyrinth introduced mythrians a new item slot, and when equipped these myths will give small bonuses to character. This allowed players to increase the stat caps of the item's respective attribute. Until this expansion, Mythic had never given each of the three realms the same class.
  • New New Frontiers - while officially a patch and not an expansion, there were significant changes to the layout of keeps and towers as well as a revamp of the Siegecraft line in patch 1.90. The playerbase refers to this patch as the "New, New Frontiers".