GZ Interview
12/17/02

Shrouded Isles brings more depth to the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot
By Michael Lafferty

The legend of Camelot endures. In fact it continues to grow.

Mythic Entertainment, the force behind the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot, hasn’t been content to sit on its laurels ­ that is having one of the better MMORPGs on the market. On the contrary, the design team continues to work to make its product better.

That kind of commitment to quality gaming hasn’t gone unnoticed by fans who are looking for a solid online gaming experience. At just about any time during the day you are likely to find more than 40,000 gamers embroiled in battle on the 20 servers available for play.

Game players can pick their experience from that server collect, whether it is engaging in Realm-versus-Realm conflict, a cooperative effort where different races can collect to rage against the environmental forces threatening to tear all that is good and true in the realms, role-playing or player-versus-environment.

With the release of Shrouded Isles, the world ­ which is part myth and part history ­ continues to delight game players.

For a review of Dark Age of Camelot, please see http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r14542.htm 
For a review of the expansion pack, see http://www.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r20337.htm

While not forcing players into cooperative game playing, DAoC does an excellent job in making a joint venture worth the while of its players. With a simple interface and hotkeys which allow for quick use of spells and combat moves during battle (and once you lock onto a target abandoning the fight is very difficult until someone is dead), the game has been able to draw people in with its gameplay, and hook them with its mythological twinges.

Matt Firor of Mythic Entertainment, the producer of Shrouded Isles, took some time to talk with GameZone about the title and the world of the Dark Age of Camelot.

Question: There have been several releases pertaining to the graphical quality and upgrades that Shrouded Isles brings to the title. Can you tell us a bit about the graphics engine? What did it allow you to do to rework the game's look? What visual elements do you think will blow game
players out of their chairs?

Matt: "Shrouded Isles has lots of graphical goodies — animation blending, smoother frame rates, far higher resolution textures, and real-looking reflective water, just to name a few. The biggest benefit probably came from the fact that we could build more realistic terrain for the expansion areas — cliffs, canyons, craters, and more vertical surfaces. The original engine did rolling terrain very well, but with the SI engine, we can do more aggressive terrain to give the players a more
challenging environment."
 
Q: Can you tell us more about the new races and character classes?
 
Matt: "The new races and classes are all integrated into the backstory of the Realm they are in. The Inconnu from Albion are servants of Arawn, lord of the underworld, who is allying with Albion against their shared enemy, Morgana. Midgard has the Valkyn, which are a tamed clan of the Morvalt, a wild bestial race of throwback humanoids that are menacing Midgard. Hibernia has the Sylvan, a race once thought to be only from legend, who have come out of the mists of Hibernian fairy tales to request aid against the Fomorians, who are destroying the Sylvan's idyllic island.

"Each of these races brings with it classes that reflect the nature of the race. For example, the new classes in Albion are the Necromancer and Reaver, which reflect the Arawn-centric nature of the race. Midgard has the Savage and the Bonedancer, a primitive fighting class and spellcaster, respectively. Hibernia has the Valewalker and the Animist, which are a natural magic-based hybrid fighter and pet spellcaster, respectively."
 
Q: Has the fundamental combat system format used in DaoC changed at all?  Has there been an increase in the Realm vs. Realm conflict and is one realm encroaching more on others, or have the borders stayed, more or less, the same?
 
Matt: "Shrouded Isles is a content expansion — there is no RvR in it. We are committed to providing RvR updates as part of our normally downloaded free content updates — Shrouded Isles exists for players to find new places to hunt, new monsters and treasure, and quests to find. Because of this, we haven't changed the combat system at all — but of course the new classes have a couple of twists that make them play slightly differently from the original classes in the game."
 
Q: Has the leveling system changed at all? At what level do you think players should venture into the RvR-conflict regions, and is there a significant advantage, in terms of leveling, to taking part in the RvR campaign?
 
Matt: "We haven't changed the leveling system. Starting at level 20, we have special low-level battleground zones for players to go to where they can practice RvR, which will lead them to higher and higher-level battlegrounds until they reach level 35, at which point they are expected to venture into real RvR. The advantage to RvR, for the player, is that you earn Realm Points for killing (or helping to kill) your Realm's enemies. These Realm Points can be spent on new abilities for your character which augment his RvR and regular monster-hunting abilities. So, we have a advancement track for RvR that is separate from experience points gained by defeating monsters."
 
Q: Has the community/social system of the game been altered in any fashion?
 
Matt: "We have added many new emote animations about the time Shrouded Isles launched (on December 3rd). Other than that, the community continues to evolve — other than a guild system, there is no official ‘social system’ in the game. We leave that up to the players."

Q: Have new monsters and quests been added to the game? What will players likely see or experience in that regard? Which monster(s) will yield the best rewards?
 
Matt: "Yes, we've added many dozens of new monster models into the expansion and these are used by the literally thousands of new monsters you'll find wandering around Shrouded Isles. With this graphical additions also comes new AI used by the monsters, which gives our world developers far more ability to script realistic behavior. For example, monsters in some parts of the world, if you kill enough of them, will run away from you — they know you are hunting them and will try to flee. Other monsters are ‘herd bound’ and will attempt to find others like them and, once they do, will move around their areas in groups. These are just some small examples of the more intelligent monsters you'll find."
 
Q: The game adds new territory in the form of islands. How hard is it for players to get to these islands? Will players have to or should they attain a certain level ranking in order to fare well on the islands? What are some of the unique features of the islands?
 
Matt: "Anyone can get to the Shrouded Isles — you can even start a beginning character there. Each island keeps to the style of the Realm to which it is attached. Avalon, the Albion island, has rolling hills, cliffs, and castle-type architecture that anyone familiar with Albion will recognize. Aegir, the Midgard island, has a primitive feel, with pre-historic animals roaming around. HyBrasil, the Hibernian island, is a natural paradise with deep forests and wooded glens — but also areas
where the Fomorians have harvested the trees and destroyed the landscape."

Q: Some of the newer MMORPGs on the market are introducing monthly quest updates, or an evolving storyline. Does this game have regular patching updates and story updates or is the flow of the game player-controlled through the RvR system?
 
Matt: "We leave it up to the players to control the world through the acquisition of Frontier Keeps and RvR. We do patch regularly, but these are new feature and bug-fixing patches, and are not storyline related.
 
Q: Are there plans to continue to expand the realms of DaoC, or is that dependent on how well this expansion is received?
 
Matt: "It is safe to say that as long as players are excited by Camelot and continue to be part of the community, we'll keep adding content for them to experience."

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