Dark Age of Camelot

The player character riding a horse through the realm of Hibernia. The early 2001-era graphic engine and HUD design can be seen in this shot.

Character control is, for the most part, by means of either the mouse or keyboard. The player can customize up to three 'Quickbars' of 10 slots each with spells, melee or ranged attacks (depending on equipped weapon), or macros, and can be either clicked on or selected with the number keys to activate.[8] Players choose from three realms: Albion, Hibernia, and Midgard, each based on different mythologies. Each realm has different races. Although each realm's classes differ in specific abilities, DAoC's classes are broken down into the four common RPG archetypes: warrior 'tanks', spell casters, rogues that use stealth, and healing priests. Hybrid classes, which combine skills from any two of the archetypes, also exist in all 3 realms. DAoC's classes are balanced at the RvR level instead of in direct comparison to the other realms' equivalent classes. DAoC 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 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. Each guild leader (or leaders, as the game provides for multiple leaders) can define their own set of rules and goals. The guild leader(s) can customize the privileges, (such as inviting new members, speaking in alliance chat, and claiming captured Towers for the guild) of each Rank within the guild. Furthermore, alliances can be formed between player guilds, which offer up a conjoined chat channel for all guilds within one alliance to communicate.

Realm versus Realm is the main focus of Dark Age of Camelot. The story line revolves around what happens after the death of King Arthur and his united kingdom falling apart. 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.[9]

Dark Age of Camelot has three realms, allowing a unique dynamic of RvRvR gameplay. Each of the three realms are inspired by actual historical folklore and mythology.

• Albion is the Realm of knights and damsels, based on King Arthur 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.

Early developmental concept art for the original playable races in the game. From left to right: Saracen, Avalonian, Highlander, Briton, Elf, Lurikeen, Celtic Human, Firbolg, Norseman, Dwarf, Troll, Kobold.[10]

The decision to develop Dark Age of Camelot was made in late 1999, with it originally being conceived of as a graphical MUD.[11] 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.[11] Total development costs excluding equipment leases was about $2.5 million[12] and took 18 months with a team of 25 full-time developers.[11] 3DS Max and Character Studio were used to create all models and animations within the game.[11]

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.[13] 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.[14]

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, however, Mythic limited them to about 4,000 each in order to keep the world from feeling too cluttered. Mythic's cofounder Rob Denton stated, "If you have too many people, the worlds get too crowded. The last thing you want is to be bumping into thousands of people."[15] 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.[15]

In December 2017, Broadsword Games announced 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.[16] 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. However, they have also announced that prior accounts will be eligible for Endless Conquest as well as new accounts.[17]

Each realm has a unique but parallel storyline, which is expanded with retail expansions. The European distributors occasionally add their own writings and quests about the realms and their inhabitants.

In the original Realm zones, smaller cities in the realm need protection against monsters common to many other RPGs. 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. This expansion is now free.
• 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. How did Atlantis come to its end and what powers were left behind? 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. This expansion is now free.
• 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. This expansion is now free.
• Darkness Rising - The King of the realm has returned to fight back a growing rebellion. Further investigations will 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. This expansion is now free.
• 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. This expansion is now free.

• Normal (Ywain)[20] These servers are the primary set for game play. PvP is limited to designated areas and allows the player more control on what they want to do. This is now the ruleset which makes up the Ywain cluster, the results of a merger with all remaining traditional ruleset servers into one.
• Classic (Closed) [21] - on which PvE regions, abilities, and items from the Trials of Atlantis expansion have been disabled. The character enhancement spell system has also been altered so the character receiving these spells must be grouped with and remain relatively close to the caster. Due to recent clustering with classic players and normal ruleset players, this server type has been since removed.
• Player vs. player (Closed April 2013) [22] - A single server (Mordred) has been set up to allow free-for-all PvP combat in almost all areas. Realm affiliations have been removed so unlike regular servers, its possible for a player to visit areas in all 3 realms. Players on this server can attack each other regardless of class, race, or realm origin. Newly created characters are safe up through level 10, at which their PvP safe flag is turned off. Players who wish to get into the action immediately may turn this flag off before reaching level 10, though this change cannot be reversed.
• Cooperative [23] - A single server (Gaheris) similar to the PvP server, except instead of RvR, the server is strictly Player Vs Environment (PvE), where players can cooperate and attack NPC controlled keeps, which are located in the RvR zones, and other PvE areas. A high percentage of the PvE action takes place in Darkness Falls dungeon. High level enemies defend the locations where PvP gameplay would normally take place. All classes and races are opened up to the player and teleportation is possible between realms.
• Roleplaying (Closed) - A server in which players are encouraged to take on and act out the identity of their character. The point is to create another form of interaction between players, expanding upon the lore presented within the game. This was among the original server types when the game was first released. This server type has since ceased to exist as server clustering took place. Players can still flag themselves as role-players on the normal servers (Ywain), however.
• Test [24] - There is a test server available (Pendragon), allowing players to test different abilities that may become possible in upcoming changes in game mechanics prior to Mythic fully implementing them.
• Origins (No longer in development) - In June 2008, Mythic announced their Origins server project.[25][26] This server was intended to return DAoC to the game experience that it was in 2001/2002 due to popular demand. It was going to have several key features such as the "Old Frontiers" brought back and the game would be playable and similar to its pre-expansion state, with the exception of improvements made over the years such as the market system, housing, mounts, class balance and UI changes.[27] On January 23, 2009 Mythic made mention of this server in their weekly grab bag stating that, while no information was currently able to be shared, more information would come in the weeks ahead.[28] This was the first news about this server, from Mythic, in more than 6 months. On January 20, 2009 it was announced that Electronic Arts has laid off 10% of its work force and this may account for the lack of news.[29] On March 6, 2009, Mythic's Mark Jacobs announced on the Warhammer Online VN Boards that plans for the Origins server for DAoC were put on hold indefinitely.[30]

In order to combat the problems of dwindling population, Mythic began to initiate server clusters. This involved grouping various servers together, allowing players to interact with those from other servers. A server emulator project, Dawn of Light, lets the Dark Age of Camelot client the ability to connect to publicly registered, unofficial game servers. These servers can run different rule sets and have custom behaviors. However, these servers are not supported by Mythic and using them violates the Dark Age of Camelot EULA.[31]

• Official website