On Mon, 3 Oct 2005 12:05:45 +0100, Sean Black
<sean@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>After playing the free 14 day trial for a few days and enjoying it after
>a few teething troubles :-), Which were soon sorted, thanks to some
>really helpful people on here, thanks guys. I decided to take the plunge
>and go for the full version.
>
>Despite warnings from certain quarters (BB you're welcome to say "I told
>you so", if I come on here whining about how crap the servers are ;-)),
>I decided to go with the UK rather than the US version. Mainly because I
>can get it for £18, I couldn't seem to find it (game + 3 expansions) for
>anything like that price from the US.
>
>I hope it doesn't turn out to be a false economy. The way I looked at
>it, the saving I made buying the UK version, should effectively give me
>three months "free" play. The one month free that comes with the game,
>plus a couple of months subscription, paid for by the difference in
>price.
>
>Anyone have any good things to say about the Euro servers?
>
>If it is as bad as some people say and I'm still playing and enjoying
>the game after two or three months, I'll cut my losses and switch to the
>US version. So, as the header, are the Euro servers really that bad?
Argggggg!
See what myself and Magnus have been posting in this thread.
Personally I do think it is false economy, BIGTIME FALSE ECONOMY, and
that's why I *urged* you to join the US servers. Here are the *main*
reasons, and maybe Magnus will be able to add to these. I also think
it will diminish greatly your enjoyment of the game as a newbie, to
the point where you may quit, not because you hate the game, but out
of frustration.
1. GOA are not very good. You will get late up-dates and late
expansions. The UK servers are currently three versions behind the US
I think. Also the new Darkness Rising expansion is released on the US
servers next week but I've heard GOA will not have it for release for
a few months yet, maybe not even this year. That sort of time frame
fits with their delay on previous expansions.
2. Population is falling pretty fast on the UK servers with mainly the
die-hard, experienced players, left. They already have all the goodies
and a good guild with wide network of in-game friends. They will
mainly be RvRing. If they play alts they can create a new character at
instant level 20, because they will already have a level 50, or many,
on the server. This will mean you will likely be *very* lonely
leveling your character up.
3. GOA has decided not to implement the classic servers. On the
classic servers *nobody* can create an instant level 20 new character
so even the experienced players must start from level 1 again. This
means the newbie areas are teaming with life, whereas on the UK
servers the newbie areas are almost completely desolate.
There is also the added bonus, if playing as a newbie, on the US
servers that because the experienced folks start from level 1 just
like you, you will:
a) Get great advice on the newbie channel about all aspects of the
game.
b) Be able to group with players who know what they are doing and will
teach you and give you hints and help. They will also know the good
places to hunt and where to get the good equipment from.
c) You WILL get into a good guild fairly easily. This will be your
main source of community, friends and fun whilst playing.
4. Buff bots. On the classic servers there are no Buff Bots.
A Buff Bot is a robot character that is not played actively, but just
exists to give huge stat boots to the owning player. A Buff Bot is
always a healing class, a Cleric, Shaman or Druid usually which has
been specced totally in enhancement of other characters stats and
resistance. This means as you have no Buff Bot that you will level
slower than other players in PvE, and when you do get to RvR you will
be at a huge disadvantage because the player(s) you will be fighting
against will be fully buffed up to the gills by their bot(s) making it
nigh impossible for you to win fights.
If you want a buffbot to compete you *must* buy a second account, and
have a second PC to run the bot account on, or have a good enough PC
that will run two copies of DAoC at the same time.
THIS REASON ALONE NEGATES ANY SAVING YOU THINK YOU HAVE MADE!
5. Without a shadow of a doubt in my mind Camelot US will *far*
outlast GOA Europe Camelot. Sheer weight of population means that it
will, despite all the other reasons. Remember I have told you already
that the US servers are the official servers for The USA, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand. Whereas the GOA UK servers are mainly for
Brits with a smattering of English speaking Scandinavians, Dutch etc.
who would rather play on the English speaking servers than the German
of French ones. Which one do YOU think will last longest, given that
population slowly declines on both over the next two years?
6. Mythic have dropped the new MMORPG they were developing, Imperator,
and have picked up the license to Warhammer Online. It will not,
however, be ready until mid 2007 at least. This means DAoC will be
Mythic's cash generator until they get Warhammer out so they WILL keep
DAoC US going for as long as possible. GOA on the other had are
involved in other projects of their own and do not have the same
motivation as Mythic themselves do.
What can I say? I hate to say it but I'll say it now because I have no
doubts you will regret it. I told you so!.
All that said, now you are where you are now so I suggest:
1. Make as many friends as you can, as quickly as you can, even
though it is hard work.
2. Try to get into a good, friendly guild ASAP who will be able to
nurture you to a level where you have at least a cat's chance in hell
of being able to compete, and are prepared spending the time to do so
when they are all RvRing. I wish you luck in finding this guild.
I really wish you had asked here before buying the UK version. As a
matter of interest, and because someone here told you to ignore what I
had advised you, I reopened my UK accounts again. I wanted to check
just in case I had misjudged things, or been too harsh. Also I can
afford it and have high enough level characters to have fun for a
month when the US servers are slack, so it's no biggie for me.
For the last while I have been logging into the UK severs at *peak* UK
times including weekends. The newbie areas have been almost dead, in
all realms, every time I have checked. The only odd character in the
newbie areas are probably just ones playing the free trial, as they
all seemed to be kids. The Battlegrounds have been dead in all realms,
apart from the higher level ones (Molvik and Leirvik) and even they
are not exactly heaving with action. But you will not be in them for
some considerable time.
So the UK servers are not dead, no.....They are just an INSANE choice
for an English speaking complete newbie IMHO. Also with Mythic now
offering digital downloads of all the packs with deals on multiples,
and the fact that the Epic version will be out very shortly, you
really haven't saved that much money anyway. Sorry to say it :(.
But hey,who knows, maybe GOA will pull out some real neat magic trick
and all I've said above will be smoke out of my a*se, but I can't see
it.
And to preempt anyone who want to chuck a flame my way note that I
said the following:
An insane choice for a COMPLETE NEWBIE with ONE ACCOUNT.
BB.
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