My hubby gave me Dark Age of Camelot for Christmas. He knows how much I love my computer, the 'Net and games and decided to throw it all together. He is a good man.
I’ve never played any MMRPG ever so I’m asking about general insight in on-line game playing. Of course specific game help for Dark Age will not be unappreciated. I’m already running into problems. My account is all set up, but every time I try to enter a server I get a “Renderer Creation Failed” error. I’m inching to start, but can’t seem to.
Maybe because I’m trying to sign on to the only Co-op server they have? (I’m afraid of trying combat so soon.)
Massive multiplayer role-playing gaming. What am I in for? And how do I get in?
I never got into MMORPGs. I found them difficult to get into and boring.
On the other hand there are several other online games which did get me hooked.
Neverwinter Nights is number 1 on that list. Among the 1000 + ways of playing and enjoying that game they have their own versions of MMORPGs.
Their different however in their scale. They ar enot so big, and most do not allow more than 40 to 80 players on at any one time.
What that does for the game is create a tighter knit community. And there are hundreds of these online worlds to explore each usually very different. Another selling point is that online play is free.
If you do get bored of DAoC, give NWN a shot, you won’t regret it
Your husband should be very careful what he may have wrought. I haven’t played DAoC for probably a year, but God, it was so addicting when I did. So any info I give you below may be outdated.
First off, check out Camelot Vault. In the left nav, towards the bottom, you’ll see all of the myriad message boards. The tech one(s) may help you out, you won’t have been the first person with this problem.
Then, just dive in. When I was there, the best servers were Guinvere and Percival. DO NOT go to a PvP server, you’ll hate the game (unless you’re into that, but even then I’d suggest learning your class(es) in a more benign setting).
Once you’ve selected a class, read that class’ message board (at Camelot Vault). You’ll get tons of good info. You may actually want to read all of the class boards you’re interested in BEFORE choosing your class - you’ll get good insight into how to assign your initial attributes. Nothing like spending a week with a character only to realize you’ve misappropriated your initial character stats.
I have no suggestions about which class to play, my faves were the rogue and mage classes.
Also, it is REALLY helpful to join a guild, especially an established one.
I could tell you a bit more, but part of the fun is learning. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but real life began to intrude (damn real life! )
Actually, a couple more things…though again, what with all the class changes this also could be outdated (not only that, but I never played Shrouded Isles, so don’t even know those classes).
Rogue classes can be tremendous fun, but are tremendously hard to find groups for. Especially Nightshades. Rangers can at least ‘pull’, and solo better.
If you want to level fast, be a healing class. You’ll never want for groups. I never tried a healing class, didn’t seem much fun, but…
If you check out the Camelot Herald at http://www.camelotherald.com , there is a knowledgebase thingie for technical support. If you type in your “renderer creation failed” it’ll pull up the relevant support pages. I had the same problem with Trials of Atlantis and following the advice on these pages fixed it.
I echo the recommendation of The Camelot Herald given above. You should find any details you need there. I’ve been playing DAoC for over two years and though I don’t play with the same frequency now, I still enjoy it.
You mentioned the Co-op server. I’m sure some enjoy it, but don’t do it because you are fearful of combat. There simply is a much larger, active community on the regular servers and you never have to go into the Realm vs. Realm combat until you choose to do so. At least start up a couple of low level characters in both places to try it out.
And if you happen to start a character in Hibernia on the Pellinor server, look me up. I’ll be playing either Gondolfrendel/Jammerr/Jaammer/Jammuh or some other clever version of Jammer (except for Jammer itself because some bastige took that name already :)) I have a legendary grandmaster spellcrafter and a grandmaster tailor plus access to weaponcrafters/armorcrafters, etc. I would be happy to help you out in game and even give you some gold to start you out. I also have an e-mail set up for DAoC related stuff: gondolfrendel@hotmail.com. Feel free to send me a message if you have other questions.
Definitely understand the different server types before you get too far along in your character development. If Gaheris (the Co-op server) had been about at release, I probably would have picked it, because I didn’t think I wanted to do PvP combat. But by the time I quit the game (2 months ago… still jonesing… this stuff is can definitely be addictive) all I really did was PvP (player versus player) combat - which on the majority of DAoC servers is in the form of RvR -Realm versus Realm combat.
Be aware that the game can be a huge, huge timesink if you want to be competitive at it. It isn’t bad for a casual gamer but the social aspect of the game is pretty much one of the best things about MMOGs, and if you can’t commit time sometimes it can be hard to keep playing with the friends you make. DAoC isn’t too bad as MMOGs go because getting to a decent level isn’t too hard comparatively.
Talk to people Making friends in game is good. If you choose one of the servers with (RP) after the name (Guinevere or Percival as rexnervous suggested, then be aware that the RP stands for RolePlaying and you should stay in character (not talk about out-of-game stuff) in the chat channels. I played on Guinevere and there is a lot of extra fun that can be had with Roleplay, but that’s really a whole other topic.
If you do decide to go to Gaheris, the co-op server, there’s actually a Roleplaying guild/alliance system there that you might be interested in too. Roleplayers tend to be friendly folk. Roleplayers also share some of the values of dopers, i.e. they don’t like “leet-speak” or abbreviations - so you’d probably get along well with them.
I can’t help on the renderer creation failed error, but I’ve seen enough people have it to think you should be able to find the answer fairly easily - it’s probably a video card driver issue, that’s usually the first thing to look at.
Can’t get addicted. Dark Age of Camelot does not support my video card. They could have said so on the box. And it’s not like I have some off-the-wall card, either. It doesn’t support any Intel video cards.
Seriously, if it doesn’t support a widely used card like Intel, why don’t the tell you before you buy it? Like on the box.
Well that’s a shame. I guess they don’t sell the original version anymore? I mean, I used to play on a computer that was 2 or 3 years old - P3 600Mhz, and only a 32 MB video card. And except for very intensive RvR, it worked fine.
Is your computer older than that? Or do you only have the later (latest) version of DAoC.
And yes, agreed, they should have printed the requirements on the box.
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