Dark Age Of Camelot: The Friday News always ring twice (European News)

In this week's news we will talk about the next expansions "Frontiers" and "Trials of Atlantis". After that a little info on server maintenance and how it affects the Chronicles, and finally we have the tip of the week.

Frontiers

As some of you already know, Mythic Entertainment announced the first elements of their upcoming free expansion "Frontiers" this week. This expansion will focus solely on the development and remodelling of the current RvR system in the game, and as such is a very ambitious project. First, let us go over the information about the expansion that we already know :

We know that the expansion will be totally free, just like Foundations and will be available as a download. It should enter beta testing on the US servers in February. The three main objectives of this expansion are :

[li]To make RvR more accessible for everybody and allow people to take part in battles more easily. Mythic would like to have a system where a player can log on and immediately find a battle they can take part in, all this in a much easier and quicker way than is currently available.

[li]Add greater tactical elements to battles, most noticeably by using the geography of the terrain, but also through a combat system that makes the most out of siege weapons and ships. Keeps will also be able to get improved to a greater extent than now. The battle zones will be more varied and will consist of several key strategic points.

[li]Make the RvR related bonuses, skills and abilities clearer, more practical and more obvious to the casual player. Ensuring that the Realm Abilities system is more balanced seems to be the next logical step.

The first big change will be the restructuring of the current RvR zones for each realm into a single 'region' which will mean that there will be no more loading time when travelling between the different zones. Communication will be made easier, as will the means of transport from one zone to another. Each realm will see it's own frontier zone separated from the others by an ocean.

That is all we can tell you for the moment but as Mythic has promised regular information on the expansion, we will no doubt have more light on it soon.

1.65 and Trials of Atlantis

The translation process is still continuing at a steady pace and we believe that we will be able to begin the testing phase for 1.65 on Gorre by the end of next week. As for the new payable expansion Trials of Atlantis, the translation process has also begun and is being worked on in parallel with the 1.65 translation. The current provisional release date is still the first quarter of 2004. For those of you who would like to find out more about Trials of Atlantis, you can visit our new dedicated website by following the link in the "Add-ons" section.

Chronicles and Maintenance

You will no doubt have noticed that we have begun a large maintenance phase for all of our servers which started at the beginning of this month. Each week, 2 servers are updated. This maintenance which is both software and hardware have had some effects on the chronicles, in fact they stop working for the servers which have been updated. The maintenance schedule should be complete by the end of this month and the chronicles will be reactivated at the beginning of January once all the servers have been updated. We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by this process.

Security, Security and More Security !

Take care of your account, don't EVER give out your passwords to another person. You and only you are responsible for your account and it's details. You have the option of changing your GAME password by visiting the Account page on the official website. You should ideally change this password regularly and not lend out your account. Finally, be extremely careful when you type in your login/password if you play in any public place, be it in an internet café or even at your workplace if you play there ;).

Tip of the Week

This week we have a handy tip for all you crafters out there. If you have any studs or nails in stock dating back from 1.62, you can recycle them using one of the new recipes available in the metalworking line. These new objects can be sold as opposed to the nails and studs on their own. You have until 1.66 to get rid of any you may have, after which it will be too late.

This concludes the Friday news for this week. With Christmas approaching, the storyline and animation teams are preparing a few little surprises for you, and we'll tell you more about them next week.

Have a good weekend, and go buy your Christmas presents before the zerg... other nice people reach the shops ;).