DAoC Hibernian Protest

On December 7, 2001 Mark Jacobs, CEO of Mythic Entertainment, made the
following statement; "Hibernia will get special attention in order to correct
what people perceive it being the "poor stepchild" of the game. In particular
all aspects of the development team will be turning their attention to that
Realm (classes, spells, NPCs, dungeons) to improve it and the player's
perception of the Realm. "

This statement was made 14 months ago and the players of the realm of Hibernia
are tired of waiting. On April 12, 2003 there will be a formal sit in protest
on the Pendragon server of Dark Age of Camelot. This protest is to once again
voice the concerns that make Hibernia feel, in Mark Jacobs words, like
the "poor stepchild" of the game.

This protest will begin at 8pm eastern. Any wishing to involve themselves in
this protest should come to the town of Mag Mell on Pendragon at 8pm eastern on
April 12. Protestors will be invited to the guild "Hibernian Protest".

Some of concerns that will be expressed are these:

- Graphical Detailing -

Comparing Hibernia's graphical detailing to the other two realms one
immediately notices the lack of detailing in Hibernia.

Terrain - The zones do not have any "feel" of their own because the landscape
does not have the diversity of the other two realms.

Towns - The towns, with only a couple of exceptions, do not have any "feel" of
their own because the buiding models given to us do not have the diversity of
the other two realms. The capital city has much less graphical detailing than
the other two realms. It appears that in order to cover up the lack of any real
buildings/content in Tir na Nog the developer took the shortcut of making very
long, wide hallways throughout the area as filler rather than constructing
buildings. The buildings that are in Tir na Nog, with the exception of the
castle and the training halls, are all cut/paste of things in the towns outside
of Tir na Nog. Having two stables in the city was also a shortcut to fill
space, they take up large amounts of space for one building, the fact that Tir
na Nog has no horse routes makes these two stables a slap in the face to the
Hibernian player.

MOBS - The MOBs given to us lack the diversity of the other two realms. Even
with this lack of diversity in the MOBs, Mythic has completely removed the
Formorians from Hibernia. Give us some more MOB models. We really don't care if
they are cut/paste from the other realms as long as they are different from the
other MOBs in Hibernia.

- Content -

NPC - The NPCs of Hibernia do not speak as much as the other two realms (ie.
bartenders who talk about the food and ale in their inn, bar patrons who tell
stories about their own adventures, etc.) which leads to a very dull feel to
the towns. We have no time of day events such as the magic show. None of that.
Our towns have no life.

Quests - The quests do not have the detail of the other two realms. We do not
have a "learn to group quest" and we have nothing like the goblin attacks,
skeleton attacks, or dwarf attacks that spawn large amounts of creatures just
for the quester (sure we have the curmudgeons vs. siabra but that happens
regardless of whether or not anyone is doing the quest).

MOBS - Removal of the formorians from Hibernia (though they still exist in
HyBrasil) is inexcusable. From simply an experience gaining standpoint the
multi-pull grabeyes that respawned quickly are far better than the single pull
Parthelonians that respawn VERY slowly. From a backstory standpoint, there is
(or was) a lot of Hibernia's backstory around the Formorians. There was NO
REASON for the removal of these MOBs, their removal has hurt Hibernia in
its "fluff" content as well as in its ability to PvE for experience. The fact
that the removal of all formorians was NOT documented is a slap in the face to
the Hibernian players. What was said is that they were going to be fighting
with Parthelonians. How can the Formorians fight with the Parthelonians if the
Formorians don't exist?

Towns - Calling Brynach a town was a slap in the face to Hibernian players, as
was putting some NPCs just standing around outside Tir na Nog. Every developer
at Mythic should know by now that Hibernians want some graphical content. If
you are going to drop NPCs somewhere for our convience then please simply state
it that way, don't get us excited that we are getting some graphics and then
just place NPCs around. This includes dropping some NPCs around Kimba's tree,
adding horse routes to it, and calling it Culraid. TOWNS HAVE BUILDINGS!!! Can
we make it any clearer than that? A few people standing around are not a town.
Now, while we are on the subject of buildings, where are the rest of our
buildings? Hibernia has the least diversity of any realms as far as
architecture is concerned. We not only want buildings in our towns but we want
enough diversity in those buildings that we can tell the difference between the
towns without having to look around for terrain landmarks like rivers and
lakes. Hibernia is also the only realm with no horses to/from our capital city,
why is that?

- Class Issues -

Though it may be argued (and certainly is on the VN boards) that many classes
in Hibernia have a multitude of problems in RvR viability, or in PvE viability,
or in bugged spells/abilities, or in completely worthless spell lines this will
not detail each and every one. Instead here are the areas that Mythic has
completely ignored Hibernia as a whole.

Bards - Even though bards have the worst offense/defense in the game, that is a
class balance issue and not a realm issue. What is hurting the realm most with
bards is that Mythic seems to not even know that this class exists or if they
do they choose to ignore it. Mythic certainly does not know how the class works
or care anything about the class' playability. Case in point: Mythic for months
defended placing empathy on reinforced armor stating that empathy was the bards
power pool, it was not until player logs proved that charisma was the bards
power pool that Mythic finally admitted that empathy did NOTHING for bards.
Case in point: Even after admitting their error and retrofitting every piece of
+EMP reinforced armor in the game Mythic still put +EMP reinforced armor into
Shrouded Isles. Case in point: Even after giving other classes (such as the
friar) self buffs for questionably useful rising stats (at least STR lets you
carry more) the bards are still stuck with EMP as a rising stat and no buffs to
make up for it. These types of things (and many more on the bard class) show
that Mythic completely overlooks this class. This impacts the realm of Hibernia
as a whole because so much of what Mythic expects from Hibernia relies on this
class (endurance regen, crowd control, healing). Making this class unplayable
except as a follow-bot class seriously hinders Hibernia as a whole. This is the
only class that will be mentioned on its own because although the others may
have individual problems no others are completely unplayable.

Mages - Unlike the mages of the other realms Hibernian mages do not have
choices between multiple viable spec lines. Even the much derided earth spec
for theurgists at least continues to offer up SOMETHING that both the theurgist
themself and their group at large can find useful. Spec lines such as
enchantments and mentalism offer NOTHING to the mage and little or nothing to
the group. A spec line for a single target mez and a pet that kills its owner
is not a good line (all other CC spec lines offer area effect). A spec line for
two pet buffs and a melee damage add is a TERRIBLE line for a mage... in fact
it is the worst spec line in the game mage or otherwise. These spec lines need
to be made viable even if they are never made into the most attractive lines.

Fighters - The melee weapon styles in Hibernia are still the worst in the game.
Our blades line has no after parry or after evade styles, it is no wonder most
do not choose it. Even the lines that do have decent style types are still more
expensive in penalties and endurance costs than the other two realms. This was
fair when Hibernia was the only realm with the possibility of endurance regen,
but it is certainly not fair anymore.

- RvR Imbalance Issues -

KEEPS - Hibernia is the only realm whose keeps have 6 climb points. The other
realms only have 4. This makes it much more difficult to defend a Hibernian
keep. Considering that our assassin class is the least able to take the
punishment dished out on a keep wall it really seems that Mythic is heavily
biasing keeps against Hibernia.

TERRAIN - Though some small effort was put into stocking Emain Macha with a
couple more aggressive MOBs, the terrain of the Hibernian frontier is still the
most inviting to enemies. Unlike the frontiers of the other realms there are
clearly marked roads all the way from the enemy portal keeps to every keep in
the Hibernian frontier. Most of these roads are clear of aggressive MOBs and
guards making it the easiest frontier in the game to navigate. Unlike the other
realms Hibernia has no mountains (we barely even have hills) so our keeps are
clearly visible in large open fields rather than obscured by surrounding
terrain, the same can be said with forests.

- PvE Imbalance Issues -

DUNGEONS - Hibernia still lacks a level 5-10 dungeon. Muire's Tomb is still the
biggest deathtrap in the game.

REMOVAL OF PVE AREAS - I haven't heard the other realms complain of complete
removal of hunting grounds (though I have heard them complain of areas
being "nerfed") yet some of the best hunting in Hibernia has been removed...
the formorians.

LACK OF 10-15 AREAS - Though Muire's Tomb is supposed to be available to this
level range, it is a deathtrap (see Dungeons above). Outside of Muire's tomb
there is pathetically little available to the level 10-15 range.

DRAGON - Do the devs really not know about this imbalance?

- Summary -

Though patch 1.51 did try to correct some of the glaring inconsistancies in how
Hibernia's spells and abilities work in relationship to the other realms
(making them work the same as the other realms) it did nothing to address the
feeling that Hibernia is the red-headed stepchild of this game. For far too
long the Mythic development team has ignored the fact that HIBERNIA IS NOT THE
SAME QUALITY of video game as the other two realms. The players of this realm
pay the same amount as the others and deserve to have the same quality of game.
The graphical quality of Hibernia should have been addressed long before
Shrouded Isles was released. The Mythic development team should know how
Hibernian classes work (such as bards not using empathy). The glaring
inconsistancies such as keeps with six climb points should never be allowed to
pass through quality assurance. All of these things have happened and continue
to happen. With each passing day Hibernia falls further and further behind in
population balance, not because our classes are unplayable (with the exception
of the bard) but because in EVERY aspect of game quality Hibernia comes up
lacking. We want the same quality of graphics as the other two realms. We want
the same quality of quests as the other two realms. We want the same quality of
talking NPCs as the other two realms. We want an equally defensable frontier.
We want equally defensable keeps. WE WANT AN EQUAL VIDEO GAME.