Realm vs. Realm Revolution
Features

Flashback to the release of Dark Age of Camelot. The frontiers were places where a wide assortment of all levels of characters would meet. The appearance of a level 50 character was something that was so rare and unique, that a single maxed level character could turn the entire tide of battle.

Times since then have changed . . . drastically. With the level cap staying at 50 since release, and the number of level 50 characters rising every single day, it has become the norm to reach this rank before heading out to the hostile frontiers.

It wasn’t until the introduction of Darkness Falls, a dungeon whose entrance was only open to the realm with the most number of keeps held, that guilds and entire realms actually competed for coveted keep possession.

However, due to the current design of the three frontiers, (Albion, Hibernia, Midgard) only one of the three was heavily trafficked on nearly every, single, server. The infamous keep Dun Crauchon, located in Emain Macha. Due to this keeps extreme ease to travel to, and lack of hostile creatures on the way, it was constantly the most fought over keep in all of DAoC. Some often said that the banners in Crauchon had been switched so many times that the very foundation of the keep would decay and collapse.

The keeps themselves were fairly static, with an exception of the doors that were either in an open, or shut position in respect to if they were destroyed or not. Every other portion of the keep was impervious to all forms of attack, which made siege weaponry fairly useless outside of the siege ram.

Realm vs. Realm Combat Revolutionized

This is where New Frontiers comes in to play. One of the most prominent changes in DAoC RvR combat was the changing of the static keeps. Now, instead of only having the ability to break down the door to grant access in to the keep, you could siege the castle walls from afar with assorted, revamped weaponry. Things like the Catapult, Trebuchet, Palintone, Ballista, and even the torturous Burning Oil.

Also, even before New Frontiers, it was possible for a guild to take control of a keep and wave their banners on it for everyone to see. The NPC guards that spawned at these claimed keeps also wore the guilds emblem. The most important feature of claiming a keep however, was to be able to upgrade it.

Upgrading pre-NF (New Frontiers) merely strengthened the guards and door of the keep in question. Post NF, there are several keep upgrades that will change the entire appearance of a keep, making it stronger, larger, and just more ominous to attacking realms.

With the new emphasis on siege weaponry, it became exceedingly difficult for melee classes to make any impact on standoffs, where two realms would basically just chip away at each other for extended periods of time, waiting for the other to make a bold move and decide the outcome of the battle.

In response to this, classes who were considered to not have any major ranged offensive attacks were given the ability to bind at a keep Lord. When they would do this, they could run in to the battlefield, and provided they did not leave the set distance from the keep, they could be revived inside of the keep after being killed. This allows defending melee classes to make some impact on the conflict they were a part of, instead of just sitting inside, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the enemies to charge inside of the keep.

Teleportation was also added, so keeps like the above mentioned Dun Crauchon are not singled out constantly due to the ease of traveling to them. If your realm owns the keep, and the four surrounding outposts (miniature keeps, essentially), you will be able to teleport inside of that keep. This allows reinforcements to help in attacking or defending, and on the other blade of the double edged sword, gives players the ability to cut off the “supply chain” so that teleportation is not available to certain keeps, slowing the insurgence of troops in most cases.

On the same topic as travel, impassable terrain was also implemented. This has been more of a curse than a blessing in most cases, as inclines you normally could climb in non-NF areas, are now impossible to ascend. On release of NF, there were many bodies of water nearly entirely surrounded by this impassable terrain, which meant if you accidentally took one step in to the water, you had to swim all the way to the other side, or across the length of the body of water just to get out. This effectively made you, and your entire group pissed off. Luckily, most annoying instances of this have been removed, but there are still many in play. Most are used by ranged classes to their advantage. For example, a sniper could stand on the top of a cliff, and pluck arrows at people below. In order to get to them, they would have to run all the way around the cliff to the ramp that lead up to it, and by then our archer is safely stealthed away.

Also, on a (some would consider) minor note, the Battlegrounds (areas designated for a set level of PCs that had no impact on ‘real’ RvR) were revamped. In fact, if population on your server allows it, it is completely possible to go from level 1 to 50 strictly on PvP experience. There are battle grounds for every level, starting at 1, and ending at 44, where you are expected to explore the ‘real’ frontiers.

Conclusion

All in all, with the introduction of plausible siege weaponry, dynamic keeps, teleportation (when applicable), and attention to some of the needs of pure melee classes, the introduction of New Frontiers is easily an improvement to the game today. It is not necessarily a new type of RvR combat, but more a new flavor. The classes are the same, but the changes mentioned above put an interesting twist on it. Best of all, it’s a free download, provided you own the game and expansions to make use of it, of course.