So it has been a couple years since I played DAoC. Having gotten a character to level 50 on Gaheris, and life changes, took me away from the game. News of massive changes over the last couple years and the latest expansion (Labyrinth of the Minotaur) brought me back. More on the Minotaur later.

So the first descision upon return was what to play. Having had the most experience in Albion, my husband and I first decided to go back to there. I was amazed to say the least at the new content. The first thing that struck me was the tutorial. I don't even REMEMBER a real tutorial when we played before. And while there's a lot of things missing from it (we had to ask someone how the heck you "use" an item when we had to do that in a quest), it is a good start. Since I'm not sure when they added the tutorial, I'm going to hope it is just a recent addition that is still being worked on.

When we got in to the actual gameworld, we discovered that everyone starts in the same area now, and of course, there is a "newbie guild" (I think this was added just before we left, but never had a new character in it). We started in Cotswold, and while it looked vaguely familiar, the architects have definately been busy rebuilding and redesigning the towns. There has also been a population explosion in Cotswold, with many new people willing to give quests.

One of the things that used to bug me about DAoC is that there just were not a lot of quests. Now you can easily level on quests alone, at least through level 10 I've been able to. I started with a cabalist, wanting something that would be both good solo or in a duo. The first four levels were WAY easier than I recall them being when I last started a character, requiring only a couple hours of play time to complete. The longest part of that time was spent trying to figure out how to do things that weren't in the tutorial. We had an awful time figuring out how to fill a bowl with water for one of the quests, for example. The "use" interface in the game is still highly counter-intuitive. Instead of having a "use" button when you right click on an item, you have to have the item picked up and type "use" into the chat window (the shortcut for "use" doesn't work). It wouldn't seem to hard to add buttons on the same window where you have the "info", "salvage", and "repair" buttons that say "use" and "equip" to make the UI a bit easier.

One of the best changes is the "quest indicator" that shows up on the map and under NPC's that have a quest for you. It makes it SO much easier to find something to do that is level appropriate. The quest indicator on the map can be turned on and off if you don't want to know, but personally I love this feature. A red dot also shows up when you have a quest to give you an idea of where to go to complete a quest. If you don't know a realm, this REALLY helps. And there are many new quests for every level. The new quest interface it great too. For many of the quests, a single window comes up which tells you the storyline of the quest (or at least a summary of it), you can see the reward ahead of time, and then decide if you want to take the quest. No more guessing what you will get from a quest, or if the reward is "worth it". And the new quests are most definately worth it, I think. One of the quests gave me a full set of level and class appropriate armor. Others give out jewelry, and accessories to fill in around the edges. And, of course, experience to level with. We also felt as though there was more coin in our pockets when we finished the quests than we'd had last time we leveled up new characters.

Now I have to confess, the reason why it took me years to get to level 50 with one character is that I flip flop... a LOT. So though we spent much of Thanksgiving Day playing in Albion and refamiliarizing ourselves with the game, by this morning we'd decided to try our luck with Hibernia, our 'second home'. More on our time there to follow...