DAOC Tactics: Overview
What it is-
DAOC Tactics is a "tactical RPG". Remember Final Fantasty Tactics, Ogre Battle, or Shining Force? Yea, its kinda like that - only with Dark Age of Camelot added into the mix. Right now, only the two player mode (player vs. player) is playable, in which each player controls six characters of their choice against each other. A one player version (player vs. computer) is in the works.
Classes and Abilities-
Players build their group by selecting a realm and then selecting six classes from that realm (class duplicates are allowed).
| Albion
Mercenary Reaver Cleric Paladin Sorceror Wizard |
Midgard
Berserker Warrior Healer Shaman Runemaster Spiritmaster |
Hibernia
Blademaster Champion Druid Bard Eldritch Enchanter |
Battle Maps-
After the teams are selected, a battle map is chosen to fight on.
Caer Erasleigh Ruins
Caer Renaris Forest
Blendrake Faste Cliffs
Nottmoor Faste Valley
Fensalir Faste Tundra
Dun Crimmthain Deep Forest
Dun da Bolg Marshes
Dun da nGed Courtyard
Beginning Battle-
Each map
is made up of several squares or locations - each character takes up one of
these spaces and no two characters can occupy the same location. Each
character begins the battle relatively close to their teammates. The first 3
characters you chose are generally closer to the enemy and the last 3
characters are generally farther from the enemy on each of the maps.
Battle is divided into turns and rounds. Each character recieves one
round per turn, so, for example, if Player One's berserker recieves their
round first, they will not recieve another round until all of the other
characters have had a round of action and the current turn has ended. Rounds
alternate between players, so if Player One's berserker just acted, one of
Player Two's characters will recieve the next round, followed by one of
Player One's characters (not the berserker though) and so on.
The Action Menu-
During a round, a character can Move once and Act once, in any order. The base movement for all characters is 3 squares per round, but there are several abilities that can modify the movement of your allies up and the movement of your enemies down. During movement, characters cannot move through one another, no matter if they are friend or foe.
The Act command brings up a submenu of abilities that are dependant on the character's class. Once an action has been performed, the Act menu is no longer accessible for the rest of that character's round. Not all abilities will end the character's action though - abilities that end the character's action have [EndAction] listed after them. For example, in the case of the berserker, once he has attacked, he can no longer activate Charge or Vendo Mode, however he can activate both Charge and Vendo Mode before attacking. Some classes, most notably the Reaver, can use many of their abilities all in the same round because of this for a devestating effect.
Before the character moves or acts, they may choose to wait. Waiting ends the character's round, but guarantees the character another round later in the turn. This is useful if enemies or allies are blocking your movement and you suspect them to move out of the way during this turn or if you simply want the enemy to come to you. Once a character has moved or acted, however, they can no longer use the wait option.
Controls-
The controls are pretty simple. The arrow keys control selection and movement, the enter key confirms decisions, and the escape key cancels decisions. While on the main Action Menu, hitting escape toggles into Survey Mode, allowing you to look around the battlefield and check the stats of your allies and enemies. Hitting escape again returns you to the Action Menu. Double tapping the escape key while on the Action Menu brings you to the System Menu (Concede, Show Teams, or Toggle Music On/Off).
Bonuses, Ailments, and Interrupts-
When a character has a bonus of some type (Vendo Mode, Triple Wield, Badge of Valor, Speed of Sound, or Bodyguarded) they flash blue. Characters can only have one bonus at a time, so be careful not to overwrite a more useful bonus with a less useful one.
Characters suffering from status ailments (Mesmerize, Root, and Stun) flash red. Mesmerize spells essentially skip a character's round for the duration of the spell. If the character takes damage, however, the mesmerize spell is broken. Root spells prevent a character from moving during their round and, like mesmerize, break if the rooted character takes damage. Stun spells work exactly like mesmerize spells except that they do not break when the character takes damage. Like bonuses, each character can only have one status ailment at a time and new ailments overwrite older ones.
Interruptions occur when a character has taken damage or has had an ailment spell casted upon them. Interrupted characters flash green and cannot perform any action with the [EndAction] tag. Only caster classes can be interrupted (Cleric, Sorceror, Wizard, Healer, Shaman, Runemaster, Spiritmaster, Druid, Bard, Eldritch, and Enchanter). Interruptions are cured after the character has suffered through one round of interrupts.
Victory-
Turns continue until one side has conceded or all of their characters are dead.
If you have comments, suggestions, or find a bug, please email me at jfodale@yahoo.com. DAOC Tactics was created with RM2K and Adobe Photoshop.
A quick note - unfortunately, due to the way RM2k handles sound effects and music, one of the two may be quite a bit louder than the other based off of your local machine's Windows volume settings. Use the SW_Synth volume slider to control the volume of the music to match the volume of the sound effects (To reach the Windows volume controls if it is not in your system tray, go to Start -> Control Panel -> Sounds and Audio Devices).