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Dark Age of Camelot Expansion Details

New information about the upcoming expansion to Mythic's Dark Age of Camelot has been revealed by Mythic. The company's expansion, to be entitled DAoC: Shrouded Isles will sport a new graphical engine and a trio of new continents to be explored, as well as one new playable race and two player classes per realm. The interface will also receive a makeover, and new ambient music will be included with Shrouded Isles.

Players will require the full version of DAoC to play Shrouded Isles, which will greatly enhance the experience. Making the most of DirectX 8 video cards, improvements will range from textures with much higher detail to advanced water effects and lush trees. These improvements will be in evidence throughout the world of DAoC; however, the three new islands have been designed with higher-end standards in mind, although players will need to have a newer video card to experience the full effect, with at least a GeForce 3 or Radeon 8500 required to appreciate the visuals.

These new continents will be spread evenly throughout DAoC's three realms; Hibernia expands with the addition of HyBrasil, Albion will now include Avalon, and Midgard gains Aegir in the deal. HyBrasil is the long-lost home of the mythic Sylvans, who turn to Hibernia for help in the face of a Fomorian invasion. Avalon is the center of learning for the realm of Albion, and finds itself under attack by Morgan Le Fay, who has allied with the Drakoran dragon men. This unholy arrangement has lead to the ravaging of Avalon and pitched battle with Albion's allies, the Inconnu. Finally, Aegir is the land of the Troll Fathers, who are themselves under siege from the Morvalt, a race of prehistoric savages. Fortunately for the Troll Fathers, they have managed to tame some of these prehistorics, and this group, the Valkyn, are fighting against the invaders alongside their masters.

This background is the basis upon which the new player classes and races are formed; the new Hibernian race is the Sylvan, players from Midgard can now play as Valkyn, and Albion adventurers can be Inconnu. Sylvans are humanoids with barklike skin, sounding rather like the wood elves of lore. Valkyns are a savage race of throwbacks, more animal than human, while the Inconnu are small albinos with large heads. New character classes available include animist, valewalker, necromancer, reaver, bonedancer, and savage. Each is limited to the continent on which the new races are found; thus, only new Hibernian characters can be valewalkers and animists, while Midgarders get to be bonedancers and savages. Finally, Albions may opt to be necromancers and reavers. In terms of the actual functions of these classes, valewalkers and animists are both nature-based professions, while reavers and necromancers can summon the undead, with the former possessing formidable combat skills to boot. Finally, savages are experts at hand-to-hand combat, and bonedancers can reanimate animal skeletons.

Shrouded Isles is the first expansion to Mythic's online world, and is set for release in November 2002, a little more than a year after DAoC first hit stores. European release information for the expansion is not known at this time, and DAoC recently began beta testing in Korea, so it is unlikely the add-on will be available there anytime soon.


by Andrew Long    
Sources: [Gamespot]
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