The PvP server type (sometimes called "Mordred server(s)" since Mordred was the first server of this type to be released) is designed to offer a unique challenge to any DAoC player interested in a more challenging, and consequently more difficult player vs. player experience. As such there are many rules and features of the game that are unique to this server type.
INTRODUCTION
Unlike other Camelot servers, players can create characters of any realm. Those characters can mingle freely, and even adventure in other realms using unique portals. There is nothing preventing Trolls, Firbolgs and Avalonians from being in the same guild, or the same group, for that matter. Any player can communicate with any other player, regardless of "realm" of origin, and any character can enter all three major cities of DAoC without fear of retaliation from the guards.
The other main feature of the PvP server type is that outside of one's guild, anyone can be an enemy. Unlike other Camelot servers, there are no "realms", or even guild alliances. You can also gain experience and cash from slaying your enemies, and lose cash (in the form of constitution loss) when you are killed. The intention of Mythic Entertainment is for players on this server to be able to build one's character solely through PvP combat should they so choose.
While guilds can unofficially ally with one another, there is nothing preventing anyone outside of your guild from attacking you at any time - save these limited exceptions:
Camelot, Tir na Nog, and Jordheim are safe zones. No one can be attacked at any time within these cities. Players under level 10 cannot be attacked in their "home zones" unless they choose to decline this protection. Some lower level dungeons (listed below) have level limits - players above a given level cannot enter. There are no other limits, though, and players should be especially wary in dungeons due to their close quarters and popularity among enemy players.
Additionally, relics and keeps work differently on PvP servers. Since there are no realms, relics are instead held by individual guilds. To seize a relic, a guild must first claim a keep (the procedure for which is the same as on standard DAoC servers) and the guild must then claim the relic from wherever it currently is, and bring it back to their own keep. Members of your guild, and only members of your guild, then receive the benefit of holding that relic.
Since there are no realms per se, the Darkness Falls dungeon, which on other servers is only open to the realm who is winning the war for territory, is open to everyone at any time.
CHANGES TO PLAYER VS PLAYER COMBAT
The PvP servers are more difficult than the other DAoC servers. They are intended to be. Players who are not members of a guild, or who prefer to hunt alone, will find that they have chosen an especially difficult road to follow.
Anyone outside your guild is an enemy. While you can designate enemies through your guild commands (so that a member of a guild on an enemy list highlights as "Enemy guild" when you click on them), you should be aware that, unless a character is in your guild, you are under threat of attack.
Players under level 10 enjoy some protection. While in "home" zones (the zones not part of the frontier on other DAoC servers) they are free from threat of attack. They also cannot attack other players. If a player so chooses, they may decline this protection at any time by typing "/safety off". They may then freely attack other players (save those who still are under low-level protection) and may be attacked in turn.
The major cities of the realms (Tir na Nog, Jordheim and Camelot) are safety zones for everyone. No one may be attacked in a major city.
A temporary protection is also afforded a character when they die or zone. This is VERY temporary and is just enough time to dash to safety if you reappear in a tight spot. You are notified when your temporary immunity expires. While immune, you cannot attack other players. If you are resurrected by a player, you do not gain any immunity.
Players gain Guild Points instead of Realm Points, since there are no longer any realms. Players gain Guild Points through slaying other players, the amount of which is based on the level of the enemy killed. If a player has been recently slain, their killer is awarded no Guild Points.
Guild Points are capped at the rate of 5x a character's level. In other words, if a level 5 character killed a level 40 character somehow, they would only receive the number of Guild Points they would have earned had they killed 5 level 5 players. Players below approximately 60% of your level give no reward on death (this is reported to you when you select them.)
Players also gain experience and coin when they kill an enemy player. While players drop coin every time they lose 3 CON due to a PvP death, they are only awarded experience if they gain Guild Points (in other words, players who just died don't award experience). The experience is awarded immediately, while the coin is dropped in a bag similar to treasure left by dead monsters. The player who died can also pick up the bag, so if that player falls while defending and his allies hold the field, he should be able to reclaim the cash he dropped. This cash is not removed from the player's inventory, but is generated as a result of the CON the player lost.
Players lose 3 CON points every time they fall in PvP combat. This CON loss is not removed if a player is resurrected by another player. Players may not attack other players if they have less than 3 CON. Players will note that if they continue to die rapidly and repeatedly (for example, staying and fighting at their bind point in a hopeless battle) their character will be possibly bankrupted and useless in combat.
The only exception to the above is that if a player kills you who would have not gained any Guild Points from your death due to being too high a level, you do not suffer CON loss. Note that if you are killed shortly after dying, you still will suffer CON loss even though you gave no reward for your death, as long as your killer is of the appropriate level.
There are certain instances where, if you kill the same people repeatedly, you will gain no experience or guild points from them. This is also not a bug.
When dead, you can optionally type "/release city" to return to your old realm's capital city instead of your bind point.
The "Nearest NPC" and "Nearest PC" commands (default F8 and F9) now take into affect the new friend-or-foe system.
CHANGES TO GUILDS AND KEEPS
Guild alliances no longer exist. You cannot join in alliances with other guilds. Note that nothing prevents you from unofficially allying with them, and you can still form a chatgroup with anyone.
There is a timer of 2 hours enforced after quitting a guild before you can join another (or the same) one. This is time played in game, not total time.
Guilds can seize relics. In short, plain English, you must own a keep and you must capture and transport relics to it. The long, detailed English follows:
To seize a relic, a guild must own a keep. Relics can only be seized from unclaimed keeps - you must kill the enemy guilds' keep lord before picking up the relic. You cannot immediately claim the keep and drop the relic there - relics can only be picked up from unclaimed keeps. If the keep is claimed without the relics being picked up, the relics revert to unclaimed status in their original keep location. You may place a relic in a keep 2 hours after it has been claimed.
After a relic is taken, the relic is then given to your guild's Keep Lord. You can consult the Camelot Herald page for your server, or type "/realm" in game to see where any relics are being stored.
When a server first opens, relics begin in their original shrine protected by aggressive NPC relic guards. Those guards must be defeated to claim the relic. If a relic reverts to its shrine (after being abandoned for example) the NPC relic guards will have to be defeated again to regain the relic.
Guilds have a new feature called "enemy lists". You can add a guild to your guild's enemy list via "/gc enemyadd". Afterwards, if anyone in your guild clicks on a member of the guild you added, they will be notified that that person is a member of an enemy guild. This is the only in-game effect. You may remove a guild from your enemy list via "/gc enemyremove".
Players cannot attack members of their own guild, either directly, with pets, or with area-effect spells.
CHANGES TO THE WORLD
Players can now freely travel anywhere in the game, including all three home realms. All players may now communicate with all other players. All players may travel through and activate any home realm gates. Guards will no longer attack any player. Merchants will buy and sell to any player. Vault Keepers, Bankers, Healers, Smiths, Guild and Name Registrars, Rechargers, and craft Guildmasters will deal with any player, regardless of original realm.
Portals are available in all home cities and in realm portal keeps. There no longer is a portal ceremony; instead you simply buy a portal medallion and right click on the portal NPC to immediately transport. There are portals available intra-realm (between portal keeps), inter-realm (between portal keeps and home cities), and directly between each home city. In general, look for an NPC named "Medallion Master" to purchase medallions, then right click the NPC immediately beside "Medallion Master" to travel onward.
Some items of other realms are usable by all characters now (for example, Albion minstrels can wear Midgard chain armor). A complete chart of how each realm's equipment translates into each other realm's skill follows at the end of this document. Note that not all items are usable. In particular, ranged weapons and focus staves are still realm-specific.
Crafters may craft items for every realm. Type ‘/craft albion' to create Albion goods, ‘/craft midgard' to create Midgard equipment and ‘/craft hibernia' to work on Hibernian wares. Tradeskill merchants for each realm have been placed in every home city to support this. Crafters who use ‘/setwho trades' to advertise their tradeskill mastery will appear to players of all realms in their /who list as such. Note, you must still join the tradeskill order you wish to follow in your "home" city.
Some dungeons now have an upper level limit. If you are outside the level ranges listed below, you will be unable to enter the following dungeons:
Tomb of Mithra: levels 1 to 23 Nisse's Lair: levels 1 to 28 Muire Tomb: levels 1 to 31 Spraggon Den: levels 1 to 35 Cursed Tomb: levels 1 to 36 Keltoi Fogou: levels 1 to 41
Darkness Falls is open from any portal in any realm at any time. There no longer is a keep requirement for entering Darkness Falls.
/WHO no longer displays level, class or location. It only displays name and guild affiliation, if applicable. You can get complete information on your own guild members online by using ‘/gc who'.
CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PVP SERVERS
Players on PvP servers, more so than on other servers, have tools available to them to police their own environment. For this reason, Mythic Customer Support will not enforce the "Honor in Combat" rules on PvP servers (kill stealing, etc). It is expected that players will settle these types of issues amongst themselves using the tools, swords and spells available to them.
Other Mythic Customer Support policies remain in effect. These include policies regarding naming of characters and harassing other players.
Note that what may be considered "unsportsmanlike conduct" such as, but not limited to "bindstone camping", repeated "res-killing", "zone line camping", and other PvP issues are not considered harassment. Verbally abusing another player over and above the expected level of in-game banter is considered harassment. Playing on a "hardcore" server does not give you free license to abuse other players. You will be held to the same high standards of conduct in terms of chat and conversation as on any other Dark Age of Camelot server.
Customer Service personnel are available, as on other servers, by using the /appeal system and they will rigorously enforce the standards of conduct as defined here on PvP servers. For more information on the Terms of Service and conduct expected of players while in game, please consult the Dark Age of Camelot Customer Support website at http://support.darkageofcamelot.com/.
DETAILS ON ITEM CONVERSION FOR PVP SERVERS
We have implemented a system where realms can use other realms' equipment on PvP servers. Not all items are usable, this is not a bug.
Further, when equipping an item that gives a bonus to a skill that you do not possess, you will get no benefit to your realm's skill. For example, if you equip a sword that is Blades +2 using your Slash skill, you will not get +2 to your Slash skill.
The item conversion is as follows.
1) All non-weapons and armors have been converted.
2) All shields have been converted.
3) Instruments have been converted as follows:
Albion gains access to 'Music' Instruments. Hibernia gains access to 'Instruments' Instruments.
4) Armor has been converted as follows:
Helms are currently not cross realm usable.
ALBION
Cloth: gains access to other realm's Cloth Leather: gains access to other realm's Leather Studded Leather: gains access to Midgard's Studded Leather and Hibernia's Reinforced Leather Chain: gains access to Midgard's Chain and Scale
MIDGARD
Cloth: gains access to other realm's Cloth Leather: gains access to other realm's Leather Studded Leather: gains access to Albion's Studded Leather and Hibernia's Reinforced Leather Chain: gains access to Albion's Chain and Scale
HIBERNIA
Cloth: gains access to other realm's Cloth Leather: gains access to other realm's Leather Reinforced Leather: gains access to other realm's Studded Leather Scale: gains access to other realm's Chain
5) Weapons have been converted as follows:
ALBION
Staff: gains access to other realm's Staff. Crush: gains access to Blunt (and one-handed Hammer weapons) Slash: gains access to Blade (and one-handed Swords/Axes) Thrust: gains access to Piercing Two-Handed: gains access to Large Weapons Polearm: gains access to Celtic Spear and Spear
MIDGARD
Staff: gains access to other realm's Staff.
Hammer: gains access to Crush and Blunt
Sword: gains access to Slash and Blades
Axe: gains access to Slash and Blades
Spear: gains access to Celtic Spear and Polearm
HIBERNIA
Staff: gains access to other realm's Staff. Blunt: gains access to Crush (and one-handed Hammer weapons) Blades: gains access to Slash (and one-handed Swords/Axes) Piercing: gains access to Thrust Large Weapons: gains access to Two-Handed Celtic Spear: gains access to Spear and Polearm
6) Range weapons will not be converted.
LIST OF COMMANDS AVAILABLE TO/DIFFERENT ON PVP SERVERS
/WHO - reduced functionality on PvP servers /RELEASE CITY - returns you to the home city of the realm your character's race is native to. /SAFETY OFF - turns off your low-level PvP safety flag. (There is no /SAFETY ON. This is not a bug.) /CRAFT REALMNAME - items of the given realm will appear as options for you to craft. /GC ENEMYADD GUILDNAME - add a guild to your guild's enemy list (guild leader only) /GC ENEMYREMOVE GUILDNAME - remove a guild from your guild's enemy list (guild leader only)