How to Play DAoC on Uthgard

[Morreion]

Here's the steps you take:

1) Download DAoC from Mythic's DAoC Download page.

2) Download the DAoC Portal server (3rd party software).

Once downloaded, you may have to go under File > Settings > DAoC Installation and hit Browse to select where DAoC has been installed on your PC.

3) Select the Uthgard DAoC free shard to play on. Uthgard is a classic ruleset shard, it uses the Catacombs graphics engine and there is no cost to play (they accept donations gratefully). Old Frontiers and Housing are the only expansions to the classic play areas. You create an account (you cannot access your actual DAoC characters there) and roll up whatever class you want. There is an Uthgard FAQ page, and they have a forum. Oh, buffbots are forbidden, and they use anti-powerleveling mechanics, and they have cheat detector code running.

All of this is labeled to be at your own risk, of course.

DAoC Information:

Camelot Herald Beginners Guide - lots of useful info from the official DAoC site

DAoC Catacombs Character Builder 2.0 - very helpful for planning out your training spec

[Loendal]

Additional Note:

There is a special "Classic Mod" that must be installed as well. You can find both download and instructions here :

www.uthgard-server.net/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=2

You'll want the one labeled "Classic Patch"

[EchoVamper]

I am not quite the computer aficionado that some of you are...

I know this may be kind of a stupid question, but will the free shard portal server software use the current DAoC client I have installed and do its thing without corrupting my old characters, or should I download DAoC from Mythic again, place it in a dedicated folder and run Uthgard from there?

[Morreion]

Hmm, I only have 1 DAoC download because I wasn't playing the actual game before I tried Uthgard, but from what I understand, you can use your current DAoC game client through the DAoC Portal- you do not click on your normal DAoC icon to play, you click on the DAoC Portal icon, which takes over from there, using the DAoC game files. It should be totally separate. But I haven't tested this out, so I cannot be absolutely sure of this.

[EchoVamper]

I am probably a bit confused here, but I have been reading a bit on the Uthgard support forums (which by the way seem to be just as good if not better than the "official" ones).

It looks to me as if Uthgard is actually keyed to the EU versions people have done one of two things:
1. Downloading the EU version from GOA, or
2. Downloading the current ENG version from EA/Mythic and patching it to make it compatible with Uthgard and the DAoC Portal.

It sounds as if what I should do is download DAoC again and make sure the path is not the same as my "official" client, and then point the DAoC portal to that path.

Does that sound safe? I am still dabbling around in "official" DAoC and I am not sure that I am quite ready to disable that option.

Perhaps I am all wet on this...but I can't find a specific answer to my question on the Uthgard forums.

[Morreion]

That sounds like a reasonable idea Echo- if something goes wrong, your official DAoC character info should still be stored on Mythic's database and all should be well!

[dotty]

copy/paste sounds easier than downloading again? Not sure if you already did this.

[EchoVamper]

Yes, Dotty, that is exactly what I tried and it worked like a charm. I just made a new folder in my Program Files folder with a different name and copied everything from my "official" game folder into it. Then I pointed the DAoC Portal toward that path (not the client my "old" characters play on, but the one copied into the new folder). It was done in minutes rather than hours.

Tips:
1. you must enter your email with an in game command or it keeps asking you, then you will recieve an email giving you a validation code and asking you to enter that code in game within 24 hours. It is case sensitive. Mine was 5 characters long and included letters and numbers. You have five tries. The in-game command is:

/email confirm <xxxxx>

2. When you shut down the game you need to exit the DAoC portal application after you exit DAoC, otherwise it keeps running and the next time you try to enter game it tells you the client is running but doesn't give you the sign in window. If you mess up, a computer restart will solve the problem.

3. If the DAoC portal is acting up when you try to log in, one thing to try is to pull down file->settings and make sure the portal is pointed at the folder where DAoC is on your computer. It took the portal client a couple of tries to remember the path.

[Gidgiddoni]

Gid downloaded stuff but cant get anything to work or connect. Portal thing seemed to work. But get to a loading screen and it just hangs there.

[Morreion]

Gid, is the portal looking in the right location for DAoC? On the portal, click

File > Settings > DAoC Installation

then hit the Browse button to find DAoC's location on your PC. That should work!

Also make sure you created an account- username & password- on the portal interface. It's not very intuitive.