Offline DAoC fork v0.268.0

Install or update

1. Need the base game first? Download and extract the original Offline DAoC v0.3 release.
2. Close the game, server and launcher. Download UPDATE-OFFLINE-DAOC.cmd and Update-OfflineDAoC.ps1 into your game folder (next to START OFFLINE DAOC.cmd) and run the .cmd.
3. It downloads the update pack, checks its SHA-256, backs up every file it replaces under update-backups, and installs it. Saves, account.txt and configs are never touched. After the first update, run UPDATE OFFLINE DAOC.cmd from the game folder to get later releases.

Coming from a v0.3 game with characters? The first launch asks for a one-time Camlann world reset (full backup first, local account kept). Old characters do not carry over.

Changes in 0.268.0

Added

• Gothwaite PvP mode: the bots fight the way DAoC players fought (stage
  6, docs/GOTHWAITE_PVP_MODE.md section 13). The rules were read from
  player guides and forum accounts of 2002–2004 group RvR, the Thidranki
  battleground and the PvP servers (sources in the plan):
  • A tank leads. When a group walks out, its best main assist takes the
    lead (a guard tank, then any melee, an archer, a caster, a healer last),
    and a dead leader hands the group to the best-ranked living member. In
    the last live run 753 groups dissolved because their leader died first;
    many were led by a healer or caster.
  • Kill order. Inside a fight a mode bot now picks its target the way
    the world warbands do: it sticks to a target for a while, a damage dealer
    follows the leader's call after the 1–2 s /assist delay (and now and
    then ignores it), bots that can interrupt turn on an enemy caster who
    starts a cast, and healers, mezzers, wounded enemies and whoever hits our
    support weigh more. Before this the mode kept pure threat order.
  • Picking fights. A leader or solo only opens on a party its group can
    take: a solo takes a solo, a small-man avoids full groups, an eight takes
    nine and rarely dares more; the leader's aggression colours it, and the
    opening target is drawn by the kill-order weights instead of "nearest".
  • Retreats. A group breaks off a fight it is losing (its healer dead,
    half of it down, or clearly outnumbered; the leader's risk tolerance
    decides) and a solo flees when it is added on or losing. The run goes back
    toward the castle gate with sprint, nobody fights back meanwhile, and the
    group either takes a new leg or goes home.
  • Regroup after a fight. An arrived group sits down where it won, waits
    for its members and recovers to 70 % health and 50 % power (at most 45 s)
    before it moves on; low health and power no longer send a bot straight
    home from a won fight. In the last run 505 returns were low health or
    power.
  • Formation. Followers walk in their doctrine's travel shape: a column
    behind the leader with guards and melee first, healers in the middle and
    casters behind, or a loose fan for stealth groups, instead of piling onto
    the leader's spot. A slot that is off the mesh falls back to the leader.
  • Chase discipline. A follower drops a runner beyond 1,500 units of its
    leader and a leader a chase 2,500 units from where the fight began,
    unless the target is about to die.
  • Adds. A roaming leader hears a fight within 5,000 units of it from the
    last 45 s and walks to it about a third to two thirds of the time by its
    aggression. Hunters do not add.
  • Hunting stealthers. An assassin or archer alone (or in a stealth pack,
    gank squad or archer group) stays stealthed outside the castle, waits
    30–90 s at a point, opens only on a lone target, a caster or healer in a
    duo, or a wounded one, uses its stealth opener, and breaks away after
    the fight.
  • /gothpvp shows a tactics line (tanks took the lead, openings refused,
    retreats, regroups, adds, stealth openings). New logs GOTH_PVP_RETREAT,
    GOTH_PVP_RETREAT_END, GOTH_PVP_REGROUP, GOTH_PVP_ADD,
    GOTH_PVP_AMBUSH, GOTH_PVP_GROUP_LEADER reason=main_assist,
    GOTH_PVP_CHASE_LIMIT reason=overextended|far, and doctrine= on
    GOTH_PVP_DEPART.

Changed

• Three guarded hooks outside the mode folder: the brain's RvR target choice
  returns the mode's kill order for a mode bot, and the two stealth gates
  (keep stealth while idle, use a stealth opener) also accept a mode hunter.
  With the mode off every one of them answers as before (mode-off test).
• Tests: UT_GothwaitePvpTactics (pure rules, lines, counters, status) and a
  stage 6 mode-off check. Automated tests were run for the Gothwaite
  fixtures; real-client verification is left to the owner (stage 5).