Dark Age of Camelot: New Frontiers Interview
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Q: Why did making RvR battles more strategic and diverse become a priority? In what ways have you altered the world's geography, and does the game fiction explain any of these changes?
A: After two and a half years, it became obvious that the geography of the original frontier zones was not made with an eye towards strategy. There are no geographic barriers at all in those zones - you can basically turn in any direction and run straight across any of the zones without being stopped. If you want to have an area where there are pitched battles, you need to funnel players there. The best way to do this is to put choke points into the zones, and put objects (i.e. keeps and towers) either in or near them.
We also redesigned keeps to make them more strategic to siege. Up until now, players haven't really utilized siege weapons in Dark Age of Camelot because they have been too expensive and difficult to build and control - basically, it's such a pain to carry and use them that it hasn't been worth the effort. With New Frontiers, we've totally redesigned our siege weapon system to include far easier to build, lighter, and easier to control siege weapons. The keeps themselves even have hookpoints that you can simply click on and purchase a siege weapon that appears right in front of you. It's a much better system.
None of these changes are explained in the game fiction, as they are so dramatically different that any backstory explanation would seem out of place. We decided instead to keep the same "feel" for the zones, and the same zone names, but make the geography different.
