Dragon Court

What is it?: Dragon Court is a fun little RPG. You can get into fights, buy/sell equipment, and save your character. You can mail stuff to other heros, gain rank in the courts; seek fame, fortune, power and notoriety. — Developers' definition
What computer or emulator will it run on?: It's an online game, all you need is a browser with Java support. It used to run better on IE than on other browsers, this may have been fixed by now.

I can't remember how I found this game. I discovered it some time early in 2001. For a while I played it intensely, I created lots of heroes (I had something over twenty at one time—well, other players had a few hundred) and played every single one of them, every day (for you can play one hero only for so long every day, then you have to wait till the game is reset). I spent a lot of time at the forums. It was there I learned about RPG Maker 2000, and, yes, it was there that I learned about 9/11.

Not long after that I lost interest. For a while I didn't play at all, and some of my characters got deleted, as will happen after some time (something like five times the level of your character in days, if I remember correctly), but I never gave it up completely.

In April 2002 there was a big update, designed mainly to render the many hacked items that had accumulated in the game useless by dramatically increasing the stats of both monsters and items. I did not like the update very much, after all my huge collection of honest items was rendered useless too, but still started playing more again.

After another long absence in summer 2003 I found there had been another update, this time even changing part of the interface. Most changes were heavily unpopular with the players, and many have been quietly retracted.

None of these updates brought something really new, new enemies, new locations, not even those that were originally planned were ever finished. So I was delighted to see when I played the game again after a longer pause on 2004-02-14 that a new version (1.19) was coming up, one that would add a new location, new features in town, new quests. It was thoroughly beta-tested and finally installed 2005-05-09. See below for details.

On the whole, Dragon Court was more fun when I first started playing it. You could create a hero just by typing in a name that was not already taken, now you have to register with a valid email address and get your password assigned instead of choosing it yourself. You are no longer allowed to sell or otherwise pass on characters, there are trade restrictions and even the use of macro programs is considered cheating, even though there is no real reason for that and the rule is unenforceable anyhow.

Still, up to now I have never been away long enough to lose any of my main characters, and we will see what that new version will bring.

Some Dragon Court Clan Pages

Clans come and go, only few are here to stay. Some of these may not even exist any more, only their websites remaining. All clans are listed in alphabetical order.

Atreides
Domination
Frost Knights were the only clan that overtook Titan for a while, but only for a while. And even then they never had more members, only higher power. But founded in October 1998, they belong to the few clans that have been around long and are still going strong.
Silver Assassins
Sky Riders are now more or less defunct, but their page is the only one with some information about the update from 2002-04-08.
TheGetUpKids
Titan was founded in September 1998. They were the first clan to reach three and later four abilities. While I played DC, they were nearly always on top.

Joining a clan can give you special abilities you could not get otherwise. These clans come and go, only Titan seems to be here forever.

Fan/Help Pages

Most of these pages are from before the April 2002 update, and are out of date since.

Special

Trader Chat
DC Shat!
DC Coalition Against Spammers and Hackers (last updated 1999-11-19)
Herfried's ES stats calculator tool

The May 2005 Update

On 2005-05-09, Dragon Court was updated to version 19. While the previous updates (at least those I personally experienced) came as complete surprises, this one was in a sort of beta test at least since February 2004. And unlike the previous updates, it added a whole lot of new features.

The town has been expanded and now takes up two screens. The icon of Suitors Armour has been replaced with Market Lane. In Market Lane you will find Suitors Armour, a gambling den, Silver Storage, which is simply the storage facility that used to be in the tavern (I'm not sure what the point is), and the dock has been moved here from the castle area.
The whole way the dock works has been changed. You have to Hire Boat for $50k, this will then take you to The Sea of Tranquility. This is an area is similar to the Goblin Mound in the way it works. There is a Seaside Diner where you can buy a drink (works just as in the tavern), buy a round (heals you somewhat), rest, and buy Fish, Identify Scrolls, Healing Salve, Seltzer Water, Panic Dust, and Rutters for Hie Brasil. There are four regions within the Sea of Tranquility, Go Fish which can be accessed without a rutter and gives the old sea quests, the well-known Hie Brasil and Shangala, and the new Azteka. So you get to choose where you go and no longer run the risk of losing a quest. As a side effect, no wits can be won any more just by going to sea.
Of course, in the Azteca there are all new enemies shedding new equipment (since I only just started playing again, this is vastly incomplete):
- Warrior: Can be bribed, is rather dangerous. Drops Ayotl Shield (left).
- Anaconda: Swallows glowing equipment.
- Jaguar: Can hypnotize, but is not very tough. Drops Jaguar fang (left).
- Priest: Can be helped out.
Enemies drop less money. In combination with the stiff fee for going to the Sea of Tranquility, this gives money more value than it had previously.
Added the Dragon Guard. This is one of the things that was originally planned, but never implemented. The Dragon Guard offers missions that may be rewarded with special equipment or maps and passes to other regions. The first quest is the easiest way for new heroes to get to Queen Beth.
The queen offers blessings that prevent rust and decay.
Mandrakes no longer restore quests.
You can no longer destroy an item by over-enchanting it.
You can now learn the Sage skill at the Forest Guild. It offers passive protection against Ieatsu, Backstab and Hypnosis. A number of monsters have this skill as well. A Tonic of Unskilling can remove a random guild skill to make room for Sage.
A mystical woman will appear no more than once each day to offer you a choice of magic items. If you select correctly, you win a small prize.
Unplayed heroes are now stored for two years, those with a level over 20 for three years.
You can lose rank if you don't show up in court from time to time.

All in all, Dragon Court has become a more interesting game with this update.

The July 2003 Update

You get two guild slots per level (instead of one). You can only learn Ieatsu when you have maxed out your usual guild skills. But then, you can get unlimited Ieatsus if you want to, since they no longer fill your skill slots.
Magic powders (attack powders) and their gem equivalents don't work any more.
Mandrakes, faeries, and cookies now decay over time, faster if put in storage, not so fast if kept in the backpack.
Some items cannot be bought if you have more than a hundred on you or in storage.
Gladiators now drop random-stat Spike Helms. They are pretty rare. The first (and for a long while only one) I found had stats of 15, 15, –8, which means it could not be enchanted very high. No match for an antique miner's cap. Meanwhile I have found several others, but their stats were always lower.
Rust can now simply be mended by enchanting the item.
Four new ranks: Squire and Captain at the low end, Viceroy and Senechal at the high end. Gaining rank now only depends on court favor, not on adventuring any more.
Levels are now easier to get, so characters would go up two or three levels immediately at the first login after the update. And you can go up to level 47 (used to be 34).
Healing is now one gold per gut; this used to be multiplied with your level.
It is no longer possible to peer other players.
It is no longer possible to cheat your way around getting killed.

At first, you had to click a Done button instead of just clicking somewhere on the applet. This was the most annoying change and was removed on 2003-10-06. For a while, there were no more uses in battle, you could use as many items as you want in combat, without ginseng roots, which had become useless, but later the original state was restored.

The April 2002 Update

Stats of monsters and gear about 4–5 times previous value.
Enchanting items raises their attack and defend one point for each ten skill points.
Enchanting can only be done up to a certain value, then the item will break. This value depends on the original stats of the item.
Gear can rust again (like in the first version of DC). Putting your gear in storage does not protect it from rust.
Maximum number of fame points increased to 50k, maximum skill to 10k, and maximum age to 2000.
Cookies no longer turn to kookies overnight. A cookie will restore all your quests for the day, previous to this update they had to be used on the day found, and could not be sent by mail, else they would turn into stale kookies that did nothing at all.
You can use unlimited mandrake roots. A mandrake root will restore one quest, previous to this update you could only use the number of twice your level.
Bottled fairies, a new item, will prevent loss of items if killed.
Invest cheat disabled.

Play Dragon Court