From the Desk of the Developers: February Edition

It's hard to believe that another month has already flown by. So hard, in fact, that when someone began pointing out that a whole week in February had just about passed, I had to look at the date just to believe them. They say time flies when you're having fun, and we've sure been having fun here, so I suppose that explains it.

My biggest news for this month is that I can reveal one of those “surprises” that I alluded to last month. For those who visit our community forums, you'll already know what I'm talking about. Those who don't may want to come by and register on the forums so you can participate in our Cargo Disk Revamp poll. That's right, folks. Those great big massive speed retardants that we have such a love/hate relationship are up for revamp. And the developers have asked you, the ones who use them most, to give us your feedback on how you'd like to see them changed. The poll is on the top of the General forum if you'd like to come share your thoughts. You will have to register on the forums if you have not done so already, and when you do please be sure to use the same email address to register on the forums that is linked to your game account. Once your forum account is verified, you'll be able to share your thoughts too. Not just on the cargo disk revamp, but on how you feel about the game in general. You can find the new poll here: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...805#post172805

If you've logged in to the game any time in the last week, you'll also notice that we've announced the winners of our Chronicles of Istaria: Home and Hearth contest. For those who don't have the beautiful load screens that our lead artist does showing when you log in, the winners of the contest were Runos and Sephiranoth. Anyone who is interested in reading their entries, we've included all the entries in a downloadable PDF format. You can find the download on the front page of our community website: http://community.istaria.com/ There are some very good tales and poems in there, so I hope you do take the time to visit the site and download it. We have many talented Istarians.

We continue to move forward with adding resources in preparation for the confectioner revamp. Just recently onions, potatoes, corn and garlic have appeared on the farms and hillsides around Dalimond. And hidden deep inside secret locations known only to a few, stoneroot and fennel have also begun to appear. Istarians everywhere wait for the giant feast that by know they can know is coming when new recipes are released to confectioners across the land. Let's just hope it's soon, because I know my mouth is starting to water at the thought of a good corn chowder. I just hope it's on someone's menu!

In previous updates I've mentioned that we're working on bringing Vista compatibility to Istarians in need. Well, we're making progress but a fully Vista compatible version is still a ways off. However, there is potentially good news from the front lines, as it were. Many players are having a great deal of success after installing SP1 on their Vista machines. Most report having to uninstall Horizons and install it again after installing SP1. While the production release for SP1 is not out yet, and so players should use their own discretion when deciding if they upgrade to the release candidate version of SP1. For those who have tried this solution, Horizons continues to work even after system reboot. We do, however, consider this a temporary fix and are still working on our end to bring you a more permanent solution for those who have machines that require the Vista OS.

There are two other areas that I know many of you are anxiously awaiting news on, and I'd hoped to bring you good news on both. The first is when the client changes that are currently on our Blight test server would be released. This new client has significant changes to our terrain system that we know will help reduce the lag in many areas. However, because of reports of stability issues with the client, we don't yet feel comfortable releasing it to the live shards. Releasing a new client with changes this big isn't something we want to do lightly, so we're still holding it in testing until we can work out why some players are experiencing crashes with this client. Instead, we're going to roll back the client to the live version and roll in a number of smaller fixes and features - such as showing inscriptions on items, a fix for cargo disks haunting, and music no longer repeatedly fading in and out.

And, of course, the other issue is when those who are waiting for their Unity characters to be available. We have good news! We're going to ask a few players to help us out with a live test to confirm that everything works properly. Assuming things go well, we'll expand the import service to all previous Unity players. We appreciate your patience and we're getting close. We also know that many Unity players have restarted on either Chaos or Order and are awaiting Plot Reclaims so that they can make the new server their home. These two issues are closely tied together. We will make sure to hold off starting plot reclaims until there's been a reasonable opportunity for Unity characters to be transferred to the shard of their choice.

And we still have a few surprises up our sleeve, so keep watching the front page of our community site as well as your inbox for news from us. Next month we'll be celebrating our half-year anniversary, if you can believe that! Next month I'll be answering the question “Where did the time go?” Until then, enjoy your time in Istaria!

Your faithful behind the scene's gal,

- Amarië AncalÃ**mon
Horizons Development Team

As always, feel free to discuss: http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...813#post172813