My view of Istaria (past and present)

[Aouvek Bloodvein]

Hey all,
Just wanted to throw this up there on my experience with Horizons and my recent re-visit to the land of Istaria.

First I would like to say that I have loved this game from day 1. I started maybe 1 month after launch and was hooked from the start. Playing as a dragon and a bi-ped was alot of fun. I joined a great guild which I later became 1 of the GM's. The community was nice, player base was large and the game ran smooth.
Then eventually the game started to be plagued with lag and lack of content with no real quests with just a few exceptions (RoP to name 1) and no real high lvl content. When they decided to merge the servers and change EVERYTHING in the game practically is when , IMO, they ruined this game. The resources have been relocated to crazy locations, the mobs scattered even more. They added some more mobs which was nice but the damage was done.
I stuck around for another month or so till EQII came out. I went to EQII for about 2 weeks and switched to WoW which is just amazing. So I receive a email about Horizons giving old players some free playtime to experience Istaria again. I jumped on this as in the back of my mind this was always a great game.
I re-download Horizons and log in. This is when the memories of this great game came flooding back in. The music was great, spreading my dragon wings again was a joy (even though I gave away all my scales and gold and left with nothing). But then I quickly realized why I left.
I looked in market and maybe about 60 people on. I flew around for over 10 minutes without seeing 1 single mob. I hit 3 towns to run into 3 people total. The world is so lifeless. No activity in the towns, no player base, no mobs roaming the lands. On top of that, the lag was just horrible! I run 1gig RAM with a 6800gt OC and I had to have all my settings at low to just be able to run/fly/kill at about 10-20 fps . I did see that on the forums they state that this card has some issues but this is just crazy.
I finally find a spot to kill some mobs. The fights seem boring and they seem to take a while. I decided to fly over to where I use to kill marrows...cant find them. I did find a bunch of new higher lvl mobs which was nice but still seems that 70% of the land is without any mobs.
I still play WoW daily which is a fantastic game. The graphics are great, music, fighting, quests everywhere, steady fps of 70 etc... If Horizons would run 1/2 as good as WoW, I bet you would see alot more people come back.
IMO, Horizons needs to populate the land more, give quests that are worth doing, better loot tables (although I see that this is in the works with bindable loot etc) and drastically improve the gameplay as it is very poor. I know the graphics are outdated (I can live with that) but for me it is unplayable almost. I do miss this game, it was loads of fun 1 yr ago and I bet it still can be. With the competition of the newer games that blow away Horizons in performance/graphics/questing/gameplay etc, I cant believe Horizons hasnt shut down yet! There are almost no players!
It hurt when I logged in and the world was soo dead... I wish that a few changes would be made as I would love to jump back in and get my dragon to ARoP 1 day. I am not trying to flame or anything like that, I'm just expressing myself to how great this game once was and how the gameplay is just poor now.

Flame away, I dont care. Just wanted to say what was on my mind. I do miss Istaria, maybe 1 day I can play again with the same joy I had when I first started...

Aouvek Bloodvein 100/100/68/63
Drakkor -88/53 Adult Lunus

[Kulamata]

Glad you enjoyed the parts that you did. If you go to the technical section of these forums,/player customization and download the current Pekka's map pack, you'll find that the mobs are pre-located on the map. And there are lots. Istaria is a big place, so even large mob areas take a while to find.

As you may know, the spawn system was changed after the merger in orderto meet the requirements of the new servers. Typically a mob spawning area may only have one or two mobs as bait, or even none when you enter the area. Stay there, and after a few minutes, monsters should start spawning. Not perfect yet, but the system has been tweaked several times and it's OK.

I'd suggest submitting a ticket on the frame rate. My experience with a 6600GT is substantially better.

[Aouvek Bloodvein]

Thanks for your response.

I an not too worried about the card issue as I can just switch back to my old card that I ran Horizons on and I should have no problem. The main problem is that there is a lack of a "real" world feeling. There is no life in the towns, there are no players running around (or mobs in almost all the locations), there are no quests to do besides " kill 20 x mobs for y exp".
I wish I could play again and have that same feeling I did when the game came out. With the lack of content that I see, extreme lack of players, its only a matter of time before Horizons is no more. When I log into WoW, almost at any given time, anywhere you go there are players from both factions in every zone. The towns and cities are alive with NPC's walking around talking, all zones have a abundance of mobs running around at every step. Some even hunting each other which is a really nice little touch.
I believe that a big overhaul would be needed, and is needed, to bring old timers back like myself. Revamp the engine, increase the fun, quests, put some life into the towns, dare I say allow PvP?
I read some of the patch notes of things to come. I see that they are trying to do the right thing as in terms of bindable loot and better quests, ARop and other things but this is a quickly sinking ship that needs huge work to not only get returning players but keep the current ones.
Trust me, I would love to come back to Horizons as I had alot of fun but the huge patch which switch everything around and merged servers is what changed the look and feel of this game for alot of people.
I dont want to see this game fail. I want it to be successful once again. I am just afraid its the old phrase "too little, too late". I hope that I am wrong.

[Mandovar]

Just read the Patch notes from the last Patches, they are just great. The devs do a great job at this right now. And slowly there is a flow of old timers and newbies coming to Horizons. So stay tuned.;-)

[imported_Twelvebagger]

Glad to see you haven't gotten flamed, it's good to be able to express your opinions.

For me, I see the population slowly growing, but it certainly dropped post merge. I do see returning players and am starting to get tells on a daily basis to make newbie gear, from new players (I always ask).

Regarding the performance issues, it's pretty unfair for me to comment as I haven't tried EQI or II, or WoW, but suffice it to say that your complaint is certainly commonplace and despite the lack of hope, maybe one day it will be fixed.

As far as "It's only a matter of time" all indications would tend to make that statement true, but suffice it to say that it's still alive and kicking, and at one point in the past (mostly during merge and bankruptcy) I recall multiple (several) posts claiming the end is near.

For what it's worth, you "gotta do what you gotta do" and hopefully you can stick it out a bit to give it another run.

Either way, best of luck. I think I'll be in istaria for quite a while (especially with the added loot!!!!)

-12-

[Jayne]

Well I started playing in Nov. So far I have loved this game and I'm hooked. I personally can't give an opinion on how it was originally and to date, but I think the game is great. I don't know I guess I look at the game for its realizism. I would think that when you near a city you would not run into mobs everywhere. I would think mobs would be outside of the civilized areas. Also when I go to a place that I know has monsters or what not its always different. I mean I can go to the shadow spiders one day and only find a couple then a week later there be a huge mob of them. That seems more realistic to me then going to the same spot and seeing it always inhabited. I mean if I killed them all today how would they populate so quickly?

I also think for crafters, that trying to work areas and having to constantly avoid mobs is crazy. By the way crafting is awesome in this game.

PVP? Well if they do it where you have to agree to fight then ok. But I don't want to see that full on open. We'll have people beating someone over the head from behind while there crafting. I would hate to see a bunch of kids running thru and causing havok!

Lag? Yea it happens. Do I know what causes it, NO. Something I just live with. But most of the time I don't have much problem.

Hey by the way, is it me or does it seem like there have been more people running around in the past week or so? I mean this past weekend I saw folks where ever I went. I thought that was cool!

Jayne

[Varangaard]

I can fully agree about the engine part; performance is nearly unacceptable, especially compared to modern games. Mobs thay have been adding all around ever since the merge, and a very noteworthy percentage of countryside now sports foes to battle. Getting them to spawn may take a while, although it has improved since merge.

Server populations is another critical issue. I can't speak for Order and Chaos, only trust people's reports that they are gaining, but Unity is slowly bleeding to death. There hasn't been a single month when our population has been growing (server merge doesn't count). Many have noticed this of course, and 'made their decisions accordingly'. If HZ is to survive on long term, Tulga needs to take steps to attract new players.

[evilkarl]

The current spawn system does not trigger by just flying over head this may be why you did not see anything in your travels.

Any mob locations you remember from before the merge should be forgotten for the most part (with one or two exceptions) those mobs are no longer there. Marrows do not exist in istaria any more. Many of the old spawns are in use but by different mobs mostly stronger than they used to be. Further to that at times you need to stand around for a few mins for things to start popping :/

I agree the performance is not good, the spawn system is a pain and towns are pretty dead :( It does look bleak but I still see new players in market on a frequentish basis so people are at least trialing the game.

Going from premerge to new world required a lot of change and adaptation of habits and we all know many have problems with change. I personally don't consider the merge to be the death of the game after all it bought with it new challenges and new friends.

If I had to say what hurt the game most (other than being released early, performance) I would say it has been long delays and unmet promises

[Aouvek Bloodvein]

Everyones input is great andI thank thee. I too have alot of hope. I left Horizons to try new games. Currently addicted to Wow as it has soo many features that are just amazing. But, I still miss Horizons. I realize that by flying over areas you can no longer see mobs. That is poor if you ask me. So much for recon huh? Anyway, the increase in new mobs (expecially that 500k Kwellen boss which is awesome!) is a good thing but getting rid of marrows totally??!!??!! That hurts.. :( I recall spending weeks and weeks with guildies killing them as they were the highest lvled mobs at the time (lvl 80) and even though I hated killing them (and Mylocs..they still in game?) I would love to be able to still run into them.

PvP aspect of it, if it was done like the non-pvp servers in WoW, it would be great. You flag yourself whenever you want to PvP and when you attack a apposing factions town/city NPC's, you get flagged automatically (which last for 5 minutes or until you attack again). That would prevent ganking low b's and add a larger aspect to the game.

I keep my hopes up. I do not want to see this game fail. I would love to be able to return 1 day if the performance issues are corrected and there is more offered then just another mob. Maybe a expansion pack would work? New engine, graphics update, quests (and I mean good quests and class specific quests) I really doubt anyone would have a problem paying $45 for a expansion pack if it was to really help the game.

I think another problem I have is that all my gear and my 8.5 gold are gone :( That was my own doing as I gave it all to guildies upon my departure and they have all since left also, which leaves my dragon with no scales and my Bi-ped with nothing as well... Oh well, thats just a small obstical though.

Its really good to see people still on and still supporting this great game.The issue is that these complaints of lack of quests/mobs/realism have been said for the past year. It just seems that the devs are not really doing what needs to be done. ARoP? What is up with that? How hard can it be to put that in game! It has been 1 yr since the announcement of it! Cant imagine it is that difficult.

Lets see some class specific quests that give armor/weapons to that class only? Bind on pickup epic weapons that are really rare (WoW has these that drop maybe 1 in every 10k kills or something like that) but this brings another lvl to adventuring. Lets see some instance zones! Only you or your party may enter and it is only you with no one else interfering. What ever happened to the dungeons?? I recall the dungeon entrance in eastern blight which you can see inside using the wireframe mode. Capes! give us capes! What a nice touch that gives to WoW! Wands, offhand weapons/items that boost certain attributes, different models of axes, swords, maces, polearms etc... What aboutcompleteepicarmor suits that grant you a bonus if you have the entire set?

I would love to see enchanters be able to enchant weapons with really nice visual effects like a Ice enchantedsword which gives a % to slow movement/attack speed of mob, flame enchants, life tap enchants etc...and not just aspell version of it but a permanent effect on weapons.

I know that some of what I have mentioned is already in the works and that is great! I am just throwing suggestions up therethat work awesome in other MMO's. I do have hope for this game and I want it to succeed. I guess I will do what everyone has been doing since launch and just wait it out and hope. We will seeI guess 1 day...

Thank you all for your replies and input.

[oluviel]

ifTulga condensed the world into zones and removed the seemlessly empty stuff it would be easier to find things and get around. I think anyway. Many mmorpgs have given up the idea of a seamless world and focus their efforts on creating contentent filled zones.

[Snowdonia Honeythorn]

ifTulga condensed the world into zones and removed the seemlessly empty stuff it would be easier to find things and get around. I think anyway. Many mmorpgs have given up the idea of a seamless world and focus their efforts on creating contentent filled zones.

IIRC Horizons was the first MMO to even do this. All others use zones. I don't care for them personally and prefer Horizons world the way it is. If they chopped it up into zones I'd be extremely disappointed. I doubt I would play anymore after that.