FEEDBACK: GAME DESIGN

[imperial1]

After 15 yrs of all kinds of gaming I came to try out Horizons.
Heres an overview and amust do list for game success.

1. More spells and more specialized spells.
Too much generalities and overlap of spell options.

2. More realistic feel to the game.
When Im fighting a sand beetle have a turtle walk by.
There needs to be much more spawns of all types.

3. Pets.. Or the lack of. Not even charmed ones.

4. Indoor dungeons.. Why don't we have any?
No crypts.,sewers.,castles to explore.

5. Crafting system is way way too tedious.
It gives much less level rewards by far for the same
Time you would adventure. For dragons its a nightmare
To mine the same stupid sand resource just to fly someday,
Really guys.. I dont like being in a slave labor camp for
Hours with so little reward for my time.
PLEASE up the level of xp on crafting.

6. Why is there so little done on the undead story lines?
Few undead camps, no GM events, no real battles.
Also your paladin class is so lame for an undead driven
World. I see so little they can do special against undead.
You woulld be better with a warrior cleric combo and just
Not take paladin at all.

7. Item drops.. Make more variety and more of them.
I get no excitement from a blighted armor piece.
It would be cool for my druid to find a magic staff though.
With some minor powers in it or stats on it.

YES.. I know these things would require work and you have a small
staff. However Im also presuming your goal is to compete and make
some $$$. Unless this game is owned by some college student as a hobbie?

[Deth]

1. More spells and more specialized spells.
Too much generalities and overlap of spell options.

I could agree with that but I for one like the fact that you can get all the spells if you wish when you wish and they are not just auto given to you each time you level.

2. More realistic feel to the game.
When Im fighting a sand beetle have a turtle walk by.
There needs to be much more spawns of all types.

[/quote]

I have never been in any game that had such fluff. Mind pointing me to some. I know some have more back ground noises and such birds and chirping and wind and such. At one time we did have something like this. The Black Birds of Doom. As to spawns yes there is a lot of empty Area but a Dev said there are some completely new monsters in the works so hopefully a hole here and there will be filled up a little more.

3. Pets.. Or the lack of. Not even charmed ones.

This would be nice and maybe some day once all the other things on the plate our done they might get around to it. But for me I do not mind they are a little different and do not have something every other game has.

4. Indoor dungeons.. Why don't we have any?
No crypts.,sewers.,castles to explore.

No world model. The mobs can not cross bridges and such and their for any ground level mobs would fall into the dungeon and if it was more then 1 level all the mobs would end up on the bottom floor. On a side note they have found out how to raise fish to closer to the surface so they can put in piers to have the fish at the end of and in deeper water. So maybe this is a good sign for that.

5. Crafting system is way way too tedious.
It gives much less level rewards by far for the same
Time you would adventure. For dragons its a nightmare
To mine the same stupid sand resource just to fly someday,
Really guys.. I don't like being in a slave labor camp for
Hours with so little reward for my time.
PLEASE up the level of xp on crafting.

First the old battle cry of the Devs about Dragons. They are harder and not for every one. One of the reason this was put in was to help weed out some of the weaker Dragon players as we older dragons like to feel special. Also Crafting is one of the biggest things about the game that keeps most of us here.

6. Why is there so little done on the undead story lines?
Few undead camps, no GM events, no real battles.
Also your paladin class is so lame for an undead driven
World. I see so little they can do special against undead.
You woulld be better with a warrior cleric combo and just
Not take paladin at all.

The Undead story line is in the works. Right now due to lag issues for a lot they are working on that, so all could enjoy the work they are doing on making better code for the War with the Undead. From some of there earlier "test" with blight anchors what they want is the undead and blight to spread out from a source on it's own. Which they can and have done but they want it to be smarter about where the sources appear I think. that and for it to do it on it's own with out a whole lot of Wm work to keep placing them.

First Paladins are warriors of a good not just undead slayers. Being as all the gods are gone from the world the paladin would have lost some of their power. Also this is not D&D or any other game. this is Horizons. Horizons Paladins are different from every thing you know just like Horizons Dragons are different from D&D Dragons and every other Dragon you know.

7. Item drops.. Make more variety and more of them.
I get no excitement from a blighted armor piece.
It would be cool for my druid to find a magic staff though.
With some minor powers in it or stats on it.

Well where did that staff come from? Why would say a pig have a magic staff? They have learned from that mistake but still keep to, which I and others like, logical loot. If a magic staff drops it has to have been made by some one and those people should still be able to make such. I.E. Blighted equipment from the WA.

[Cloe]

1. Magic Schools overlap. Melee Schools overlap.. Magic overlaping Melee is actually quite limited imo. Prestiege sp? schools are a differn't story.
Edit:After readingDeth's thoughts on it, to clarify,that is possible yet not allschools get res or bolts ect...

2. I like this suggestion. Flora and fauna (Carnivorous plant eats turtle)

3. Examples of success and failure both. I'd like a vorpal bunny please.

4. Dungeons, hopefully one day.

5. Two edged sword. Crafting actually helps adventuring and the grind pays off. Better damage and evasion for the crafting schools that raise dex and str. If someone doesn't like crafting they can multiclass.Many variations and raised base stats. A commonly over looked dynamic that makes the game Rock! Dragons are harder and have to quest and quest and quest and quest... Definitely not for everyone.

6. Nice suggestion here. Repopulate the camps would be fun.
Will be interesting to hear what paladins have to say about this.

7. With the revamping of the Tiers.. this is happening. Make a new char and play through the first 20 levels. Way more interesting items are dropping with sometimes amusing techs on them. Leveling is like eating. Gobble the food down and you miss many of the flavors. Especially with the new menu thats being offered for the lower levels and working it's way up. Definitly worth hanging in for.
I have rose colored glasses aboutloot as there wasn't any to speak of early on.

[AA0]

1. There are a lot of incomplete spell lines, and a lot of epic spells completed but not in game, I'm guessing they are waiting for the whole class balance to finish it all. Most of what we have no is all kinda repeats of themselves, which isn't that fun.

2. There is a good lack of combat immersion, and a lot of it is just the style of hz combat. There is defiantely something missing, but I could do without the turtle.

3. Pets are sorely lacking... it kinda goes with the spell line, just something that isn't in game, and really makes combat more uniform and the same for every class.

4. Dungeons I don't care about. We have the blight, its different... we aren't in a war against rats in a sewer btw. This would take away from the lore, give us a war... not dungeons

5. Crafting is one point they have worked on, and the exp isn't bad at all, you can get the same advancement, and in a lot of cases faster than adventure, you just might not being doing it right..

6. The WA right now is pretty static, there has been numerous invasions and raids, lots of events. There is a whole lack of obtainable lore which is supposed to be being solved... we hope

7. You can get a good staff, that increases your powers by a lot... whoever you are probably just killing the easy/weak stuff and they don't sensibly drop those.

[Levity]

I have never been in any game that had such fluff. Mind pointing me to some. I know some have more back ground noises and such birds and chirping and wind and such. At one time we did have something like this. The Black Birds of Doom. As to spawns yes there is a lot of empty Area but a Dev said there are some completely new monsters in the works so hopefully a hole here and there will be filled up a little more.

Actually, WoW has toads, squirrels, rabbits, deer, rats, cockroaches, snakes, birds in the air, and neutral critters of all levels that won't attack unless you do. The level 1 critters die if you hit them once; rabbits and deer can be skinned, the rest just make sad little corpses. The birds are visual only.

I'd love HZ to have a comparably rich ecosystem, once they get the new engine and can handle rendering all the extra little things.

-Levity

[imperial1]

1. "There are a lot of incomplete spell lines, and a lot of epic spells completed but not in game, I'm guessing they are waiting for the whole class balance to finish it all. Most of what we have now is all kinda repeats of themselves, which isn't that fun. "

This is true, And I agree getting that health 19 spell isnt as thrilling as gettingsomething new., Lazy spell design is all I can attribute this to.

2. "There is a good lack of combat immersion,..."

True again,the combat style and play needs revamping.

3. "Pets are sorely lacking"
Correct again, glad we agree.
I just hope the people who design this game actually read the postings.

5. "Crafting is one point they have worked on, and the exp isn't bad at all"

Here I can't give you kudos. XP for lower level crafters is torment.
I know this since I and several guild hatchlings just went thru it together.
It was the worst online experience most of us have had in ages.
Yes later it is a breeze, you just level adventure really high then thru
Gear you can craft way above your level and zoooom.
But one thru thirty it is slow torment.
Much slower than adventuring levels progress.

6. "The WA right now is pretty static, there has been numerous invasions."

Hmm nobodyin my guild has seen one in quitesometime now.
I dont consider some skellies on the roadadvancing a storyline.

7. "You can get a good staff, that increases your powers by a lot..."

I have now levelled 2 toons to 40 range and got nothing but junk
And even check connie often.
If real and decent items exist they are not foundon any spawns
Thru 40thlevel. I dont considered blight armoror flax a good drop.
I have seen a huge lack of variety in magic items.
Compared to other online games like this..

[Nikodemus]

Horizons is not WoW or any other MMORPG.

Horizons is Horizons.

Of course crafting and adventuring is hard at low levels and it takes you some time to get anywhere. You gotta *earn* your levels.

And you can believe me when I say that it was even harder a year and a half ago.

As for item drops if you want something good like the "uber" staff then ask someone to make you one. Provide the materials and tech ressources for the tricking you want done on it and you're set.

Aside from a handfull rare items the best stuff is player made.

[safaia]

I agree in most points but two:

The crafting system isgood balanced. If you build your own plot and have a good mix of T1 to T5 structures you easily reach high levels. For the other crafting classes I can say that it is farless time consumingto level your crafting skills than leveling your adventurer class. Maybe dragons are harder to level, that I don't know.

The essence of Horizons is that most Items are player made. A huge amount of lootable equipment would mess this up. If you want to see what good loot means to the crafters than take a look at Dark Age of Camelot. The crafter Community broke down completely after the release of TOA.

[AA0]

HZ is the model for lazy design. There is a mass amount that is repeatitive and formulaic. Abilities and spells are just mostly tiered, with very few specials of cool and unique ideas.

Crafting exp is a bit slow to start off, until you finish the first tier and can become efficient at some things, but not overly horrible...

If you haven't seen the events happen, or raids take place then you really aren't paying attention. It happens, Rawdge tends to put his own naturally evil flare into it when he tries to kill and humilate us on Order.

As for good equipment... ah the wonders of something semi-rare. To get a staff with 10% delay reduction for casting, and 10% recycle reduction is pretty tough, and those that get it probably won't put it on a connie. Blighted weapons for casters can be pretty ******** good, for melee users its harder to get (they need to be redone). Blighted armours are a pretty big waste of time, except as a source of blight cores.
The yew staff I found went to a friend, and she seemed to like it.