Whats new with the game since the big server shakeup?

[ghenne]

I know its probably asked alot, but I did a ton of searching and couldn't find what I was looking for.

Basically I want to know about gameplay. Whats new and improved? I don't care about what is worse or the same at all.. only new and good things in the game. I originally played spirit as a crafter with a side of adventuring.

[Kulamata]

I'll start, but I'm sure many will have more to add.

Not quite sure when you left, but on the new shards there were severe economic restrictions; tech drops became very rare, Silver very hard to come by. Those restrictions were substantially eased, and tech ingredients can be hunted in a reasonable amount of time.

Dragons; not sure when hoard leak was removed. Not soon enough but quite a while ago. Dragons' intrinsic and scale armor were both upgraded, and Dragons are finally creatures ofmight. Dragon lairs are spectacular.

At the time of the move, guild plots were instituted. Very nice idea. And lair plots were added to the guild plot compexes, even nicer.

Major bosses have been added, tier VI mobs, a few rare but valuable drops have been added. Crystals were removed, but have been reintroduced, and they seem more interesting and useful this time around.

Dragon tutorial completely overhauled, biped tutorial is now in beta. Colors have been added for armor, and dye kits to allow color changes.

Some areas were changed at the time of the move; particularly Lesser Aradoth, and not for the better. (IMO). Lesser Aradoth has been completely revised recently, and has some very nice and interesting areas. New quests too.

Several islands have been added; ice and volcano islands have lots of tier V mobs, and there are lower level islands too. Abandoned Island is one I like particularly; and a wisp isle and a cloth isle among others.

An entire Northern Continent, Trandalar (Tandalar?) with occasional inconsistent spelling. All tier III.

There's a nice littlebunch of tier IV WAlurking in the trenches outside Aughundell.

Kwellen and Vexors may have been added after your time. The twomost spectacularnew mobs, both very well done.Treants and Oastics are two more relatively new mobs.

A lot of debugging.Client is being rewritten, and the project has already borne some fruit in reduced lag and memory card tex mem requirements.

We have not yet seen theresults, but a major fantasy writer, Peter Beagle ("The Last Unicorn") has been hired to develop lore and quests. He's a "real" writer, not a churner out of fantasy potboilers, andhis work should be really interesting.

Salt rock has been removed as a resource bonus drop. (Thank you Tigris for the reminder. )

Well let's see what I've forgotten....

[AA0]

Its really not possible to just give a list, everyone is going to forget something, but almost every part of the world has changed.

[C`gan]

Resource islands: Genevia, Scorpion, Abandoned, Trandalar, Ice

Player built mines: Sslanis, Aughundell, Mithril's Anvil, Wolf's Paw, Saritova, Mahagra, Tazoon, Trandalar Rift

New communities, guild plot islands (where a guild buys the master plot, builds the guildhall, and unlocks several other plots for that particular guild to buy at 1s each), more plots, more teleporters and pads, dragon lairs and community lairs

More beasties, a formalized tiering of Istaria so certain regions are a certain tier for resources and beasties, more loot, hoardables, tech components, trophy hunter items, bottlecap collections

Revisions of the tutorial island, dragon tutorial island, revamp of New Trismus for beginner players, current tier 1 revamping undergoing (beautifying, increasing resource and beastie spawns)

Trainers picking up their own forms to sell appropriate to their classes, new trainer placements, additional trainers, more processing machines added in field

Again, all broad brush strokes here concerning the canvas that is Horizons.

[Tigris]

Hey Ghenne I remember you! :)

[ghenne]

And I you, hard to forget ;)

I loved horizons.. It was like a bad break-up leaving. Unlike guys though, games can sometimes change for the better pfft. Thats why I'm getting curious again.. Plus the fact that my significant other plays WoW which is incredibly boring from my point of view.


Thanks for all the input everyone :) I'll definitely be starting fresh.. picking up my old character now would be almost like buying it on ebay. It might take me a month or so to get around to playing though!

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Wow, there's a familiar face.

If you want every single patch note since August '04:

http://horizons.gamersinfo.net/notes/default.php

[Grimthop]

Imagine my surprise when I go to take another look at the game and see both ghenne and tigris again. I remember many crafting odysseys with you two. Seems like you still play tigris? And ghenne are you going to give it another try?
I myself am probably going to reactivate my account and atleast roam around for a month, so hope to see you around.

[C`gan]

For those of you deciding on returning and know Tigris, he's on Order shard.

[Grimthop]

Is there a way to transfer characters between shards? Because I am going to reactivate my old account to which I surprisingly remembered the password.

[Kryxia]

It is good to see old people coming back and on a side note C`gan Tigris is a she so welcome back I hope you enjoy the changes

[Michlo]

I too am considering coming back for a look, much to my surprise. I and my guild were here from day one but with everything that happened with the Developers and the supposed bankruptcy we left for pastures new.

So I take it there are now just the two shards to choose from and I'm hoping/supposing that when I reactivate I'll still have my old characters and will have to choose which server. Any tips on restarting, etc?

My mains were Michlo (who started as a Fiend but I think morphed into a Dryad if memory serves) and my favourite, my Adult Dragon Noxuathl. :) We were of Clan Walker. Anybody around from the old days who might remember us? heh.