2 years away? What's changed?

[Flam]

Ok so I stopped playing a few years ago right around the time that they put in like a bazillion new plots and they were going threw all those corporate financial troubles and stuff. It was shortly after they added the beer elementals or whatever they were called. So Lineage 2 released right around then so I played that for a while untill World of Warcraft came out and have been there ever since. WoW is a sweet game but I'm a bit bored with it now and feel like I've done it all. I can't get past all the good times I had in Horizons and I still to this day think that nothing is the best mmo in terms of crafting that I have ever seen and none since can even compare.

So do I come back to Horizons? Well, I guess that all depends on what has changed. Can anyone answer some of the following questions for me because these were some of the things that I was hoping would get changed and want to know if they were...

1. That one main town in the desert area was laggy as heck. I think it was called Lagzoon or something like that. Or at least thats what I called it. Is it better?

2. I was a bit frustrated at the lack of creativity with new content. It seemed like at the time, the developers would just take an existing mob, change the color, give it a new name, then throw it in an empty spot and call it a patch. This resulted in like 80 different types of mobs but only like 15 different actual mob designs. Has this been fixed? Are there really NEW mobs now?

3. There was this dude named Lizardo who was in a guild with all the high level players and they would take their lowbie friends to this place that I dont remember the name but it was dangerous without a group. They would essentially power level them there up to max level really fast. It didnt seem fair and it also caused clumping of end game characters into those few places. Is that fixed?

4. There were some resources that dropped off of specific mobs that were only in certain places (thinking of like different mineral golems and stuff for instance). They would always be camped with lots of people because everyone would be farming the same things so it was a lot of just standing around waiting your turn to kill one. They were planning to consolodate servers which I feared would make that an even worse problem than it already was. Did they do anything about that?

5. Plots. While a great concept, and fun to build, the actual building process was a bit stupid. At the time, You would spend about 10% of the time actually farming the materials, 10% of the time applying the materials, and 80% of the time transporting the materials to the darn plot. Most of the time was spend running to the plot and porting because the materials were nowhere near the actual plot and you could often only carry a few of the items at a time. Have they done anything to help make this part of the game better?

6. did they add any mounts or make dragons ridable?

7. Are there still lots of active players? Would I be all alone in the lower levels because everyone is capped out on the end game?

8. How would you say the economy is doing with regards to gold farmers and such?

And last but not least. Would you recommend that I come back to Horizons? And Why? What were the big changes over the last 2 years?

Thanks!

[Flam]

Yeah thats great and all but thats like 2 years worth of patch notes. I dont need all the intimate details about this spell or that spell being fixed, just high level big changes. Half of that stuff I don't even know what they are talking about anyway cause it was so long ago.

[Flam]

um. ok. huh? You sound like Doctor Phil. lol What are you talking about?

[Flam]

Hey do you think I would get my old character back too or would I have to start over? It was a cleric/spiritist gnome.

[Flam]

erm... I dont think the expanse server exists anymore anyway.

[Ulkesh]

alot has changed, but somethings are still the same. as to if you will be alone, on chaos i just recently, finally, started a biped alt and there seem to be sevreal lowbie characters hanging around and hunting.

give it a go, your character was copied over after the merge so it still exists.

[Firedragon]

1. That one main town in the desert area was laggy as heck. I think it was called Lagzoon or something like that. Or at least thats what I called it. Is it better?

Improvements have been made, yes, but you don't have to go there much now. The main portal hub now is Bristugo (less laggy).

2. I was a bit frustrated at the lack of creativity with new content. It seemed like at the time, the developers would just take an existing mob, change the color, give it a new name, then throw it in an empty spot and call it a patch. This resulted in like 80 different types of mobs but only like 15 different actual mob designs. Has this been fixed? Are there really NEW mobs now?

2 new mobs that I can think of: Kwellens and Vexators. Devs are working on new creatures.

3. There was this dude named Lizardo who was in a guild with all the high level players and they would take their lowbie friends to this place that I dont remember the name but it was dangerous without a group. They would essentially power level them there up to max level really fast. It didnt seem fair and it also caused clumping of end game characters into those few places. Is that fixed?

Power leveling has been kinda fixed in a way. Mobs tend to target the lowest lvl in the group now.

4. There were some resources that dropped off of specific mobs that were only in certain places (thinking of like different mineral golems and stuff for instance). They would always be camped with lots of people because everyone would be farming the same things so it was a lot of just standing around waiting your turn to kill one. They were planning to consolodate servers which I feared would make that an even worse problem than it already was. Did they do anything about that?

Ah yes, I remember the days of golem farming. I'd say farming is no longer an issue.

5. Plots. While a great concept, and fun to build, the actual building process was a bit stupid. At the time, You would spend about 10% of the time actually farming the materials, 10% of the time applying the materials, and 80% of the time transporting the materials to the darn plot. Most of the time was spend running to the plot and porting because the materials were nowhere near the actual plot and you could often only carry a few of the items at a time. Have they done anything to help make this part of the game better?

I think they reduced the bulk on building materials a bit. There are also cargodiscs you can port with now.

6. did they add any mounts or make dragons ridable?

Not yet.

7. Are there still lots of active players? Would I be all alone in the lower levels because everyone is capped out on the end game?

Depends on the server I think.

8. How would you say the economy is doing with regards to gold farmers and such?

Those with plenty gold usually don't have anything to spend it on. Also we have the moneyloving Vielo NPCs to buy stuff from.

And last but not least. Would you recommend that I come back to Horizons? And Why? What were the big changes over the last 2 years?

2 years is a long time... best try the trial if you are unsure.

Thanks!

You're welcome!

[Landowyn]

1. That one main town in the desert area was laggy as heck. I think it was called Lagzoon or something like that. Or at least thats what I called it. Is it better?

Hardly anyone goes through Tazoon anymore. Many NPCs and trainers have been moved, although the Wishgiver is still there. I don't find it to be much of a problem.

2. I was a bit frustrated at the lack of creativity with new content. It seemed like at the time, the developers would just take an existing mob, change the color, give it a new name, then throw it in an empty spot and call it a patch. This resulted in like 80 different types of mobs but only like 15 different actual mob designs. Has this been fixed? Are there really NEW mobs now?

Some of the old standbys, like the Avatar of Pain, Scabria and Crankenspank, are gone. New super mobs have been added. Many use the same basic model, but there are some new models as well, such as treants, vexators and kwellan.

3. There was this dude named Lizardo who was in a guild with all the high level players and they would take their lowbie friends to this place that I dont remember the name but it was dangerous without a group. They would essentially power level them there up to max level really fast. It didnt seem fair and it also caused clumping of end game characters into those few places. Is that fixed?

Fixed. Lowbies don't get experience grouped with uberpeds any longerf.

4. There were some resources that dropped off of specific mobs that were only in certain places (thinking of like different mineral golems and stuff for instance). They would always be camped with lots of people because everyone would be farming the same things so it was a lot of just standing around waiting your turn to kill one. They were planning to consolodate servers which I feared would make that an even worse problem than it already was. Did they do anything about that?

This type of farming is gone, and TG is pretty quick to react to mistakes in this area. A named quest golem on Trandalar was dropping items like crazy at one point and, people being people, they camped him like crazy. Camping is an enduser phenomena, but mostly gone now.

5. Plots. While a great concept, and fun to build, the actual building process was a bit stupid. At the time, You would spend about 10% of the time actually farming the materials, 10% of the time applying the materials, and 80% of the time transporting the materials to the darn plot. Most of the time was spend running to the plot and porting because the materials were nowhere near the actual plot and you could often only carry a few of the items at a time. Have they done anything to help make this part of the game better?

Certain cargo disks are transportable now, and building resources take less bulk. It's possible to play 60-70 units at a time now. And many places that didn' t have travel gates in the past have them now.

6. did they add any mounts or make dragons ridable?

Not yet

7. Are there still lots of active players? Would I be all alone in the lower levels because everyone is capped out on the end game?

There are lower level people around, but the majority of people are multiple 100s.

8. How would you say the economy is doing with regards to gold farmers and such?

There are no gold farmers. There is nothing to spend money on except for plots -- buying them and building them.

And last but not least. Would you recommend that I come back to Horizons? And Why? What were the big changes over the last 2 years?

The changes are sometimes subtle, sometimes huge. You'd have to decide for yourself, because, like many others, I like some of them and didn't like others. Patch notes won't do it. If you're unsure, play the trial. Or resub for one month ... your characters are still there. There have been no wipes.

Horizons is a game that appeals to a certain demographic and will probably never please the EQ, EQ2, Lineage, DAOC and WoW majority. Its appeal to me is that I don't have to sign up for a raid and wait for several hours for it to get going to have fun. And I don't have to sit in queue for a PvP battleground. I can log on an hunt or craft, and it doesn't matter how long a time or how short a time I can play. That says a lot for me.

[AA0]

thankfully LIZARDO and his group of power levellers are mostly gone...

[Magnir]

There are no gold farmers. There is nothing to spend money on except for plots -- buying them and building them.

Would this mean that most servers have a stable economy with reasonable prices on equipment upgrades that you don't create yourself?

And is the copper still has strong as it was in the first 6 months after release?

[Magnir]

Does anyone have more of an explanation?

Obviously there is an economy or the consigners wouldn't have merchandise on them. Perhaps you mean that, in your eyes, there's no economy to speak of?

Hell, a barter system is a form of economy.

[Seranthor]

there are many views on the state of the HZ economy. If your question is does your 50s that you had way back in the old days buy you the same amt of good, perhaps. Or perhaps your question was will you be able to find buyers for mass production of your good, perhaps, would depend on your target market. Or perhaps your asking if you can obtain the goods/services you need at a reasonable price w/o having to look high and low for it, perhaps as well.

However, as your question is written its very very vague and doesn't offer enough information to answer it accurately.

[Magnir]

Well... it seems that if I narrow it down the answer will be... perhaps **grin**.

Simply put, I'm coming back to Horizons from World of Warcraft where the economy is so inflated that adequately gearing a starting character with no max-level character to give them money by grinding high level areas is highly frustrating.

So, my specific question would be: Is it unreasonable to expect that I can adequately gear my characters, a dragon and a bi-ped, through crafting with some adventuring on the side? By "adequately gear" I mean supplementing my crafting efforts by occasionally buying tools/weapons/cargo gear/etc. from other players without being gouged by higher level players placing overpriced goods on the consignment merchants. To be more specific, this would be on the Order RP server.

[Seranthor]

Yes.

[Magnir]

OK, I am of the understanding ways now. Thanks guys.