With new management comes new possibility
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WARNING!!!!!
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VERY LONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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when i originally joined the game in january of 2004 i saw more promise then any other game i have ever played. over the past several years i have tried many different MMOS including the one that EI worked on Savage Eden, but none of them felt as right as Horizons. There was just something about this game that i fell instantly in love with. despite some long time friends saying im mad for still believing in this game, i still do. of course there are some things that i would definately love to see changed. While not everyone will agree with these changes, i believe they would add a new dimension to the game, and add the ability to create a balance.
Some of you may remember a post i did back in the day on the old boards of tazoon.com when it was alive. this is basically a tweaked version of that. on top of that this system would be one i would like to see only on new servers. the old servers should be left alone as far as this aspect goes, of course some of the content could be added but the rework of many aspects of the game could be left alone.
As we all know the marketable aspects of this game are the dragons and the intricate crafting system, namely the building and communitity involvement. of course the strongest aspect of this game is the close knitted community and the strong ability to roleplay. However there are some aspects of that game that are, in my opinion, flawed. These aspects tend to lead towards rapid boredom and the inability to balance the game world
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The first aspect i would like to touch base on is the one i have the strongest feelings for, multiclassing. of course the ability to be anything and everything is nice, it is not really that practical, while not the real world its not very real either, how can any one person be everything. while it is a perk and there are some partial balances in the game, it prevents the game from really being balanced, and limits advancement of the game itself.
In order to make the computer monsters comparable to the multiclassing ability the strength of the monsters had to be upped, and to counter that the dragon strength required tweaking to make them stronger, and the snowball continues. The only way i can see to rectify this is a complete rework of the way the leveling system works,and in a sense the removal of multiclass, now now, that means looking at dragon strength too. I am not talking about removing the multiclass all together im talking about a rework of it. in this rework, can take limitless number of classes to untold heights as it is now, but the difference is, you can only use 2 classes at any one time. allow me to explain.
Each character can choose one main class and one sub class. the main class has all the abilities and perks of that class. the sub class has restricted abilities, it is enough to add to their arsenal, but not over powerthem. To make things more interesting, all xp is recorded, as it currently is. there is a trainer in each city that allows you to select your primary and sub classes. you can also drop a subclass and only have a primary class, the choice is limitless.
All xp , and levels are recorded and saved no matter what your primary and secondary school. so you can easily swap between a 20 warrior 16 mage 5 cleric and say 12 spiritist. as primary you could be 20 warrior and 5 cleric. your mage and spiritist skills will not show up but you will have whatever abilities a sub 5 cleric recieves, and all your warrior. you can go back and take 16 mage and 12 spiritist, in that you lose all cleric and warior abilities but gain those of spiritist and mage.
I also feel that certain classes should be restricted from being a primary sub combo it paladin and spiritist, this might open up the ability for some new classes. Also with this system the rating system would need to be abolished.
I have also always been very fond of the skill based system. it increases the game play and gives you some sort of sense of accomplishment other then just ding level up. at level 1 you have all skills in the game available, but they are capped at 1. when you choose a class that increases your skill capped based on the skill levels currently in the game. also it is possible to spend training points as you do now to raise your cap even more. and the skills still carry over as they do now. so you may be a level 1 scout, but because you have 20 in warrior you might have 150 in slash instead of 1. however, like the current system your cap does not increase until you surpass the cap set by the the other classes.
Also to ease the suffering of the great grind. both primary and secondary schools collect xp with each kill. so say you kill a mob worth 500 xp 10% or whatever value set by the company, but definately not more then 50 would go into your sub class.
To further prevent exploit and make a rating system not needed. a secondary class cannot exceed a primary in level. so you can not have level 20 warrior sub abilities as a level 1 primary mage. the level of your primary school directly relates to the secondary abilities. if your a level 1 primary mage you can only have level 1 secondary warrior abilities. as your mage levels so do your warrior abilities. Also while the primary is lower then the secondary, no xp is awarded to the secondary only the primary. so once the person hits 20 mage then his 20 warrior will now start recieving xp. this restriction only applies to active classes. even if he has 100 cleric as long as cleric is not active he will still receive xp for both second and primary as if the 100 mage didnt exist. Also once a class hits 100 then the xp to the secondary is increased to say 50-75% of total and the rest is lost.
While some of these changes may seem a bit drastic or far fetched, with the way they work they could really breath life into the game. of course your going to have people that dont like change. that is why i said these changes would only apply to new servers.
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That was my idea for the remake of the leveling system. of course the combat itself needs a major overhaul to make it more interesting. button mashing can be quite boring to say the least. animation, atleast on bipeds, is the pits, and elves have got to be the worst ive seen.
A combat upgrade is badly needed, with the game so craft oriented the combat system is often overlooked, and since a majority of the people are more interested in the combat system then the crafting system something appealing would help draw more to the game.
On top of that what is the point in having crafters craft armor and such when theres so few people adventuring to use their wares.
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On the crafting note i believe that some sort of overhaul is needed there too. there is too much of a be EVERYTHINg you can be these days. WoW started this way and you had much of what you have now in HZ. People crafting to create their own stuff limiting the market drastically, all money being spent solely on components. a way to fix this would be to limit the number of professions you can have. this is sorta how wor did it but tweaked. since there was a proposal for skill system, all skills earned never decrease. so while a person may only have 2 trades, any skills they learn from others is recorded. say a person takes tinker up to level 30 then goes tailor to 20, if he drops tailor so he can pick up mining, he loses all levels of tailor. HOWEVER, skills are still there. so even if he picks up tailor again, his skill will still be what it was, so his harvesting will be greatly increased and his efficacy will be high. so he may be able to make those low level items at max efficiency gaining his levels back rapidly.
also some all time fluff classes should be added. many games out there have fishing for fun wheres ours haha
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Phew, so now youve lasted this long, but alas all is not yet complete. I warned you it was long, but now comes some interesting things. with the original design there were castles. BRING THOSE BACK, well atleast in a way. it would be a neat addition for a later desire.
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Now the thing that needs to be done BRING BACK OLD ISTARIA. im sorry but this land we were cursed with after the WA destroyed the old shards SUCKS. its horrible. the tier based monsters the pot marked land is just plain sad. now you cant take 2 steps in istaria without running into a player town. seriously bring back the old world, add the current islands and maybe a few more TOWNS, and thats it.
I remember when my wings were small i had to run from that dorf village aughendall though some mean were wolves to get to harro. i liked that concept. this current world is so lifeless. there is no point in exploring the land anymore because if your level 20 your here 30 here 40 here ect ect. its dumb. befor atleast things were real. you have these creatures here those there. bring back the old istaria. the one with large territories of NO HOUSES.
On top of that make the player cities interesting. make them towns. the plots around the towns have a base value. each structure a player adds has a value. as the surrounding area of the town increases in value let the city expand with new things that a player has to build.
Say the town starts at a value of ummm 10g. all the plots. have that base value. when the plots get bought and built on, that value goes up. so say when all the houses and such raise the towns property value to 15g, the town adds some nice asthetics to the area. like some street signs, and some arch ways, when the town reaches 20, maybe the city should expand to include maybe a connie. or a portal. this would give people a reason to build up plots with lots of different things, after all those silos are an eye sore and arent worth much, but that big pretty fountain the person next door should raise property values significantly. When the town gets large enough maybe it will add city walls and gates to protect its citizens. these additions could be hard coded into each town and not random.
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Now comes the last aspect ill discuss for now. the castles and a possible PvP aspect of the game. as EI hinted there is a possibility of a race wars kind of thing, this is a way that these wars could be instituted. Castle and town warfares.
factions could help aid this process. When a player starts the game he is nuetral to all races but his own in which he is friendly. through quests. a person could raise their faction with a given race, they can also do so by killing NPCs of warring factions. If a player kills allied races they can lose their own factions rating as well.
To make things nice, the PvP should not be FFA. instead it should be on a voluntary basis. this can happen through a couple methods, on is the kill an NPC approach, or there could be a slash command toggle, or button. when in PvP mode you can be attacked by anyone you are not allied with. so say you have friendly status for both dwarf and elf, anyone who has friendly status with either dwarf or elf can not kill you as you are classified as a friend. only be becoming nuetral to factions your both friendly with can you be killed by that person. also, to prevent exploits, you can leave PvP mode, but only after a certain length of time in not participating in PvP acts. be it killing an enemy pc or npc. so say its a button. so long as you kill a PvP type target your timer keeps being reset. to sat 5/10 minutes. if you hide out for that time your timer will complete and you can disengage PvP. Also logging out for that length of time forces you out of PvP.
The neatest aspect of this could be the castle siege aspect. one reason i always liked DAOC was for sieges, and with this game and castles which did exist sieges could go to a new level. Siege crafters can make their debut, crafting siege weapons, to use on castles towns and towers. the towers can be razed or taken control of by enemy races. the same as castles. enemy towns are different. they can be attack but no buildings can be destroyed. also towns can be rebuilt by players, but do so automatically over time.
Castles are the most unique. each race has their own model castles. they start off as simple little wooden keeps, but with time they can be upgraded 1 level. once upgraded it can not be further upgraded until the cycle is complete again. the length can vary, but say its upgradable every day or couple days. to a max level. each upgrade is not free though. the upgrade requires resources which must be supplied by the players. the resources are not super high, but they are not super low either. each castles size grants new defensive options. say the higest level castle has multiple walls and gates which must be taken down as one type of possible perks. only those with friendly status may enter the keeps where the lord of the castles are garrisoned. but those who are nuetral may access any stores inside the keeps.
as the castles upgrade it may open up new stores. such as armor and weapon vendors, consignment merchants, ect. not to mention perks with the garrison. The walls of the keep are detroyable, but take a bit of work, the doors can be torn down as well. the walls and doors can also be repaired. the resources required are not high but not so low that they can repair a max level palace thats been decimated easily. The structures inside the keep can be destroyed as well, and are non-functioning until repaired, this includes connies, of course the timer still counts on the connies, so even if you run out of time you still get your stuff back. for the connies, placing things on castle connies are free or reduced due to risks. if the keep is destroyed all items on the connie are returned to their owners vault just as if time ran out.
Also to make things fun, a player can become an enemy of his own race. those who have been outcasted can join a band of thieves and bandits. these bad guys have keeps but dont upgrade like race keeps do, to make things fair their keeps are repaired over time for free, and can not be controlled, as those who fight for bandits are basically fighting with computer controlled AI. there can be one stronghold where the bandit leaders exist. this can lead to a series of quests to gain access to the bandit stronghold. Bandit havens also have NPC quests that allow you to boost factions with player races, so that if you become an enemy of your own race you can eventually come back.
if you are PvP flagged and an enemy of a town the guards will attack on sight. player events still can exist and all can participate, of course this may be breeding grounds at times to prevent advancement. but even enemies are friends so long as your not flagged.
Eventually these advancements could lead to dark races in the race wars. ones that work with the Withered Aegis in their attempt to dominate the world.
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Well, you survived this bought thats all im going to talk about for now, have a few other things id like to see but thats enough of my rambling. Thank you for taking the time to read this. i Hope you had as much fun reading it as i did writting and thinking of it.
Originally Posted by bright
. Fang was my favorite mob in game. My 2nd favorite was the Avatar of Pain. I remember landing in Morning Light and being surprised by him and his train of followers on the pad. I think one time running out of Morning Light, heading to the obsidian fields I counted over 40 mobs in his "train".
