old horizons concept art pic

[Ebonscales]

has anyone got a copy of the old concept art drawing that showed all of the proposed races standing next to another for size comparison? It was the one that showed the races that got canned as well... lamurians, vampires, angel, demon, orc, etc. I'd be interested in seeing any of those re-addressed But I'd definitely love to see that picture again regardless.

[Dha'Vol]

I remember the picture you are talking about. If I run across it Ill post it for you. I did find this old website that has some information from the original design ideas.

http://www.gamemethod.com/files/hori...eral.php#races

I would really like to see this weapon in the game. It looks very nasty.

http://archive.gamespy.com/asp/image...horizons/3.jpg

[TheHaunt]

and the descriptions are at Old Horizons race descriptions

Also, I found a sight that shows the blood wars originally conceived (I think) for the PvP concept back then... Races, alignments and blood feuds
which is an excerpt from the Gamespy Preview of 2001

I think this might be the information you were seeking.

[Dha'Vol]

Yep I had just found that and was about to post it.

[Hiko]

woulda been fun to play as an angel or demon

[Ebonscales]

yep, that was it. very cool.. thanks!

[Cobal]

More old concept art here for those interested:

http://www.jaman.hu/ujJaman.hu/images/

It's jumbled up between a lot of other pics that have nothing to do with hz.

[Bhalzamon]

woulda been fun to play as an angel or demon

I totally agree. I would like very much to see any pics anyone has of the epic spells that never came out ... like the Banshee one

[Ar-Narluin]

If you are interested in old concept art, visit my site (www.iprotettoridellanticocodice.135.it) at this section: http://xoomer.alice.it/protettori.an...ce/gallery.htm

Here there are some screenshot and some concept art divided in character, monster and building.

[pogowolf]

I'll see what I can't drag up. I've also still got the orginal CD's.. preordered so I also have the Bonus CD. I'll see what I can't get up and posted for you all. =)

When I do.. Check out the Gallery at: http://picasaweb.google.com/pogowolf

[madrain]

Thank goodness goblins didn't come out.. I already have a hard enough time deciding between playing a dragon, a dryad, and a satyr..

[Ebonscales]

funny thing is, they had all of those races concepted. Yet they added in satyrs which were not part of the original vision. Bleh.. I want to unlock lamurians.. just to give some purpose to all that wasted ocean terrain

EI could make a serious leap forward if they managed to work in coding new races... perhaps demons and angels so that they can setup some kinda new godo vs evil based factions where everyone else can pick a side. optional pvp.. eeek. hehe. don't beat me!

[Cebiliis]

Wow thats just a glimpse at what they had originally envisioned Horizons to be. Personally for what they got into game before running outta money I really like whats out there. Aye, new races would be AWESOME!! Maybe we should post something about it in suggestions once EI is done fixing all the bugs in the system first.

[Chayls]

Reading all that material from 4 years ago (the IGN article is for 2002 release, the Gamespy article is 2001), I am amazed at how off track Horizons got to be from the original design. I mean things like the skill system and aging can be doable now (the game RF online seems to do well with such a system), the hunting of a bad PVPer/murderer is actually doable now as well (such a system is in place in EVE Online), the world at war and changing daily with trade routes and shops is even doable (Vanguard: Saga of Heroes at last count is putting in such a system). Heck if EI wanted to revamp and do Horizons over with a clean slate (though that probably isn't possible) they could probably put in every single thing that the original vision had, short of the races. Odds are they wouldn't though because of the time and money involved. Still if they could manage to do that, even in small incremenents it might be enough to draw folks back in (PVP or no PVP).

Chayls
(Who would want to try playing a Lemurian/water based race)

[snickel]

Does that mean that gnomes were a last-minute addition? Well-done, then!

[Takora Drakan]

Does that mean that gnomes were a last-minute addition? Well-done, then!

Nahh... the dragon on the conept art ate the Gnome

[snickel]

Nahh... the dragon on the conept art ate the Gnome

You wish, Takora

[Nalrach]

and the descriptions are at Old Horizons race descriptions

Also, I found a sight that shows the blood wars originally conceived (I think) for the PvP concept back then... Races, alignments and blood feuds
which is an excerpt from the Gamespy Preview of 2001

I think this might be the information you were seeking.

Wow did they really at one time consider all those race. I think the game lacks to see major difference beetween the race. Like they planned to review the class they may whish to review the race attributes.

Talking about old art, remember when they publishe the castle stuff, we never seen it placed in the game. Also at the same time their was a stone wizard tower that was real net looking. I wonder what happend to all these building model.

[TheHaunt]

Good questions, Nalrach... I'm afraid we may never know...

[Goriax]

Reading all that material from 4 years ago (the IGN article is for 2002 release, the Gamespy article is 2001), I am amazed at how off track Horizons got to be from the original design. I mean things like the skill system and aging can be doable now (the game RF online seems to do well with such a system), the hunting of a bad PVPer/murderer is actually doable now as well (such a system is in place in EVE Online), the world at war and changing daily with trade routes and shops is even doable (Vanguard: Saga of Heroes at last count is putting in such a system). Heck if EI wanted to revamp and do Horizons over with a clean slate (though that probably isn't possible) they could probably put in every single thing that the original vision had, short of the races. Odds are they wouldn't though because of the time and money involved. Still if they could manage to do that, even in small incremenents it might be enough to draw folks back in (PVP or no PVP).

Chayls
(Who would want to try playing a Lemurian/water based race)

I was following HZ from the beginning and remember when that concept art was released.

Trade routes are in Vanguard, but it's most definately PvE.

As for shops, the current HZ has them. If they're for selling your own goods we call them consigners.

The old skill system can best be described as bizarre. It was NOT a straightforward buy skills type system. Cost of new skills depended on what skills you already head and was designed to reward specialization to a ridiculous degree. It was such that, if you worked on offensive melee skills you'd have a harder time later building defensive melee skills. Other combinations which should have been reasonable also appeared to be equally bizarre.

If you think this old concept is cool then check out ToA -- it's much the same kind of thing except ToA added permadeath.

While I can't say for the others, I think most people currently playing dragons would have been bitterly disappointed unless they're comfortable playing the dragons as in ToA (i.e. hunted unmercifully such that hardly any make it to adult). The old HZ dragons would have been similar; the key point being that less then one percent of the people who started a dragon would ever get to adult if the devs had their way. The old HZ devs were quite proud of the fact that there would be only 10 (yes 10) ancient dragons on a server hosting 10,000 players logged on. How they would manage that was never said since the old HZ had no permadeath, but they did say that was their goal (it's easy to ignore such difficulties when your game is nothing but a concept, they'd eventually have had to deal with it though). At least ToA knows how they'll do it since it has permadeath. In both cases (old HZ and ToA) everyone says THEY would be the one to make it but of course that's ridculous. Most wouldn't unless the devs failed to accomplish what they were setting out to accomplish.

The old HZ also had incongruities such as heavily craft oriented players in a PvP environment.

I was following the old HZ, largely because of the dragons; but I have to admit that I'd have most likely have cancelled within six months after getting ganked for about the 500th time by some trash talking spoiled child.

The old HZ never got off the ground. After several years it had chewed through a great deal of money, had a lot of cool ideas, produced a lot of artwork, but had nothing which could be called a game. They hadn't even decided on an engine in all that time. Some parts (such as the Lamurians) got axed VERY early when even the people running the show back then realized they'd bitten off too much. I think some minor parts of the current HZ date from that period including the names of several of the races and some models (I suspect the dragon models date from then). Also, it looks to me like the Istarian coastline for the main continent is roughly the same now as in the old map (although details have changed and interior features are vastly different).

The old HZ had no Withered Aegis and no blight by the way. Also, there was no intention for any user modifyable terrian. They announced at one point that most players would NOT be able to have property of their very own. Yes, I'm talking about the old HZ.

It's EASY to cook up cool ideas without regard to how hard they are to impliment. Heh, I bet most of the people on this board have ideas for what they think would be a great game. It's a lot harder to turn those ideas into reality. The old HZ was great at the first but failed completely at the second.

Anyway, if you think racewar PvP is a good idea, check out ToA. It has much the same concept as the old HZ. If you're a dragon and aren't the most successful dragon on your server (since the current servers are less then a tenth the size envisioned for the old HZ), remind yourself that in all probability you'd have never gotten to adult in the old HZ.