Future development plan same as before?

[Tarran of Chaos]

So yeah, I was reading the interview with Ophelia and noticed she made a comment about the future development plans of Horizons.

"He wants to do what the game has always done well: community, crafting and dragons. No other game has it. Kudos to the niche game. It's the reason it continues to rise from the ashes. Let's just hope this dragon soars and never need land again."

Ophelia neglected to mention multiclassing in there along with the dragons, community, and crafting so I wanted to mention it here in case it be overlooked in terms of what this game does well and what holds many players in it. Hopefully that is not overlooked in the development plans again next time around.

[Kulamata]

Good catch, multiclassing is unique, and it was a lot of fun plotting the "perfect" ranger; extending, but not exceeding the "template" as I saw it.

Multiclassing is certainly the most innovative "endgame" out there.

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Also hats. She forgot awesome cargo hats. They're like shoes for your head.

As for the development plan, I can't see it ever straying from maximize benefit to the player base as a whole while minimizing implementation costs.

[RuneDragoon]

I emailed her about som other points she missed, like saying virtrium took the game back from tulga and failed to mention why there was bad support from community.

[Tarran of Chaos]

Also hats. She forgot awesome cargo hats. They're like shoes for your head.

I could list alot of other games with hats. They didn't keep anyone there.

[Kryu]

i want pantings. like i'd love to dip a dwarf in paint and use him as a spongue to applicae designs on my walls

[Daedalus]

I am glad that Rick, Jason and Reyem are back on board. Their knowledge of the game will help turn things around here and eliminate the despair that has set in over the last year.

I do not think we should be asking for all sorts of development so quickly. Give them a chance to sort out billing, customer support, and the business operations first. We are all eagerly awaiting a lot of the new content that was almost ready prior to the EI sale, but we can afford to be patient and wait a while longer for the new team to sort out the foundations of the business.

[Bateluer]

Imagine my surprise when I stopped by the site and noticed updates saying Hz had been purchased again. I actually see optimism and the new owners talking to the community.

Personally, I would like to see a plan of attack of sorts from Virtrium LCC. What are they working on now, what do they plan to tackle in the short term, and what do they plan to tackle in the future. A rough timeline would be nice, but necessary.

I would love to resub to Hz, but I'm not going to until I actually see work being done and updates being applied to the game.

[Amerelium]

Resent turn of events have been the first good news in a year. So how about just letting them do their stuff before beginning making demands...

[Justa Mirage]

I don't think the naysayers seem to realize something...

The game was purchased by a company comprised of 3 ex-Tulga developers with contacts to the original designers / coders. They have already shown that they can initiate changes just by having the teleport splash screen patched in.

They have the knowhow (unlike EI / PME / NGW / ??? / ???) to actually ADD things to the game and PATCH the game.

As I said before, if EI could add 1 grain of sand to the beach of Kion using the patching system, I would believe in forward progress... but they didn't. Instead, they consumed as much money from credit cards as they could, kept the light on, and that's about it.

I have a renewed faith that the things that were on the previous "pony list" will be rehashed, but I believe their first orders of business are:

1: Fix Billing
2: Fix minor bugs that would have been fixed on the last Delta (edit: and repo plots in a few months)
3: Adjust mob spawns / over aggressive aggro (range aggro)
4: Fix the terrain / poly counts of objects to reduce lag / increase FPS
5: Start thinking about the "almost completed projects" and how to get them live (such as confectioner revamp)
6: Add NEW content (Dryad housing, dwarven housing, saddles, etc)
7: Add NEW TECH (client / server enhancements to the existing game to allow things like instanced dungeons, better spawning of mobs, etc)

I Could be wrong

[Hasai]

....6: Add NEW content (Dryad housing, dwarven housing, saddles, etc)....

Eyes JM's message with great suspicion.

Excuse me, but just what do you mean by 'saddles?' Isn't that some sort of biped equipment often used with yet another piece of biped equipment called a 'bridle?'

]B=8\

[Deth]

Don't worry Hasai it is not something that would ever be used on one of us Dragons. It is something I think they use on each other. Why I do not know.

[Justa Mirage]

Eyes JM's message with great suspicion.

Excuse me, but just what do you mean by 'saddles?' Isn't that some sort of biped equipment often used with yet another piece of biped equipment called a 'bridle?'

]B=8\

Saddles was a term David Bowman used for the "device" that dragons could quest for / get so they can take passengers. It was told to me by David when I interviewed him at Gencon that the idea was to have a rider list that was maintained by the dragon, and the dragon could "dismount" anyone while in flight, so make sure to bring lots of hoard.

[Hasai]

....and the dragon could "dismount" anyone while in flight, so make sure to bring lots of hoard.

Ah. Well, that's all right then.

Thank you for the prompt clarification.
.

[Kulamata]

One possibility would be to clean stuff up, as mentioned above, but NOT add much. Continue the client rewrite instead of adding features. Then the new client could form the heart of a relaunch. I don't think the funds and manpower will support significant game expansions AND rewriting the client simultaneously.

I have longly and strongly believed that Hz's comeback prior to the sale was based on POSITIVE changes; dragons were made a whole lot less frustrating, and they revamped the beginner experience. The enrollment/retention response was immediate.

Some real game improvements could be made easily by rolling back some of the "nerfs". Making crafting (to use LO's felicitous phrase) less adversarial; housing a bit less of a grind, that sort of thing. Such changes would have a major effect on gameplay, and be easy to implement. Besides, "NEW, NOW WITH EXTRA NERF" didn't entice or retain players; a lesson learned tragically slowly, to the extent that it was learned at all.

I'd also like to see better reuse of existing features. Crystals, Shattered Weapon Bits, Mossy Clubs, etc. could be reintroduced without new artwork, and, I think, minimal code. But scuttle the Crab and Scorpion; for me, they just don't fit into Horizons' imaginative bestiary.

[Istaria CS]

At this time we are reviewing the situation with regards to previous deltas, player feedback, and future development needs and will be releasing additional information about the specific future development plans in the coming weeks. Thank you for your patience and for your cotninued enthusiasm for Horizons.

-Horizons CS

[lightning claw]

Flat spin

players arnt going to pay with out new content so ENDING the STUPID WAR IN HARO with player tributes to are fallen comrades Morning breath Mcbain ect

*NOTE *
I made the tributes
I have the tributes put in to a Quest
I Have suggested Nidia Fixes
I addressed the spawns #Phase 2 #
and i left it wide opened for the t6 inplemtashion and they can go where ever or sign me up for the development team

as stated i already have drummed up 7 new adv classes for dragons and i went to work on a ped to see if i could improve there

*END NOTE*

New owners i think some trust would be regained if you recognized are fallen comrades with or with out my loar

[Justa Mirage]

Flat spin

players arnt going to pay with out new content so ENDING the STUPID WAR IN HARO with player tributes to are fallen comrades Morning breath Mcbain ect

*NOTE *
I made the tributes
I have the tributes put in to a Quest
I Have suggested Nidia Fixes
I addressed the spawns #Phase 2 #
and i left it wide opened for the t6 inplemtashion and they can go where ever or sign me up for the development team

as stated i already have drummed up 7 new adv classes for dragons and i went to work on a ped to see if i could improve there

*END NOTE*

New owners i think some trust would be regained if you recognized are fallen comrades with or with out my loar

I am going to do something I haven't done in about 3 years...

LC / Epion, please stop commenting on every thread that I leave posts on with misspelled garbage that reads like trash. If you have a beef with me or my characters in the game, leave it there.

Otherwise my post was simply about possibilities for quests. Rysom is an in-game NPC not a real life player. He greets people who do the bi-ped spirit isle and his story is legendary for what he did (lore wise)

You have taken a personal offense that I suggested this, it was merely a suggestion. Are you slighted that Morning Breath (which we all loved dearly) isn't getting just due because there isn't a monument in MB's honor?

I hate pointing this stuff out, but if you are going to comment about a particular post, try doing it in a constructive manner without pointing fingers at specific posters.

/rant off.

[Galilee]

Justa Mirage

1: Fix Billing
2: Fix minor bugs that would have been fixed on the last Delta (edit: and repo plots in a few months)
3: Adjust mob spawns / over aggressive aggro (range aggro)
4: Fix the terrain / poly counts of objects to reduce lag / increase FPS
5: Start thinking about the "almost completed projects" and how to get them live (such as confectioner revamp)
6: Add NEW content (Dryad housing, dwarven housing, saddles, etc)
7: Add NEW TECH (client / server enhancements to the existing game to allow things like instanced dungeons, better spawning of mobs, etc)

Hopefully, somewhere inbetween the first few items on this good list, there will also be a number cut out which says 'looking after lost Unity'... here's for hoping

As for 6 and 7:I do think Kulamata has some very good points. That would indeed get a lot of old and new players in, without too much work needed, imo. So maybe that part inbetween 5 and 6 in Justa's list ?

And big gratz, all US-players and especially the blighters, on the things you are allready seeing to be happening. Wonderful news! 'Horizons, the phoenix'...

[HappyFunBall]

Personally, I would like to see a plan of attack of sorts from Virtrium LCC. What are they working on now, what do they plan to tackle in the short term, and what do they plan to tackle in the future. A rough timeline would be nice, but necessary.

I would love to resub to Hz, but I'm not going to until I actually see work being done and updates being applied to the game.

I agree 100%. I need to see *something*.

Right now, I can't even login to the game consistently. It takes forever just to fail at the login and get the error message. Usually, something different happens each time I try.
1) Sometimes the screen turns black and there's little disk access and no network access (from looking at my cable modem comm light)
2) Sometimes I can't even alt-tab from that black screen and kill the process
3) Sometimes the screen goes black, then I get the intro screen, and the changing messages at the bottom, and STILL crash with a transport error, 5-10? minutes later. Now THAT is annoying.

I won't even think of subbing unless there's 100% support for the X-FI (creative labs) sound card, which for some odd reason, always had strange problems with this game. I haven't seen a single other game have a problem with that card. Not one (out of about 50 games).

Also, some people are saying it takes 5-20 mins to login. 20 minutes? I have about 12 MMO's on my machine, right NOW. Many are free-to-play and are horrible, but, I can get up and running and in game with ALL of them in about 1-2 minutes!!

Hz dev has a LONG way to go to get this code up to snuff. I wish them the best of luck, but it seems like it's going to be a while before things are running smoothly from a technical point of view. I won't even get into billing and such.