Concerning Unity

[Antonath]

First off, congratulations to the devs for getting hold of the game again, and lots (and lots, and lots) of thanks for restarting active development.

Hz was the first mmorpg I played, and consumed much of my free time. Playable dragons drew me in, but the community kept me here. I grew very attached to my little hatchie alter ego - I even postponed a get-together with friends so I could ascend to adulthood on my birthday (which probably says more about me than the game, but still...).

I could go on and on about how watching Unity die was depressing, but all the Unitarians know that, and those on the remaining servers probably had it worse - you got to watch the game die and get ripped off while it happened.

Unlike a lot of other people on the forum, I'm not terribly fussed about the cost of the new subscriptions. I'm in the happy situation of having enough money to pay for things like this without worrying. I am, however, worried about what exactly will happen with the import of Unity accounts.

I know, I know, Virtrium are still working out the details, so anything anyone says is pure speculation. That doesn't stop me raising my concerns .

A post in the subscription thread indicates that the solution currently under consideration is adding Unity characters to Chaos or Order. I understand that under the current finance-lacking circumstances, an entire server-farm for Unity isn't plausible. But simply dumping everyone into the US servers has its own issues.

Names: I like my name. It's mine. I chose it. What are the chances of name-collisions when we're all imported?

Plots: I read somewhere that there is a lack of plots on Chaos. Whether a plot reclamation will solve this, I don't know. But the chances are, there'll be a lot of people owning plots that are already taken. Oh, and the player-suggested "Unity island" would probably cost more to design, develop and test than the cost of a new Unity shard. Not to mention we don't want to be discriminated against / quarantined. We did get around to curing Zymosis Morbidae, you know .

Maintenance: US off-peak times != EU off-peak times. 'nuff said.

Community: When Wind, Earth and Ice were combined into Unity (sounds like something out of anime), the community went silent for a long time. No-one knew each other, running jokes stopped running, and everyone seemed to be afraid of talking to anyone they didn't know. Fortunately, the situation improved, although we never truly recovered. I don't want the same thing to happen if the Unity community became part of a US shard. I have no doubt we would be welcomed with open arms, but there's still going to be awkwardness.

Oh well, wait and see I guess.

Antonath

[Takora Drakan]

True Words Scaled brother... Even if we get migrated to a other shard I will be always feel as an outsider, its the home of the US players but not of the Unity ones. Its not our "home".

No Unity = No Lair, No Community, No Herald, No Shard Reports = No Takora probably. I dont invested months in money grinding to buy my lair and then to build it up then and then suddenly all my work goes poof! I dont have the time and the will to do it all again nuff said.

[Arietna]

In an ideal world I'd like a new Shard.. and the ability to port my characters (with plots preferably) FROM Chaos to join their companions on Unity..

it's not an ideal world normally, so I'll settle for a character import to Chaos.

There *are* plots available, even some decent size ones (Desert's Edge has a nice 52x52 one).. and I suspect there will be a lot more when a plot reclaim has been done - but depends how many Unity players are coming and how many people on Chaos who don't have plots that want them...

[brainbasher]

If offered new plots i have concerns as...in our guild plots where allocated (not totally acurate)to players building for general use.this was done at very low cost cash terms.We became resourse owners for guild.I assume spare plots on diff servers would cost gold.That is something i don,t have

[Vahrokh]

I'm not terribly fussed about the cost of the new subscriptions.

I am not fussed either.
On the contrary, since I understand it's additional (and piss annoying and error prone - I worked in legacy database programming and importing in the past) work I am more than willing to pay a fee for it.

Names: I like my name. It's mine. I chose it. What are the chances of name-collisions when we're all imported?

Antonath Of Unity
Like in the past.

Maintenance: US off-peak times != EU off-peak times. 'nuff said.

Playing WoW I had to stay hopelessy out of game so many times that I would not feel this that hard. Their "extended maintenances" are legendary. In duration and lack of information on when they end.

Community: When Wind, Earth and Ice were combined into Unity (sounds like something out of anime), the community went silent for a long time. No-one knew each other, running jokes stopped running, and everyone seemed to be afraid of talking to anyone they didn't know. Fortunately, the situation improved, although we never truly recovered. I don't want the same thing to happen if the Unity community became part of a US shard. I have no doubt we would be welcomed with open arms, but there's still going to be awkwardness

It lasted for like 1 day for me, then I overpowered the whole shard with my endless chattiness and it became an opportunity to sell more spells

As for plots, first come being alive, then I'll bother tearing my scales off because I don't find an home.
But they will be "alive scales" I tear, not ghost's.

Can't say the "Unity isle" does not appeal to me (I owned the giant plots, so I am sure they are well taken on Chaos and could use a "copy" elsewhere), but wouldn't it be a sort of "Unity ghetto" then?

[LOVWYRM]

Ohh Tako, come on
don`t do that to me (us)
you`re gonna have your slaves again to rebuild your castle

and look here: I´ve already got the diamonds...

[Chasing]

There is already an active community of unity players on Chaos spread over several guilds. I would estimate this at 30+ ppl (not including alts)

In terms of unity ppl being moved to chaos I cannot see that they will be ignored or there will be awkwardness, the majority of the US players on Chaos are friendly to those of us that have previously made the choice to start again.

There is a minority that do not socialise with the ex-unity players, but these ppl are a minority (4-5 ppl max). However I won't go into details regarding that on here.

I would welcome any returning unity player that chooses to move to Chaos into the existing guild that I am in (Heroes of Unity). We already have a spread of low lvl to high level players and multiple plots/lairs in ownership

On chaos, dragon chat tends to be more active than the marketplace chat, I also know that there is a german chat channel several ppl use, so to me it reminds me of how Unity used to be.

[Sunuke]

Even thought it's a minourity they are head strong in their behaviour Chasing.

EII banned them and our devs let them back in and their whole behaviour started back from point blanck.

Even though I have some really nice property on Chaos there still is something missing. I still haven't gotten my bipeds back up to where I had Sunuke on Unity and luckily friends still help out when I need something.

On Unity I could make anything.

[LaughingOtter]

EII banned them and our devs let them back in and their whole behaviour started back from point blanck.

Not to derail the topic, but the more tickets that are submitted documenting this group's improper actions, the better. Hopefully they'll be banned again well before plot reclaimations and those nice big plots they bought with exploited money will become available.

Takora, even merged into the populations of Chaos & Order, the Unity community will still exist. It's the people in the community the Herald reports on, and that you could still do. If anything, the Herald's duties would be more important to the community than before.

It's my sincere hope that Unity players will arrive with plot tokens and vaults full of Novians, ready to bid on those nice big plots I mentioned earlier. If that can't be done and it is just the clothes on your backs, this is Horizons. You won't be alone.

[Vahrokh]

If that can't be done and it is just the clothes on your backs, this is Horizons. You won't be alone.

I sniffed at this point and produced a ghostly tear off my eye.

[C`gan]

Varokh, should you have to decide on Order or Chaos over a Unity shard, remember, both our communities are here to help. That goes for anyone and everyone, be they newcomer, returning, veteran, or refugee.

[Sunuke]

When I entered Chaos January 2006 I was welcomed in the most warm way.

The community made sure I felt home which I did.

As more Unity players came around the summer which could possibly be competitors to this certain group things started to change and I got questions about the players from Unity that came.

Attitudes were quickly changing and I can understand why some won't feel welcome because of this behaviour.

[Vahrokh]

@C'gan

Thank you for the warm "welcome", I think I'll end up on Chaos because:

- I like to roleplay, but not always
- I like many players, more people to sell stuff to - selling and making stuff is always what I liked in Horizons the most.

@Sunuke
While I don't expect a WoW-like welcome (LOL noob L2P did you ebay attitude), I am aware that taking a seat at a table means that someone else have to give up some of their space, and not always this causes joy.

Still, I am positive that despite attritions (the "newcomer effect") we'll end up fine.

I have had such a battered real life anyway, that I feel comfortable as soon as I have a roof over my head. If there's more than a roof, better, else, it's still good enough.

[Velea]

Hopefully what you'll find is that enough others who haven't played in a long time are also coming back to play, so the "newcomer" effect will be minimized by people who stuck around just trying to figure out who's who again.

[XiaoChanLung]

Honestly, losing your plot by transferring will be the least of your worries. I've not been back for long but one of the things which the servers seem to be lacking is a feeling of community. Everyone has their heads down and just grind-kills/grind-crafts - and yes I know there are people who are going to say "oh, that's not true at all" - but these are probably people who are already in their established circles and guilds. The servers have their own little cliques and yes, I understand what a pain that is to try and break into, but I imagine more than a few of those people will leave once they realise they have to start paying for the game again - this means Back to the Old School. And from what I remember, Old School means community.

And with community from what I recall in The Day, if you posted where your plot was, there were days you'd come on and find entire projects finished. I know I used to do a lot of stealth-building when I was playing, and there are people who still do that sort of thing for people. With paying customers and returning players, the community feel can return once that proverbial ice is broken, and with any luck you'll have more people to help you build those plots if you need them built. There are people who enjoy crafting for crafting's sake and will finish all sorts of projects, unasked, unbidden, so I wouldn't allow losing your plot to put you off.

A community is built when people take the opportunity to do so. At the moment I rather think since everyone ingame has just been "coasting" for so long, they log in more out of habit than out of any real sense of accomplishing anything. It's a chat programme with pixels. While one would hope you could get Unity back, getting a transfer to Order or Chaos wouldn't be the end of the world, as an influx of refugees would perhaps be the motivational trigger to get people in that community, let's-free-the-Satyr sort of feel again.

[Vahrokh]

Well, I am not fussed about anything, just let me live again and I'll find my ways be it in a resurrected Unity, an isle or an import or whatever.

[Ivy]

OMG ?? Whats going on can someone enlighten me ?? please ? Nothing in announcement .. where do I have to look .. do we have hope to get our dragons back ?? WAAAH SOMEONE TELL ME I just visited this forum again after many months of absence and I feel like EXPLODING if I cant figur out whats going on here immediatly

[Tarot]

Ill return to horizons when they managed it either to put the chars on to an existing shard or if Unity is restored.

It will be hard to loose my plot, because there were many rare forms stored which will be impossible to get back.

But i want my dragoness Meara back and hopefully i can fly again together with Nesa to hunt down GemGolems again.

[Landowyn]

I'm sure that regaining plot possessions is part of the equation, but I can't be certain. As I recall, however, I didn't lose anything when the servers merged and all had to bid on new plots.

[Vahrokh]

Ivy, basically there is some small hint at the new owners to want to recover Unity characters somehow. Some want to play in a copy of the shard, others in a sort of "Unity isle" inside another shard, others to be imported as-is and so on.

I know how hard this "import" can be since

1) GN has to give the backup
2) The database structure of Unity is obsolete vs the US servers
3) The new owners don't have money to afford a new shard so it's probably a sort of merge, but the US shards plots are almost all taken and this creates more issues for those who want "their" plot back.

In my case I don't expecially care, as my focus is on my dragon but for some others it makes a difference.