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...

[medweasel]

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.

I can understand how you'll feel but even if they do "dump" you into the US servers, you will NEVER be an outsider. I've found that Horizons as a whole is a family mmo where everyone is family. We will open our arms to you, our lairs, plots, whatever it takes. I'm sure people won't mind sacrificing to make everything fair. I can't speak for everyone but I wouldn't mind a bit. Of course I'm new "again" and don't have much to lose but I'd still do it in a second if I had the largest lair in mmo history. I'd give it up to start on even ground with you'll. No horizons player will ever be an outsider on any of the servers. We're all in this together and have been through alot Pre EI and after. The thing that keeps me coming back time and time again is the community. They're nice, friendly, giving and an incredible bunch of dedicated players. Any other mmo would have been dumped years ago but not Horizons. There's something special about this game and we will welcome all of you to our server no matter what happens.

[Thangorodrim Atanatari]

im actually wondering now that the new billing system is in place the devs have time to investigate the posibilities of the merger. or they might still be swamped by complaint emails from confused customers. is it a D.O.T. this damage E.I did to the game? pretty much looks like it, cause every minute of wasted-dev-time, is a minute longer until for example horizons:settlements will hit live, and all the other funny and awesome content im sure they will unleash uppon us.

so my call to all of you would be: think twice before you complain, and @ what adress you would complain.

EDIT and P.S. this 'complain-thing' more concernd other threads i was reading then this thread.

[tramsan]

My bad. It was burried on page 4.

[Antonath]

Now that our Unity thread is back from the dead, I'll re-post the question I asked before...

What I want to ask is: what is the current technology problem holding things up?

The Horizons community is fairly unique in being sensible, polite, and intelligent. I know there's a lot of people with database and other computing experience here, so maybe it's something we can help with. Even those without IT knowledge can suggest things and come at problems from a different angle.

Maybe we can help do data-translation work on our characters. Even if VI have to check our work, it's still a metric shed-load less work to be done.

If it's a processing power problem, maybe we can get some sort of distributed computing thing set up so we can use our PCs to crunch stuff.

If it's just the sheer size of the task, well, we can at least commiserate with you and offer moral support.

Come on VI, let us help you help us!

Antonath

[Sigi]

My bad. It was burried on page 4.

Your good!
you found it again

[Luna Lunera]

We will be here waiting, and hoping all gets sorted out

[Nanain]

while we wait, someone wanna gimme a PC? my laptop is dying *CRIES*

[Spirit]

while we wait, someone wanna gimme a PC? my laptop is dying *CRIES*

Hardware dying or software dying? If the latter try a format, or a new hd if that's quitting. I do have a pc you could use, but it's 800mhz and will choke on Hz's. :|

Rakku

[Nanain]

hardware

The one issue, and it's a rather large one, I have about having to move to another server, is:

I don't have a sense of pride regarding Chaos, as I didn't build or help to rebuild anything on it. I have such good memories of community building on Earth/Unity, like Feladan, where we ran, we fought, and we died to rebuild it, and laughed along the way.
Of sitting for 22hrs (I was single, and had no kids at the time ) on the plot I REALLY wanted, while the rest of the guild sat on ones they wanted, spread out on the newest isle of the time, after the massive sprint across the just-finished bridge I help complete, (Hood fell into the water, that was hilarious, while Fhrain & I sprinted across).

Anyway...just a thought.

[brainbasher]

That element of belonging is missing,i feel like a visitor just marking time,going through the motions of rebuilding a char.
The game sorely needs some project,s or world targets other than leveling.
We need a new area to fight for or at least some method of pushing back the WA.....or them pushing us back...because of the reduced population,we should be loosing ground,their are so many unguarded area,s.
Why are their no wall projects ,or guard posts....

[Guaran]

hardware

The one issue, and it's a rather large one, I have about having to move to another server, is:

I don't have a sense of pride regarding Chaos, as I didn't build or help to rebuild anything on it. I have such good memories of community building on Earth/Unity, like Feladan, where we ran, we fought, and we died to rebuild it, and laughed along the way.
Of sitting for 22hrs (I was single, and had no kids at the time ) on the plot I REALLY wanted, while the rest of the guild sat on ones they wanted, spread out on the newest isle of the time, after the massive sprint across the just-finished bridge I help complete, (Hood fell into the water, that was hilarious, while Fhrain & I sprinted across).

Anyway...just a thought.

Well everyone even on chaos could say those same things... that argument about the building of feledan. You still have your memories. You DID help. So did the rest of us on our old servers. NONE of our old servers exist anymore. Only blight has remained the same. I came from twilight, I hauled resources for the lerena bridge and was there when the guild popped it late one night. hauled resources to the satyr tunnels, helped destroy all 4 machines on the satyr isles. I even performed the Ceremony of Aubadrine. there.

But in aug 2004 twilight died to the Withered aegis, and our population had to transfer to a new realm (via the novo machine i also worked on). I still accomplished those things.... and so did you. If you (ultimately) come to Chaos or Order, that will not change.

Bring your memories. share your stories with us.