Making HZ more appealing to more players

[AmonGwareth]

Game runs fine, but the load times are pretty long and there are times when armor or legs wont load ;p This ends up being "Lag" I guess from the database.

Not the database, but rather the game hitting your harddrive tons of times and trying to load lots and lots of objects and textures and stuff.

[Cruciare2750]

Not the database, but rather the game hitting your harddrive tons of times and trying to load lots and lots of objects and textures and stuff.

TY for the info - when I asked in game, "lag" was the answer. It didnt sound right, but whatever ;p

[Token]

Wether or not the game should be consider niche, it still has the power to attract and keep new players. In my original post i'm trying tu suggest ways that the game could be made more appealing to the adventureing types. Those people who don't want to do the crafting so much. Clearly the players that take in interest in the crafting aspect of the game will tend to stick around much longer. But retaining a number of shorter term customers would still be a good thing from the point of view of doing business.

I've heard at least one person comment that the adventuring side of the game has about a 6 month appeal, thats all the time it should take the average player to cap a single school. But if a player stays entertained for 6 months they are paying customers.

And I stand by my opinion that the game does need some additional source of coin from drops, especially for lower leveled players. The situation with drops in NT is very good, but as soon as the player sees that the rest of the game is not like that its a dissappointment.

And even though Horizons is one of the older games it still has some need to be competitive with big name titles because the gaming community has ever more options available. And we can't just say to the devs here, "Keep the dedicated player base happy and all will be well." Because you have to remember they're in this business to make money, more money means they can afford to spend more man-hours on the game and thats a good thing for all players.

[AmonGwareth]

Wether or not the game should be consider niche, it still has the power to attract and keep new players. In my original post i'm trying tu suggest ways that the game could be made more appealing to the adventureing types. Those people who don't want to do the crafting so much. Clearly the players that take in interest in the crafting aspect of the game will tend to stick around much longer. But retaining a number of shorter term customers would still be a good thing from the point of view of doing business.

I've heard at least one person comment that the adventuring side of the game has about a 6 month appeal, thats all the time it should take the average player to cap a single school. But if a player stays entertained for 6 months they are paying customers.

And I stand by my opinion that the game does need some additional source of coin from drops, especially for lower leveled players. The situation with drops in NT is very good, but as soon as the player sees that the rest of the game is not like that its a dissappointment.

And even though Horizons is one of the older games it still has some need to be competitive with big name titles because the gaming community has ever more options available.

Lesser Aradoth is where all new players are sent after New Trismus and it also has a decent source of coin... from quests, but also from trophies and general hunting.

It is beyond that in the in-between that it gets iffy. And that is a known issue, but we felt that the top-end players needed some "love", hence the free content expansion we're working on.

[Cruciare2750]

Lesser Aradoth is where all new players are sent after New Trismus and it also has a decent source of coin... from quests, but also from trophies and general hunting.

It is beyond that in the in-between that it gets iffy. And that is a known issue, but we felt that the top-end players needed some "love", hence the free content expansion we're working on.

IMO its just as important to keep the older players happy as it is attracting new ones.

[Token]

Lesser Aradoth is where all new players are sent after New Trismus and it also has a decent source of coin... from quests, but also from trophies and general hunting.

It is beyond that in the in-between that it gets iffy. And that is a known issue, but we felt that the top-end players needed some "love", hence the free content expansion we're working on.

LOL Amon that was a quick reply, I hadn't even finished editing my post. And I'm sure the more senior players are happy about new content, high-end content. And I heard some curious speculation about what this new Offline server could be all about.

[Chalrok]

I haven't followed the entirety of this conversation x: But my two cents would probably be encouraging a little change. In my experience, 9 of 10 play for the sole reason of the playable dragon. They say if there was another game with dragons, they'd be long gone. If that's the only thing keeping players, then I would think it would be beneficial to figure out what else would hook and keep players. Meh.

[Takora Drakan]

It is not only the dragons, they are a big point of the game, but the multiclass, craft and community are very unique, and that makes istaria a good niche game that attracts people that are sick of the omglolwtfbbq generation and just want to relax here.

[LOVWYRM]

and that makes istaria a good niche game that attracts people that are sick of the omglolwtfbbq generation and just want to relax here.

granted Tako- and there will be more of them in the future.
This should be part of our marketing strategy too.

[Vaz]

There's another game that does multiclassing, crafting, and harvesting much better but has no construction / customisable housing. So don't forget the attraction of how freeform Istaria's housing system is.

[Token]

I'll say it again 3 more times!

"The importance of loot should never be underrated!"

But since Amon says "We are aware of that issue."

What about the construction rates?

Faster construction doesn't mean less work for the builders, it only means that more buldings get built.
And the people who own plots would be more likely to tear down existing structures and replace them.
And i mean that the 1:1 ratio should only be given when the build skill is optimal.
And when thats true for people XP is less of a concern, someone may be doing work well below thier skill level to get something built.

The Patcher is a pain in the arse but in all other respects the game performance is very playable.