Offline mode modifications?

[Kesqui]

I haven't played Horizons for several months, due to money issues and the replacement of my computer. I'm wondering if there's any way to make the offline mode show the appearance of any of your played characters - particularly, I want to have a way to access Kesqui (formerly of Ice) - my red and black zebra-striped adult dragon. The default online mode dragon is hideous... and I'm sure I've seen some screenshots from SOMEONE in offline mode long before Adult ROP was released who had accessed the models and taken shots of their character...


Anyone have any ideas, suggestions, ways to do this? Or to create a new 'custom' character skin for offline mode?

[Uro]

Hello Kes

Been a while, and I'm afraid I can't help you with your question, but I Have some old screenies of Kesqui I can mail you if you want.

Also just in case you should contemplate comming back, then FH has been disolved, but we are still some people left in the game.

[Pharcellus]

Greetings, Kesqui

Yes, it is possible to get the look of your character back on the default placeholder Dragon, as I did it between the end of beta and release. However, it is NOT easy, requiring quite a bit of study to learn the syntax of the various .def files, and quite a bit of trial-and-error to get it right, as the various skin layers are in files named with numbers and not with the specific names of the colors and patterns. It took me about 4-6 hours to figure it out back over a year ago, but I am a professional IT consultant and programmer, so I have a little background to work off of.

Sadly, since it has been a year, I do not remember much of what I had to do to get it to work, and the game def files may have changed quite a bit since then, making any specifics I could remember be of little use.

This question comes up occasionally, and I have considered looking at it again to write up a how-to, or maybe even write up a program to allow people to do it easier. The problem is motivation. [;)] Plus, in my eyes, it gives people even less incentive to resubscribe; if you want to see your character again, pony up for a month, log in, get your fill as much as you want for a month, and take a break for a while until you need your next "fix". If it comes to pass that HZ doesn't make it, there will be a significant motivation for such a tool, and I guarantee you it will get written. However, my hope is that it doesn't come to that.

[Kesqui]

Honestly? Can't afford to pony up for even one month's subscription right now. I NEVER intend to pay to play a beta version of a game again, for that matter... too many things wrong with Horizons, not enough timely fixes.

Never mind that Ice doesn't exist any more... I wonder how many of the folk I played with before still play at all?

Besides, as Uro pointed out,the guild with which I played the last few months doesn't exist any more - and the guild is 90% of the reason I kept playing for as long as I did.Grinding out levels when there's no good reason to do it... well, it didn't interestmy roommates for more than a couple of months, and the novelty dideventually wear off for me too... especially when there wasn't anything my skills could DO once I'd gotten those levels.

And for some inexplicable reason, even if I wanted to pay for the subscription again, my install of Horizons doesn't work - and I'm not going to go hunting through a kabillion cd-roms just to reinstall a game that, as far as I'm concerned, I've paid more than enough for - and that my £35.00 should perfectly well cover my playing it offline, as any other game I've ever bought does (No, I don't play other MMORPGs... we only bought three bloody copies of Horizons so that the entire household could play dragons).

Heck, I want to play offline primarily so I can get some nice screenshots of Kesqui to use for my desktop background... not to grind levels, not to dig up (still more) rocks or fight (piddling little or frakking hard) monsters - just to get some more pretty dragon pictures.

[Pharcellus]

Well, it is possible to do still, from what I have heard, and all the information you need is there on your hard disk. However, if your HZ install is wonky, it will be many times harder, or perhaps even impossible, unless you reinstall. So, I would say you need to get a good install working before it is worth dinking with the def files.

At any rate, good luck! If I ever get around to repeating my previous efforts, I will post about them in here.