Will you pay 50$ for an expansion?

[Goriax]

I would and it wouldn't have to have nearly as much stuff as the first poster listed. Just some good solid content which I could use and I wouldn't even be all that picky what kind of content. Just something I could use.

Putting into your wish list something vague like "class balance" is a no win situation. What is balanced in the eyes of one person is not balanced in the eyes of another; since many people seem to define balance as meaning they have the upper hand. Everyone can't be given the upper hand. So they will never achieve class balance in the eyes of the majority of players, just like no other MMORPG has achieved class balance in eyes of the majorities of it's players. There are other similar no-win situations in that list.

Ok, if an expansion doesn't have a really huge list of features it should be priced accordingly (regardless of game).$50 would be a pretty big expansion for any game. $20 would be for a lot less and might be more feasable when you remember HZ has about 3 devs working on it.

[Fireclaw]

Now is probably not the right time to release an expansion unless major changes are made to the game, including the addition of a new graphics engine that runs faster.

If an expansion were released today with very limited new content and without fixing some of Horizon's major problems, what would likely happen is a massive influx of new and returning players (assuming the expansion is properly boxed and marketed in stores). This influx of players would likely quickly overwhelm Tulga's existing hardware. As a result of the poor graphical performance plus lag caused by inadequate hardware likely there would then be a massive outflow of players leaving the game. The end result woudl be that the game's community would have a population likely similar to what it has now, but at the same time having saddled Tulga with massive expense that it might not survive.

Would I pay $50 for an expansion for Hz? Almost certainly - regardless of what they put in it. However, I would very much like Tulga to fix the existing problems with the game first (poor graphics engine, inferior mob spawning system, lack of addictive loot system, lack of world model and dungeons, unfinished and unpolished feel)

Its also going to be harder to release an expansion now as opposed to a year ago because of the inevitable comparisons with the competition. To be viable, an expansion should offer more.

[Vahrokh]

I'd pay $50 to have a "we got a clue" statement nicely wrapped in a box.

While Horizons is commendable for many revolutionary ideas, it has an host of badly thought and worse implemented misfeatures.

This is normal and expected when you make a "new concept" game daring what bigger companies (which have to give investors solid and proven income at the cost of originality) don't.

What's less normal and forced people who wanted desperately to play to quit is the inhumane, incomprehensible stubborness of AE (will call them Tulga when they will work like another company and hence deserve the $50) in repeating the same huge mistakes (i.e. look at the new patcher reliability: same tragic story since release) and deepening into a grave they are self digging despite all the almost selfless people telling them in advance that they won't work (see the concept of blighted weapons, of unappealing loot, the concept of rewardless hoard and forced neuter gender, the concept of additive multiclassing (when the sum is way above the parts) and the strictly relatedconcept of penalizing it (it'sthe biggest gameasset and it's punished and35% ofthe players are hardcoded not to be able to enjoy it), the concept of wearing down stuff not by use in but by simple equip / unequip... and about 100 other broken concepts. Broken concepts that independently of an even perfect implementation, will stay broken and leave the game wounded (good concepts usually are recognized fast because people like them even if the implementation is not very good. One thing is to have very cool stuff that works after some struggle, one thing is to have one of the countless "annoy features" and even have it bugged - people will scream and quit).

No one of these concepts costs asingle dollar to be acknowledged as bad, they are general game directions, a philosophy that had some good things and enough bad things to transform a MMO in a LAN game (but in a LAN game you see more interaction) due to the numbers. No one would blame the direction if they one day posted what everyone is waiting since a year: a statement about them announcing (and of course actually doing) that they will keep the many good things but will scrap completely the bad instead of deepening them in a perennial attempt to fix what had not to be since day 1.

Of course that would be an humbleness sign of acknowledging that after all those who are stating just common sense (people tend to play other games and see by immediate feeling what concepts are a success and what sucks and report it i.e. on the forums) since months were right. And possibly by being humble for once would show the inner strength of being able to even be humble.

[Fireclaw]

I agree Vahrokh.

An example is the loot system. Horizons has one of the worst loot systems in an RPG. It does very little to keep players engaged in the game and eager to continue killing monsters. If a player isn't interested in crafting, the loot that does drop might as well just be considered larger denomination coin drops since thats all its good for.

It also doesn't help that its not that hard to get a full suit of uber gear in Hz. There should be unique super-uber gear almost impossible to obtain, but can yet be strived for. But there isn't. The best gear in the game is really quite boring, being just a slightly improved version of the previous tier gear which is a slightly improved version of the tier below. Compare to WoW's system, where the uber gear can do all kinds of whacky things in addition to having great stats.

It feels like Horizons came up with their own unique loot system just to be "different" from the competition. But then failed to admit they had made a colossal error.

Regarding the loot system: If the developers of Horizons were making an automobile instead of a game, they would have given it square wheels so as to be different from the competition which all had round wheels. Except that when the vehicle goes nowhere, the developers refused to admit their mistake and change the system in any meaningful way. This is one of the critical errors Hz made that likely accounted for the loss of a large proportion of the playerbase. Also, changing the loot system is something well within the developers capability (unlike Horizons' biggest problem - poor graphical client performance, which appears to be well beyond their capability to fix).

Tulga - just because other games do it one way is no reason for you not to do it that way. Sometimes its better not to try to reinvent the wheel.

[Fridlekh]

[img]/Web/Themes/default/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Fireclaw wrote:
Same here. Also would pay $50 just to get a new client graphics engine that runs faster.


I second that! [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-21.gif[/img]

I would as well. I've been hating this engine since before launch. If the game had been ported to consoles it would have made sense, but it seems the game got turned "PC only" long before release. Part of it is also that they were unlucky with their choice of engine providers... instead of the cost of licencing the engine being an investment and getting new features and better optimization as the developers added them, the company got bought out and all development on the engine stopped, and the buyer (Vicarious Visions) not providing support.

If my$50 helped to licence a better PC platform specific engine with support, more features, and optimization for current hardware... I'd get two and give the second one away.

[Rainspider]

I wouldnt pay $50 for it since i only paid $20 for the orignal, but if it was done correctly like to add new lands for houses/lairs and also added new creatures then i would say sure. I dont thing the game needs more classes though as some have suggested, just maybe reorganize the ones we have to work better. Dragon stuff would be great too.

[j-Xiti]

Everything you mentioned wouldn't be an expansion as it would just a major upgrade to the existing game. An expansion is something that expoands on what already exists; an extentions adds addtional features to what is already there.

What you discribed is a makeover. Except for the quest portion.

[imported_Onnidrah]

Aslong they can get reason able down times and better patches and try it 2 times before u make a patch get a bug and then u need to patch it again then, i would

[Mandovar]

No.
I dont like the way companies try to make extra Money with Extensions! I pay my share every Month, so i think they have to work for it.

[Royal]

Re: Will you pay 50$ for an expansion?

10 times if it gives me the list above

[Ariadne]

I don't believe Tulga / AE could afford to pay the staff the time it would take to complete that list without us paying extra, so I would vote "YES - let's get the game that we originally hoped it would be".

anyone considered that an increase to the monthly fee would be another option? Personally I'd go for a one-off charge (say $50) and NO increase in the monthly fee..