For the DEV...So I restart my account....

[barmace]

Guys,
Please listen to what I have to say. I hope this does not get deleted.

I have to tell you that I reinstalled Horizons and turned on my account.

I have some observations. This may sound like critizism but please read this on as a whole because I am a VERY passionate player.

Ok the good

There is still not a game where you can take a path and turn to another. I love the fact that I could be a Sword carrying Wizard or a Cleric that shoots fireballs.

I love the animation for my powers.
I love the way your powers recharge.
I love the way each character looks.
I love the schoolsand the way they are set up.
I love the crafting system (BEST I HAVE EVER SEEN)


I really miss this game.

Things I had trouble with.

I went through the maps and had a hard time finding anything to fight. That really agrivated me. (and made me remember why I left)

I had lag at time so bad that I was running not moving. (and made me remember why I left)

I did not try any of the quests this time but I never really had any problems with the quests. I imagine they are unchaged.

Bottom line

This game has so much potential. And that is not the first time I have said that. just to let you know the games I have experience with

City of Heroes - My main game
EQ - not playing it. We all know why
EQ2 - I found the game to really be EQ 1.5 didn't like it at all
WOW - ok game but lacking in a few area's
DAOC - tried it didn't like it
Liniage II - tried it didn't like it
Starwars - I hated the crafting system. but same concept as Horizons on switching professions
Matrix online - HATED THE way combat works


It is my sincere hope that someone steps in and make a HUGE revamp of this game. what do you need

I hate to admit it but COH has the best handling of Lag. I call this a HIGH ACTION GAME. the downtime is just about 1-2 min. Not 5-15 in EQ.

There needs to be content. I cancelled my account again because the game is still lacking in many ways.

1. It needs monsters, events, etc
2. the look of the game needs upgrading (looks very outdated)
3. I would not touch crafting, fighting, schools, THE CORE OF THE GAME ROCKS.
4. I would change the way the patching works. Very clunky and time consuming. I like the fact that a patch in other games come and updates not goes through the whole file to find what needs updating.


You may think I want a totally change on the game. I don't I LOVE THE CORE OF THE GAME. THE BEST CONCEPTS, AND GAME OUT THERE. but needs some work to it. Yes major work but I still remember the unlocking of the Satyrs and how the whole server strived together to get it done. AGAIN NO WHERE HAVE I SEEN SOMETHING LIKE THAT GENIOUS.

I submit this to you because I see the potential of this game and long to play it but I can not play it the way it is right now.

please send me an email to let me know what you are doing and Ill join in a heartbeat. I hope and pray that Horizon can rise like a Phoenix from the ashes to be a great game again.

I really suggest you check out COH. It is a different game completely and lacks the content of Horizons.
COH is just a mission based game. Go hunt down ___ and come back...but the gameplay is OUTSTANDING.

Horizons in my heart

Jimmy (Strom, Slana, Barmace)

[Hal`cyon Sskyler]

Glad to see you enjoy things. As an experience player I have a few comments on what you think is lacking right now.

1. It needs monsters, events, etc

Events we all want more of, and hopefully after the dragon's have their Ancient Rite of Passage we'll get something good. (Come-on Rachival!) As for monsters though, they're there, often more than you want, but you need to know about the spawning issues right now and how that affects randomly running around for monsters.

Right now no mobs will exist unless they have a player around to fight. Usually if you walk into a normally dense field of nasties, you'll find it barren for the first few momments, then one or two enemies will spawn, then if you stick around the entire field will spawn and fill, resulting in more than enough enemies to fight. Waaaay back when this problem first came about, it'd take a undesirable amount of time for a spawn to 'pop'. Nowadays, if you know what you're looking for, you can have an area ripe with baddies in a few seconds to about a minute at most.

The best way to find things to fight is to take your time, and if you spot something, linger in the general vicinity for many more to follow.

2. the look of the game needs upgrading (looks very outdated)

This I partially agree with, Horizons has no DOT3 Bump mapping or complicated pixel shaders like most recent games, and and under some circumstances Horizons will run just as sluggish as a newer, prettier game. Remember that this game is well over a year old now, and it just isn't feasible to upgrade the entire graphical engine (especially with Tulga's dedicated but limited staff) every time something shinier comes out. I also don't know exactly how much you've seen, but there is a style to the artwork in Horizons that really goes above pure eye candy. This game has some of the prettiest terrain I've ever seen, and at least with the sslik I find the animations realilistic and fluid.

4. I would change the way the patching works. Very clunky and time consuming.

Check out the new patcher their working on, there's a link to it right before you launch the game. Right now some people are having major trouble with it, but if it works for you, you'll have a much prettier and quicker patch. It's the 'first step to not needing a browser to patch and launch the game.'



All in all, glad to hear you like the game, but don't necessarily expect a reponse from them though E-Mail. They've posted a few time in the forums about current projects, dragon Ancient Rite of Passage being the biggest push right now. Most of what you comment on has been mentioned numerous times as well. Tulga's working on improving client performance with a new resource manager, eventually they know what they'll need to get the spawns working better, and the new patcher is already a good step in the right direction (when the damned thing works).

[AZVladimir]

You just said 'please rewrite the entire engine and interface, and speed up on the events'. Hate to tellyou but it isn't going to happen, not even close. You might see more events in the future but the rest is a pipe dream.


AZV

[Seikojin]

:o maybe to you AZV, but they can tweak the engine to run better.

With code, anything is possible.

[barmace]

Hal`cyon Sskyler[/b]]


Check out the new patcher their working on, there's a link to it right before you launch the game. Right now some people are having major trouble with it, but if it works for you, you'll have a much prettier and quicker patch. It's the 'first step to not needing a browser to patch and launch the game.'

I am pretty computer Saavy but I can not for the life of me get it to work.

trust me tried a bunch of things...
I shut off Service pack 2
I enabled allActive X

NO LUCK :( should not be that hard...


I thank you all for not Flaming me my passion comes from the fact THIS CAN BECOME A GREAT GAME.

[Vlisson]

yes HZ has a great potential!!

i still love it

ok i got some weeks 1 month ago (because my main isa dragon) i have been real bored

but if Tulga will do further improve their game it will rule ^^

[bright]

Agree whole heartedly on those issuse especially the empty world, and it is even worse with the horrible excuse of a spawn system. got a quest from trainer to kill 50 spiders after wandering the area they spawn for 30 minutes i found a whole 3 spiders. nothing else no other mobs just 3 measly spiders. and they werent even together there was 5 minutes atleast between each one. The lag is not as bad, but yea compared to CoH which does have very high graphic output, and little to no lag, there is a serious problem there. I even run EQ2 better then i do HZ and that is supposed to be the worst. So yep have to agree there are still many issues needed to be worked on, but with this recent spur of communication things might be looking up. heck they actually changed the main page

[Pharcellus]

[img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-3.gif[/img] maybe to you AZV, but they can tweak the engine to run better.

With code, anything is possible.

No, even with code, some things are still just not possible at this time, and probably for a long long time to come. [;)]

Still want my Transporter v1.0.

[AmonGwareth]

As soon as you invent a Heisenberg Compensator you're gold. [:P]

[LaiAhna]

As soon as you invent a Heisenberg Compensator you're gold. [img]/Web//emoticons/emotion-4.gif[/img]

lol if only....

[Draca Moraven]

I must confess, I had to google...

The Heisenberg compensator is a component of the Transporter system.

It works around the problems caused by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle (hence the name), allowing the transporter sensors to compensate for the inability to determine the position and momentum of the target particles to the same degree of accuracy. This ensures the matter stream remains coherent during transport, and no data is lost.

Back to topic:
It's quite true what you write there. Beside that you expect from a small MMORPG to have always the newest graphics running, doing events exactly for you etc...
You yourself told us, the basics of horizons are the best ones outta there. Couldn't agree more. So forget about the graphics and enjoy a complex game!

Horizons has it's issues, for sure, and they seem to be big for new players. But they aren't big, if you know the workaround!


P.S.: Don't forget: joininga community channel is the very first thing to do when you log in!

[Tryagain]

common logical sense...

Potential means nothing and is not a factor if there is no chance that it will ever be realized.

[BKBanzai]

Same reason returning players that come back leave again is why many have left in the first place.

1. Bugs
2. Lag


and those are in no particular order. I have been on this game for well over a year now and I have to say, combat lag gets worse with each addition/change/patch. It had gotten quite a bit better, back last summer when they introduced a new combat engine. Then suddenly it reverted back to horrible again and now, ever since they introduced the "improved mob positioning" fix, mobs are flying all over the place. On screen a mob can be 25m away, even by using arrow, but I try to cast T5 ranged eth parox and it says 12 mtrs out of range...and no, I am not casting on vexators or other mobs that have range affecting curses.

[barmace]

I can only hope that the new company can turn this game around.

Someone suggested that Orion take it over since the game is very similiar to UO...I don't think that would be a bad idea.

Again I just want to see the game grow and become better and not be stale.

[barmace]

[img]/Web/emoticons/emotion-3.gif[/img] maybe to you AZV, but they can tweak the engine to run better.

With code, anything is possible.

I remember EQ had a major Engine revamp and it ROCKED. Completely changed the look of the game and characters.

So I have to agree with you completely.

[Kulamata]

I missed something the first time I read the initiating post.

Download the Pekka's map pack, it has monster locations pre-marked for you. Go to the technical section of these forums, then to Player Customizations. An older version, (which may have been updated recently?) is available on the community home page, under downloads.Alternativesare to join a good guild, or ask on the Marketplace or General Channels.

You'll be quite surprised at how many monster areas there are. Istaria is a BIG place, and even though some of the monsters' areas are very large, like the marble and mithril areas, it is still easy to miss them. But they're there indeed! I don't remember your mentioningyour level, but there are now monsters aplenty from levels 1 to 120. Some are dumb animals, and easier for their level, some of the WA areas are quite difficult for their level. Since you played before, I imagine that the tier I island by Parsinia, tier II Scorpion and Abandoned Islands, tier V Ice and Lava Islands and the tier III Northern Continent have been added. All nicely supplied with monsters, and the Eastern (tier V and VI) and Western Deadlands (tier IV) have recently promoted WA evils lurking. Plus all the older stuff, although it has been moved around quite a bit.

And some very nifty new monsters too.

[oluviel]

Ithink they should condense the seemlessly empty land into zones. It works for wow.

[Vahrokh]

It is still my opinion that the Locate And Grip spell cast by the Lich King is the biggest problem in Istaria. L.A.G. makes parts of the game nearly unplayable.

Other than that, ingame lore would be nice. I have other issues, but those are my two biggies.

I hope the new file manager helps the client lag

It's not completely true.

I have really rare lag playing Horizons (spurts of "immobility" or misplaced mobs).

Meanwhile I have (tested on 3 shards) heavy lag on WoW (seconds and seconds of complete freeze up! Mobs standing still, getting the message that I am not in the rigth direction (and thus I don't hit the mob and get killed) for seconds and later the mob "blinks" to several meters to the side showing me where it was for the engine), digging resources halts sometimes the character in knelt down position till relogging, resources or lockboxes saying they are already open by others... that do not exist.
Like me tons, thousands of other players (up to 11,000 per shard and there are like 80). Still almost none quits the game (the forums get hot red tho', like here [;)]) because it is so ******** full of things to do and explore, has buttloads to no end of interesting multi-stage quests, has wagonloads of neat things you can get your greedy little hands on... including crafting some exotic items - love that).
On the contrary, the biggest problem is the constant run out of boxes to sell and the skyrocketing server populations.

So why people quits Horizons when WoW runs often worse and its graphics are more or less 30% detailed as Horizons?

Because in Horizons you lack content and all you have available are different paths of grinding.
So it's easy to get frustrated, get bored and see those lag problems bigger and more important than they are and sometimes they become the last straw.

If we could rob the quests off WoW and slap them in Horizons we'd have something completely ruling everything else in the market.

2. the look of the game needs upgrading (looks very outdated)

The look in WoW sucks. Period. Well if you enable max details, the human city looks cool (greatly augmented by the superb soundtracks), even if many won't like the cartoonish feeling.
Bump mapping, transparency, even decent sound effects are just not here.
Guess what? None cares. There's just too much to do to get a fit about these things.
If you play a great game, you understand it's far from perfect but you like it because it's a great game.

yes HZ has a great potential!!

This is the problem. We got dream futuristic technology, huge potential.

But after potential must come act, namely the content to be played thru the futuristic technology.
Without act you have just hope. And hope tends to fade away over time.

[barmace]

everyone WELL SAID!!!!

WELL SAID INDEED....

I wanted to post to let everyone know what you said and that it does not get lost

[MadDwarf]

actually EQ2's crafting system is much better. You are actively involved in the crafting process and there is no making 50 of one item in one fell swoop. HZ could use a system like this to compliment their unique building system.

As far as potential yes HZ HAD potential. But thats quickly disappearing as each new MMO is released. Tulga ran out of time and money and never realized any of the games potential. Now we all wait to see if EII can realize this potential. To be blunt things do not look good but in EII's defence they haven't had a lot of time so far.

Other than that your post was well considered. But make no mistake other games do what horizons does and do it better. Thats why the game is in the state its in now. I hope EII realizes exactly what needs to be done. I hope they have the time.