Noone believes you, but many want too

[Crazyfingers]

A $12.95 gamers perspective on horizons.

I started playing premerge. The learning curve was tough as nails but I loved it. The hotkeys and all the controls were smooth, functioned well. Starting 6 months after Horizons went gold was a bit surprised on how few were on the shard I choose(probably because they were spread out over 8 shards). Players were friendly and helped me on my way. Choose cleric and started killing zombies and learning as I went. Around level 15 I stumbed upon a Spiritist trainer and never looked back. Loved Spiritist, the class flat out rocked for my play style. Figured out the teched gear and spell system and kept my goodies up to date through ever level. I sometimes had to wait a couple days to find someone to make the gear or gather the comps. Awesome.

Battled my way through Lessor Aradoth, the layout and monster diversity and distribution was perfect. The place was a gamers dreamland. Did a bunch of quest, sold a bunch of goods, made alot of friends. Bought me a plot in Dryart! Was a big shot now.Learned scholar and masonry to build on my plot. Killed critters and found all sorts of techs comps to make coins to fund the rest of the construction of plot. Finished! At that point in time A house had no purpose(no storage) but it looked cool. Had me a beach front property in Dryart.

Some veteran players took me to the far east into the blight. Was pretty cool but wasnt much into getting powerleveled by others. Plus it looked rather boring. Level 100's killing level 60 blights over and over. Around level 55 stumbled upon the Western Deadlands! Man this place rocked! Scarey as hell, tough arse mobs, nature token quest to complete! I would kill 1 then die. Kill 2 then die twice. Until I became an expert at killing the baddies of the Deadlands. Around level 58 I found a crystal! A pulsating stone. Players were in Awe of me. Many that spent all their time killing wolfs and wraiths 30 levels higher than me didnt even know where I found it! They claimed the area was to hard and stuck to wolfs and wraiths(over and over again.) So my new occupation was finding crystals and selling them to suckers that were to chicken to fight tough mobs. Made alot of doe also. And tokens! In a few months time I hit level 100 and focused on learning spellcrafting. Had to kill granite golems because that was the most efficient way back then. All and all was still having a blast.

The crimson scourge arrived and the place was fun. Not as cool as Western Deadlands but close. Main reason was because the loot sucked. But it was challenging and I seen many o gifted bite the dust. Even in large groups. Kept hearing rumors from outside the game, that it was going under. Finally came out that the shards would be combined. I welcomed the merge. More folks more fun!
So I waited.

Horizons Premerge B+

After merge everything just fell apart. I mean everything. Someone completely gutted the whole game. It was sickening. The months following the merge has been one blunder after another. No creativity, no hope, no enjoyment just grey times of lost friends and complete boredom. Changes to the world that are just plain bad and broken. Broken economy, broken features on top of broken features and many many broken promises.

Horizons After merge F-

As a fan of Horizons, would really like the answer to a few questions please.

What happened to Istaria after merge?

Are the same developers that designed the crafting system, the awesome hunting grounds of Western Deadlands, the dynamic world of Lessor Aradoth still working on the game?

What happened to crystals? Why were they taken out of game and replaced by blighted equipment? Regal weapons? Nature token type quests?

How could a game go from a B+ grade to a F- grade?

What happened to the creativity and passion that fueled Horizons at one time?

Should I wait for it to come back?

I am a fan of online gaming. I am a fan of Horizons premerge.

I stay and hope for the powers that be to bring it back.

Present Horizons flat out sucks. The online gaming community has spoken. F-

Do you have the abilities to bring it back to life? f- to c- to b+ to A+

I want to believe that you can, show me something!


NimKhazad

[imported_Leannae]

An answer to this, could be what makes me resub. I'm watching to see where it goes.

*crawls back into the shadows, lurking*

[evilkarl]

What happened to Istaria after merge?

We got expert content, but much of the land was left empty in the process.

Are the same developers that designed the crafting system, the awesome hunting grounds of Western Deadlands, the dynamic world of Lessor Aradoth still working on the game?

As far as I know the design lead has changed since then so its quite possible the person is no longer there.

What happened to crystals? Why were they taken out of game and replaced by blighted equipment? Regal weapons? Nature token type quests?

Aside from the DGWC and WD crystals most crystals that existed in the game sucked. When the merge occured most mobs had their loot tables redone as it was known most crystals sucked they were not added back to the loot tables. Unfortunately they didn't even add the decent crystals back because they are going to rework them...at some stage.

Regal weapons were a one week event thing, anyone who didn't play that week missed out..unless they could buy the parts or were given the parts. I wasn't able to play this week but was fortuante my guildies gave me the bits I needed for a sexy ashthorn medalion *drool*.

How could a game go from a B+ grade to a F- grade?

Perception

What happened to the creativity and passion that fueled Horizons at one time?

The passison is still thre and always has been imo there is more visible passion than there used to be with increased communiction. On creativity I think there is more now than there used to be. We have seen some great things added since the start of this year, far more than was added in the six months before the merge.

I agree the old WD was great fun and I loved looting crystals because it was something you could find and use that would influence a battle they were great and I do wish they were back.

[Crazyfingers]

Karl, what grade do you give present Horizons?

I mean when you log in and see 50 players on the market channel, some of whom are just sitting alts or folks not playing but filling a space. What does this mean to you?

Absolutely no economy.

Players asking to buy items but noone will make, sometimes for days.

Honestly most of my guildmates still PAY for horizons, but they dont play anymore. They might log in for 15 minutes or so. Same with me. Now that novians can be regained,I imagine many that where held hostage because of their plots will stop paying. Gather up their novians and unsubscribe and wait for a climpse of hope.

I really am not trying to slam the game, but from a new players perspective it most look horrible. Especially after patching for 2 days.

NimKhazad

[evilkarl]

I only see 50 players in market place on a weekend but that is due to my timezone..there are usually <50 visible players when I play during the week.

What would I rate the game on a scale of A+ to F-. I would probably rate it in the middle some where C+ or so. I don't think its the greatest thing ever, I don't think Its flawless. I know it has its problems (what game doesn't) but I also know it has been improving since the start of the year and improving quite well considering the limited resources.

[Crazyfingers]

evilkarl you sure are inconsistent. No disrespect but your previous posts and post on other boards shows a whole other side. Someone give you a free month pass? Or can you enlighten me on your sudden change of views?

Hey if you are not Grimlik I apologize. He is the guy over at the other forums always wanting David Bowman fired and slamming the game. I always presumed you was him becuase of your signature.


NimKhazad

[evilkarl]

What do you mean Nim? Care to elaborate?

[Crazyfingers]

Are you Grimlik? If so you are very inconsistent.

If you are not I apologize for the mix up.

NimKhazad

[Aboroth]

Karl, what grade do you give present Horizons?

NimKhazad

No offense,

dont you think this has gone on long enough
were aware o the problems already, no need to carry them on. Here you go again about the bad times F-, wow, No one cares about whats happeneing next, didn take long for the YEAH NEW EVENT!!! to fade away or WOO HOO GOT A RAID ON MONDAY!!!! WITH DROPS FOR A CHANGE!!!, no back to good ole...F-

"Should i wait", come on Nim, recent changes should of gotten the point out, new event, recreating the land, new quests, mobs, raids, its all coming back just takes time.

[LaughingOtter]

Grimlik's handle is Tryagain, Nim.

[Crazyfingers]

gotcha haha now I get the sig. My apologies

NimK

[evilkarl]

/em places Nimk on ignore for that insult.

If I was grimlik I would have to stab and then hang myself .. on VN I am not evilkarl

[Entilzah]

Hi, me here, popping in to say hi. [:)] This topic was reported, but I wanted to leave it here because although negative, it is in fact criticism that has had a bit of thought put into it. Sure I've removed several posts from this topic, flamebait material, deviation / derailment, I hope I don't have to remove any more posts because Nim is actually making a serious effort to get what's on his mind out in the open without trying to stand on people's toes or cause offense deliberately.

Normally we don't comment publicly on how we moderate the forums and it's all handled privately through PMs, but in this case I wanted to offer a little explanation, especially in light of the forum rules being updated extremely recently.

Take care,

Entilzah

[Crazyfingers]

[img]/Web/Themes/default/images/icon-quote.gif[/img]Crazyfingers wrote: Karl, what grade do you give present Horizons?

NimKhazad



No offense,

dont you think this has gone on long enough
were aware o the problems already, no need to carry them on. Here you go again about the bad times F-, wow, No one cares about whats happeneing next, didn take long for the YEAH NEW EVENT!!! to fade away or WOO HOO GOT A RAID ON MONDAY!!!! WITH DROPS FOR A CHANGE!!!, no back to good ole...F-

"Should i wait", come on Nim, recent changes should of gotten the point out, new event, recreating the land, new quests, mobs, raids, its all coming back just takes time.

YES! I think its gone on long enough! YES! I want the game to get better!

Yes I want David Bowman to assure ME and others that the game will get better!

That there is still a vision, a plan, a War!

Im sick of hearing everything second hand, players using alts blah blah blah.
Irc groupies acting like nuthing at all wrong, and anyone that raises a few questions are just stupid and slamming the game.

Horizons is a mess! Will it get better? and if you dont know what I mean by 'get better' than I am just waisting my time.

NimKhazad

[Crazyfingers]

Im done posting and fighting against people that I should be fighting with. There will always be dozens of Nim's filling in where I left off until some things are changed.

Will stick to making suggestions on that forum.

I apologize to any that I have offended.

NimK

[Tokoz]

The trouble with being passionate about something, is that it opens you up to be hurt deeply by it.

I've seen medics have to grab wounded soldiers and literally throw them to the ground so that they could be treated.

A deeply hurt person lashes out for answers, but the people around them, not seeing the wounds, only see the anger and so stay away.

You want these questions answered, if I understand correctly:

What has been happening in Istaria since the merge?

Are the same developers that designed the crafting system, the awesome hunting grounds of Western Deadlands, the dynamic world of Lessor Aradoth still working on the game?

What happened to crystals? Why were they taken out of game and replaced by blighted equipment? Regal weapons? Nature token type quests?

Why do I feel like the game went from a B- to an F? Only you can answer that, and from those answers, you can get other questions.

Why don't I feel the creativity and passion that fueled Horizons at one time? Again you have to answer that question so that the real questions can be asked.

Is it worth waiting for it to return?

I am a fan of online gaming. I am a fan of Horizons premerge.

I stay and hope for the powers that be to bring it back.

Do you have the abilities to bring it back to life?

My apologies if I seem presumptuous in this. I'm doing it though, honestly, to help.

[Crazyfingers]

huh?

Thanks for the help Tokoz. But its not just me that feels Horizons has went way downhill since merge. Some may not have the brass to say it, but I will.

Why do I feel this way? Because everyone quit.

Trust me, my creative juices are kickin on all cylinders. And my passion for Horizons is still there, Tulga has just put them on pause for12 months.

I hope this may help you as well, Tokoz

*tosses Tokoz a cold beer*

NimKhazad

[Seikojin]

:o
From the time I started to the time I left I haven't seen the game go from a beginning to an ultimate refined product like every other product on the market. But then again most developers stop when the money runs dry. So this product is trying to do something that is fiscally risky and almost commercially impossible without a serious turn. And yet the product hasnt made that turn. DB was quoted as mentioning something about lighting stacking between ports, causing client performance degredation. Perhaps the fix for that should be exercised publically to get it finalized and set into stone.

The game for me started off as a B and now is a low D or F.

I used to fight hard for positive input and gave many a ticket of ideas in a manner that would be as close to professional as I can muster without an internally used format.

So the game for me is on watch the new mode until it is 'commercially competitive' again.

[Tokoz]

Then I will do what I can to find those answers.

[LaughingOtter]

Im done posting and fighting against people that I should be fighting with.

Nim, we all want the game to do well.

You've come up with some great ideas, but sometimes your delivery is so abrasive that the message gets lost.

Keep posting. Keep expressing your frustrations. Keep advocating for your causes. Keep being NimKhazad. Just.. focus on presentingyour message, not on shouting down the other messengers.