What do you find Horizons so tempting? [Archive]

tripleb

09-22-2003, 10:41 PM

As a member of the pending club, I thought I would pose a question that didn't involve me whining about my pending status, because I really wanted to read something on the board other than topics that only make sense to someone in the beta and posts about how many people are still pending.

I was just wondering what people think are the most interesting aspects of Horizons and how it contrast to their previous morpg experiences.

Personally I find the community building and the craft system attractive.

I played EQ for several years and found that once you got into the high end of the game you really couldn't log on for just a couple hours and really do anything fun. I think the robust trade skill system and the community building can provide an way to have fun on those nights where you only have a couple hours to play. I left EQ with 53 Rou, 52 Druid, 52 Cleric and 48 War, gave my accounts to guild mates when it just wasn't fun any more.

byte

09-22-2003, 11:21 PM

Personally I find the community building and the craft system attractive.

I agree those are going to be cool, from what i have heard, there is no, NO DROP stuff like in EQ., all the cool stuff is player made or quested.

I recently quit EQ for this. I have a 65 cleric, flagged for Plane of Time. 59 Pally, 51 warror, 33 ranger and a few lower ones.

150k pp in the bank plus over 300 k in pp worth of tradables. yet EQ got old and boring. The upper levels are same o same of.

Everyweeek go kill the same mobs.

Nothing beats the 1 hour long CH rotation that the cleric's enjoy.(elemental Plane of air) yes i have done and beat it several times.

I didn't even buy the last 2 expansions of EQ because I knew i was about to quit.

I am looking forward to non static encounters, building a community, ect.

Grenlan

09-23-2003, 01:32 AM

bitz i hate you ehehe :)

byte

09-23-2003, 06:51 AM

ok, first it is Byte not bitz
Byte as in computer Bytes.

Second, why do you hate me? because I quit EQ with those high level toons?

Rahxephon

09-23-2003, 01:33 PM

Playing as a Dragon :D

Tokamatta

09-23-2003, 01:59 PM

Hello All,

I am rather new here but I will say why I am interested in Horizons.
1, Content : my word it seems plentiful

2, Trade Skills : do I need to say more when you can create your own gear and housing.

3, Not being locked into one class/profession: one word " Sweet"

4, the diversity of the races: I recall playing games in which you go to kill the Dragon , now you can be one !!( does that mean someone will go out to kill you LOL )

5, An ever Growing World : I know EQ had this going but I left EQ cause you had to wait to get what you needed or wanted ( Ever Wait In Line ).

That sums up my list . Take it easy .

Tokamatta

Jdeb

09-23-2003, 05:10 PM

It appears to me that the horizons team is dedicated to making it a real game, in that the players actually fight the undead and the story line develops and changes, freeing the subjugated races, that kind of thing!

if it turns out to be more of the MMORPG grind of just lining up to kill spawning monsters, i'll be closing my account after 1 month.

Kianwan

09-24-2003, 11:25 AM

The potential, the tradeskill system, the withered aegis, and that the developers really seem to have a passion for the game (the last bit means most to me).

What potential ?
Well, as far as I know Horizons is going to be only true seamless MMORPG out there. It has been stated that the only time you load (zone) is when you enter a portal. You can go anywhere you can see, there is 4km above and 2km below ground where you can do "anything"! The developers and GMs can add almost anything to the game on the fly, which in turn can create some stunning and never before seen "realtime" content.

Tradeskills ?
Oh you mean pick up 1 of this 1 of that 1 of this and then put em in a bag and hit combine and you have a sword ? Nope, I mean go mine some ore, then add your personal touch to the sword you want to make by chooseing hilts, shaders, blade types, how much ore to use ect. and THEN you have a sword, all with (judging from the trailers) beautiful rendered animations of the character actually smithing the sword.

The Withered Aegis, whats so great about a bunch of zombies?
Whats great is that the zombies have a common goal, they are there to kill off all the players. No more voices in the back of you head asking why you are killing "a_wolf_01", you fight to survive basically. Atleast, you CAN fight to survive, you can OPT to settle in the frontier and riscing loggin on to find a band of undead camping your town and that its time for you to organize a recapture, OR you can stay faaaaaaar away from the frontier and rely on that others will do that for you and go the way of the "old" MMORPGs and kill normal mobs and do that whole level threadmill, you have soo many options.

The developers really seems to LOVE the game, they dont wanna cut corners to put something in half assed. If they are gonna put in mounts they are gonna do it right the first time. No more clicking an item and a horse magically apears underneath you with you sitting on it. This thing alone lets me to believe that Horizons will blow many away completely. Yes there are still limits to what a character can do, ofcourse there is, there is no way that the developers could create an alternate reality where you could do anything you could think of, the techology simply isnt there, BUT I think Horizons from what I've read and seen (in trailers ect im not in beta) has the largest freedom of a fantasy MMORPG today.

(sorry if its a bit messy english isnt my 1st language)

Lynch

09-24-2003, 12:45 PM

One thing I haven't heard much about is the PvP aspect of the game--if any. A friend of mine told me he'd heard there would be no PvP in Horizons. Has anyone else heard this?

Derren

09-24-2003, 01:49 PM

Yes. No PvP in Horizon.

The developers think that PvP is such a dominating feature that the whole game has to be build around PvP thus can't be just thrown in into an existing MMORPG. In the far future arena combat might make it into the game but this is unsure. As for noe, no PvP.

At least that is what I have read and I can't say that I'll miss it. Its and interesting feature but with it comes more competition and its imo quite disruptive to the gameplay when the new players always have to fear that someone stronger kills them just for fun.

@topic: What I find so tempting about Horizons:
1.Dragons
2.Playable Dragons
3.Playable Dragons with full flight capabilities
4.Town building

Elyssia001

09-24-2003, 04:21 PM

as a veteran of Dark Age of Camelot, i've slightly differant expectations than those who've played EQ.

though daoc has a very sturdy craftign community, and you can make armor to hold what powers you want it to have, or have a weapon with a glowing effect, all leather vests look like each other, and the only aspects of your equiptment you can change is the colors and if you're very lucky, you get a dye drop that will change the color of your weapon.

What i look forward to the most is the ability to completely customize the appearance of your character. a limit to 5 faces, two hair styles and 10 hair colors doesn't provide much variety when the server numbers over 1,000.

and to start a character, level it to 50 ( the limit in daoc) then start all over is a tedious, depressing and repetitive action.

also you are not limited to the races you can play due to the "realm" you are from. Dwarves can play with elves, and humans can play WITH Dragons, not organize raids of hundreds of players to kill the dragon.

I also look forward to the LACK of pvp. though it is always more interesting playing against "inteligent" enemies, with a dynamic world and a good AI, pvp will be unnessisary. The true enemy will be challenge enough for most.

while i'm at it, i'll add it it my opinion of housing. DAOC addressed this desire with a special zone. all housing is limited to that zone, and there are no enemies or such in it. very boring, and a pain in the backside to haul all the way to that zone and hunt through the hundreds of houses for the one house that is yours.

This game promises a lot, and if it can deliever, i may never leave it. It's everything i want in a mmorpg.

Lynch

09-24-2003, 06:46 PM

Originally posted by Derren
Yes. No PvP in Horizon.

At least that is what I have read and I can't say that I'll miss it. Its and interesting feature but with it comes more competition and its imo quite disruptive to the gameplay when the new players always have to fear that someone stronger kills them just for fun.

I have mixed feelings about PvP being absent from the game. I believe games that are low on PvP have to be high on content. It sounds like Horizons will be.

I personally like participating in wars, as a soldier, but in reality, I think the devs are doing the GMs an enormous favor by restricting or eliminating PvP as an option.

I play a game called EVE, which is Sci-Fi, set in space, and believe me when I say that I have never seen such a group of embattled GMs. Part of that has to do with your typical code bugs, CTDs and the like, but most of it comes from mediating the conflicts that immediately arise in a game created with liberal PvP built in. Pirates abound in EVE, griefers prosper, dominate regions, accrue enormous wealth, use code exploits to kill pilots, unbalance the economy, and it is the GMs who are expected to referee all of it.

On the other hand, I am a combat pilot for a resistance movement (there's that chaotic-good alignment I always play :p), meaning I'm always busy and have a lot of fun. So, like I said, I have mixed feelings. And that's why I think any game without PvP needs good content--and a lot of it--to keep it interesting past the initial "wow, isn't that cool" stage.

Pyros

09-24-2003, 07:04 PM

Originally posted by Lynch

I play a game called EVE, which is Sci-Fi, set in space, and believe me when I say that I have never seen such a group of embattled GMs. Part of that has to do with your typical code bugs, CTDs and the like, but most of it comes from mediating the conflicts that immediately arise in a game created with liberal PvP built in. Pirates abound in EVE, griefers prosper, dominate regions, accrue enormous wealth, use code exploits to kill pilots, unbalance the economy, and it is the GMs who are expected to referee all of it.

Eve has been like that more or less since the beta. It's going to require code changes to fix, not GMs.

Lynch

09-25-2003, 05:08 AM

True enough...but even if the code was functionally perfect, the EVE GM's would still have it tough because there's no such thing as the perfect amount of PvP. Meaning there are always going to be whiners on both sides and because they're paying customers, the GMs can't ignore them--as much as they'd probably like to.

That's why I think a game with no PvP would be easier to moderate--at least in terms of the griefers vs. carebears whine-fests.

Darkhowl

09-25-2003, 06:36 AM

I get the feeling the players will have a free hand at their destiny - without the " follow this path to get to item D " sendrome .
I beta tested EQ - loved the game - played it till it was nerffed to death -
I beta tested DAoC - loved the game - played it till it was nerffed to death
I beta tested SB - loved the game - played it till the bugs ate me
I beta etc etc - loved till was nerffed to death - get the picture ?
I HOPE Horizons dosent follow those paths - I feel it wont -
presently playing SWG - the nerff bat working hard there - soon to leave

remainz

09-25-2003, 11:20 AM

Gaming for a very very long time i have noticed one unavoidable pattern...there are players that will spend more time trying to manipulate a game for exploits then actually trying to learn how to play(this being a good idea in beta as long as you report it)i personally feel using cheats when a game goes live only reflects your inability to play the game .I dont think i have come across any game that has been full proof but i have come across developers who address the problems that arise promptly to make better game play.if theres is a bug in a game, as tempting as it is to use it, its better to report as fast as possible and with as much detail about it as possible. i would expect horizons or any other new game to have something pop up but its the gamers who make the difference in whats done about it.why do i want to beta test horizon? i enjoy game advancements and appreciate the technology behind it. being an engineer innovation always makes me smile:D beta testing is an open mind on a project for developers. when your engulfed in a project sometimes its hard to step back and see the whole picture.if i can help its always good feeling.i know what its like to forge through a mountain of setbacks and always appreciated any intelligent insight .:)

finrod

09-25-2003, 12:58 PM

beinf a daoc player it's pretty much the same as Elyssia
but the two major major things that attracted me are
1) The dragons ! I love them ! i've been waiting to play a dragon since err guess it's since i played warcraft 2 when i was 10 .. yup ! it's that !:)
2) the incredible diversity and freedom ! like in a true wolrd ! GREAT !:)

Elyssia001

09-25-2003, 02:49 PM

warcraft huh? there's a classic!

in my experiance.. when pvp is intagrated into a game, certain "types" of people are attracted to the game, Grief killers, grave robbers, uber 133+ Pwners, etc. One reason i play on the co-op server in DAOC sometimes, and you find less people liek that on the role play servers too.

i degress,

what has cat-whipped DAOC was all the nerfing to "balance" the classes.
":cry: wah!! hib has a char that has endo regen! wah!"
"ok, lets give pallys endo regen too!"
":cry: wah! SB's are killing all other stealthers in rvr!"
"Ok, we'll nerf, them, then make the other stealthers stronger!"

the idea behind unique classes would be that each class would have a weakness and a strength, but now you can go to every realm, and find every skill, just put together differantly. but some people, mainly those griefkillers IMHO, are the ones who cannot cope with someoen having something they don't. reminds me of spoiled children who see someone with something they'd never use, but they don't want anyone to have it if they can't have it.:mad:

there, i'm rambled. Lucky, horizon's has no pvp, so (i hope) there won't be a lot of complaints over how unique each class is from another. No one will complain if the fighters are strong, no one will complain if the magic is powerful, no one will complain if the healer can remove poison's or desiese from everyone as well as heal and rezz. ( to all honestly, i've never heard of ANYONE ccomplaining about healer specs LOL :rolleyes: ) Everyone will be working together, even in minor ways, to save thw rold from the undead.

anyways, cross my fingers, i am hoping for the best.:up:

finrod

09-25-2003, 03:27 PM

i agre with u about this !
Mythic ( and those %£^:/,^*0 griefkillers ) r turning the 4 realms into 1 realms with " skins " and names differents but that's all !
i play on midgard and i have still not understood WHY they nerfed the zerk !

RvR ( Realmvsrealm) could have been good...

i'm playing on european servers so they r no roleplaying server , but i am in a Roleplay guild in a more or less Roleplay alliance
...; and to be sincere i have somteimes the impression to be an alien or en ET lost in a strange world ;)

Kadin

09-25-2003, 05:14 PM

in my experiance.. when pvp is intagrated into a game, certain "types" of people are attracted to the game, Grief killers, grave robbers, uber 133+ Pwners, etc. One reason i play on the co-op server in DAOC sometimes, and you find less people liek that on the role play servers too.

Less well I don’t know if your talking from 100% down to say 80% it really doesn’t matter. But you are correct PvP is what distorted DAOC if i hear one more "Whaa I got nerfzordz" post I’m going crazy.

DAOC traded PvP for content it was that simple. The game now has some great pvp and almost no content at all. Farm or Gank are your options.

I’m hopeing AE does better then that and from what they have said it looks like the will.

Kianwan

09-26-2003, 09:17 AM

Those nerf/whine posts are almost madatory for any MMORPG it seems ;) you can find em anywhere for any game. There will always (even in PvE) be someone complaining that someone can do something better than them, regardless of what the circumstances are. You will find those kinds of posts in Horizons too, there will probably be ALOT of posts about how imbalancing dragons are and how a dragon with XXX playtime is more powerfull than this or that human warrior or somesuch.

Derren

09-26-2003, 09:34 AM

Lynch

09-26-2003, 02:22 PM

Originally posted by Kianwan
Those nerf/whine posts are almost madatory for any MMORPG it seems ;) you can find em anywhere for any game. There will always (even in PvE) be someone complaining that someone can do something better than them, regardless of what the circumstances are. You will find those kinds of posts in Horizons too, there will probably be ALOT of posts about how imbalancing dragons are and how a dragon with XXX playtime is more powerfull than this or that human warrior or somesuch.

Yeah...I think it's because too many players get caught up in their own 1337ness and forget that the different races/factions/classes in any MMORPG are supposed to have their strengths and weaknesses. Race "A" may be a dexterous race designed to be strong with ranged weapons and ideal for scouts, while race "B" may be a stout, physically strong people perfect for playing damage-dealing melee bricks.

So what happens is "Noob" buys the game, forgets to read about the different races, chooses race "A" because they look cool, and starts playing his character as a brick. When this character is not as successful a brick as the Race "B" characters he sees running around, Noob never considers the possibility that it was he, not the devs, who made a mistake. Noob only knows that his brick is weaker than other bricks, and it's NOT FAIR, DAMMIT. And that's when the whining commences.

I actually pity players like that...the power-players who are only concerned about bragging rights and their virtual 1337ness. To me, any MMORPG should be about much more than that, and if you try to limit the game's scope, you lose a lot of the best parts of playing a good rpg. To each his own, I guess.

Elyssia001

09-26-2003, 04:34 PM

good thing with horizons is.. if race A goes brick and learns race B is better, maybe he'll be smart enough to change his A Brick into something else!!

skyla

09-26-2003, 05:52 PM

first of all i would like to say hello to everyone. my first post here and i'm registered as a beta tester a few days ago too. so my status is on pending. and, as the most here, i'm interesting in horizons. why? there are are a many reason for me and a little bit different from the most written in here.

1) i only tested one mmorpg in the past and that some years ago. now, i'm curious in todays betatesting.

2) the last three years i played ego-shooters, but it becomes boring. well graphics becomes better and amazing but the story behind everytimes the same. i belive that the spirit of shooters are dying. more an more people changing games, more and more player change to massive mulitplayer online games.

3) i'm looking for a new challenge in gaming. a game with story, with multiple options and a longer motivation. in my eyes mmorpgs will be the future of gaming. so for me after playing roleplaying games from '95 to '99 it's like back to the roots.

4) at last i would like to recieve my doctor degree in social psychology next year. therefore games like horizons are in interesting field to study people in the new area of communication and social behaviour. so i can mix my personal hobby with my job.

(if you noticed english is not my mother language, so please excuse my mistakes.)

Elyssia001

09-26-2003, 09:06 PM

he he he

welcome to the club!

it's good to know you are interested in the game for more than one reason.:p

Jandus

10-01-2003, 02:22 PM

Oh dear god . . it's Elyssia. <sigh> Now I KNOW I'm in for it ;)

So THIS is where you've been hangin' out! =)

Snick

10-01-2003, 02:26 PM

hanging out....plus she started a club too

Jandus

10-01-2003, 02:32 PM

Anyways.

I had heard a few people in DAoC talk about Horizons and how it didn't restrict you in a lot of ways. I've been with DAoC since release and leveled a LOT of toons (almost 11 lvl 50 toons now) and have a very good understaning of how it works.

One of the things that surprised me about reading this game is the LACK of PvP. PvP does have it's pluses - a lot of people compete against each other to prove that they're better players or that their character is more well rounded in certain areas. I think that's great. I enjoyed DAoC's PvP but I have to agree with Elyssia's point of view. It gets old very fast.

I would rather have very indepth PvE encounters. The chance to explore not only your own character and area but other ones as well. The whole reason I lvled so many characters in DAoC is my extreme interest in what those characters could do . . plus the fact that I'm a masochist and love the pain of lvling ;)

I'm looking forward to a very stress-free environment where I can craft and work on different characters and interact with the community. I'm very excited to say the least. =)

Azzikai

10-01-2003, 03:03 PM

Dragons!! Actually, when I first heard about playing a Dragon I thought "how cheesy". I changed my mind.

No PvP. I'm not much of a PvPer. I like doing things like finding out if I can climb a piece of scenery and if the subsequent fall makes for a good screenshot. I get lost in the detail, I don't have time to watch my back.

Tradeskills. I hate EQs tradeskill system. I do them simply to break up the monotony of leveling. I hate how making something worthwhile isn't a matter of being persistant, finding your materials and dilligently practicing but rather an endurance test to see how many times you'll click combine to get 1 lowsy point higher, how many hours you'll spend farming rare drops so that you can click endlessly...

Its new. That's what it really comes down to. I've played EQ for 3 years and its time for a change. I've had great fun there, I've done my raiding and whatnot but I find myself logging in more to pass the time than because I really am excited about playing.

Kiaz...

Jandus

10-01-2003, 03:15 PM

Azzikai,

DAoC has the same problems with crafting. There really is no 'skill' involved. It's a matter of how long you can stand sitting there staring at the screen and pushing buttons. It's a time sink - can you pour 48 hrs total into getting to LGM status? Sure! And it's not even fun . . in order to keep sane I had to constantly watch movies and videos on my other system while I pushed keys.

Sounds like EQ is the same crap. It's just not . . fun. I'm hoping that Horizons has figured out that crafting CAN be fun and running around and 'leveling' CAN be fun instead of tedium and boredom setting in.

If they can peak my interest and it proves to me to be LONG TERM fun then I'm done with DAoC.

Here's to hoping =)

Azzikai

10-01-2003, 05:39 PM

I played DAoC for about 2 months right after release and the tradeskills drove me nuts. The timer on combines got so bad I would end up cleaning my house :p

As much as EQ drains the joy out of my life at times (/wave people who suck) I have played it for years now. Whether or not Horizons can keep me as entertained and annoyed for the same amount of time isn't something I'll be able to gauge ahead of time. Really, when I think about it, the moment I installed EQ I had no idea what I would want out of a game of that sort and definately no clue that it would become such a huge hobby. I'm trying to keep that same "this looks neat" frame of mind with Horizons and see where that leads me :)

Kiaz...

hannerii

10-01-2003, 11:47 PM

I think Horizons is all togather tempting. The use of special abilities in combat, the dynamic encounters, and more should keep everyone captivated. The tradeskills system seems very impressive, especially the spellcrafting.The ability to create the spells that can have a 'custom' effect is awesome. Community building is awesome that you can also pay others to help finish your building. Artifact and Empire building would give those involved a sense of accomplishment and boasting priveleges. I would like to be able to say "Hey, see that bride there, I helped build it with my own two hands"

Anyways thats my two cents worth. Granted its not much but hey i do what i can :)

Snick

10-02-2003, 09:02 AM

wow must be one hellova tradeskill if u can build brides.... ;)
i take it u'd like to claim u built a bridge? :D

Elyssia001

10-02-2003, 02:10 PM

why limit yourself to just a bridge?

you and your friends can build yourselves a whole VILLAGE!.. ANYWHERE!

no zone limitations.. and you get to protect your home from the undead! i don't think i find anythign more intriguing than that.

in daoc, your home is in the middlew of a zone, you teleport to it, get what you want, then leave it. you don't have much of a reason to stay in it unless you like to torture yourself with crafting. Here you have a reason to go there, and you do not have to fight with strangers for limited space. ( i don;'t think)

Kianwan

10-02-2003, 02:24 PM

Actually you buy plots of land (but the game adds more if they run out)
These plots of land might be in a remote forest full of undead tho .. so you have to clear out the undead before you can build your vilage, or you can build a town in one of the safer places far behind the lines.
Anyway, there ARE restrictions on where you can build ;) (not haveing those is virtually impossible with todays technology)

Unless you want to do it the way ShadowBane did, but that imo isnt the greatest way.