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My ongoing impressions =)
anarchyart
Member Posts: 5,378
Most of this is from another post I just did in the Horizons: Revisited section
Let me just say that I downloaded the Horizons client yesterday and installed and gave it a try. Download took 2hours, installing about 15 and patching about 15 minutes also.
The character select screen was very kewl, with the camera zooming down halls and into these little alcoves to see the races you have to select from. Once I got into the game and got my settings right, the game looked just great. If you think you can play on highest settings, you better have about 4 gigs of ram because these textures are DETAILED. Once I put the settings on High, the game performed perfectly and dang I was suprised how kewl the game looks and the UI feels. Ok I wasn't suprised, I was Blown away. With the quality of game most posters described, and the quality of the actual game that I was playing, yes I was blown away. This game has tons of character and charm, even though I'm at the very early stages, I'll be playing this game and paying for it because most flamers ranters and bedwetters who only listen to the gossip in forums like this instead of trying things for themselves wouldn't touch this game with a ten foot pole. I'm more than happy to let them play Guild Wars while I relax and have some fun in Istaria.
I think most of you posting about this game are going on year old, second and third hand information. I think that about 80% of you; the other 20% of negative posts I think your just a$$holes. I couldn't help thinking about all the negative crap I heard about this game while I was playing and it's just absolutely sad. All you people need to get over it in a big way, for yourselves. All of you rehashing this soap opera, talking about year old events like they were yesterday.
I do feel for those of you who got burned by this game in the past, and for that what would be the best solution for you? To continue to beat this game into the earth and kneel by your little bedsides every night praying for David Bowman to stub his pinky toe? You and I both know thats not healthy, although I imagine you get some perverse thrill voicing your hatred again and again ad nauseam. The best thing for you to do is get over it, dust yourselves off and find something you like and let go of all your bitterness before it actually changes your personality; although for some of you I can tell it's too late.
I tried the game myself having never played it before and was pleasantly suprised. I experienced no lag or glitches in my 2 hours last night and I can't wait till I get to play again tonight. Oh and also I asked question of a few people playing last night and was flabbergasted at the level of help I got from them; they all seemed to want to help in any way they could and would help me in future with any questions I had. It was kinda surreal. 
Comments
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
Well great....
At least you showed the initiative to go and check it out for yourself and in the process you found a unique and entertaining game experience.
As for the know nothing naysayers who only keep posting here so they can feel as though they are somehow qualified to critique other people and their preferences. I say....
F**K them!
Critical thinking is a desire to seek, patience to doubt, fondness to meditate, slowness to assert, readiness to consider, carefulness to dispose and set in order; and hatred for every kind of imposture.
Im glad you are enjoying Horizons. As for thoe of us burned by Horizons/David Bowmen/AE not being able to let it go.... you just had to be there from the begining to understand.
I'm downloading the trial as well. Figure I'll give it a whirl once I'm done trying out Eve
Anarchy is right though when he says some of you guys just need to let go of the past. You all keep bringing up the fact that it was sooo bad in the beginning, well...that was the BEGINNING. Games can change.
I also think a lot of the resentment comes from the fact that this David Bowman character is still in charge of things. Just because he might have flubbed things up initially does not mean that he is incapable of correcting some of his mistakes to make a better game.
In a way, this game reminds me of a certian aspect of Vanguard, except completely in reverse. The Vanguard fanbase all belong to the mythical 'Cult of Brad', and seem to have no end of faith in the game's potential because of that (despite the fact that early EQ is all he is known for). With Horizons, however, because David Bowman messed things up in the beginning, the fanbase is not willing to give him or his game another chance at all, even if it might deserve one.
NOTE: I am not slamming Vanguard in this post
. I just find it annoying that much of the game's followers tend to go on the thought process of "well if Brad McQuaid is involved, it's GOT to be good!"
Rant over. Sorry, bad mood today
Actually there never was any lag fighting actual monsters or scores of monsters. There was lag when you were fighting scores of monsters and there were more player characters with you. Just because people can juggle many monsters now BY THEMSELVES does not mean the servers are flawless. In fact I have been in group situations where the lag got so bad I had to shut off spell effects and a few other things. But by myself yes I didn't have any lag while playing recently. The fact that database lag still happens on a regular basis automatically says the servers are not flawless. Instead he should have said they have been improved but for Bowman to use the term flawless is just another add to his long list of umm exagerated claims that are on the false side of reality. To that end lets remember one important fact. Chaos at any one time almost certainly gets no more than 450 total client connections to it. I should hope even the most basic of MMO server can handle that. What is going to happen if their promotions actually work and that population doubles ? They won't be flawless.
Now that is a true updated review.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
http://community.istaria.com/Web/
Visit the Horizons Community Forum and read
----------------Signature------------------
Can someone please make me a sig. I would like it to have something to do with an eagle(the bird) Somewhere near the eagle can you put the words "Global Defense Initiative". Could you also have the line "If you can't buff up, don't step up!". Thanks!
Private Message me about it!
DOZ3R you must be getting soft in your old age that was the nicest post by you so far hehe
Anyways your right we will see if their servers can handle more poeple. I for one hope they can, it's really a charming game I'm stoked to go home and play some more after work. I guess I can draw a correletion with how you feel about this game. I used to play Lineage 2 lol but this game doesn't have evil adena farmers and griefers. I'll never forgive Lineage 2 in I suppose the same way maybe you won't forgive Horizons. But I'll forgive Lineage 2 if you'll forgive Horizons
, The people I talked to in this game last night ROCKED! I have played them all and these were the nicest 4 people I have EVER been fortunate enough to chat with. No attitudes at all not even a hint of it. What a change from WoW lol jk WoW community is mostly nice too 
Also let me add a comment or two to my first impressions...
When I was in the trainer type rooms there were these wall hangings and murals. I know it sounds wierd, but I really got the feel that it was a museum of sorts or that there was some real age to them. They were really wild and creepy in a kewl sort of way. Like you were looking at something that was drawn or painted a thousand years ago. TONS of character oh and I picked scout and you had to kill this boar type creature. Damn this boar looked kewl lol his animations when he was like kickin up dust and sniffing himself I was in awe lol I know that sounds wierd but I felt like a little kid again. That hasn't happened since..holy crap a long time lol
BTW my characters name is Quade Douglas and I started on the Order server if anyone else is n00bin it up tonight shoot me a tell
Well, I hope you all have a good time during the trial, even if you should decide not to stay for the long-term.
I hope no one minds if I toss out some advice that will hopefull make getting started a little easier - because the biped tutorial is just...bad. Dragons have a new tutorial island all their own, and it is a vast improvement over the old one.
As soon as you can, use the /chatjoin command to join General & Marketplace chat channels. Dragons should add Dragon chat as well. Introduce yourself and feel free to ask questions. We are the game manual.
Upgrade your tools and weapons as fast as you can. The training ones cap your skill around level five, so you have a little time.
If you're going to be crafting, get a cargo disk as soon as possible. You can use it at level five in any craft class.
Horizons has a command that needs to be used more: /lfg - Looking For Group. It lets people know you want to go kill something.
Bipeds *can* sell or pawn hoard items (bells, coffers, scepters, etc.), but giving it to a dragon is a good way to begin a new friendship.
Bipeds should always take a level of cleric - you get a basic healing spell that can be used by any class. It might not be a lot, but it can be enough to make a difference.
Pawn moneybags that have a max coin value under 200cp.
Do not pawn lore tokens, bounty markers, trophies, or crystals.
When in doubt, ask in General or Dragon.
Good luck and good hunting
Guildleader, Mithril Council, Chaos
ROFL I love this.
http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=74590
I thought they fixed this. We would have this issue when too many people would play HZ. Somethings never change.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
Ok I played for 3 more hours last night and here's some more impressions
I made a half giant on the Chaos server named Dern Brando ( my two fave actors )
The character select part really rocks hehe I love zooming down the hallways to where the different races are.
No lag again last night and no glitches are anything
Once you get the settings just right the game performs like a peach. If it won't for you then I suggest tweaking your performance. Don't try to run it on highest! It will send the beefiest machine into fits of lag. The textures are wickedly detailed. I put mine to High 
I ran past the nooby monster area its so kewl! The artistry in this game is stunning, yes STUNNING! There was a lil evil looking place with maggots and stuff to kill it had SUCH a scary place feel to it with these big burnt thorny tree things looming overhead curled inward and very ominous. The arch over the place was amazing with a glowing green orb thingy and lots of glyphs and symbols glowing green. Such artistry for a place that people will see for a short time. Can't wait to see more places in this game.
I then portalled (is that a word?) to the nooby town of New Brommel. There was a level 100 dragon greeting people and offering help and advice. She looked SO BADASS! Graphics that match up to any game (that is if you have a radeon X800 and a nice gig stick of ram like me) I did a couple of gathering quests for my smithy trainer and killed some stuff and got to level 3 =D The sky in Horizons is beautiful. With a day and night that I have missed since EQ. The moon at night looks sooo kewl with tons of detail and its just so clear and crisp and the stars and clouds and really just the entire look of the game makes me think about the artists and dev's. They might not be working on the game anymore and they might, but they have given this game SOUL. Their work and sweat and spirit exist in this game in an almost visceral way.
Horizons has what so many games today like WoW, Guild Wars and even EQ2 are missing in differing degrees-Personality and Character.
I'm very fond of this title for the short time I've been playing. It has a very particular look to it and you are either gonna love it or hate it.
I LOVE it
I know there's no such thing as a wrong opinion and everything, but as you keep mentioning the great graphics I have to ask...
What's so great about them?
* The textures are primary coloured and rather garish throughout.
* Characters are extremely low-poly when compared to a game like EQ2.
* Some of the models are just terrible (see: all the weapons and armour)
* There're no cool modern graphics effects like bump mapping or real-time shadows to be found anywhere, no matter your settings.
* Most of the humanoid animations are plain amateurish. It's hard to compete with motion capture, doubly so when the job was so clearly rushed.
For comparisons sake:
Horizons: http://home2.scarlet.be/cv360663/photogallery/photo horizons/horizons_1076875777.jpg
EQ2: http://www.gamergod.com/images/eq2/EQ2gg13.jpg
By the way, your top of the line graphics card is barely getting a workout with Horizons. It was established LONG ago that the engine uses the barest g/c functions putting most of the work to your CPU. Indeed some people have reported improved frame rates using ancient cards.
[quote]Originally posted by D0ZeR
[/b][/quote]
[b]ROFL I love this.
[url=http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=74590]
I thought they fixed this. We would have this issue when too many people would play HZ. Somethings never change.
Are you saying that servers arent allowed to go down? I dont recall when I used to play a few months ago that this was a regular occurence. Not that the servers didnt go down at all but I have seen far worse server performance in a few of the most recent MMORPG's that shall not be named...
I dont disagree about the critisism you guys are giving about lag with multiple players on the screen. I remember when they where merging servers and had those huge ass baddies and there where a ton of people on screen, the game got VERY laggy.
You would need to understand the developers that work on this game. If something is going to be coded wrong these are the guys that can do it, without even thinking about it. Yes they are just that darn bad. Other games have servers or login servers go down because a few thousand are attempting to login at once. HZ can't even deal with 450 at once which says it all with this game. By the way the 450 number is being generous. I won't even go into how they did one plot reclaim and ended up having major problems. Then they go and do it again and have the the exact same problems a second time. I mean it is amazing they didn't learn anything the first time around.
The best of the crop that HZ had working for them were let go when the game went live. Maybe if you open those eyes you may even find a few that post and tell the true Horizons story.
Also the point you are making about the merge there was a bunch more people playing. I admit they lost a lot of players in the first 3 to 4 months but once the merge hit another big group left which left HZ in the shape it is now.
Only thing that could save this game and bring back a lot of the players is two simple things. A new engine and the firing of DB. In fact the few that are left playing this game would be nothing to the many who would come back if these two simple things would happen. Oh and a little brain work on the simple machanics of how the game should work, because right now with the WA never attacking like it use too and the way mobs interact with the game world is just down right bad.
Give me UO, DAOC, EQ, EQ2, heck even SWG with the new CU. But to think HZ could ever stand with any of these is just down right unrealistic.
A engine that can't even deal with a simple dungeon is not a real engine.
You have a nice day now.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
I think all the original poster was trying to say was that he did the download and tried the game and found it wasn't that bad.
I have to agree. I played Horizons for 3 months right after release and several things drove me away at the time. Logging back in after 13-14 months I can see many things are not the same.
The game is playable. I pick up little tiny bits of lag here and there but no worse then any other game. I have experienced no crashes. Everything seems to be working pretty well. Load times are still kinda long but I can live with that. Its important to look at your settings mine where all maxed out. Once I toned it down I had no problems at all.
Yes some of the animations are subpar. Mainly the humanoids. (Human, Dwarf, Gnome and Elves all have a rushed look to them) But many of the races look fantastic. Dryads, Beastmen, Lizardmen and Dragons. The Dryad body has far superior artwork then the Human. Maybe two different teams at the time worked on them? So the animations may not look as good as EQ2, as someone pointed out, but its a heck of a lot more fast paced and fun (IMHO). Its bight and colorful...so. The landscapes are better then some other newer games. Travel is soooo much easier then many other games. You portal to just about any city right off to bat plus, when running on roads your speed doubles (or something like that)
The quest are pretty standard. I'm doing the same thing in Horizons as I am doing in EQ2 or WoW. Kill 10 of this, bring this letter to Joe. What is definately different is the class system. Can't heal? Take a few levels of Cleric. Work on a few different classes for a better preseige class. For example, to become a Ranger I need to hit lvl 20 in Scout and lvl 15 in Druid. Each class is easily playable on its own. In fact after this weekend Im almost done with the Scout portion.
I tried it this weekend with a skeptical eye and was pleasently surprised. Its not perfect but its playable and the community is EXCELLENT! Mature and helpful. Really a bunch of nice people.
Downside (IMO) still sort of an empty feel to it. Not many NPCs. Some NPC's are just ugly (please kill the merchant named Starr in New Brommel she to ugly to live!!!) What NPC's there are, are all stationary. There is no movement going on at all in the cities. EQ2, on the other hand, has completely shown how you can make a city feel alive. Some of the Armor is very generic looking (ok, most). No cloaks, no stealth skills or classes, no PvP, some of the Humaniods are poorly done. Quest have a generic feel to them but I hear they are working on that. Humaniod tutorial is useless. Didnt see much going on with the Blight so far. No dungeons. (I find the whole dungeon thing strange...there are underground areas with NPCs in them so why cant there be mobs instead, I never really looked into the reason)
If you are thinking of trying it but are affaid because of all the negitive post....just do it. Its no WoW but if WoW was what you are looking for play that instead. (Yes I do also, Im lvl 60 and a PvP Knight I need to update my signiture)
Side note, I looked at the Horizon Forums this weekend also. The community is solid. No hate mail going on, no bashing. In fact, on Sat and Sun, David Bowman posted messages asking the community where they would like some new resources placed. His Post had many replies. All the traffic implied that the community was use to interacting with him.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
You are an idiot D0zer,
People are trying the game, and are being surprised by it and you still can not face it. So now you go to outright lies. Look to the community and the most they complain about is moved posts not deleted posts. If you are so sure of things on the community boards and the real things being said, lets see the screen captures. Of course someone as observant as you see the real things, and have proof to show everyone.
You got your ass banned because of the lies you tried spreading there just like you do here. The vault got tired of your BS and told you to go away. So you come here where you think you still have an audience.
Whats the matter? Your obssesion just wont let you rest easily in your rocking chair?
You are an idiot D0zer,
People are trying the game, and are being surprised by it and you still can not face it. So now you go to outright lies. Look to the community and the most they complain about is moved posts not deleted posts. If you are so sure of things on the community boards and the real things being said, lets see the screen captures. Of course someone as observant as you see the real things, and have proof to show everyone.
You got your ass banned because of the lies you tried spreading there just like you do here. The vault got tired of your BS and told you to go away. So you come here where you think you still have an audience.
Whats the matter? Your obssesion just wont let you rest easily in your rocking chair?
What you talking about sherlock, I am clearly not banned from VN boards. Go check out my profile, if I was banned you couldn't read it. I made a point of not posting on HZ board with the D0ZeR nick anymore. I do still post with another one. Just a little more low key.
There you go again making statements that just aren't true, just like you do with the game HZ.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
Maybe your reading comprehension is off, Did I say you were banned? Hmm rereads the post, Nope, I said you were told to go away. They got tired of you and told you to cut it out . So you use a new nick and keep it toned down to avoid the radar.
So obsessed with a game that you spend all your time trying to badmouth it, pitty actually. But I guess at your age its hard to keep all your egos in order. Go take your geritol, metimucil or what ever you take to keep you regular cause evidently you are getting backed up again, your rabid obsession is showing through again
You said, "You got your ass banned because of the lies you tried spreading there just like you do here. The vault got tired of your BS and told you to go away. So you come here where you think you still have an audience." You think I have trouble reading when you clearly said banned and vn in same paragraph, dude you need help.
Just one of the posts where the poster was deleted.
http://community.istaria.com/Web/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=74686
Normally the whole post will be deleted. This has been going on for a long time now like I said in my one post. Then they end up putting the poster on restricted where they have to approve the post before it can be read.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee
I am sorry, I should have been clearer, What I should have said was that You got your ass banned from the community forums because of the lies you tried spreading there. Then the Vault eventually got tired of your BS and told you to leave. So you use a new nic on the vault and toned it down to avoid the radar.
My mistake, but does that clear it up for you?
as to the example you show about deleted posts. Got your screen capture to show what was deleted? did you read the original post? Do you even know what they are talking about? I guess you wouldn't. You and your crusade just pull things up use your best spin to spout off about the evils of David Bowman or Tulga. You are just like DB both of you spin masters to your own cause.
Wrong again sherlock, I was put on awaiting approval, never banned there either. But I have 10 other nicks I can use there with no problems in posting.
I know and you know they delete posts that tell the truth about the game. I don't need to prove it just watch the boards daily.
Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against.
Bruce Lee