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Horizons back in good hands Virtrium buys Hz
Necroscope84
Member Posts: 54
Hey everyone I just wanted to let you'll know that Horizons was bought by Virtrium and is NO LONGER owned by EI
Who is Virtrium? Virtrium is a small company made up of the Original Dev's of Horizons and I believe some Tulga people. They've done more in the last week for Horizons than has been done in the last year. The New billing site is up, They reintroduced the Blight - Test Server. A new client update is about to go into effect. They've put up a new Ticket site to help anyone with problems and the forums are back up and running well with some familiar faces acting as moderators. They have some nice new pricing plans, anywhere from Nine bucks a month to 14.95 a month - which is what I'm going to choose.
Things are looking up. Horizons has always had a special place in my heart. The community is still top notch. It's like coming home to family. Everyone is helpful, nice and caring. The crafting in the game is still the best of any mmo and of course they have Dragons. Dragons can fly once they reach adulthood and become very large when they've become Ancient. Build your own Dragon's Lair or House, mansion, etc.. If you're a Bi-ped. Multiclass to your heart's content and enjoy the stunning scenery of Istaria. Look up at the sky. Horizons has the most beautiful sky in a mmo.
Sure, Horizons has it's problems but all MMO's do. It also has alot of good things and I can't remember having this much fun in a mmo in a long time. It's nice to feel proud of your character and your accomplishments in game once again. Not everyone looks just like you and has the same exact leet purple gear like other games. Here, the best items are crafted and not dropped. Summoned weapons for some classes are top notch too.
Check it out. Come home or Come join the Family that exists withing Istaria. 
Comments
Let me know when they launch a new server or wipe an existing one, and I'll come back. The fun part of Horizons is rebuilding the world, so a new server is required.
Ah Horizons,
Yeah, it had a lot of promise back int he day. I have a weak spot for it also. The community was always this games strongest point. The Blight areas were always the best parts. I really liked how they did that. It had the potential to be a great game. Crafting was probably one of the better. Heck even I didn't mind crafting in Horizons and I HATE crafting. Dragons are cool, no doubt. Leveling on the other hand...not so much fun.
Some things that I never liked was the humaniod artwork. Armors and cloths always looked blah. Performance back when it released was horrible. I also didn't like how the devs just lost steam after a while. Rebuilding was an important aspect of the early game but they just didn't do much after those first few months (after the dryads were unlocked) Generally it was always a bit too unfinished. If you ever read the original design notes of the game you would be amazed at what they cut out. Vampires, Underwater areas and races, Orcs and goblins, the original avartars looked totally different, racial and religious factions and hatreds...
I wish them luck, maybe they can still bring some of that back to life.
I may consider dabbling with this for a while once things are more stable. I don't really want to hop on only to find they need to wipe the servers or some such, or start out on a well established one only to find out a new one was to open up a day or two later.
Bans a perma, but so are sigs in necro posts.
EAT ME MMORPG.com!
No doubt Horizons used to be alot of fun, never liked it being browser based but it really was a good game for awhile. Had a Sslik Chaos Warrior... loved several aspects of Horizons, was sad that it went down hill. Maybe this will be a brighter chapter of it's life.
-Menkure
-Menkure
Menkure dont take this as a personal attack but more of blunt question.Why the hell did you guys even bother trying to bring this game back?My only play time with the game was from alpha one to gold so i dont know whats realy gone on as far as the quality of the game.That said thow with more then a few AAA mmos in the works and wow rulling all what did you guys hope to accomplish by aquireing it from EI and not just let this game die.Are there realy 5-10k people out there willing to be charged and in some case overcharged to not loose the house they built or what.God ive lost track how many times has this game bean sold off 3? 4?First off, I am a member of the community, and not employed by Virtrium. I am a moderator on the official boards, but it is strictly and completely a volunteer position. I cannot answer for Virtrium, and my post is not meant to be an official response. I am responding though as a player.
For starters, you said you played from alpha to gold. I can tell you first off that a LOT has changed with the game since its initial release back in December 2003. There are mobs in the game that are higher than level 80, and there are even "epic" mobs (level 125 and over). There originally was no Tier V content, and no Tier IV or V techs. On release of the game in 2003, Tier III techs and cobalt armor was as high as you could go. Now, we have Tier V techs, Mithril, Ironsilk.. We also have Tier VI resources, such as Adamantium, Thornwood, and Travertine. There are crafters who have managed to obtain master crafting forms, allowing the construction of expert shops and buildings on plots.
That also reminds me.. we have new building structures, including buildings which gives crafting bonuses to crafters that utilize them. There are beginner shops, which give a 25 point bonus to the skill, Journeyman shops (50+ to skill) and Expert shops (+75 to skill). There are new silos and houses, all tiered to Tier VI, along with a multitude of other buildings and landscaping objects.
The world is drastically different from the initial release. The world is more tiered now making it easy to find resources and mobs for your level. The starter island has been totally redone, and the quests have been totally revamped (remember the lack of quests on release?). There is a heck of a lot more content since Dec 2003. The dragons have received lots of love, and have adult and ancient rites of passage now. There are dragon lairs now, and more plots scattered around the world. New lands have been added, included a new continent (Trandalar). The massive amount of changes made to the game far exceed the scope of any post I could write up.. yes, there are that many!
Much of this was done after the bankruptcy of Artifact Entertainment. The then owners, Tulga, did put a lot into the game. It is a far different and drastically changed world from before.
Then there came EI Interactive.. I was at the time a staunch supporter of the game and the community, but everything that EI did was counterproductive towards fostering a community. It soon became apparent that EI Interactive had no intentions to continue development, and when word of double-billing and overcharging hit.. I found myself pushing for an investigation into EI's actions. I was banned from the boards for helping players (who were victimized by the billing "errors") get in touch with their local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. If you look back in these forums, you can see the posts I made in regards to EIs actions after the sale.
The last year we have seen the community wither and tear itself apart. At one point, there were no more than 70 active forum members.
It was pretty certain that Horizons would be dead. It was rumor (albeit from "creditable" sources) that EI Interactive defaulted on payments to the original owner for the sale, as well as payments to the server hosts (Limelight). Everyone felt that it was only a matter of time.
This is why news of Virtrium taking over has a lot of people excited. Virtrium has brought to the community a lot of hope that the game will not only continue, but be improved upon and updated. Personally, I never expected Horizons to be placed in the hands of a competent developer. Shoot.. I didn't even think I'd ever be un-banned.. much less made a moderator!
Virtrium, since taking over, has managed to undo the damage that EI caused to the game. They brought back the Blight test server. Blight was taken offline back in December by EI (despite the vocal cries from everyone who played on the server) so that they could move players from the defunct Unity (Europe) shard over. EI failed due to sheer incompetence, leaving both Blight and Unity offline, and they refused to address the community about it, despite constant pleas for an update.
Not only was Blight brought back online, but Virtrium has updated it with several new builds, containing a long list of bug fixes and improvements to the game. Here are the patch notes for Delta 119, and Delta 120. Improvements to the client are being tested which should help out with performance (new terrain occlusion code).. Pretty darn good for such a small team in only a couple of months, don't you think?
As for why people enjoy the game.. there is something honestly special about it. For some people, it is the community, others feel that even though it can be a grind, the crafting system in Horizons is one of the best crafting systems in any MMO. Others see promise and potential, and with a team of developers at the helm who are passionate about the game, people see hope.
Truth be told, ask anyone who plays and you will find a lot of interesting answers as to why people care about this game and enjoy it. For whatever reasons, people do enjoy playing.
I have played Horizons since its release in late 2003. I can tell you, from my experience as a player, that the game has changed drastically since the ill-fated release long ago. If you played it only then and have not tried it now, check out the free trial.. You may be very surprised.
-Menkure
Well... I am still completely torn. I was involved in the beta, but the performance was so bad, that I couldn't really get into it.
Now that I have MUCH better PC, it is still stuttering, struggling, and that, alone is enough for me to decide not to play
but I still wish i could!!!
So if the client gets fixed (please make the stutter go away, I have 2 G of RAM, it should be able to load almost the whole client!!!), and _maybe_ the models and the textures get a revamp - I'll be running back-
Heck, if ONLY the stutter is fixed, I might consider.
I am still in love with the crafting in this game.... the best EVER.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Sounds like you and I suffer from the same problem
Do you have a dual-core AMD or Intel processor?
Try this: Run horizons, then hit ctrl+alt+delete to bring up the Windows task manager. Click on the processes tab then right click on horizons.exe and choose "Set Affinity" at the bottom of the menu. In the new box, UNCHECK the "CPU 1", and any other CPUs.. leave "CPU 0" checked, then hit OK.
See if that fixes the problem. Horizons seems to have an issue when it runs on a dual core system (It apparently negates the processor's cache, which hurts performance)
-Menkure
Is a good game. I tried it some time ago but I wish It had better models and textures. I think this is the worst aspect of the game and the one that is making most of people not to play it.
The stuttering is because of the continuous hard disk access, so this is either a mem leak issue or a swapping problem. I am not sure if the client (written pre-2003) is able to utilize 2 Gigs of RAM,....?
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
However, with smooth framerates I could look over the outdated gfx - I hope I'll have a chance soon
Still, it should be in the top 5 on the to-do list for Virtrium... visual update.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
I'm going to give this game another shot. I remember how good the community is, best from what I have played and I've played most MMO's. I also like crafting in the game and Dragons, who wouldn't want to make a dragon.
Fight Me! http://zunarn.mybrute.com
The only way I would give this game another try is if the avatars were improved and had more choices for individuality. I remember how dawg ugly my avatar was, no matter what I changed on her. I simply cannot play a game where the one thing I look at the most is so ugly.
A Voice From Within
-Menkure
My apologies, I haven't followed horizons for quite some time now only going on memories.
I don't know what could be causing the stutter; you might drop by the technical forums for assistance. I'm running a 2.6G P IV, from 2003, AGP 7800 GS vidcard, and now 2G RAM. 1280 X 960, terrain clutter and shadows turned off, everything else maxed, including view distance and I'm getting a steady 12 fps in town, minimum. Performance has improved greatly in the past, and further client improvements are on the test server now.
I'd second everything Menkure said. The reasons Hz players are so dedicated are various; playable flying dragons of course, a unique crafting system, the first GOOD UI in an MMO, humor, and some very creative areas. Good music too, the first really good music I'd heard in an MMO.
PS After resurrecting the test server, and fixing the billing mess, a large patch was just pushed to live.
PPS. There are now more billing options. For returning players, the Grandfather option may have ended; it was same features, price as before. Now there is added a slightly limited sub, at a lower price than before, and slightly more expensive sub, with increased features. And of course the free trial.
PPPS Ugly characters??? Well the felines, dragons, Ssliks, and fiends all have tails; mobile tails at that, something VG couldn't manage years later. The dryads are very good looking; not so for the half-giants, but then what do you expect? Guhnomees are just plain cute.
Hey! A familiar face :-D
I recently came back to the game, having read the recent interview with Virtrium... I was expecting the same trainwreck I'd seen in the past, and have even voiced my own "let it die already" posts in the past, because it really seemed hopeless for this game for a while and they were just beating on a dead horse. The game and its community was just being horribly mishandled by everyone who got their hands on it, it seemed. However, I ind that somehow these guys (Virtrium) seem very different. I read about the updates being done and about how serious they are about turning Horizons around and improving it. How they've the funding on-hand to develop the game as it should be. So I decided to try it out again. Free trial. What could it hurt?
Well, let me tell you... I think you would do well to give it another try.
I've done so and am thoroughly impressed. That stutter you speak of? That was one of the big reasons I left as well way back when; it made the game unbearable to me. I can tell you, having gone through the new tutorial area, zoning to numerous different spots - and even running around in Tazoon (one of the worst spots for it) - that the chop is *gone*. I used to get that horrible chop even at low settings... Now I have them practically cranked to maximum, and while I can "feel" a slight drop in frame-rate, it's not drastic and the chop is non-existant.
For reference, I have an Athlon 64 X2, 2Gigs of RAM and an 7800GT video card. Even on that rig, mind you, the last time I'd tried out the game, it was still extremely choppy and laggy. So they've definitely improved something between then and now.
I started a new toon and found the revamped New Player's area to be much better than the old one. Not too long at all - substantially shorter than LoTRO's, for reference - and there's no annoying looooong brown hallway to run down to choose your classes. It's just two NPCs now, right where you first zone in. One for Adventuring. One for Crafting. Everything you need to do is pretty near-by, and the tutorial pop-ups will even suggest you to run off a nearby cliff to get somewhere faster.
Like you, I really enjoyed the game, including the crafting. I always felt it had immense potential, and still do. It looks like, with Virtrium at the helm, things can finally turn around. Those guys really seem driven. They've brought back Blight, they're addressing things that were supposed to happen over a year ago, as I understand it. The community seems really excited... and man, what a dedicated and even affectionate community. Reading through many threads there, you can tell people really hold Horizons close. It's cool to see that their dedication will very well be rewarded big time.
As for graphics... well, I think they're good. I like the environments and the player characters are decent. The dragons look cool
. I'm not a fan of the run animation, but it's not a deal-breaker. I still don't understand the "slower run speed when not on a road" thing; I mean, I "get it"... I just don't know why it's so much slower. I think my lowbie, level 1 leather armor looked better than my leather 10 armor, which is rather plain. Technically the game isn't going to win any awards for bleeding edge graphics or anything. But for me the gameplay more than makes up for it. There's "something" about Horizons that I've always liked... and I don't think the graphics even really factor into it that much.
So hey... by all means, give it another go. It's free to try right now and, if you remember your login information, your character will still be there. Mine, which I haven't played in at least 3 years now, was still there waiting for me, right where I left her (Kirasanct). If you're on Chaos, look me up - Perrina Fairwind. We can group up or something
.
Ciao!
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
-Menkure
Umm.. forgive the newbish question.. How do I obtain said stand-alone launcher? I'm still going in through the browser XD. And when you say stand-alone, you mean that the browser is not involved at all, right? Not just that there's a short-cut on your desktop that then "launches" the browser?
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
If there is no shortcut in either the start menu or on your desktop, then go into your main Horizons folder and find "HorizonsLauncher.exe"
I recommend creating a shortcut to in on your desktop for easier access
Here is what the laucher looks like when you open it:
Just use your username and password, and hit the login button. When you are logged in, it will first show you the announcements. You can click on each one to read them, and hit the back button to go back to the announcement window, or you can hit "next" to reach the character selection screen.. Then, select your character and hit "play" and you're all set!
-Menkure
If there is no shortcut in either the start menu or on your desktop, then go into your main Horizons folder and find "HorizonsLauncher.exe"
I recommend creating a shortcut to in on your desktop for easier access
Here is what the laucher looks like when you open it:
Just use your username and password, and hit the login button. When you are logged in, it will first show you the announcements. You can click on each one to read them, and hit the back button to go back to the announcement window, or you can hit "next" to reach the character selection screen.. Then, select your character and hit "play" and you're all set!
-Menkure
Well hot diggity dang... :-p
That's awesome! I've just been using the default shortcut it puts on the desktop during installation. Will *definitely* set this up when I get home. Nice looking login screen, too.
Thanks!
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Good news the original developers got the game back. I have been one of the early player and supporter of Horizons (2003-2004). I'm not sure if the old members still remember me I used to be a lvl 80 Saris healer named Whitefang.
played it... its still one big huge grind.
How people can call that fun I have no idea. The bar for fun is obviously set very low.
As it is with every person that sign's in to try the game is that much more to tax their already woefully underpowered server setup. As more people try it in vain hopes that its fun the more the servers are going to start choking under the stress. So ya'll better pony up and buy vitrium better server hardware.