All Posts by dand3

I do not expect a new server anytime soon.  The world rebuild projects (in my opinion, the worldbuilder types don't agree) are a bit dull; build a bridge, build a mine, that sort of thing. 

Many players get more of a kick out of building their own houses, lairs, or shops.  The plots were recently resized, the minimum size got increased quite a bit, so a house and a shop usually fit.  Plots were reclaimed from ex-players, so there are plenty. 

Whoosh! From the first month of release to now?  Many bugs mashed, new critters, new continent, new islands, the Dragons' Rite of Passage to gain adult form and flight, the Ancient Rite of Passage (both magnificent quest lines imo), the great general improvements in dragon play, a complete revamping of the beginning tutorials and low level areas, plots, player buit homes, lairs, and shops, and a lot of work optimizing the game client.

The current owners, Virtrium, are devs from the pre-EI/PMI era, and are very capable.  Perhaps even more importantly, they have shown a willingness to discuss possible new features, listen to the player base, and make changes based on player reaction.  I only know of a couple of other games that are as well managed.

So far, the end games have been unique; one approach has been to level a biped to maximum in one class, and then level in other classes.  You can acquire many (but not the most potent) skills of the added classes.  For example I maxed (level 100) Ranger, and had cleric to level 88 for basic resurrection and minor and medium heals; spiritist for spirit bolt, etc.  Another common endgame approach is to level your biped(s) as far as you want, then start a dragon toon; or vice versa.  The dragon game experience is quite different, being much more a quest-driven leveling game than biped.  Some players craft extensively; you can master as many crafts as you wish, without limitations.  For dragons, the crafting skills are spell making and laircrafting, again quite different from the biped armorers, tailors, etc.

There are a few epic bosses that do drop fancy loot; not my sort of thing, so I can't say much about it. 

Recently, the devs have been working at creating a large labyrinth dungeon;  it sounds as if it may be getting close to beta.  New critters, beginning to sound very interesting.

Did this answer the question?

Similar experience here;

7900GS AGP (=~7600 GT); 2G RAM; 1280 X 960

Max View Distance

2X AA, not sure about AF.

Otherwise, settings very similar to Katriell's; except I remember that cloth simulation made a big difference back in the day.

Systems have gotten better, and the devs have also made improvements to the game; for example some items had crazy high polygon counts and have been redesigned.

Game runs smoothly, no hitching.

  Always a pleasure to read a well-reasoned, thoughtful post.

Incidentally, there is an unconfirmed rumor that Windows 7 will revert to the XP kernel.  The basis is that there are simply too many enterprise programs that will not run under Vista.

Plots belonging to lapsed subscribers will be reclaimed.  Anyone not subbing, who'd like to keep their plot needs to resubscribe.  The first preliminary headsup emails have gone out to ex-subscribers; ex-players should be sure their email address is currentif they care.

As Shadowmage mentioned, the plot sizes are being looked at as part of the reclamation.  You can build on the smaller plots, but the larger buildings don't fit. The revision should help a lot.

The player base size is confidential; we do know there were more than 10K players, and it was growing well at the time of the disastrous sale. (Dragon lairs and other dragonlub had just been added. )  That growth made the sale attractive to the VC and the seller alike. Due to massive mismanagement, during the PMI/EI period, the subs fell.  Now we know the "game is growing, and in the black".  My own completely speculative guess is that  the game's major shortfalls will be fixed before much marketing is done.  With the billing fixed, plot reclamation almost done, Unity players migrated, and lag mitigated, I think that Vista is the sole outstanding issue; and of course that's being worked on.  Requests for players' preferences for a revised or new launcher were just posted, as part of the Vista upgrade.

No one on. Hmmm.  It is a big place, much the largest MMO land area at the time it was released. There are several chat channels that would help... Marketplace, Dragon, and depending on the server (and I forget the names) advice and new player channels.There is also a /who function that shows who else is on, their level, class, etc.  

Order, the role playing server has fewer players than Chaos... I play on Order, and have never, even at the lowest point, seen 0 other players. (There are clearly more on now, including some of the old players from beta... )

This thread on the community forums discusses Vista, now with SP1! and extra goodness.   As indicated above, it can be done, but seems to be hit and miss. It is being worked on of course, but unfortunately no date yet.

I just read that 10-20% of major business programs don't run on Vista; part of the reason businesses are beginning to announce that they're waiting for Windows 7(?). 

http://community.istaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17885

Biped multiclassing isn't that great a factor until you have multiple level 100's under your belt.  Some time ago, 2 years perhaps, the sentient Evils, the Withered Aegis were "evolved" ; i.e. upgraded to continue to challenge the multi-classed.  Critters in general were not evolved, so you have a good breadth of difficulty; some fairly easy targets for their level, some quite a bit harder, especially at the upper levels.

Dragons (the most popular race) do not multiclass.  The Dragon Rite quest lines pretty much require grouping, and the epic bosses certainly do also.  In general though, people group because they enjoy the company as much as for the need for attack power.

The engine and models are both being worked on.  Nothing radical, but steady improvement, especially in performance.

Since Virtrium took over the game, there has been a steady increase in the player population.  It's not back to the level it had rerisen to before the disastrous sale to EI/PMI, but it is increasing; with an extra jump now that the European players have been transported from their server to the American servers.  I'd strongly suggest joining a guild, which helps too.

I could be wrong, but I think the Vista compatibility changes will be completed before Virtrium starts advertising seriously for new players.

I'm only playing intermittently these days; however I can honestly say that I have not seen this (I play on Order.) Nor have I seen mention of this on the Istaria community forums. 

We used to have a would-be roleplay enforcer on Order, who caused considerable flaming, but she's been long gone.

An unusual feature is that non-dragon players can multi-class as much and often as wished.  For example, most players, regardless of their preferred class, take a few levels of cleric to gain healing abilities.  As a result, balance for pvp is impossible; that and the strong player preference for PVE ensures that there never will be PVP. 

This also means that the griefers that may be attracted by PVP are not going to be in Istaria either. 

Because stocking of the beginner areas' consigners was erratic, refurbished gear was added; very slightly less effective, much cheaper, always in stock.  

Like many games with a mature player base, it's important to join a guild.  Most have a policy of not charging members, and many players use in-guild chat and don't look much at the marketplace channel.  Guild members will supply advice as well as gear. 

Graphics performance is variable.  I have ground clutter turned off, cloth, and shadows turned off, and everything else including view distance maxed, AA=2.   2.6 GHz Pentium IV, 2G RAM, 37 G Raptor HDD, 7900GS AGP video (about = to 7600GT), cable modem; not state of the art by any means.  Very rare hitching, very little lag.  This has slowly improved, both the game and the vid card upgrades contributing.

There's more work being done than might meet the eye... For major content addition, surely finishing the confectioner class counts, with new recipes and resources.  Especially since it included changes designed to improve the weak economy. 

Other changes were more like foundation work.  Out of sight, but important.  New secure billing arrangements were completed first thing of course, and the  Vista compatibility changes underway don't show up as game play additions either.  Both vital though.  Transferring the stranded European players (Unity shard) was a significant undertaking, and more on the order of a promise kept than a cold-blooded business decision. Work is being done on the client, and on models that were carelessly way over-polygonned.  Quests are being added steadily.  Name and plot reclamation (reclaiming from long-vanished explayers who do not respond to emails) are being worked on.  Tier 6 resources are being added, slowly but steadily. 

Work is proceeding on a dungeon.  The world design didn't support dungeons, so there's a fair amount of work in getting it completed.  And some goofy little stuff; dragon hatchlings (pre-flight young 'uns) can now glide!  Some additions have been lighthearted fun stuff like that and this year's additions to the Fall and Winter Festivals. 

For those who've been away a long time, dragons have had a LOT of work done; Ancient Rite of Passage, increased strength at all ages, and of course, Lairs.  Dragons were frustrating to play in the early days, with hoard leakage; all changed now.  And the tutorial/beginner portions of the game  had a lot of work done as well; it paid off in increased subs, which ironically caused the game to be sold, unfortunately to an incompetent outfit.  Virtrium are not only competent, but communications (BOTH WAYS!) are exceptional for any game.

It's all personal of course; but there are reasons why there have been long term faithful players.  So who's to know until they try? 

Many guilds have members who maintain low level alts for just that purpose. See Quietcamper's post above; it is a welcoming community.

There are two servers, Order and Chaos.  Order is more into Role Play, and has fewer players, so I'd suggest Chaos, especially if you play at unusual times.  There is a chat channel for new player assistance, and the Marketplace channel is where a lot of questions get asked also. 

In my email this evening. 

And so it evolves; this should make adventurers and crafters more interdpendent.  It's a significant change to gameplay which finishes the incomplete confectioners' school.  Some of the recipes came from a player contest.  Reports from players on the test server have been encouraging.

"This content patch contains one significant change, the revamp of the Confectioner school. There are many changes that go along with this update, many of which affect all players. Besides all the new foods that are available, below are some of the important confectioner related changes:

* The length of a death point is now tied to your potential rating. Potential rating is calculated by what your Adventurer rating would be if you were currently gaining experience in your highest level school. Beginning at level 10, the death point will last 8 hours. It will gain 4 hours for each Tier beyond (12, 16, ...) to a maximum of 28 hours.

* Confectioner school is now tied to the Primary Skill system. This means you will only get experience for actions that use the Cooking skill.

* Gatherers have obtained the Preparing skill, allowing them to gain XP assisting confectioners.

* Foods are available for all 6 tiers now.

* Eating food is much more effective (200%) when eaten in a tavern.

* Eating food cannot be done in combat or while standing.

* Foods are classified as Appetizers, Sides, Main Dishes, and Desserts.

* You must eat one of each part of a meal before eating another in order to gain full benefit and optimal use of your time.

* Confectioner trainers sell formulas for basic meals and processing steps for coin.

* Rare foods (player-submitted) as well as the processing forms for rare garnishes and resources are available from trainers and other NPCs around Istaria as quests.

* Dragons and Adventurers can gather rare resources/garnishes using Ingenuity.

* Eating foods at a tier lower (or higher) than your own will reduce the effectiveness.

You can find the full list of changes here: http://community.istaria.com/news/?id=261

We look forward to seeing you in Istaria.

Amarië Ancalímon

- Community Manager

For a quick recap; the game had several major problems on release.  Although it had some players who have been remarkably loyal because of the game's unique features, many left because of the problems. 

Two major changes were eventually made; playing as a dragon was made much more fun as dragons were made powerful, and the beginning tutorials and areas were greatly improved. 

As a result, the subscriber population began to grow, and the game reached break-even profitability.  The game was now salable, and the venture capitalist sold the game to EI/PE (?) who were not experienced in the business. 

Because of required changes by the billing co. at the same time, EI decided instead to institute their own (insecure) billing system.  It was not hacked (AFAIK) but it could have been.  The ownership reverted to the VC, who then sold the game to a group of Hz former developers and engineers, Virtrium.  So far, Vi has been excellent; they've done what they said they would (secure billing system first thing of course), do not overpromise, and make sure that what they do is tested and works.  First.  Amazing concept.  They announce what they might do, and they LISTEN (another amazing concept) and modify the plans to meet the players' suggestions.  Very good, professional group.  One of the devs posted that they are in the black, so yes, I expect them to be around for a long time.

Sorry, got carried away.  The community has always been one of Hz's strengths.  Even better these days, as many of the players have "done it all" and get a lot of their enjoyment from mentoring.  Order server has fewer people who are  somewhat more into Roleplay, Chaos has more players. 

Dragons are the most popular race, and most players have at least a dragon alt.  They are slightly weak in the lower levels, and cannot fly until they become adults by completing the Rite of Passage quest series; a very good quest.  Full strength is achieved by becoming Ancient, who are BIG, and powerful.

Crafting is unique, and some players primarily craft, including building/garden/shop construction as well as the usual tools, weapons and armor.  

Originally posted by bobfish

So why does Edward Andercheck still claim to be a major investor in Horizons?

• It looks good on the resume'?
• It looks good on credit applications?
• He'll remove the claim as soon as he learns MS Word?
• He's putting together a development team to assess the issue before attempting removal from his resume'?
• He'll correct the mis-statement, Real Soon Now.
• Virtrium's ownership is a vicious lie spread by unmoderated explayers who hate lovable him for no reason whatsoever? 
• It's really the fault of the billing service company? 

No question EI are crumbums of the first order.  When they ran into trouble, they hired ex-Tulga employees to get the game back on the air... then apparently they stiffed the rescuers.  The second time, I understand it was cash up front .  They were incompetent, disagreeable, and they apparently failed to reimburse some players who were overcharged. Dark days.

It was posted on another forum, is second hand, and take it for what it's worth:  when EI failed to make payments to the VC who had owned Hz's rights, the rights reverted back to the VC, who then sold them to Virtrium.  EI has no interest whatsoever. 

Virtrium  is totally different from EI in every way.  They have emphasized player communications, request,  listen to, and use player input, make a point of not overpromising, and have made substantial improvements by getting the test server back up, fixing billing, etc. etc. (See above posts for some of it. )  Above all, these are people who knew and loved Hz when they worked on it, who play now, and who are very competent technically.  Their focus and sense of priorities are outstanding.  

New subs are up, and players are returning. (Dev post, elsewhere.) The forums are alive again.  Better days indeed.

It sounds as if it's been a while since you played Xenduli; I'm surprised about the payment problems, as I thought those were limited to the US players. As to the comments about no one working on the game, I'll let the current monthly "state of the game" email from Virtrium speak for itself.

From the Desk of the Developer: January 2008 Edition