Horizons Craft System

[Calabar]

The NDA has been lifted, so beta testers can now talk about their experiences all they like. I thought I’d add a small bit of crafting information that was posted on our web page.

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Lexicon

That will be a big help Coea. With those and Cargo armor it greatly decreases the time needed to craft. With these types of gear you will be able to carry more, so when your gathering resources, it means less trips to the machines to do your combines. In this game there are no "portable" combine containers like EQ. To do a "combine" you need to take your resources to what we have coined "a machine". To make a sword for example (provided you have a pattern for one):

Equip pick axe
Gather Copper&Tin ore (this is one resource not two different)
Equip smelting tongs
Take the ore to a smelter
Pull up bronze bars on your create item list
Drag the slider to what number you wish to make as a batch
Click the create button

Thats it, in this game you can batch create up to 50 of the same item at a time and they are 100% combines (you can adjust the percentage of success, but it defaults at 100). If you do adjust the success percentage it will consume 1/2 of the materials at 50% success, etc.

No more mundane clicks without success (thank God).

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Radagar

If you do adjust the success percentage it will consume 1/2 of the materials at 50% success, etc.

Let me get this straight...

Say you have 50 ore, and it takes 5 normally to make a bar... So you can leave it at 100%, and make 10 bars..

or,

you can adjust the bar to 50%, and you will then use half the materials to make the bars, so 2.5 ore... This means you could potentially make 20 bars.. but at a 50% success rate each? Did I understand that right?

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Lexicon

You nailed it on the head. That is 100% correct. (No more failures if you do not wish to gamble the percentage). If you do fail on a combine by lowering the percentage, it will eat what you are trying to combine and you will not get any xp for that try. When doing a batch, and you have the percentage set down, each one in the batch gets the random check on the percentage (you will not lose all in the batch, just the individual ones that failed the percentage check).

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I am so looking forward to this game. I’m especially looking forward to crafting items at low skill level that players can actually use and want to buy. If you would like to read comments about the game made by beta testers, here’s a good link:
http://www.tazoon.com/releaseforums/tm.asp?m=1799

And here’s a link to a good review:
http://horizonsvault.ign.com/feature..._preview.shtml

[Calabar]

Here is another interesting Horizons post on our web page. Traycee was in beta for the last couple of months or so and she came up with a list of “Things I am Thankful For.” This may give you a bit of insight on what game play is like compared to EQ.

1. Weightless Money that you never need to put into your bank
2. Money instantly gets converted to higher denominations
3. Not having to carry a light source
4. Everyone Has Recall (Gate)
5. No Doors
6. Dragons
7. Viewing your bank vault no matter where you are in the world
8. No Zones
9. 100% Combines on Crafting
10. Multi-Classing
11. 7 Day a Week Support
12. NO Mana bar!!!!
13. No more losing a days Experience when you die
14. Queing up Spells
15. Log in Que if there is alot of People logging in
16. Arrows actually sticking out of mobs when you shot them
17. Shooting up/down hill no longer a problem
18. NO ARROWS!!!! (you have bow, you automaticly have arrows)
19. No need to eat or drink unles you want to
20. Still get exp/loot after you die if the mob you were killing gets killed right after
21. Can loot killed mobs while fighting
22. When KOSed by guards, still get precentage of exp when its killed
23. Shows exact Level of Mobs and their class and number of Hitpoints
24. Shows how may exp pts you need to get to level
25. Players list is 100% Customizable and is unlimited
26. When people on your Players list log in and out, you are notified
27. Unlimited Levels
28. Hide Window
29. No Corpse Runs
30. No Camp Time (logging out of game)
31. 100% customizable Interface
32. The amount of weight you carry is not dependant on your Strength but on the container itself
33. Can put containers in containers
34. Ray of Light Targeting

Just a few things I am thankful for in Horizons

[Sadine]

Just a few things I am thankful for in Horizons

The ironic thing is that you have games like EQ to thanks for this. They are learning from EQs mistakes. Will be interesting to see as more MMRPG games come out how it will change EQ. I am sure you will see a lot of these nice things in EQ2. To bad EQ will probably die one day and we will have to start over leveling a character somewhere else.

[Rhisk]

Wow, can I just say that it seems that the public is only get access to the "GOOD" reviews of Horizons.

Not to be a big negative on this board, but please go to http://vnboards.ign.com/board.asp?brd=5252 and read the other reviews of Horizons as well.

Horizons does have a great crafting system, but to a heavy percentage of the beta-testers, there was not much else.

[Kronepsis]

That probably has to do with the fact that the people making Horizons did NOT want the Beta testers testing the content. To cut down on the leet beta infoz crap.

[Cantatus]

I was in beta. I'm considering posting the review I wrote for my guild (already on Graffe's and DG if you really want to read it). Despite the fact that they adhered to the fact that they just were releasing what they wanted us to test in beta, it was still pretty clear that a lot of stuff won't be ready for release. The game has a lot of potential and is definitely going in the right direction, but I'm afraid it's not ready for release and might be killed because it was pushed out the door too fast by greedy investor. My hope is that they were telling the truth about the "Miracle Build" (what the beta testers dubbed the internal server), because the game definitely has the makings to be a great game.

[Calabar]

Oh I’m certain not every beta tester was jumping on the Horizons bandwagon. Even if the game was finished to perfection, just as the designers envisioned it, there are a lot of players that simply aren’t going to like that style of game play. The main reason I’m so hopeful is because three of the best friends I made in EQ became beta testers and all three love Horizons. Since we have very similar tastes in game play I’m inclined to take their word for it.

I expect there to be a lot of problems when the game first comes out. The same was true for UO and EQ and they are both around to this day. Hopefully the problems won’t be so severe that they drive enough people away to cause the game to fail. The type of game play Horizons is offering seems to be exactly what I’m looking for. So I’m willing to give it a chance and see how things develop.

And I agree that Horizons has evolved from the experiences the many other online RPGs on the market. There are many elements of the game system that remind me of both UO and EQ. And I’m certain that other games have provided examples of what to do and what not to do. Its simply the way industry works. Another good example of this is Dungeons & Dragons. It was the first fantasy RPG ever created, or at least it’s reported as such. Other companies took what that pioneering company did and created other tabletop RPGs. As role-playing systems evolved D&D became old hat and had to reinvent itself to remain competitive. And if you want to push the irony just a bit further, I bet EQ would never have existed if not for Dungeons & Dragons. So thank you Gary Gygax.

[NightGod]

15. Log in Que if there is alot of People logging in
17. Shooting up/down hill no longer a problem
22. When KOSed by guards, still get precentage of exp when its killed
25. Players list is 100% Customizable and is unlimited
26. When people on your Players list log in and out, you are notified


Dunno, for my money, except for those five things I just posted, everything else seems a huge dumbing down of the challenge, or just *cutesy* stuff (like arrows sticking out of mobs). Removes alot of the realism/imersion factor, too.

Seems almost like they're catering TOO much to what people think they want. I worry that people will think its cool for the first couple months then it will become a niggling detail that bugs people.

[Maevenniia]

22. When KOSed by guards, still get precentage of exp when its killed

Assuming you meant KS'd rather than KOS'd...whats to prevent people from expoiting this as an easy way to level?

Tag mobs, do a certain amount of damage, run to guards, guards KS you but you get some xp. Even if not full xp for killing the mob yourself, you can train the guards at a pretty fast rate, making up the difference.

What ere they thinking? lol

[eniamn]

i'm thinking you should tag a red by the guards and train all day. heck 5% of constant reds training is super easy.

[Aoladari Raveynfyre]

I have to say I loved it. My man is picking up 2 copies on the way home tonight.

4 chars per acct sucks though.

the Blight (evil undead stuffs) has an intelligent AI (meaning the mobs work together -cleric mob heals warrior mob after the scout tracked you down and started killing you).

Dragons, *drool* so awesome, but I have seen color combinations to make your eyes bleed.

I wrote a huge review on it, if anyone is interested I'll post it.

[Ilona]

I'd love to read reviews from those that have been in Beta!
Please post!

[burnttoastv]

FYI, if you don't feel like reading the whole dialogue, the point is at the bottem of my entry. Have a nice day and good hunting.

So the game has been released for few weeks, what are people's thoughts now? I got it for Christmas and my guild hasn't really seen me since then while I've been playing. Going back to EQ for a night to make an item for a guildie was a big change of pace, because so far in HZ nothing I've made has needed more then a single subcombine (but I'm only a lvl 11 weaponsmith so I haven't seen much of ANY thing yet).

While for crafting I do prefer HZ, game play I prefer EQ simply because that's all I've played for two years and it's what I know. The interface alone for crafting would make me stay with this game because it will not kill my wrists, and I know I'll still do crafting as long as I play.

So out of curiosity, what are shortcomings people see in HZ?

I'd say the xp grind (boring grinding is unavoidable for quickest xp usually) you have to do with tradeskills but when you get past the beginning basic stuff you find most of the higher end tradeskill resources you have to harvest tend to be the home of a wandering mob that aggroes.

The no fail on high end tradeskills or the minimum skill requirement. Higher end resources are very abundent compared to EQ (and EQ they do drop from scary mobs, HZ they are usually gaurded by them) but there is always the frustrating agony of the failed combine which leant a gambling thrill. I am actually glad to see this gone, but the roll of the dice usually leant some excitement to a boring combine I admit. I honestly think they should allow people to fail on combines if they are willing to try something way out of thier league for that chance at making a nice item for either the stats or the xp they get from a successful result.

Recipies, not sure on this. This simplifies things, no more spouting ingrediant requirements in /gu like a madman the moment someone wanders something outloud. No more being considered the eclectic savant in your guild who somehow can recite every recipie in thier craft and therefore become more like a living reference book for everyone (anyone know any? havne't found them yet)..yeah, recipies are a good thing.

I'm looking for reflection by those who have hit those higher lvls of crafting in HZ and what they found lacking compared to EQ. List might be short, but should be interesting. At the bottem looking up, I can only assume it all looks the same for what you run into (and no 'assume' doesn't make an a$$ of U and Me, just some of the time!).