Well, I did play the game in beta. I am not commenting on a game I never played.

In any case, I am not knocking the game as it is today, I am sure it is fine. It had potential when I played in beta, it was just not ready. It may be now. I am sure a lot of people will like or even love this game, especially now that it is in the hands of someone that cares about it.

I just have to keep searching until I find the game that I have been wanting. Not every game is for everyone.

Nice link, and just the tip of the iceberg. As quoted from another site:

"Anyone who read the documents on his magic system would know that it was the most innovative system ever. The spatial, elemental, linguistic, and focus spell manipulations were pure art; magic in the old horizons was dynamic and fluid."

I was really looking forward to that design. It had much more depth than any game I know today, other than RPGs that are not online. Required study and research. I wish I could find more about the original game. All the games I have followed and loved the design have gone by the wayside.

EDIT: I also liked that you could combine different spells to get other spells.

Originally posted by Reiden

...

However, I found your original statement to be innacurate.  The original trailers for the game before it launched were all about the tension between the races, coming together to fight against the blight.  PvP has never been a factor, and the tiny pvp arena which they implemented after the initial release, is so hidden that even many people that have played for several years don't even know it exists.

Istaria is about the story, and about being able to play as a dragon, which no other game to date has done successfully, and very few have even attempted.

Considering it's history, this game puts all others to shame. Bipeds may not be as exciting as dragons, but they are free to play and they all share the same world.  Try it out.

The original design of Horizons was based on PvP. It was dropped early to get the game out concentrating on PvE. Just like the original magic system was never implemented. Shame really, the original design specs were fantastic. They did follow through on the crafting part though. It was well done IMO.

I was also in the beta WAY back when. I never transferred into retail. One of the biggest problems was the combat system at release time. It was slow, unresponsive, missed moves, etc. Also, warping existed a lot and you couldn't get many players in the same area or you were doomed, which would have been around 10-12.

It was not in very good shape at the time of release. Add to that the bad community liasons, the internal feuds at the company, and the basic attitude that they knew better about what to give the customers and things fell apart.

Horizons is a far cry from what I used to follow during development when no coding was even started. It had a great vision and a wonderful magic system which got dumped. It does have a great crafting system, or at least did, at beta time. I really liked that aspect. It sounds like they freed up some of the housing plots so people can now get decent housing so that is a plus too.

Now that David Bowman is out of the picture, I wish all the best for this game. At least I hope he is.

Originally posted by Rhoklaw

Actually, WoW does a pretty good job to support 50 vs 50-100 since city raids have become popular. Did it lag when I participated? Nope. Theres also Dark Age of Camelot, which allowed for some 3 way action of 50 vs 50 vs 50, with little to no lag. Planetside also allowed some serious numbers when it came to confrontations for base control.

If DFO allows for 200 vs 200 with no lag, I'll be impressed. If it allows for 50 vs 50, I'll be impressed. However, the game hasn't launched and until it does, no one can actually say what DFO can or can't do.

I agree, I have been in many raids where there were at least 100 chars all huddled around in a small area and have not lagged, though I heard others shouting about the lag. So I would say it depends on you comp. Funny thing is I can't play DF with warping and lag even with 10 people, at least yet, with the same comp I have no problem with on WoW.

I think they have work to do.

Let's just say your list is incomplete.

Originally posted by originalegg

DF caters to a very niche mmo gamer.  It will never be WoW, it will never be 1/3 of WoW, and it never wanted to be.

I for one am tired of being a clone in the WARs and WoWs etc on the market right now.  If you are say a mage in WoW or a BW in WAR...you have mainly the same skills, everyone knows your class...maybe ya have a little better gear..but in the end you are running around like a chicken with your head cut off using the same strategy against classes that you can tell from a mile away what they are.

This is fine for some people....for others, its down right played out and boring.

In Darkfall...you have no idea where people are and have to rely on scanning the horizon and listening for bow shots, magic, or clanging of weapons.  Trust me its really awsome to get to use the landscape to hide yourself, set up attacks, or pretty much whatever you want.  You have no idea what class someone is, or even how long they have been playing....and if you decide to engage in combat, your ability to aim your attacks, know which ones to use, manage your stamina, etc etc etc comes into play...this does NOT happen to this extent in the linear themeparks...period.

The sandbox nature is HUGE!

Some people love sandbox games, others hate them and want to have their hands held, which is fine.  Want to grind on trolls or knolls to save up for some crafting or for reagants...sure awsome.  Want to hide behind that rock on the road that is between the troll camp and the bank and take out someone on their way back from grinding?  well that works just as well if you can stomach the consequences....

 

This is a rough and tough mmo that is designed to cater to the people who want that kind of experience.  Get use to it and if it isnt what you want just move on and have fun in another game.  Dont bash people for wanting this kind of experience.  There is one hell of a fun game here, you just have to be into that kind of gameplay.

See you in game.

 

 

 

Yes, and that is what I really like about it. My only problem with it is getting it all working correctly. There are still some serious issues to make it viable in all aspects. Hopefully they can get it there. If they can, it will be a really great game.

Originally posted by originalegg

the amount of jealously and uninformed statements in this thread are amazing (and probably even better if you choose to respond to my statement).

 

Uninformed, possibly. Jealously, heh, I doubt.

The way this game is going to be at launch it needs to be half the current MMO rate. Ease people into it as they "hopefully" improve it.

Originally posted by Evasia

Get some medication it seems you need it:)

In that case, I need some of that too.

Originally posted by fyerwall

...

This phase that DFO is in sounds more like a post alpha/ phase 1 beta, not a stress test.

That about sums it up nicely

Originally posted by Boshi 

...

 If you could actually take over the world in WoW that would be an end game. If contested zones we actually contestable that would be an end game.  As it is now you can go to some zones for the purpose of pointless PvP in Wow. Oh yeah sure you can get points to get more loot but that is just a variation on the evercamp tread mill really.

That is along the lines I was going to post. If you could actually take over cities and such it would be better, along the lines of what Warhammer is doing.

If we are talking even levels and odds, the best I ever did was 1 on 1. I can take on more lower levels, but I could never take out more than 1 if they were the same level. So, I didn't reply to the poll since it really depends on the level of the person you are fighting and what they have for equipment.

Originally posted by Austinsmilee

Glad everyone is happy! Took me a while to figure it out just be thankful I'm sharing lol!

Add me in game, Inkcoder is the name. I just started I'm a Satyr; almost lvl 5.

Did they extend the characters? The studio site says "select one of three races (Human, Elves, or Gremlins)". Is that not the case anymore?

It's interesting to me that Barrens Chat is brought up as a positive thing. All I heard were negative things about it. I don't play anymore and haven't for a while now, but that is what I have read in forums.

The game intrigues me. However, I could only read subtitles in the video blog. It seems very interesting but as was the case months ago, I couldn't find any English forums about it so I will just have to wait and see if anything comes around.

[EDIT] Thanks Zorvan, that led me to English forums that I didn't know existed.

Same here this morning. Initial site load gives that weird code. Refresh and it works fine.

I did the same thing as the OP and was similarly disappointed at how EQ now was compared to what I remember. I played from beta into 2 years of release. (Kunark expansion). I then left and went on to DAoC. After trying it I didn't like the instant travel pedestals in Freeport to a lot of places, that I was on some isolated newbie place when I started, how empty the original zones were, and various other things.

I am not sure how they could accomplish keeping original games around without a ton of money to support it. I would just like the zones and concepts to stay the same throughout the expansions so even when we do come back you still go about the game the same way. Like start me in Greater Feydark as an wood elf killing beetles instead of a newbie place.

Originally posted by sprites

Raymond E Feist - riftwar/serpentwar sagas, magician is one of the best books i've read.  but i doubt it will be made into a mmo, if it were, it would be watered down for one reason or another.  it would never be able to capture the world as well as the book.  so in all honesty i rather the devs come up with something original(even if its less inspiring) than butcher a fine book.

sci-fi:  saga of the seven suns is a fairly rich universe, the story and characters are quite straight forward so it could make translating it into a mmo a bit easier.

many ideas are inspired by books albeit watered down, simplified worlds.  games (even single player) have a long way to go before they can even begin to approach the amount of depth given in books.   look at the type of games, mostly shooters and some remake of another vanilla rpg.  i might be a bit jaded but the games are just not very inspiring and rarely do i bother to finish a game nowadays. 

Yes! The Riftwar saga was wonderful. It might make a good MMO with the different worlds being at war. You would have an automatic "good vs evil" plot already set up. I vote for that one.

Originally posted by Taera

City of Angels! ;)

Hmm, wouldn't that be interesting. Reminds me of a game that had angels as playable race and removed them. Would be kind of neat to see something like this.