The Cellar - View Single Post

OnyxCougar · 04-22-2004, 10:51 PM

I've played Everquest, I've played Galaxies. I've played Dark Age of Camelot.

Horizons is unique because of just how much the players contribute to the game.

Each server (shard) started the same, but as different players created different characters, bought different plots of land, and put different buildings up, each shard has become a semi-unique place.

Every week or few weeks, the devs (Artifact) will advance the storyline of the world by holding "events". For example, before I joined the game, the available races were Human, Gnome, Dwarf, Elf, Dragon, Saris (catpeople), Fiend, a lizard race, and a dragon.

As events unfolded in all the different shards, crafters digging in the wilderness came upon a strange set of caves. Adventurers were called in to hold off the Withered Aegis (the common foe) while crafters of all kinds dug out the tunnels. This involved Miners and Masons (to dig), Carpenters (to make the supporting braces), Confectioners (to feed the crafters and adventurers), all kinds of people to move the rock, etc.

When the tunnel was dug out, a cave was discovered with Satyrs in it that had been living underground for years, enslaved by the Withered Aegis. Finally, the Satyrs were free, and now they are a playable race.

Again, not all shards have completed this event. Some shards still haven't freed the satyrs.

Then, the Withered Aegis made an advancement on an eastern border town (home city of the Elves) called Faledan. Some shards beat the WA back, and those who fought in the battle started getting sick. And then spread this sickness to the rest of the world. (The sickness meant you can't recall, take 18hp of damage every RL 10 minutes that was NOT healable, and all your stats were severely lowered.) NPC's and PC's alike were getting infected, but Dragons were immune. Dragon Clerics could cure the populous, but no immunity was found until the Scholar of Contagion showed up in the ruins of Faledan. If you completed his quest, you recieved one immunity potion. After a certain amount of time, he left Faledan, and so those who didn't do the quest have to hope they don't get sick until the plague wears itself out, or a Dragon cures them.

Again, different shards have different worries. As you play the higher level characters become legends and are written into the history and events of the Shard.

One of the other neat things about Horizons is that if you don't want to adventure, you don't have to. You can be a strict crafter. Another cool feature is that if you don't like your class or your craft, you can change it at any time to something else. It's much like multiclassing in D&D 3rd edition. Currently, I am a 14th Cleric/10 Warrior. I am also a 4 Blacksmith/7 Jeweler/15 Outfitter. (I'm well rounded.) Once you reach a certain skill level prerequisite, new classes open up to you. For example, when I get my Two hand slashing to 142, I can switch classes to a Berserker, which can't use magic (so I lose my cleric abilities) but is an excellent melee'r. And, once my smelting skill is 150, I can choose to change outfitter to Fitter, which is a specialized contruction class that works exclusively in metal. If I don't like it, I can switch back to outfitter and poof! I'm an outfitter again, NO PENALTY, I haven't lost any exp I earned while an outfitter. (Now, I may have wasted time as a fitter, but at least I can go back to 15 outfitter.)

The music kicks ass. The graphics are very cool and if I crank everything, it will test my Radeon 9800XT to the limit, and my 1G DDR RAM gets a workout.

Overall, it's a badass game, and I cancelled my Dark Age account after 1 week of play.

You can get a free download of the game (better have broadband) and play no obligation for 7 days for free. See what you think. If you want to catch me, I'm on the Twilight Shard. Look for Tigrica. I'm on General chat.

Oh, and my guild's website is

http://members.cox.net/thedarkwatch

There are some screen shots there.

Note: as of this writing, ALL the cox.net homepages are down. Just keep trying, it will be up later.

04-22-2004, 10:51 PM	#3
OnyxCougar Junior Master Dwellar Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Kingdom of Atlantia Posts: 2,979	I've played Everquest, I've played Galaxies. I've played Dark Age of Camelot. Horizons is unique because of just how much the players contribute to the game. Each server (shard) started the same, but as different players created different characters, bought different plots of land, and put different buildings up, each shard has become a semi-unique place. Every week or few weeks, the devs (Artifact) will advance the storyline of the world by holding "events". For example, before I joined the game, the available races were Human, Gnome, Dwarf, Elf, Dragon, Saris (catpeople), Fiend, a lizard race, and a dragon. As events unfolded in all the different shards, crafters digging in the wilderness came upon a strange set of caves. Adventurers were called in to hold off the Withered Aegis (the common foe) while crafters of all kinds dug out the tunnels. This involved Miners and Masons (to dig), Carpenters (to make the supporting braces), Confectioners (to feed the crafters and adventurers), all kinds of people to move the rock, etc. When the tunnel was dug out, a cave was discovered with Satyrs in it that had been living underground for years, enslaved by the Withered Aegis. Finally, the Satyrs were free, and now they are a playable race. Again, not all shards have completed this event. Some shards still haven't freed the satyrs. Then, the Withered Aegis made an advancement on an eastern border town (home city of the Elves) called Faledan. Some shards beat the WA back, and those who fought in the battle started getting sick. And then spread this sickness to the rest of the world. (The sickness meant you can't recall, take 18hp of damage every RL 10 minutes that was NOT healable, and all your stats were severely lowered.) NPC's and PC's alike were getting infected, but Dragons were immune. Dragon Clerics could cure the populous, but no immunity was found until the Scholar of Contagion showed up in the ruins of Faledan. If you completed his quest, you recieved one immunity potion. After a certain amount of time, he left Faledan, and so those who didn't do the quest have to hope they don't get sick until the plague wears itself out, or a Dragon cures them. Again, different shards have different worries. As you play the higher level characters become legends and are written into the history and events of the Shard. One of the other neat things about Horizons is that if you don't want to adventure, you don't have to. You can be a strict crafter. Another cool feature is that if you don't like your class or your craft, you can change it at any time to something else. It's much like multiclassing in D&D 3rd edition. Currently, I am a 14th Cleric/10 Warrior. I am also a 4 Blacksmith/7 Jeweler/15 Outfitter. (I'm well rounded.) Once you reach a certain skill level prerequisite, new classes open up to you. For example, when I get my Two hand slashing to 142, I can switch classes to a Berserker, which can't use magic (so I lose my cleric abilities) but is an excellent melee'r. And, once my smelting skill is 150, I can choose to change outfitter to Fitter, which is a specialized contruction class that works exclusively in metal. If I don't like it, I can switch back to outfitter and poof! I'm an outfitter again, NO PENALTY, I haven't lost any exp I earned while an outfitter. (Now, I may have wasted time as a fitter, but at least I can go back to 15 outfitter.) The music kicks ass. The graphics are very cool and if I crank everything, it will test my Radeon 9800XT to the limit, and my 1G DDR RAM gets a workout. Overall, it's a badass game, and I cancelled my Dark Age account after 1 week of play. You can get a free download of the game (better have broadband) and play no obligation for 7 days for free. See what you think. If you want to catch me, I'm on the Twilight Shard. Look for Tigrica. I'm on General chat. Oh, and my guild's website is http://members.cox.net/thedarkwatch There are some screen shots there. Note: as of this writing, ALL the cox.net homepages are down. Just keep trying, it will be up later.