Horizons: Empire of Istaria
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Horizons: Empire of Istaria is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Artifact Entertainment and released in Europe on December 5, 2003 and in North America on December 9, 2003. Tulga Games, LLC acquired the game and all related assets on January 25, 2005.
Set in a fairly traditional sword and sorcery world, the game allows players to be adventurers, crafters, or both, and features a struggle between the "living races" (including the players), and "the Withered Aegis", an army of the undead seeking to destroy all life.
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The game
Overview
Horizons uses the race/class/level paradigm common to many role-playing games, with a few distinguishing features. Firstly, there is the choice to play as either a dragon (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Dragons), or as one of the biped races—human (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Humans), elf (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Elves), dwarf (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Dwarves), gnome (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Gnomes), half-giant (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Half-Giants), dryad (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Dryads) (a fairy), satyr (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Satyrs), fiend (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Fiends) (humanoid with blue skin, horns and tail), saris (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Saris) (a cat-like humanoid), or sslik (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Sslik) (a reptilian humanoid).
Dragons do not have choice of "schools" (the term Horizons uses to refer to what are usually called "classes"), but rather are all members of the Dragon Adventurer and Dragon Crafter schools. But as a dragon matures the emphasis to choose either the Lunus (fighter) or Helian (magic-user) Way of Life is increased during both the Rite of Passage and the Ancient Rite of Passage. When a hatchling dragon is advanced enough it can choose to go through the Rite of Passage to become an adult dragon, and if completed the dragon grows physically bigger, more powerful, better armor, and the ability to fly. When the adult dragon again has advanced enough it can choose to go through the Ancient Rite of Passage to become an Ancient Dragon. Again it physically grows bigger, more powerful, better armor, and it is unknown at this time what other benefits will be given.
Bipeds are members of one adventuring school (archetypes such as: Warrior, Mage, Cleric, Scout) and one crafting school (archetypes such as: Blacksmith, Miner, Jeweler, Outfitter, Scholar). Additionally, bipeds may at any time visit a trainer and switch schools without penalty—for example, switching from blacksmith to outfitter and from then on developing that school by harvesting flax, crafting clothes, etc.
The intent is that a player who wishes to try different things should be able to, without having to create multiple characters in order to do so.
Additionally, there are "prestige" schools, both in adventuring (e.g. Chaos Warrior, Elemental Archer, Paladin, Battle Mage, Flame Disciple,...) and crafting (e.g. Armorer, Spellcrafter, Weaponsmith, Mason, Alchemist,...) which cannot be joined until a certain level of development has been attained in particular basic schools. These prestige schools are generally narrower in focus but more capable at what they can do.
It is intended that a player should, if they wish, be able to concentrate solely on crafting and be able to advance in their crafting school(s) without ever developing an adventuring school. However, since many items require components from dangerous areas & dead monsters as part of their crafting recipe, such a crafter will be forced to purchase these components off adventuring players, or obtain them from guildmates & friends. Alternatively, a player may concentrate solely on adventuring, relying on trading with others or assistance from guildmates & friends to obtain equipment, rather than crafting it.
Unlike many MMORPGs, there is no PvP combat in Horizons, not even consensual dueling, thus no player killers. All action is PvE.
Crafting
Horizons is a player-run economy. Virtually everything is made in game, from weapons, armour, tools, equipment, potions, spells, to food and ambrosia to cure players of death—only a few specialist items (during the spring of 2005 more items have been added) and some sub-standard beginners equipment are non player made. Adventurers and crafters who wish to develop their characters need to buy equipment, which they can do in two ways—directly from players, or from consigner shops, which hold equipment offered for sale by other players. When you buy something from a consigner, the player who offered it for sale will be credited with the money you paid and notified (if they are currently online). All crafters must gather resources to make items, for example; mining ore and gems, cutting down trees for wood, and skinning animals to make leather.
There is also a "technique" system that allows players to custom order their armor, jewelry, weapons, tools and spells. In addition, players can open their own shops and sell their crafted items (see Land Ownership).
Land Ownership
Horizons allows players to purchase their own plots of land and build upon them. One example is the ability to build a shop on of a plot that is within the proper zoning for commercial construction, similar to real city planning. The zoning is: Residental, such as various types of houses, trees, walls, fountains,...; Commercial, such as Pawnbroker, Consigner, Gambling Hall, Tavern, & Vault; and Industrial, such as silos and various crafting machine shops. The towns in Horizons vary from the starting towns, to tiny one to two plot hamlets, to large towns that are run and owned by players and guilds. Plot costs run from a few silver coins to over 10 gold coins and can be resold either back to the Empire or to other players.
If you desire to own a plot, first you must find a plot of land that is for sale and purchase it. Plot markers look like low gravestones and when a plot is for sale there is a white flag flying over the plot marker. Click on the plot marker to get details about the plot. When you own a plot you can put down scaffolds for structures that are valid for your plot's zoning. (You can do this via the window you get when you click on your plot marker) Those scaffolds will then require construction materials to get the building. There are crafting schools such as Carpenter, Enchanter, Fitter, Mason and Weaver which provide the necessary skills to produce the raw materials for building and can apply them to the scaffolding.
If you do not possess these skills yourself, other players with the appropriate skill may choose to construct your building for various reasons, the most obvious ones being for money or that you're a member of their guild.
Also, special plots known as Guild Plots that make up towns in certain areas may be purchased only by guilds and can only be resold to the Empire or other guildmembers.
Events and Lore
The Horizons staff continues to establish an event-driven storyline. The Lore within the game covers the history and often reveals new events. All previous events can be found here (http://community.istaria.com/default.aspx?pg=events). Originally the game was slated to have weekly events, but since May 2004 they have reduced in frequency to one event every two or three weeks. These events allow for participation from both the adventurer and the crafter player types, but seldom in the same event. Some of the events to date have included digging tunnels & building bridges to new areas and invasions of existing towns & the freeing of a town held by the forces of the dreaded Withered Aegis. So far events have been used to free two additional player races (namely the dryad (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Dryads) and satyr (http://www.istaria.com/page.php?pg=characters&mid=Satyrs) races).
Timeline
Horizons and Artifact Entertainment was first conceived and developed by David Allen, starting in late 1999. As described (http://www.gamemethod.com/files/horizons/officialfaq-general.php), it was an ambitious project, with 14 player races, an enormous seamless game world, with features of several other MMORPGs all rolled into one. The development philosophy was very open, and took suggestions for features through a company-run messageboard. This continued for some time as employees were hired and production began, primarily in the form of concept art and further design brainstorming/revisions.
Meanwhile the staff were evaluating game engines to use for the title. Early screenshots were taken from prototypes built upon the Serious Sam engine, the Drakan engine, and others. David Allen did not want to compromise the game's vision, and so the search continued.
In early 2001, hiring accelerated. Scott Blinn, producer, had been told by Allen that the game needed to reach its beta stage by the end of the year, and a frantic search for talent ensued. As many as 20-30 employees were hired within a couple months. Still no decision had been made about the game's engine, though a server was in progress.
On June 22, 2001, the game's direction was switched to using the Unreal engine, and discussion began about properly licencing it. Content development begins using that toolset.
On July 20, 2001, David Allen stepped down as CEO. David Bowman and James Jones took over the project, and the game went into a development blackout for several months. Horizons began being dramatically redesigned to scale back its sheer scope in an attempt to make the project completable, and to appeal to the casual gamer. The casual gamer concept is one that heavily directed the game's development until release. The events that took place from David Allen's point of view of were later written in a Game Method article (http://www.gamemethod.com/MPOG/145/a-story-of-artifact-entertainment?pg=1), though the piece is one sided but uncontested.
In late August 2001, more game engines are evaluated, due to programmer worries about transitioning Unreal to a seamless game. Several other engines are reviewed -- Lithtech, NetImmerse, and others. Eventually the client team begins writing their own engine, using Intrinsic Alchemy as a base.
On October 3, 2001 the first round of layoffs occurred, and a sizeable percentage of the game's staff was let go.
In early 2002, significant progress had been made towards solidifying the game's technology. Early versions of combat worked, terrain was working and editable in-game, objects could be built and placed, and so on. The design continued to be reworked. Asset development at this point was primarily geared towards producing a small game area which could be used as a demo to distributers and venture capitalists.
Horizons was shown behind closed doors at E3 2002 (May 22-25), to a generally positive response. Some previews appear on Gamespy, IGN, and other major sites. Screenshots are released for the first time since the "blackout" in July.
In June 2002, the game "officially" began production. The redesign had been more or less solidified, though it continued to change, and asset production was now geared towards a final product rather than a demo.
In January 2003, a deal is reached with Infogrames -- they will distribute the game in North America.
Horizons officially launched on December 5, 2003, in europe. American servers went live a few days later. It experienced many of the problems common with new MMORPGs. The game was plagued by performance issues and has had some growing pains. Since its release the game has shown significant improvements in performance. Though not completely eradicated, these issues are gradually alleviated.
In early February 2004, there's another round of layoffs. Once again a sizeable percentage of staff is let go -- primarily artists, world developers, and customer service.
On June 15, 2004, there's a third round of layoffs.
Shortly after that, in July 2004, Artifact Entertainment filed in the courts for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Project leader David Bowman expressed that this will not result in an interruption of service and the game will continue as planned.
On September 2, 2004, a major server consolidation of the North American servers was completed. Eight shards were consolidated into two, one for normal play and one for role-playing, to cut down on hosting fees. An overhaul to address issues of high-level content was performed simultaneously. (the RP shard was named Order and the non-RP shard was named Chaos)
On September 24, 2004, it was announced that (subject to court approval) the assets of Artifact Entertainment would be sold to Tulga Games, LLC, a new company managed by former AE Director of Business Development Chris Tulumello.
On October 29, 2004 the 3 European shards were consolidated into one shard called Unity.
On December 16, 2004 The Honorable Sarah Curley, Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Arizona yesterday approved the Tulga Games LLC's bid to purchase the assets of Artifact Entertainment Inc.
On January 25, 2005 Tulga Games, LLC announced today that it has completed the purchase of the assets of Artifact Entertainment.
“We received approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in mid –December to move ahead with the purchase, then proceeded to formally close the purchase,” said Mr. Chris Tulumello, founding manager of Tulga Games. “I’ve been saying for months now that I’m both a fan of the game and a strong advocate of the underlying technology. This purchase dramatically increases the value of Tulga Games and send a message of stability and longevity to current and future Horizons customers,” continued Mr. Tulumello.
Members of Artifact Entertainment’s development, technology and creative teams have been asked to join the new Tulga Games team and “the response to these offers has been overwhelmingly positive,” says Mr. Tulumello.
As of June 21, 2005 Horizons is still up & running and staffed. Problems & bugs continue to be worked on & eradicated and new content is trickling in, with the long trailed "Ancient rite of passage" currently two thirds complete.
External links
- Tulga Games website (http://www.tulgagames.com/)
- Horizons: Empire of Istaria website (http://www.istaria.com/)
- Official community page (http://community.istaria.com/)sv:Horizons