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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.
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.
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, or as one of the biped races—human, elf, dwarf, gnome, half-giant, dryad, satyr, fiend (humanoid with blue skin, horns and tails), saris (a cat-like humanoid), or 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. 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). Additionally, bipeds may at any time visit a trainer and switch schools—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) and crafting (e.g. Armorer, Spellcrafter, Weaponsmith) 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 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. Alternatively, a player may concentrate solely on adventuring, relying on trading or assistance from guildmates 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" (player vs. environment).
Crafting
Horizons is a player-run economy. Virtually everything is made in game, from weapons, armour, equipment, potions, spells, to food and ambrosia to cure players of death—only a very few specialist weapons are non player made. Adventurers 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 towns in Horizons vary from the starting towns to towns that are run and owned by players.
If you desire to own a plot, first you must find a plot of land that is for sale and purchase it. When you own a plot you can put down scaffolds for structures that are valid for your plot's zoning. Those scaffolds will then require construction to get the building. There are crafting schools such as Carpenter, Mason and Fitter which provide the necessary skills to produce the raw materials for building and apply them to the construction.
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 one being for money. Also, plots may be purchased by guilds, and developed by multiple guild members specialising in different construction schools.
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. 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 invasions of existing towns and 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 and satyr races).
Timeline
Horizons and Artifact Entertainment was first conceived and developed by David Allen. David Bowman and James Jones took over the project a few years after, and the game went into a development blackout for several months. Horizons re-emerged some time later with a new staff and a new game under the same name.
Horizons has 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 completly eradicated, these issues have been alleviated.
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.
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.
External links
- Artifact Entertainment website
- Horizons: Empire of Istaria website
- Horizons Wiki (community project to "document the secrets of Horizons")
- Official community page