Horizons: April 2006 Design Preview

What We've Accomplished

While we didn't succeed in completing everything on the last design preview, we did complete some very important projects. Namely, we shipped the new and much improved Biped Tutorial, an area called Spirit Isle. As with the original Spirit Isle, this one is designed to assist players with the basic mechanics of the game; how to navigate the world, utilize the UI, and get the information they need to obtain in order to play the game. Some big differences this time around, however, are that there are fewer NPCs, the quests are better, the blue box tutorials are more informative, and the experience and items you gain directly apply towards your character's growth.

Completing this project was a necessity. It is, however, a boon to new players, helping them into the game. Drawing customers in is the job of the marketing, but keeping them here is the job of the design team. And we'd like to think that between Skalkaar and the new Spirit Isle we're doing a much better job of keeping new customers!

Another big project we've completed and shipped was the first quest series by Peter S Beagle. These quests are intended to add flavor and depth to the world and going forward we may see more of them. In addition to the quests, and thanks to a lot of hard work by Smeglor, we've gotten quite a bit of new technology to assist us in making better quests and more interactive NPCs. This will trickle down to other quests that we, and perhaps players, will implement in the future. So if you are looking for a bit of entertainment, step over to New Trismus and greet Darshana the half-giant and then sit back and help a Half-Giant and a Gnome get hitched. Yes, that is not a typo, you will be helping a happy couple get married. Yes, yes, we know that she can barely even reach his knees, but they are in love!

Finally, we've continued our hard work on fixing bugs in the client (thank you Client and Engineering Team!) and in the tools and content.

What We're Doing Now

We've got two key projects we're working on as I type this. There's the Confectioner Revamp. This is the main project we're working on and will occupy our time for the near future. We've begun getting assets from the Art Team and we're nearing the end of the system design phase. What does that mean? Well, it means we'll be moving into the content creation phase, setting specific foods and resources up in the database, and getting things ready to patch to Blight for testing. Look for additional information on the upcoming confectioner revamp, coming to a website near you very soon!

And then there's the New Trismus Revamp. Now that we've completed Spirit Isle, we're making another pass at New Trismus. Our goal is to continue to help new players enjoy the game without running out of things to do or not knowing where to go next. Spirit Isle leaves off at level 3 or 4 and so New Trismus needs to carry new players forward through level 10. This revamp includes up to 11 quests for each of the base adventurer schools (Warrior, Mage, Scout, Cleric, Druid, Spiritist, and Monk) including a 4-part story quest to round out the experience on the island. The remaining crafting trainers will also get a revamp, with quests in a similar style to the Blacksmith trainer's quests.

Other projects we're working on right now (call them our short-term projects) that will (hopefully) become available in April:

Smelting Quests for Dragons - The full line of Smelting Mastery quests for Dragons will become available.
Azulyte Transmutation - The formulas for Azulyte Transmutation will become available for Dragons.
Bestiary/Lore - An area that we feel the website is lacking is a comprehensive bestiary listing basic information and lore about individual monsters in the world of Istaria. We hope to get some of this information prepared and posted in the near future for everyone to enjoy. Along with that, we plan on getting updated lore including a timeline and revised racial descriptions added to the website.
Event - The next chapter of Horizons will become available to players sometime in April. Look for the continuing story of Istaria to evolve and grow.

Where We're Going

And then it was time for what everyone really wants to read... What we'll be working on in the future. Well, folks, I won't disappoint. There are some key projects that are getting much closer to fruition. They've been moved off the "pony list" and early design work has begun on a few of them as time permit's. These projects are longer-term and are all scheduled for publish after April:

Loot Revamp - A complete revamp of the loot in Horizons, focused on reward-for-effort as well as usefulness.
New Monsters - Our continuing goal to improve the product has led us to work closely with the Art Team to get some new monsters into the game. We posted a preview a week ago about the Scorpion and Crab and we'll be working those into the project in the near future. But we aren't satisfied with just two new monsters and so we'll be introducing additional ones in the coming months.
Tier 1 & 2 Revamp - While we had hoped to get to this last year, the fact is that certain projects (spirit isle, lairshaper, etc) took a much higher priority in the schedule and so these were pushed back. However, after the New Trismus revamp, we will be moving on to revamping these two areas, with Lesser Aradoth getting a quest face-lift, and then the Tier 2 lands getting a full-scale revamp.
Re-Examination of Biped Schools - One of the things we'd like to do is revisit the biped schools, investigating them for completeness, purpose, functionality, and other areas. Primary skill changes are a possibility, but at this stage it's all in the future and too early to say what exactly this might involve.
Ancient Advancement - Another area we'd like to visit at some point. This may or may not involve additional schools for Ancient dragons, but it would definitely be some form of advancement and character improvement.
Tier 5/6 Revamp - As with the Tier 2 revamp, this would be a total revamp of the Tier 5 and 6 lands, monsters, quests, etc.
Player-Created Quests - With the Quest Editor entering another month of beta-testing by a group of dedicated player-testers, it is getting closer to public release. We'll be working on getting documentation in place to go with the public release of this tool so that players will have all of the information they need at their fingertips.
And our on-going project is, as always, fixing bugs wherever we may find them. You could call it our "Continuing Mission". We will continue to work closely with the community through the support site and also through the "Game Bugs" forum to resolve bugs and issues that affect enjoyment of the game.

Well, that's it for now. I hope this gives everyone an idea of where we've been, where we are, and where we're going. Horizons is a great product that continues to grow and improve as the days, weeks and months tick by. We thank you all for your support and we'll continue to work hard to bring you a great game for a long time to come!

Amon Gwareth
and the Horizons Design Team