Horizons: Details on Dragon Hoards and More!

RJCox

The fine folks over at Artifact Entertainment have released a lot of details concerning some major changes taking place in Horizons:

Dragon Hoard and Abilities: A follow-up to the Dragon Hoard and Ability changes:

"As we outlined last week, there are some big changes in store for Dragons in terms of how their hoard functions. The first set of changes to dragon hoards and abilities is complete, and should be on Blight shortly. Two ability lines were modified and both now cost hoard to use and got an upgrade in the process. A new ability was also added: adult dragons will now get "Shield of Gold"."

Read the full article on Dragon Hoards and Abilities here.

Self Buff Changes: Details on some planned upcoming tweaks to self-buff abilities:

"The first issue we're looking at is some of the frivolous busywork involved with Horizons combat. In particular, we're looking at self-only buffs, which in a lot of cases aren't situational -- when it wears off, you refresh it, because there's absolutely no reason you wouldn't. We've begun looking through these for candidates to turn into passive abilities, so that players can clear a few hotkeys and concentrate on more important things."

Read the full article on the upcoming Self Buff Changes here.

Treasure System Details: A detailed explanation on how the Treasure System functions and a clarification on "different treasure":

"Over the past few weeks, we have been reorganizing our treasure profiles for a variety of different creatures in order to help streamline the system and make it easier for us to add additional items when and if necessary without having a drastic impact on the items already in these treasure groups. This has been reflected in our Release Notes as "Different Treasure." Some players have started to perceive this as a "nerf", when in reality, the prime goal has been reorganization."

Read the full article on the Treasure System Details here.

Seravajan

The draagon fix is a great one, because the decay is now controlled by the player. And at the same time this will buff up the dragons to be on par with the other races without overpowering them.

The idea with the self buffs being turned to automatic on passive abilities is great but not a huge necessary.
With the area buffs like the example with the field of growth they should be aware that this spell cancels or blocks the self only Regrowth spell line. Else they renders this spell line useless.

On the third case (new treasury tables) I have no comment to. It should show how well that will works in the game.

Betatested:

AC2; Lords of Everquest; Horizons; Fung Wan Online; Wish

Played:

EQ; DAoC; Horizons; SWG; Shadowbane

Karatakus

Some nice changes, but tbh I'd like to see the emphasis move away from Dragon fixing now and start fixing some of the biped classes that are as broke as the dragons were, if not a bit more (most notably monk classes and archer type classes).

The passive buffing is a nice touch cos there is nothing more annoying than watching ur buffs disappear during a fight.

As for the treasure tables, we'll have to wait and see what they're like in game.

Personally my wishlish to AE (if they ever decided to listen) would be:

More mobs (especially mid to high level ones)
Useful drops (things like unteched useable weapons and armour) to be put into the treasure tables along with ingredients for techs, forms, techs etc. Its not going to kill the crafter community to have one or two items they never made floating about.