I don't play any game right now but i'm thinking to give a try to Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted untill Ryzom comes back. Have someone tried the game?
If you are speaking of Horizons, i tried it. Graphics and animations are simply horrible. Maybe good as f2p but i would never sub for a game as that. (my info are almost 6 months old, so things can be changed)
Anyway, this is just my opinion, always better to see and judge by yourself.
I tried it when it was stii Horizons, think I stopped just before the name change.
The graphics are not close to Ryzom's graphics.
It is skil lbased but the skills add up together in a somewhat complicated formula to give a character level. There is a mechanism to forget learned skills so that one can learn other skills. Sounds like it makes it interesting to create different skill sets for one's character.
I mostly just did the crafting. Lots of different crafts with crafts splitting off at different levels.The collection/harvesting of mats is just go out and get em with different game areas for harvesting and hunting. At least at the first levels -- higher levels prob get more interesting for harvesting.
Pretty nice game really, sounds like it is financially sound with some good developers who are dedicated to their game. They've put a lot of work into salvaging their game and making it a solid game. Still needs a lot of work to bring it up to todays standards but they are going in the right direction from what I saw.
But I would be playing Horizons right now, if not for a little.... disagreement I had with the devs over their "hands off" approach to dealing with troublemakers.
Like Gilgameesh has pointed out, the graphics are old and a bit shabby - but that only applies to the landscape. Character animations aren't so bad. The dragons, in particular, can pretty awesome. I developed a slightly narcissistic bent, gazing at my pretty, shiny (and enormous) scaly butt...
It is THE mmo to play if you like the idea of building. I had soooooo much fun planning and building my lair. Never seen a building system anywhere near as good as the one in Istaria.
Community is mostly good, but there's also a really nasty element who are allowed pretty much free reign. At least as my guild explained it to me, it's been that way for years. On the Chaos server at least. Order doesn't seem to have that problem. There - I've saved you the trouble Katriell :P
If you like the idea of playing dragons - this is the only mmo that lets you do it.
The 3 serious gameplay downsides in my opinion:
Dragons are a bit limited - theoretically you can play a dragon melee'er or a dragon spellcaster, but dragon melee is about 10 times as powerful as spellcasting, so spellcasting is just for masochists. This is obviously no problem at all if you actually want to melee.
Unlike Ryzom, Istaria's multiclassing (for non-dragons, i.e. bipeds) is a complete disaster. It essentially kills group-play. The only times people team up are to eg. kill mega-bosses for quests (and that's not needed often). I've never played any other mmo where the game mechanics actually discourage teaming up for combat.
Unbelievably long load times. I have a P4 with 2 gig of RAM. I don't have any problems with load times for any on- or off-line games, except for Istaria. It wasn't uncommon to have to wait 5 minutes (and sometimes longer) for the game to load when you portal between areas. I also couldn't play for more than 4 hours without needing to reboot my machine.
I mostly just did the crafting. Lots of different crafts with crafts splitting off at different levels.The collection/harvesting of mats is just go out and get em with different game areas for harvesting and hunting. At least at the first levels -- higher levels prob get more interesting for harvesting.
They don't. It's basically the same all the way to the top. There might be just be a few materials you need to kill stuff for - that's as interesting as that gets.
It has been argued (somewhat fairly) that harvesting just becomes tedious at higher levels, as you'll need to spend more time dragging harvested materials around very, very, very slowly on your cargo disc. Though I believe they've revamped cargo discs recently to make this less time-consuming.
There also comes a point where you either need to have your own land (with silos and crafting machines) or join a guild that has them - and joining a guild is generally a good idea anyway.
I think Istaria has a good crafting/harvesting system, but it pales in comparion to Ryzom's.
Klients online Tho I re-subbed to eve, then un-subbed 2 hrs later and have no loaded it since I'm also on my last 30 days of vanguard but not logged in to play for ages
Do you have a buddy key for Vanguard?I want to try it too..
The bipeds (non-dragon classes) can train in more than one class (multi-class). You can switch between classes by talking to a trainer. Some skills carry over between classes, so if you have trained several classes you are much more powerful. I liked this aspect and its is different from most other games.
The crafting system was the best I have seen in any of the 10 MMO's I have tried. Leveling training skills was a grind, but profitable.
You can build structures in the world that are "permanent" as long as you continue to play the game.
Its several years since I played, so the graphics may well be dated now.
It is all one big world, so loading is slow in some areas. There were no instances. Even the main cities are part of the one big world.
There were lots of innovative ideas that could have made this game great if the technical challenges could have been solved.
I play Everquest 2 right now, I can't find anything else that's better. Waiting on Ryzom and Aion! Tried Horizon a long time ago, I like the dryads too, I thought their modeling and textures were genius compared to their environment actually. ^_^ But I wouldn't pay a sub for it.
I'm shopping around right now. I've tired of WoW and can't muster the desire to get my characters to level 70. I've been poking at EQ2, and although I find it entertaining it hasn't really grabbed me. I just recently dusted off my Xbox and have been dinking around with GUN, Destroy All Humans, and other "ancient" non-MMO titles.
I'm looking forward to Ryzom for my freeform gaming urge. I'm also keeping an eye on Stargate Worlds and Champions Online. I also keep hearing positive things about Sword of the New World, so despite my distaste for the free-to-play model I'm tempted to give it a whirl.
Hmm I've been playing Tabula Rasa and a few F2P games and lurking around the Ryzom forums and here as well! I'm also following W.E.L.L. online and Earthrise!
I couldn't find anything online that I could stay interested in for more then a couple weeks. I went out and bought Console games for the first time in a year lol .
Comments
If you are speaking of Horizons, i tried it. Graphics and animations are simply horrible. Maybe good as f2p but i would never sub for a game as that. (my info are almost 6 months old, so things can be changed)
Anyway, this is just my opinion, always better to see and judge by yourself.
Nickname registered on www.mynickname.org
I tried it when it was stii Horizons, think I stopped just before the name change.
The graphics are not close to Ryzom's graphics.
It is skil lbased but the skills add up together in a somewhat complicated formula to give a character level. There is a mechanism to forget learned skills so that one can learn other skills. Sounds like it makes it interesting to create different skill sets for one's character.
I mostly just did the crafting. Lots of different crafts with crafts splitting off at different levels.The collection/harvesting of mats is just go out and get em with different game areas for harvesting and hunting. At least at the first levels -- higher levels prob get more interesting for harvesting.
Pretty nice game really, sounds like it is financially sound with some good developers who are dedicated to their game. They've put a lot of work into salvaging their game and making it a solid game. Still needs a lot of work to bring it up to todays standards but they are going in the right direction from what I saw.
What game am I playing right now?
mmorpg.com
What?! It's not a game??
%^ck
Oh well...
But I would be playing Horizons right now, if not for a little.... disagreement I had with the devs over their "hands off" approach to dealing with troublemakers.
Like Gilgameesh has pointed out, the graphics are old and a bit shabby - but that only applies to the landscape. Character animations aren't so bad. The dragons, in particular, can pretty awesome. I developed a slightly narcissistic bent, gazing at my pretty, shiny (and enormous) scaly butt...
It is THE mmo to play if you like the idea of building. I had soooooo much fun planning and building my lair. Never seen a building system anywhere near as good as the one in Istaria.
Community is mostly good, but there's also a really nasty element who are allowed pretty much free reign. At least as my guild explained it to me, it's been that way for years. On the Chaos server at least. Order doesn't seem to have that problem. There - I've saved you the trouble Katriell :P
If you like the idea of playing dragons - this is the only mmo that lets you do it.
The 3 serious gameplay downsides in my opinion:
Im playing the waiting game. Cmon WAR!
They don't. It's basically the same all the way to the top. There might be just be a few materials you need to kill stuff for - that's as interesting as that gets.
It has been argued (somewhat fairly) that harvesting just becomes tedious at higher levels, as you'll need to spend more time dragging harvested materials around very, very, very slowly on your cargo disc. Though I believe they've revamped cargo discs recently to make this less time-consuming.
There also comes a point where you either need to have your own land (with silos and crafting machines) or join a guild that has them - and joining a guild is generally a good idea anyway.
I think Istaria has a good crafting/harvesting system, but it pales in comparion to Ryzom's.
Klients online
Tho I re-subbed to eve, then un-subbed 2 hrs later and have no loaded it since
I'm also on my last 30 days of vanguard but not logged in to play for ages
Do you have a buddy key for Vanguard?I want to try it too..
Edit: I got one ..
I liked Istaria (Horizons) when I played it.
The bipeds (non-dragon classes) can train in more than one class (multi-class). You can switch between classes by talking to a trainer. Some skills carry over between classes, so if you have trained several classes you are much more powerful. I liked this aspect and its is different from most other games.
The crafting system was the best I have seen in any of the 10 MMO's I have tried. Leveling training skills was a grind, but profitable.
You can build structures in the world that are "permanent" as long as you continue to play the game.
Its several years since I played, so the graphics may well be dated now.
It is all one big world, so loading is slow in some areas. There were no instances. Even the main cities are part of the one big world.
There were lots of innovative ideas that could have made this game great if the technical challenges could have been solved.
I enjoyed a free trial period in Istaria. I liked harvesting and crafting, the combat wasn't too great. I liked playing a dryad, too.
But I decided to focus on playing with my guildies in Eve, so I never subbed.
===============================
Sasi
Guild Leader of Pegasus Foundation
in Ryzom
I play Everquest 2 right now, I can't find anything else that's better. Waiting on Ryzom and Aion! Tried Horizon a long time ago, I like the dryads too, I thought their modeling and textures were genius compared to their environment actually. ^_^ But I wouldn't pay a sub for it.
(,,,)=^__^=(,,,)
I'm shopping around right now. I've tired of WoW and can't muster the desire to get my characters to level 70. I've been poking at EQ2, and although I find it entertaining it hasn't really grabbed me. I just recently dusted off my Xbox and have been dinking around with GUN, Destroy All Humans, and other "ancient" non-MMO titles.
I'm looking forward to Ryzom for my freeform gaming urge. I'm also keeping an eye on Stargate Worlds and Champions Online. I also keep hearing positive things about Sword of the New World, so despite my distaste for the free-to-play model I'm tempted to give it a whirl.
Hmm I've been playing Tabula Rasa and a few F2P games and lurking around the Ryzom forums and here as well! I'm also following W.E.L.L. online and Earthrise!
I couldn't find anything online that I could stay interested in for more then a couple weeks. I went out and bought Console games for the first time in a year lol
.