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New Horizons Expanion

Horizons: Empire of Istaria Expansion Announced

Tulga Games to develop new Horizons expansion, tentatively titled Horizons: The Settlements.

MESA, Arizona - May 8, 2006 - Tulga Games, LLC, developers of the award-winning Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), Horizons: Empire of Istaria, today announced the development of a new Horizons expansion, tentatively titled Horizons: The Settlements. The new expansion will contain all of the content from the original game, as well as environmental, creature and gameplay updates.

Horizons: The Settlements will feature both player-crafted and developer-designed content including new furniture, racially-themed structures, gardens, monsters, treasures and quests. Players will now have the option of building new racial structures, such as Dryad trees and Dwarven tunnels, making for a more customized player environment, while new companion animals can function as beasts-of-burden, familiars and guardians. Vicious new monsters, including Harpies, will now inhabit Istaria, providing new battle opportunities and new types of treasure to capture. Horizons: The Settlements will be free to current subscribers, while being priced at a suggested U.S. retail of $19.99 for new players (available in stores and via digital download).

Developed by Tulga Games, LLC, Horizons: Empire of Istaria allows players to create characters from any of 11 fantasy races including Dragons, Satyrs, Dryads, Humans and Elves while developing skills from 50 schools. Horizons' world is near-limitless in scope; as dragons soar above and below one another in the skies and players embark upon adventures spanning land, sea and air while working collectively to build a variety of surface and subterranean structures. The game's family-friendly nature allows for cooperative gameplay, and players with limited time can enjoy brief solo adventures without suffering any penalty. Featuring new quests designed by renowned fantasy writer Peter S. Beagle, the Horizons' universe continues to attract new fans looking for an outstanding MMORPG experience. More information about Horizons: Empire of Istaria is available at http://www.istaria.com.

Tulga Games LLC is a privately held digital game publisher and developer. Tulga Games LLC has a mission of providing individuals and families with quality digital entertainment experiences. Tulga's titles include the popular Massively Multiplayer Online RPG (MMORPG) Horizons: Empire of Istaria and the upcoming Dark World Online. More information about Tulga and its games is available at http://www.istaria.com.

For additional information about Horizons: The Settlements check out the Frequently Asked Questions.


Comments

  • ShadrakShadrak Member Posts: 375



  • EaglecrysEaglecrys Member Posts: 4
    If this is to come out I will go ahead and head back to istari to check it out. The game play is good even though they seem to have issues with lag most of the time.

    Dont trash it till you tried it. Even then if you hate try to make something better yourself.

  • ElnatorElnator Member Posts: 6,077


    Originally posted by Shadrak





    Oh damn... that is just friggen priceless!!!!  I stole it :)  ROFLMAO....

    On the topic though:
    Nice to see them doing a much much needed expansion.  If the free trial includes it I may give the trial a whirl again once the expansion comes out.  Also nice that the expansion is going to be free to current subscribers.  More MMO's need to do this.  And the $19.95 price for new players isn't bad either if it includes 30 days of play.

    Pretty cool.  I'll wait till I hear if they really added anything worth mentioning before singing any praises of it, however.

    Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
    Sig image Pending
    Still in: A couple Betas

  • HadesprimeHadesprime Member Posts: 303
    what you missed as well was their announcement of a new MMO.

    Which means that expansion is the last updates horizons will ever get. They have neither the resources nor the person power to devote any more time to Horizons. It will all have to go into this new game's development.

    Which is probably wise because Bowman is no fool. He see's the writing on the wall with Vanguard due out in the next year. Which will surpass Horizons crafting features and adventuring features. They need a new title and they will hope and pray that horizons will bring in money for as long as it can.

    Playing poker with a stacked deck is not very wise... but has large payoffs should you be sucessful. With Bowman anything is possible.


  • TorakTorak Member Posts: 4,905


    Originally posted by Hadesprime
    what you missed as well was their announcement of a new MMO.

    Which means that expansion is the last updates horizons will ever get. They have neither the resources nor the person power to devote any more time to Horizons. It will all have to go into this new game's development.

    Which is probably wise because Bowman is no fool. He see's the writing on the wall with Vanguard due out in the next year. Which will surpass Horizons crafting features and adventuring features. They need a new title and they will hope and pray that horizons will bring in money for as long as it can.

    Playing poker with a stacked deck is not very wise... but has large payoffs should you be sucessful. With Bowman anything is possible.


    Actually I think the opposite. Its a sign of confidence IMHO. If not they would just hold ground like they have been for the past 2 years and ride it out until the new game is released. You will continue to see updates.

    They just didn't deside to make this game last night, I would bet its been in the cooker for awhile now. It was pobably what got them backing in the first place as Tulga.

    I see them putting out the new game and "packaging" it with some sort sub program like Sony. That would be the smart thing.

    The guys at Horizons have proven they are very creative in designing interesting  non - combat content and creative with race designs. I think if they can overcome their technical issues and don't rush it out they might put out a good game. As far as Bowman goes, who the f*** cares. Him and Allen had a fight, one walked it happens everyday in business.

    Time will tell.

  • Jd1680aJd1680a Member Posts: 398

    yeah i know tulga games is going to release an expansion.  the biggest question is if it will help bring back alot of people who have left two years ago.  will all these people who went to another mmo leave that one to back to one they remember wasnt very good in their opinion?  there are alot of questions right now i think in time will know more whats tulga games have planned for this.

    another thought is AC2 had an expansion as well, some six months before it was cancelled.  i wonder if horizons will see the same fate as AC2.  if tulga games were to release an expansion but yet doesnt get any significant increase in subscription numbers, what would happen then?  will their only source of funds, CP Baker investment firm, decide to pull out?  really think this is probably a major make or break for tulga games with all the time and money they have spent working and fixing horizons.

    here is my thread i made a day before mmorpg.com and this thread was made. http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/77099

    Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online

  • KlausWKlausW Member Posts: 165


    Originally posted by Hadesprime
    He see's the writing on the wall with Vanguard due out in the next year. Which will surpass Horizons crafting features and adventuring features.

    Kinda doubt it. People said that about WoW & EQ2, and they were totally off base. HZ will take a hit, no doubt, but so will every MMO. Now that Vanguard is in bed with SOE, though, I expect that to cost them a lot of potential subscribers that won't have a thing to do with Sony ever again. Vanguard & Horizons are also totally different games. Vanguard looks like old-school EQ and is being promoted as such; Horizons tends to attract & retain people who don't care for that kind of game.

    Remember, Wish looked really good too...

    Guildleader, Mithril Council, Chaos

  • TorakTorak Member Posts: 4,905

    What is the release date of this expansion? I always had a soft spot for Horizons

    I might take a look.

    If Klause remembers me, he can take me out hunting again (for old times sake)

  • SaranthSaranth Member UncommonPosts: 269

    I've always said Hz was th ebest game that never was. I loved it and hated it soo much. When the expansion comes out and the servers are stable I will come back.

    To this day my cat(cant remember the race) elemental archer is one of my favorite toons. Crafting was fun too and I hate to craft.

  • KlausWKlausW Member Posts: 165


    Originally posted by Torak
    What is the release date of this expansion? I always had a soft spot for Horizons
    I might take a look.
    If Klause remembers me, he can take me out hunting againimage (for old times sake)

    Meh, no date given. Myself, I think maybe by the holidays. I think there's easily six months of art assets and worldbuilding involved.

    Be happy to, Torak! Blighted hounds can be great fun...

    Guildleader, Mithril Council, Chaos

  • FinduilasFinduilas Member Posts: 377


    Originally posted by KlausW


    Originally posted by Hadesprime
    He see's the writing on the wall with Vanguard due out in the next year. Which will surpass Horizons crafting features and adventuring features.


    Kinda doubt it. People said that about WoW & EQ2, and they were totally off base. HZ will take a hit, no doubt, but so will every MMO. Now that Vanguard is in bed with SOE, though, I expect that to cost them a lot of potential subscribers that won't have a thing to do with Sony ever again. Vanguard & Horizons are also totally different games. Vanguard looks like old-school EQ and is being promoted as such; Horizons tends to attract & retain people who don't care for that kind of game.

    Remember, Wish looked really good too...


    Now you are flat-out lying.

    WoW and EQ2 were vastly superior to HZ in regards to adventure game content, and as a consequence VAST numbers of players left for both games at their launch and in the following months. Don't even BEGIN to pretend otherwise, because I witnessed it myself. I watched an entire guild leave for both. And over the following year I have read MANY posts, from MANY of HZs biggest, most vocal FORMER fans, discussing HZ, whilst mentioning that they currently play either WoW or EQ2.

    You know this, I know this. Don't pretend this never happened.

    So why did HZ not die?

    Crafting and dragons.

    From the time I quit, dec '04, through to present, the devs released vast amounts of content for both, but a trickle for adventerers, non dragons like me. I read ALL the patch notes to see, watched the forums for news of new content for older players, like me, not just some new mobs to kill, or a few token dropped items. All I saw was craft and dragon love.

    Now. Vanguard. I assume you ACTUALLY know looked into it right? I mean, you didn't just listen to hearsay and rumor about it's featues, but kept on playing HZ. 

    You know about the perception system right, that makes full use of surround sound, and delivers a unique way to get quests?  

    You know about the long travelling involved, wagons to carry your gear, wagon trains guarded by NPCs, and players, player trade route for crafter to get rich?

    You know about the diplomacy sphere that combines with adventuring or crafting to open up many more variables such as unique craft recipes?

    You are fully up on the crafted player housing that can be built IN the world, from homes to shops, to guidhalls to castles?

    You know about the numerous usable in house items that can be crafted. You know about traders having the ability to set up shop, and trade, or hire NPCs to sell for them, with signs and store fronts to show ehat they make?

    You know about the quest system to level up in a craft and do something useful too, no more hours or pointless gather/craft/destroy grinding?

    You about the chance to built huge ships and sail the ocean, anywhere you wish? 

    VSoH has EVERYTHING, craftwise, that HZ does, but also far more. Do some actual research and you will see. Some old school EQ fans THINK Vanguard is be old Eq, but they are very few. They are perhaps 1% of the forum community. Vanguard is as much like old EQ as a modern PC is like those first 286s that IBM built. In prinicpal the same, but vastly better in every way.

    People will probably NOT quit HZ for VSoH, either because they love their dragon too much, or are too stubborn to admit that it has been surpassed but that is their choice. You, Klaus, and ALL remaining fanbois and girls have your head buried so far into HZ that you lost true objectivity a long time ago.

  • SaranthSaranth Member UncommonPosts: 269

    While your tone was bitter, your words were, for the most part, true.

  • EaglecrysEaglecrys Member Posts: 4
    Tone was very bitter indeed. Sounds as if someone had some issues on the game same as everyone else. One thing not mentioned in that lovely post was the fact that I also could see a lot of people leaving for EQ and WoW but I will also go onto say that I have seen on average so far 50% of the ones that I knew come back from those games. HZ still has a lot to offer in terms of game play if they work on it. Hopefully they do that if not then yes HZ will slowly start to decline. I will admit a good reason why I have stuck it out with them is because I do like my dragon. I however have no problem admiting they need to change some things or they will sink. It will just take a very long time for that to happen. I doubt they are just going to give up on HZ if that was the case why even spend the money on the espansion anyway ? Perhaps it is a test to see if it can revive it or not. I for one hope that it starts to come alive again if not I will be playing archlord while waiting for something to happen with HZ.

    Dont trash it till you tried it. Even then if you hate try to make something better yourself.

  • Jd1680aJd1680a Member Posts: 398


    Originally posted by Finduilas

    WoW and EQ2 were vastly superior to HZ in regards to adventure game content, and as a consequence VAST numbers of players left for both games at their launch and in the following months. Don't even BEGIN to pretend otherwise, because I witnessed it myself. I watched an entire guild leave for both. And over the following year I have read MANY posts, from MANY of HZs biggest, most vocal FORMER fans, discussing HZ, whilst mentioning that they currently play either WoW or EQ2.


    Just to let you know you, i started just shy of three weeks after launch date of horizons.  I remember too during the early times of horizons.  for about two months, horizons was at its peak, after that everyone just started leaving in groves.  order of the wyrm was the largest guild at the time with 190 dragons vanished four months later.  i remember my first two guilds, every single one of them on those two guilds were no longer playing.  i was in fact the last person playing of my orignal guilds, before i decide to quit too.

    tell you the truth, WoW and EQ2 were still in development when horizons went live.  everyone who left the first two months probabily went right back to their orignal game they came from.  probably went back to AC, AC2, shadowbane and even EQ.  no doubt when eq2 and wow went live in november, that took a major blow to horizons.  i remember playing horizons a month after WoW went live.  i was like "where is everyone."  people tell me that almost everyone left for WoW.

    Have played: CoH, DDO EQ2, FFXI, L2, HZ, SoR, and WW2 online

  • KlausWKlausW Member Posts: 165


    Originally posted by Finduilas

    Now you are flat-out lying.

    No, you're misinterpreting what I said. I never said HZ didn't lose people to WoW & EQ2; I was responding to the assertion that Vanguard was going to kill Horizons off, and pointing out that the same claim was made about WoW and EQ2. Yes, they both took a lot of people, but the game is still here and at this point is growing and improving.

    Vanguard will pull people from Horizons, of course - and from every other game. Some will come back, some will move to other games. Some won't go near Vanguard for anything since it was pimped out to SOE. That's the way of the world.

    Guildleader, Mithril Council, Chaos

  • FinduilasFinduilas Member Posts: 377


    Originally posted by Eaglecrys
    Tone was very bitter indeed. Sounds as if someone had some issues on the game same as everyone else. One thing not mentioned in that lovely post was the fact that I also could see a lot of people leaving for EQ and WoW but I will also go onto say that I have seen on average so far 50% of the ones that I knew come back from those games. HZ still has a lot to offer in terms of game play if they work on it. Hopefully they do that if not then yes HZ will slowly start to decline. I will admit a good reason why I have stuck it out with them is because I do like my dragon. I however have no problem admiting they need to change some things or they will sink. It will just take a very long time for that to happen. I doubt they are just going to give up on HZ if that was the case why even spend the money on the espansion anyway ? Perhaps it is a test to see if it can revive it or not. I for one hope that it starts to come alive again if not I will be playing archlord while waiting for something to happen with HZ.



    Hmmm. I played HZ from Jan '04 to DEC '04, around the time EQ2 and WoW were being launched. I am not a troll that once tried HZ at launch but quit and didn't follow the course of the game since. I experienced first hand an arc story of ongoing screw-ups and a massive unstoppable haemorrhage of players EVEN when the game continued to grow and improve and each month had a decent live event.

    I watched the decimation of 3 guilds as players deserted in groves but stayed and supported AE and hoped the trend would be reversed. I posted in mid '04 on the old "tazoon" a warning that AE had better quickly stabilise HZ or it would suffer badly when the heavy weights entered the fray, EQ2 and WoW. (I'd seen the FAQs and read it bit about them.)

    I watched, perplexed and dazed as they filed for bankruptcy, merged the US servers, but not mine, in the EU, but THEN they DID merge us, twice screwing over land owners and crafters. I watched as they "improved" the world by destroying a lot of it's original charm, and removing the few decent quests my level 60-ish Elven Ranger could do to break up the grind. Sure, I was glad of the new high level mobs and craft resources, but I wondered if the price was worth paying.

    Frankly I was bored. Grind kills for XP. Grind at harvesting, creating and destroying items for XP. I gained over 150 levels in adventurer, but 300 plus in crafting. I’d read a book, or watch TV or a film whilst crafting it was that bad. All the while I waited for the NEW stuff to arrive, as promised by DB shortly after the merge; new racial and class quests (not just more dragon quests), items, racial structures to give me a reason to buy a plot and  build my elven home there. By December I realised that the promises would take a LOT longer to be kept, so I let my sub run out.

    By then I’d beta-tested EQ2. It had it’s flaws, many, as does WoW, but they both were a HUGE leap forward in regards to adventure content. I originally quit EQ for HZ because of the forced grouping and difficulty progressing solo. Even when bored I refused to return to EQ. In HZ the soloing was great, and grouping was better since you could multi-class, so you could play tank, DPS, healer, utility, all with the same char and always be useful to your guild group. Trouble was all you could do was grind kills on the same bunch of mobs and loot craft raws as reward. There were no dungeons, or more linear-like areas, to take a guild through, no real objectives to achieve, no major challenges for a large group, no change in the way you played as you levelled up, nothing to look forward to at higher levels but more of the same.

    ALL this interesting and varied type of content I found in EQ2, first, and later WoW. Now. HZ did not die as a result of their release, even though a seriously high number of players quit for them. That was because Tulga secured enough money to keep making a loss for some time to come. And a few hardcore players remained because HZ was still better in two aspects, crafting and dragons. You could add community to that but met my share of fools in all three games and don’t buy into that urban myth.

    So many players chose to return, and some have joined? Good. Though the evidence is anecdotal and not empirical and does not give a clear understanding of a number of important points. Why do people currently play HZ, why did many return? If it was for the dragons, and crafting, then I issue a warning. Vanguard will be vastly better for crafters and HZ, vastly; want proof? Then I’ll post some.

    If players still refuse to quit out of sheer bloody-mindedness then that’s their problem. Me? I prefer to be objective, and at least TRY something before berating it, simply to defend my own corner. I have no axe to grind, I neither love nor hate HZ, I’ve had time to clear my thoughts and see clearly, and get a proper perspective. I do not lash into HZ wantonly with hearsay, rumor and bitter, twisted bile, nor do I defend it as though it’s my own flesh and blood. I state the facts as I know them.

    Did the release of EQ2 and WoW kill HZ, will the NEW games finally finish it? Technically no, since HZ is still around. However. Tulga downsized and budgeted, back in Sept. ’04, for the THEN player base. They had money invested, which they added to current earnings, and projected how much and they were losing, but also how long it might take to actually make a profit, crucially WITHOUT outside investment. They would have predicted that by a certain date, they would be profitable, given a slow growth trend, from THAT starting point, and would have assured their investor of this. But EQ2 and WoW dealt that plan a heavy blow, and would have dramatically reduced earnings, thus extending the time period they had set for recovery. Unless they had a silent, extremely wealthy, but amazingly eccentric partner prepared to continue carrying HZ until doomsday, sooner or later the money WILL RUN OUT.

    I don’t doubt the claims that HZ is NOW growing, but it grows from a much slower base, is it even back to pre EQ2/WoW levels, at which time the game was making a big loss? Now. Vanguard arrives soon, with ALL the crafters the of Istaria could dream about. Will they ALL quit. No. Some are simply too stubborn. But not all those that play are happy, just read the forums, and pick up the trends.

    The bottom line is simple. How close to turning a profit is HZ? How much monthly revenue did Tulga lose to WoW/EQ2 and others, and how close to returning to those sub numbers are they? How close to the target sub numbers are they, that they set BEFORE WoW and EQ2 arrived? What effect will Vanguard have on the remaining players, and how much will current revenue suffer? How much longer will the outside investment last? Long enough to survive ANOTHER exodus?

    Finally is this latest news the last throw of the dice? AC2 players saw the same thing. The devs even admitted that they hoped that an expansion would bring enough new business in to save a failing game. It was bought mainly by veterans, not NEW players, failed to lift long term sub numbers and was finally CANCELLED.

    As I did in HZ, and ever since, I wait and see.

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