Its fantasy after all? Decide which fantasy role you will be and play online in a world of humans, dragons and goblins. Build a community... Construct your home, become a skilled trades person, set-up shop to sell your wares and live next to all your friends in your newly constructed frontier town. Become your online role... Meet and greet other online characters through our chat, community forums, or our animated expression set. Our world grows with you...
Developed by Tulga
Games, the MMORPG Horizons: Empire
of Istaria immerses players in an
online fantasy world of magic and
mystery. Istaria is a land populated
by monsters, magic, heroes, and colossal
cities. Horizons is the only fantasy
MMORPG to offer gamers the opportunity
to play as a dragon, earning skills
and abilities as they grow from a
hatchling to adult.
Key features of Horizons: Empire of
Istaria include:
11 playable
fantasy races: Dragons, Satyrs, Dryads,
Humans and Elves populate the world
and offer players distinct physical,
mental and magical abilities
An open character class system: Learn
skills from 50 schools while not being
limited to one ?lass? Players can
change their character? ?lass?as often
as they like with no penalty.
A real-time persistent world: Build
and maintain structures, from simple
houses to entire towns. Create businesses,
process resources and develop economies
within the game world by buying, selling
and trading with other players.
Family-friendly gameplay: With a focus
on cooperative, PvP-free gameplay,
Horizons offers families a perfect
place to enjoy a fantastical adventure.
A friendly online community of players
is always available to help new and
seasoned travelers as they explore
Istaria.
Virtually unlimited exploration potential:
Soar through the skies as a flying
creature, or dig deep into the earth
when building a dragon? lair. Istaria
is a land without ?ones?or predetermined
player movement boundaries, thus allowing
adventurers to explore the entire
game world without limits.
?rop in?play: Rather than penalize
players with limited time to enjoy
a game session, Horizons offers the
perfect setting for quick ?rop in?adventures
for those with as little as 15 minutes
available for a game session. Solo-gamer
friendly gameplay doesn? require players
to join parties or form guilds.
Adventuring
Horizons
takes combat to a new level as
the lunges, parries, blocks and
evasions are all fully represented
through detailed animations. No
longer do monsters stand there,
unflinching as your mighty two-handed
sword slash passes through their
body and a small text message
informs you if it was successful
or not. As you progress in skill
through studying in an adventure
school and exercising those skills
by pushing back the invading Undead
horde you gain new special abilities
that could be the difference between
destroying an Arch Liche or falling
to its crushing attack.
While you are improving your combat
skills and abilities, be aware
that almost all of those abilities
are available to your opponents.
In many cases, you will want to
coordinate your efforts with those
of other members of your community
in order to increase your odds
of successfully battling the invaders.
While the weapons skills of a
Warrior are invaluable in cleaving
any foe, a Healer might also prove
useful in both dealing out damage
as well as assisting wounded comrades.
The realm of magic is also important
in combat as it can often dramatically
increase your odds of success
against large numbers of opponents
as well as better preparing all
of your comrades for the battle.
A Scout often proves useful for
both their far ranging attacks
and knowledge of monster behaviors.
Not all adventure is found in
defending your player built communities;
if you are more inquisitive by
nature, you can explore the long
overrun frontier for treasures,
fallen cities, lost civilizations,
and locating the sources of the
Undead onslaught. Beware as you
wander further from the known
territories, the Undead are not
the only creatures that will attack
you. Only powerful groups or exceptional
individuals return under their
own power from the far reaches
of Istaria.
Special
Abilities
Horizons provides
actions that your character
can take during combat but which
you choose when to execute,
these are called Special Abilities.
Special abilities are granted
to your character by the schools
to which they belong. As you
prove to your school that you've
mastered your current abilities,
you are promoted in status and
will be rewarded for this progress
with new special abilities.
Each school has its own series
of special abilities with only
some overlap between prestige
schools. When you decide to
leave a school, the school will
revoke some of the special abilities
that were granted to your character.
If you later decide to return
to the school, these special
abilities will be restored.
It is also important to understand
that many of the opponents that
you'll face in Horizons
also belong to schools and that
they've also been rewarded
for their advancement with special
abilities. If you engage in
combat, you will sooner or later
experience a computer opponent
unleashing a special ability
during the battle.
Special abilities frequently
have a duration that is indicated
through a timer. The duration
special abilities often have
a counter move that can offset
or mutate their effect. Some
thought should be paid as to
the timing of their use, since
if it is diminished in
effect or completely countered
you'll have squandered
your opportunity to sway the
battle.
Here
are a few examples of special
abilities we are testing in
beta:
Warrior
Power Attack - Normal Attack
does additional damage
Kick - A slower attack that
can be combined with a normal
attack
Critical Strike - Normal attacks
automatically hit for maximum
damage
Weapon Adept - Permanent increased
damage per second with all weapons
(not a decision to be made during
combat, but a nice reward nonetheless)
Double Strike - Two normal attacks
occur in the same time as one
