Last Horizon: Beta

by Daniel Schinhofen

  Waving his hand before Will could interject and cutting him off David preempted his friend, “Yes we are both aware you are going to be an Agility rogue type Will. We know how you like to play.”

  “Jackass,” Will muttered before chuckling and continuing, “staying in the shadows and using ranged or melee has always been my favorite way to play rpgs.”

  Laughing Miriam chimed in, “Uh-huh, the whole rogues do it from behind thing, we know. Looks like I'm your healer, at least part of the time because we all know how well I do at tanking.” Miriam's mouth crooked as she recalled the few disastrous attempts she'd made at melee combat characters.

  Nodding along David continued, “That will leave me with the tank role, and as I've said many times in other rpgs, I hate to tank but I gladly will for my friends. Now, they haven't shown all the talents we'll be able to get, only the ones they used for monk and paladin types they made as examples. They also say they won't tell us the full list ahead of time. We'll have to wait for beta to open, sadly. If we go in with these ideas clearly defined though we have a good idea of what we should each be looking for. We'll start with one ability, and get to choose a new one every five levels. So I would suggest, Will, that you wait for sneak or stealth or whatever they call it until level five and take a good damage opening at first.”

  Grumbling slightly, Will couldn't fault his logic and grudgingly agreed, but was adamant that he would pick it up at level five. David knew he would have to take a taunt ability first, and Miriam would need to pick up a healing spell at the start. Miriam had already reached the same conclusion and they just shared a look and nodded in unison.

  “Alright the next point that they finally gave us is that there's going to be a stamina bar. Which is going to decrease with crafting and gathering. They aren't releasing any real info on it right now though, only noting the longer you craft or the more you gather the more you lose. Also they hinted that blacksmithing would take a bigger chunk than say, alchemy, which makes total sense from one stand point but is going to suck in other ways. So everyone can learn how to pick herbs, skin, and mine however they hint that the more you diversify the slower it will be to level your stuff. I think this is because of limited stamina but who knows at this point. The crafting professions are going to be alchemy, leather working, and smithing which eventually splits into armor or weapon smithing. We should try to figure out what professions we want to go with as early in game as we can once we see how it works out.”

  Will spoke up, “Well if we each took and specialized in one type of gathering that would help. If Miriam took herbs, me skinning, and you mining then we'd have all of them covered. We should definitely also make sure at least one of us is an alchemist as that is where the potions are going to be.”

  “If I am picking the herbs then I'll make the potions,” Miriam interjected. “Makes the most sense after all, and they might have a bonus or something if you match up the gathering and crafting professions.”

  They all agreed this made the most sense. Will spoke up again, “In that case skinning and leather working go together and I can make repair some of our armor. Sounds good to me. Even more if casters can wear leather, too.”

  “If that's a possibility then yeah makes a whole bunch of sense and it would also cover the gathering and profession possible bonus. Guess that leaves me mining and smithing. I'll go weapon smithing when the tree splits eventually as that should let me repair our melee weapons.” David finished and moved onto the next point.

  “They're using limited AI's to run the non-player characters, to help the world feel more organic they say. Which they pointed out means that there are no set quests anywhere, or pre-determined rewards for completing anything. Truly a sandbox game, as the economy is going to be player driven more than anything from what they say. With no set quest rewards it will be loot whatever you can get from the mobs and either use, sell, or break it for materials for crafting. Each major city has a bazaar area that you can hock your wares in, for a small fee of course. The npc's will be selling gear but it will probably be inferior to what players can make. We'll have to wait and see.”

  “The next point is that gear and weapons will degrade and break eventually, even if cared for and repaired. Makes the player economy even more viable, but they haven't stated how durability works yet so, again, wait and see.” David got up at that point and got coffee refills then came back over as the others thought things though.

  “That makes having a weapon smith even more important,” Will reasoned, “as it would mean less cost for us to pay someone to repair our gear if you can keep it going longer. Same with leather working, damn I really hope casters can wear leather to make it even better for us.”

  Miriam spoke up, “If nothing else alchemy might make us some money. If a lot of people reason that same way maybe not too many will be making potions, at least not at first. That's if they're actually useful at all.”

  “True enough,” David agreed when he sat back down, “we'll find out once we can finally get our hands on the game. However it should be epic, and it'll be good to get back into a game now that we're all retired.”

  The rest of the evening was spent laughing and telling old stories for the umpteenth time. Reliving for a few moments the old glory days and remembering old friends who had since passed on.

  THE WEEK BEFORE LAUNCH

  The pods had arrived and been set up in every beta tester's domicile. The pods were quite spartan, a memory foam layer with small metal nubs running the length of where the spine would be. Up near the head there was a cluster that extended into a Y shape with a V over it. Over all the nubs would bracket your spine all the way up to your head where the Y and V would be right across the brain stem. No sharp points and they really were quite comfortable as the memory foam near the head had an extra padding layer to act as a pillow. Initially a garden demo area was available so people could get used to the way they worked during the two weeks before beta launched.

  Today there was a beta tester meeting inside the pods, with the usual garden augmented by a large stadium so people could meet and ask questions of the developers. The meeting for the West coast of the USA was scheduled to begin at 1900 PST. Miriam and David logged in after a quick call to Will to let him know they were going in. The meeting room had been up and running since 1800 to allow people to show up and grab seats in the virtual stadium. Logging in, they appeared in a grand arena with thousands of other people milling about. The garden program had allowed people to upload images of themselves so most people had features. Those who hadn't yet done so were androgynous featureless humanoids.

  Will appeared a few moments later and they greeted each other. The three friends headed into the seating area. As they walked down an aisle they noticed each seat had two monitors in front of it. One showed the overall stadium seating chart, the other the main stage in the middle.

  As they settled in they heard a voice exclaim nearby, “FOR THE BANANAS!” Startled they turned and saw another pair of old friends walking down the aisle towards them.

  “You crazy Texans,” David greeted them. “Glad you made it and found us too, lucky that.”

  Hugs and handshakes were exchanged all around, they slid down to let Mike and Amy join them. They started kibitzing over the good old days of WoW as they waited.

  “Bill sends his regards and regrets,” Mike informed them, “he has opted to forgo the adventure and stay RL to spend time with his new granddaughter. However Gabriel said he and the missus might make it when the game hits live. Seems his kids have finally moved out and they have the funds ready to go but there's no way into the beta now.”

  The group of five started to talk about what archetype they were each looking at and what professions they considered for their characters. After a few minutes a loud gong rang though the stadium asking everyone to find seats as the meeting would be starting in five minutes. They then settled back for the wait. The virtual chairs felt and looked like recliners which was nice as
there was no time frame for the end of the meeting.

  Five minutes later the lights dimmed and the monitors brightened. The stage monitor showed 3 people all sitting at a round table in the middle, smiling and waving to the crowd. The names of the three lead developers appeared over their heads. One of them, a pretty lady of Asian ancestry, suddenly had a mic in hand and was making introductions to the crowd. Jasmine Tiacoma, Larry Vetenburg and Paval Romonov were their names. Jasmine then launched into an overview of the pods, reviewing the same information that had been in the operating manual for the pods. She did it quickly and efficiently then stopped to stress again the most important detail.

  “You will be fine with staying in the pod for up to six hours. I know gamers though and we are aware some of you will stretch that out to eight or so hours. After twelve hours straight the pods are set up to disconnect you and not allow you to log back in for at least six hours, our lawyers made us do that to stop possible lawsuits. Just remember that while your body will be getting rest your mind will still be functioning. If you do not get a proper amount of sleep you will start to have cognitive issues. As each of you has logged into the pods at least once you have already agreed to the liability waiver. You will once again have to sign off about that when you log into the game the first time.”

  This caused a little bit of a stir for those that hadn't read the E.U.L.A. for the pod or game. Some people logged out at that point, you could see monitors dimming as seats were no longer occupied.

  “Now that that formality is out of the way let us get on with the Q&A, shall we?” Jasmine said after a few moments. As she finished saying that the touch monitors in front of them changed to show a red button along with the text “I have a question.” Naturally everyone pressed it and saw various numbers pop up. It seemed you got to ask your question in the order the button had been pressed. Will with his faster reflexes was 23, David was 45, Mike was 52, Miriam was 89, and Amy 102. Someone behind them complained of being 346.

  As each person's number came up the monitor showing the stadium gave a close up of the person asking the question. After the first question Jasmine cut in to ask everyone to deselect their button if their own question had been answered, so more subjects could be covered. Most of the initial questions revolved around abilities and talents available in the game. Most of those received a wait and see response from the developers.

  When Will's turn came he asked, “Just how large is the in-game world compared to ours?”

  “It is roughly the same size, however the world over all is more temperate and lusher. It incorporates more forest terrain, and slightly less arctic. They are numerous major mountain chains, ranging from the Alps on down, and also has many rivers and lakes of various sizes. There are also desert ranging in size and scale, and we did our best to make sure the terrain features are consistent with the weather.”

  When David's turn came he asked, “About PvP, can you clarify the system for us please? How the counters work and such.”

  “Of course,” Pavel began, “The system is set so that everyone starts at 0 for PvP fights. Each time you, or a party member initiates a fight that counter goes up by one. For each counter you have you will have a cumulative 5% chance of dropping one item of your gear when you die in a PvP fight. If you have any counters you will drop 75% of all the cash you are carrying. If you have no counters and die in a PvP fight you drop nothing but 25% of your money carried. If you kill a player in PvP you will get a debuff that gives you 50% reduced xp for 12 hours, unless you have no counters. So if you are attacked and kill the attacking player you receive no debuff and no counter. The only way counters are removed is dying in a PvP fight, one counter is removed for each such death. There will be arenas in major cities for people who wish to PvP with no penalty. We have even set up bookies in this area for people who wish to wager on the outcome of fights. If we catch anyone trying to game the system though, the penalties for will be severe.”

  Mike asked on his turn, “About stamina and crafting how does this all work out?”

  Larry answered him, “Mining ore will take more stamina than, say, picking flowers. Also smithing armor or weapons will use more than brewing potions. We aren't going to disclose numbers at this time, they'll probably be tweaked during the beta. Stamina can be partially replenished by food and drink, and logging out for six hours will completely restore it. Unless you try to make several suits of full plate armor all in one go, you should be fine.”

  When her turn came around, Miriam asked, “About the organic quest system- can you elaborate on that for us please?” This caused a murmur to go through the audience as most wanted to hear this answer.

  Jasmine pursed her lips then began her explanation, “Let's see if I can do this justice. There are no markers over an npc's head to indicate the availability of a quest. You will get quests by asking to aid people or by being nearby and overhearing conversations. In settlements of town size and up notice boards up with requests on them will be available. But mostly, things like Farmer Todd asking everyone to kill rats in his cellar won't happen. He will ask one person for aid and once the rats are dead he won't ask anyone else and won't have a rat issue. Now eventually rats might get back in and he will ask for aid again. But it isn't set or scripted. The AI's will ask for help and aid for many and sundry things but they will not be set things that everyone will do. We suggest you wander, explore, kill various monsters and just be friendly with town folk and farmers and such. If you are rude to the npc's they are less likely to ask for your help.”

  When Amy's turn finally came she asked, “Are abilities only combat related?”

  Jasmine answered this question, “No. There will be crafting oriented abilities as well. Making the very best armor, weapons and potions will require certain abilities. We felt this would be a way of helping those who would rather delve into professions. Each item crafted will give you some experience. Not as much as a pure adventure would but enough that you will be able to focus almost exclusively on your crafts. This will make it possible for those that love crafting to shine and really make a name for themselves. Each race will also have a specialty for each type of craft, which will be available via ability spots.”

  The questions ran right up to the six hour mark. Finally the devs called a stop due to the time. “Remember beta will last at least six months. If everything goes well we will shift to live at that point. We want to thank all of you who have supported us from day one. If not for you this new wave of entertainment would not have been possible. Each of our beta testers be receiving via mail in the next few weeks a poster sized map of the game signed by every single developer on the team. THANK YOU ALL!” With that the devs vanished. A gong was followed by an announcement that the server would be shut down in ten minutes.

  Goodbyes were given along with hugs and promises to send friend requests in game once it went live. With a last, “FOR THE BANANAS!” Mike and Amy logged out.

  After a quick goodbye to Will Miriam and David also logged out, eagerly awaiting next week.

  LOGGING IN

  David and Miriam were careful to get naps in during the day, and also made sure they were hydrated and well fed before the launch window. The game was going live in just thirty minutes. A call confirmed Will was ready as well. The web was abuzz with the beta of Last Horizon starting up, over one hundred and fifty thousand players were ready to go for the midnight launch. Seemingly every single person who had helped fund the game was going to log in at the start. A quick kiss and hug were exchanged before David and Miriam made for their pods to get ready.

  They settled in and got comfortable with five minutes to go. As the clock finally chimed they activated their pods and launched the game.

  David looked around at the blank darkness that he seemed to be floating in, waiting for the EULA to open up in front of him. The EULA appeared and he quickly hit accept having read though it many times over the course of the last month. The words Welcome to Last Horizon crossed in front of
him, before he found himself seemingly hovering over a person. A warning popped up advising that players were only allowed one character per account and to choose wisely.

  Welcome to character creation, please pick race and character type. David selected dwarven male, type strength based. The body he was hovering over changed to a male dwarf and a list of sliders appeared next to him. Looking them over he saw he could customize the character to his desire. David took his time crafting his avatar. Slowly he got the height he wanted around four foot six inches tall, slightly shorter than the maximum the slider went to. He widened the shoulders and chest, the waist barely slimmed before the hips. He got the legs proportional to the rest of the build and then blinked at the next slider. Well it was a mature rated game but he hadn't expected to have options to arrange his anatomy. Thinking it over he chuckled and made his avatar roughly in line with his real body, okay with slightly more girth but only to keep in proportion with the rest of the build.