Client Features and Fixes:

• When the map window is opened, if you have a grounded cargo disk, there will be a marker on the map indicating its location.
• You can now invite a character to join your group by right-clicking on their name in the People Window (from your friends list).
• Gathering from corpses will no longer cause them to play the death animation.
• Corrected the problem of two music emitters playing music at the same time. The closest emitter will now take priority.
• Corrected problems with music stopping and not switching to default music.
• Ambient sounds no longer loop after teleport.
• Sounds associated to Gale Wind, or other attacks with the same animation will now have sound.

Quests and Rewards:

• Ulaven the Mage is seeking Mages (level 10 or higher) to help with various assignments.
  
• Acolyte Miry has received word that her mentor, Rector Mera, is seeking Clerics (level 10 or higher) to assist her with duties.
• Reports of a new enemy on New Trismus known as the Grand Magus have surfaced. Gifted (level 10 or higher) are asked to investigate by speaking with Frelic the Militia Surplus Officer.
• Travelers have been waylaid by a violent Wild Gruok named Red Tusks on the roads of New Trismus. Elainor the Guard is looking for adventurers (level 7 or higher) to assist her with the problem.
• Nielenoss the Tinker has knowledge he is willing to impart to qualified Dragon Crafters (scalecraft of 160).
• Baltorris the Imperial Engineer has made a discovery beneath the Imperial Outpost for interested Tailors, Outfitters and Weavers.
• The Ghost of Sammy Specialpants is again offering to teach crafters how to make his special brand of pants.  Seek him out near the ruins of his former house!
• The Azulyte Transmutation Mastery quest now uses your skill level to determine when you can obtain it, rather than your Lairshaper school level.
• The coin reward for the quest “Warrior's Quest: Collect a Fang from the Alpha Wolf” has been lowered to be in line with other quests on the island.
• Steward Pratt McGrubben has taken over the duties of administering the Trials of the Gifted from the Imperial Herald.
• V'Tieru and Vladtmordt will no longer allow you to take the Ancient Rite of Passage again if you are already an ancient.
• The “Go Bag 5 Lava Golem Materia” will now be offered by the Trophy Hunters at level 75 instead of 65.
• Quest “Acquire an Imbued Silver Claw” now refers to Silver Golem Fragments instead of Shards.
• Williwaw's “No Entry” augmentation for the Wedding Quest now has a 5 minute timer.
• Quest “Dragon: Recover the Carapace of Gritus Maximus” will now delete the carapace when you return to Zebeginia.
• Quest “Smelting Mastery X: Craft 140 Mithril Bars” will no longer refer to Mining instead of Smelting.
• Quest “Go Bag 5 Small Ice Beetle Compound Eyes” will no longer refer to Saplings.
• Vladtmordt will now respond to you instead of Lysandia in the “Dragon Quest: Simulated Scale of the Prime” when asking you for a gold golem fragment.
• The quest “Sslanis Marshall Quest: The Honored Dead Part 3” will now count Sslik Skeleton Ravagers.
• Quest “Smelting Mastery V: Craft 70 Steel Bars” will now refer to smelting instead of mining.

World and Community:

• The Dryads have been at it again! An extensive forest has been grown on the western coast of the Dalimond Peninsula, and a massive tree has been grown in mere weeks within sight of Bristugo. Many Istarian Druids are excited about the prospects this new tree holds for their future.
• The New Rachival Council has contracted with the Vielo to construct a new travel gate in the community of Heather.
• Hoody Wearns, an odd little Gnome near the community of Pajalsti on Genevia, has become rather chatty of late!
• The undead have begun fortifying the road between Parsinia and Sslanis on Lesser Aradoth.
• The Withered Aegis have constructed additional fortifications within the Staging Area south of Harro.
• A forest has begun to grow in the Valley between Genevia and Istara's Loom on Genevia Island.
• The Valley between Genevia and Istara's Loom is sticky with the Residue of Dim Essence.
• Imperial Cartographers have catalogued and labelled numerous regions across Istaria and made their new maps available to all Gifted.
• A new type of Azulyte, known as Dark Azulyte, has been discovered in Istaria.
• Elden, a Rancher, has built a corral for the cows outside of New Trismus.
• Pale Wisps have returned to the Dalimond Peninsula.
• Ambassador Chauncy and Fredrica Jones have decided to take a "vacation"... we know not when they will return.
• The Imperial Herald in New Trismus has been recalled to Tazoon for reassignment of duties.
• The Imperial Building Commission has stopped issuing building permits for Fiendish Consignment Stores and Saris Adventure Centers.
• Due to recent interruptions in her supply network, Nadia has been forced to raise her prices.
• The deer have migrated out of the valley between Genevia and Istara's Loom on Genevia Island.
• Basiliak the Gnome Tailor in Pajalsti has undergone a radical new procedure (the first sex change operation in Istarian history!) and is now male instead of female.
• Beginner, Journeyman and Expert Smelters no longer provide a bonus to the Dragon Scalecrafting skill.

Monsters:

• Monsters will reduce their radius of aggressiveness against players rated higher than they are.
• Monsters have become unpredictable...They may attack you from farther than they used to, but there is also an increasing chance they will not attack as run away in fear.
• Mhedon the Mithril Golem's visitations will not be as forseeable in the future.
• Fewer Mithril Golems have been spotted in the canyons of Mithril's Anvil in recent weeks.
• Angry, Ferocious, Skalkaar, and Spirit Isle Grulets have begun hoarding treasure and are again harvestable for hide and meat.
• Wild Grulets are now harvestable for less hide and meat than Wild Gruoks.
• Sand Beetles will no longer drop sand as treasure.
• Beware!  Gritus Maximus and Gritus Gigantous have gone into a rage and will now attack players on sight.
• Tsunami the Greater Water Golem will now spawn with more variability.
• Water Golems near the Lakes of Crystal Tears are now known as Greater Water Golems.
• Water Golems near Spider Isle southeast of Kion are now known as Lesser Water Golems.
• Fallen Dragons will no longer use Leeching Strike as a ranged attack
• Brown Spiders and Hatchlings will now do slash damage.
• Tiny Grass Beetles will now do slash damage.
• Radiant Wisps will no longer follow you around indefinitely.
• Lord Urden's pockets are now full of treasure just begging to be emptied.
• Valkor will no longer use the “Blood Doll” ability.

• When Chain Lightning transfers from one victim to another, the attack will be properly attributed to the originator of the Chain Lightning.
• Spell technique “Concentrated” will no longer convert damage to energy.
• Technique kits, such as dye kits, can no longer be applied to equipped items.
• Added new formula and processed resources for Dragon Cargo Disks.  Speak with Nielenoss the Tinker near New Rachival for additional information about this great discovery!
• Lowered the damage/healing bonus on the special techniques given as rewards on New Trismus.
• Crawler Poison Sacs are now stackable.
• The stat buff provided by the Emblem of the Gifted has been replaced with a passive ability called “Gifted”
• Lasting Embers crystal is now attuned upon receipt.
• Technique kits, such as dye kits, can no longer be applied to equipped items.
• Heart Seeker I, III and V will now do maximum damage.
• Critical Strike I, III and V will now do maximum damage.
• Root III will now properly cap your fly height at 0.
• Bloodthorn Bow's Ethereal Paroxysm will now apply to the targeted monster instead of the player.
• Soul Shield IV will now longer overwrite Soul Shield V.
• Corrected the minimum and maximum skill requirement for Glass Vials in the following potion formulas:
• Journeyman Bolster Armor Potion
• Journeyman Bolster Dexterity Potion
• Journeyman Bolster Focus Potion
• Journeyman Bolster Health Potion
• Journeyman Bolster Power Potion
• Journeyman Bolster Strength Potion
• Journeyman Essence Reaping Potion
• Journeyman Ginesh's Thickened Skin Potion
• Journeyman Latro's Evasive Aura Potion
• Journeyman Metal Reaping Potion
• Journeyman Organic Reaping Potion
• Journeyman Quint's Quickstep Potion
• Journeyman Stone Reaping Potion
• Journeyman Vestia's Soothing Remedy Potio
• Journeyman Wood Reaping Potion
• Expert Blight Protection Potion
• Expert Bolster Armor Potion
• Expert Bolster Dexterity Potion
• Expert Bolster Focus Potion
• Expert Bolster Health Potion
• Expert Bolster Power Potion
• Expert Bolster Strength Potion
• Expert Essence Reaping Potion
• Expert Ginesh's Thickened Skin Potion
• Expert Latro's Evasive Aura Potion
• Expert Metal Reaping Potion
• Expert Organic Reaping Potion
• Expert Quint's Quickstep Potion
• Expert Stone Reaping Potion
• Expert Vestia's Soothing Remedy Potion
• Expert Wood Reaping Potion

Lairshaping:

• Tiers 1 – 6 Lunus and Helian Essence Channelers, Smelters and Stoneworking Pedestals now provide a bonus to the Lairshaping skill.
• Fixed the resource requirements for Tier 4 Primal Essence and Excoriation when constructing Tier 4 Lunus and Helian Gemworking chambers.
• Lairshaping Mastery and Crystalshaping Mastery quests now use your skill level to determine when they can be obtained, rather than your Lairshaper school level.

The following additions, changes and fixes were applied to Chaos and Order on Tuesday, May 2, 2006:

Despite the best efforts of the Gifted, the invasion near Harro continues. To combat the seemingly unstoppable horde, Lord-Commander Jatell has called for the construction of fortifications near the Harro Road and Old Oaks. From this outpost, the armies of the Living Races can make a stand and try to stave off imminent disaster!

• Travel directly from New Trismus to Genevia Island is now possible.
• Gaedin the Warrior Trainer now offers nine quests for warriors level 1 to 10.
• Ulaven the Mage Trainer now offers nine quests for mages level 1 to 10.
• An out-going portal is now available in Brandon's Shelf.
• Blacksmith quests offered by Guran on New Trismus are no longer repeatable.
• Bone Golems now classify as undead.
• Breath of Lightning will dispel beneficial effects from the target on a successful hit.
• Vital Defiance will no longer be removed by Expulse or Dispel.
• Corrected the skill requirements and XP gains on hide strips when making lower tiered invisible leather caps using the Journeyman and Expert formulas.
• Blighted Essence Hide and Leather armors will now use a Shining Tailoring Recharge Kit instead of the Bright Tailoring Recharge Kit.
• “Smelting Mastery X” quest can now be completed by speaking with Althanas the Great.
• Refurbished Board Plane is now useable when making items requiring the woodworking or fletching skills.
• Tazoon Prospecting Service Reports quest will now give out the proper reports when speaking with Fulthas.
• Bright Indestructable Jewelry Crystal can be placed into a Jewelry Socket instead of Armor Socket.
• Tier 1 maggots will now properly drop maggot hides, entrails and mandibles.
• Lava Golems are no longer harvestable for opals.
• Bronze Salvage Awl no longer requires Tinkering to equip.
• Replies from NPCs in quests will now properly come from the NPC with whom you are speaking, rather than a random NPC.

• Characters and monsters will remain facing the same direction when they die.
• Spell effect level scaling does not under scale, or over-scale - this fixes a problem with frame rate at high skill levels.
• Plot token icon will no longer show up when the player has no plot token (which none do).

The following additions, changes and fixes were applied to the Live shards on Tuesday, March 28, 2006:

The invasion has begun! Wave after wave of corrupted beasts and putrid undead have begun blighting the lands south of Harro. Harro has come under attack, its militia desperately out-numbered. A new enemy has appeared and is leading these attacks, a foul and cruel hound, with a hunger for battle and for blood.

• There are two new arrivals on New Trismus that are greeting newcomers to the island. Rumor has it one of them has a particular problem they could use some help with. (This is the first Peter S. Beagle quest)
• Stoneworking Mastery quests are now available from Saphias the Stoneworker, a follower of Lunus, who resides near Dralk.
• Relstaroth will now remind Lairshapers on the “Lairshaping Mastery (Part 6)” quest to bring their Journeyman emblem with them to complete the final step.
• “Gravus' Quest: Blacksmith Part III” on Spirit Isle will now properly track Cedar Shortbows instead of Cedar Boards. Gravus will also give you a Refurbished Cedar Board Plane.
• Demon Flurry will again overwrite Energize 2.
• Quest “Town Marshall: Breeder Boasting” is now completeable by returning to Saenethra.
• Corrected the skill requirement to scribe Expert Fabric Construction Tapetries formula.
• Ceremonial Tower Shield will now boost Blight Resistance by +300.
• A destination pad has been added to the community of Forest Guard.
• The Travel Gate on Scorpion Island now links to destination pads, also on Scorpion Island.
• Blacksmith Trainers throughout Istaria will now give out Refurbished tools instead of Training tools.
• Corrected a broken chat link in “Avariatus' Quest: Learn about the Lunus Faction” so it may be completed.
• Wild Grulets will now drop Wild Grulet Tusks instead of Wild Gruok Tusks.
• Wraiths of all tiers will now drop more applicable loot.
• Steward Pratt McGrubben in New Trismus will now offer to attune bipeds to Spirit Isle.
• A tinkering bench has been added to Mahagra.
• Group bonus increased from 10% to 15% per additional member.
• Self-centered area of effect attacks will have proper feedback when you have a heal over time effect on.
• Corrected round shields so that arm guards will no longer bleed through.

Attention players - Jasagron of Client Team fame has made a request:

There is currently a bug in the new version of the client which may cause all objects in the world to dissapear. This bug should be fixed shortly! In the meantime, if you do encounter this issue, please take note of where it occurred (/printpos) and what you were doing at the time, then recall and relog. Make a ticket with these details at http://support.istaria.com/. Once you log back in everything should be working normally. The more information we collect on this bug the quicker it can be fixed, as it only happens in a few certain places in the world.

The Client Team apologizes for any inconvenience this bug may cause our players, but your patience and assistance in correcting this issue is greatly appreciated!

Note: We are advising a recall and then a relog because it is the easiest way to remove the character from the affected portion of the world, as simply relogging in the same location will put you in the same situation and leave you with a non-rendering world.

The following additions, changes and fixes were applied to Chaos and Order on Tuesday, February 21, 2006:

• Primal Rebirth now has an associated animation and particle effect.
• Updated Ryson Stormbringer's dialogue to be more up to date with the new tutorial.
• Added a quest to Ryson Stormbringer on Spirit Isle for new players as they complete the tutorial.
• Daknor the Berserk will now re-spawn more quickly.
• Stray buildings on Genevia removed.
• Plot sizes on Genevia continue to be adjusted.
• Greymane Wolves will now count towards the completion of the 'Attunement to Aden' quest.

The following additions, changes and fixes were applied to the Live shards on Tuesday, February 14, 2006:

Rumors speak of a new evil among the Withered Aegis, an enemy who has risen to power from the ashes of General Reklar's failure. Rumors speak of the Blight itself creeping forward, of lands and resources swallowed. Jatell, the newly appointed Lord-Commander of the Imperial Army, has put forth a rallying call to the Gifted. He asks that the most powerful among the Gifted speak with him at once at his temporary post near the Travel Gate in Tazoon.

Adventure

• Ethereal Blade and Group Ethereal Blade will no longer convert damage to Spirit.
• Fire Ogres and Fire Pygmies will now do flame damage.
• Flame Ogres and Flame Pygmies will now do flame damage.
• “Gain Breath of Ice” quest will now properly count the 10 Algedian Silver Bars you make instead of just one.
• The Paladin ability Life Strike now has an associated special attack animation and particle effect.
• Monk ability Mind over Body now has an associated particle effect.
• Dragon ability “Tail Whip” II through V will now do crush damage.
• Kelakhan will no longer give the “Gain Breath of Fire III” quest more than once.
• Trophy Hunters will now accept trophies of their tier or below.
• Bariente the Trophy Hunter in Chiconis has been replaced by the Dragon Council with Baltorros, an adult Helian.
• Ice Attack spells will no longer filter improperly in the Summoning category.
• Raise Armor V will now filter in the “Boons” category.
• Spell: Flame Spear (I – V) now does Flame damage instead of pierce.
• Fixed a stacking issue that prevented more than one of the same crystal from being placed into the same container.

Tradeskill

• Lady Kendra in Kion has acquired a Distillery and has placed it inside the back room of her Manor House.
• Tier 3 Lunus Essence Chamber will now have a Scholar's Desk.
• Quest “Lairshaping Mastery (Part 6)” will now properly give out the Lairshaping Mastery ability for that level.
• Adventure: Primal IV techinque now requires 2 Arbotus Gullets.
• Dragon Lairshaper school will now gain 10 points of Ingenuity per level.
• Additional quests added to the Weaver Trainer at Level 10, 50, 70, and 80.
• Dragon quest “Deliver a Load of Spell Shards” will now give proper directions to Jynasix.
• Corrected the XP values for Maelstones when creating them using the Journeyman Maelstone formula.
• Tier 2 Lunus Gemworking Chamber now spawns a Gem Cutter.
• Standish's Standard Cargo Disks, Tarbash's Compact Cargo Disks, and Tarbash's Standard Cargo Disks now have a hoard value.
• Dragon Craft Trainers no longer carry the formula, Journeyman Spell: Binding Crystals.

Community

• Added a sandpile to the communities of Selen, Dalimond Ridge Gate, Drift Point, Sanctuary Bay, Granite Hills, and Heart.
• Added a well to the communities of Cire, Arua, Dalimond Ridge Gate, Drift Point, Sanctuary Bay, Granite Hills, and Heart.
• Added Spirit Isle which is the new location where all non-Dragon characters will begin the game. Ryson Stormbringer is there as well as Gravus the Craft Trainer and Cellardus, the Adventurer Trainer.
• The Empire has approved a plan to expand the size of community plots in the town of Old Oaks.

Attention Players: During the maintenance today, we made some updates to our security system. If you are one of our players who use the standalone launcher (HorizonsLauncher.exe), you will need to patch through the website to get the updated version before it will work properly.

For those players who have been noticing a lot of streaking going on outside of Order's Carmo Community, don't worry!

From the patch notes for January 24, 2006:

• The good performance and high performance graphic settings do not display items on remote characters. The default has been changed so that only high performance has this feature disabled (the default setting for new installs). Customers currently running with their settings on good performance will now be able to see items on remote characters.

Recent Client changes have been made to maintain game playability in low FPS situations. This means that when a player has 10 fps or less, the client will cease to update visual displays until the frame rate is higher. This ensures that players still receive network messages and that they can continue to play Horizons.

Players may see semi-clothed NPCs and players or they may not see the proper tool/weapon equipped if they change items. Players may also be hearing incorrect combat sounds.

Simply change your graphics settings in the Options window to Good Performance or Maximum Performance and you can do your part to stop the rampant streaking in Istaria!