Let me thank every one of you for taking the time to discuss this topic here on the forums. If there is one thing we can tell from this thread and others, it is that you are all passionate about Istaria and about gaming. And we are glad we are able to bring you a game that inspires such passion!
Now, some serious issues have been brought up and we wanted to take the time to address them. First, we want to acknowledge that much of this mess is our fault. We introduced the boss mobs and the epic weapons and we failed you in two ways: 1) We introduced epic mobs and epic weapons without a well-defined plan for how they might affect the game and also how we might continue to add them into the future and 2) we failed to continue adding them due to several unforeseen events over the past 2 - 3 years. What we did get right, we feel, is that the epic gear introduced did not take away from the best crafted gear. We never want to introduce gear that drops as loot which is better than the best items that a crafter can make.
There are no easy solutions to this issue because everyone's idea of what constitutes fun and good gameplay is different. Some players enjoy the challenge of fighting the big mobs every day, some players enjoy it once in a while, others don't even care as long as an epic mob never shows up on their plot or at their favorite haunt.
Whatever your style of play, you expect us to continue to work to bring you new experiences, whatever form that may take. Along the way, it is also our job to try to make the parts of the game that aren't that fun, better.
We believe that we can work together with you to improve this situation. You see, it isn't that there aren't enough epic mobs in the game for everyone to enjoy fighting them. It is that some of the encounters are pointless (because they are instant death or because their loot just plain sucks) or that they are badly broken or a myriad of reasons. It is our job to fix this. Not by taking away fun from one group, but rather by adding to the game and trying to make the fun available to everyone.
I believe this can be achieved with several steps:
1. Make all of the existing epic mobs worth fighting. This means no more instant-kills (if we can help it), no more insane swarms of mobs surrounding them, and better loot.
2. Make epic weapons truly epic and worth having. These weapons will still fall into the category of "not better than the best crafted weapon, as we know that crafters are of central importance to Istaria. But one of the things the crafting system has going for it that dropped loot won't ever have is how it can be customized for the needs of a specific individual.
3. Create loot for epic mobs that is desired and is not just weapons. Epic armor? Rare resources or techniques or spells?
4. Develop a plan for how future epic encounters will be developed so that we don't run into this type of issue again with future content.
Together, I believe we can address the gameplay issues and turn this negative situation into a positive. And I hope you will all join with us in making this a reality.
Thanks!
Virtrium