Brainstorming Ideas

[Calyndrell]

This idea was suggested by LOV but i thought i'd start the thread with atleast one idea myself.

1. Monster Raids.. We are supposed to be at war with a relentless undead enemy yet the Withered Aegis never actually leave their lairs.. I would personally love to see periodic raids out by the withered aegis generals...

things like
a) Valkor storming out towards Kirasanct or out towards dralk whilst accompanied accompanied by a small army of undead.

B) Sog Raiding out of the ED out towards Delgarath or Morning Light

c) Reklar Raiding out towards the Eastern Outpost and beyond

And although i can't name them the lower undead captains also raiding the nearest settlements.. and i don't mean make this a Regular occurance but enough to keep everyone on their toes.. have each one raided once a week or something but very the time say on a 141 hour rotation so its never the same time same place.

I would also be for damaging the NPC none workshop structures... yes OK its only cosmetic but hey it gives it some minor consequence.

and although I am a crafter also I would like to see something for crafters perhaps a wandering NPC ghost (perhaps the cenotaphs) that wander around and spawn randomly in relevant crafting locations and casts a small buff (Lasts 30 mins and gives +10 per tier) on nearby players he can spawn perhaps every 1 1/3 hours rotating between each tier location for his craft. Also this could be a great way for players to learn the history of the cenotaphs.

other ideas.

[AmonGwareth]

The issue with this, and I don't disagree with the idea at all btw, is three-fold. One, the spawn issues that if noone is around they despawn. Two, rewards. There must be good rewards for all of them above and beyond the regular in order to make it interesting. Third, impact. There should be some way of a) knowing the raid is occurring and b) having a reason to fight it off beyond the rewards. Like, it turns off NPCs or Machines or damages structures or something.

Sadly 1 and 3 aren't things we currently have implemented, though we do have requests in to the tech team for them. No ETA sadly on their implementation.

[LOVWYRM]

Thank you Calyndrell for opening that thread
(sometimes I feel that I spam this forum with my threads and posts- so I did not )

For the records: I support your ideas- and I heard Amon`s answers.

here 3 of the issues I thought about

- 1. Obviersly we do not succeed in attracting younger gamer or make them stay.

- 2. there are different opinions if the game is too hard/too demanding to play at the first (30?) level.
Even if only 50 % of us or of new players say its too hard- then its too hard.

- 3. Vets- the monitary and moral backingof Istaria - the hoard of all that knowledge that is not written -do leave or have left recently.

my suggestions:

-1. If we can`t- shall we waste ressources in trying? Why not change to another concept?
Why not think about targeting other customers? Do we need the hardcore game hoppers or chaotic kids?
Away from that "we have to compede with the newest games- try to adapt certain basic new features."
Why don`t we bethink ourselves of the Istarian highlights, the things that make it so unique (dragons , craft and multiclass)
which means we put manpower in bringing those to perfection.
which brings me to point 3:

-3. What do vets want?
Good reasons to hunt, good hunts, some ambitious things to craft. World projects.

Dralnoks Doom had that all. In my eyes best thing devs ever did (beside the Raids of the cities^^P)
Perfect synthesis of all, Istarians ever wanted^^

Does it make sense to think over/work at lower tier revamps- if there are no player in sight to be there to play it?
Woulden`t it be better to offer old Istarians a reason to return?

-2. This seems to be a never ending story. And it seems- whatever devs do or players suggest- it is never enough. Or not the right thing.
Maybe its Istaria itself - like some say: It was never ment to be easy-esp. not at the start.
My suggestion-
Lets put the cart before the horse. And the prob with beginner level too hard or not- on ice:
If vets return- if old players return- they will care for new players as they always did.

(Besides all that, I have some new ideas for advertising the game. But later- when there is somerthing to advertise^^
I apologize for my insufficient English- its still a foreign language to me.)

Thanks for reading

[terrox]

Thanks Calyndrell for starting this post also . and Thanks Lov for your wonderful suggestions . and Thank you Amon for your hopeful reply to Calyndrell suggestion

I agree with both of your sugeestions and would very much like to see them implemented . except making lower levels easier but I always loved the challange and strived on it most time . That is 1 reason I often hunt solo .

1 My suggestion/ request would be to see if T6 items, spells, equipment can be created . Tthis would open up the barrier vale and some of ED to hunting that only dragons or experienced group players have expierence. I know that some comps were already given a destination to a T6 spell or items and it would allow players to finally reach level 101. I am not asking for alot of new levels ( 5- 15 ) would suit me but think of the new interest that vets and newbies both would find in this untapped area

2 Stop Nerfing ( forest slulk hunt master )and making Istaria easier cause a few new players start complaining . Istaria has just celebrated 10 years and it has been excellent in my opinion. yes improvements need to happen but lately I have notice an alarming observation .... if you complain long enough the devs will make it easier. I don't speak for everyone but I Enjoy the challange and when it is gone , what is there to stay and pay for ?

[Alisto]

2 Stop Nerfing ( forest slulk hunt master )and making Istaria easier cause a few new players start complaining . Istaria has just celebrated 10 years and it has been excellent in my opinion. yes improvements need to happen but lately I have notice an alarming observation .... if you complain long enough the devs will make it easier. I don't speak for everyone but I Enjoy the challange and when it is gone , what is there to stay and pay for ?

The main problem I see along the lines of this topic is - people are having a great amount of trouble with the -how-. Ista leveling is all over the place, levels are all over the place. If a player at...say, level 20, gets absolutely wrecked by a lv20 piggy, that's not very encouraging. Both are level twenty, it should be an even battle. What if that piggy had the same might, but was identified as a level 30? I don't think it would be as much of a problem being murdered by an adorable lv30 piggy at lv20.

1) Give certain mobs an 'elite' marker that lets a player know it's going to be quite a bit harder than usual, instead of lowering the mobs strength when someone runs into it and wonders about it on the forums.

I sincerely doubt that any new player who ran into a tough mob was using all of the resources available to them to kill it. I won't speak for bipeds, but on my first dragon (I paid attention to the tutorial quests!) I hadn't the faintest idea. Ok, I knew I could make spells...But it was only when I was level 30 that a kind older player helped me make a Primal Attack..II I think it was, teched with cleanse. Around level 45 was my first level appropriate full set of scales, which I used well into the 80s. Which brings up 2.

2) Somehow, someone/thing should let players know the resources they have available - that they could make armor teched with pierce resistance and ward so that the skulks become a whole lot more manageable, that they can make a healing spell that has a vastly reduced cooldown. Stick a link to the wiki/Ceg's reference site somewhere.

Even if only 50 % of us or of new players say its too hard- then its too hard.

On my very first dragon, almost completely nekkid and knowing almost nothing, it took me about 3 days to reach level 30. I recall someone asked if I was hacking, I leveled so fast.
__________________________________________________ ___
Other stuff! I really want to see more about the Mylocs. What happened to them once we kill their queen? Will their god/queen/thing resurrect itself in the future via a mass sacrificing of mylocs by the hierophants? What would we run into if a digging team dug deeper into the ground in the Doom?

Could the way plots work be used to expand actual cities that are already there? I look at Aughundell, the supposed fortress that somethingsomething I can't remember clearly undead stuff...and I realize it looks rather small, though admittedly a good amount of it is underground. Anyway, would be fun to be able to build off cities - reinforce its walls (building project!), the walls get bigger, or a new texture. Build a training tent thing, and suddenly the connie's will help defend the city against an anchor or whatever walks along.

[Alisto]

Since I can't edit my original post, I had another thought - after a certain rating, the worth of each point after that severely decreases. This is a most general idea, but I thought - why not, for each and every school, put a masterable ability at 50? One that would be worth leveling the school to 100, but wouldn't be too strong when combined with other masterables. It would give incentive to level a school to 100, while also adding more flavor/actual -stuff- to the school, because some of them are skeletons of schools.

A wonderful example of such a masterable is the (I think?) paladin one that is an endlessly ticking HoT effect. I can't frolic through the Deadlands freely with it, but it certainly will be worthwhile on long hunts, and it'll save my life on close fights.

[Calyndrell]

The issue with this, and I don't disagree with the idea at all btw, is three-fold. One, the spawn issues that if noone is around they despawn. Two, rewards. There must be good rewards for all of them above and beyond the regular in order to make it interesting. Third, impact. There should be some way of a) knowing the raid is occurring and b) having a reason to fight it off beyond the rewards. Like, it turns off NPCs or Machines or damages structures or something.

Sadly 1 and 3 aren't things we currently have implemented, though we do have requests in to the tech team for them. No ETA sadly on their implementation.

Ok well firstly regarding the despawn amon thats kinda of the idea.. If no one turns up it despawns and won't impact none adventurers TOO much..

and for a warning system have either town guards (or a unique Scout NPC) around the various outposts cities's announce "the Son of Gigaroth has been seen advancing on Delgarath" much like the useless chatter that we see in augundell and New Tristmas... it will actually give us a reason to listen to the chatter. they could announce it 10 to 15 mins before the spawn occurs.

and for a reward.. For me simply stoppin the WA would be a reward. but if you want something more significant. when the epic tokens are Introduced this spawn will give a bonus X tokens or will drop certain non dropping spells depending on tier of npc IE beginner xGenerate health for the 1-40 mobs or perhaps a rare chance for a emblem "Defender of Delgarath +50 evasion +50 dodge" for example

A wonderful example of such a masterable is the (I think?) paladin one that is an endlessly ticking HoT effect. I can't frolic through the Deadlands freely with it, but it certainly will be worthwhile on long hunts, and it'll save my life on close fights.

Its not masterable and honestly its almost unnoticable but yes if it was masterable at level 50 then it wouldn't make a massive difference

[Dacurly]

Could it be possible to have an earthquake happen somewhere (even if its just announced on the forums) and have a bridge go down and we have to rebuild, (a world project). I have heard of these world projects from older players and everyone that remembers them say they where great fun.

[LOVWYRM]

Bring 3 new bosses into the game (if you do not want to use the 3 ones that are unemployed atm).
Hard to kill (full group needed)- with group whipes similar to those of Fafnir and Reklar.
With unknown resistances and tricks (Fafnirs glowing arms..still invaluable^^).
Let them drop a piece of something-so if you have killed all three you get a complete something
( a purple pumpkin-means fluff, a bunch of roses/mural with roses-means something for the plots/lairs
an identity card-means an emblem with different options for titles (drop box)- a special dye (Tartan)
things like that- you get the point? )
You will have to hunt all 3 again and again to get all those nice things.

Though I know there is something going on with tokens as drop--this should be an alternative option to the token concept (means- every group member gets the piece of something that is in the loot. Like it was with Daknor at the beginning-no rolling dice).

[Calyndrell]

Bring 3 new bosses into the game (if you do not want to use the 3 ones that are unemployed atm).
Hard to kill (full group needed)- with group whipes similar to those of Fafnir and Reklar.
With unknown resistances and tricks (Fafnirs glowing arms..still invaluable^^).
Let them drop a piece of something-so if you have killed all three you get a complete something
( a purple pumpkin-means fluff, a bunch of roses/mural with roses-means something for the plots/lairs
an identity card-means an emblem with different options for titles (drop box)- a special dye (Tartan)
things like that- you get the point? )
You will have to hunt all 3 again and again to get all those nice things.

Though I know there is something going on with tokens as drop--this should be an alternative option to the token concept (means- every group member gets the piece of something that is in the loot. Like it was with Daknor at the beginning-no rolling dice).

Ohh expanding on this idea you could have the bosses have random high resists so that you have to be a little careful.. perhaps have them have a visible aura so you can tell what their current resist is (or weakness is) something like green for blight red for fire etc

LOL tartan dye!! that sounds like something a tailor would send his new apprentice for

[Guaran]

Bring 3 new bosses into the game (if you do not want to use the 3 ones that are unemployed atm).
Hard to kill (full group needed)- with group whipes similar to those of Fafnir and Reklar.
With unknown resistances and tricks (Fafnirs glowing arms..still invaluable^^).
Let them drop a piece of something-so if you have killed all three you get a complete something
( a purple pumpkin-means fluff, a bunch of roses/mural with roses-means something for the plots/lairs
an identity card-means an emblem with different options for titles (drop box)- a special dye (Tartan)
things like that- you get the point? )
You will have to hunt all 3 again and again to get all those nice things.

Though I know there is something going on with tokens as drop--this should be an alternative option to the token concept (means- every group member gets the piece of something that is in the loot. Like it was with Daknor at the beginning-no rolling dice).

I like these ideas.

Make a new frost monster, that roams north of the trandalar rift, make him level 160 too (who cares about the tier of the zone. No one walks around up there anyway). His big attack could be blizzard blast, which does like 6k ice damage in an aoe, along with icicle lung, a 3k melee single target pierce attack. Another monster that patrols the snowy areas on Saritova could liven it up a bit. A frosty Welger nomad. Lastly a some new nasty named to inhabit the Spiral in Western Deadlands.

Get people exploring the neat places Istaria has that do not get much travel.

[LOVWYRM]

So here is my next one:
(come on folks- you all have good ideas too-right?)

Travel -quests- with or without riddles included.

We all know wonderful places, little secret features or buildings or secret places that are not visited regulary
- Or not visited at all anymore.

Send Istarians to that places ( (e.g. from a to b to c-with a riddle- to d to e -with a task )- and let them find/gather/explore things-or solve a riddle which can be solved detecting something if one looks around .

I am sure- lots of us know such places and could send some good ideas to dev team. Just as a little input.
I have ideas for such questlines- but can only write it and give cords or ideas for riddles/tasks-
I am not able to put it in any form that helps to implement it.

(there have been player- made quests before- or at least the idea- but this should be something else)
What do you think?

[Guaran]

So here is my next one:
(come on folks- you all have good ideas too-right?)

Travel -quests- with or without riddles included.

We all know wonderful places, little secret features or buildings or secret places that are not visited regulary
- Or not visited at all anymore.

Send Istarians to that places ( (e.g. from a to b to c-with a riddle- to d to e -with a task )- and let them find/gather/explore things-or solve a riddle which can be solved detecting something if one looks around .

I am sure- lots of us know such places and could send some good ideas to dev team. Just as a little input.
I have ideas for such questlines- but can only write it and give cords or ideas for riddles/tasks-
I am not able to put it in any form that helps to implement it.

(there have been player- made quests before- or at least the idea- but this should be something else)
What do you think?

All good.

[Calyndrell]

So here is my next one:
(come on folks- you all have good ideas too-right?)

Travel -quests- with or without riddles included.

We all know wonderful places, little secret features or buildings or secret places that are not visited regulary
- Or not visited at all anymore.

Send Istarians to that places ( (e.g. from a to b to c-with a riddle- to d to e -with a task )- and let them find/gather/explore things-or solve a riddle which can be solved detecting something if one looks around .

I am sure- lots of us know such places and could send some good ideas to dev team. Just as a little input.
I have ideas for such questlines- but can only write it and give cords or ideas for riddles/tasks-
I am not able to put it in any form that helps to implement it.

(there have been player- made quests before- or at least the idea- but this should be something else)
What do you think?

further to lovs idea... for these explore missions make it so dragons max altitude is limited to 0 (ie like in doom) or that there are RV points that people must pass through.

[flamefeniks]

Putting some life in here!
If only because I want to comment on that Myloc thing (from Alisto), we all have seen the broken portal in DD (intented ofc ), if you ask me, should the devs give us new content, that's a way to get there, make a quest to get the portal activate again to the players who completed it. It should be possible to get the Mylocs escape in panic through there according to lore, to the place where one of the Protecterate escaped, the fiend Ganesh if I'm not mistaken ^^
Just a little idea I had should there be new content, higher lvl content.

[Calyndrell]

Putting some life in here!
If only because I want to comment on that Myloc thing (from Alisto), we all have seen the broken portal in DD (intented ofc ), if you ask me, should the devs give us new content, that's a way to get there, make a quest to get the portal activate again to the players who completed it. It should be possible to get the Mylocs escape in panic through there according to lore, to the place where one of the Protecterate escaped, the fiend Ganesh if I'm not mistaken ^^
Just a little idea I had should there be new content, higher lvl content.

Ohh I likes this but to back it up I think they should put "broken" gates in each Deadland.. each one takes players into a "pocket" of the within the blighted realm... each area tiered to the Deadland its linked too.. I would suggest starting with the western deadlands first as level 60-80 content is already lacking. the idea being that it allows the gifted to "take the fight to the WA" however upon entering this blighted realm a timer begins say 2 hours.. if the timer reaches zero boom your insta killed forced recalled to bind stone being overcome by the blighted realm... if you recall for any reason you get a debuff preventing re-entry for say 1 hour or the gate doesn't work whilst you have ANY Dp's... just ideas... but I just think its a shame the war with the WA seems soo... stale.

Although i think there are technical problems with the next idea what about intelligent monsters that responds to the Rating of the players in the vacinity... the more players the tougher it gets? or perhaps it has an series of area life leeches with a HUGE area effect.. so it becomes a DPS race... or it has an ability on a timer that if its not killed so fast it wipes the party..

What i would love to see if possible more uintelligent monsters that target according to rules so say.. healers generate more hate.. true tanking classes that hold enemies whilst every one else pummels the target..

[Daulnay]

A RL discussion just brought me back to Istaria, so I've just read this thread; forgive me for resurrecting something that's gone quiet.

One of my son's friends turns out to have a passion for dragons, and he asked if we knew any games... you can guess the answer(s). Turns out he doesn't want to hunt dragons (many games), or raise dragons (likewise), but to play them (Istaria!). But would Istaria work for him?

So. The most awesome thing about Istaria is the dragons, but you can't play a dragon without subscribing. That's a genuine barrier to getting people to try the game (including my son's friend). Fix this, ???, profit.

1) Leave the ftp/subscription model largely intact. However, reward ftp players with some trial Dragon account time. 'Play to pay', if you will. For example, on reaching level 20 with their human character, they get 2 weeks of dragon time activated. This would help draw in people who can't/won't commit immediately to a sub just to try the game.

Dragons are not the only great thing about Istaria, though. One unique thing is player-constructed public buildings. How much of the close-knit Istaria community was forged in the building of these?

2) Add flight towers for hatchlings in the early-game communities, player-constructed. Gliding gives hatchling players a small taste of adult flight -- I've sought out towers with my hatchie just to jump off and glide down. Put one in New Trismus, another in Kion, and let the players build them. (Maybe even make sure there's always something in Kion/Sslanis for newly-minted Masons and Carpenters to work on, and we experienced players can leave those for newbies.)

I've seen the comments about relaxing the plot restrictions so that current players can own more than one plot, because all the smaller ones are empty.

3) Instead, make the smallest plots very, very inexpensive. Owning a plot is one of the things that helps people put down roots in Istaria, but for newish players a plot is dauntingly expensive (in in-game money). Think of the smallest ones as 'starter' plots, and put them in reach of new players.

My daughter used to play Istaria passionately. She levelled her dragon, Malaquion, to adult and built a lair. But we were unable to afford to maintain the sub for a while, and all the work she put in on her lair disappeared, and with it went her enthusiasm for Istaria. Sometimes people just cannot afford to maintain a sub, and destroying their home just ensures that they don't come back when finances improve. That model has driven me permanently away from three other MMOs (AC1, DAOC, and LotRO) as well.

4) Give players a way to 'mothball' their plots, for a small fee or micro-subscription, so that they can come back without having lost much of their work. [Edit: An alternative is to designate some of the unwanted out-of-the-way plots to have a very long time before the home is forfeit. Sort of like a vacation home, that's only lived in a month out of the year.]

The old-school style of games (hard, challenging, with a real feel of accomplishment) has come back into style. So has retro gaming. Istaria is one of the few old-school MMOs left, so there's a real opportunity to draw people in right now.

5)?? I'm drawing a blank here

I looked at Steam Greenlight, and was surprised at the lack of discussion from pro-Istaria people to help promote the game. (And the longest one was an argument over free to play.) I started a discussion thread yesterday ("Why this old game?"), to help promote it.

6) Get into Greenlight, and give arguments for greenlighting Istaria in that (or other) threads. While the Steam bias may be towards newer games, we might convince them to Greenlight Istaria on grounds of uniqueness or kind-of 'historical preservation'. Or just because it's a good game....

[Daulnay]

I love the idea of travel quests. With riddles, or puzzles, yes! There are way too few good puzzles in MMOs, except for jumping ones.

I also like the idea of periodic invasions of Withered Aegis! Putting the big event on a longish timer (every 2 weeks to a month) might be better. Give it a period of lead-in events, so that the players will definitely hear about it; if it's good enough, people will work their RL schedule around the timing. People won't miss it if there are enough advance warning lead-in events.

Yes, bring back World Projects (hatchling flight/gllide towers!). There should usually be something like this around to work on, it's one of the great things about the game.

[Daulnay]

We could point new people to the mods, perhaps with some in-game or load screen hint? Some people might stay, knowing that they can mod the game.

[Machaeon]

1) Leave the ftp/subscription model largely intact. However, reward ftp players with some trial Dragon account time. 'Play to pay', if you will. For example, on reaching level 20 with their human character, they get 2 weeks of dragon time activated. This would help draw in people who can't/won't commit immediately to a sub just to try the game.

Well the problem with this would be that it could quickly be abused, simply convince another player to level you to 20 in a few minutes' time in the ED and boom! Through no effort on your part you now have extra trial time to play as a dragon. I fully support the way subscriptions and trials are currently implemented, you lose almost nothing content-wise from being strictly free-playing and you should have to pay for the largely aesthetic selection in the other races past the trial period. Yes dragons are a selling point and that's key they're the SELLING point, where Istaria gets most of its money. Implement a 'play-to-pay' system and you could easily undercut the foundation that keeps Istaria alive and kicking.

2) Add flight towers for hatchlings in the early-game communities, player-constructed. Gliding gives hatchling players a small taste of adult flight -- I've sought out towers with my hatchie just to jump off and glide down. Put one in New Trismus, another in Kion, and let the players build them. (Maybe even make sure there's always something in Kion/Sslanis for newly-minted Masons and Carpenters to work on, and we experienced players can leave those for newbies.)

I would absolutely agree with this, gliding towers would be something fun to implement, problem is WHERE to put them in the cities. Also there's not exactly a shortage of cliffs and hills to glide from either so it's not exactly necessary...

3) Instead, make the smallest plots very, very inexpensive. Owning a plot is one of the things that helps people put down roots in Istaria, but for newish players a plot is dauntingly expensive (in in-game money). Think of the smallest ones as 'starter' plots, and put them in reach of new players.

Well expensive is relative, if you have any character to 100 in any adventure school, farming coin is no problem at all! About 30 minutes farming the Adamantium golems and you've got about a gold's worth of coin in oddities. However if you want your level 20 character to own a plot or lair I see what you mean, getting a large amount of coin at that stage in the game is quite the challenge. Perhaps this could be looked at in scaling the pricing in lower-level regions to correspond with the difficulty of earning coin.

4) Give players a way to 'mothball' their plots, for a small fee or micro-subscription, so that they can come back without having lost much of their work. [Edit: An alternative is to designate some of the unwanted out-of-the-way plots to have a very long time before the home is forfeit. Sort of like a vacation home, that's only lived in a month out of the year.]

This is tricky isn't it... on one hand you've got players who for one reason or another can't pay for their sub and lose their hard work on a plot and on the other hand you've got other players who are looking to buy reclaimed plots. However seeing as there is likely a bit more in column A than column B we might want to look into this suggestion... a smaller payment just to hold onto the property without a login slot could be something interesting to think about.

6) Get into Greenlight, and give arguments for greenlighting Istaria in that (or other) threads. While the Steam bias may be towards newer games, we might convince them to Greenlight Istaria on grounds of uniqueness or kind-of 'historical preservation'. Or just because it's a good game....

Yes. Just Yes. We as a community are slowly getting smaller and smaller, fewer new players are staying for long and some of the older players disappear never to be seen again. Let's face it, we need more players and Steam would definitely bring Istaria to light for modern gamers who've never heard of this oldie-but-goodie.