Dhalin's Suggestions

[Dhalin]

Istaria still has pretty good graphics.

What people don't understand, is that Istaria looks more realistic than many other games in terms of landscape, buildings, etc.

Not everything can, or should, look "bright" and "cartoony" like WoW.

I think the main part of "why don't more people play this game?" is partly because of UI and control features.

1). We still don't have a keybind for "Cycle Nearest Enemy" for one.
2). We still don't have "cast spell on self" functionality for another. We have to Deselect our current target, heal ourselves, and then re-select the target (spending 5+ critical seconds running around trying to get your correct target re-selected).

3). We don't have "Show me people who have debuffs on them" for the party window. A healer can't tell when someone has a debuff on them, unless they have loads of chat filters on, and catch it when the mob uses the spell/ability.

4). We can't tell what buffs and debuffs are currently applied to the target.

5). We can't see what the mob is casting unless we read the chatlog; there's no "cast bar" that shows you what the target is casting and how soon it will finish casting it.

6). It has been said that it is coming "Soon", but we still don't have a Minimap as of current live patch.

7). Half of the game still has an unpolished feel, there are useless items that drop that have no apparent purpose. They are, however, working on it.. but they are just now doing Tier 2.. they've still got 3, 4, 5 and 6 left to go. At least they're working on it, though.

8). The game still takes quite awhile to load. Many other games, you click the desktop button, and you're in the game within 60 seconds. Istaria takes more like 5 minutes even on high-end computers. This would likely require an overhaul of the game's engine though. I understand if that is difficult to accomplish. Still, though, it might bring back unpleasant memories of older games that did similar. "Now Loading..." is an archaic term from Playstation 1 days. It is one of the first things that will turn people off.

9). The game has no grouping dynamics whatsoever. In fact, we DISCOURAGE grouping in Combat, with the lack of any definable Mob AI. Mob AI basically consists of "Attack the lowest level person near you relentlessly until they die" and "use your abilities when they are off cooldown". This basically says "Don't Group until Endgame, unless everyone's the same level". Even then, there are no defined Healer/Tank/Damage-Dealer roles, everyone who comes to a group has to be their own tank/healer/damage-dealer, and this I believe kills a lot of would-be strategy in Group-Based Combat that most other MMORPGs have. Wherever you have an MMORPG, you should have Group-Based Combat. Istaria is the only game thusfar that I've seen, that so strongly encourages you to solo. It goes more than encouraging you to solo, it very strongly discourages grouping pre-endgame Combat.

The above are not meant to be criticisms, but truth. I love Istaria as much as anyone else does, but one does need to be Honest. It isn't the graphics that really turn people off. If they do, then they tend to not be the type of people we want to attract anyways. I -like- the realistic-ness of the landscape and the buildings, though I do wish there were more furniture and fineries, but the game takes long enough to load *now*, I could only imagine what it would be like trying to load Tazoon when each building had 10, 20+ pieces of furniture in it.... eck.

[Dragonboy]

1). We still don't have a keybind for "Cycle Nearest Enemy" for one.
2). We still don't have "cast spell on self" functionality for another. We have to Deselect our current target, heal ourselves, and then re-select the target (spending 5+ critical seconds running around trying to get your correct target re-selected).

3). We don't have "Show me people who have debuffs on them" for the party window. A healer can't tell when someone has a debuff on them, unless they have loads of chat filters on, and catch it when the mob uses the spell/ability.

4). We can't tell what buffs and debuffs are currently applied to the target.

5). We can't see what the mob is casting unless we read the chatlog; there's no "cast bar" that shows you what the target is casting and how soon it will finish casting it.

6). It has been said that it is coming "Soon", but we still don't have a Minimap as of current live patch.

7). Half of the game still has an unpolished feel, there are useless items that drop that have no apparent purpose. They are, however, working on it.. but they are just now doing Tier 2.. they've still got 3, 4, 5 and 6 left to go. At least they're working on it, though.

8). The game still takes quite awhile to load. Many other games, you click the desktop button, and you're in the game within 60 seconds. Istaria takes more like 5 minutes even on high-end computers. This would likely require an overhaul of the game's engine though. I understand if that is difficult to accomplish. Still, though, it might bring back unpleasant memories of older games that did similar. "Now Loading..." is an archaic term from Playstation 1 days. It is one of the first things that will turn people off.

9). The game has no grouping dynamics whatsoever. In fact, we DISCOURAGE grouping in Combat, with the lack of any definable Mob AI. Mob AI basically consists of "Attack the lowest level person near you relentlessly until they die" and "use your abilities when they are off cooldown". This basically says "Don't Group until Endgame, unless everyone's the same level". Even then, there are no defined Healer/Tank/Damage-Dealer roles, everyone who comes to a group has to be their own tank/healer/damage-dealer, and this I believe kills a lot of would-be strategy in Group-Based Combat that most other MMORPGs have. Wherever you have an MMORPG, you should have Group-Based Combat. Istaria is the only game thusfar that I've seen, that so strongly encourages you to solo. It goes more than encouraging you to solo, it very strongly discourages grouping pre-endgame Combat.

The above are not meant to be criticisms, but truth. I love Istaria as much as anyone else does, but one does need to be Honest. It isn't the graphics that really turn people off. If they do, then they tend to not be the type of people we want to attract anyways. I -like- the realistic-ness of the landscape and the buildings, though I do wish there were more furniture and fineries, but the game takes long enough to load *now*, I could only imagine what it would be like trying to load Tazoon when each building had 10, 20+ pieces of furniture in it.... eck.

1. Very true and could help sometimes.
2. You can alter the hotkey to “select self�, cast spell/ability, “select nearest enemy�. Although that might give you the problem that you don’t have the same enemy targeted as before.
3+4. Do we really need that? Only thing I can imagine to fix this problem would be to change the layout of the Target window to also include buffs both positive and negative. Although for a healer it would still be one hell of a job to constantly scroll through all the groupmembers.
5. Personally I don’t think we need that, when fighting I want to see my damage numbers anyway so I keep that window open, so I see by the color of the mobs attack that it is going to cast on me.
6. Again I don’t think that this is needed at least not as a priority.
7. Just be happy that the mobs no longer drop regular resources you constantly have to delete like the golems dropping slabs/ore/uncut gems. That was bad. Also hear stories from older players then me that loads of salt rock was a standard loot item.
8. True but not going to happen soon unless Vitrium wins the lottery and use it for this purpose.
9. In the old days the grouping was used to powerlevel bipeds and dragons alike from lvl 1 to 100 in a matter of days producing loads of players who had high end characters, but had absolutely no idea what to do except for standing on the sideline of a fight, so instead of having the agro constantly on the strong groupmembers they placed it on the lower level players to force people to be more equal leveled. I believe the whole experience distribution was also changed but not sure about what it was. It was however a good change I think… Just a pity they had to ruin it with introducing the trophy system in a game with unlimited multi-classing.

[Dhalin]

2. You can alter the hotkey to “select self�, cast spell/ability, “select nearest enemy�. Although that might give you the problem that you don’t have the same enemy targeted as before.

That's Exactly the problem. If you are fighting 3-4 mobs, and make a said hotkey (I have this on my cleric. It does exactly as you said), I almost never get the same enemy again and it takes 5 sometimes nearly 10 seconds to get the mob I had... by then I need healed. AGAIN. ARGH.

3+4. Do we really need that? Only thing I can imagine to fix this problem would be to change the layout of the Target window to also include buffs both positive and negative. Although for a healer it would still be one hell of a job to constantly scroll through all the groupmembers.

I think you may have slightly misunderstood; it would work like this:

Any Target, Player and Mob Alike: When you target them, their buffs/debuffs are shown as icons similar to your own effects window, under their HP meter.
Party Members: Negative Status Icons would appear next to their name in the Party Window somehow. This is how most games do this, they usually show the 3 or so newest negative debuffs, and show the icons next to their name, so you Know that person is affected by the debuff. You wouldn't have to target or scroll through anyone; you'd know they have the debuff as the icon(s) would appear next to their name or health meter in the party window.

5. Personally I don’t think we need that, when fighting I want to see my damage numbers anyway so I keep that window open, so I see by the color of the mobs attack that it is going to cast on me.

An On-screen Casting Bar beneath the mob's Health or near it would work nicely. Sometimes chatlog flies by too quickly for me to catch "Mob Starts Casting..." but yet I see the mob is casting something. I can tell what school usually by the animation, but yet I don't know if that skeleton mage is casting Flame Bolt or Fire Bomb or whatever Fire Spells they have. Maybe I'd like to know if that Cleric is casting Improved Revitalize or Mystic Blaze, but I missed it in the chat log. It might have scrolled off screen, or maybe I don't want to spend 5-10 critical seconds scanning every line of an elongated battle log to see what he's casting. If a casting bar appeared under the mob's health somewhere, I'd know, instantly what he's casting and how long until he's finished with the spell.

6. Again I don’t think that this is needed at least not as a priority.

It is very easy to get lost in Istaria, especially if you are a new player. Having to stop what you're doing, to bring the main map up every few minutes is a chore. Sometimes having a small map on-screen is nice, and would allow you to navigate yourself through the world or at least get a sense of direction/facing (especially if we changed our marker from a dot to a triangle that faces the proper way) without having to rely on a compass.

7. Just be happy that the mobs no longer drop regular resources you constantly have to delete like the golems dropping slabs/ore/uncut gems. That was bad. Also hear stories from older players then me that loads of salt rock was a standard loot item.

I remember those days. I remember days of leaving Sand on Sand Beetles, because it really has no use to me. But I'm not talking about slabs/ore/uncut gems. Those items have a use. I'm talking about Tech Comps that are used for absolutely nothing. Items that have no use whatsoever, not even for crafting, and are worth virtually nothing to a pawnbroker. Items that exist, and you scratch your head and go "why does this exist"?

8. True but not going to happen soon unless Vitrium wins the lottery and use it for this purpose.

The reason why this is even here, is because Amon thought this post was "Off-Topic" (when it really wasn't). This post WAS in the other thread having to do with "Why People Don't Want to Play Istaria" in which I was naming things that Istaria doesn't have, that people Expect in other games. The OP there cited "Graphics" and I said "Um, dude, it isn't the Graphics. THESE are the real things players point out". Amon thought it off-topic, so he moved my post. *shrugs* And yes, I fully know, that redoing the whole game is not feasible.

9. In the old days the grouping was used to powerlevel bipeds and dragons alike from lvl 1 to 100 in a matter of days producing loads of players who had high end characters, but had absolutely no idea what to do except for standing on the sideline of a fight, so instead of having the agro constantly on the strong groupmembers they placed it on the lower level players to force people to be more equal leveled. I believe the whole experience distribution was also changed but not sure about what it was. It was however a good change I think… Just a pity they had to ruin it with introducing the trophy system in a game with unlimited multi-classing.

I posted another suggestion having to do with this; you may want to read it. It still kills "powerleveling", but yet allows people to group.

[SwordMage]

Minor comments:

1) I agree that "Cycle Nearest Enemy" is probably the thing I miss most even when fighting solo.

2) I would also like to see a key bind for Select Last Target to make the self heal macros more dependable.

6) I use the map as a mini-map. At least on wide screen displays it isn't in the way most of the time (and since I make the display even shorter and wider (unlocking the main window and movable 3D window option FTW) I have plenty of side room).

8) At least I turn off full scan except once every few days and get into game at a slightly better rate.

9) I could argue that notion of the MOBs targetting the weakest enemy makes sense, but it does make things harder. As far as fixed roles, I think there is no reason why the game needs to enforce roles that can be assigned by the group leader.

[Archaic]

As I do support the idea of Istaria getting a new graphics engine, in reality that would ultimately be Istaria II. The original poster is definately correct about the graphics style of Istaria, it honestly is not that bad the skybox really looks good! Maintaining the current look and feel of the game, I would encourage development around a few newer textures for some trees etc. The current graphics engine would do fine with just some new textures on some things.

1 - 'Cycle Nearest Enemy' keybind: yep, would be nice

2 - 'Cast spell on self' functionality: yep, would be even nicer. The most effective way imo would be for all beneficial spells to automatically default to the caster when an enemy is selected.

3 & 4 - 'Buffs and Debuffs indication': yep, I have found myself wanting this exact feature in Istaria. It would be very helpful for buffing others.

5 - 'Can't see what mob is casting': I'm gonna have to agree with Dragonboy on this one, I don't see the combat information in the chat log as a problem. I always have a log open during combat just for combat information, and do the same in any MMO I play.

6 - 'Minimap': Would be nice to have, but I don't think it to be priority either. One alternative is to open the game map and zoom in to the desired closeness, then adjust the size of your map window and throw it in the corner someplace to simulate a minimap

7 - 'Unpolished Feel': While I agree the game has an unpolished feel, I don't believe that useless items affects it much; at least it doesn't for me. What isunpolished is the emptiness of the land, i.e. missing mobs and NPC's.

8 - 'Loading': Yeah I think you about pegged it by targetting the game engine as the culprit. Again, probably would be Istaria II, but yeah it's one of the things that scares off some players.

9 - 'No Grouping': I do believe that mob AI could be better. At the same time, I do see grouping encouraged against some mobs now, even the 'boss' on the island of New Trismus promotes grouping. If we could see a little more of these mobs strewn about, with an occassional quest associated with killing them, it would feel a lot more groupish for the adventuring players.

Overall, a good post and description of some of the issues players would like to see resolved in Istaria. I'm giving it 2 thumbs up!