Developer's Desk Special Edition

[Knossos]

This whole thing may sound like bashing to many, I am sure. Just understand, I am not aiming
any personal slams, nor attacks. I am stating my own opinions and feelings about this game and
the current direction of development. I add my commentary as addition to what Lady Thaalia
and Uther have already posted, which I second.

The current Dev Team has done some wonderful things since they regained ownership. I would be
one of many that applaud them for the intense effort, and the dedication they show to keeping this
world alive. Many new things have been added, with more goodies to come in the near future.

So you understand exactly where I am coming from. I started playing shortly after release (Jan 04),
and I have never once quit paying to play this game. I love this world, the Crafting system, the
building of plots, and the potential I see in this world. I love Istaria so much I have 4 accounts,
4 plots, and Alts-galore that I dream someday will each grow to become Elders in their own right.

With that said. *climbs on soapbox*
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Developers Desk
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Which brings me to the first of those concerns that players have raised that I alluded to earlier.
Many of the more recent posts giving us feedback on the current changes in some way or
another talk about how long time players of Istaria are becoming “bored� with the game,
are finding it “not fun� any more. I read these posts and think to myself that this is
understandable. It isn’t meant as a flippant remark to say that if you’re bored with Istaria,
that means it is time to stop playing for a while and play something else. It just means that
the game has cycled to a point where about a tenth of the population of players have reached
the end of the game. They’ve done everything there is to do. They’ve seen everything there
is to see. Those people have come to a point where they will leave for a while. They’ll be
gone for 6 months, maybe longer, or perhaps shorter.
-----------------------

I would be the exception to your rule that players quit and come back every 6 months. I have seen
many many friends leave Istaria due to a long laundry list of reasons, many of which still exist today.

I fear you miss the point of why MANY players left during the years. They left due to unfriendly
changes in the Game (nerfs), an Inordinate amount of bugs, Lack of a real War, Lack of High End content.
They left because the ruling "body" decided it was better to "Nerf and slow down progression" rather
than create actual depth in the war. (And a previous person was on record as saying such.)
Challenge was equated with making Super-Epic-Mobs, instead of finding a challenge that all players
could get involved in. World Events ceased to happen. Group Hunting got decimated by restrictive
rules that took away the joy of hunting with friends.

Boredom? That only came from not having an active war with the Aegis, and from not having any
mobs in the world higher than 70 at the time. (can imagine the stunned shock on the newer players
faces)

Also if I read this right, the focus of this statement is not about trying to retain players at all, just an attitude that
their leaving is inevitable and not due to fixable problems. This could not be more wrong.

Many of my friends from old left due to easily fixable problems.

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Dev's Desk
---------------------------
But during that time, we at Virtrium will continue to add new content. We’ll continue to improve upon existing content.
---------------------------

So long as the content being developed and released makes the paying players happy, Virtrium
shouldn't have problems staying in business.

The trend to ignore customer happiness, however, is disconcerting to say the least. The Loot revamp
was clearly not a popular idea when you asked about it in "talk to the team", yet you went forward
with it. Running any successful business means offering a product that makes your customers happy.
-- Just saying "we are working hard and rescued it from the void" doesn't cut it after a while.
Giving your customers the feeling that their loyalty is not appreciated is bad. Tacitly giving your
customers the message that their feelings will be trampled and ignored, "Our plan for the future is
the only one" - also bad.

The offerred future of Istaria has to be pleasing and acceptable to all, most importantly the paying
customers.

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Dev's Desk
-----------------------
What’s happening to Istaria right now is far from unique for any MMO, it is part of the natural
cycle of online games.
----------------------

This sounds too much like resignation that many players will leave and eventually Istaria will
become only a memory.

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Dev's Desk
----------------------
I’ve watched it happen with the games I play, and in fact I’ve watched it happen ! before
with Istaria. And while we all understand and empathize with the feeling that “all my friends
have already left, and more leave every day�, we can also look beyond that and see that
many who have been gone from the game for months, even years in some cases, return
every day. I’ve personally had it happen to me too where those I played with regularly
seemed to all decide at once that it was time to stop playing Game X and go check out Game
Y for a time. Sometimes I’ve made the choice to follow them, and after a time in Game Y we
decide to take a look back at Game X because we all really had fun there. Sometimes I’ve
decided to stay in Game X, made new friends, watched and waited through changes in the
game, and after a while invited those friends who had left to come check out Game X again
because I was still really having fun. Friendships go through the same changes whether they
were made through a “real world! � connection or a “virtual world� connection.
-------------------

That sounds to me like a bangup job to convince players to go off and find other games to play.
Shouldn't we be focusing on finding reasons to keep players here in this world and paying to keep
it alive? I must need to take another business class, since this doesn't fit any working model I ever
heard of for a profitable company. Can this game, small as it is, truly afford to offer the door to
players and lose the income? If this was a game like WOW, sure.

I'll repeat something said through the years - Istaria is NOT like the other games.

I would believe we should try to find ways to tempt the players that left to come back and
re-experience the new Istaria. This is a small game, promoting or harboring the sub-conscious
belief that it can continue to bleed paying players without consequences is a path to
bankruptcy.

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Dev's Desk
--------------------
It’s our job here at Virtrium to continually update and expand the world so there are new
experiences for those who want to keep playing, and can have something they’re excited
to share with their friends.
-------------------

Once again, I think the focus should shift. I would truly hope you intend to include:

"We here at Virtrium intend to keep the satisfaction of Players while in Istaria our primary goal."

Recent missteps in decision making cannot be afforded when the population is already small.

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Dev's Desk
-------------------
I know this has been a longer Developer’s Desk than normal, and if you’re still with me at this
point, thank you for reading. The thoughts and opinions of everyone playing Istaria are
important to us, and we do appreciate the feedback you provide. Over the past three years it
has helped us decide where to focus our time and attention to the game’s development, and I
hope that you’ll continue to provide us with such feedback for many years to come
--------------------

Asking for our feedback is always appreciated, and I know that it is sometimes given in
over-whelming doses. I value the exchange and hope that VI continues to ask us about
something for which we share a passion.

Sincerely,
Andaras - Originally Spirit, now Order

This is what I wish my clumsy post on this thread had said. We elders do not hate the devs - we are most grateful for all they have done and are doing. We simply love this game - and have great concern that our home will be desecrated and put asunder - driving us to have no home.

[Darkwing_Duck]

Ok, not to be rude, but it sounds to me like Virtrium , you just want the game to fizzle out, and die, and for what? we players love this MMO, and all the new content is great! I myself don`t forsee me ever getting bored. I have one anchient, and several adult dragons, as well as a few bipeds, and many hatchlings, heck! I`m a multi subscriber myself XD

As for Order`s population fading, it is, sadly due to the community going bad. What gets me flaming, is the fact that the dev`s attitide is deminshing to the lowest denominator. Almost as if they are expecting the game to die out, and everyone eventualy get bored, and leave. oh? Then why are so many players who joined in pre alpha, still playing? I`ve only played Istaria for a little better then 2 years, and I still look forward to logging into my anchient draggie.

and I seriously think they should do some advertizing started back up to bring in more players. fuel the economy so to speak. maybe a TV commercial, magazine articles, videos, and such. heck! a merchandise chain! I`d love to get a Tshirt, or sculpture of my Istarian character made. But sadly I don`t see this happening. especialy with Virtriums attitude so negative..

[Fyrethorne]

Bring on the Anchors!

Your ideas/ plans for implementing roaming bosses with leutenants sounds Awesome! Bring it on!..........Uh, just don't make it too hard for the lower lvls on Lesser Aradoth. We don't want to discourage new players by making them think the game is too hard. Leutenant Khaar is pretty scarey as he is.

I think Thaalia is right about putting regular festivals back in. Is that very time consuming? If not, the players do like it, and it adds spice to everyday play.

[Ledha]

Well after throughly reading the posting through a bit..

I can say this not that it would help anything really. The only way I think istaira could still be playable and blast and flame me for this but I am speaking logically here. Is if the devs actually either let go of the game which this being thier brand name game is hard but if thier having problems keeping people playing. As well as problems finicailly and if the player base really wants to keep playing.

Then the game might have to be sold to another company. I am speaking form a business stand point on that fact. All honesty the 10% thing can increase and decrease a lot heck I have played mmo's before that where plenty fun but then turned boring.

Myself I rather use istaria as a hang out place to talk with other people and chill out and make friends with.

[Frith-Rae]

FYi Darkwing/Falkor - you can get a tshirt of your character made (though not a model - that would be awesome).

But you can get coffee mugs and tshirts and other little tidbits of any screenie you want in Istaria - check out the cafepress line.

And while I totally agree with ADVERTISING - a tv commercial is way out of our scope here. Articles on MMO sites and youtube videos and other such things are within our means. But anything on TV is most probably right out of the money equation, and I imagine that even color ads in gaming mags are pretty $$$$ compared to where this company is. But there are other, cheaper, avenues we certainly coudl be taking advantage of as the company itself (and not just the fans).

[Malila]

I played this game when it was Horizons from the day it started to the minute they shut the servers down. As I recall, it was down for some time. I liked playing the game and I'm bored with WoW at the moment, so I thought I'd give it a chance and see if anything has changed.

There is no end game content - nothing to keep you playing the game after you reach the top level. Traveling is tedious and takes way too long. Gathering and collecting for crafting is the same. Fighting is also boring. It takes too long to kill something the same level as you are.

But what surprises me is that this company is claiming they "developed" Istaria from Horizons. It is EXACTLY as it was in 2003. There have been little, if any changes, made to the game, except for some spell graphics.

I think that is very sad. This game has huge potential. If the graphics were updated and some end game content added, it could rival any of the MMO's out there today. It just needs programers and developers - not people who say they are developing when they aren't.

I have canceled my subscription after reading this announcement from the Developers Desk. It was disheartening, to say the least.

I hope everyone enjoys the game as it is because it doesn't sound like it will be changed, at all.

Good luck and have fun!

[awdz]

I played this game when it was Horizons from the day it started to the minute they shut the servers down. As I recall, it was down for some time. I liked playing the game and I'm bored with WoW at the moment, so I thought I'd give it a chance and see if anything has changed.

"shut the servers down"? Do you mean the servers merge? Or European servers down? Or perhaps you mean when Blight was down, which meant no game development. I've been playing on the roleplay shard (Spirit, then Order) since early 2004 and do not recall any time it was down longer than a few days.

There is no end game content - nothing to keep you playing the game after you reach the top level. Traveling is tedious and takes way too long. Gathering and collecting for crafting is the same. Fighting is also boring. It takes too long to kill something the same level as you are.

To each their own style and preference.

But what surprises me is that this company is claiming they "developed" Istaria from Horizons. It is EXACTLY as it was in 2003. There have been little, if any changes, made to the game, except for some spell graphics.

I think that is very sad. This game has huge potential. If the graphics were updated and some end game content added, it could rival any of the MMO's out there today. It just needs programers and developers - not people who say they are developing when they aren't.

If you found nothing different, then you either did not explore very much or do not remember how the game was in 2003. There have been some fundamental changes made to the lay of the land, how things are arranged, crafting (confectioner & lairshaping most notable), and new adventure zones added. If it feels the same, the team is to be congratulated on keeping the character of the game so consistent throughout all the changes they made!

I have canceled my subscription after reading this announcement from the Developers Desk. It was disheartening, to say the least.

I hope everyone enjoys the game as it is because it doesn't sound like it will be changed, at all.

Good luck and have fun!

Thank you, I'm sure I will. I hope you enjoy wherever you wind up too.

As far as the posted article goes, I thought it was nice to have some of the developer's perspective on where things are. True, some of it feels kind of pragmatic where we're used to hearing more focus on the positive, but I'm glad to know the devs have a realistic view of the game situation.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of those broken items in game. I'm tickled about the call for stories which might be used in bringing in some of those items... now I need to come up with something! :-)

[Carenath]

Gathering and collecting for crafting is the same. Fighting is also boring. It takes too long to kill something the same level as you are.

I am in strong agreement with this, though it is my personal opinion, and depending on who you ended up befriending, it could be exacerbated by the tendency of the 'old guard' to remain in 'exclusive' cliques that helped themselves and their friends, even to the point of exploiting bugs in the game and keeping those bugs a secret, while telling you not to exploit game bugs to advance quickly.

Now.. for my own thoughts on this: My own experiences with Horizons/Istaria will differ from most everyone else's, because I arrived 'late to the party'.

When I started playing, back in late 2007, the game was largely dead or dying. It's then owners had neglected it, and neglected to fix a glitch in the billing system, giving myself and others the chance to play it for free, not actually realising it was supposed to be a subscription game. I had not even heard of it before 2007 and found it, through a group of people, who latched onto what was arguably this games only good selling point.

I started playing this game because it is the only game, that allows you to play as a dragon, a proper, four-legged, fire-breathing, winged dragon. No other game to my knowledge took the 'anne mcaffrey' approach, of making dragons something other than evil killing machines to be slain.
At first everything was fun, the quests were challanging, even off-putting at times (because I died so easily), but the game was enjoyable.
Being a dragon, my main motivation was to advance to Adult so I could fly, there's a lot of work in terms of quests and getting the right friends to help craft the few items you're not expected to be able to produce yourself, and friends to take down the epic mobs with you (like the Shadow Dragon).
After that point though.. everything fell into nothing but monotonous grinding, either for craft points, adventure points or just hoard. I grew rather bored of this rather quickly.
All of the friends I had in the game, were 100/100 and couldn't hunt with me. At this point.. I started to notice, what I could only describe as, cliquishness, among a number of the players, I left to find something else to do.

In that time though.. I had heard of this and that, about the games history, from friends. Apparently back when the game was in beta, dragons had the full range of schools and were far more capable as a race. Rumours had been flying around that the devs nerfed the dragons to keep the biped players happy. Even to the point when I'd last played the game, a number of elements of the game are difficult to the point of impossible, without teaming up with at least one biped player.
Compared to the bipeds, dragons have piss-poor healing abilities and only Ancients can resurrect other players.
Compared to the bipeds, dragons are capped at 100.

I had heard too, stories about the Primal Vengeance tech that you used to be able to get, if you completed a particular world-event quest, but you're no longer able to.. and again the reason I had been given by a friend, was the unhappiness from the biped playing community about dragons being 'too powerful'.

There was the whole issue of the European server(s). From what I recall, their operation was contracted to a third-party company, and they were consolidated into Unity before that company either ceased operations or the machines were closed down for other reasons I'm unaware of. I do recall the upset and near-outrage from those players losing their characters and assets and the disruption that caused to the community.

The last point, that someone else brought up, is the state of the website and community portal (including these forums). I've heard plenty of stories, about posts being deleted without cause and members censored and silenced for speaking their minds and offering up constructive criticism. I believe one poster already alluded to that much in his first response.

I find myself thus, asking the following questions:

• Why are the dragons, so badly nerfed? Why not give them back all those abilities and schools they've had taken away from them. That alone is a reason I've been given by an number of former players.
• Why take away the ability to acquire an item/tech, but then allow players who possess it already to continue to do so? This only furthers an cliquish aspect, when the the techs in question provide an advantage to that player. Why not make that tech available as a random drop or as an item you can purchase. I joined in 2007, long after that event was closed, I'm no longer able to get it, nor are any of the newer players, how fair is that?
• The European servers. I suppose given the current dwindling player population it would be seen as a Catch-22.. but why not bring back Unity as a European shard and give those players their home back? In fact that's what should have been done from the start IMHO.

The last point I want to make, is not a question, so much as a suggestion in agreement.
The website does look dated, both the ones used to manage your account, and, the one used to manage your characters and plots. I'm sure those could both do with a good revamp to make them look good, and more importantly, make them look right for users who don't use Internet Explorer 6.
While the forum's software, has been updated, (now on 3.8.1), a lot of the community-oriented features that Jelsoft had added to vBulletin have not been enabled:
No MultiQuote.
No SocialGroups
No Personal Galleries
Basically it has the effect of making the forums seem rather serious and corporate, rather than friendly and community.

Im sorry if this all comes off as a rant, I intend it to be good constructive feedback and my own opinion on things. Istaria has the potential still, to be a good game worth playing, particularly if it's unique and strong points are marketed and promoted moreso. Otherwise, I fear, it will be nothing more than a poor-mans EverQuest but with dragons.

[Kulamata]

I find myself thus, asking the following questions:

• Why are the dragons, so badly nerfed? Why not give them back all those abilities and schools they've had taken away from them. That alone is a reason I've been given by an number of former players.
• Why take away the ability to acquire an item/tech, but then allow players who possess it already to continue to do so? This only furthers an cliquish aspect, when the the techs in question provide an advantage to that player. Why not make that tech available as a random drop or as an item you can purchase. I joined in 2007, long after that event was closed, I'm no longer able to get it, nor are any of the newer players, how fair is that?
• The European servers. I suppose given the current dwindling player population it would be seen as a Catch-22.. but why not bring back Unity as a European shard and give those players their home back? In fact that's what should have been done from the start IMHO.

A partial answer to some of your questions. I expect others will add to my thoughts . I played in early beta, and stayed through rating 132; a ranger, with spiritist, cleric, etc. I've certainly posted many suggestions which have never been deleted.
Dragon nerfing. In beta, dragons had the same classes and spells as the bipeds; this was an expedient measure for beta, as the dragon classes were not yet finished. IIRC, by release, the dragon classes, spells, and quests were ingame, as had always been intended. At that time, and for some time thereafter, dragons were overly squishy; their armor was simply inferior. Apparently that was done in a wildly misguided effort to keep dragons from being too popular a class. (Great business strategy; don't give'm what they want.. ) That was corrected, and the truly miserable hoard leakage "feature" was eliminated as well. Nowadays, dragons are comparable to biped classes. (Some biped classes were unfinished and feeble for a long time as well; see Monks and Disciples.)

Old items; a fair point. Worth pointing out, however, is that many of the older items have been nerfed, for just that reason. Some have been attuned, some weakened, and it's expected that the attuned items will continue to leave the game with attrition. Having a Boar's Hide Mask and a Mossy Club (which at one point was rendered totally useless, but was restored to trivial), many older crystals, and this, that, and whatever, I was not happy with the changes; but it was fairer. New items are being introduced; Balit's Friend Ring comes to mind as just one example, tier VI stuff as another.

The European servers. Major contractual and financial problems "over there". One of Virtrium's first acts was to expend quite a bit of precious development time at a most critical period in the new company's life to devise a means of importing the Euro characters. I had the impression that it was done because it was the right thing to do; I doubt that the effort was expected to pay for itself. It was not a trivial task. Alternatively, with the recent player count, finding a European company willing to set up and maintain a server as a labor of love just isn't going to happen.

I do agree with the multi-level hunting xp restrictions. At one time, not long after release, a series of tests were run, and a very "pro-social" xp policy resulted. Later, in response to mass fast leveling, much more restrictive limits were instituted. I would like to see a happier balance struck there, and I think it would make good business sense by improving retention with increased social opportunities and by helping newer players reach the roughly 40 level, where the game "opens up".

Deletions from the forums. During the period that those apparent crooks were "running" the company, the fora were erratically moderated. A very nice and sensible person (disclosure: something of a friend) was caught between posters rightly upset with a LOT of things and a defensive, thuggish "management". Ugly time, ugly folks. Towards the end, any post that could be construed as critical by someone with a thin skin and limited reading and analytic skills was deleted. And under the AE regime, I believe some posts were inappropriately deleted, as a certain defensiveness set in. Not often, but it did happen. However, during that period, many claims of unfair deletions seemed to me to be self-serving huffing and puffing with regard to posts that I thought were appropriately deleted. And I certainly haven't minded Vi's moderation.

I'd suggest taking into account the unusual degree of (effective) dialog with the developers; up there with the industry's best practice. They're limited by few developmental resources; but they try to make best use of what they have by outlining plans, and listening and in some cases changing the plans in response to player feedback. I don't think you can reasonably ask for more.

[Carenath]

Dragon nerfing. In beta, dragons had the same classes and spells as the bipeds; this was an expedient measure for beta, as the dragon classes were not yet finished. IIRC, by release, the dragon classes, spells, and quests were ingame, as had always been intended. At that time, and for some time thereafter, dragons were overly squishy; their armor was simply inferior. Apparently that was done in a wildly misguided effort to keep dragons from being too popular a class. (Great business strategy; don't give'm what they want.. ) That was corrected, and the truly miserable hoard leakage "feature" was eliminated as well. Nowadays, dragons are comparable to biped classes. (Some biped classes were unfinished and feeble for a long time as well; see Monks and Disciples.)

I think you miss what I was getting at, but we'll see. I know a number of friends, who had played the game at the start. They left, because the dragons were made too weak relative to the other classes, and stopped being fun to play for those people. Even the last time I'd played seriously (which was 2 years ago mind you), dragons still topped out at 100, still have mediocre healing/res abilities etc. If they've improved proper since then, all the better.

The European servers. Major contractual and financial problems "over there". One of Virtrium's first acts was to expend quite a bit of precious development time at a most critical period in the new company's life to devise a means of importing the Euro characters. I had the impression that it was done because it was the right thing to do; I doubt that the effort was expected to pay for itself. It was not a trivial task. Alternatively, with the recent player count, finding a European company willing to set up and maintain a server as a labor of love just isn't going to happen.

I believe it would have made more sense, and I'm again speaking personally here, for them to resurrect Unity. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Virtrium pay Limelight Networks so many dollars a month, to rent the servers they use at present. I find it difficult to believe that they would have any problem, finding a competant European datacenter that they could rent a server from under the same conditions.

I do agree with the multi-level hunting xp restrictions. At one time, not long after release, a series of tests were run, and a very "pro-social" xp policy resulted. Later, in response to mass fast leveling, much more restrictive limits were instituted. I would like to see a happier balance struck there, and I think it would make good business sense by improving retention with increased social opportunities and by helping newer players reach the roughly 40 level, where the game "opens up".

To be honest, those restrictions are ineffective and haven't stopped players from 'fast leveling' their friends or themselves. It was often as simple as finding a safe spot near a bunch of 100+ mobs while your L100 friend killed them in group so you got the XP.
A better approach, might be to bridge the level gap, say.. you have your L100 friend but you're only L25.. use a spell.. and for a while, so long as you're within a particular distance of him.. you get bumped up to his level, so you can actually fight the same mobs and actually earn the XP proper rather than leeching. Therefore you gain the social aspect of it, while not gaining an unfair advantage.

I'd suggest taking into account the unusual degree of (effective) dialog with the developers; up there with the industry's best practice. They're limited by few developmental resources; but they try to make best use of what they have by outlining plans, and listening and in some cases changing the plans in response to player feedback. I don't think you can reasonably ask for more.

Actually.. I've got to agree with you here, I'm rather impressed with Virtrium, even though I may have handled some elements differently myself, I can only say this seeing one side of the coin. Truthfully if I were in their position and thus privy to their inside knowledge, my opinions would likely change.
Regardless, my intent here, is simply to provide some feedback from my perspective and hope that it falls on listening ears that will take it on board. I eagerly await others thoughts on what I've said. I need to make time to return to this game.. but my time's limited with full-time work.

[Kesqui]

I believe it would have made more sense, and I'm again speaking personally here, for them to resurrect Unity. I'm going out on a limb here, but I'm guessing Virtrium pay Limelight Networks so many dollars a month, to rent the servers they use at present. I find it difficult to believe that they would have any problem, finding a competant European datacenter that they could rent a server from under the same conditions.

I must admit (being a player in Europe) that I am GLAD the servers have merged to a global server and all of the EU players (From Ice, Wind, Earth, and the merged Unity) can now play on Chaos and Order and Blight with folks from across the pond.

That was the biggest disappointment for me in 2003 when I rolled Kesqui - a great game with player dragons, but all of my friends were in America and *I couldn't play with them*. The EU players from Unity can get their characters imported into the live servers; even if there was an EU-specific server I can say I would NOT play on it.

Edited to add: By release in 2003 dragon spells and quests definitely weren't all in game... ROP wasn't released for several months, Lairshaping wasn't there when I left in 2004 (heck, plots had only just been introduced)... there are LOADS of things that have been added since I left and are great now they've arrived.

I won't lie - I'd like to see more dragon classes. Istaria has exactly one thing that no other game has - player dragons. Make them SO desirable to play (and have the ability to create a dragon that's unique in abilities and skills so that not every dragon is a 100/100/100 cookie-cutter you-can-guess-to-within-40-points-what-they-spent-their-skillpoints-on) that people *will* pay in order to keep playing them.

Let people have:

Pure crafter dragons that do not require ADV levels to gain adulthood (that was my biggest disappointment in 2004 when ROP went live...)
(Subsets might be: Dragon Spellcrafter/scholar "Helian"; Dragon Lairshaper (either-or, prestige school); Dragon Crystalshaper (either-or, prestige school); Dragon Scalecrafter/armorer "Lunus")

Pure adventure dragons that do not require DCRA levels to gain adulthood.
(Subsets might be: Dragon Primalist "Helian" - and make this a viable path from level 1, for a solo player; Dragon Warrior "Lunus" which is very much viable; Dragon Healer "Helian Prestige" with improved healing/resurrection abilities, Dragon Protector "Helian Prestige" with improved area-of-effect spells, debuffs for mobs and buffs for biped party members; Dragon Knight "Lunus Prestige" with improved DoT armour abilities and bleed effects, and so on )

... but that's pie in the sky.

[LOVWYRM]

I said it before and I do not mean to be rude:
Dragons are more powerful than ever. Pls outmax your drag,give much love to your tp, play all quests, get all spells, abilities, techs and see that you have scalesets for special challenges.
Making drags stronger- without new challanges, would disturb game- balance.
If I can fight the most hard hitting mobs, make much damage AND can heal my friends or even rezz- all in the same fight- well- I do not ask for more.

And I do not see one good reason why there should be an EU shard.
Me and all of my friends from Unity (ice/earth/wind)-
we are very happy to play with our friends all over the world.

[Kesqui]

Making drags stronger- without new challanges, would disturb game- balance.

With the low number of players, I'm not sure "game balance" is really that major of a concern. TBH, so what if dragons are tough? They're DRAGONS!

As I said, I'd love to see more dragon classes so that dragons become more appealing for *new* players (especially the ones who think crafting is boring or hate having to fight) - not just more appealing but irresistible. It's the one thing that Istaria's got and nobody else does - so give that one thing all the bells and whistles, and if that tips the balance a bit so that dragons are THE class to play... well, dragons are also not free-to-play-forever

I still wonder where Lliu, RoseheartXX and many of the other hatchlings that were "growing up" at the same time as Kaskavael and Atrinoch were have gone.... because they only stayed around for a couple of weeks. Atrinoch stayed as long as he did because *I* did his craft grinding for him and his crafting quests. Atrinoch says "I want to be a warrior fighting the undead legions. Why does that mean I have to take up crochet in order to survive and grow?"

I would dearly love it if NacMac can manage to *survive* as a strict Helian spellcaster/crafter (TP in Evasion, Primal, Power, Focus ONLY) ... but I doubt it, especially since the low numbers of in-game players do mean that he's not going to be able to stand back and cast spells at mobs that are attacking his buddy-who's-a-tank. It'll certainly be interesting to find out; he'll need some interesting tactics to survive as a *solo* spellcaster.

I don't want to leave the game (despite having Kesqui at the equivalent of "end game") because Istaria does offer that ONE thing nobody else has. It'd just be nice if that ONE thing - player dragons - was expanded with new classes and specialisations so that not every dragon is going to be mechanically the same with a different paint job.

[LOVWYRM]

(btw Kesqui- I did not answer to your post- sry I did not say so
to prevent further derailing, I shall answer you ingame asap )