Istaria's future: proactive or reactive?

[AmonGwareth]

Thank you Velvetta.

In the mold of what has been deemed expansion in the MMO world, this is very modest. When someone throws that title around, I expect more then we are likely to see.

I'm very excited to see what they have, but I also realize that we'll probably chew this new content up very quickly.

What I am hoping is that they are releasing this with the ablity to quickly add more such content in the future. That they are looking at this as a test bed to see how well they designed the dungeon and how the players exploit the content. Yes, exploit. I also hope they built in the ablity to easily tune the content.

Rayth, we are very glad that you are here playing Istaria Online and enjoying it. But I have to be blunt... If you are looking for an expansion the size of one that a game with 100,000 or more subscriptions releases, then you are going to be forever disappointed in Istaria Online.

I'm sorry I have to put it that way, but its the truth. We're all very committed to this game and we want to release as much new content as we can, but a small team of people (some of whom are part-time) cannot compete with full-time teams of 20 or 30 or more.

[RuneDragoon]

Rayth, we are very glad that you are here playing Istaria Online and enjoying it. But I have to be blunt... If you are looking for an expansion the size of one that a game with 100,000 or more subscriptions releases, then you are going to be forever disappointed in Istaria Online.

I'm sorry I have to put it that way, but its the truth. We're all very committed to this game and we want to release as much new content as we can, but a small team of people (some of whom are part-time) cannot compete with full-time teams of 20 or 30 or more.

And game developers cannot wave a magic wand and poof, content. A lot of it is often blood, sweat, tears, and an insane amount of time invested to make it all come together.

[Dragonboy]

Where can i read about that "expansion" I have tryed seach the forum, but nothing about it came up


Rougee

Not much is known about the blighted labyrinth apart from the fact that it is a high end dungeon like enviroment, also we have only been allowed to see some sneak peaks about the blighted Labyrinth. but so far no real time when it will go live.

Even if a large flow of new people will come to this game, it will take a long time before they are ready to actually enter this new place.

[Vahrokh]

First of all, excuse me for the delay in replying, I am a small developer myself, currently litigating with atomic multi-database update issues on a strict deadline project.

I don't think some people really got the meaning of my first post, expecially Takora.

I did not really ask "what" is boiling in the soup and to be frankly honest I don't care to know we will get 3 new confectioneer recipes or 2 Kwellen cousins.

It is more of an: "now you, Virtrium, have valliantly defeated the odds (an epic feat, worth an easter egg somewhere in the game ;P ).

You steered and fixed the drifting, sinking ship, you managed to put your hands on the client executable and managed to begin an ambitious dungeoun to bring Istaria more in line with current age MMOs".


What happens once the new changes are finalized and well?
Is the *Virtrium approach* going to focus on visibly expanding the player base, so to start a virtuous process that brings more income for quicker and quicker changes?

Of course you are not going to expand about mid or long term company strategies but don't you feel Istaria suffered a years long injustice (due to the known myriad of causes) to its potential and never "took off"?
Is Istaria going to take a revenge on this undeserved situation?

I mean, the world of bored gamers deluded by the current opaque, photocopy crop of omologated MMOs has to know there's something of old that still has so much to say. That has features no one else even tried to implement.

Sometimes I think your players believe in you Virtrium more than you do yourselves.

I don't know about you, but if I Istaria had been my "son" product I could not sleep at the night for the excitement of knowing so much *new and never seen before* has been done with so little resources. Imho this game deserves to come back to mainstream (hence my question about graphics revamp) and to prove its worth, not just to "survive the times".

This was exactly the meaning of my "reactive or proactive" original question.

[LOVWYRM]

2c:
Istaria has something, that I´ve experienced in no other game- nor did my friends: There is always a reason to log in (or pay for subs even if we take a break).
Our chars may be outmaxed, our lairs and plots are build, we know the world like our wallet, and the bosses know our names- but we still log in, pay our subs- and still have fun.
Cause- for the most of us- there is always something to do- besides new content, crafting or levelling.
This is something that should not be underestimated.
This is in my eyes-playerbase.
We are enthusiastic about little changes and fixes - and we are patient when it come to bigger projects. We always were

No doubt- we need new, "main stream" content, new players, modern engine.
But step by step- and not at all costs. Especially not in times of world wide economic crisis.

Knowing that we shall never be able, or want to compete against WoW:
When the last quest is done, the last raid finnished-
the game hoppers will leave again-
the (hopefully increasing) playerbase stays.

[Rayth]

Rayth, we are very glad that you are here playing Istaria Online and enjoying it. But I have to be blunt... If you are looking for an expansion the size of one that a game with 100,000 or more subscriptions releases, then you are going to be forever disappointed in Istaria Online.

I'm sorry I have to put it that way, but its the truth. We're all very committed to this game and we want to release as much new content as we can, but a small team of people (some of whom are part-time) cannot compete with full-time teams of 20 or 30 or more.

Nope, I wasn't. Actually I never said that, or even hinted at that. It's simply people seemingly believing that because I don't consider the content being added being worthy of the title of "expansion" I am somehow belittling what I would consider more of a content update. People are very defensive of this game on the developers, which is good. However, there is no reason to be defensive, I am one of the biggest fan of this game. Just because you don't agree with something doesn't mean you are complaining. I've been waiting for this update since year two.

You might want to look more at the questions I had later on in regards to being able to tune (for maximum longevity and fun) and replicate this effort so that maybe it doesn't have to take six+ months to produce new end-game content. I am sure there will be a lot of lessons learned as well.

I will continue to post my requests on improvements as they are what I would like to see to continue to keep me playing. Which doesn't really sync up with where your improvements seem to be focused. I am probably not your core player, as most of the requests I have not received responses from the community nor the developers. Meaning it's not something the rest of the community is looking for.

I would love to see improvements in the unitframes and group interface, as well as mob AI improvements. Deth mentioned interface changes, however I would be surprised if the changes I would be looking for would be included.

[Deth]

Most likely not as they are skin replacement. Out of interest would would you liek to see interface wise. To me it does quite a bit already. I would be interested in hearing what other changes your looking for as I have not seen them suggested I think and I always like seeing peoples suggestions, even if I do not agree with all of them.

[Rayth]

Just so you know if they roll out the new client with the "expansion" There will be interface changes, the ability to pick from 4 different interface mods built into the system, Crafting "revamps", New items to craft are being added, adventure class "revamps", New techs for bipeds and dragons are being added(which could be said to fall under craft I think it could fall under both my self), new spells are being added. New types of quest are being added. New types of monster abilities are being added, new monsters are being added. I think they say the dungeon is at least as big as the Sleepers Void, which is pretty big, I think it is suppose to be even bigger but not completely sure.

So as you see it's not just a dungeon and a quest hub.

Let me phrase this another way, where is the annoucement that the BL is part of an expansion? Where is the announcement of high level features included within said expansion?

[Mairynn Nalnair]

Let me phrase this another way, where is the annoucement that the BL is part of an expansion? Where is the announcement of high level features included within said expansion?

On the forum if you care to look

[LOVWYRM]

Announcememts will be made, when things are rdy.
This is the way its handled here.
This is early enough.

And read the forum..

[Deth]

Yea they have not said anything official like. Just dropped hints and things. Us Heralds have seen a little more crunch then others have seen but that is not all that much.

Due to pass issues with giving out to much info and then being grilled when it could not be done, the current owners are going the other way. they are on the other side of the road and giving too little info to be safe. Which short term sucks for use but long term is good for us and great for them.

[Rayth]

On the forum if you care to look

Refer back to Deth's post on the content (which I quoted) and look at his response further down. Read the annouced information on these forums, as well as other areas of information, like the Wiki.

Then come back and edit your response.

[Rayth]

Announcememts will be made, when things are rdy.
This is the way its handled here.
This is early enough.

And read the forum..

I have been reading the forum. I got the response I was looking for from Deth.

Your response, I already knew. "This is early enough" is a product of your opinion and not one that everyone shares.

What I don't want is details(BL and beyond), what I would like is high level direction and vision. What type of changes would they "like" to make to the adventuring and classes. Are they going to leave Mob AI alone. What is the goal for content updates, for example more dungeons. What other type of end game content would they like to look at. Their opinions on the existing loot. In other words, "what do we want to be when we grow up".

As the OP hinted to, I don't care what new techs are coming out, if we get a new uber cargo disk, or when we are going to raise the level cap.

What I would like to know is if this game is going in a direction that appeals to me. Otherwise I am being strung along in the hopes that they consider something I want worth looking at. I am paying money right now, in good faith, that will eventually become a game that I will enjoy playing for years to come.

[Takora Drakan]

You may have noticed that the devs don't make so much promises anymore like in the long gone past, because that gets the hopes of the players uneeded up and they are then dissapointed when thing x or y doesn't make it in the game.

When the devs have something accomplished that is worth sharing with us players, they will show us, but don't press all the time that you want this and that and right now. It doesn't work like that in real life and also here. They gave us already much design previews and every month a dev letter. I rather have the devs working on the stuff than posting all the time on the forums that they could spend programming the stuff.

It is done when it is done, and it will blow your face off when you see it, because it will be awesome like that.

A tip for you and all, don't get too exited about something, if you expect too much you will just be sad in the end. Expect nothing and you will be like omgwtfhowcoolistat!!111one1!!!

[Rayth]

Yea they have not said anything official like. Just dropped hints and things. Us Heralds have seen a little more crunch then others have seen but that is not all that much.

Due to pass issues with giving out to much info and then being grilled when it could not be done, the current owners are going the other way. they are on the other side of the road and giving too little info to be safe. Which short term sucks for use but long term is good for us and great for them.

Fair enough, do you know if they are putting this through a beta (closed or otherwise) with some of the existing player base?

[Takora Drakan]

Blight is the test server, and blight gets all of the content first and everyone can test it.

[velveeta]

sorry if we (meaning the elder players) sound like we are giving you a hard time. we have been thru a lot together and we tend to speak shortly because we (again meaning the elder players) have heard everything each other has to say over the years.......i apologise if i seemed argumentative, that is not my intention and i am sure it is not the intention of most of the elder players.


i don't know if you know the history of the past 4 years, ray - but i assure you, as someone who lived thru it, it was not pretty, not at all.
i came in for the tulga days, and i am content to state and to know that virtium is the best company to have muddied the waters of istaria. the evil company that shall not be named (mostly because it kept changing and i don't know what it was anyway.... ) beat horizons into a coma and then took it off life support, but a small but loving trauma team rushed in and brought it back to critical but stable........

so that is what most of us (elder players, of course) are paying for - the hopes that the trauma team can make all the needed improvements and bring this patient back to full recovery. the trauma team is small and underequipped, but committed to the patient's wellbeing - and that can be all you need, if you don't care about time........

enough medical analogies - allow me the courtesy of treating you like an elder player, ray, and sound a bit harsh, perhaps......
you need to play horizons for what it is now, not what it can or will or should be. if what is happening now is enough, then whatever the gods have in plan for the future will either be something great or something that makes the game no longer fun for you.
it would be better for you to save your money in hopes of something kewl happening in the future than come to resent the game for not being what you want it to be.

what lov meant is that this team, unlike some in the past, feels it is better to wait until they are ready to release content before going into detail about it, rather than make promises that they are unable to deliever on later.......

[Rayth]

You may have noticed that the devs don't make so much promises anymore like in the long gone past, because that gets the hopes of the players uneeded up and they are then dissapointed when thing x or y doesn't make it in the game.

When the devs have something accomplished that is worth sharing with us players, they will show us, but don't press all the time that you want this and that and right now. It doesn't work like that in real life and also here. They gave us already much design previews and every month a dev letter. I rather have the devs working on the stuff than posting all the time on the forums that they could spend programming the stuff.

It is done when it is done, and it will blow your face off when you see it, because it will be awesome like that.

A tip for you and all, don't get too exited about something, if you expect too much you will just be sad in the end. Expect nothing and you will be like omgwtfhowcoolistat!!111one1!!!

You know as I am the one spearheading most of this converstation now, I am going to assume some, most, or all of this, was directed at me. Much like a couple of others here.

You may not understand the reason I asked what I did. What it wasn't was an attempt to get Istaria to announce what was being released with BL. Deth's response was exactly what I was looking for.

If any of that quote was directed towards me, rest assured I am quite aware of how things work around here. I am posting this response, in the hopes that I don't get another 5 or 6 helpful people posting the same type of thing.

I have played this game from day one, so I am quite aware of all the history. So if you, or others, what to respond to me, please try and keep the history lessons out of it.

[Rayth]

Blight is the test server, and blight gets all of the content first and everyone can test it.

Yep, I know that quite well. And that would not be a beta.

[Takora Drakan]

Beta is something for a game that is not released, and Istaria is as far as I know. If you want to "betatest content" hop on blight and have fun.

Most mmos have a test shard to "beta" things, even wow had put the expansion on a test server where people could test it. But well we don't say "you can beta and you can not" all can beta if they want.

(and please no wow argument now)

Excuse me, I go actually back playing the game.