I'm really worried that Istaria will fall apart.

[Knossos]

Velea and StalePopcorn:

If we are rebuilding shard public player plots that are of shard crafter interest and which give bonus to allow shard crafters to rebuild non player construction, there are simply not enough players available to meet such an additional non player construction building challenge - and Order Shard has been till now the Shard which completes imperial projects first. So player plot infrastructure when the plots are public service ones is what has made such imperial project construction practical on Order Shard at least. The rebuilding of destruction of Imperial structures would be manageable after we get a suitable base of construction crafters and a supporting infrastructure to allow such new content to be other than self defeating to player base growth.

Knossos

[starlight]

hah autoreclaim the ultimate mob against plots? :P but meh aegsis break non player made plots is one thing but are ya able to keep them from doing that cause t6 building is a bloody PITA 2 redo all together

[Tcei]

Im all for the idea of the WA going after and destroying world objects/buildings, heck even just raiding a town or three <not destroying buildings> would be nice to see again. Tho I can sympathise with crafters on Order that it may need a bit (on the world crafing thing) since most focus is being put in to building up lost plots.

It'd be nice for the world to have a dynamic feel to it again.

[StalePopcorn]

Velea and StalePopcorn:

If we are rebuilding shard public player plots that are of shard crafter interest and which give bonus to allow shard crafters to rebuild non player construction, there are simply not enough players available to meet such an additional non player construction building challenge - and Order Shard has been till now the Shard which completes imperial projects first. So player plot infrastructure when the plots are public service ones is what has made such imperial project construction practical on Order Shard at least. The rebuilding of destruction of Imperial structures would be manageable after we get a suitable base of construction crafters and a supporting infrastructure to allow such new content to be other than self defeating to player base growth.

Knossos

Errrrr... I'm not sure I understand what you mean... are you saying that people on the Order shard would find it counter-productive to build/rebuild Imperial buildings? Or that they would only rebuild crafting stations? Or that there aren't enough players to rebuild on Order?

Building the Novo machine et al were major shard achievements and gave a great sense of purpose to crafters and adventurers. It would be great to be able to reimplement shard events like that. Here's an example - lets say the WA have erected a "Tower of Blight" that is higher than any Draggon can fly. The only way to knock it down is with a new invention, a might Gnomian catapult, that must be built near it. The problem is, of course, the WA have found out about the plan. Queue WA attacking and damaging the catapult, unless it is protected.

Sorry, had a late night, apologies for not understanding!

[Kulamata]

I do agree with Knossos.

Raids that destroy real property is an idea that has surfaced and been rejected ever since beta. With good reason.

The raids were fun, even if non-destructive; they could be minimal; Avatar of Pain and a few friends harrass Harro... or major...Titus the Werewolf with a severe glandular problem and a lot of friends walloped Bristugo... or other special mobs like the huge invasion of Harro (many medical type blighters iirc, and the old complex construction site model... seconds per frame!) or the Ebon knights. Perhaps they're resurrectable; many players have never seen them, and the old timers might be glad to see them again for old time's sake and sweet sweet revenge.

An event like the Gnomian tower would be great, but whether it fits into future plans and whether resources allow??

[Knossos]

Errrrr... I'm not sure I understand what you mean... are you saying that people on the Order shard would find it counter-productive to build/rebuild Imperial buildings? Or that they would only rebuild crafting stations? Or that there aren't enough players to rebuild on Order?

Building the Novo machine et al were major shard achievements and gave a great sense of purpose to crafters and adventurers. It would be great to be able to reimplement shard events like that. Here's an example - lets say the WA have erected a "Tower of Blight" that is higher than any Draggon can fly. The only way to knock it down is with a new invention, a might Gnomian catapult, that must be built near it. The problem is, of course, the WA have found out about the plan. Queue WA attacking and damaging the catapult, unless it is protected.

Sorry, had a late night, apologies for not understanding!

I meant that Order Shard Crafters have suffered a major loss of infrastructure and our crafters are currently saturated in restoring that infrastructure (and entry level crafters are more focused on player paid constructioon - so that these entry level crafters can earn coin for plot purchase). As a result there is little current activity in construction of the Imperial wall in the Augendell Battlefield on Order Shard as participation would at best pay only experience for lower level crafters, and would do nothing to restore the player crafting support infrastructure.

At the time of the Novo Project we had far greater shard populations, as we did for the construction of the Cenotaphs and the Imperial Outposts.

Any substantial new content of Imperial Construction for whatever purpose will at this time not be rapidly addressed on Order Shard.

Events which are non-destructive to Imperial structures would not be of concern to Order Shard Crafters, and a "break" to Adventure activity in such non-destructive events would doubtless be most welcomed.

Knossos

[awdz]

I think such raids would be incredibly fun, but only in moderation, say one every 2 months or so. It is always exciting to be part of a moderator-run shard invasion even with the inevitable lag. And while Order shard crafters are indeed overworked at the moment, in a couple of months I'm sure folks'll be looking for something more.

(Caveat: I assume the destruction would be of structures not owned by players unless prior consent was obtained.)

[Tcei]

(Caveat: I assume the destruction would be of structures not owned by players unless prior consent was obtained.)

Aye, they've already stated they would not destroy things on player owned plots, but things such as the Augh wall or the various bridges to places, ect.

[velveeta]

i am all for invasions that do not damage player property.
last one that i remember was the assualt on last stand, which mw had a very very small part in when he was young......
it was awesome and a lot of hectic fun!!!

[Phillip]

Mia’s Edge under siege by the forces of Blight. The undead army marching through, spreading themselves along the plots, armed and ready for the Gifted. Six undead took their station by a lucrative plot.

“Woot! muhaha”
“eastern dires undead rulez!1”
“yea babey!!”
“Zymosis morbidea!!”
“Rah!!”
“Jim, you spelled that wrong”
“haha”
“don’t mind him. he turned undead before the fifth grade”
“lol”
“Hey did you see that TV show Are you as smart as a zombie?..”
“Hey hey!! We on RP server, can’t say ‘TV’”
“oops hehe”
“lol”
“so what now?”
“we wait. They come. We kill”
“wootz”
“rah”

2 hours later…

“been a while”
“yeah”
“where the hell are the gifted?! Dang I’m missing Istarian Idol”
“thought I saw one ran by earlier but false alarm..just some zombie from the ghetto.”
“weird…the zombie infantry division haven’t been dispatched. Wtf.”
“what other divisions do they have?”
“navy?”
“lool”
“LOL”
“roflmao”

3 hours later…

“man this sux”
“yeah. Hey let’s go get food, that zombie earlier was pulling cargo, maybe supplies.”
“what?”
“John you idiot, that wasn’t a zombie! It’s a gifted. They act like zombies, pull cargo disk and go afk a lot.”
“Dang”

2 days later…
“boring…”
“Zzz..”
“hey let’s trash this place”
“no no no. don’t even talk like that.”
“why?”
“would you want it trash if it’s your house? You know how hard it is to build one of these? Crafting takes a lot”
“amen to that”
“be glad we could invade at all. Last time we did they banned us for 3 years.”
“for?”
“Crafters couldn’t build, so they invasion got canned”
“ya all we could do is hang by the dires and act tough”
“3 years dang. So what do we do?”
“we wait. Plus we don’t wanna trash Sonea’s place. She cool.”
“hot”
“<3”
“got her on my screensaver lol”
“woot”

[StalePopcorn]

rofl - things are tough all over Istaria I see!

[AamerKhan]

Ok ok...

First off I'm NOT suggesting that they destroy any player built structures.

I AM suggesting that they go into, say.. Harro, and destroy the walls and the empire built crafting stations in town.

Or perhaps go into Bristugo and start attacking portals.

Then, it would be up to us to defend the portals. If successful, nothing bad happens and the portals are intact. If we DON"T defend, then next patch day, restore the portals and realize we still don't have the population yet that will band together to defend them.

However, I believe, ( perhaps I am overly optimistic here ) that with all the high lvl multi-classed players, we will make quick work of the invaders.

This by itself will liven the game without causing any real damage to anything the players have done.

Remember, many of us have been here off and on for well over 6 years. I think it is high time to make HZ more dynamic and thus give those working hard to build interest in this game, a really exciting feature to advertize!

[Hrough]

I think attacks against Imperial structures would definitely be interesting, so long as they are reasonable! It wouldn't make sense to have an attack on something like New Trismus, but destruction of specific town shrines/portals or bridges... or other things that were once world projects would definitely be interesting.

Both the crafters and the adventurers would have something to do - protect the land, and rebuild what was lost.

I don't think much would be lost, really. The players tend to make short work of invading mobs. Perhaps it would be possible for partial destruction of an item to happen? Where you go into the build screen and say 25% of the resources are already there, so you just need to finish it?

[Phillip]

As to the rest of it, I believe he's complaining about how Istaria is a craft centric game, and that most good gear is made by crafters. Tho if Im not mistaken this is by design and been that way since very nearly the beginning.

I don't mind Istaria is a craftcentric game at all. I don't mind gear made by crafters. I do mind when/if people think Istaria is craftcentric as the basis of the game itself. The game got this way because development catered to that system of belief. You are the 1% that's still here. There is nothing to be proud of. The need to recognize why the other 99% have left should take precedence. You can point the crafting banner at me and I'll point to a city where there are more NPCs than crafters.

I have never been an advocate to delegitimize crafted gear. I have often been an advocate of making a non-static loot system with drops that will enhance crafted gear as the means to help adventure growth. It would be nice to development to for once get this right. The nerfing/development trend tells me there's I'd have a better chance of scoring Megan Fox.

This game was touted with multiclassing, multicrafting, plots, dragons, and a persistant and dynamic war. Not just crafting. We used to have 12 servers with thousands of people on each night. We now only got 2 servers with so few playing. You are all that's left and loving it. Do the math.

[Phillip]

The short term is things like you mention, that were designed to be transient at best. As new items were put in, old items were phased out and became useless... on purpose. Look at the cryatals and weapons of today compared to say west dead crystals or regal weapons and you will understand what I mean.

Almost but not quite. I'll explain, but first, know that the jewelry I posted had one thing going for it: the DOT on the wearer every 5 seconds, permanently - nothing else - no duration - no penalties - no nothing. They changed the DOT timer, added a duration and ridiculous penalty.

DOT = damage over time, 10-15 points in this case.

This jewelry was used to counter mezzers. These were extremely rare drops. Years ago it took my group over 2 weeks to get one for each. We killed thousands upon thousands of mobs for no other purpose. Tens of hours it took us.

If they were to give us better jewelry counter mezz, then there's no need to nerf the these. Logical, isn't it? Unless the new aren't nearly as good.

Now, some of you with depth will ask: what's the big deal? Mezz break when the mob hits ya anyway. You are correct. This jewelry is not that useful vs mobs.

But they are absolutely grand in the PvP arena.

Note: I'm not an advocate for PvP, in fact I hate it.

I did heed the calls back in the days vs quite a few mage types, these jewelry were their demise.

So why nerf these jewelry if this is a PvE game? I can only think of these:

1) Devs were about the add a different type mezzer into the game and didn't want people to benefit from their efforts of getting these jewelry, it is not right.

2) PvP is coming, and these jewelry would make non-casters too powerful. Those who sought and found these jewelry should be penalized for the sake of balance.

3) The company hired some interns. Since nerfing is common practice, it's a great place to start training.

[AamerKhan]

humm...

After 6 years some things just don't change.

I hope they will do what I suggested. Perhaps it won't mean a thing, but I would bet you, that those who DO play the game will have a blast, and in turn talk to others and who will join in and have a blast as well.

Honestly, what possible down side could there be after all this time?

[lightning claw]

Finally ! some one who craves the raids of old !


100 % agree random attacks would most defiantly spice things up a bit heck hachlings grow up not fearing the blight . i remember when i was a hachie * ENTER FLASH BACK * it was a hot summer day and i wanted to tackle some small grass beatles just before i ported i heard an ancient saying to stay away from that port the blight are larking around that area i was young and nieave thinking they would not hurt a cute little dragie like me so i ignored that warning


i ported in and befor the load screen finished i was dead and i always ran the other way till i was able to hunt them that is <.<


*/Flash back off *

Moral of that story devs hachlings now a days do not know the fear of the blight they think there there to chew on for amusement and not a most feared enemy .


they need to start suturing up trouble and attacking again we have entered there realm where is there counter attack ?

[avguste]

If I may add my 2 cents.

In the few days that I have been playing Istaria, I agree that it is a game with great potential and lots of fun for players who like sandbox MMOs and MMOs in general.
However I also think that two items the devs should work in priority are a new engine and implement guild wars,conquests of territory and such.
I understand and I agree that gameplay is very important,however for Istaria to grow its playerbase, the devs should implement features which rival new games(Aion, Alganon and such). I am not saying to copy what those games do,however Istaria should have features that rival new games and make a player think "yes,all the features are exciting.Have to try it"

But lets not forget something else.Even if the devs add new features/new engine, at the end of the day, it is also up to the community to promote the game

[Veruliyam]

Nnnnn-no. No guild wars.

If people want guild wars, go play Guild Wars.

This game has the players against the Aegis, not each other.

Or, go to the top of the Spire and go to an arena.

[LOVWYRM]

Lets not forget, that Istaria still has a lot of features other, rival games, DO NOT have- and that you can`t have it all.
And be sure that VI watches the market and that they do what is possible to do- for the engine and for the staff and with the given monetary resourcces.
I say this not because I am a fan girl. I often disagree with decisions VI makes and I speak up then. If a decision is explained to me I can live with it most of the time. But not all decisions can`t be explained- for a several reasons- we simply have to live with that- make our own thoughts about it.

- E.g.: Phillip, in my eyes mezzes are the strongest weapon against uber-peds and uber -drags (if are there such^^?)- we go for the queen- but I never met someone who went to kill a bunch of carrion crawlers^^. And even the low tier mobs in WD should not be underestimated because of their mezzing colleagues
Maybe that was reason for nerfing the jewellry.

- Too much disc huggers in Istaria? I disagree!! Our craft- system is way the best on he market! No other game can compare. And if we have more crafters than adventurers-its not the prob of the crafters- they do a great job- be it building walls, restoring whiped plots and the important machines, planting trees, making armor, weapons, food, potions and and and.. Hail to our crafters!!!

Our problem is that we have (much) too few fighters (speaking of order)!!
We hardly get a group for hunting bosses, the queen, or ARoP aso.
How could we survive an attack by WA (on order)??
The thing I loved most in Istaria were our cities been attacked by WA- and I would give pieces of my hoard to have it back!
But pls consider the situation on order.

Back to the topic
What we have to find out is:
Why do veteran players leave?
Why don`t new players stay?
Which is the best target group for our game (on the base of the features we already have)
and how /where can we intoduce our game to them?