I'm really worried that Istaria will fall apart.

[velveeta]

heehee i hope the latter if they really are that worried, don't you agree?


altho according to the profile page, narrah hasn't been in forums since the 14th.....

[Balthizar]

I was suprized to see my name spoken by someone here hehe.

But ya I been waiting to see how long till HZ kicks it. But its like some kind of freakie bug that just can not die no matter how many times you step on it.

I love/hate the game myself. Strong emotions. I dont realy know how or why this game has made it this far.

I always fig the code in the game must be masking some kind of top secet goverment database or something.

[Veruliyam]

No, it's just the unseen subliminal messages flickering unseen between refresh rates...

>.>

[Sigi]

No, it's just the unseen subliminal messages flickering unseen between refresh rates...

>.>

Aha, of course, why didn't I thought of that before... makes perfectly sense

[velveeta]

and may they continue to flicker for the millions and millions of years!!! no intervention for me, ever!

[Phillip]

HZ is living off multiclassing. If the players couldn't do that I'm sure few would still be here. Dragons & plots alone won't do. Imagine if you are limited to one adventuring or crafting school? Imagine if you have to log in a different toon for each different type of component/resource needed to build on a plot or to make an item?

Well, living...poorly. Borderline welfare maybe. It shouldn't be this way though.

The basis of this multiclassing/multi-crafting design is beyond rare in the mmo market. Add to that plots and dragons. It's actually something a many folks in the market wants. Go to mmorpg.com and read the forums.

So, where are these people? Why so few playing? The reason is painfully simple: the culture of development for this game is and have always been its biggest hinderance. Istaria is an awesome concept without any real understanding or application to make it great.

[awdz]

So, where are these people? Why so few playing? The reason is painfully simple: the culture of development for this game is and have always been its biggest hinderance. Istaria is an awesome concept without any real understanding or application to make it great.

Exactly how would you recommend it be developed? Would your recommendations be more fitting on a new server rather than added to the game shards as they exist now (e.g., PVP)?

[Milandra]

Exactly how would you recommend it be developed? Would your recommendations be more fitting on a new server rather than added to the game shards as they exist now (e.g., PVP)?

What about getting the game translated ?
Also working on a new engine ?

Gameplay, for sure is very important otherwise there's no pleasure.
Istaria has always been great to me on this part.
But I deeply regret that nothing gets done concerning the engine.

I'm not talking of the current engine
Great work has been done for getting the game "Vista and Seven Ready".
I'm sure that everybody knows what I mean....

[AamerKhan]

I am NOT worried that HZ will fall apart.

The reasons I feel this way may not be what you expect to hear from a player that took a 2 year break. When I left, I felt that EI had run the game into the ground. And although the new owners were folks that had a special interest and were much more invested than most previous owners, they didn't seem very responsive.

But...

After they made HZ vista able, put in area revamps and content like the new dungeon, I realized that I had not cut the new development team ANY slack and that I was just being whiny.

So I decided to try again. And you know what? I am very pleased with what I see. For a high level player there is a ton of new things to do, and with ALL the t6 resources in game now, lots to craft as well.

Is everything perfect? Naw.
Is the newbie experience really as hard as some claim? Naw.
Could the game be improved even with it's current engine? YEP!

The things that were important back in the day, that kept us playing and telling all our friends about it was NOT what makes games like wow succeed.

What we all enjoyed was world building. Feeling that we were making a mark in the world of Istaria. Now you bring back things to build in the wilds, with the need to defend the builders from attacking mobs, with a purpose to the building, and this game could last the next 20 years.

[Phillip]

This culture of development. It's common practice for years.

After some dialogue in MarketPlace, shows that most Istarians don't really care. None cares if it doesn't affect them.

To answer the OP: Narrah, Istaria fell apart...No, Istaria was lost - long ago. Most of what's left are zombies, enslaved by their cargo disks.

The Blight have won.

[Ahael]

Huh... what, how? Do I get this right Phillip?

I'm not a zombie for certain, and not enslaved by my disc. I was lost in the empty Void between realms once. But I was rescued and resurrected, and now a living resident of the Chaos realm.

[Tcei]

Judging from what little attention I paid to his complaints in MP, these items he shows once had an ability to remove mezes and/or were able to do it quickly and frequently. The Devs decided to nerf this sometime ago. As its an old nerf noone was really all that bothered aside him.

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.

[Phillip]

It's less about the nerf (unwarranted), or how many times it's been nerfed (twice), or how many nerfs there were on other things (lots). It's the fact that someone could actually sit down and put those numbers in. Why those numbers? Them things are now beyond useless. It takes a special level of [edit] to do.

You guys can be optimistic all day long, you still can't get away from the fact that what towns are all empty and so few people playing. It wasn't like this the last time I came by year and a half go, and even then there were few.

I don't mind crafted stuff at all. Though it would be nice to up the essentials of the adventuring kind. Two months ago I got 8 friends to try this game. Love Plots, good crafting, multiclass a big plus, adventuring in their words "painfull & dull". They lasted 2 weeks.

That's on the noob end. At the top we get nerfs beyond any kind understanding. It isn't a wonder the towns are empty.

[Hrough]

Really? I've seen more players since I joined close to two years ago, since I started my new hatchling.

The nerfs aren't that big a deal, they're working on balancing things more. What I do agree is that the adventuring aspect of the game is really dull right now, and the low amount of players doesn't help that any. It's most fun to hunt in a party but it's hard to try and get a party together.

A lot of this problem is caused by the wide open spaces in the game, which are lovely to look at but terrible when you're searching for a mob and you didn't have the foresight to check the forums and get the map pack. I was halfway to an adult before I realized I could get this magical thing and it would tell me where to look for mobs.

[AamerKhan]

I believe you have a short term viewpoint for a long term game.

To explain, this game was and is dependent upon new world building events that are regularly put in to keep the game rolling. That was indeed lost when development stopped even back with DB.

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.

The Long term of it was all the things to build, that we unfortunately, have completed. With the high level of all crafters here we can complete anything put in new in a matter of days.

If we had the Aeigis rampage through the land destroying bridges and crafting stations regularly, this game would rise like a phoenix.

DEVS... Please have Fafnir or the Queen go on a grand tour, destroy many things, and see if things don't liven up a lot

[Velea]

If we had the Aeigis rampage through the land destroying bridges and crafting stations regularly, this game would rise like a phoenix.

DEVS... Please have Fafnir or the Queen go on a grand tour, destroy many things, and see if things don't liven up a lot

This is something I've thought about doing off and on for quite some time, actually. There are many potential storylines, and a great deal of under-utilized tech that could make this happen. I will be honest and say that my concern in having the Aegis actually invade and destroy parts of the world is that more people will be pissed off than will be motivated to "fight back" against the Aegis.

Personally I would love to see the battle against the Aegis "liven up" and become more "real". So now you've got me curious, Aamer. What do others think? Would it be a fun challenge to discover where the Aegis are going to attack (and thus destroy) next? Keep in mind that if this were done, they really would DESTROY, not just those things that are "convenient" and "easy" to rebuild, but they'd go after portals, bridges, Imperial crafting structures. In other words, the Aegis would have at least a modicum of intelligence and strategy behind what they destroy. But is it something others would enjoy, is always my question.

[Knossos]

AmerKahn and Velea:

We do not need Fafnir, the Queen, et al to tear things down, we have autoreclaim which keeps us totally busy rebuilding - and we are losing ground rapidly...(Spoken for Order Shard).

Knossos

[C`gan]

I think you've got it a bit wrong. People spend tons of time building up their plots to be able to use them. Destroying them without regard for that effort will discourage people to buy land and build.

Now, those old style raids of the player towns that shut down portals and such and made us all jump to Dalimond and Chiconis to defend the town, THAT would be more lively and get everyone to save the world (at the wonderful speed of 1-2 fpm).

[Velea]

No one, at least not me, said ANYTHING about destroying player plots, guys. Let's not over react here.

[StalePopcorn]

This is something I've thought about doing off and on for quite some time, actually. There are many potential storylines, and a great deal of under-utilized tech that could make this happen. I will be honest and say that my concern in having the Aegis actually invade and destroy parts of the world is that more people will be pissed off than will be motivated to "fight back" against the Aegis.

Personally I would love to see the battle against the Aegis "liven up" and become more "real". So now you've got me curious, Aamer. What do others think? Would it be a fun challenge to discover where the Aegis are going to attack (and thus destroy) next? Keep in mind that if this were done, they really would DESTROY, not just those things that are "convenient" and "easy" to rebuild, but they'd go after portals, bridges, Imperial crafting structures. In other words, the Aegis would have at least a modicum of intelligence and strategy behind what they destroy. But is it something others would enjoy, is always my question.

That would be amazing! We have staging areas near the eastern blight anyway, why not create some new "destructable" buildings there? Or have them start tearing down the walls? This would definitely give crafters something to do, as well as adventure-types some fun too.

Example:
<system message> ALERT! Output xyz will be attacked in 30 minutes!

Issues would be FPS when a lot of characters/mobs are in the same area. I'd suggest having different areas being attacked at the same time, with appropriate tiered WA at each one. Why not have Lesser Aradoth, or Dalimond, be attacked, as well as outposts at Eastern Blight? That would split players up appropriately by tier.

Or even plonk some blight anchors on the top of some resources, which would be blighted until the anchor was destroyed. Any reason why blight anchors can't be tiered as well? T1 anchor generates T1 WA mobs, T2 generated T2 mobs, etc.

...just my two cents worth...