New Engine and New Features

[avguste]

First I would like to say that in the few days I have been playing Istaria, I really enjoy the game. However I would like to suggest a few things for the future and well of the game:

1. a brand new engine, with updated graphics(includes a brand new UI). The current engine/graphics works well,however one can see that it is a game that was released in 2003.

2. Personally I like the idea of PvP-free gameplay, however many players look at games which have both PVE and PVP. I see a few ways of doing that:

a)open a brand new PVP only server
b)keep the current server and add a brand new PVP territory accessible only after a certain level.

3. add new guild features such as guild wars, territory conquests and such.
These wouldnt conflict with the current game situation since they would be for guilds only. And the way it would work is each guild would have an option on its guild management screen which they would need to check for them to be involved in guild wars and the likes


From reading forums I understand that many current players may not like the above ideas and I may very well be flamed,however lets keep in mind that a game's goal is not only to keep current players,but also attract new players.
And Istaria as many other games has to compete for players attention against Aion,Eve Online, WoW, Anarchy and other such games.

[velveeta]

First I would like to say that in the few days I have been playing Istaria, I really enjoy the game. However I would like to suggest a few things for the future and well of the game:

1. a brand new engine, with updated graphics(includes a brand new UI). The current engine/graphics works well,however one can see that it is a game that was released in 2003.

2. Personally I like the idea of PvP-free gameplay, however many players look at games which have both PVE and PVP. I see a few ways of doing that:

a)open a brand new PVP only server
b)keep the current server and add a brand new PVP territory accessible only after a certain level.

3. add new guild features such as guild wars, territory conquests and such.
These wouldnt conflict with the current game situation since they would be for guilds only. And the way it would work is each guild would have an option on its guild management screen which they would need to check for them to be involved in guild wars and the likes


From reading forums I understand that many current players may not like the above ideas and I may very well be flamed,however lets keep in mind that a game's goal is not only to keep current players,but also attract new players.
And Istaria as many other games has to compete for players attention against Aion,Eve Online, WoW, Anarchy and other such games.

1. prolly not going to happen - if it does, it will be a fair bit of time. there is just not money or peeps available for this at the moment.

2. this will prolly never happen. the existing players, for the most part, are here because we don't want to be ganked while hauling a cargo disk to our plot. personally, making horizons pvp would be the deal breaker for me. the arena is as much as i care to have, pvp wise.

3. see above. pvp of any nature would fundamentally alter horizons and make it another game altogether. at this moment in time, there is just not the amount of peeps playing to develop the needed rivalry for this to work, anyway. blight, at least, is really just one big guild, anyway!!!!

yes, attracting new players is a worthy goal, but i hope that vi recognizes that it is the elder players, those of us who stayed true thru all the torrid years, that are the foundation it needs to build on. if the game loses what players it has, it prolly won't last long enough to get the newbies in. don't cater to us or let us hold you hostage (i think the devs are showing their cojones quite well), but i would hope that our loyalty, if not our willingness to spend dollars on this game no matter what, has already been proven.

these are just my thoughts, avg! i speak for no one but myself!

[Ahael]

A new game engine would require a huge time and money commitment by the devs.

PVP server? Probably even more so. How would you even incorporate PVP into Istaria lore? Furthermore, how would you balance the multitude of adventuring schools we have? Multischooling would have to be restricted severely in PVP too. How would you balance PVE vs. PVP?

I've played other MMOs, and here is an example of bad 'balancing' by the devs of another MMO:

I was furious when developers nerfed my paladin (in PVE) because another class, warrior was too powerful (in PVP). Or so the devs thought.

And you read that right. Because of one class' 'overpoweredness' they nerfed another class. It just happens that both warrs and pals use shields, and a certain warrior damage move was deemed too powerful when used in PVP. So they nerfed it, BUT paladins used similar abilities and those were affected too!

Why is this? The devs nerfed a damage mechanic directly instead of the warrior class ability!! Thanks to this, Paladins' ability to hold aggro as tank was made worse. It also partially reversed an earlier effort to improve the use of shields. Talk about collateral damage...

Now, think about Istaria. Count the adventuring schools we have. Include multischooling. Not going to work at all I'm afraid... Others have severe issues balancing just a few classes.

[Sigi]

Istaria is a game for people NOT looking for pvp, guildwars etc. There are lots of games catering for rivalry needs, so it would be foolish to try to compete on that market with limited funds and resources. Better to sell Istaria with the features it has!

[Takora Drakan]

And there is PvP in istaria (besides dragon eating gnomes for lunch). Go into the arena porter in the spiral city and port to the arena island. There you can roast your friends as much as you want. Enough PvP for this game honestly.

[Raptress]

Adding fully-supported PvP to Istaria is both a bad idea and probably not feasible. I often see people come to this game and specifically mention a lack of PvP as a reason they stay. Even besides the likely negative impact on Istaria's playerbase, this game was just not built or balanced with PvP in mind. I think that's something that needs to be incorporated from the start, not something to be added later. Same thing with "guild wars". It would take an immense amount of work, and in the end, Istaria would be a different game than it was before. Istaria needs to improve, not change drastically.

Istaria is a game often touted for its well-mannered and helpful community. We get that way by working together. PvP is fundamentally conflict between players, and that's not what Istaria is. Istaria is a game with building projects that the server collaborates on. Our enemy is the Withered Aegis, not each other.

What needs to happen with Istaria (in my opinion) is the fixing and improving of the current game features. This game is unfortunately also known for having a large amount of glitches and bugs, and that can look very unprofessional and put a new player off before they even see much content. Fixing these and making the game overall more functional is what needs to come first.

Personally, I'd prefer that the graphics engine and especially UI do not change drastically. The UI may look simple, but you can do whatever you want with it. How many games have a thread on their forums where you show off your UI setup and no two are exactly the same? As for changing the 3D graphics, that runs the risk of changing the feel of the game or (especially) upsetting players by making their characters no longer look the way they had intended. I know if my characters were suddenly changed, I'd likely be distraught.

[Velea]

New engine isn't needed. The graphics style is what it is.

PVP in Istaria simply isn't going to happen... ever... and that's been said repeatedly.