As with most people, the end of 2010 lead to the Virtrium team taking a look back at the closing year, but looking forward to the year to come. *And for this special “Developer’s Desk”, I wanted to share some of what we talked about with you.

We began the year with another tier revamp, this time focusing on tier 2 (content for players around levels 20 to 40), the area known as the “Dalimond Peninsula”. *The main enemy players face in this particular area are the Skulks, a biped-reptilian creature with a complex society that are trying to take over control of the region. *Many of the stories set in this area focus on the skulks, but the region is also rich in history that has been developed through new quests and areas to explore. *One of the new places players can explore is Ashlander’s Tomb. *The first king of the Kingdom of Vandus, Ashlander Vandus came to power during the last years of human slavery. He studied the Dragons and then eventually led a near-bloodless revolution that freed his people. He founded the city of Dalimond as his capital. He was buried in a grand tomb in southern end of the peninsula. **Gaining access to the tomb requires players to complete quests which tell more about the story of this area. *There were over 100 new quests added with the initial patch for the tier revamp, and even more are still planned for the future.

In looking at the existing quests for tier 2, we noticed that many of the “trophy” quests were lacking good directions, had inconsistent rewards, and really didn’t fit the design plan for these quests, so one of the projects from last summer was to revamp all tiers of trophy quests. *After the changes, all quests now will provide directions to the monsters that drop the trophy, and give a reward consistent with the tier. *In addition, the trophy quests are now all a part of the “quest bucket” for the NPC that gives the quests. *The “quest bucket” system was designed so that players who are eligible for a particular quest will see a quest indicator over the head of the NPC that starts the quest. *Over time, we will continue to add more quests to the appropriate NPC’s so that eventually all quests in game use this same system for starting quests. *As part of this long term goal, one of the quest series that was revamped last summer was the dragon Adult Rite of Passage quest. *In revamping this quest, many of the bugs and places that were prone to breaking for players were fixed. *And, of course, the whole of the quest series is now a part of the “quest bucket” system to make finding the correct NPC easier.

We also owe a great “Thank You” to the many players who have posted on our “Current Bugs” and “Spawn System Issues” threads, and submitted bug reports through the support system. *Because of you, hundreds of the many bugs both large and small that have plagued Istaria for years have been exterminated. *Throughout 2010 every patch included as many bug fixes as it did new content. *Places across Istaria that were giving a poor play experience due to bad monster spawns have been fixed as well thanks to player feedback. *And we will continue as a team to work with our players to find, replicate and fix even more bugs in 2011. *Though we know that no game will ever be “bug free”, the whole team is dedicated to fixing every bug we can.

So that’s a look back at just some of what we did in 2010. *But New Year’s is about looking forward to the future, and we at Virtrium are excited about what is coming to Istaria in 2011. *We actually began planning for the new year months before the old one had ended. *The first major content update for 2011 will focus on an area of the game that we haven’t looked at in quite some time, biped plots! *Our look at plots will include many new decorative structures as well as improvements to existing structures.

Long term plans for 2011 also include the introduction (or re-introduction in some cases) of seasonal events. *As players who followed the our game news through 2010 know, we placed the seasonal content on hold last year so that we could stay focused on more long term improvements and completing projects already started. *We recognize that seasonal content is something everyone enjoys and missed having in 2010, so we’ll be spending some of the development time in 2011 to create content that is only available during certain times of the year.

These are just a couple of the items on our “to do list” for 2011, and we’ve many more projects both started and planned for the year. *From all of us on the development team, we look forward to an exciting 2011, as we continue to improve and expand Istaria - and most importantly, keep you entertained and having fun.