Return to Istaria

[Megadread]

It's been a very long time.
Looks like the world has been rebuilt. Things are familiar, yet not as I remember.

There are players around, but not enough to call a crowd. Lairshaping has been added, which excited me. I've always been more interested in crafting than adventure. I began the quests to learn lairshaping and all my scales fell off! I'll have to raise my current crafting level to put my armor back on...Or, I suppose I could make new, lower level armor to wear as a stop-gap.

I need a lair to work on to help build my skills, but that costs money. What's the best way to earn a living these days? Should I consign resources, or try to sell things I craft? Surely, there isn't much of a market for lower level crafted items or resources.

Dragons can make cargo disks now?! That will be helpful.

There is so much I need to learn...

[Krinharth]

good way - take loan from your guildmate.
or if you can craft tech-kits, that no more achivebe, it can make you good money.
what shard you are?

[Megadread]

good way - take loan from your guildmate.
or if you can craft tech-kits, that no more achivebe, it can make you good money.
what shard you are?

My guild mates haven't played for many years.
I'm on Chaos.
I'm not sure what tech-kits are, so I'm probably not able to make them. I'll have to check my formula list and see what's there.

[AguaRush]

welcome back I'm on chaos as well feel free to send a tell and say hello

[velveeta]

most welcome home, mega!!

[Megadread]

most welcome home, mega!!

Thanks very much! I'm still trying to figure out where home should be.

[AmonGwareth]

Welcome back, Megadread! We're glad you've returned. Not sure how long you've been gone, but the world has changed a LOT in the last few years.

To summarize we've tiered the world. Tier 1 starts in the west on Lesser Aradoth, and Tier 6 is the tops in the far east in the Eastern Deadlands.

We've also begun revamping each of the tiers, giving them more quests, more monsters, more stuff to do, and prettying them up in the process. So far we've done Tiers 1 and 2 and parts of Tier 5 and 6. Tier 3 is on schedule for later this year.

In addition we've added Lairshaper and Lairs for Dragons, the Ancient Rite for Dragons (in case you left that long ago), and revamped the Confectioner and Scholar schools for bipeds.

Finally, we added a significant piece of Tier 5 content in the form of a "dungeon" called Dralnok's Doom.

Those are the highlights of the content changes, but you'll probably also notice that we've worked hard to improve the client and server performance, created a new amazing launcher, and much much more.

Anyway, once again welcome back to Istaria! Enjoy your stay! (oh and tell your friends!!!)

[Megadread]

Welcome back, Megadread! We're glad you've returned. Not sure how long you've been gone, but the world has changed a LOT in the last few years.

To summarize we've tiered the world. Tier 1 starts in the west on Lesser Aradoth, and Tier 6 is the tops in the far east in the Eastern Deadlands.

We've also begun revamping each of the tiers, giving them more quests, more monsters, more stuff to do, and prettying them up in the process. So far we've done Tiers 1 and 2 and parts of Tier 5 and 6. Tier 3 is on schedule for later this year.

In addition we've added Lairshaper and Lairs for Dragons, the Ancient Rite for Dragons (in case you left that long ago), and revamped the Confectioner and Scholar schools for bipeds.

Finally, we added a significant piece of Tier 5 content in the form of a "dungeon" called Dralnok's Doom.

Those are the highlights of the content changes, but you'll probably also notice that we've worked hard to improve the client and server performance, created a new amazing launcher, and much much more.

Anyway, once again welcome back to Istaria! Enjoy your stay! (oh and tell your friends!!!)

Amon, it has been that long. When I left, Dryads had just been introduced. Lairshaping had been promised, but was nowhere on the horizon. I did some exploring. When I last roamed around, there was a lot of empty terrain. Now, the trees and bushes have grown in, and there are lots of creatures roaming around. It looks a lot better.

I'm not sure what tier Obsidian is, but it seems to be the appropriate tier for my crafting ability. I am having a hard time mapping out where the portals go, and where people hang out. Is the population so small that I am going to have to be self sufficient for equipment? Can I do all of the quests solo, or should I get used to the fact there will be things in the world that I'll just never be able to do?

I'm a pretty casual player, to be honest. I don't play games to be particularly challenged. I want to have fun, or kill time. If it takes months to build a lair, that's fine. If I could just craft, I'd probably just do that. Unfortunately, resources are guarded by appropriate level monsters, and I have to be an adventurer to clear the area to gather resources. Fortunately, the resource nodes seem to respawn quickly, and I can usually drop into a quiet corner and get what I need without drawing too much attention from the locals. I did wind up in a field full of Iron Golems, and I could not kill them, loot them, and mine them as fast as they were respawning.

The world is full of wonders!

[Proctorr]

Happy to see a returning player! (Hehehe, while I'm offline most this summer I may be of little help). I expect you will find the community here to be as helpful and supportive, during your return, as I have during my first few months! Feel free to ask questions, advice, and explore. Maybe you'll find a guild or simply a group of friends, in time, to show you around and maybe even watch your back as you mine. Be sure to check out the Public chat channels or player chat channels (New Player Assistance and Marketplace seem to have the most people) for solid advice and answers...and sometimes a little smarmy humor .
Best wishes and enjoy your time!
I look forward to meeting you in Istaria soon.

[AmonGwareth]

Amon, it has been that long. When I left, Dryads had just been introduced. Lairshaping had been promised, but was nowhere on the horizon. I did some exploring. When I last roamed around, there was a lot of empty terrain. Now, the trees and bushes have grown in, and there are lots of creatures roaming around. It looks a lot better.

Oh wow, that was a long time ago. I thought of something else we redid, the loot system. Its setup more logically and more balanced now.

I'm not sure what tier Obsidian is, but it seems to be the appropriate tier for my crafting ability. I am having a hard time mapping out where the portals go, and where people hang out.

Oh yes, we redid the portal system as well. Thanks for reminding me! The new system is based upon "hubs" so your main portal hubs are Genevia and Bristugo.

Is the population so small that I am going to have to be self sufficient for equipment? Can I do all of the quests solo, or should I get used to the fact there will be things in the world that I'll just never be able to do?

Chaos has more than Order so I guess it depends upon where you play.

Most of the quests are intended to be able to be completed solo or with a friend. Though obviously you can always wait till later and then go back and do them solo.

One thing I would recommend as I find it very useful, particularly if you are trying to re-learn the game, is to a) find the MapPack as it would be very very useful and b) consider starting a new character or your existing character back on New Trismus to re-learn the game and get caught back up.

[Megadread]

Most of the quests are intended to be able to be completed solo or with a friend. Though obviously you can always wait till later and then go back and do them solo.

One thing I would recommend as I find it very useful, particularly if you are trying to re-learn the game, is to a) find the MapPack as it would be very very useful and b) consider starting a new character or your existing character back on New Trismus to re-learn the game and get caught back up.

I don't mind at all waiting until I'm a higher level and going back for quests. Sooner or later, I'll get around to doing everything. I don't mind grouping with friends occasionally, but mostly I like to be on my own. I hate being forced to group.

I am not sure I want to install the MapPack. I really don't mind searching for resources on my own. And if I get sent to talk to an NPC, there should be sufficient information in-game to find them. I'll consider it.

I have, more or less, gone back to lower level areas to relearn. I'm not in any rush.

I chatted with a few people in game last night, and found it's a pretty nice crowd.

[Megadread]

And actually, most of the people I've chatted with have been returning players.

Most have returned in the past couple of months.

It occurred to me that I ought to post what brought me back.

Flying.
Being able to change crafting classes without losing anything.
Plots that could be built from the ground up. (Plots are also the reason I left)

The first time through the game, we had to build community structures. When the structures were finished, plots would become available for purchase. This led to people squatting on the plots, waiting for others to finish the community structures. Then they'd snap up the plots before the folks that had done the work could run to a plot to purchase it. It was difficult to get a vacant plot, and expensive to buy from other players.

Then the servers were combined, and my friends and I lost the plot we had worked so hard to get and build up. An island full of plots was added, but the cost for a plot was just way too high. And actually, as a dragon, the plots were useless to me.

So we all just shrugged and decided that World of Warcraft was pretty popular. We'd try that.

Without listing all the problems I see with the WoW community, I'll say that the game itself has content that you simply cannot do without grouping with several other people. That means you don't get the epic drops that might enable you to solo higher level monsters outside the instances. And you can never craft anything as good as the drops you get in the instances. So after about 6 months, I was done with WoW.

So then I didn't play online games for years, but occasionally I would sit and think how much I enjoyed this kind of game, and have decided to give this one another go, since my memories of it are fairly positive, and the issues I had seem to have been sorted out.

Tazoon, btw, is a lovely place. And it's a shame it's so empty.