Old as a relic and looking to return.

[Xeldrakka]

Haha. Hello Chosen of Istaria. I played this game back when it was still being handled by its very original developers, and I've been thinking of returning to the game to once again push forward to become a real dragon, rawr. Anyways. I'm curious about how much has changed, as I have my concerns. I intend on starting a new character, and I want to know how easy it is to find materials and monsters of varying tiers around the racial home towns. I'm also curious about how much party support exists for low level characters. I'm all to happy to travel with a pack of five level 30 allies for weeks on end and never gain a bloody level, rather than have someone train me through to high level content.

Finally, I was wondering how active the world is itself. When I quit, the Withered Aegis had just violated the great dragon graveyards to create the first undead dragons, and it was like fighting a bloody zone wide war. We used to have regular werewolf invasions of one the smaller towns in the world, we liberated two races from captivity in server wide epic quests you only got to do once. Does this sort of thing occur anymore, does the name "Withered Aegis" conjure an actual fear of attack?

On and on. Old player gripes XD.

I'd love to return. What's been going on here?

[AmonGwareth]

Welcome back and I hope you enjoy your stay. Let me answer each of your questions in turn.

[quote]Anyways. I'm curious about how much has changed, as I have my concerns.[quote]

Too much to list here, to be honest. Except for a hiatus around late 2006 to late 2007 we've worked hard to push out regular updates on a quarterly to semi-annual basis (3 to 4 a year).

I intend on starting a new character, and I want to know how easy it is to find materials and monsters of varying tiers around the racial home towns.

Originally each of the racial home towns served as a starting point for new players. That has changed and now the world is tiered from west to east with each racial town falling into one of the six tiers. Kion and Sslanis are Tier 1, Dalimond and Chiconis Tier 2, New Rachival and Mahagra are Tier 3, Kirasanct and Feladan and Dralk are Tier 4 and Aughundell is Tier 5. There are still some resources around each, but you will have to explore the world to find the remainder.

Finally, I was wondering how active the world is itself. When I quit, the Withered Aegis had just violated the great dragon graveyards to create the first undead dragons, and it was like fighting a bloody zone wide war. We used to have regular werewolf invasions of one the smaller towns in the world, we liberated two races from captivity in server wide epic quests you only got to do once. Does this sort of thing occur anymore, does the name "Withered Aegis" conjure an actual fear of attack?

The war is not as active as it once was. The Gifted beat the Withered Aegis into a stand-still and since then there have not been invasions of the sort the world once saw. The focus now is more on enhancing the content and depth of the world itself rather than one-time throw-away events of the type seen right after launch of the game.

That is not to say there isn't anything to do... Far from it! With Dragons you have Lairs to build and lands (and realms) to explore to learn how to become an Ancient Dragon as well as to learn how to form Crystals. For the world itself you have lots of content for the lower tiers and the upper tiers (we're still doing big revamps of the middle tiers) including a "dungeon" for Tier 6. There are several end-game boss monsters who can be quite tough and require multiple players to defeat.

I'll let the players describe the rest.

[Xeldrakka]

Awesome. =D Like what I'm hearing so far. Thank you Amon.

[Mazrogal]

Welcome back hope you will enjoy your time in this amazing world. I myself have only been in Istaria for about 4 months sadly i never heard about it before but a good friend recommended it to me and i'm thankful for that. I have to say the crafting system in Istaria is the most in depth and rewarding system i've seen so far. If you ever create a Dragon or Bi-ped i have to recommend going into Lairshaping or the equivalent for bipeds its rewarding and fun!. If you play on Chaos server feel free to ask for help one thing i like personally about this game is the community that is helpfull towards new players or old ones returning. I don't know how many parties exists for low level char leveling ,but when i leveled i had some company from time to time you almost always find a biped or dragon needing help in your travels.

And i found out if you ever find a hard quest don't hesitate to ask for help i finished a lot of hard quests by asking polite in Dragon chat or Around towns. And the world seems very active to me i see players from time to time even do i.m in a different time zone ( Playing from Sweden^^) So if you play on Chaos feel free to ask me for help i gladly help others since i got help when i was trying to grasp Istaria