Istaria's world engine and Editing program

[Donairian]

This might seem like an extremely rash and for that matter impudent request, but I was curious about the details of the actual behind the scenes operation that goes into making these updates and how you go about doing them. I tried searching the forums for any relevant thread but as far as I can tell this thread would be the first of its kind, so in that case I thought maybe I should just bite the bullet and pop the question it can't cause that much harm right?

So for that matter I am curious how exactly are new updates to Istaria achieved? is there a terrain editor? do you have a list of various mobs that you can access to adjust various statistics as required? is there a script system dedicated to creating new quests? and how user friendly is it all?

You know this original message really came about when I wondered what the whole process would look like and could I have a go? In fact when I first posted this I had no idea if this should go under general because I was curious or under suggestions because I have the urge to do some editing in my own little unique browser of Istaria separate from the server itself that I can tweak and create as I so please. It sounds crazy and maybe alarming, but when I came here I was actually told that maybe I would be better off asking the devs themselves.

Maybe a simple behind the scenes video can do it just to set my mind at rest about the games inner workings and go back to my lazy afking on top of Bristugo's roof where I can simply ask silly questions without actually being a detriment other people. To think this all started when I wondered why we don't have adamant tavertine scales for dragons, or weapons and armor for naka in that case.

[Yfelvik]

The general answer is that all game data is stored in a database. These updates are pulled together in a process called a "delta", which is a package of all the changes. The delta is applied to the Blight, and eventually to Chaos and Order.

Behind the scenes, there's a tool for editing the database and making updates to what are called primitives (or templates). Every instance in Istaria is based upon a primitive.

When it comes to anything that is based on world coordinates, such as regions, terrain, world object placement, etc., the client is used to make those changes and the changes are then written to the database.

[Spyrioyo]

That's really neat.

[Yfelvik]

I've got a screenshot showing an item in game, then how it relates to the primitive setup. You can see in the screenshot an item in inventory, the primitive ID, then the primitive in the editor and the event / trigger setup. (big picture link)

[Arzel Rashemi]

Interesting stuff to see behind the scenes.

That is so neat! (can we have a go? j/k)

[Marynah]

That's very slick looking. Thanks for sharing!

[Donairian]

Well, thank you for the answer it was definitely enlightening I would feel confident in saying that my curiosity has been sated especially with the screenshot provided, I can actually understand the method when you describe objects as 'primitives' and then explain that you can place said objects in a dedicated client which can choose to save over the overall terrain of the server as desired. I know because I have actually interfaced with a similar system before, definitely a far more user friendly version but its absolutely something I recognize even if I admittedly had no real skill in using it.

But anyway like I just said thank you for sharing this behind the scenes information, I can now more clearly relate to the update process a little more without making wild speculations on my part. Also I would know some people on order that would be interested to know that I got an answer *snickers* they probably don't even know this thread exists yet as per this message's posting.