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Thread: Wow, this game is still going?

  1. #1

    Default Wow, this game is still going?

    So.... it's been... what, years?

    I like to check up on this old game every now and then, though it is difficult for me to find time to really do much in it, and I don't really have the money to go dumping into it.

    There are memories, though, that I miss, and I always have this curiosity, wondering just how good VI can succeed in making the game, a part of me wants to go find out, but again, money.

    I tossed around the idea of just maintaining a free account, to dink around with it now and then and somewhere in the back of my mind, I hope/wish that this game could get a big facelift that would bring it up closer to modern games, though I suspect that I shouldn't wish/hope for too much.

    Still though, I'm kinda curious as to what kind of overhalls have been in the last 2-3 years since I tried it last. I don't even remember when the last time I logged on, if some of the things that gave me pause still exist in the game (such as the sheer repetition, watching my character dig for hours, hauling back a whole disk load for 10% of a levelup, or killing mobs for <1% XP gain, or what-not).

    But anyways, I saw Amon's post over on rantsrefugees (I can't believe that place is still going lol) after accidentally mis-clicking its Icon on my bookmarks and thought I'd come over here to see what's been going on lately.

    EDIT: BTW, saw mention of Sslanis looking nice... anybody got screenshots? I'm curious...
    Last edited by Dhalin; May 13th, 2018 at 11:32 PM.

  2. #2

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    I wasn't kidding when I posted there �� A lot has changed, though not a lot in the areas you specifically mentioned.

    We've added a good amount of epic content including pets, we've overhauled the new player experience, we've added tier 3 content, have revamped some schools. There's a page around that gives a good summary, maybe simeone can help me with a link cause there's been so much more than I listed and what I did doesn't do those changes justice.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  3. #3

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    New player experience... I remember a long time ago, you guys overhauled New Tris... but yet the very beginning (Spirit Isle) still felt.... dated. Did you change that as well?

    And I do remember that you guys were about to start on T3 last time I was around... and pets... huh. I remember shoulder pets though I never had any of them myself...

  4. #4

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dhalin View Post
    New player experience... I remember a long time ago, you guys overhauled New Tris... but yet the very beginning (Spirit Isle) still felt.... dated. Did you change that as well?

    And I do remember that you guys were about to start on T3 last time I was around... and pets... huh. I remember shoulder pets though I never had any of them myself...
    This was another overhaul of New Trismus. We brought the war to NT, but then we have brought a measure of rebuilding. NT looks more like a real town now and there's a lot more activity and "business" to it than there was. Its a bit of a performance hog at times, but it looks amazing. Spirit Isle and Skalkaar were also given a good overhaul.

    Yea, we got side-tracked on Tier3 for a while. Had we added Crystalshaper school for Dragons when you left along with the Fiery Rift dungeon?

    2016 included Niesa's Fate content which is a lengthy epic style quest that culminates in some epic potions, an epic boss fight against Falgut the Slaver, new epic pets (for bipeds and Dragons), and the first changes for the Tier 3 overhaul.

    2017 included about 1/2 of the Tier3 overhaul (from Tishlar through New Rachival, but not included Tazoon). There was a new dungeon added for the greater flame elemental, Surtheim, and he got his tactics (and rewards) updated. Reklar (epic dragon) got his fortress rebuilt bigger and badder (or better, depending on your perspective). Knight of Creation got entirely overhauled into a tanking school.

    You can see some details of the 18.1 content update here: http://www.istaria.com/tell-me-about...f-istaria.html The 18.2 update included New Trismus and Spirit Isle, but we don't have a promo page for it yet. We're still hard-at-work on the 18.3 update for this year, a small part of which is on Blight now.

    Not sure if you were gone before 2016, but that's a quick summary of the last 2 1/2 years. Obviously there have been lots and lots of other changes and fixes and additions, but those are the highlights.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  5. #5
    Staff :: Developer Sarsilas's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Hi there Dhalin. I'm part of the new blood that Amon mentioned over on the other forum, an artist who joined in about 2015, so you likely don't know me. It's nice to meet you!

    As Amon listed, we've had a lot of changes in the past few years that I've been glad to be apart of. I hope that if you do decide to stick your nose back in that you find something that you like. If you don't want to pay for a subscription or can't afford one right now, we have a new free-to-play system that allows anyone to play the game for free up until level 15 in any school on any character or free on any one character at any level without access to questing or exp gain. The latter may be of interest to you if you wanted to take a run around and see any changes to the old world. (We also have an archiving system for characters that may be new to you - it allows you to remove characters from your character total without deleting them.)

    As for any screenshots of the changes - I do have some screenshots of some of our visual changes! Unfortunately I don't really have the 'before's for Sslanis or Spirit Isle - I took Sslanis' before from the Istaria Lexica, to give credit where credit's do, for your reference.

    Before:


    After:



    And Spirit Isle, since that was also mentioned:



    Skalkaar, since I have those on hand:


    I don't have any good screenshot of New Trismus, but this loading screen we are using right now shows a modified screenshot of the town:


    Various other places have also been given some beautifying but unfortunately I don't really have any screenshots on hand.


    Quote Originally Posted by AmonGwareth View Post
    though not a lot in the areas you specifically mentioned.
    I would say it's worth mentioning we overall improved gathering rates so the irritating factor of "watching my character dig for hours" as Dhalin mentioned is a bit faster. Instead of pulling up randomly between 3-10 at optimal you're getting a straight 15. Goes pretty quick. With pets, storage capacity has also improved so you can pull more resources back at once to get a bit more EXP.

    It's not a drastic overhaul, but hey, it's something.

    Avatar by Scaleeth

  6. #6

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Don't you still have that "You can do a free character, full-featured but it must be a human" anymore?

    And those screenshots do look nice, AND the mention of pulling a straight 15 per gather is also quite nice, I remember starting the game and seeing 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 and 30 minutes later I got a tiny chunk of a level, lol.

    But that sounds better overall.

    EDIT: And that doesn't even look like New Trismus (at least the old one I remember).

    It must have changed drastically because I can't even identify any of the buildings I remember.

  7. #7

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Quote Originally Posted by Dhalin View Post
    Don't you still have that "You can do a free character, full-featured but it must be a human" anymore?
    that got overhauled as well You can role your original toon but cant use the new content and you cant level anymore either .

    what we are all chomping at the bit is for the new graphics eng that Rick and crew bought I cant wait to see that. And the dragon school overhaul .
    Face forward and you should be able to hear it now the only thing plugging your ears is your own fear. There is only one enemy and one of you so what is there to be afraid of ? Abandon your fear turn and face him, Don't give an inch. Now advance Never stop If you retreat you will age Be afraid and you'll die NOW SHOUT OUT YOUR NAME !!!

  8. #8

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    So they got a new engine, they just haven't implemented it yet?

    That sounds awesome. I dunno about "dragon school overhaul" ..... I'm not sure I'd be so excited for that. One thing that dragons have always had, and that is they are very good at being jack of all trades and they feel powerful when you play them (or at least they always did for me). I dunno if this continues to hold true in epic content, but I remember killing things 10+ levels over me with ease by unleashing my fury but yet still being able to heal and all the other things that dragons do...

    I'm afraid an overhaul might mess the whole thing up.

    But either way it's nice to hear that there are still plans to move on, esp a new engine. I could only imagine what they might be able to accomplish with such a thing.

  9. #9

  10. #10

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Cave of the Winds...? A whole big cave that's underground? Huh...

    And that stuff from New Tris, and especially Kion and Sslanis.... looking pretty good lol.

  11. #11

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Welcome back Dhalin! I'm also part of the new blood, having started within the team around the same time as Sarsilas. I hope you'll find that Istaria over the years has changed for the better, and that you enjoy your new and continuing adventures.

    We also have a very active Discord server that can be accessed through the main site or the community page, here's a direct invite link: https://discord.gg/ps9kZqx

    I'd like to clarify some information:
    Quote Originally Posted by lightning claw View Post
    what we are all chomping at the bit is for the new graphics eng that Rick and crew bought I cant wait to see that. And the dragon school overhaul .
    Unreal 4 actually doesn't require a license to be paid to be used, it's free to use up untill a certain amount of income is made anually (A number that I cannot bring to memory at this moment), at which point royalties come into the picture.

    This engine revamp will only affect things client side, server side we will still be working with the same old. What this means for players is that while there won't be many new mechanics (or at least, not without a lot of work by the tech team), but there will be a complete visual overhaul including new models, textures, particles, skyboxes, etc. Naturally we plan to keep the feel and spirit of istaria still alive with this visual overhaul.

    Furthermore there are no direct plans to overhaul the dragon school.
    Last edited by Liseth; May 14th, 2018 at 04:11 PM.
    Oooooh, what does this button do?

  12. #12

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    I've always felt that one of the larger barriers to getting people to sign up for the game, is the dated visuals. Don't get me wrong, I've always had this fondness for Istaria, but the game looks dated from the get-go and it's hard to get new people to join.

    The news of us bringing Unreal 4 and some muchly needed new coats of paint is great news indeed!

    And thanks for the discord link. I'll check that out. I do have discord though I'm not always on it, but I'll check it out all the same.

  13. #13

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    and believe it or not.. we are still here too^^ P

    So get your scaled or not scaled alter ego inside here Dhalin, and see what new wonderful things old and young ( )devs have served us with. You know Istaria well enough to find out its amazing and challenging!
    Who needs modern graphics- that you can get in every other game.
    Ours is antique and therefore precious^^
    Its still the best of all (though the fan girls get older like the game does
    YOU told me to play a dragon!

  14. #14

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Nice to see you too! lol

    I'm still pondering about various stuff but I intend to at least try a freebie for awhile at first. I don't have an abundance of free time though as I've lots of projects and stuff going on, but we'll see what happens!

  15. #15

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Quote Originally Posted by Liseth View Post
    Furthermore there are no direct plans to overhaul the dragon school.
    *But but cry's like a hachie * the teaser of Talk to the team found here
    Face forward and you should be able to hear it now the only thing plugging your ears is your own fear. There is only one enemy and one of you so what is there to be afraid of ? Abandon your fear turn and face him, Don't give an inch. Now advance Never stop If you retreat you will age Be afraid and you'll die NOW SHOUT OUT YOUR NAME !!!

  16. #16

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    Quote Originally Posted by lightning claw View Post
    *But but cry's like a hachie * the teaser of Talk to the team found here
    Talk to the Team threads aren't previews, they are us discussing ideas, weighing player interest, etc.
    "Alea iacta est" -- Julius Caesar

    Toot shouted, voice shrill, "In the name of the Pizza Lord! Charge!" (Jim Butcher's Dresden Files)

    "Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spends it whole life believing that it is stupid." -- Albert Einstein

  17. #17

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    There is lots to do, and lots to relearn.. just get a single alt into the game, give it a whirl. You won't be disappointed

  18. #18
    Member velveeta's Avatar
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    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    lots of new stuff!! i am currently blogging the cave of winds, you can check out new stuff by following the link in my signature.
    hope you decide to come back, it's like a whole new game that's still familiar!
    you can't cast a play in hell and expect angels as actors
    check out my game blog: https://velveeta3.livejournal.com/

  19. #19

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    I just started playing a few months ago! I really enjoy it, although I wish the playerbase was a bit bigger

  20. #20

    Default Re: Wow, this game is still going?

    wish i could post some pics to but for some reason tells me "you may not post attachemets".

    Most if not all of the boss mobs (like Suriem (sp?) Reklar, Daknor, etc can only be done in groups, no more soloing any of them unless your really one of the uberest elites with all the best gear and what not including no longer able to get stuff. Mere mortals don't even try.

    On crafting side can you believe finally (Woohoo!!!) got bonuses for Grand Master Crafter, with that title token get extra 1000 bulk. Matter of fact all crafting titles now give some kind of bonus, most +50 to there corresponding skills.

    Vi and all the devs been doing great things all things considered.



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