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It may seem odd, but there has been alot of new interest in Istaria
Ashglonteri
Member Posts: 11
Now, I don't exactly know why, but I am very happy about the new interest in Istaria, Chronicals of the Gifted ( better known as Horizons ). Each day we are seeing more and more join the game to check it out. It is very easy to do that since you can DL a trial account or even a permanent demo account that allows you to play 1 human character free for life. I would love to figure out what the reason for this renewed interest is, but there are a lot of possible reasons...
Perhaps it's the great community of older players that have left barrens style chat behind, and are generally helpful and considerate.
Perhaps it's the unique aspects of the game like playable Dragons, complex 3D underground dragon lairs, or unlimited multi-classing to name just a few.
Perhaps it is the ability to make for yourself, anything you may need from potions to armor to storage structures or weapons.
Perhaps it's the ability to make a tangible mark on the game world and have it persist for years.
Or maybe...
It is the fact that, after playing all the other games out there, folks are just tired of what other games have to offer, and wish to return to the style of game play where you are not lead around by an easy button. Where you actually have to plan out and spend time and effort to get something that actually has personal value, not just another epeen epic whateveritisyouthinkisubercool.
So many on these forums complain about the problems xyz game has, and how the developers are idiots, and that if the game was made THEIR way we would all reach gaming Nervana. What is odd though, is that most ideas have now been tried, and yet, each day that goes by more and more try out Istaria and decide to stick around.
Something must be appealing about this 6 year old game that has jaded players joining it's community.
Perhaps you too should jump in and maybe you too will find a new home!
Comments
Yes, you are perfectly right.
Additionaly many old Istarians are coming back, because they haven't in any other game what they had in Istaria.
Like myself.
One strong point for me is the questing, which isnt always straight like in other games. There is no "Go 10 steps west and kill 10 rats" in the advanced levels, but you have to use your brain and the communities wisdom, to solve your tasks, which is the cause for that tight knit community we have.
Another might be the world itself. What other games call a "huge world" is just the playground of my hatchlings.
Interesting!
I think I may have to check out Istaria again.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
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Interesting!
I think I may have to check out Istaria again.
I agree, it is a brilliant way to get new players. 7 day or 14 days limited trials isn't enough to hook people to a MMO.
Just look what changing the fees of DDO did to it, it more or less saved the game.
I will also consider giving it a go as soon as I have the time for it
I'm actually downloading the client to give it a shot right now. Istaria is that game that kinda got passed by. I was interested in it at the time, and its one of the few games I heard about from a friend rather than the other way around, back when it was Horizons. He let me poke around with his beta character a bit and it was pretty fun.
Not gonna lie, one of the bigger draws for me personally is the lair system. I feel that MMOs have been going a bit backwards in regards to letting players interact with the world, and don't feel that they need anything from their MMOs but gear and levels. As someone who started in UO, having a house or just some kind of personal virtual space has been a huge part of the experience for me, and its kind of sad that given all its resources, even WoW doesn't bother to do any form of housing or personalization. We have the technology and ability to do really cool things with housing and to make the world feel dynamic through player actions right now, and it's all being pushed aside in favor of more instancing, more gear, and generally focusing the MMO more and more on a insulated player experience instead of everyone together in a large open world.
As a side note, the other thing I like is the take on races/classes. I never understood why games are so horrified to mix things up a bit and introduce some interesting classes that haven't been done a million times before. It was actually part of what I liked a bit with Vanguard, because while not 100% unique, they had some interesting ideas. Classes like the Animist, Thurgiest, etc from DAoC were probably the best examples, as I've yet to see a game with anything like them since. Interesting races is another thing that seems to be shunned a bit, which is also sad. Allods interested me for a bit, mainly because the gibberlings were a very cool and novel race. I think part of this is also more or less trying to maintain the "successful status quo" that has emerged in MMOs which WoW fostered and made everyone else terrified to try anything different. That and the fact that in the MMO communities that have spawned up around it, you can't have races that do one thing different than another without armies of people bitching about "balance". Today, anything that isn't exactly the same outside of a model change gets flagged as "unbalanced" which is sad.
Anyway, getting wordy. But yeah, I can see why people would be looking at Istaria even after all this time. Obviously they lack the funds, time, and probably engine to do so, but if they could ever pull off a graphic update and do a "relaunch" of sorts, they would probably be fairly successful.
Edit: Side note, I wish there was something similar to lairs for the other game races though. Seems to be that Dragons are the end all be all of the game, which while fine, is kinda /= if you want to play as a Dryad or some such.
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Is the whole dragon and lair thing something a casual player can take part in, or is that mostly for players with a good amount of time to invest?
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Originally posted by Kordesh
Not gonna lie, one of the bigger draws for me personally is the lair system. I feel that MMOs have been going a bit backwards in regards to letting players interact with the world, and don't feel that they need anything from their MMOs but gear and levels. As someone who started in UO, having a house or just some kind of personal virtual space has been a huge part of the experience for me, and its kind of sad that given all its resources, even WoW doesn't bother to do any form of housing or personalization. We have the technology and ability to do really cool things with housing and to make the world feel dynamic through player actions right now, and it's all being pushed aside in favor of more instancing, more gear, and generally focusing the MMO more and more on a insulated player experience instead of everyone together in a large open world.
As a side note, the other thing I like is the take on races/classes.
Edit: Side note, I wish there was something similar to lairs for the other game races though. Seems to be that Dragons are the end all be all of the game, which while fine, is kinda /= if you want to play as a Dryad or some such.
To tell the truth, Dragons are not so much the end all be all of the game as it would appear... and this is coming from a Dragon player. They're more of an alternate path of advancement with a number of their own racial quests. Playing a Dragon is somewhat like playing a simplified version of the game. You only have to worry about one adventure and crafting class (Dragon) to level, with an optional lairshaping if that's something you are interested in. You definitely don't get the variety in a Dragon that you would in any other race. This can be good for those who are just overwhelmed and mind boggled about the multiclassing system (which is really quite vast). I'm not going to say that Dragon is EZ-Mode Istaria, because we do have some of the hardest advancement quests in game as far as I see (Right of Passage). Just that developing one is less complex than a Bi-Ped.
A well developed, multiclassed Dryad is going to be far more powerful in the end, believe it or not. An Ancient Dragon is quite powerful... but most Dragons have a good idea that a uber-multiclassed Bi-Ped is going to steal the show when it comes to taking things out at a high level. (Don't get me wrong, flying is fantastic, though!)
So that being said... while I have a Dragon main, I do play Bi-Ped alts. My Dragon has helped me get my feet wet, so to speak, in learning the complexities of the game. Playing a Bi-Ped is a whole different story and is quite challenging in the beginning, I've found, compared to my Dragon. But I'll be interested in seeing this character develop as I multiclass them into the type of character that I enjoy playing.
Istaria is all about development... be it your character or through building up the world and community.
It's really amazing when some of these player made communities function in a way to make the game a better place for everyone as a whole. At first, you might wonder "What's the point of building crafting machines or vaults or shrines on my plot?" But you'd be surprised at how far-flung you may have go journey one day to craft or adventure... and when you discover a player created community that gives you access to your bank vault or a place to bind and recall to that is nearby... well it's almost heaven-sent! *laugh*
Originally posted by LynxJSA
Is the whole dragon and lair thing something a casual player can take part in, or is that mostly for players with a good amount of time to invest?
Lairshaping. I'm just starting to make headway into my own. It's fairly complex, something that you have to sit down and really plan out -- be it your 3D floor plan or just the best, most economical way of gathering materials to build what you design. I've got a crazy ambitious design for my own... and it does take patience and time to complete.
I believe a casual player could take part in it if the player understands ahead of time that lairs are a long term development, a great accomplishment for a dragon to complete. There is also the option to hire other dragons an pay them by the unit to help complete your structures, if you have that kind of in game money, of course. But the fun of it is making something that belongs to you... on your own. ^_~
I know what you're saying now. From the outside it does seem a bit like dragons are more of an "upgrade" from the biped, especially when you don't realize like I did at the time that the other races have their own cities that compare to lairs (though the lair design seems much more personalized). The "alternate advancement" thing never really struck me as I never play alts in MMOs and prefer to focus on one character, so seeing them as sort of a 2nd way to play the game didn't really come to mind.
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Hi Kordesh,
I play a similar style and stick to one main character. But that is fine for me in Istaria, just because I am well known among the players and developed a personality of my character through battle and roleplay.
From my point of view Istaria supports single char RP and casual players more than most other games, even when it comes to plotbuilding or lairshaping. However, one should not reach for the stars like Tier 6 Grandhall or such, because this might last years to finish. Istaria is very braod and deep in its possibilities, like EVE is too. You can play over years and will not have achieved all you dream of.
I have seen several hasty leveling players throughout the years. They come with their walktrough, cut their bloody way trough the quest and fade after they got lost within all the possibilities. Istaria isn't meant to achieve fun by leveling up, but by developing your personal experience with both the world and its player. I strongly advice to take your time, listen to the questgiver carefully and search for allies of similar strength. Lore ist great in Istaria, especially that of the dragons and its worth to get known to it. Not only because many quests base on knowledge you should have gained before. If you just go to the last line of the questgivers speech to read what to kill, craft or achieve, you play only half of the game.
But its the other half that makes horizons unique and that let you immerge deeply into the world and its story.
I have noticed many improvements over the original incarnation but it seems that the core structure is still basically the same. That tells me that the concept is solid which, IMO, makes implementing improvements much easier.
The multiclass system is very complex but easy to understand. You truly have a choice of a huge diversity in directions to take your avatar, both adventuring and crafting.
And I will say it again, the support given by the vets is incredible. Even playing on the free demo account, I have received help from many friendly players who have taken time out of their game to either craft items for me or just to give some advice.
I have seen some people complain about the UI which I will agree needs some tweaking but even if nothing changed, it works fine for me. In fact, I prefer most things about the UI over other games.
There is definitely plenty of housing plots out there now for those who enjoy that part of the game. Although keep in mind its not one of those games where you just place a house, it has to be built by craftsman.
As more content is added and possibly graphics improvements, I can see this game picking up steam again like it once had.
Oh no, I would never dream of doing the whole "hey lets skip the quest text and power grind through this leveling guide" thing. I hate that. I try to absorb every bit of lore I can in whatever I play as the story is a big reason behind why I play. And I actually like the fact that housing is a long term project as it's exactly what I'm looking for. There's no heart or effort in it if you can just plop down house01 and then sit down in the middle of it with nothing else to do. I decided to give it a shot via the 14day trial as opposed to the free account, mainly so that if I decide to stay I don't need to restart (as I wouldn't want to stay human). Fiend was looking appealing in style and their delving into "restricted" magics, but they were a bit too "displeased" from what I read about them. Decided to go with dryad as they seem to have an agreeable disposition and their connection/affinity for magic is interesting. I especially like the story about them essentially phase shifting their city into an alternate reality to avoid invasion.
Strangely, I've been ready to put the game down several times because of the dated aspects of it, and yet at the same time I find myself repeatedly coming back because the game itself has features I've been looking for for a long time, and I love the character development system/open world. Chat is proving a bit troublesome though as I'm not quite sure if its working even though I have all the right things checked and channels joined, I think.
Name is Valk WispWillow and decided to take the plunge over on Order. I don't usually seek out roleplay myself, but I'm reactive in that if someone RPs with me or there is an RP event, I just go into "RP mode". Basically, its fun being able to call on all the lore I just spent forever reading to have fun with the game, but at the same time it can get tiresome being in character 24/7 as I don't half ass it and eventually I just start running out of interesting RP ideas if I run it into the ground.
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Thanks for all those fine comments!
They go to show, that what I suspect to be true.. IS.
In long years past, there was a player named Personaljustice. We called him PJ. He was the consumate tester type of player. He would build and rebuild his character to test skills against the toughest mobs in the game. It was always fun to play with him in a group, as you were bound to learn a thing or tow about your own build.
And you see, that's entirely the point. In Istaria you can build almost ANY style of character from a fire and lightning Archer, to a magic casting Spearman. Now, this is not to say that all such possibilities are viable or even fun to play, but the mere fact that you can presents a player with endless possibilities.
For instance, My main is primarily a ranger. Bust since I also have Guardian ( nature based warrior class ) , Cleric ( plate wearing healer class ) , Druid ( nature based caster/cc class ) , Scout ( pure ranged dps class ), and some Battlemage... I can from a distance do multiple target cc and ( at times ) extraordinary dps damage. with a few more lvl 100 classes I will be capable of soloing all but the most elite mobs in the game.
And this is just one possible build. Others can do fantastic damage, or keep 10 mobs at bay as they kill them in turn. Like I said endless possibilities.
If you decide to play here, please start out on Chaos and get a feel for the community and look into all the possibilities... you will not be disappointed!
Ask around for Aamer Khan. I am always willing to help anyone, but especially like to help new players.
More content is underway - we're starting to see the efforts of the Tier2 update in game now and most folks are really curious as to what Virtrium has in store for us when it is finished.
Graphic updates are happening as well. On the official forums there are some tests for new model animations (the new laying animation for Dragons is spectacular) and there's been a request for community input on new animations for both Dragons and bipeds alike. ((here) and (here))
I feel this is an excellent indication that the tools and talent are in place to start doing bigger things.
With the exception of Champions Online, I think this game is probably the only one out there where you, as the character, can fly (presuming you chose a dragon.. who wouldn't).
Someone might say "Aion", lol. But I meant really fly.. not fly for 30 seconds and crash and have to wait for 3 minutes to fly again in certain areas only. No, that's not flying.
I loved this game when I played full time. Leveled a dragon to 100, made a biped to 125 (little different equation for biped level equivalences since they overlap and average out for the overall skill level) and quit not too long ago because several items were deleted from my account during an apparent overhaul.
Beyond that basically everything was great.. perfect community, very supportive players. Zero economy... which basically means everyone helps everyone else out for basically nothing. RP was great (if you like that.. wasn't really my thing, but I played along sometimes).
The game engine is a bit outdated (The Engine loads collide-able objects based on sight.. so if you can't see it, you can't run into it) so the monsters can walk through walls and everything else precluding any real functioning indoor areas.
Crafting is insanely addictive.. you can create everything from a small well to a towering castle.. if you want to invest the time and effort. But definitely worth a look if you're considering a new obsession, this is it.
I sometimes visit here to check out the latest games coming out.. I also like to see what people are talking about from older games I have played.. It is interesting as when I started playing MMO's (Asherons Call beta thru 4 years) who would have thought I would go back to this game (beta tested this when Atari owned it) Virtrium has done a wonderful job making Vista available and also just making the game stable and actually fun again.. They are a small company but they are very talented.. There is even a Dungeon now for higher lvl characters to play and there is word that the up and coming patches will have lower lvl dungeons.. (Blighted areas act as dungeons also... sky changes weather effects very spooky) I play this on the side as (dont flame me) play wow with friends.. I raid and such.. When i want interesting things to do and like using my head (instead of mashing buttons) I come to istaria (Horizons) I still even have the cd set for this game.. There is just something awesome about making my own gear, house,storage,weapons,potions,tools,food, etc that I can even sell or place on a consignment for other players to use.. Community?? OMG you have NEVER seen a community that bands together to help each other like this..
I can tell you to try this game till I am blue in the face, but this will fall on deaf ears... many have fallen into the EASY mode of games.. Wow (as I said I play with friends is why i am even there.. brother also) is the easiest game I have ever played.. they hold your hand for everything.. crafting in that game is not even really needed except for perhaps gems... anyway I am not here to bash games but tell you if you want a challenge and you really wish to explore,craft things that youll be proud of... Try out Istaria... I am Cata on the Order shard (RP shard).. its slower paced when you want it and faster paced when you want it..
Any idea which server is the more populated or are they both similar.
Chaos is generally considered to be the more populated seeing that it's a "normal" server. Order is your Role Play server. Blight is your test server. Hope that helps!
I just joined on the rp server, it's much bettter than I expected. The music really hooked me in, though the combat is pretty... clunky (oh-god-the-animations-please fix-them!) The crafting is very good too, it reminds me a lot of eve (the whole gathring and crafting system is quite reminiscent of eve)
There are just so many little things that are really nice though, the customisable ui by default, really nice players, good rp - I didn't see a single troller =p
Never played a game with 0 pvp before and it's quite a daunting system, just looking at the auction house trying to figure out what is what...I'm quite optimiistic though, a game is only as good as its players
<Welcome to my world>
You were doing good up until the "Or maybe..." part. The age of the EQ flagellates is long gone. It's the diversity, complexity and uniqueness of Istaria that sells it. If anything, the "or maybe" part is its worst liability and the LAST thing people should mention as a selling point when trying to pitch the game.
Istaria is impressive in many ways and well worth a try for anyone who wants to check out a rather unique approach to the level/class-based fantasy game.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Welcome to Istaria! The game does have a rather steep learning curve, but that's what the players are there for -- to help and answer questions.
Just hang in there... there IS lots to learn! I know I still don't know all there is to know about the game even after my time playing it.
I'm glad to see that its making a come back. I was one of those poor damned souls who suffered for months and months through all of the various "issues" at launch. ^^ If I remember right I had a high 80's low 90's warrior type, with some cleric and mage abilities thrown in. Interesting game(I was there and helped guard the builders as they created the first tunnels). Its always seemed to be one of the best crafting games I've seen so far. But the combat system was rather primitive and bug prone at the time. Any way, to make a long story short I eventually left. I went back last december, but the graphics are so dated and the world seems so empty that I left again after my month expired. I wish all of you the very best though.
There have been many new features and content being worked on. A patch was recently released that contains many new features. Why not try the unlimited free to play feature and check out the tier 2 improvements and do a little more exploring? This game is definitely heading back in the right direction, true there is a long way to go but there are some positive things happening.
I just signed up the other day and already I am enjoying it. I went Cleric and the lizard like race. Having a blast thus far! The other players seem nice and even though the quests are tedious (Lots of wasted running! Hope it changes at higher levels) They are fun. In a time I found myself to be completely burnt out on the "new" generation of MMO's this is a great throwback to hold my attention for a while!
Tysi on the Order server.
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"I like wow, I like aion and I like AoC all for different reasons.....the later cause i get to see boobs, but still its a reason!!" - Sawlstone
I just came back after almost 5 years away from Istaria. I loved the game when I played it right after it came out, but got to where the monthly fee was to much to handle and not worth the amount of time I had to play. I only have the time to play a couple hours a day 1-2 days a week and the fee was not worth the time I could put in. The free human account is what I play now the only down side is now I can not have a plot which is disapointing but it is what it is. I play a monk at the moment and will go flame once I am at the lvl to get it. I love the game and like that it takes time to lvl up crafting and adventure classes and that you can multi class in both. I look forward to getting back in the game and getting my Monk back to what he use to be.
Same here just checked out the human F2P aspect,and loved creating a scout after donkeys years may even sub later just have some beta's in the pipeline but would say anybody wanting game play over graphics to take a look as this could be the future gameplan for many Mo's as LOTRO is going hybrid F2P i expect STO and the other big hitters to do the same,I wonder if SWTOR is makeing companies nervous?.
I loved Horizons back in the day, only stopped when the servers came down. Love what they have done.