We would like to welcome our second group of alpha testers, who joined us on July 15th. With their arrival, we can announce the completion of an herb system, bodily wounds and various sundry afflictions, and the healing ward. Within the next few weeks, the training paths for healing skills will be implemented, allowing players the potential to tend their own wounds, prepare their own herbal concoctions, and dare we say, self-medicate. Also, we will complete the implementation of poisons, diseases and plagues, which we currently have remedies for, but no sources as yet of such fine contagions and woes.
Also ready for release are the climbing and swimming skill paths. These skills are attainable from the new ranger guild, found on Lookout Knoll outside of town. If you ever get to visit the guild, be sure to peer through the spyglass for sneak peeks at environmental areas slated for development in the future.
Speaking of new areas…. testers have discovered that a maze of underground warrens now exits, connecting the tombs to the cliff top plateau above town. Also, progress has begun on the area’s second major forest, creatively called, North Forest. Many more interactive objects and senses have been added, though many more are needed.
All in all, the team at Lost Isles is happy with the progress being made, and is excited to share it with an open beta release sometime next year. We may bring in a third group of testers in early 2004, so if you have any interest, please register on the website and send in a request for an alpha submission form.
Stay tuned for more progress updates in future newsletters, or check out what's new on the Lost Isles website at www.lostisles.com/news.php.
Also ready for release are the climbing and swimming skill paths. These skills are attainable from the new ranger guild, found on Lookout Knoll outside of town. If you ever get to visit the guild, be sure to peer through the spyglass for sneak peeks at environmental areas slated for development in the future.
Speaking of new areas…. testers have discovered that a maze of underground warrens now exits, connecting the tombs to the cliff top plateau above town. Also, progress has begun on the area’s second major forest, creatively called, North Forest. Many more interactive objects and senses have been added, though many more are needed.
All in all, the team at Lost Isles is happy with the progress being made, and is excited to share it with an open beta release sometime next year. We may bring in a third group of testers in early 2004, so if you have any interest, please register on the website and send in a request for an alpha submission form.
Stay tuned for more progress updates in future newsletters, or check out what's new on the Lost Isles website at www.lostisles.com/news.php.
A swamp creature, the echidna is queen of her domain. She is intelligent and powerful, both in physical strength and in magic. She bears the head, upper torso, and arms of a human female, and the body of a serpent from the hips down. The serpent portion of her body is thirty feet long, and able to strangle a large horse or similar mount within several minutes. The human portion of the creature uses bladed weapons for defense and offense, and it is suspected that all of her weapons come from fallen adventurers who have wandered into her domain. She wields a magic based on illusion with deadly results. She can also "see" through the eyes of snakes throughout her swamp, making it nearly impossible to sneak and catch her unawares.
It is said by aoru scholars that the echidna is a perversion of the union, a millennia ago, between a race of creatures of the second world of water, and a race from the third world of earth. The match happened just as the chaos was spreading across Komadas, and their resulting progeny was influenced by the terrible energies that ensued. Thus, was the echidna born.
Some industry professionals have claimed that players need to have a few “easy” levels given out in between all the grueling, day-to-day struggles for advancement. They say this gives the player incentive to keep going. Others say that the real snag is to have player greeters who meet every newcomer, and help them “learn the ropes.” Despite the proven success of these two points, our visitors have given these two areas the lowest marks, even lower than on-line documentation.
Ultimately, for a game to succeed, it’s going to need a healthy dose of all the poll options, plus a large and helpful customer service department, and reliable, fast (as possible) connectivity. That’s a tall order for a game to fulfill, and even some of the best stumble in one or two areas at least.
So take a moment if you haven’t already, and go to www.lostisles.com, and add your voice to the question posed this month. What really is the best hook…?
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Get Lost at www.lostisles.com. |
My name is Rosille. I was the youngest daughter of an established trader family from the mining town of Deng. In Deng, the youngest child traditionally does not marry, but stays behind to care for the elders of the family. If you knew my elders, you would understand why I took off on the first boat out of Saoru, the closest river town. I arrived in Saotan when I was eighteen, and became apprenticed to the healers at the Remedy House, an institute for the healing arts. There I found my calling, and have been in service to the prophet Varina, and the sick and injured of Saotan ever since. The Remedy House is the most respected school for healers anywhere on Komadas. I spend most of my shifts in the healing ward, providing comfort and tending for those unable to heal themselves. The irony that I went from a life destined to taking care of my sick elders in Deng, to a life in service to the injured and dying of Saotan is not lost to me. That I remain unmarried is a sorrow I seem destined to bear forever. I have a dream that one of these fine, injured adventurers will see beyond my healing hands, into my heart, and take me for wife. Until then, I remain... the healer of Saotan.
- GM Lilin finds a death system bug
"Qui, when I let a tester kill me, the rezzing is supposed to work!"
-GM Shai's corpse, finding another death system bug
"Looks bad when the same bug exists for 3 months... at least without upgrading it to a feature."
-GM Qui, commenting on death bugs
"I haven't really been anywhere smelly since I took my last bath...about two or three weeks ago."
- GM Qestra (we are not really sure what she was talking about)
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