News

Content Patch

Dear players,

Today's update brings you the following features:

• The reload time for archers has been lowered.
• A quest has been added to Runewick.
• Spider queens and lichs may have a surprise when they die.
• The guard of the main gate in Galmair is working again.

Deactivation of magical gem output

An error caused that too many magical gems were give out in Galmair. The output of gems is deactivated until further notice. Donations and taxes will not be wasted. They will be taken into account as soon as teh output is activated again.

Player who recieved magical gems in Galmair today are asked to inform the gamemasters by using !gm or sending a message to the GM group in the forum.

Content Patch

Dear players,

Today's update brings the following features to you:

• Fighting with distance weapons has been changed.
• The possibility to remove labels from potion bottles has been added to the quill.
• Fire spiders explode on their death now. The spiders and wasps won't push characters through walls anymore.
• A GM tool has been adjusted to be able to bring even more fun to the players.
• A few of the crafting recipes have been changed slightly.
• The stocks of some merchants have been adjusted.
• Parry can be learnt more easily now.
• Treasures on stone ground can be dug out with a pickaxe now.
• Galmair some new NPCs.
  

Dragons Call No. 33

New Dragons Call

Topics this time:

• Tower of water should be explored
• Pirates steal treasures!
• City roll posted

Third Illarion staff interview: Lead Client Developer Nitram

When and how did you come to Illarion?
In 2003 I was bored with the other games I had and went looking for a new game. I found Illarion. Back then the game required an application to get an account, so I applied and got rejected by Arien. It seemed my roleplaying abilities were not sufficient. I did not give up though, but tried again and the second time I got an account. I played for about three months until the game became boring and I did not log back in. Yet I still did not learn to stay away, so I came back... I think in the third quarter of 2004. This was about the same time Vilarion joined. I stayed active playing until the character wipe in 2005 and a short time after. After that I joined the staff as scripter and the first thing I did was get the doors working.

What is your vision of Illarion?
I'd like Illarion to become a game that can be played by roleplayers and those who are new to the concept of roleplaying, where roleplaying and "engine-playing" is mixed in a healthy way. So a game were one can go alone into a dungeon, bash some monsters and can have fun, or bash some monsters with a group of players and have fun... Or sit around a camp fire and talk about stuff and have fun. It shouldn't matter what you do in the game, how many players do it with you or against you, the important part is the fun. Also it would be nice to have some more players active in the game. Enough to bring Vilarion's server to its knees would be good.

What is your role as a member of staff?
Currently its Java development and the coordination of all Java development along with player support in technical matters. I am also supporting the script and the homepage development as required.

What is your current project?
Currently I am working on re-factoring the build process and improving the download application. Once done, players hopefully will not notice the change applied to the building process. That is mainly for the developers because it makes many things easier. A whole different story is the download application. This one is currently really annoying for some players, mainly those with bad wireless connections. The new version will hopefully resolve those problems. Also the new download application will not require webstart any more. Webstart is currently the reason why the client takes at times 30 minutes to launch. This will not happen any more once the new downloader is done. Also the combination of the new downloader and the new build process will reduce the amount of data you need to download for each update. Currently even minor changes to the clients resources cause the downloader to download all resources again and that is not needed so will be fixed.

What will be your next big project?
Players chose the guild system as the big thing that should be developed next so I guess this is the next project.

What is your duty in the Society?
Starting in 2014 I'll be the Treasurer of the Society. This means I collect the membership fees and pay the bills to keep Illarion alive.

What is your motivation to work for Illarion?
My motivation is based mainly on my insanity and the fact that I enjoy annoying players... of course not. I am perfectly sane. I like developing Illarion, because I simply like to develop things. Also, it's awesome to see how Illarion has changed since I joined. I also have so many more plans that I'd like to do and try out. This is what keeps me going: There is always another thing to do.

Any hints of what we can look forward to most in game in the near future?
Many cool things like illnesses, new wildfires, random meteor strikes... but I was told not to create those because players might not like them. Other than that I think mainly the update of the updater will make things more enjoyable because it will speed-up the deployment process and reduce the time the client requires to launch. Beside this, I am currently experimenting with the possibility to dynamically change the colour of items and paperdolling objects in multiple zones, so that it would be possible to colour and armour in multiple colours. For example, a grey base colour with a red cross on it, or something like that... but that is a thing for later on.