Lost Isle News

Greetings Survivors!

Your adventure on the Isle will present you with many dangers and loot to discover, but also helpful encounters that will make you stronger and prepare you for the toughest battles!

The NPCs are your main allies, besides other players you befriended during your journey.
They will offer you quests, repair your equipment, rewards, and more.
For this reason, today’s devlog is centered around the non-playable characters and their purpose in Lost Isle!

But before we jump in, we have two other big announcements to make:

Firstly, today at 5:00 PM MT, we will open a new Playtest session, running until Sunday, June 1st, at 5:00 PM MT. As always, you can sign up through our Discord Server. We will also lift the embargo, which means that anyone will be able to share their Lost Isle experience. All you need to do is request the “Creator” role on our Discord server.
The second major announcement is that we will be participating in Steam Next Fest from June 9th to June 15th. During this time, the Lost Isle demo will be publicly available!

Now it’s time to take a deep dive into the Lost Isle NPCs and their factions!




Lost Isle hosts various factions, each with their unique skill and storage that you can buy from. Becoming a member of these groups is not easy: you will be asked to complete challenging quests and satisfy strict requirements to be worthy of them, but don’t underestimate them because they will shape your role within your community or what you can offer to it while you are trying to join!
The Forge Masters Guild - Blacksmith
Dedicated to the discipline of blacksmithing, members of this faction develop the skills of refining and smelting ores, and the forging and shaping of metals.
Hans Hammermill - NPC: sells and repairs weapons and armor, offers quests and rewards. Hans will be your go-to whenever your equipment needs an upgrade or a quick fix. You will encounter this individual frequently during your journey.

[h2]The Epicurean League - Cook[/h2]
A prestigious association of cooking enthusiasts and food artisans dedicated to the pursuit of culinary excellence.
Grunty Wadsworth - Cook NPC: sells foods and cooking supplies, offers quests and rewards. Whenever you need to replenish your stock and prepare for the next exploration, Grunty will always have your back with fresh meals!

[h2]The Builders Alliance - Craftsman[/h2]
From the carpenter's intricate woodwork to the stonemason's majestic structures, members collaborate to uphold the highest standards of craftsmanship in construction and architecture.
Daniel Lewis - Craftsman NPC - sells crafting supplies and furniture, and offers quests and rewards. Daniel will be vital when it comes to building your home or any other assets that will serve as a safe space for you and your community.

[h2]The Earthen Core - Miner[/h2]
Hardworking miners and prospectors are devoted to expertise and innovation in the extraction of Earth's vast resources of metals and gemstones.
Duncan Felt - Miner NPC: sells ores and mining gear, opens geodes, offers quests, and rewards. What’s the point of going looting without the proper gear? Here’s when Duncan comes in clutch and provides the equipment you need, plus some stuff he found along the way.

[h2]The Stitchers Union - Stylist[/h2]
The members of this faction are appearance improvement specialists with skills that range from hairstyles and base decorations to finely tailored clothing and dyes.
Lilia Grey - Stylist NPC: sells cloth and tailoring supplies, offers quests and rewards. Joining a community is not easy, but with new clothes and a fresh cut, you will find your place soon!

[h2]The Nomadic Circle - Vagrant[/h2]
Preferring a nomadic lifestyle, the members of this faction have developed a unique skill set and knowledge base relating to the taming of wild animals to ease the burdens of travel and the discovery of many well-kept secrets of the Lost Isle.
Jasper Tully - Vagrant NPC: sells a little of everything, offers quests, and rewards. Jasper is your jolly. Can’t find an item from all the other NPCs? Then maybe he’s your answer.

[h2]The Order of the Watchmen - Watchman[/h2]
An oath-bound force of honorable soldiers whose sole purpose and duty is to protect and defend the citizens of the Lost Isle from all threats.
Leo Thames - Watchman NPC: sells weapons and armor, offers quests and rewards. Being a watchman is not for everyone, and Leo will prove it to you with the toughest gear and quests that the town can offer.

[h2]The Arcane Assembly - Wizard[/h2]
A loosely bound collective of wise mortal wizards who have dedicated their lives to understanding and thereby harnessing the powerful energies that emanate from Mauroth's underground cosmic tomb and permeate through the island itself.
Elysian Zander - Wizard NPC: sells magic and alchemy supplies, offers quests, and rewards. If melee combat is not your thing, then Elysian will teach you everything about magic and how to use it to fend off any danger! He’s your pillar when you are looking for something wizardy-related.



Thank you, everyone, for your support! Please follow us on our socials and join our Discord Server to keep updated with our latest news and join the discussion with the rest of the community!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playlostisle/

X: https://x.com/playlostisle

Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574122423322

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@playlostisle

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@playlostisle

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playlostisle/

[h3]Player Count Limit Testing[/h3]

Tomorrow, on Saturday May 24, our goal is to have 100+ players in a server playing Lost Isle simultaneously over the span of a few hours. This will give us extremely valuable data on the state of performance optimizations and server stability.

If you're interested in participating in this specific playtest, or any future playtests, all you need to do is follow the simple signup steps below, show up that day at 11:00 AM Mountain Time and play the game. Lots of fun with melee and magic filled PVP and PVE guaranteed!

[h3]Signup Instructions[/h3]

1. Join our Discord community
   
2. Navigate to the "playtest-sign-up" channel in the General Hub. Review the requirements, fill out the fields, and submit this form for admin review
   
3. When approved, you'll receive a message with instructions to navigate to the "playtest-embargo-agreement" form. Review the terms, complete and submit for admin review
   
4. After your embargo agreement form has been reviewed and approved, you will automatically be given the role of "Playtester" and have access to the "playtesters" chat channel which will serve as the hub for all playtesting participation
   

Everyone who is approved as a playtester will receive an access code to the latest Steam build that will be available to download on the day of testing.

[h3]Weekend Access[/h3]

Once the limit test has concluded tomorrow at 2 PM Mountain Time, anyone signed up as a Lost Isle playtester will have access to the game for the rest of the weekend until Sunday evening. So make sure you sign up and join in!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the Discord and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your willingness to participate in playtesting - this is an extremely important part of the process of making our game the very best it can be.

We look forward to seeing you in Lost Isle very soon!


-The Lost Isle Team

[h3]Player Count Limit Testing[/h3]

On Saturday, May 24, our goal is to have 100+ players in a server playing Lost Isle simultaneously over the span of a few hours. This will give us extremely valuable data on the state of performance optimizations and server stability.

If you're interested in participating in this specific playtest, or any future playtests, all you need to do is follow the simple signup steps below, show up that day at 11:00 AM Mountain Time and play the game. Lots of fun with melee and magic filled PVP and PVE guaranteed!

[h3]Signup Instructions[/h3]

1. Join our Discord community
   
2. Navigate to the "playtest-sign-up" channel in the General Hub. Review the requirements, fill out the fields, and submit this form for admin review
   
3. When approved, you'll receive a message with instructions to navigate to the "playtest-embargo-agreement" form. Review the terms, complete and submit for admin review
   
4. After your embargo agreement form has been reviewed and approved, you will automatically be given the role of "Playtester" and have access to the "playtesters" chat channel which will serve as the hub for all playtesting communication
   

Everyone who is approved as a playtester will receive an access code to the latest Steam build that will be available to download on the day of testing.

[h3]Bi-Weekly Weekend Access[/h3]

In addition to the more organized player count milestone playtests, we're also giving less formal access to our playtester group on weekends on a bi-weekly basis. On the Friday of each of these weekends the access code will be shared with all playtesters, who are welcome to come and go and play as long a they like up until servers are shut down on Sunday nights. Join our playtester group to stay in the loop for these dates!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in our Discord and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your willingness to participate in playtesting - this is an important part of the process of making our game the very best it can be.

We look forward to surviving together with you, and against you, in Lost Isle very soon!


-The Lost Isle Team

[h2]What's New?[/h2]
This month we've got a whole slew of fresh new looks, ranging from branding to environment and lighting to combat feedback. Let's dive right in!

[h3]Branding[/h3]

If you've been following Lost Isle for longer than a week you probably noticed that our logo and capsule art on Steam received a major glow up recently. Our old in-house design did the job for awhile, but it was time to retire it in favor of a new professionally designed version. All bias acknowledged - and pushed aside - we love the way it turned out!

[h3]Beach and Ocean[/h3]

An open-world survival game that takes place on an island needs a great ocean and beaches. Up until now we could say that ours were pretty good, but now we can say that they're becoming GREAT! New textures, materials, water physics and lighting exposure all combine to make a realistic and immersive beach environment.

[h3]Road System[/h3]

It may not seem like it, but roads are an integral part of the game loop. They not only provide the path of least resistance when traveling between landmarks, but are the host of traveling enemy patrols and abandoned carts - both of which are reliable sources of loot that you'll need in your quest to dominate the isle. In this update, the textures and side spawning vegetation have been improved, as well as new cart props where you'll find loot barrels and crates.

[h3]Damage Dealt Feedback[/h3]

This is a newly added feature to give players information when dealing damage to other players and AI. Above the head of this skeleton you can see a few different symbols and a number value with a specific text color. The skull with an arrow means that your attack was a critical strike, in this case due to a head shot. The shield indicates that the damage dealt was mitigated to some degree by your target's resistances. The color of the text means that the damage type was physical - if it were magic damage the text would be a blueish hue. Lastly, the number is the total damage dealt to the target.

[h3]Directional Damage Received Indicator[/h3]

A common feature across games, and for good reason. This simple quality of life feature gives you an indicator for which direction the damage you last received came from during combat. Not so useful when you're face to face with a skeleton, but very helpful when an enemy player sticks you in the back with an arrow from range.

[h3]Screenspace Status Effects[/h3]

Lost Isle has many different status effects stemming from the toils of physical human survival, magic spells, and everything in between. Here I walked into fire and have the "Burning" debuff. Above the action bar you'll find an icon and hover tooltip to explain whatever you're affected by, and in addition to that we've now added screen space effects to make the most harmful debuffs more obvious so you can quickly take action and (hopefully) stay alive.

[h3]Other Notes[/h3]

• Demo playtesting continues every other weekend! The playtest, feedback, fix, repeat loop has been extremely valuable for improving the quality and fun factor of Lost Isle, and we're grateful to everyone who has helped with this so far. If you're interested in participating as a playtester make sure you join our Discord! (link below)
  
• Within the next month our embargo will be lifted and public content sharing will be highly encouraged! To that end, we're looking to collaborate with content creators of all types and sizes. If that's you, join our Discord and send us a message!
  

[h3]Stay in the Loop[/h3]

Don't miss out on important updates - make sure to wishlist Lost Isle here on Steam, join our Discord community, and follow us on X!

[h3]Player Count Limit Testing[/h3]

Our ultimate goal on launch is to be able to support up to 200 concurrent players per server. During last month's limit test we reached nearly 80 concurrent players, which is a big leap forward from our previous record in the 20's. We have a group of awesome playtesters helping us reach these milestones, and to continue pushing the limits, we need even more players!

Tomorrow on Saturday, April 26, from 11 AM to 2 PM Mountain Time, our goal is to have 100+ players in a server playing Lost Isle simultaneously over the span of a few hours. This will give us extremely valuable data on the state of optimizations. If you're interested in participating in this specific playtest, or any future playtests, all you need to do is follow the simple signup steps below, show up at the start time and play the game. Lots of fun with melee and magic filled PVP guaranteed!

[h3]Signup Instructions[/h3]

1. Join our Discord community
   
2. Navigate to the "playtest-sign-up" channel in the General Hub. Review the requirements, fill out the fields, and submit this form for admin review
   
3. When approved, you'll receive a message with instructions to navigate to the "playtest-embargo-agreement" form. Review the terms, complete and submit for admin review
   
4. After your embargo agreement form has been reviewed and approved, you will automatically be given the role of "Playtester" and have access to the "playtesters" chat channel which will serve as the hub for all playtesting participation
   

Everyone who is approved as a playtester will receive an access code to the latest Steam build that will be available to download on the day of testing.

[h3]Weekend Access[/h3]

Once the limit test has concluded tomorrow at 2 PM Mountain Time, anyone signed up as a Lost Isle playtester will have access to the game for the rest of the weekend until Sunday evening. So make sure you sign up and join in!

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out in the Discord and we'll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your willingness to participate in playtesting - this is an extremely important part of the process of making our game the very best it can be.

We look forward to seeing you in Lost Isle very soon!


-The Lost Isle Team