Lost Isle News

[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

[h2]What's New?[/h2]
This past weekend we made a big push to reach the milestone of having 100 concurrent players in a single server, and while we didn't quite make it to that number, we're happy to report that we peaked at 78 players and server performance held strong! This was a major success in terms of large-scale multiplayer stability. There are still a few more hills to climb before we reach our goal of 150+, but our team is making great progress each month one step at a time.

In the last dev blog we addressed the cosmic energy-infused meteors that Mauroth continuously calls down from space to fortify himself and weaken surface dwellers. This month we're covering another one of his strategies - this time originating from underneath the surface.



[h3]Minor Breaches[/h3]
As Mauroth grows in strength from his underground prison-tomb, his influence on the isle's surface likewise becomes increasingly intense. Whenever he musters enough power, he sends forth his minions to breach the surface with a tainted obelisk. These create a new epicenter of corruption, defended by skeletal warriors that only come back stronger when they die, and are marked with a sky-high beacon of green light to embolden his followers and intimidate his enemies.

Breaches are a wave clear mini world event, and as such are completely optional. They spawn at fixed intervals in random locations across the map, and you'll know when they do because an alert message plays to all players on the server that a breach has spawned, and the beacon of green light is visible from a very far distance. They will persist until the last wave of enemies is cleared, but if players ignore them altogether, a maximum server limit can be reached and no more will spawn.



There are three waves of enemies with increasing difficulty, dropping one loot chest of increasing quality at the end of each wave. While they are optional, they're a great source of better than average gear that will likely be highly contested. So if your goal is to have the best weapons and armor as early as possible, taking on a breach might be your best bet.

The waves go like this:

• Wave 1 = 1 basic melee infantry unit. This should be solo-able with low quality gear.
  
• Wave 2 = 1 advanced melee unit and 1 ranged unit. You'll probably need a basic set of gear or help from another player.
  
• Wave 3 = 1 advanced melee unit, 1 ranged unit, and 1 summoner unit. You'll definitely need decent gear and/or help from another player.
  

Here's a quick look at the 3rd wave of a breach where it spawned a rogue, archer, and summoner (I died).



Crafting and adding bandages to your action bar before going into combat is highly recommended. Melee attacks from skeletons cause bleeding, and bandages remove stacks of bleeding and heal for a small amount. They're cheap and quick to make, and could be the difference between surviving the wave and looting the chest, or dying and losing it all.

[h3]Map Size and Player Count[/h3]
Our plan over the next weeks and months is to continue scaling both player count and map size, with the goal of supporting 150+ players concurrently on a much larger map. We are of course working on many other things like balancing resource availability and crafting recipes, while continuing to add features to the world and improving client performance. And now with demo playtesting access every other weekend, we are working closely with playtesters to get feedback and make adjustments as quickly as possible.

[h3]Other Notes[/h3]

• Our Demo is now live every other weekend! If you're interested in participating as a Demo playtester make sure you join our Discord! (link below)
  
• With consistent Demo access now available, 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, and we're breaking that down into a few smaller milestones over the coming months. Last month during a playtest we had 20+ players concurrently in a server, and server stability was completely unaffected (This is a big achievement. Hooray!). Now we want to start pushing the limits and we need your help!

Tomorrow on Saturday, March 29, 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 11 am mountain 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, 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]

Our ultimate goal on launch is to be able to support up to 200 concurrent players per server, and we're breaking that down into a few smaller milestones over the coming months. Last month during a playtest we had 20+ players concurrently in a server, and server stability was completely unaffected (This is a big achievement. Hooray!). Now we want to start pushing the limits and we need your help!

Next weekend on Saturday, March 29, 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 that day (exact time TBA) 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]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 as 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 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