What's New?
Now that our foundation is more stable - multiplayer, server performance, and other core game mechanics at scale - the door has cracked open just enough for us to start implementing more of the fantasy side of our medieval-fantasy open-world survival craft game.
As a quick Lost Isle lore refresher, beneath the surface of the island lies the prison-tomb of the fallen god, Mauroth. Over thousands of years he has plotted his escape and return to power, biding his time and growing in strength. Enter: Mauroth's Meteors.
Mauroth's Meteors
One thing Mauroth desperately needs but cannot source on earth is a cosmic energy-infused metal called Elementium. He uses what power he does have to continuously call down meteors fully comprised of the stuff. What he doesn't know, however, is that these meteors are not only a boon to himself, but to whoever gets there first.
Before discussing the benefits of meteors, you should be warned that they deal fatal damage to players who are caught in the blast zone. So while it's very fun to watch as they descend and explode, make sure you're on your toes and prepared to take a few last minute evasive maneuvers.
When a meteor makes landfall it does two very important things for players: it leaves behind a crater shaped ring of Elementium nodes for mining, and it converts all of the trees within the impact radius into Smoldering Trees. These are the sources of Elementium Ore and Smolderbark Wood - two of the rarest resources on the island, and required for top tier weapon and armor crafting.
On a fresh server start, you may not pay much attention to these because you aren't ready to use the resources for crafting yet, but keep in mind that they don't stick around forever. After some time, the nodes will disappear under the surface, and the trees will go back to normal. And since survival is all about taking advantage of opportunities, it might be best to gather whatever you can, whenever you can.
Rest assured that if you miss your chance to harvest the bounty of a meteor, Mauroth will always call down another.
Map Size and Player Count
Last week we shrunk the size of the map down significantly ahead of our demo playtest to ensure everything ran smoothly on a smaller scale. The current map is about 70% smaller than our full size map. We're happy to report that performance on a single server over several hours, with 60+ unique players and 20+ concurrent players, was flawless!
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 our full size 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 weekend, we hope to work closely with playtesters to get feedback and make adjustments weekly.
Other Notes
- Our Demo is now live every 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!
Stay in the Loop
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!