Introducing Ishtan
Interviews

Harvey: There will be a public beta test although we are only just preparing for the closed beta which is scheduled to start some time in february. It's expected that the public test will be approximately one month before release which would put it at about July of 2005.

Harvey: There are 16 playable races within Ishtan, of these Humans provide a standard base and are the most populous within the world.

Humans have no real bonuses to their characters but they also have no penalties placed upon them. The other races can differ quite substantially from each other. Many of the differences are subtle such as having slightly different skin tones while others are more pronounced such as having immunities to various forms of magic or innate magical(Spell like) abilities of their own, greater proficiency with particular weapons, the ability to move silently through certain area's that kind of thing. All of the non humans can see in the dark much better than humans although for the subterranean races such as the Drow elf, Deep gnome, Mountain and Grey Dwarves their daylight vision is extremely poor and in some instances similar to the night vision of humans.

Many of these abilities might make it seem as though a human character would make a poor choice for many players however the balance is created by limiting the possibility for class advancement for non human characters. There are ways around this within the game such as divine intervention for very pious characters but in general a human character may become much more powerful than a non-human.

Harvey: Player vs Player is possible within Ishtan anywhere within the game world. Some area's of the game deter pvp such as within the cities and there are rules established to prevent powerful players from attacking weak players to avoid new players being constant targets. In many games PvP can take over the entire game and those that don't like PvP can often avoid such games. Within Ishtan it only forms a part of the game and if players wish to avoid such combat then it's possible by choosing how they wish to live and play.

Balance isnt really as complicated an issue as you might expect since PvP is only one small aspect of Ishtan and depends entirely how the players wish to play the game. If a character is adventuring and searching through tombs, dungeons and ancient ruins, then a rogue might be well suited to the process while a knight in shining armour would be at an extreme disadvantage, in contrast, a rogue hoping to stand up against a charge of knights on the battle field would also be at a considerable disadvantage. Some characters are more suited to different styles of play than others and this will be a big aspect of choosing a character for a player. There is nothing to prevent a thief from going toe to toe with a fighter but there is nothing within the game which
says that they have to.

Harvey: There are a number of different diseases possible within Ishtan. Some of them are contagious and can be passed from character to character through touch or simply being around an infected person while others can only be passed on intentionally such as with Evil Paladins being able to cause disease on people or through evil priets spell use and even Lycanthropy and Vampirism.

In general diseases can be cured by the use of Clerical and Druidic spells, Good Paladins, and also various potions but some diseases are more difficult to cure and might require players to find specific artifacts or to perform special rituals in order to cure a disorder. Some in the case of lycanthropy or vampirism might not wish to be cured as they can provide benefits as well as penalties to how a character performs and behaves.

Harvey: It's true that Ishtan is an Island, but it's also surrounded by many smaller islands and the largest 3 of these contain the starting cities. The 'good' city is linked to the mainland by bridge however in the 'neutral' and 'evil' cities the players will be required to find a way to the mainland once they become powerful enough to explore a bit more.

There are several types of vessels available within the game ranging from row boats, two and three masted sailing vessels used for transporting goods and passengers through to magically powered vessels whose primary purpose is warfare and piracy.

If the players wish to have a life at sea then this will be more than possible ranging from simply being the crew to owning their own vessel.

Harvey: I guess the best way for people to be convinced would be to come along and read through the community forums. There is a lot of great questions and answers and so far the community is full of some wonderful people hoping to make the game better for everyone. I think for me the key aspect of Ishtan is that it's offering a much bigger world than most similar games. Not bigger in the sense that it covers more virtual space, but bigger in that there is much more depth to what is possible within the world. Everything a player does can have some consequence from putting on weight if their character eats too much, losing the respect of npc's if they behave innapropriately, or getting on the wrong side of the law and having to find a way out of it. I'd like to think that Ishtan truly lets a player play a game how they want and that the world reacts in an appropriate way and this is something thats missing from many games. If you want a little bit more out of your games then drop in and give Ishtan a look, there's nothing to lose and much to gain.