Summary of the Q&A with KissenKitten (The Isle - Developer Discord)

1. Dinosaur updates & balancing

• Allosaurus (Alo) "Grapple"

  • Not yet finally balanced.
  • Balancing will follow after completion of work on the T-Rex.

• Tyrannosaurus Rex:

  • Currently approx. 763 animations, 260 more than the Beipi.
  • Balancing is in progress, but many adjustments have already been made.
  • Skin Creator integration has been discussed, i.e. whether players will be able to play around with the T-Rex in the Skin Creator and create their favorite skin before it is fully implemented.

• Pachycephalosaurus (Pachy):

  • Will be reworked in the future.
  • Balancing is currently not ideal: It feels too slow and has difficulties with its own attacks.
  • The announced sparring feature has not yet been implemented.
  • The Pachy needs additional gameplay elements to make it more "rounded" in the game.

• Gigantosaurus (Giga):

  • Will be similar to his old playstyle (hit & run, bleed damage, bleed prey).
  • However, Evrima is not comparable to Legacy, so the balancing will be different.

• Triceratops (Trike):

  • Has been reworked, but not finalized yet.
  • The trike is to become a "powerful tank".
  • The sparring feature is still to come.
  • Without a "real" threat, the trike could dominate the gameplay.
  • A new stomp attack has been introduced.

• Sauropods (Brachiosaurus & Kamara):

  • Brachiosaurus is still planned.
  • Kamara (Camarasaurus) is a big challenge for the team.
  • Discussion about sauropods and their energy budget: They probably had high endurance due to air sacs.

2. Future features & mechanics

• Ankylosaurus (Anki):

  • Still a long way off.
  • Developers have talked about a special plant in its diet.

• Elder System (Elder System):

  • Will not be directly accessible - players will have to achieve certain goals.
  • It's meant to be a reward for dedicated players, but not too hard or frustrating.
  • The requirements will not be revealed in advance - players should discover it for themselves.

• New roadmap:

  • The current roadmap will be finalized soon.
  • More information on the future of development will be coming soon.

3. Technical adjustments & problems

• Server performance:

  • The focus is currently on improving server performance.
  • New mechanics will only be implemented afterwards so as not to distort the test results.

• Grass rendering & visibility:

  • The new grass has been introduced to bring more variety to the game.
  • There are problems with the render distance - this could be a bug.

• Night vision bug:

  • Night vision is currently still buggy.
  • Some creatures could still remain in darkness after the fix.

4. Further discussions & community questions

• Dinosaur growth & weight:

  • Triceratops growth will be balanced in the future.
  • Generally, large animals will be balanced later so as not to destabilize the game system.

• Development & Community Criticism:

  • The development team deliberately included smaller dinosaurs first to make balancing decisions for larger creatures easier.
  • Some players accuse the developers of not listening to the community - but KissenKitten emphasizes that they are prioritizing the overall game.
  • She compares the development process to collecting "Infinity stones" - now the "gauntlet is complete", but they can't just snap their fingers.

• Sound updates:

  • Revised call sounds for certain dinos are in the works.
  • KissenKitten has been working on new calls and plans to finalize them soon.

Conclusion

This Q&A session provided many insights into the current development status of The Isle. Especially the focus on balancing and server performance shows that the team is still working on the stability of the game before implementing more big features like the Elder system, the sparring for trikes or the Ankylosaurus. The developers are still facing challenges, but there are some exciting new features in the pipeline.