Gameplay guide

This page describes what a player can do in Ishtaria 0.3.0. Everything listed here is implemented; parts that are only planned are marked as such. The server decides every outcome, the client sends intentions. Design background lives under Architecture overview.

Starting out

  1. Install the client (see Installation) and enter the address of a world server. Remote servers must be reached over HTTPS before accounts are accepted.

  2. Register an account and create a character: a name and one of the Kenney or Quaternius character models. The choice is stored by the server.

  3. A new character receives 100 gold coins, a few food stacks, a starter tool kit, one Scroll of Day and 100 inventory slots. This is granted exactly once, when the character is created; signing in again never grants it again.

  4. If a story datadisk marks a spawn place (for example the hunter’s water-hole in the Gilgamesh disk), the character wakes up there; otherwise a safe spot is chosen.

The language of the interface (English or Czech) and the interface sounds are client preferences. Changing them never reconnects or changes server state. Passwords and tokens are never saved on disk; restarting the client requires signing in again.

Controls

All keys can be remapped in Settings; only Esc is reserved.

Default key

Action

W A S D

Walk. The mouse turns the camera.

Shift / Space

Run (uses stamina) / jump.

E

Interact: talk to the nearest character, harvest a tree or rock, drink at a fountain or fresh water, fish near water.

G

Pick up an item from the ground.

I / C

Inventory / crafting panel.

J

Quest log. A compass and markers point to the current quest place.

Enter / F

Chat / friends.

M / P

Minimap / portals.

1 – 9

Cast the learned spells in list order.

F2

Photo mode (see Pictures).

F12

Save a picture of the world without the interface.

Staying alive

  • Stamina, water, food and health are shown in the HUD. Walking and running consume stamina; rest restores it. At zero stamina you cannot run; exhausted walking damages health.

  • Food: eat items from the inventory. Seven real days without eating cause starvation, including offline time. Full food lets you heal.

  • Water falls only while the client is connected. Drink at a settlement fountain or at fresh water (lake, river), or eat watery food.

  • Swimming: wading up to chest depth is slower; deeper water means swimming at a fraction of walking speed, without running or jumping. Moving through deep water costs stamina and no health. Only a character whose stamina is low (20 or less, the level at which the HUD bar blinks) drowns: it loses health, about a minute from full, until the stamina is above that level again. Drowning is a cause of death.

  • Death is permanent. A dead character leaves one memorial (a grave) holding its belongings and gold, with an obituary showing the name, days lived, lifetime gold and the cause of death; from the second life under a login the name carries its number (Name II, in the numerals of the world’s datadisk, ADR 0021). Other characters may loot a grave. Story quests of datadisks that say so restart at a checkpoint instead; see Quests and characters.

Gathering and crafting

  • Trees and rocks are harvested with an axe or pickaxe (E); tools wear out and eventually break (durability).

  • Logs are chopped into wood and crafted into planks; the crafting panel lists recipes from the world’s ruleset. Some recipes need a station within reach: smelting and cooking at a campfire, smithing at an anvil.

  • Weapons and armour are crafted from iron ingots and hides. Armour (body, hands) and shields reduce damage taken.

  • Experience is earned by gathering, crafting and building. Every level adds ten inventory slots up to level 30.

Building, farming and fishing

Characters place campfires, benches, anvils, tents and fences, and plant crops. A fishing rod catches fish near water. Placed things do not yet block movement and are not yet protected from other players; bedrolls do not yet let a character sleep (planned).

Hunting and combat

Animals can be hunted with the weapon in hand. Dangerous animals bite back after a hit they survive, and a creature can kill a character. Fierce animals also strike first, unprovoked, at a low-level character they touch (each species has its own reach of one or two metres in etc/combat.json, so a fox must be against the character, a lion a little farther; the bite is surer while that character lays snares for the hunter quest). Nothing hurts from a distance. Animals do not chase and there is no player-versus-player damage. Story characters show a health bar only when hurt; striking one makes it hostile until a dialogue apology (50 gold) clears the grudge.

Magic

Mana regenerates with time. Six data-driven spells (refresh, firebolt, healing hands, ward, day, night) are learned from scrolls, which are crafted from quartz and never sold. Spells affect only the caster and generated animals, never other players, and nothing revives the dead. The Day and Night spells move the world’s shared solar clock to the caster’s next dawn or dusk, and everyone online is told.

Trading

Merchants buy and sell for gold with a daily sell limit. Players exchange items and gold in a two-sided confirmed trade. Wayfarers on the footpaths pick up dropped goods and resell them to the nearest trader. Gold enters the world only through merchants’ purchases, story effects and loot. There is no auction house yet (planned). Ships are items sold by shipwrights; sailing is planned.

Social

Text chat works within one world (say and whisper). Friends are mutual, show online status and short-lived event notifications. A player may opt in to showing a flag beside their name. Blocking and cross-world chat are planned. A hall of fame lists the ten most successful characters, scored 100 * level + 10 * days lived.

Pictures

F12 saves what is on screen without any of the interface, to Pictures/Ishtaria/ishtaria-<date>-<time>.png (the system pictures folder; the client’s own data directory if there is none). The confirmation names the file.

F2 opens photo mode, where the whole interface steps aside and the camera comes off the character’s shoulder:

  • It starts from the view the game was showing, so the first frame of photo mode is the last frame of play.

  • The walking keys fly the camera, the run key flies faster, jump and Ctrl rise and sink, and the right mouse button held down looks around. The cursor stays free the rest of the time, because the bar at the bottom is meant to be used.

  • The camera is kept on a 50 m leash from the character and above the ground. Photo mode is not a spyglass: in a world where other people walk about, a view that could wander off would scout what the character cannot see.

  • Time of day carries the sun up to twelve hours either way for this client only. The world’s own solar clock belongs to the server – the Day and Night scrolls turn it for everybody – so the offset is dropped when the mode closes.

  • Field of view goes from 20 to 110 degrees, and Show character leaves the character out of the picture.

  • F12 takes the picture without the bar; the path appears on the hint line. Esc leaves and gives back the sun, the field of view, the character and every window that was open.

While photo mode is open the character stops reporting moves to the server, so after fifteen seconds it is no longer a target for an ambush: a player composing a picture has nothing to answer an animal with.

Where to go next