For the true humble beginnings of CoE, link to the
first dev journal entry.
(logo is a hyperlink to main website)
Also people keep asking if Im making this game/being paid by SB, Im just a fan trying to get a BL group on the game for an early start. I'll be playing, people are free to inquire and join me (if I trust them)
WARNING
This game IS NOT DONE. If you pay, you will NOT have a full title until around 2018. On top of that, Soulbound Studios utilizes an interesting business model. The game is NOT Pay2Play, HOWEVER it can very easily be considered Pay2Win (Players may buy jobs/nobility, or in-game currency which translates into high-end items, mounts, land, etc.) Payment aside, each body costs $50 retail value. Your soul is your character, what you log into, your body is a vessel that you control for a maximum of 60 weeks, albeit an average of 40 is normal. For the month of October, a body or 'spark of life' costs $35. THIS ONLY GIVES YOU ACCESS TO THE FULL GAME IN 2018. For $30 there's an 'add-on' you can purchase called "Carriage For Two" that grants the buyer a level 2 cart (requires [2] lvl 1 mounts or [1] lvl 2 mount) as well as a spare 'game.' I don't know if a regular player can purchase this and expect to play the game. I'm going to pose the question on the forum later today or tomorrow. If you want to play as SOON as possible, it's going to cost $200 unfortunately, but that's for the Alpha. Alpha and Beta data will be wiped from the servers before the official launch.
Quick edit: for sake of understanding the poll, 'exposition' is a 3-month head start when the OFFICIAL launch happens. After beta, all data will be wiped off the servers, any premium content will be reimbursed (or I swear to god someone is gonna die cus im spending like $300) and then the game is in a sort of... private launch. 3 Months accounts for 1/4 of average player lifespan, so this can be a very very powerful headstart. On top of that, the buy-ins that I'm referring to grant items to backers, and the higher you buy in the more you get to keep from lower tiers. AKA $200 gets you access to Alpha, Beta, a bunch of items and some free premo currency, as well as the 3-month headstart/exposition.
Chronicles of Elyria is a game by Soulbound Studios, currently in the very early stages of pre-Alpha development (release predicted in late 2017), that seeks to immerse its players in an RPG where decisions finally have actual results and consequences. To list every feature of the game and every discussed possibility would probably go beyond the text limits of the OP, so saying that this game isn't audacious would be kidding ourselves.
Videos:
Snow accumulation tech display 10x snow speed in the video
Biological changes tech demo age and weight at accelerated speed
Combat demo no lock on, no auto-attack. All skill
Pre-Alpha demo graphics nature and village video
Titan's Steepe tour of a city and a village
Nature demo Lots of dev talk about designing environment around food chain these past 2-3 months, this video released Tuesday (10/4/2016) and shows off some animals you'll encounter ingame, as well as what some player civilizations may look like (kinda ghost-towny tho)
I'm currently in the process of moving out of my apartment / preparing for a hurricane, so I'll be updating this page casually as I have free time. I intend on investing in CoE and I'm putting this post here for anyone who may have interest in the title. Beyond that, I may be willing to strike up deals with people (paying a portion of their donation/game access, but I'll be keeping whatever items/kits come with the packs + be planning contracts & business schemes.)
In the mean time, for the full details you can either
click this link, or I've copy pasted some of the main text discussing features and some of the animations off of the Kickstarter.
Chronicles of Elyria is the first MMORPG where your character ages and dies, encouraging you to think beyond your character to their role in a larger story.
Fearless in its design, it embraces a character's ability to impact other characters. A closed economy, finite resources, non-repeatable quests, and a fully destructible environment means the world is experienced differently for every character.
Fully destructible world means we'll see some epic sieges.
Each time you log in there is a dynamic world waiting for you. Local, regional, and national conflicts are continuously unfolding, giving birth to repeated opportunities for you to change the course of history.
• Aging, Dying, & Souls | An epic 10-year story line invites you to experience your character over multiple lifetimes. With each life you will develop your character and make your mark in the Chronicles. When your character eventually dies, their soul will be reincarnated stronger than before and their spirit and destiny will live on in another character of your making.
In CoE your body ages & dies, but Souls live forever.
Characters age in-game over the course of 10-14 real-world months. During that time your character will grow old and eventually die, leaving their mark on history. But while alive you must choose your actions carefully, as each in-game death reduces your overall lifespan (by approximately 2 days) and brings your character that much closer to permadeath. However, if you're an influential player (the king perhaps), each in-game death is more impactful, leading to permadeath in just 4 or 5 times.
After a coup de grace you'll walk the Astral Plane to return to your body.
• Player Skill Matters | It's no longer about getting to level cap and pursuing the best gear. In CoE a player's skill - their timing, speed, and strategy - makes a difference. The combat system requires you to dodge, parry, and manage your stamina - not just spam buttons. Crafting also requires player skill, with mini-games designed to make crafting more than just clicking a button.
• Offline Player Characters | To maintain realism, your character remains in-game from the moment of creation until permadeath because you wouldn't want to be interacting with a merchant only to have them sign out and disappear from the world. We've solved this with AI scripts to support your character while offline. This allows you to train skills, run your shop, and defend yourself while you're AFK.
• Non-Repeatable Quests | Tired of killing 20 bunnies destroying a farmer's crops, only to see 50 other characters complete the same quest? We're doing away with NPC quest hubs by enabling other players to give out tasks. That same OPC merchant may run out of reagents, leading them to ask you to bring 10 elixirs back from a far off city, utilizing the contract system to ensure delivery.
• No World or Mini-Map | Map makers and cartographers have a place in CoE, helping players navigate their world. But watch out, because treasure maps can be faked and locations may be renamed, leading NPCs to refer to a town by the most used name.
Is that a treasure map or will you find bandits ready to attack?
• Game-Enforced Player Contracts | Implicit and explicit contracts enable you to develop unique, never-before-seen meta content. Signing in-game contracts between players creates a binding agreement so you can safely operate your business. Sign trade contracts to create a shipping business. Employ other players to procure hard-to-find resources. Sell your services as an expert assassin and be confident you’ll receive payment. The possibilities are endless and only limited by your creativity!
TL;DRYour character can die, souls carry 'exp buff' stats across lifetimes as well as small bits of learned knowledge, there are game mechanics planned or in place basically all the way from chopping wood to contracting an architect for the castle. If you play as a regular player ("Elyrian") the game operates very much like an open-world RPG. If you play as a king, you split your time 50/50 RPG/Sim City with a hint of Civ (Kings set the direction for a country, research and culture and TAXES!). There will be pre-fab cities and buildings, but the goal of the game is player-based development. Combat is not SELECT TARGET, CHOOSE SKILL, FARM, but rather fencing and timing your attacks, footwork, practicing with your weapon and refining player skill. There are no levels or classes, only the skills that we master and the stats we build. Invention is possible through crafting (for some extra resources) AFTER you master a recipe, and you can either copyright your invention or share it with the world. When your player is 'born,' they are given destiny quests: that is, the time of your players conception sets in motion a series of events and activates specific quest/storyline material BASED on those events and the timeline. As you progress through your life, as certain criteria is met quets become available to you and you have the choice to proceed down those paths. But rather than most quests where it is "DO X, HARVEST Y, KILL Z", you could instead kill your quest giver, go burn the fields of Y, marry Z and never do X.
Poll