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Neith
Feb 16, 2013


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Referrer Code: 522D89






Introduction:
It appears as if this game will be bringing perma-death and from what it says so far this could be a dream for any Goon.....
"the process of being ripped from the physical world takes a toll on the soul. Each time you die, it will reduce your available life span."
The potential to destroy someone's lifespan just seems like endless fun.

All Goons would have to play smart though so as not to face the consequences.....
"The more time someone spends in prison, the shorter their playable lifespan, the more their skills atrophy, and the less powerful they will ultimately become.
So the trick will be to find out how we can build a Kingdom, wage war, and avoid prison. Sounds like a blast to me!



Official Game Overview
The most dynamic and immersive MMO to date, 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. Each time you log in there is something for you to participate in. Local, regional, and national conflicts are continuously unfolding, giving birth to repeated opportunities for you to change the course of history.
Enter the world as a member of a player-run family, then work your way up from a humble adventurer to a landed vassal, develop your dynasty, and work your way to King. Not interested in running a kingdom? The fully skill-based system and lack of classes means you're rewarded with the ability to create the exact character you want to.
Will you follow a path of virtue... or something darker?



Claims of being Dynamic and Immersive
In Chronicles of Elyria, if something in the world can change - whether through player interaction or naturally over time - it probably does. The most dramatic example of this is the player characters themselves. Your character begins aging from the moment they're created, growing older and eventually dying. This encourages you to think beyond your character to their role in the larger story. Of course, actions you take as a player can dramatically shorten your character’s lifespan. So act carefully.




Heroes Must be Truly Heroic
In Chronicles of Elyria, the player must take risks, be heroic, and repeatedly put their character's wealth, prestige, and even life on the line to be considered a true hero.
In Chronicles of Elyria, you can become the most renowned blacksmith in the world, a feared assassin, travel places where few others dare to travel, or become a sorcerer of legend.
But such rewards always come with substantial effort, and frequently with great risk. The most dangerous of which grant you the opportunity to change the course of history. But in such times, failure could cost you everything.



Story and Event Driven
Chronicles of Elyria is the first MMORPG to feature an advanced, AI controlled story-engine which is constantly monitoring the state of the world. Player actions such as killing another character, amassing too much wealth, and getting lost in the desert brings the AI to life, causing it to spin intricate story arcs unforseen by the developers.
In addition, a closed economy, finite resources, and a fully destructible environment means that each time you log in there is something for you to participate in. Local, regional, and national conflicts are continuously unfolding, giving birth to repeated opportunities for you to change the course of history.



A Blending of Player and Character Skills
At its most basic level Chronicles of Elyria is a fully customizable, skill-based Action RPG in which the absence of classes means you can create any character you can imagine.
But there is more to becoming a master blacksmith than waiting on a progress bar. Requiring fast reflexes and good hand-eye coordination, skill based mini-games for non-combat skills means that for every action the character takes, some degree of player skill is required.
The era of auto-attacking is over. If your character effectively swings a sword, it's because you chose the precise moment for them to do so. If your character cuts a Master Emerald, worthy of sitting on the crown of the King, it's because your own nimble fingers made it happen.



Dramatic Realism
In Chronicles of Elyria, mundane tasks typically abstracted away are brought to the forefront as a way to create tension and dramatic situations. In place of mailboxes you’ll find player-ran delivery services. Worried about the courier making off with your parcel? You should be – and he’s worried about the highwaymen!
Travel in Elyria is dangerous, and those who wander too far from town or too far off the beaten path risk being caught out with no food or water. With only hand-made maps to rely on, a journey into the wasteland could mean it’s time to move on to the next character.
But realism is not all bad. From the moment you enter Elyria you’ll be greeted and supported by your player-run family. Work as a team to develop your noble house, increase holdings, and improve your collective wealth. Or, when the time is right, set off on your own to adopt the life of an adventurer. Earn your own noble titles and slowly work your way up to running an entire kingdom.



General Design
Q. What classes do you have?
None! Chronicles of Elyria is a fully skill-based system, in which the skills you use determine which skills you're good at. There are, however, schools you can join which will provide certain benefits such as ranks and titles, and will help you develop certain skill sets more quickly.
Q. What kinds of skills are there?
Skills will be revealed in an upcoming content milestone. Stay tuned!
Q. I read somewhere this was an RTS, RPG, kingdom management... thing. What does that look like?
Correct! To the adventurer it's mostly an AARPG. If you purchase land and start building a town it takes on more sim-like elements. Running a county or duchy will feel a lot more like an RTS, and for the Kings, it plays more like a kingdom/resource management game. At each level of play new user experiences become available help make managing your new role easier. And unlike in most RTS/Kingdom Management games, in CoE, your units are the other players!
Q. What do you do to prevent people from stealing your mail?
Shh! This is one of our best kept secrets.
Q. What are the mini-games you mentioned for non-combat skills?
It's hard to describe without pictures. There will be more to come in a future content milestone.




Guilds and Families
Q. I read somewhere you start as part of a family?
Yep! As part of character creation you pick a family. This impacts everything what physical attributes such as hair color you can select.
Q. Does it have to be a player-run family?
No. You can select NPC parents as well, but they tend to be less talkative in Family Chat.
Q. What if I don't want to be constrained by family restrictions?
You can opt to start as a ward of the state. You get more flexibility in character creation, but lose most of the starting benefits of a family.
Q. Are there guilds?
Absolutely! With a metric ton of new features I'd say we're really the first MMO to support guilds.
Q. What if I want to bring my guild with me to Chronicles of Elyria?
Great! We'll be providing codes which will allow you to bring your entire guild into your family or guild so you can get a jump on building a powerful dynasty or enterprise.
Q. How do I make sure my friends start on the same server?
When you provide a friend with a game code it will allow them to create a character on your server, even if the server population is capped.
Q. How I do I make sure my friends start in the same area as me?
As part of character creation they will have an opportunity to pick a family that is close in proximity to yours.



Death and Dying
Q. Wait, players age and die?! Really?!
Yep. When we thought long and hard about what we wanted to achieve with this game - dramatic story telling, rich, evolving history, a balanced skill based system, etc... it became clear to us that the only way to achieve that was if characters were constantly cycling. But don't worry, we're spending a lot of time thinking about how we can make the process of death, and birth an enjoyable and interesting part of the game.
Q. So, there's dying, and then there's DYING?
Correct. During normal play you can get knocked out or receive a fatal wound in which your soul temporarily leaves your body. Neither of those are permadeath. But each time your soul leaves your body your soul's connection to Elyria gets weaker, shortening your total life span. When you reach your maximum age, you will sleep the Final Sleep and be no more. That's DYING.
Q. Do I lose experience if my soul becomes seperated?
There's no experience in Chronicles of Elyria. However, you may experience some skill atrophy if you're dead for long. And also, the process of being ripped from the physical world takes a toll on the soul. Each time you die, it will reduce your available life span.



PvP and other Unsavoury Activities
Q. Is there PvP?
Yeah. Lots. Everywhere. Kingdoms go to war, assassins wage their silent battles in the night, highwaymen lay wait in ambush on the unsuspecting passer-by. However, except in times of war, PvP is illegal, and the penalty is stiff. So while PvP is possible everywhere, it's highly unlikely around civilized areas.
Q. Griefers. Tell me you've at least eliminated the griefers!
Actually, more or less. In Chronicles of Elyria, crimes such as attacking other characters is punishable by time in prison. The more time someone spends in prison, the shorter their playable lifespan, the more their skills atrophy, and the less powerful they will ultimately become. So, we've kind of removed most the incentive around griefing.
Q. What about gold farming?
We recognize that not all players can (or want to) spend the same amount of time per week farming gold for that special armor. We also recognize some people have a ton of free time, but not a lot of money. We're attempting to equalize this by having an in-game exchange market.




End-game Content
Q. What does end-game content look like?
There isn't any. No, seriously. This game is about being a part of an epic, ongoing story-line. Fill your characters' days adventuring, siegeing, farming, running a town, county, or kingdom. Spend time increasing your family's holdings and building your Noble House. And then, in your characters' final days, let them sleep the final sleep, while your soul grows young again and re-born into another character to make their own mark.
Q. Is there raiding?
No.. and yes. There are no static raid dungeons. However, world events will frequently cause big, bad, nasties that need to be dealt with to roam free or take shelter in an abandoned ruin.. Also, as players amass a large amount of wealth and hide it in their castles other, less savoury players may choose to break in and steal it. Finally, kingdoms will often go to war and siege each others' castles. All of these can and will require a varying number of players to be successful.
Q. How big is the world?
Really, really big. More details to come.





Media








:siren:Goon Guilds::siren:
None Yet!



The Identity System
One of the ways we know we matter in life is by the legacy we leave behind. But what is our legacy? Oftentimes the easiest way to answer that is by asking additional questions. Questions such as, “Who would recognize me if they saw me or heard my name”, “Are my deeds in this life recognized and will they be forgotten,” and “Who will remember me when I’m gone?” If the answers to these questions help us judge our impact on the world, it’s no wonder most MMOs lead players to feel like they don’t matter.

In this week’s design journal we’re going to talk about how Chronicles of Elyria changes that by making your identity matter. By binding your deeds to your identity, by giving players the opportunity to cloak their actions in anonymity, and by immortalizing your actions in the words and minds of NPCs, players can concretely answer questions about whether their in-game life has meaning in Elyria.




Identity

In Chronicles of Elyria, a character and their identity are two separate things. The character represents the physical body, while the identity represents the intangible parts such as the character's name, reputation, and persona. And, much as in our world, in Chronicles of Elyria a character's identity is never displayed by default.

When you approach a character you've never encountered before there's no floating nameplate above their head that identifies who they are, what "class" they are, or any other information. The same is true for you. When you first enter a new town, nobody around you will have the slightest idea who you are.



Introductions

To go beyond that place of mystery you'll need to either introduce yourself to someone, or ask them to introduce themselves. Both of these can be done through the UI in a way similar to how you challenge someone to a dual in most MMOs. If you ask someone to introduce themselves and they accept, you'll be shown (for a short while) the information they were willing to share above their character. If they decline, they'll continue to be a nameless stranger on your screen.

Once you've talked to another character enough, or have done business with them a couple times, you'll perpetually see the floating nameplate above their head. That is, it won't automatically go away after half an hour. You can of course globally disable this, but most people will find it useful to know who around them they immediately recognize.

When introducing yourself, you determine whether you want to convey your first name, full name, full-name and title, or additional information, such as the guild you're a part of. The more information you share the more comfortable a person may be with talking to you - and the more likely they are to remember you later.





Becoming Anonymous

While characters are typically anonymous by default, there are times when you want to become anonymous even amongst those who know you. Maybe you're a famous Bard and you want to get from one side of town to the other without being accosted by fans. Maybe your boss plays CoE too and you called in sick and want to get through the guild hall without being caught. Or, maybe you're about to do something... deviant and you want the ability to say you were "nowhere near there."

Whatever the reason, as seen in Figure 1, characters can hide their identity/names by wearing a hooded cloak with the hood up. Of course, walking through town with your hood up may raise additional suspicion, but if it's your nameplate you want hidden, this'll do the trick.



Identity & Contracts

The last thing I wanted to touch on real quick with identities is Contracts. Contracts - both explicit and implicit, are agreements made between identities. That is, characters sign the contract with their name when they explicitly agree to it, and if someone breaks a law, it is the identity of the character that broke the law that people will be looking for.

However, what if there was a way for you to don a fake identity, to cease to exist entirely, or maybe even take on the identity of someone else?! Doing so would allow you to avoid having to fulfill your end of a contract, dodge sheriffs indefinitely, or maybe even frame someone else!



Multiple Identities

As seen in last week's design journal on "Equipment & Inventory" the in-game character sheet has a drop-down box which, much like how other games let you select your currently active title, let's you select your currently active Identity. This controls several things such as which name you'll provide when you introduce yourself, which title - if any, you wish to introduce yourself as, and most importantly - which disguise you want to use. We'll talk more about that in a moment.

Before you can select between multiple identities you first have to create additional identities. Identities are created by forging the appropriate documents and where necessary, having the appropriate disguise. This involves both the Forgery Skill, as well as the Disguise skill. Both are in the Deviant skill tree and both are illegal. If you're caught with forged documents, or your disguise is seen through, you could be on the hook for everything you did while under the guise of your alternate identity. And that's in addition to any jail time you face for creating false identities.

So what are the good, legal reasons to create a fake identity? Well, there aren't any really. At best, you may be using an alternate identity to commit corporate espionage and steal trade secrets from a reputable guild. At worst, you may be a famous assassin, bouncing between identities like tennis balls on a tennis court. In either case, having multiple identities generally means you're up to no good.



Disguises

Disguises are aren't always necessary, but when used, dramatically reduce the likelihood of someone detecting your false identity. To use a disguise you must first create one. There are two different ways to create a disguise - from scratch and from a model.

Of the two, creating a disguise from scratch is the easiest, most common, and least dangerous. To create a disguise from scratch you simply put on the appropriate wig, hair style, clothing, etc... And then bind it to a disguise kit. The more skilled you are making disguises, the more pieces you can add to your kit. Initially, you may only be able to put in a wig, then maybe contacts, but eventually, you can mask almost all of your recognizable features.

To put on the disguise, you simply activate the disguise kit. Once you've done that it's possible to bind the disguise to your active identify from the character UI. From then on, any time you switch identities you'll automatically change into your disguise - assuming you have the disguise kit on you. Once you're wearing your disguise, it's perfectly ok to don/doff equipment without breaking the disguise. In this way you can assume an identity, head out with a party, and then equip new gear you find without raising suspicion.

The other way to create a disguise is by using a model. This is a more complex task as it requires studying someone, stalking them a bit, and then ultimately stealing at least one wearable item from them. When you build a disguise this way it allows you to closely resemble another character. Then, if you happen to have a high-level forger and a copy of another character's signature, say, from a previous contract, it's possible to not only look like them, but to assume their identity outright.



Seeing Through Disguises/Fake IDs

Whenever you, or someone around you, assumes a fake identity there's a chance others will recognize it as a fake. The percentage chance that someone can see through your identity is based on the number of times you've encountered them before. The more times you've encountered someone, the easier it is to recognize the lie. If you're not wearing a disguise, it may only take a couple times interacting with someone before the fake identity is discovered. Putting on a disguise will help with your charade but even still, the more you interact with someone as multiple identities, the easier it will be for them to recognize the identities belong to the same character.

In addition, should you gain enough skill in Forgery and Disguises that you're able to assume someone else's identity, your disguise will immediately fall off should you ever encounter the original. As well, anyone who personally knows the model you based your disguise on will have an easier time recognizing you're not who you claim to be.

Along the same lines, as discussed back in DJ #5, Family members can always see through a disguise. That includes both your family, as well as the family of the person you're impersonating. With that in mind, should you attempt to steal someone's identity, it's best to travel a safe distance before picking your mark. This'll allow you to head back to your own town or target destination before assuming the identity of your new victim.



Reputation and Fame

It should be clear by now that you don't want someone stealing your identity and then committing a bunch of crimes. Not only could that end up in possible jail time if you can't clear your name, but there's a subtler, yet equally important reason why you want to keep your identity intact. Your reputation and fame.

Your Fame is a measure of how well your name/identity is known. The more famous you are, the more people (NPCs and PCs) who will recognize you if mentioned in conversation. As well, the more famous you are, the more likely your reputation is to spread.

Your reputation is the public information/opinion about you. Reputation and Fame work together but are otherwise orthogonal. That is, each one can be adjusted on its own, which creates four possible combinations. These combinations are:
Famous with a good reputation
Famous with a bad reputation
Largely unknown with a good reputation
Largely unknown with a bad reputation

In general, your reputation - good or bad, is a function of the things you do that people know about. It's important to emphasize that this is based on what people know about you. It's entirely possible to have a dark affinity, but otherwise appear to the public as an upstanding citizen, and thus have a positive reputation. And of course, if someone you want to work with has a dark affinity, or is a criminal, having a bad reputation can actually be a GOOD thing!

Similar to your reputation, your fame changes over time as a result of the things you do - good or bad, that effect other people or the story. Completing achievements, finishing tasks, and even just crafting items which you sell to others can all have an impact on your fame.

It should also be noted that your reputation and fame are not yours alone. When determining your final reputation and fame, groups you’re affiliated with, as well as your family and dynasty are also taken into consideration. The opposite is also true. Things you do can have an impact on the reputation and fame of your family or organizations.



The Spread of Information

Reputation and fame spreads through gossip. Any time you interact with NPCs you have an opportunity to gossip with them. This gives you the chance to learn things about other characters in your area, and to share things that you've witnessed as well. Depending on the openness of the NPC you're talking to, they may turn around and pass the information along to other NPCs and PCs who want to chat.

In this way, you could do something favorable, or commit a crime in one town, and have your reputation proceed you to the next. It also means that if you can silence enough people, you can stop the news before it spreads.





Land Ownership

First, much like in our world all land is owned, if not privately by individuals, by the highest government in the land. In Chronicles of Elyria, those governments are (initially at least) the kingdoms. That means that at game launch all parcels of land are be owned by the kings. As a king, however, it's impossible to either defend (or benefit from) such a huge amount of land. So in exchange for taxes or other resources, the kings appropriate land to citizens through one of two methods.

Obtaining Land

1.Land Purchase: A family or organization of sufficient wealth can take ownership of land by purchasing it from the local Count or Magistrate. Count, in the case of unincorporated land, and Magistrate or Mayor in the case of land incorporated into a town or city. The benefit to this method is it's safe, easy, fast, and gives you the ability to gain access to a large amount of land all at once. The drawback is that land can be expensive.


2.Adverse Possession: If you lack the financial resources, but still want to own land, you can find a parcel of land which is currently unoccupied (or abandoned) and can take ownership of it. This is done by building a structure on the land and then defending it for a full month. Defending means preventing the actual landowner from destroying your structure. Note that the landowner (King), someone appointed by the king (Duke, Count, Sheriff), or someone given a bounty to do so are the only ones that can legally attack/destroy your structure.


It's also important to note that this mechanic works the same way whether the existing owner is a king, or another citizen. So if someone buys a parcel (or several) and either doesn't log in for several months or just doesn't pay close attention to what's happening on their land, this is a viable way to reclaim land which was previously appropriated to another player.

Leasing Land

We'll talk more about this in a future design journal on townships, but in the mean time, in addition to owning land it's also possible to lease property from another player. Leasing is similar to purchasing but has a few differences. First, when you lease land you're bound by a Lease Contract rather than a Deed and are generally limited in the types of structures you can build on the land. In addition, leasing generally comes with rent or other dues in addition to taxes, but doesn't have the up-front cost that purchasing does. The trade-off here is that people who purchase a large amount of land can utilize your services to work the land or pay taxes on it for them so the land doesn't go to waste. Also, by having someone lease the land it's less likely to be squatted on and taken via Adverse Possession.




Home Ownership

Home ownership is a closely related, but slightly different subject than land ownership. In general, if you own a parcel of land you own the structures on it. This gives you the freedom to both build, as well as destroy things on the land.

Similarly, you can say that if you own a building, you own all the rooms inside of it. However, just as you can lease land, you can rent or lease rooms. Leasing rooms is done similar to the way land is leased, using a special Housing UI. Within this UI, which looks like a floor-plan of the house, you can do things such as assign names to the different rooms as well as grant/limit access to different identities or groups of people.

The main purpose of this system is to provide rooms in your house for your children, as well as for running establishments like inns. Once you've updated room access, it's possible to create a Lease Agreement which contains a copy of the floor-plan so the leaser knows which room is theirs and what permissions they have.

As with many of the systems in Chronicles of Elyria, this is handled with contracts and it’s up the parties involved to negotiate the terms of the Lease Agreement. Will the rent be a fixed amount per in-game year? Will it be a percentage of your total income? What happens if they break something? As usual, it’s up to the individuals to enforce the contract.

In addition to residences and inns it's also an obvious system for creating guild halls. You can use the access system to control who can legally enter which rooms, giving you the opportunity to have private libraries, armories, or other things which some guild members shouldn't have access to.

That's all well and good but it begs the question how do you keep people out of rooms in the first place?

Keys

To begin with, Chronicles of Elyria uses a system of keys and locked doors as a way to control access to buildings and rooms. Much like our currency system, keys are physical objects in your inventory. And, if you're carrying your keys around in your pocket and someone knows where you live, they can lift your keys in order to get into your room or residence. Note, that doesn't make it legal, it's just another means of gaining entry that doesn't mean picking the lock, shattering a window, or breaking down a door.

Stealing's not the only way to get access to keys however. The owner can also make copies and gift them to people for easy access. Again, having the key doesn't make entry legal, nor does granting someone access automatically give them a key. That's usually done as part of signing a Lease Agreement.



Other Defense Mechanisms

While keys are all well and good, and do a decent enough job of keeping people out of your room or residence in more civilized locations, in less populated areas or at night, those of a more deviant nature may still be inclined toward unlawful entry. To mitigate this, there's a number of other things that can be done to either protect your valuables, or to discourage entry outright.

Hidden Safes

As seen in the previous design journal (and in Figure 1), it's possible when architecting your home to create space for hidden safes and rooms. This won't stop those motivated (and perceptive) enough to spend time looking for them, but it will keep your things out of sight when you've got company over. As well, hiding things in back rooms, behind hidden doors, and inside locked objects adds more opportunities for the next type of deterrent!

Traps

Traps ranging from simple pit traps, to tripwires, to pressure plates, all the way to mechanical door traps can be used by homeowners to help them protect their valuables. Traps make entering a home illegally extremely dangerous because not only do you either need to know where the traps are, or be fairly perceptive, but you also need to have the skills to disarm them! This limits those who can successfully rob you to those with an advanced skillset. In short, someone has to really want to enter your residence if they're going to go through that much trouble. If they do, only the last type of defense mechanism is likely to dissuade them.

Tamed Animals & Bodyguards

Having the skills necessary to successfully detect hidden doors, as well as recognize and disarm a trap requires a specific type of character. However, that type of character has usually spent the majority of their time training up their deviant skills and may not (read hopefully not) have spent much time in advancing their combat-based skills.

If that's the case, purchasing or taming an animal to guard your residence can go a long way toward discouraging unlawful entry. Nothing says "stay out" like a "Beware of Dire Wolf" sign. The more dangerous the animal, the more discouraging they're likely to be.

Of course, even animals can sometimes be soothed if you have the necessary knowledge of how to do so. Heck, it may even be possible to train an animal to attack their master. That's why, when worse comes to worse, nothing's quite as good as a trusted companion who can guard your house while they're offline. Barring that, a sell-sword may be willing to offer their services for a reasonable amount of coin. But beware, they usually ask for hazard pay.



Damage & Demolition

Up to this point we've been talking primarily about how to discourage people from entering your residence and what you can do to protect your valuables inside. But what if that's not the objective at all?

In Chronicles of Elyria, it's possible instead of entering a home, to simply destroy it. When designing this feature we thought long and hard about how easy or difficult we wanted this to be. In the end, we decided that the time and resources required to build a house, guild hall, etc... should make the process of destroying a building you don't own either equally expensive, or equally time-consuming.

As a result, we've designed housing so that aside from doors and windows, which can be destroyed easily enough (if you don't mind the noise), the process of destroying walls and structural supports generally requires some form of siege equipment. While it is possible to chop at a wall with a mundane item long enough to put a hole in the wall, doing so would take 10 minutes or more - plenty of time for someone to come and stop you.

We did this because we didn't want people running around towns whacking on buildings and leveling the whole thing in a matter of minutes. We felt like destruction of a civilized area should be a planned, organized event with plenty of advance-warning and enough resources gathered to do so.

So the most effective way to bring down a town is to build siege equipment at an off-site location and then move it into proximity of the town. Then, fire away!

Fire!

Speaking of fire, fire is a force to be reckoned with and unchecked, has the potential to destroy entire counties, let alone entire towns. As a result, we decided that while we did want fire to be a siege mechanic in Chronicles of Elyria, burning a house or forest down isn't something that can be done accidentally. You can't set a village ablaze solely by tossing a torch on a thatch roof. It requires siege equipment with some kind of flammable fluid to use to toss flaming projectiles.

But just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. One of the primary reasons for sieging another town or village, aside from invasion, is as a way to loot the debris or pillage for salvaged resources. However, when you use fire, there's no resources to salvage, and no wreckage to be pillaged. When a building goes up in flames, everything above ground is destroyed. But below ground...



Basements & Cellars

While we know there's more than enough land for everyone in Elyria, we also know that you can't always purchase the land you want to within a specific area. Sometimes you buy a parcel of land and then before you can expand out to the neighboring parcels they're snapped up by other interested homesteaders.

As a result, we decided to add a mechanic for building cellars and basements. This gives players the opportunity to not only build out above ground, but also to build out below ground.

This has a ton of uses. First, as alluded to in the last section, if you've got a basement or cellar and your village is ever destroyed, you can feel confident whatever you had underground will remain intact.

In addition, building down instead of building out makes it that much harder for keen observers to recognize there's a hidden room from the exterior of your home. You can buy a plot of land, put a small house on it, and then build an entire labyrinth underneath with nobody the wiser. While you may have to put up the occasional structural support, there's virtually no limit to how far out you can tunnel so long as you use good, sturdy resources. It should be understood that this allows you to dig tunnels even underneath parcels which are not your own. But be careful, you never know who - or what - may also be digging tunnels.

The Making of a Dungeon

At long last, we've come to the conclusion of this design journal. Rather than use this opportunity to talk about another game mechanic or feature, I wanted to use this opportunity to provide you with a narrative which will, if the rest of the journal hasn't already, lead you to an ultimate realization.

You've just started playing Chronicles of Elyria and are at first frustrated with the limited inventory allowed by the survival mechanics. But, before long you realize that you can mitigate the problem by storying the majority of your stuff in a bank box.

However, at some point during your time playing CoE you gain access to something so valuable that you no longer trust it in the hands of a bank. For example, let's say you're one of the rare few who discover the secret of becoming a Lich, and you've trapped your soul in a phylactery.

You wouldn't want to just put your phylactery in a bank box. The owners of the bank could recognize you as a Lich, illegally go into your bank box, find your phylactery and destroy it. No, that won't do.

So instead, probably in preparation for your transformation you buy a plot of land and put a house on it. However, you don't want it to be destroyed by fire, so you make sure to build it out of a nice hard stone. But since your castle is on the outskirts of town, so as not to draw too much attention to it, it could become a target of invading kingdoms. Even having your castle attacked by catapults could put your precious phylactery in danger.

So you build your castle, and then build a basement underneath to make sure it can never be destroyed. Once you dig your basement you realize that the more rooms and hidden areas that are down there the more difficult it will be for people to find your phylactery. Next, you realize that having multiple storage containers would make it difficult for players to determine which chest actually has your phylactery in it - especially if the basement and chests have traps of varying types.

Next, you realize that a good rogue could work their way through your traps and so you decide to either tame yourself, or hire someone to tame some wild beasts for you. Next, since you know those can be bypassed, you hire a gang of thugs to defend your basement, working in shifts to make sure it's protected around the clock.

Finally, since you know nobody can protect your phylactery better than you can, you create a sleeping chamber with a large locked chest somewhere in the basement.



At night, when you're offline, you make sure to log out in the special room, lost in the basement only you fully know the map for, surrounded by traps that only you and a few others know are there, guarded by sell-swords and wild beasts, inside the basement you created so as to avoid being destroyed during a siege, beneath the stone castle you created so as not to have it burned down, on the outskirts of town so as not to draw attention to yourself.

Congratulations, you just created the first dungeon, and you are, for better or worse, the game's first raid boss! This is just one of the many ways Chronicles of Elyria brings player-created content to a whole new level.




Neith fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Feb 25, 2017

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Inzombiac
Mar 19, 2007

PARTY ALL NIGHT

EAT BRAINS ALL DAY


This kinda came out if nowhere but it's piqued my interest. Though, ever since Mortal Online, I am very dubious of these types of claims.

Alexander DeLarge
Dec 20, 2013
This looks really cool. I'm intrigued. Any ETA? This is a brilliant design because it keeps the economy alive and keeps progression going pretty much all the time.

Holy gently caress. This is sounding like the best features of various role playing gamemodes found in Garry's Mod and Altis/Cherno Life from ARMA. If they can deliver on this, they have something extremely special on their hands.

quote:

Identity

In Chronicles of Elyria, a character and their identity are two separate things. The character represents the physical body, while the identity represents the intangible parts such as the character's name, reputation, and persona. And, much as in our world, in Chronicles of Elyria a character's identity is never displayed by default.

When you approach a character you've never encountered before there's no floating nameplate above their head that identifies who they are, what "class" they are, or any other information. The same is true for you. When you first enter a new town, nobody around you will have the slightest idea who you are.

Alexander DeLarge fucked around with this message at 07:41 on Nov 9, 2015

jabro
Mar 25, 2003

July Mock Draft 2014

1st PLACE
RUNNER-UP
got the knowshon


Inzombiac posted:

This kinda came out if nowhere but it's piqued my interest. Though, ever since Mortal Online, I am very dubious of these types of claims.

I started getting a huge Mortal Online vibe as I read the OP. Not a good thing. Games that are ambitious as hell usually have one outcome.

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
when does it come out

Alexander DeLarge
Dec 20, 2013

jabro posted:

I started getting a huge Mortal Online vibe as I read the OP. Not a good thing. Games that are ambitious as hell usually have one outcome.

Mortal Online is a product of its time. Began development in 2005, released closed beta in 2008 while competing against Age of Conan. I mean, their combat model was optimized for DSL connections and dual core hardware. I'm sure if Mortal Online were being developed now, it would be much more in line with what people expect when they say "we're using the M&B combat model!"

Neith
Feb 16, 2013

Alexander DeLarge posted:

This looks really cool. I'm intrigued. Any ETA? This is a brilliant design because it keeps the economy alive and keeps progression going pretty much all the time.

Holy gently caress. This is sounding like the best features of various role playing gamemodes found in Garry's Mod and Altis/Cherno Life from ARMA. If they can deliver on this, they have something extremely special on their hands.

The closest I could find was just the year 2016. I read somewhere that this game has been under development since 2000, but I haven't found anything to back up that claim.

The identity write up on mmorpg.com was pretty drat cool sounding.
Link Here

One of the ways we know we matter in life is by the legacy we leave behind. But what is our legacy? Oftentimes the easiest way to answer that is by asking additional questions. Questions such as, “Who would recognize me if they saw me or heard my name”, “Are my deeds in this life recognized and will they be forgotten,” and “Who will remember me when I’m gone?” If the answers to these questions help us judge our impact on the world, it’s no wonder most MMOs lead players to feel like they don’t matter.

In this week’s design journal we’re going to talk about how Chronicles of Elyria changes that by making your identity matter. By binding your deeds to your identity, by giving players the opportunity to cloak their actions in anonymity, and by immortalizing your actions in the words and minds of NPCs, players can concretely answer questions about whether their in-game life has meaning in Elyria.




Identity

In Chronicles of Elyria, a character and their identity are two separate things. The character represents the physical body, while the identity represents the intangible parts such as the character's name, reputation, and persona. And, much as in our world, in Chronicles of Elyria a character's identity is never displayed by default.

When you approach a character you've never encountered before there's no floating nameplate above their head that identifies who they are, what "class" they are, or any other information. The same is true for you. When you first enter a new town, nobody around you will have the slightest idea who you are.



Introductions

To go beyond that place of mystery you'll need to either introduce yourself to someone, or ask them to introduce themselves. Both of these can be done through the UI in a way similar to how you challenge someone to a dual in most MMOs. If you ask someone to introduce themselves and they accept, you'll be shown (for a short while) the information they were willing to share above their character. If they decline, they'll continue to be a nameless stranger on your screen.

Once you've talked to another character enough, or have done business with them a couple times, you'll perpetually see the floating nameplate above their head. That is, it won't automatically go away after half an hour. You can of course globally disable this, but most people will find it useful to know who around them they immediately recognize.

When introducing yourself, you determine whether you want to convey your first name, full name, full-name and title, or additional information, such as the guild you're a part of. The more information you share the more comfortable a person may be with talking to you - and the more likely they are to remember you later.





Becoming Anonymous

While characters are typically anonymous by default, there are times when you want to become anonymous even amongst those who know you. Maybe you're a famous Bard and you want to get from one side of town to the other without being accosted by fans. Maybe your boss plays CoE too and you called in sick and want to get through the guild hall without being caught. Or, maybe you're about to do something... deviant and you want the ability to say you were "nowhere near there."

Whatever the reason, as seen in Figure 1, characters can hide their identity/names by wearing a hooded cloak with the hood up. Of course, walking through town with your hood up may raise additional suspicion, but if it's your nameplate you want hidden, this'll do the trick.



Identity & Contracts

The last thing I wanted to touch on real quick with identities is Contracts. Contracts - both explicit and implicit, are agreements made between identities. That is, characters sign the contract with their name when they explicitly agree to it, and if someone breaks a law, it is the identity of the character that broke the law that people will be looking for.

However, what if there was a way for you to don a fake identity, to cease to exist entirely, or maybe even take on the identity of someone else?! Doing so would allow you to avoid having to fulfill your end of a contract, dodge sheriffs indefinitely, or maybe even frame someone else!



Multiple Identities

As seen in last week's design journal on "Equipment & Inventory" the in-game character sheet has a drop-down box which, much like how other games let you select your currently active title, let's you select your currently active Identity. This controls several things such as which name you'll provide when you introduce yourself, which title - if any, you wish to introduce yourself as, and most importantly - which disguise you want to use. We'll talk more about that in a moment.

Before you can select between multiple identities you first have to create additional identities. Identities are created by forging the appropriate documents and where necessary, having the appropriate disguise. This involves both the Forgery Skill, as well as the Disguise skill. Both are in the Deviant skill tree and both are illegal. If you're caught with forged documents, or your disguise is seen through, you could be on the hook for everything you did while under the guise of your alternate identity. And that's in addition to any jail time you face for creating false identities.

So what are the good, legal reasons to create a fake identity? Well, there aren't any really. At best, you may be using an alternate identity to commit corporate espionage and steal trade secrets from a reputable guild. At worst, you may be a famous assassin, bouncing between identities like tennis balls on a tennis court. In either case, having multiple identities generally means you're up to no good.



Disguises

Disguises are aren't always necessary, but when used, dramatically reduce the likelihood of someone detecting your false identity. To use a disguise you must first create one. There are two different ways to create a disguise - from scratch and from a model.

Of the two, creating a disguise from scratch is the easiest, most common, and least dangerous. To create a disguise from scratch you simply put on the appropriate wig, hair style, clothing, etc... And then bind it to a disguise kit. The more skilled you are making disguises, the more pieces you can add to your kit. Initially, you may only be able to put in a wig, then maybe contacts, but eventually, you can mask almost all of your recognizable features.

To put on the disguise, you simply activate the disguise kit. Once you've done that it's possible to bind the disguise to your active identify from the character UI. From then on, any time you switch identities you'll automatically change into your disguise - assuming you have the disguise kit on you. Once you're wearing your disguise, it's perfectly ok to don/doff equipment without breaking the disguise. In this way you can assume an identity, head out with a party, and then equip new gear you find without raising suspicion.

The other way to create a disguise is by using a model. This is a more complex task as it requires studying someone, stalking them a bit, and then ultimately stealing at least one wearable item from them. When you build a disguise this way it allows you to closely resemble another character. Then, if you happen to have a high-level forger and a copy of another character's signature, say, from a previous contract, it's possible to not only look like them, but to assume their identity outright.



Seeing Through Disguises/Fake IDs

Whenever you, or someone around you, assumes a fake identity there's a chance others will recognize it as a fake. The percentage chance that someone can see through your identity is based on the number of times you've encountered them before. The more times you've encountered someone, the easier it is to recognize the lie. If you're not wearing a disguise, it may only take a couple times interacting with someone before the fake identity is discovered. Putting on a disguise will help with your charade but even still, the more you interact with someone as multiple identities, the easier it will be for them to recognize the identities belong to the same character.

In addition, should you gain enough skill in Forgery and Disguises that you're able to assume someone else's identity, your disguise will immediately fall off should you ever encounter the original. As well, anyone who personally knows the model you based your disguise on will have an easier time recognizing you're not who you claim to be.

Along the same lines, as discussed back in DJ #5, Family members can always see through a disguise. That includes both your family, as well as the family of the person you're impersonating. With that in mind, should you attempt to steal someone's identity, it's best to travel a safe distance before picking your mark. This'll allow you to head back to your own town or target destination before assuming the identity of your new victim.



Reputation and Fame

It should be clear by now that you don't want someone stealing your identity and then committing a bunch of crimes. Not only could that end up in possible jail time if you can't clear your name, but there's a subtler, yet equally important reason why you want to keep your identity intact. Your reputation and fame.

Your Fame is a measure of how well your name/identity is known. The more famous you are, the more people (NPCs and PCs) who will recognize you if mentioned in conversation. As well, the more famous you are, the more likely your reputation is to spread.

Your reputation is the public information/opinion about you. Reputation and Fame work together but are otherwise orthogonal. That is, each one can be adjusted on its own, which creates four possible combinations. These combinations are:
Famous with a good reputation
Famous with a bad reputation
Largely unknown with a good reputation
Largely unknown with a bad reputation

In general, your reputation - good or bad, is a function of the things you do that people know about. It's important to emphasize that this is based on what people know about you. It's entirely possible to have a dark affinity, but otherwise appear to the public as an upstanding citizen, and thus have a positive reputation. And of course, if someone you want to work with has a dark affinity, or is a criminal, having a bad reputation can actually be a GOOD thing!

Similar to your reputation, your fame changes over time as a result of the things you do - good or bad, that effect other people or the story. Completing achievements, finishing tasks, and even just crafting items which you sell to others can all have an impact on your fame.

It should also be noted that your reputation and fame are not yours alone. When determining your final reputation and fame, groups you’re affiliated with, as well as your family and dynasty are also taken into consideration. The opposite is also true. Things you do can have an impact on the reputation and fame of your family or organizations.



The Spread of Information

Reputation and fame spreads through gossip. Any time you interact with NPCs you have an opportunity to gossip with them. This gives you the chance to learn things about other characters in your area, and to share things that you've witnessed as well. Depending on the openness of the NPC you're talking to, they may turn around and pass the information along to other NPCs and PCs who want to chat.

In this way, you could do something favorable, or commit a crime in one town, and have your reputation proceed you to the next. It also means that if you can silence enough people, you can stop the news before it spreads.

Uziduke
Jul 2, 2015

A storm over Europe unleashed
Dawn of war a trail of destruction
The power of Rome won't prevail
See the Catholics shiver and shake
SoulboundStudios

This game will be bad. The Soulbound feature in MMOs is the single worst thing that was ever implemented.

These Jokers used it as their company name, so the game will be bad.

Alexander DeLarge
Dec 20, 2013

Uziduke posted:

SoulboundStudios

This game will be bad. The Soulbound feature in MMOs is the single worst thing that was ever implemented.

These Jokers used it as their company name, so the game will be bad.

I'm curious about that too. Why would they name their sandbox MMO company on the most un-sandbox MMO feature in existence?

Alexander DeLarge
Dec 20, 2013
loving hell, I'm starting to believe this is a real thing.





http://chroniclesofelyria.com/blog/969-DJ-12-Identity-Disguises-and-Reputation
http://chroniclesofelyria.com/blog/1203-DJ-14-Player-Housing--Architecture--Construction

Alexander DeLarge fucked around with this message at 02:19 on Nov 27, 2015

I said come in!
Jun 22, 2004

The screenshots remind me of Archage where they are 100% bullshots and the actual gameplay will look no where close to that good. Anyways this game isn't going to work, the style of gameplay the devs are going for is not what keeps people interested in MMOs, this title is going to bomb hard like all of the other sandbox MMOs before it.

Hammerstein
May 6, 2005

YOU DON'T KNOW A DAMN THING ABOUT RACING !
Oh look, a new mmo from an unknown developer, promising all the things nerds love. Where's the button to preorder my $200 Collector's Edition ?

Alexander DeLarge
Dec 20, 2013

Hammerstein posted:

Oh look, a new mmo from an unknown developer, promising all the things nerds love. Where's the button to preorder my $200 Collector's Edition ?

That's coming in like two or three months. Kickstarter.

I said come in! posted:

The screenshots remind me of Archage where they are 100% bullshots and the actual gameplay will look no where close to that good. Anyways this game isn't going to work, the style of gameplay the devs are going for is not what keeps people interested in MMOs, this title is going to bomb hard like all of the other sandbox MMOs before it.

To be fair, we haven't seen a proper sandbox game since Galaxies. Darkfall was basically the equivalent of a child going "AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN AND THEN" when every reasonable person looked at it and said "yeah, this isn't a good design". Mortal Online was promising, if it were to be released now but there's no way they could have done the M&B-style active combat justice in a time where most people were still on laughable connections. The tech just wasn't there for 2010.

So yeah, the last actually released sandbox game we got was 2010? It deserves a couple more tries.

Albion looks like it'll be quite successful and I'd consider that a decent to good example of one.

Alexander DeLarge fucked around with this message at 21:10 on Nov 28, 2015

Jestah
Dec 7, 2010

by Cyrano4747
I hope this is good, I can't handle another let down. I can only imagine though that if this IS good the crazy amount of fun that could be had.

Neith
Feb 16, 2013

Added the above to the original post.

I agree too Jestah. I have been looking more and more into this game and it seems to have pretty much everything I am looking for in a game. Usually anything that's too good to be true, is, but I still have that wish to find something as in depth and as fun as Ultima Online was for me.

I doubt it will ever happen though. We had so many different play styles under one game banner and that's what made UO fun. Games like these end up like Darkfall or MO where it's just the griefers trying to out grief one another rather than griefers being able to make life hell for everyone else.

I doubt there will ever be such a world like UO, but as far as gameplay mechanics, this looks amazing on paper so far.





Land Ownership

First, much like in our world all land is owned, if not privately by individuals, by the highest government in the land. In Chronicles of Elyria, those governments are (initially at least) the kingdoms. That means that at game launch all parcels of land are be owned by the kings. As a king, however, it's impossible to either defend (or benefit from) such a huge amount of land. So in exchange for taxes or other resources, the kings appropriate land to citizens through one of two methods.

Obtaining Land

1.Land Purchase: A family or organization of sufficient wealth can take ownership of land by purchasing it from the local Count or Magistrate. Count, in the case of unincorporated land, and Magistrate or Mayor in the case of land incorporated into a town or city. The benefit to this method is it's safe, easy, fast, and gives you the ability to gain access to a large amount of land all at once. The drawback is that land can be expensive.


2.Adverse Possession: If you lack the financial resources, but still want to own land, you can find a parcel of land which is currently unoccupied (or abandoned) and can take ownership of it. This is done by building a structure on the land and then defending it for a full month. Defending means preventing the actual landowner from destroying your structure. Note that the landowner (King), someone appointed by the king (Duke, Count, Sheriff), or someone given a bounty to do so are the only ones that can legally attack/destroy your structure.


It's also important to note that this mechanic works the same way whether the existing owner is a king, or another citizen. So if someone buys a parcel (or several) and either doesn't log in for several months or just doesn't pay close attention to what's happening on their land, this is a viable way to reclaim land which was previously appropriated to another player.

Leasing Land

We'll talk more about this in a future design journal on townships, but in the mean time, in addition to owning land it's also possible to lease property from another player. Leasing is similar to purchasing but has a few differences. First, when you lease land you're bound by a Lease Contract rather than a Deed and are generally limited in the types of structures you can build on the land. In addition, leasing generally comes with rent or other dues in addition to taxes, but doesn't have the up-front cost that purchasing does. The trade-off here is that people who purchase a large amount of land can utilize your services to work the land or pay taxes on it for them so the land doesn't go to waste. Also, by having someone lease the land it's less likely to be squatted on and taken via Adverse Possession.




Home Ownership

Home ownership is a closely related, but slightly different subject than land ownership. In general, if you own a parcel of land you own the structures on it. This gives you the freedom to both build, as well as destroy things on the land.

Similarly, you can say that if you own a building, you own all the rooms inside of it. However, just as you can lease land, you can rent or lease rooms. Leasing rooms is done similar to the way land is leased, using a special Housing UI. Within this UI, which looks like a floor-plan of the house, you can do things such as assign names to the different rooms as well as grant/limit access to different identities or groups of people.

The main purpose of this system is to provide rooms in your house for your children, as well as for running establishments like inns. Once you've updated room access, it's possible to create a Lease Agreement which contains a copy of the floor-plan so the leaser knows which room is theirs and what permissions they have.

As with many of the systems in Chronicles of Elyria, this is handled with contracts and it’s up the parties involved to negotiate the terms of the Lease Agreement. Will the rent be a fixed amount per in-game year? Will it be a percentage of your total income? What happens if they break something? As usual, it’s up to the individuals to enforce the contract.

In addition to residences and inns it's also an obvious system for creating guild halls. You can use the access system to control who can legally enter which rooms, giving you the opportunity to have private libraries, armories, or other things which some guild members shouldn't have access to.

That's all well and good but it begs the question how do you keep people out of rooms in the first place?

Keys

To begin with, Chronicles of Elyria uses a system of keys and locked doors as a way to control access to buildings and rooms. Much like our currency system, keys are physical objects in your inventory. And, if you're carrying your keys around in your pocket and someone knows where you live, they can lift your keys in order to get into your room or residence. Note, that doesn't make it legal, it's just another means of gaining entry that doesn't mean picking the lock, shattering a window, or breaking down a door.

Stealing's not the only way to get access to keys however. The owner can also make copies and gift them to people for easy access. Again, having the key doesn't make entry legal, nor does granting someone access automatically give them a key. That's usually done as part of signing a Lease Agreement.



Other Defense Mechanisms

While keys are all well and good, and do a decent enough job of keeping people out of your room or residence in more civilized locations, in less populated areas or at night, those of a more deviant nature may still be inclined toward unlawful entry. To mitigate this, there's a number of other things that can be done to either protect your valuables, or to discourage entry outright.

Hidden Safes

As seen in the previous design journal (and in Figure 1), it's possible when architecting your home to create space for hidden safes and rooms. This won't stop those motivated (and perceptive) enough to spend time looking for them, but it will keep your things out of sight when you've got company over. As well, hiding things in back rooms, behind hidden doors, and inside locked objects adds more opportunities for the next type of deterrent!

Traps

Traps ranging from simple pit traps, to tripwires, to pressure plates, all the way to mechanical door traps can be used by homeowners to help them protect their valuables. Traps make entering a home illegally extremely dangerous because not only do you either need to know where the traps are, or be fairly perceptive, but you also need to have the skills to disarm them! This limits those who can successfully rob you to those with an advanced skillset. In short, someone has to really want to enter your residence if they're going to go through that much trouble. If they do, only the last type of defense mechanism is likely to dissuade them.

Tamed Animals & Bodyguards

Having the skills necessary to successfully detect hidden doors, as well as recognize and disarm a trap requires a specific type of character. However, that type of character has usually spent the majority of their time training up their deviant skills and may not (read hopefully not) have spent much time in advancing their combat-based skills.

If that's the case, purchasing or taming an animal to guard your residence can go a long way toward discouraging unlawful entry. Nothing says "stay out" like a "Beware of Dire Wolf" sign. The more dangerous the animal, the more discouraging they're likely to be.

Of course, even animals can sometimes be soothed if you have the necessary knowledge of how to do so. Heck, it may even be possible to train an animal to attack their master. That's why, when worse comes to worse, nothing's quite as good as a trusted companion who can guard your house while they're offline. Barring that, a sell-sword may be willing to offer their services for a reasonable amount of coin. But beware, they usually ask for hazard pay.



Damage & Demolition

Up to this point we've been talking primarily about how to discourage people from entering your residence and what you can do to protect your valuables inside. But what if that's not the objective at all?

In Chronicles of Elyria, it's possible instead of entering a home, to simply destroy it. When designing this feature we thought long and hard about how easy or difficult we wanted this to be. In the end, we decided that the time and resources required to build a house, guild hall, etc... should make the process of destroying a building you don't own either equally expensive, or equally time-consuming.

As a result, we've designed housing so that aside from doors and windows, which can be destroyed easily enough (if you don't mind the noise), the process of destroying walls and structural supports generally requires some form of siege equipment. While it is possible to chop at a wall with a mundane item long enough to put a hole in the wall, doing so would take 10 minutes or more - plenty of time for someone to come and stop you.

We did this because we didn't want people running around towns whacking on buildings and leveling the whole thing in a matter of minutes. We felt like destruction of a civilized area should be a planned, organized event with plenty of advance-warning and enough resources gathered to do so.

So the most effective way to bring down a town is to build siege equipment at an off-site location and then move it into proximity of the town. Then, fire away!

Fire!

Speaking of fire, fire is a force to be reckoned with and unchecked, has the potential to destroy entire counties, let alone entire towns. As a result, we decided that while we did want fire to be a siege mechanic in Chronicles of Elyria, burning a house or forest down isn't something that can be done accidentally. You can't set a village ablaze solely by tossing a torch on a thatch roof. It requires siege equipment with some kind of flammable fluid to use to toss flaming projectiles.

But just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. One of the primary reasons for sieging another town or village, aside from invasion, is as a way to loot the debris or pillage for salvaged resources. However, when you use fire, there's no resources to salvage, and no wreckage to be pillaged. When a building goes up in flames, everything above ground is destroyed. But below ground...



Basements & Cellars

While we know there's more than enough land for everyone in Elyria, we also know that you can't always purchase the land you want to within a specific area. Sometimes you buy a parcel of land and then before you can expand out to the neighboring parcels they're snapped up by other interested homesteaders.

As a result, we decided to add a mechanic for building cellars and basements. This gives players the opportunity to not only build out above ground, but also to build out below ground.

This has a ton of uses. First, as alluded to in the last section, if you've got a basement or cellar and your village is ever destroyed, you can feel confident whatever you had underground will remain intact.

In addition, building down instead of building out makes it that much harder for keen observers to recognize there's a hidden room from the exterior of your home. You can buy a plot of land, put a small house on it, and then build an entire labyrinth underneath with nobody the wiser. While you may have to put up the occasional structural support, there's virtually no limit to how far out you can tunnel so long as you use good, sturdy resources. It should be understood that this allows you to dig tunnels even underneath parcels which are not your own. But be careful, you never know who - or what - may also be digging tunnels.

The Making of a Dungeon

At long last, we've come to the conclusion of this design journal. Rather than use this opportunity to talk about another game mechanic or feature, I wanted to use this opportunity to provide you with a narrative which will, if the rest of the journal hasn't already, lead you to an ultimate realization.

You've just started playing Chronicles of Elyria and are at first frustrated with the limited inventory allowed by the survival mechanics. But, before long you realize that you can mitigate the problem by storying the majority of your stuff in a bank box.

However, at some point during your time playing CoE you gain access to something so valuable that you no longer trust it in the hands of a bank. For example, let's say you're one of the rare few who discover the secret of becoming a Lich, and you've trapped your soul in a phylactery.

You wouldn't want to just put your phylactery in a bank box. The owners of the bank could recognize you as a Lich, illegally go into your bank box, find your phylactery and destroy it. No, that won't do.

So instead, probably in preparation for your transformation you buy a plot of land and put a house on it. However, you don't want it to be destroyed by fire, so you make sure to build it out of a nice hard stone. But since your castle is on the outskirts of town, so as not to draw too much attention to it, it could become a target of invading kingdoms. Even having your castle attacked by catapults could put your precious phylactery in danger.

So you build your castle, and then build a basement underneath to make sure it can never be destroyed. Once you dig your basement you realize that the more rooms and hidden areas that are down there the more difficult it will be for people to find your phylactery. Next, you realize that having multiple storage containers would make it difficult for players to determine which chest actually has your phylactery in it - especially if the basement and chests have traps of varying types.

Next, you realize that a good rogue could work their way through your traps and so you decide to either tame yourself, or hire someone to tame some wild beasts for you. Next, since you know those can be bypassed, you hire a gang of thugs to defend your basement, working in shifts to make sure it's protected around the clock.

Finally, since you know nobody can protect your phylactery better than you can, you create a sleeping chamber with a large locked chest somewhere in the basement.



At night, when you're offline, you make sure to log out in the special room, lost in the basement only you fully know the map for, surrounded by traps that only you and a few others know are there, guarded by sell-swords and wild beasts, inside the basement you created so as to avoid being destroyed during a siege, beneath the stone castle you created so as not to have it burned down, on the outskirts of town so as not to draw attention to yourself.

Congratulations, you just created the first dungeon, and you are, for better or worse, the game's first raid boss! This is just one of the many ways Chronicles of Elyria brings player-created content to a whole new level.

Flesh Forge
Jan 31, 2011

LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY DOG

Neith posted:

Q. Griefers. Tell me you've at least eliminated the griefers!
Actually, more or less. In Chronicles of Elyria, crimes such as attacking other characters is punishable by time in prison. The more time someone spends in prison, the shorter their playable lifespan, the more their skills atrophy, and the less powerful they will ultimately become. So, we've kind of removed most the incentive around griefing.

When you lose, you are punished! When you win, you are punished even more! :psypop:

eonwe
Aug 11, 2008



Lipstick Apathy
If this game ever comes out I'll play it OP

Juchero
Feb 15, 2008


Wedge Regret
It'll be fascinating to look back on all these high-concept sandboxes years from now, and see exactly where each ended up. Seems like the year of the lofty ideal.

Cool Dad
Jun 15, 2007

It is always Friday night, motherfuckers

Lol this will never exist.

pertinent
Apr 3, 2009
I like the idea.

Normal Adult Human
Feb 12, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
gently caress off shill

Byolante
Mar 23, 2008

by Cyrano4747
can we please mark of shame everyone who contributes to the kickstarter

Robo Reagan
Feb 12, 2012

by Fluffdaddy

I said come in! posted:

The screenshots remind me of Archage where they are 100% bullshots and the actual gameplay will look no where close to that good. Anyways this game isn't going to work, the style of gameplay the devs are going for is not what keeps people interested in MMOs, this title is going to bomb hard like all of the other sandbox MMOs before it.

ty for summing up what i was going to say and also using punctuation and capitalization

Hexel
Nov 18, 2011




Hammerstein posted:

Where's the button to preorder my $200 Collector's Edition ?

Khako
Dec 24, 2008

Lee #61
Sounds like baby's first game where he decided to cram in every little idea he ever had, regardless of how difficult it would be to implement, and automatically thinks it meshes all together. "Instructor" at a lovely for-profit and 3 years of microsoft development. Solid loving background to develop "The most dynamic and immersive MMO to date"

Gems from their CEO:

https://twitter.com/JeromyWalsh/status/124234676750647297
https://twitter.com/JeromyWalsh/status/107156187652435968
https://twitter.com/JeromyWalsh/status/124267113618747394

Worst of all he owned a zune

https://twitter.com/JeromyWalsh/status/113797142421839873

You should make your twitter private man

Kimsemus
Dec 4, 2013

by Reene
Toilet Rascal
So I was looking at a lot of the information surrounding this game, it seems to me like the dev is feature bloating as many things as possible into this game. My concern is that people will find some of the mechanics very fun (PVP, crafting, land ownership etc), but some very not fun. Star Citizen has been shying away from the permadeath thing on their characters as well -- people simply don't respond well to even superficial loss of investment as far as time goes.

I feel in some way this is a developer with a lot of good intentions, but very little understand of what people like, or how they're going to get everything to fit properly.

Despite this, it still looks interesting and is worth keeping track of.

Robo Reagan
Feb 12, 2012

by Fluffdaddy
The fun thing about programming is it can be simple enough at times that you'll sit down with an idea and suddenly you have a ton of stuff that you want to add and some of it would be easy to do but getting it all working together without collapsing will make you start drinking

Trainmonk
Jul 4, 2007
Looks fun, hope it comes out.

LemonDrizzle
Mar 28, 2012

neoliberal shithead
This looks really intriguing in a sort of fantasy-universe-Eve-Online kind of way but I'm not sure how the gameplay features they describe square with the statements about griefing, and especially "attacking other characters is punishable by time in prison". Like, the whole story of the player becoming a lich and building a fortress-dungeon that other players raid - presumably that's going to involve one group of players attacking another, so who goes to jail in this scenario?

Alexander DeLarge
Dec 20, 2013
I gotta be fair to these guys, they're at the very least capable of generating content. Programming is easier than producing something visual that someone else has in their head so I'm not worried about the prototype. I'm just not quite sure how well this will all mesh together, especially on a larger scale.

At the very least, it'll be a pretty looking game with very flawed mechanics. Best case scenario, they are able to sort out what works, what doesn't work, what is fun and what isn't.

Alexander DeLarge fucked around with this message at 11:30 on May 4, 2016

Khako
Dec 24, 2008

Lee #61

Alexander DeLarge posted:

I gotta be fair to these guys, they're at the very least capable of developing assets. Programming is easy. I'm just not quite sure how well this will all mesh together.

At the very least, it'll be a pretty looking game with very flawed mechanics. Best case scenario, they are able to sort out what works, what doesn't work, what is fun and what isn't.

Developing static models and settings isn't very difficult compared to coding this mess together. If any design goons could take a look, it seems that all the menus and text was added on to the image. I would look further into this if I believed they were going to make it past 2017. Making an mmo of this scale with 2 people is insane.

Khako fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Dec 8, 2015

Kimsemus
Dec 4, 2013

by Reene
Toilet Rascal
I'm really less worried about whether they can code it or not, compared to whether it will be actually fun to play.

Robo Reagan
Feb 12, 2012

by Fluffdaddy

Kimsemus posted:

I'm really less worried about whether they can code it or not, compared to whether it will be actually fun to play.

a sandbox mmo where murderfucking other players sends you to video game jail yeah sounds like a blast

Normal Adult Human
Feb 12, 2012

by FactsAreUseless
he's ripping off the america's army teamkilling system; for shame, op.

Byolante
Mar 23, 2008

by Cyrano4747
Did you code the shaders yourself or did you buy the the same time you bought the prefabs?

Martman
Nov 20, 2006

How do people fall for these? This is not a real game. It is a fake game; a list of ideas. I'm sure the developers have good intentions and big ideas, but they do not have anything close to a game. If they did, their media would include more than 3D art. Like really? They have an "advanced, AI controlled story-engine?" And it's going to create their story content for them? Oh right, and players will build the dungeons for them. And it's coming out within a year. Please find someone you trust to handle your money for you if you believe stuff like this.

Now all this is pretty much par for the course when it comes to MMO hype, but what I don't get is how Contracts, Property Law and Identity Theft became the big ideas to hype your imaginary MMO with.

clone on the phone
Aug 5, 2003

Sounds good, looks good, but I'll believe it when I'm playing it.

Martman
Nov 20, 2006

Oh wow, I sure have egg on my face. This youtube person claims to have totally seen video of the game in action and is definitely not a shill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S91m1MaBp-I

And he has this to say about it!

quote:

As for combat systems, all we know is that they will be using Motion Capture for the animations, and Inverse Kinetics (something like that). No Tab Targeting or Hotbars. The game blends Player and Character skill.
Wow, that definitely sounds like a Real Combat System! Geez where do I put my money?

Kimsemus
Dec 4, 2013

by Reene
Toilet Rascal

Martman posted:

Oh wow, I sure have egg on my face. This youtube person claims to have totally seen video of the game in action and is definitely not a shill: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S91m1MaBp-I

And he has this to say about it!

Wow, that definitely sounds like a Real Combat System! Geez where do I put my money?

Motion Capture and "Inverse Kinetics."

What is it with games and "skill based" systems? They all universally turn out bad when that phrase is used IMO

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Byolante
Mar 23, 2008

by Cyrano4747

Kimsemus posted:

Motion Capture and "Inverse Kinetics."

What is it with games and "skill based" systems? They all universally turn out bad when that phrase is used IMO

I blame sword art online

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