useless no, you could spawn into an existing NPC and continue the job he does etc :) and a good leader (guildmaster of mayor etc) should be able to think of a task for you,
im not sure about the time between the alpha and beta, but i do know that exposition will start on a 'fresh' server with progress from alpa's and bèta's removed.
Alpha/Beta will be wiped, often. The game does kind of start with KoE. But since we really lack details on that front. For most people it will be in expo, when they can really build up their character.
NPCs will really make or break this game. They have to be good enough to feed etc the kingdom. They are going to make up the bulk of the population. If they aren't good enough to keep the kingdoms going. It just become a giant empty wasteland. Gotta remember, will be 100kish NPCs at launch.
If anything it's the really full towns/counties, of players. That need to watch out. Entering 100+ players into a small area, that don't have all the professions covered. One good way to completely destroy themselves before expo even ends.
Yeah, I'm realising there is a lot I had taken into account when pondering all of this. I had forgotten you could spawn into NPCs, as well I was not thinking about the fact that you will spawn into a family in general which comes with monetary benefits dependent on family. I was worried about spawning into the game broke and skill less. That'll teach me to ponder and openly ask questions while sleep deprived lol. Thanks for the input, guys. Looks like I need to deep dive some more.
Posted By DesiDoll at 01:36 AM - Mon Jun 03 2019
I was worried about spawning into the game broke and skill less.
Well there still will be some people starting like this. Any wards of the state. Zero family to help them there, but get to work on their character a bit more. Basically a custom start in an normal RPG, compared to a more locked one. From how I understand it.
I'm hoping that people within towns help new players out. Not sure how that would work, if someone spawned inside a full NPC town. Even wards of state will have skills.
If it all goes to plan. Anyone should be able to start with nothing and slowly build up. Or really, anyone that loses everything is basically screwed.
Your family is supposed to give you gear and supplies and train you. That's the point of a family. You do start out mostly worthless, or completely worthless if you're a ward, and work up from there. There is the option to take over an existing older NPC, but you need to use story points to do that.
AN important point to note is that skills in CoE can be further and further specialised over time.
Any players can always avoid direct competition against more developed characters / souls by focusing on a slightly different set of skills.
Moreover, SBS can provide old souls for players coming in late (a year or 2 further down the road?) in the future. However, this is not guaranteed yet.
Vice mayor of Lux Verloren
Not to mention the skill ramping they want to have in game to help newcomers progress.
No one has yet mentioned Exposition. I believe that Exposition will create the means to start with a fairly mature and skilled character at launch.
being useless on day one is a very good thing. it prevents warmongering, if people need to train before running around and killing everyone.
but yea, as mentioned, there are ways around being useless on day1: either starting 3 months earlier (exposition) or sparking into an able NPC with higher skills than just the basics from childhood. but even those basic skills from childhood should allow to do some things. with age 15-18 and having finished school and having worked in your parents store, you should have gotten some skills that make your living easier afterwards. Like the knowledge how to pay taxes or stuff like that :P
Friend Code: 30EF47
There's no such thing as being "useless" on day one. What you'll be is FREE to become what you want, or at least what your ingame experiences lead you to become. Keep in mind when you imagine this: this will NOT be an MMO in the traditional flow. It's meant to feel different from the ground up and the soul system will have a lot to do with that.
"It's not the scales, the wings, the teeth, or even the breath that set a dragon at the pinnacle of creation. It's not the strength or senses, nor the size of his hoard. It's something that a dragon knows that only comes with age and experience. It's a skill mortals never truly master."
"A dragon...knows how to wait."
I plan on starting as a ward and building my character up from scratch. I still don't know who I want to be, but I am excited about the possibility of truly developing a character and family over a year or more.
I have grown tired of the MMO trend of zero character development. For instance: If you don't like who your character has become reset your character traits for a little gold. There is no such thing as a mistake or failure. If you don't have the time to play you can purchase your advancement at the cash shop. And the worst of all, everyone is entitled to complete every quests and have access to every piece of equipment regardless of ambition, persistence, or skill.
The idea if true character development is what drew me to CoE in the first place, and I hope the devs hold true to the course when people start whining.
Useless on day one? I hope so.
"There's a lesson here and I'm not going to be the one to figure it out." Rick Snachez
Jokes on you, I plan on being useless every day, not just day 1.
Posted By CrazyDiamond at 1:19 PM - Wed Jun 19 2019
And the worst of all, everyone is entitled to complete every quests and have access to every piece of equipment regardless of ambition, persistence, or skill.
I have similar complaints with MMOs, but this stands out as one of the bigger problems dogging the concept. The worst part of this particular criticism is when developers require cash shop purchases to get stuff. That's the insult to injury. It is completely disconnected from gameplay, and so it undermines the very game itself.
MMOs to date have basically just been mashups of single-player games with multiplayer capability. I guess it's inherent in the acronym "Massively Multiplayer Online". There's nothing about an evolving world in that.
Posted By mickdude2 at 09:23 AM - Thu Jun 20 2019
Jokes on you, I plan on being useless every day, not just day 1.
Yeah, but that's more a life goal than a game goal... I mean, at least for me. ;)
Posted By Gunnlang at 08:25 AM - Sun Jun 02 2019
NPCs will really make or break this game. They have to be good enough to feed etc the kingdom. They are going to make up the bulk of the population. If they aren't good enough to keep the kingdoms going. It just become a giant empty wasteland. Gotta remember, will be 100kish NPCs at launch.
I think this is the most important call out in the thread, honestly. Given that I literally sought out Caspian and asked to work on this project, you can infer that I have a passion for a particular kind of online world experience. From that, just as a player, I can tell you that a lot of past MMOs have aimed in the same general direction, but none of them have hit the target. I would argue that not considering the state of the world when you're the first/last/only player in the game has been a major downfall of all of them.
If your world requires a robust player population to "work," then I'd say that your world doesn't work. Period. For a world to really feel alive and evolving, it needs a population that is always going about their life, and as a result always making small and often imperceptible changes to the world that together help to ensure events are always progressing and that the heart of the world is always beating. To me, and more broadly to Chronicles of Elyria, that's always meant making sure that the world's NPCs have the same sort of impact on the world that players do, whether that means advancing their crafts and providing the goods and support services the world needs or acting as guards, adventurers, scholars and explorers to ensure the world is always developing and "growing" from the perspective of the rest of its denizens.
Sure, we'd Rather that be done by players, but we can't count on that, or the moment the population dips one day, say because we all rush to go watch the latest MCU movie or something, the game world dies. Anyone who happened to see the world in that moment could decide the game is done and leave it, reducing the population and potentially setting off a cascade that becomes a self-fulling prophecy of the world's end. It has happened in many other sandbox games.
That's part of the reason you all take over NPCs when you roll your characters instead of us adding a new character into the world for you; if you had never logged in, that NPC would still be going about its business, keeping the world alive. It also helps us solve the "Wait we're all useless at day 1!" problem in that most of you will be jumping into young adults and children rather than grizzled vets or heros: the folks you replace will have been as uncertain about their future as you are, resulting if little impact to the course of events until you've got your feet under you and have decided what it is you want to do with your Elyrian Life.
Hope that that helps! :)
