If I remember the DJ correctly, upon using a second spark for an heir, you do not start with higher skills, but it is now faster to relearn up to where your parent was, then goes back to normal speed. I believe that's fair

First off Trellia, welcome to the forums, hope your stay is a pleasant one...

I have a few questions in return concerning your query. I don't understand your first comment about 'being good enough.' Good enough for what? If you are talking combat, then it is true that some will be better than others at it. Same with crafting I suppose, some will spend more time at it that others. That shouldn't have anything to do with you, its not a competition. The 'carry over' you are referring to is not the skills themselves carrying over but the skill ramps. Once you start a new life, your skills drop back to near zero, and depending on how long you stayed in your last body the faster you will relearn these skills in your new life and get back to the level you were before.

It is true that many will advance faster than others and that CoE will reward those that play more often. With that said, it should be easy to have fun in the game each time you play. Your part time status may limit your ability for certain play styles and roles but there should be many others from which to choose. And I really don't understand your comment about 'survivability.' Are you worried that you will die multiple of times at the hands of others and you won't have a chance since you are only a part time player? If so understand that you may not be understanding the design of the game. This is not a PvP centered game though it is mentioned a lot. It is a at its heart a Survival Sandbox game with elements of PvP. There will be players that go into their 4th or 5th lifetime that have never had combat, they are just crafters or suppliers. On the other hand there will be players that have multiple deaths in a short period of time because that is the game style they want to play. You don't have to fight or PvP unless you just want to play that way. You can be a Merchant, Craftsman, Teacher, Architect, or Doctor, none of which require any combat of any type. Can I promise you won't die, no, odds are you will. But the chances of that happening can be greatly reduced by choosing a non-combat role in Elyria.

If you want to ask more questions, please feel free to respond to my post and I can answer a few more questions for you. And once again, welcome to the community...

Ehhh I wanna expand upon what Sullen said. He asks, "Are you worried that you will die multiple of times at the hands of others and you won't have a chance since you are only a part time player?" While he goes on to state CoE does not have a PvP focus I hesitate to agree. What I do understand is the OP who seems to be concerned in a manner that makes me think perhaps OP likes to play alone, or with only a few people, so with that perspective in mind I would like to say - if this is your worry, then it is valid. This game is not very friendly to the solo-player community unless you happen to like the rugged hard-to-survive wilderness perhaps. If you want to be an average person but not involved with your local Kingdom you might be alright? Maybe. Bandits will prey on the outskirts of any city.

My advice is this : You can play the way it seems you want to play if you select your home location and company wisely. In this game it will matter where you settle and who you have connections to.

P.S. - Just a reminder, in this game we have been promised skill as a player will be just as important as your skill as a character when it comes to surviving combat. CoE will break out of the standard push button tab-target model other games have chosen in the past. For example: Knowing how to use a sword does not ensure you can hit a quick-moving target whipping (maybe literally from what we heard on the last QA) around you. Physical dexterity and reaction speed might be blended in with the character skill resulting in a rather amusing battle!

Thanks everyone for replying. I wanted to wait to see what was posted.

I think this really came up because they brought back the pledges and I was contemplating upgrading. Like OrangeBoy I need to see more about the mechanics and gameplay before doing it.

I was hoping that I had missed something more concrete around the topic I had brought up. That they had done some testing in this area of long term game play and had talked about the results. The only thing I read that may control this really is that your reincarnation into your own family can only go so far? I believe I read about that.

I am worried from experience in UO, where a new player would step out of town for the first time, blam, dead, looted and camped. So Sullen and Jute had a good point and it was a consideration in my post.

Also as Sullen suggested the community I chose to play with may be the difference. I have always liked going off and exploring and gathering on my own but I also like helping other people in their endeavors.

Trelia

As someone who also played UO I can understand the hesitation. I think it's going to be more about where you hang your hat (as you mentioned). You have plenty of time to find the right fit for you. I, personally, will end up trying to do whatever I can to keep gatherers safe in an area i'm in charge of. It ends up being beneficial to everyone since you're either using those items to produce something or bringing those resources back to town to sell. I think you'd do well to get in a Trade/Gatherer's guild/association as it would let you do your own thing, but provide you with some protection if you ran into a problem.

As nobody has mentioned it yet, let me name the Bolstering System which is designed to help you stay relavant when adventuring with characters from your in-game family if you are more of a casual player.

Increased attributes as can be read here.

Don't forget that your character is still doing things when you are offline, while it won't be to the same degree as playing ti should help you not fall off relevance. There will also be diminishing returns on what you know from previous lives, so just because they have played a ton and mastered everything at some point on their character history the farther back they did that the less effect it will have on their latest character.