Posted By druystt at

I really like that CoE is attempting to bring more of a macro scale to the MMO genre with player run towns, politics, economy, etc. Having wished for a worthy sandbox MMO successor to Ultima Online for two decades, it seems that CoE has a lot of the right ideas. I realize that the dev team is not lacking for feedback or suggestions but thought it would be worth putting a few of my thoughts down for community discussion so here they are.

1. CoE could be revolutionary if it really nails the gameplay mechanics from the micro to the macro. It seems to be really focused on the macro mechanics but I hope that the micro mechanics are well designed as well. My friend put it this way: it has to be fun to have a 1v1 fight with someone. And I saw a community post suggesting that For Honor provides a good model for fighting. That seems like a good start to me and there was a lot of interesting discussion on that topic.

2. I like that CoE wants to keep the mystery around magic and not have it be really pervasive. The Kingkiller Chronicles books have a really nice take on magic with a concept called "sympathy." It is basically a much more believable form of magic that is usually not very powerful (compared with spellcasters in most games) but with practice and creativity can be useful and somewhat powerful with the right resources available. There is a derivative industry around building equipment that utilizes these properties without the need for a person to perform them. This could be a way to make "magic" accessible to all players without being too powerful.

3. Questing and events - I really hate the repetitive and menial quests in themepark MMOs and am really excited to see how CoE solves this with contracts, etc. One thing to consider is hiring actual people to play out world events. It may be hard to make the contract system robust enough and with all the right incentives for realistic world events and quests to happen. Hiring some people to play out world events (two families warring and hiring players to fight for their side, or an elaborite assassination plot that allies with a player-run assassins guild to target one of the player kings) could create for some very realistic and fun events to participate in. I'm not sure how much this would cost in order to provide enough "content" for all of the players but there are creative ways to get people to help with this.

Just a few thoughts, curious what you guys think!

1. I do believe that getting the gameplay mechanics right will be important to Chronicles of Elyria, but I don't think combat will be quite as important as in other games. Unlike other MMOs, you will be able to have an engaging play experience without spending time in combat if you so choose. Combat skills will not be essential to improving other skills or continuing your story. So long as combat doesn't have glaring flaws, the game should do just fine, although I'm sure it will do better if it has a really good combat system. Edit: I do think they are putting a lot of work into micro gameplay as well, what with skill challenges and having an emphasis on player skill being a big part of your character's success.

2. The idea of magic and other talents in COE is that they are very rare, and have a significant impact on the world. Certain talents may be more common at certain times based on upcoming events in the global storyline. They are intended to be a storytelling tool, they are not being limited to make the game more realistic.

3. All world events are intended to be played out by actual people. Players who invest time in the game and participate in important events will gain story points which can be used to buy a new spark of life if they build up enough of them. Contracts are only one of the ways of providing players with content. The kingdom and land management systems, and player families will also add quite a bit to this game by encouraging players to form relationships and invest in their local community. The soulborn engine will also offer every character opportunities to further a personal story based on the alignment of the stars at the time of their birth. I don't think this game will have a lack of content considering that people are already joining communities in the forums and on discord and forming alliance and even gaining enemies when the game isn't even out yet.

The idea of subtle magic combining with physical crafting certainly starts an interesting train of thought. A player who finds themselves as one of the few with 'Talent' could combine with a scribe to make scrolls or jewellers or carpenters to make trinkets that act as minor relics.

What magic these things should actually offer is going to differ from person to person, but if it were up to me I would imagine single use scrolls to heal minor wounds, or to give resistance to a certain climate for a short time could be viable. For trinkets, something like making animals slightly less aggravated by your presence, or slightly enhancing stealth for an assassin or deviant.

Basically anything you can imagine as a talent you could somehow transfer that in a very minor way to another player through these methods. Very interesting thought!