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Magic qualifies as a talent, which is something (I believe, don't quote me) somewhere around 5% of players will have. They used to be attached to souls, but are now attached to individual lifetimes. There may be other talents in addition to Magic. It exists in Elyria, but is -extremely- rare.
Baron Zachariah Evrouin
The Barony of Septenstatio
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Posted By ZTB at 11:46 AM - Thu Nov 09 2017
Magic qualifies as a talent, which is something (I believe, don't quote me) somewhere around 5% of players will have. They used to be attached to souls, but are now attached to individual lifetimes. There may be other talents in addition to Magic. It exists in Elyria, but is -extremely- rare.
That is something I interpreted from the Gameplay guide on the issue of COMBAT AND MAGIC.
https://chroniclesofelyria.com/game/combat-magic
That guide mentioned talents when discussing the issue of magic and then went on to talk about the rates at which talents will be doled out - 5% of the population. There seem to be different interpretations of that, though.
One is that Talents are a specific type of OP skills that are within the realm of what can be considered "magical" and are thus limited to 5% of the population - that there are magical talents that are so special that are not available to the general magic users. This interpretation then reads it such that magic will be controlled by other mechanisms - that magic will exist completely independent of talents.
There have been explicit comments from Soulbound staff talking about the low-discovery of magic at Exposition and Launch and that this will be dynamic. This has also been used to support the argument that magic might be distinct from the Talent cap.
Also, just before making this post I saw a forum post that stated that magic is no longer going to be linked to your soul - which is the quintessence of the Talent system. This, if true, would be a heavy hint towards the notion that magic is going to be separately managed and would be done in an even more predictable mechanism.
CHARACTER-LOCKED MAGICK (Hypothetical):
A plausible mechanism for how that would operate would be to have it be a family trait of sorts. With the possibility to have latent magic ability passed on based on family history of magic. But have a hard cap at like 70% probability so even after generations of breeding with only magical persons there is still some variability.
Magic will be able to be gained in a few different ways. One of these is Talents, which less than five percent of player characters will have. Another way to gain magic abilities is magical relics and artifacts. The last method which is currently known, is becoming a lich.
The knowledge of Magic is currently meta-knowledge. As far as in-game Elyrian citizens know, Magic used to exist but hasn't been witnessed or experienced in the world for many centuries.
For all common purposes magic does not exist in CoE. Even SBS has said magic is the stuff of nightmares and legends.
The way I was made to understand how magic is going to work in Elyria is this: Magic is going to be extremely rare. As in, you could go for several lifetimes and never see magic manifest in your character. Or anyone else's for that matter. You could be born with the talent, but you have to do something special to make it manifest which means that yes, 5% of the community has the potential. But even fewer will actually see that potential realized. And IF anyone was lucky enough, they wouldn't have access to all kinds of magic it would merely be one kind. Like ice magic, illusions, status debuffs, or healing. But even if someone received the ability, could you imagine how an ice user could decimate a battalion? Or a fire using raining down flames onto a battlefield?
I feel like getting a talent isn’t that unlikely. 5% drop rate in an MMO is pretty decent and it refunds back into the talent pool when the talent user dies making it more likely over time.
I don't know anymore.
If I recall it was quoted that 5% of characters will have the potential to discover a talent in their character's lifetime, But magic isn't going to be the only talent out there. Spirit walking is the only other confirmed talent out there, but I have heard other concepts floating around and its likely there will be several possible talents.
5% chance of talent
Say a 25% chance you actually discover the talent through luck
Down to 1.25% chance
Say there are 20 possible talents, magic being one.
Down to 0.0625% chance to manifest magic in a lifetime
So for every about 1600 character's or so theres 1 magic user.
Now consider NPCs most likely will never be factored in for talents
Say NPCs make up 50-75% of the total population
Down to one per every 3200-6400 people having a magic talent
At this point, everyone seems to agree that it is a form of talent. Does that mean we can dispel the rumor that it's going to be linked to a character and not their soul?
Posted By Spinam at 8:17 PM - Thu Nov 09 2017
At this point, everyone seems to agree that it is a form of talent. Does that mean we can dispel the rumor that it's going to be linked to a character and not their soul?
It's not a rumor. Talents are linked to characters, not souls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slHr2PBiD-U
Go to 45:54.
Posted By Protey at 03:15 AM - Fri Nov 10 2017
Posted By Spinam at 8:17 PM - Thu Nov 09 2017
At this point, everyone seems to agree that it is a form of talent. Does that mean we can dispel the rumor that it's going to be linked to a character and not their soul?
It's not a rumor. Talents are linked to characters, not souls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slHr2PBiD-U
Go to 45:54.
Thank you!
So what do you guys think about that? If talents are linked to characters instead of souls and given on character creation, wouldn't that tank the actual percentage of people who actually unlock the talents? Most players have some inclinations towards certain playstyles or specializations from the jump. It seems this would either make some players sprawl throughout the entire game searching for triggers and make the remainder of players completely disregard them altogether.
And if that's the case, it would also make quests for artifacts of immortality or longevity very common among people with talents, right? How will the talent system regard those players that have managed to solidify their characters in the storyline?
I think it is very important for balance and the story driven engine that talents be character rooted and not soul rooted. Balancewise, having soul based talents means basically that those who find the powerful "special" souls are given an advantage forevermore while playing the game, since generally most people will want to keep the same soul life after life to keep the bonuses ingrained to skills and such. Keeping it lifetime to lifetime means anyone at any time could be special, which makes the game more exciting for everyone. As far as the engine, the creators have stated they will be using a narrative based engine with evolving story being bred from given character quests. Its my belief that when it comes to unlocking talents, following the engines questlines is likely going to steer you toward the direction of meeting the criteria. That would encourage people to actually participate and get involved in the story, because they never know if they have the secret talent. If it was soul based people would know, and after discovering in one lifetime they don't have a talent they may be much less inclined to pursue the quests in the next if they didn't care about the story points because they were happy where they were.
As far as unlocking talents, I genuinely believe the narrative engine will steer the player toward meeting the criteria. I don't believe the player will always follow the questline that will do so or follow any of the questlines at all, so not every secret talent will be discovered. There will probably be quite a few characters with hidden talents played by working people IRL who only log in on the weekend and enjoy playing shopkeepers in a town so they can set up their OPC to run a store during the work week while they can't play. People like that are unlikely to follow a very adventurous story line quest if it pops up for them, which in a way adds to the realism. If everyone was pulled a Bilbo Baggins the world would get pretty hectic.
As for seeking longevity when you have superpowers, that sounds like it would be very common. In books, movies and other fantasy stories when you hear about someone seeking immortality it's usually a king or powerful sorcerer or something of the like, not Bob the farmer who just wants to farm for all time.
Something that people need to realize Talents are not a secrete skill line that a lucky few will receive and be able to use to wipe out their enemies or be super powerful. Talents are a “key” to be used to open the next check in the story line.
In addition to random assignments of talents if a player is close to a story hook that requires a special power to complete there is a chance they will be awarded one by the engine allowing them to push the story forward.
The example I’ve seen used is water breathing. If there is a story hook that is at the bottom of a lake there is no way a player could reach it. But if someone tries perhaps they will discover they can breath under water. Perhaps to unlock this talent they need to drown... perhaps several times.
Since a talent allows a player to do something incredible there are also downsides though we haven’t seen any details of the downsides we’ve been told there is always the possibility a talent could be more of a liability than a boon.
Talents are not skill lines. As they are tied to a body rather than a soul there isn’t much chance of someone “maxing” it out. Once they die it goes back into the pool for the next time it’s needed. So folks need to stop thinking of talents as something they need to find to be competitive. Along with vampires, liches, and magic talents are the stuff of legends. You could play the entire 10 year story of coe and never see one in use in person. But instead hear rumors of such powerful folks via the rumor system.
Posted By Spinam at
SO, there are a lot of threads going around the forums about it and I've completely lost track - will there be magic in Elyria? How will it work? How common will it be? How will it pass/progress/develop? And so on...
I saw a post from our gracious leader, señor Caspian, earlier in the year talking about the difference between high-fantasy and low-fantasy, and the subsequent need for magic. The point being, since Elyria is not high-fantasy (dragons, elves, vampires and monsters coming around every corner) magic isn't going to be a required tool for progression. Instead, it is supposed to be flavoring that progresses the storyline and adds to that "Where do I fit into the world" quest all the players go through.
But everyone loves magic - that's one of the best parts of games - doing stuff you can't do in real life is amazing! And there is still a lot of talk about how the mechanics of it will be worked through. I always see conflicting or slightly varied/imprecise responses on other threads. Can this thread be a current update on the issue?
I invite all community members to ask the questions they have about it and post a response if you have one. (References are a blast when giving a response. So is prefacing if you're speculating based on stuff you've heard.) With any luck, this thread will be a bookmark for questions about it in the future.
My idea of, "Things I can't do in the real world" isn't limited to magic. Imagine arming 1,000 soldiers with your own swords or performing an actual siege with rams. These weapons are obsolete now, and there's no way to really do that in the modern world. Discovering the basic elements or performing flight experiments to be a pioneer in the technological world. Being the first to set up a lasting empire in the middle of the southern deserts in this world. Knowing that your character won't suddenly die from a gunshot.
No magic is necessary. It's just being used as a hidden spice in this game.
Posted By Wall of Light at 11:03 AM - Sun Nov 19 2017
Posted By Spinam at
SO, there are a lot of threads going around the forums about it and I've completely lost track - will there be magic in Elyria? How will it work? How common will it be? How will it pass/progress/develop? And so on...
I saw a post from our gracious leader, señor Caspian, earlier in the year talking about the difference between high-fantasy and low-fantasy, and the subsequent need for magic. The point being, since Elyria is not high-fantasy (dragons, elves, vampires and monsters coming around every corner) magic isn't going to be a required tool for progression. Instead, it is supposed to be flavoring that progresses the storyline and adds to that "Where do I fit into the world" quest all the players go through.
But everyone loves magic - that's one of the best parts of games - doing stuff you can't do in real life is amazing! And there is still a lot of talk about how the mechanics of it will be worked through. I always see conflicting or slightly varied/imprecise responses on other threads. Can this thread be a current update on the issue?
I invite all community members to ask the questions they have about it and post a response if you have one. (References are a blast when giving a response. So is prefacing if you're speculating based on stuff you've heard.) With any luck, this thread will be a bookmark for questions about it in the future.
My idea of, "Things I can't do in the real world" isn't limited to magic. Imagine arming 1,000 soldiers with your own swords or performing an actual siege with rams. These weapons are obsolete now, and there's no way to really do that in the modern world. Discovering the basic elements or performing flight experiments to be a pioneer in the technological world. Being the first to set up a lasting empire in the middle of the southern deserts in this world. Knowing that your character won't suddenly die from a gunshot.
No magic is necessary. It's just being used as a hidden spice in this game.
...you just described a civ simulator - not an RPG. This game has a lot of promise but right now it just sounds like a less blocky version of Minecraft, a better online version of Skyrim, or a crappy version of BDO with an open sandbox spin. Now I get the desire to dial back on mechanics to have practical and metered story progression - it would be impossible to plan when every player has the ability to level a city - but no one that plays legacy MMORPGS did so because they wanted to play an MMO version of Sims.
This game is going to be a timepiece - like Runescape. I get what they are going for and it really hasn't been done before, but they also have to compete with the current games out there. The idea of magic has become a staple in the MMO world. Games that don't have magic have insane combat mechanics that are essentially magic-like skills. I live in one of the largest cities on the East coast and home to a crap ton of anime conventions - if i wanted I could organize and outfit hundreds of people in my armor and gear. I can also put on a cape and go around picking locks and robbing people. All these are a stretch but are things that I would get a way bigger rush out of by doing them in real life than doing it through a screen. People want more than what they can do in real life.
Everyone loves 'skill-ing'. A game that is basically one large civ simulator - Sims with an MMO, medieval expansion - will be a hit, but not a big enough pull in the gaming community for people to jump on the bandwagon. While sandboxes are nice, no one passes on a trip to the theme park to play with a 4x4 sandbox, even if it has diamond-encrusted tools.
SBS doesn't need to add any magic. But they are going to need to make sure that all their other content is sufficient to have this game stand tall in the RPG genre. High fantasy is overkill, but low fantasy games aren't very much in fashion nowadays...
