Eyes: G/G Mutations: MUG/Null = Magic Use Skill Available Proficiency very Low The character could develop magic but they will only be capable of weak spells and "soft-cap" at "Apprentice" with skill progression slowing down. They can continue beyond that with great difficulty

Eyes G/G Mutations: MUG/MUB = Magic Use Skill Available Proficiency Low The character could develop magic and they will be capable of learning spells faster etc. Their "soft cap" is slightly higher progressing further than MUG/NULL would.

These are all obviously examples.

In Elyria, the ability to use magic comes from the soul, but is tied to individual lives. With a top chance of 5% to get a talent (and magic being a sub-set of talents at again, max 5%) We won't be seeing a lot of magic on the whole.

Talents will be randomly distributed and gained via participation in the story, so your character could develop a magic talent if they are in the position where a Magic talent is important to progressing the story, or you could gain a talent from going of specific adventures wherein you gain a talent along the way; either by unearthing an object that gives a talent (a relic) or via (again) your position and ability to make a storyline come to fruition or to the next climax.

Talents/Magic will not be genetically linked, as much as we might like.

This would make magic far to prevalent. You do realize that most players will never see anything magical, right? Only a very small portion of the population will have talents, and an even smaller portion of those players will have a 'magic' talent.

This proposal would also tend to separate the population into a muggles group and a magic-proficient group. That's not a good thing.

By the way, predominant eye colors are already defined for tribes. If purple is the same as violet, then you are giving the Dras an unfair tribal advantage in magic. From that example, I surmise that you are throwing out your own design ideas without having sufficient knowledge of the existing design. I'm fond of doing that myself, but for this game it's about 2 years too late.

I am suggesting that the 5% for the initial prevalence of things remain unchanged.

The talents and traits being randomly distributed, chances of gain loss, requiring combinations and activation makes odds of encountering the gene low, breeding it low, activating it low. Not without in game study, research, identifying, selective marriages "breeding". Over time Magic could become more common certainly, that's also the point. After generations of gameplay sure.

There are many other possible factors as well, and it remains in the combination of as well as mutations. Scripting wise a logic tree is relatively easy "if this plus this then this." I was also thinking earlier of the concept of "corruption" basically turning all of the talents dark and foul when the character becomes evil. This could also result in "Nulling" genes, where upon "redemption" the talent disappears no more magic.

Final note: If Magic bears risks and dangers such as uncontrolled side effects, mutations, loss of power, this would cause non-magic people "muggles" to desire for Genocide. Fear of Magic lead to the inquisition in real life and with similar suspicions.

If magical talents were to always be entirely "random" that would also remove a lot of the fun.

I think that there is a plan for magic already in the game. The developers want its details to remain hidden from players. In other words, I believe they want to keep "The Occult" occult, and that this is a fundamental principle of the game, a requirement that feeds into and constrains the design. It may be that your idea has merit, and would be compatible with what the developers plan.

If that is so, and if what I believe is accurate, then your ideas may be taken up by the developers, but you would not get any feedback on it whatsoever. Similarly, we could discuss what might be interesting in terms of magic, and whether particular ideas are compatible or incompatible with the nature of the game. Since we are being intentionally kept in the dark, all that would happen is that the discussion would veer off into wild speculation, which could easily become rumor. Once the rumors get out of hand, the developers would have to intervene, trying their best not to let loose with information that they prefer remain hidden. This would be an unnecessary consumption of developer resources even if no hints were leaked.

Your mention of the possibility of inquisitions and genocide have already been mentioned.

The developers have hinted that the game may move out of low fantasy and toward mid fantasy as it progresses into the later half of its expected lifespan (10 years). They've also said, however, that magic will be in no way hereditary, possibly due to how easily the RMT crowd could exploit this to add value to accounts.

With these two tidbits in mind, there'll probably be hidden systems in the game that allow for the proliferation of magic but aren't account-based. Like everything else in the game, people will have to explore and experiment to find out just what those systems are and what methods might be used ot make them available to everyone. Just don't expect finding them to be easy or simple.

An interesting idea but in CoE magic isn’t a class, a species, or even a standard skill line. It’s a talent and in CoE talents are “keys” that pop up to allow players to overcome challenges posed by the story.

If there was a way to breed magic or talents in general they might not be available when and where they are needed to advance the story. My advice for everyone making magic threads is to forget magic exists. It’s not like becoming a Jedi in SWG, or unlocking an advanced class in other games. Magic/talents are mysterious, long forgotten abilities that the world treats like our world treated witchcraft.

If you get lucky great but for most of the player base for the entire 10 year story you won’t see a mage and by the end will likely be like the common folk of Elyria and believe magic is a fable told to frighten children.

These things are still not written in stone, we have seen some changes already take place so we could certainly discuss some possibilities. I have now thought that if it were recessive with multiple-allele... but I digress. I would like to see Magic Use have an attached skill tree rather than a singular ability. Researching spells like recipes would be great.

Magic is a big thing for me, and I really like the mystery and possibility that they have set up.

Posted By Metaldragonslayer777 at 7:03 PM - Fri Mar 09 2018

These things are still not written in stone, we have seen some changes already take place so we could certainly discuss some possibilities. I have now thought that if it were recessive with multiple-allele... but I digress. I would like to see Magic Use have an attached skill tree rather than a singular ability. Researching spells like recipes would be great.

Magic is a big thing for me, and I really like the mystery and possibility that they have set up.

There's nothing stopping you from researching magic, however it won't likely be a skill tree. If Magic could be carried forward between generations, its prevalence would increase at least year and by the end of the 10 year story it will have increase like bunnies left alone for too long. and Magic will become way too OP.

It's a nice idea, but not really that great.

On a positive note, I like the concept and thought you have put in to genetics, hereditary traits and mutation, but since we know very little about the specific details SBS has planned it is difficult to say which I would prefer.

This could be a good concept for genetics and traits in general.

Unfortunately, when it comes to magic, I am quite happy with magic being rare or even non-existent, although your idea of what magic could be is certainly interesting.

I like magic as much as the next person, but what attracted me to CoE was the fact that it was trying to be different, trying to be realistic and my concern is that implementing magic in this way would ruin the original concept and have a profound domino effect on everything else.

I also worry that if magic is implemented in any way other than how SBS has envisaged then magic users will be too powerful for this game.

If a balance could be found so that magic users where not as powerful as depicted in other MMO's, it didn't drastically alter the current game concept and the majority of backers actually wanted the change, I guess I would be ok with it and this idea actually sounds interesting; however, there are plenty of other MMO's out there with magic in them and I personally don't won't this game becoming just another copy.

Just for the hell of it, out of curiosity and for arguments sake, for once I am now also going to argue the opposite side on how magic might be justify in a realistic world if the typical concept of magic defies logic and laws of physics?

Well considering there are animals that are able to emit an electric charge such as the electric eel, the possibility of "lightning" or mastery of electricity it's not entirely fantasy.

There was also a theory that fire breathing dragons may have been evolutionary possible through dinosaurs/reptiles developing gas filled bladders that were filled with a highly combustible and very low density gas that aided flight through atmospheric buoyancy and was able to be expelled from the bladders and then ignited using a natural catalyst that was consumed by the reptile.

All this is achieved genetically so there is no question evolution could have taken a different path with Homo Sapiens.

One other way I could perceived "realistic magic" is simply through illusion (like magicians in reality), who may be aided through science and engineering devices and the ability to hypnotize a person or mass hypnotism of a crowd.... in essence it is perceived magic, even if it is not really there.

Let me pose a question. If the mind/brain controls everything to do with the bodies physiology and through illusion and/or hypnotism you can convince someone or a crowd that something has happened to them.... does it really happen?

Hypnotism can alter behaviour, it can implant thoughts and suggestions or extract them, it may assist with things such as pain and can also produce stimuli such as pain and other sensations, all of which the body may physically react to, even if that reaction is merely a psychologically elicited physiologically trained behavioural response to an otherwise non-existant stimuli that exists solely in the persons mind.....

just a thought because I am tired of arguing why magic shouldn't exist in Elyria.

Maybe "Magic" isn't the best term for what might be in the game at release -- Such as how Crimson Bees of the Second Age could make plants grow. Don't expect powerful "Magic" like that.

Expect there will be a rare animal, or perhaps a tree, shrub, mushroom, or fruit that will have a little "power" to bestow... and it may just make you feel less tired or heal a little faster. But it will be rare and the effect doesn't last. A "Talent" might be recognizing that animal or edible.

Maybe a person could, if they ever happened upon one, speak directly with a particular cricket or shrew, but only about what water is good.

Simplistic examples for sure but that may be all the "Magic" that is in the world at launch. I wouldn't expect more than that.

As for talents in general, which 'magic' will be a very small portion of. I wouldn't get your hopes up for probably at least a year after full launch.

First we'll have exposition which is 3 months long and is only supposed to be for populating and customizing the world a bit. It's hard to believe they would have talents enabled during this portion of the game.

As for why a year after launch? Talents are supposed to be super rare and mostly story related. I don't expect the story will progress to terribly much during the first year and it's unlikely that the first generation of characters will have a talent.

As many people have said since talents were first introduced, if you plan your game around being near something magical, much less magical yourself, then you're setting yourself up for disappointment.

To be fair, Albinism and other mutations will likely be rare as well. The devs when they stated that talents will not be linked to souls have said that Magic use will be more common and there may be available more powerful talents.

While few if any people may begin the game with any talents, if passing them on increases by heritage or other means this would be good, especially for Magic Use. Personally I am wondering if otherwise Technology will significantly overshadow any form of Magic in short order. With it being entirely random the answer is certainly yes. Otherwise even still, will we see firearms, bombs and missiles in game before we even see a single sorcerer?

The status of Magic being Legendary and Mythic should have as much to do with some reason why it disappeared. Like the Catholic Inquisition... Are there reasons to fear Magic Users? Another possibility is the gods themselves went all "Tower of Babel" on the Mages, magic having became a threat and the gods themselves intervening. To be fair, without even other reasons, powerful magic is reason enough to fear and kill. Thus if linked to genetics and mutations then if players are motivated to hunt them... it's possible they may be driven to extinction. More powerful talents should be more dangerous to other people as well in my opinion. The price of power...

Either way, I just want it to be something explore-able and research-able. A game where you can uncover magic collectively within a medieval style setting...

The way I see it, the only positive change regarding magic would be to lessen it's possibility more, or better yet completely remove it from the scope of PC use.

bring on the downvotes