Note to reader: CoE has been in development for a number of years now. Although earlier official posts contain good information for learning what CoE is all about, more recent posts are more likely to be up to date.
Development Progress Updates have been moved to their own thread.
Early Dev Journals
Dev Journal 1: Humble Beginnings - A brief introduction of CoE
Dev Journal 2: Introducing the Proteus Engine - A description of the Proteus Engine (now Soulborn Engine) and how SBS plan to utilise it to create an expansive and dynamic game world.
Dev Journal 3: Out of the Frying Pan... - The announcement of the formation of Soulbound Studios, the website and Facebook page, and the renaming of the Proteus Engine to the Soulbound Engine.
Dev Journal 4: The Chat System - Describes the unique elements SBS hope to implement in the in-game chat, their reasons for these elements and what they hope to achieve with them.
Dev Journal 5: It Takes a Village - Explanation of Influence Points, including how they are earned and what to do with them.
Design Journals
Design Journal 1: Introduction to Souls - An intro to how souls work in character creation, and a brief intro to other elements connected to souls, such as soul mates and talented souls.
Design Journal 2: Soul Selection, Destiny, Achievements and Soul Mates - A more in depth look at these specific soul aspects.
Design Journal 3: Time, Aging, and Offline Player Characters - Explains how the age of a character affects stats and characteristics, also briefly touching on visual representation of character aging/effects, game world seasons and how Offline Player Characters will function.
Design Journal 4: Incapacitation, Spirit Walking, and Permadeath - Explains the different forms of death, what can cause them, how to deal with them, and also discusses looting of players.
Design Journal 5: Families & Family Selection - Explains how your family selection will affect your gameplay experience and character, as well as the various options available to you when choosing a family. Also gives details on various benefits family members receive from each other.
Design Journal 6: Character Customisation and Bloodlines - Explains how various things including family, birth place and where you live affect your character physically and characteristically. Also touches on the typical character customisation, and choosing to be a ward (orphan) rather than part of an existing family.
Design Journal 7: Contracts and Player-Created Professions - Describes how different types of contracts can be used to make laws and broker deals and trades between players, and how they can be enforced if broken.
Design Journal 8: Character Roles and Skill Advancement - Lays out the currently planned 4 roles characters will typically fall into and the 6 different types of skill trees they can focus on. Also describes how these 2 systems will work in the world of CoE.
Design Journal 9: Crafting & Professions - Describes CoE's unique crafting mini-games, as well as how professions can be specialised and specific goals can be researched.
Design Journal 10: Maps, Cartography, and Navigation - Explains how maps can be created and used, the different scales of maps, and some special ways they will function.
Design Journal 11: Equipment & Inventory - Lists the various slots a character can equip things in, and explains how different equipment will affect survival elements such as weight and heat. Also describes how character inventory and containers will function.
Design Journal 12: Identity, Disguises, and Reputation - Explains nameplates, player introductions, forging documents and wearing disguises to hide identity, investigation to find someone's true identity and how fame and reputation will be earned.
Design Journal 13: Technology & Research - Explains how research can be conducted, as well as how the technological advancements of individual servers will be affected by player research habits.
Design Journal 14: Player Housing – Architecture & Construction - How buildings can be constructed and customised in CoE, as well as what they offer in terms of functionality. Also explains how architecture is affected by environmental factors.
Design Journal 15: Player Created Dungeons - Explains building zones and laws, ways of obtaining land and ways that buildings can be protected or destroyed.
Design Journal 16: The Weight and Measure of a Lifetime - Lists the latest numbers for real-time to game-time ratios, as well as average character lifespans. Also explains how fame will be earned differently by nobles and how this will affect spirit loss through death.
Design Journal 17: Bolstering & Earn-to-Play - Explains bolstering, a system which adjusts character stats when playing with more experienced friends, and Story Points, a system that rewards players for contributing to the game world with their presence by giving them currency they can spend on game time.
Design Journal 18: Kingdom & Land Management - Explains the different levels of land owners in CoE - the Gentry, Aristocracy and Nobility. Describes in detail the different ways to obtain land, challenge for land and titles, and move up the social ladder. Also explains the process of upgrading from smaller settlements up to massive cites.
Design Journal 19: Pre-Alpha Experiences - Explains all the different interactions we as players will have with the world of Elyria in the lead up to launch - including a Prologue, ElyriaMUD and Kingdoms of Elyria. Also explains the reasoning behind each of these experiences, how they will interact with each other and what we can expect.
Design Journal 20: A Tale of Twelve Tribes - A very detailed post on tribes, explaining how they will be implemented into the game and why, as well as how tribes interact with other game systems like biomes and breeding.
Design Journal: Crafting Redux - An updated look at the plans for in depth crafting mechanics.
Design Journal: Communication - A break down of forms of 'communication', from chat channels to disguises and identities.
