Posted By YEG at

Since CoE isn’t like a traditional theme park MMO and hasn’t a linear path or designated levelling areas that separated newish from experiences players AND also there will be no level indicators to determine a potential strength or skill level of a player; how in the heck will we know who we could/show take on in terms of PvP etc?

Copied from the CoE regarding Souls:- Characters in Elyria have mortal bodies that age and die, but their Souls live forever. Each time you reincarnate into a new character - whether that be your heir or someone else entirely - your progress is retained through your immortal soul. Skills you learned in a previous life will be faster and easier to regain, and allow each new life to advance further than the one before it!

So as per my post title; will Players with "Old Souls" be too OP compared to new Players?

Thoughts?

No, there was a Q&A sometime somewhere where Caspian addressed balance issues with new characters.

Edited because I found the source. DJ 1 Intro to Souls

To counteract this problem, we’ve determined that souls available to players during character creation will naturally age over time. Characters created a couple years after launch will use souls that are a few lives older. This makes it so players who come late to the party can continue to be competitive. - Caspian

There was always a plan for some randomness in soul age. With that goal reached. They gave it to those that had accounts early during that event. So instead of having to seed at a rare chance people got these souls through raising money for the game. Either way, it's seeded into the game. One was more with community interaction than the other option of being mostly random with similar results. Still this doesn't mean that there will be no old souls for people.

They aren't over powered because you still have a large chance of the soul not fitting your desired goal of the game. However, it's a slight advantage to those that have it and then have it align with their goal. So the chance of it being useful for min-max isn't really within reason.

Also as the game goes on, souls will age so new players that join the game people will also join with a similar average age of a soul, so it doesn't become a EvE like problem where new players can't compete at all. 1-2 gen gap isn't going to be that Big of a deal. Most things that are made at a highly competitive rate requires a group anyway. a few people that have an advantage in that group will not offset it too much.

No, it will not be over powered.

Yes, old souls get a skill ramp up until you reach the point the previous life did, that ramp stops once you reach it. If you pick a completely different skill set in it's new life, that ramp up will also be irrelevant.

New players later will have a chance at an old soul when they come in later on, so they will not be inherently worse off.

They may be missing some advanced skills that others may have gained from increasing a particular skill, but that doesn't mean someone that has them, is automatically better at it.

Example;

Player A has been a blacksmith for 3 generations. He's broadly studied the skill and become quite advanced and versed in it.

Player B is a brand new player, their soul has not lived before but has studied as a blacksmith his entire first life. He has chosen to concentrate on a specific couple of items and become quite versed in those.

Player A may have broad knowledge and can produce a large variety of items, but the quality over all may be less.

Player B may only have a few items they can produce, however as they have concentrated heavily on just those few, they would produce those items at a higher quality.

Posted By YEG at

how in the heck will we know who we could/show take on in terms of PvP etc?

You don't know. Make an educated guess based on their v. your equipment. Ask around to find out what people know about them. Watch them fight someone else. Bring friends. Basically ... do what you would do if you'd PvP in RL.

I'm an old soul, and definitely not the only one. We're not OP in any way.

If you could pick what your old soul was, as in what profession then sure. But seeing it's flat out random luck. Could just get it in some profession you have zero interest in.

I will completely ignore my old soul and do what I think is best for my character. I hope to be a scribbler. and feel no need to become a carpenter or blacksmith.

I feel like in the case of the randomly awarded souls.

You get the right combo, and game over mann.

If I got even a 1.1x bonus to my Alchemy crafting, oooooo. Best believe no one is going to catch me. My county would be toying with Nitroglycerin and Panaceas before everyone else figured out what Bang is :D

I recall scaling mentioned to address the gap.

I hate PvP, especially the combat kind. Knowing my luck, if I get an old soul, it'll be like a champion gladiator or something...

I feel the same Labbe! No competition tho! We can share notes :)

Souls doesn't necessarily add a significant advantage either way though. Skill ramps don't give a higher initial skill rank, they just allow you to learn a skill faster and be able to more realistically reach the highest skill ranks. Familiarity with the game and material inheritance from their previous characters are probably far greater advantages the veterans will have over beginners. Even if some of these might be mitigated somewhat in communities that provide decent opportunities for education and apprenticeship.

i thought there once was a statement about each life's skillramps beeing less intensive from life to life. so when you have one skillramp in one life, and then increase the skill again, die and reincarnate the bonus you get from the frist life will be starting to deminish. therefore you can become the legendary master of your chosen craft, but never a master of all traits. there will be a limit to how powerful you can become. and therefore will be a limit for the power players have.

Great range of responses and details.

Thanks all; helped alot :)

Regarding what Galliad said:

If you don't practice a skill ramped in a previous life, the ramp degrades. If you continue to practice a ramped skill, the ramp increases in length to the extent of your new maximum skill level, each life. That is how I understand it. Someone who knows better may be able to correct me.