Chronicles of Elyria | Technology & Research | MMORPG

Maygus

Alzuule said:

aSynchro said:

Sounds very cool so far!

(True story: when I started playing WoW, me & my friend thought guild would worked like a real world medieval guild, ie: it would teach us crafting skills etc. We were kinda disapointed to discover the truth ! ^^)

I've got a question: you're talking about research & knowledge, but can a discovery be lost ? For example if the guild is disbanded, or if the blacksmiths that know how to craft a very specific tech die... To be more specific, do you plan a game where the pool of knowledge is forever increasing or, on the opposite, a game where it cycle, like civilisations that rise and fall ?

If the discovery is kept largely a secret and isnt something you could learn by getting your hands on one of the products ( say a potion or a new kind of alloy  that cant be reverse engineered ) and everyone who knows how to make it dies, AND that there is no recipe or schematic for it then yes it would be possible. ( now this question i havent seen specifically answered but after checking in with others that have followed closely and chatted with devs for along time it seems to be the case )

Slight clarification here... If you discover something new through research, it is with your soul permanently. So you could be part of a guild that breaks ground on new research, die and spark your soul into a new body and not rejoin that guild. But use the knowledge, when you are sufficient skill and resources available, to then make that item.

Maygus

Timberhick said:

Falendor said:

You might want to re-read the article, you don't research things in a specific order 1-2-3 etc, you pick from a list A, B or C etc. The list can be added to in a surprising number of ways a detailed in the article. No order is enforced by the devs, except assumable where logic demands.

Yes you do have to research in an order to get somewhere.
Take your own advise and reread the article. They even admit to speeding or slowing advances in tech to their own whim.

Do you mean this?


---
In the end, we settled on a system that lets us be a partner in determining how quickly new technology is introduced into the world, while giving players full-control of which technology is added
---

i read that as, if players spend time focus research on a tech tree for more powerful firing mechanics, then we'll code the features and implement it.

but if no-one gives a shit about researching stronger blades, then we will not focus as much time on that.

essentially the player actions will influence the design time, the speed at implementation is essentially how many players vote (spend resources on) for a particular feature.

they have to build the models, animations etc. to support the invention after all.

JeromyWalsh

Hi Folks! Thanks for your interest in the game.

@archlyte: Definitely not a theme park game.

@Yanocchi: We suspect it'll end somewhere between there, yes. 

Archlyte: FFA PvP? Yes. Will that actually happen? No. PvP is possible anywhere, however there are laws in place that use implicit contracts. There's stiff penalties for killing another player. We want murder, intrigue, etc...to be possible, but to only happen if it serves a purpose. 

@Yanocchi: We have no intention of adding a cash shop, per say. We recognize that "time = money", and most MMOs assume players have unlimited free time (Teens, Young Adults, College Students). That takes for granted the fact that some people have limited play time, but an excess of cash (Working adults). We continue to look at systems like paying RL money to receive an in-game occupation or training that allows you to work while offline in order to stay competitive. However, if there's no work available, there's no value there, and it's only useful while you're offline. So the benefit is useless while online.

The system is designed as a way to make the mechanics fair for people who can't be online all the time. It's not intended (nor desired) to be a revenue stream.

As for Influence, as you know, it's a currency to reward players for being ... influential, and helping to make the game possible. Does that mean we'll be issuing Influence in exchange for funding during our Kickstarter?! Yep. Will that allow some people to get an advantage early in the game? Absolutely! Can all of it be lost by someone who takes over your kingdom, squats on your land, or robs your valuables from your house. Yep. It's a temporary advantage, and certainly doesn't guarantee success.

@Timberhick: You missed a *VERY* important part of the design journal. We'll be issuing prompts to players to allow them to research areas *before* we've implemented them. This can be thought of as a democratic system. If we see an interest from players in researching a specific area, then we know to prioritize the development in that area. So we're not really putting them on rails. I mean, we are, because it'll take time for us to develop new technologies. But the players really do get to pick which rails they want.

As for 1..2...3...4: You can't research Space Travel without having built up to it. There are prerequisties, but I think that's a fair mechanic and don't believe people would expect otherwise. 

And yes, we do get to decide what research is required in order to advance, but again, we'll let the players dictate which way the technology goes. We don't have a vested interest one way or the other. We just want really good stories. We grow and keep our player-base by making the gaming experience entertaning. Not by continuously ignoring them.

@Ozmodan: It's not just about big guilds. It's also about big families, big dynasties, big schools, big organizations, and big Kingdoms. I know this is going to upset people... and maybe even come as a surprise. But we're designing this *massively multiplayer* roleplaying game to have features encouraging collaboration among a massive number of players. So while our aim is to make the game playable as a solo character, it's really designed to bring players together. If people play MMOs for the solo experience, they're going to find CoE more challenging than usual. We've never said otherwise.

@Ozmodan: We're pretty excited about how much encouragement we're getting from various communities. Our community member count is growing rapidly. 

@aSynchro: Great concept! It's not possible to lose technology for long, currently. Could be worth taking another look at later, though.

@Timberhick: They even admit to speeding or slowing advances in tech to their own whim. Our whim? More like at a pace we're comfortable with. Again, it's not us vs. the players. We want them to be happy. But we can only develop new technology so quickly. And yes, we want it to take a little while too, or it could become the sole focus of the game. And with 100,000 players participating in the research, we could hit the space-age in a month. Think of it this way... given than 1 year in our world is 90 in Elyria, we'll still reach cool technology in Elyria a lot faster than we did on Earth. ;-)

As always folks, thanks for your courteous, thoughtful discussion.

Cheers!

Branko2307

If its too good to be true...

Alzuule

Timberhick said:

Making it 1p-2n-3a-4u-5ee in no ways changes that fact that you are going 1-2-3-4-5. That is all Soulbound is doing, adding another layer to the 1-2-3-4-5 ladder system. Whoa so innovative.
So Guilds will have R&D and Production Departments, your point?

My point is that its not like in wow as you seem to believe, and how would you otherwise make a research system? would you make it completely RNG so that one day you are making a sword and oh humptidumpty i think i just invented the microcircuit? sure that would make it nonlinear but it would be retardedly arbitrary. it seems like you are just cross with just about everything without being able to come up with better ( or more "innovative" ) alternatives. Maybe come with something constructive like your own super innovative research system?

Raheed

Gets my vote 10 times over

chimchilla

Timberhick said:

Knew they were going the static route of forced advancement.

i cant see how you think this game is static ?... LIKE ANY decent company you obviously have to plan what can and can not be crafted in a game ....name 1 , only 1 game where the developers did not plan what can and can not be crafter ?... if you just want to be a dick about something because you clearly have no knowledge about it , just shut it and don't comment

Timberhick

chimchilla said:

Timberhick said:

Knew they were going the static route of forced advancement.

i cant see how you think this game is static ?... LIKE ANY decent company you obviously have to plan what can and can not be crafted in a game ....name 1 , only 1 game where the developers did not plan what can and can not be crafter ?... if you just want to be a dick about something because you clearly have no knowledge about it , just shut it and don't comment

[mod edit]

Why do you have to advance tech at all?

You peeps really need to read what Jeromy is saying. Go on read it.
You missed a *VERY* important part of the design journal. We'll be issuing prompts to players to allow them to research areas *before* we've implemented them. This can be thought of as a democratic system. If we see an interest from players in researching a specific area, then we know to prioritize the development in that area. So we're not really putting them on rails. I mean, we are, because it'll take time for us to develop new technologies. But the players really do get to pick which rails they want.
Our whim? More like at a pace we're comfortable with. Again, it's not us vs. the players. We want them to be happy. But we can only develop new technology so quickly. And yes, we want it to take a little while too, or it could become the sole focus of the game.

See it isn't about players and what they want, it always goes back to what Jeromy wants. [mod edit]

acidblood

Interesting... are guilds / schools fixed in the world, or can anyone create them?

For example if you a few (two / three) crafters wanted to get together for some co-op crafting can they create their own guild / school? Or do they need to join an existing one?

Also, you mentioned extra options for a single person having mastery of multiple disciplines, but in the real world it is more likely the case that multiple people, each with mastery of a single discipline, will combine their skills for a project. Is this possible? how?

Wizardry

Progression in an absolute order would make sense,you don't invent the cart before the wheel.You don't discover the theory of evolution before you even understand what an atom or cell is.

Sounds to me like some people think it would be more plausible if you could create the elitist of all swords at level 1.Of course it needs to have an order of progression,it makes sense.

At least for me ,what matters most is variety and choice and that variety and choice matters a lot over various aspects of the game.One simple example would be,you m ight have that elitist sword but perhaps it is only good for killing bears but useless against Armadillos.

We just have to trust these guys since they are going for a lot of plausible realism,which i like a lot.However i thought it was going great in Project Gorgon as well but over time it became nothing more than a rush job through every aspect of the game.You cannot keep moving forward until each section of the game is near perfected otherwise after a while you have a huge section of the game needing fixes and nobody wants to fix it.

Timberhick

Want to show me where anyone says anything even remotely about making elitist sword in the first 10% of a skill?




I'll wait.

LynxJSA

"FFA PvP? Yes. Will that actually happen? No."

My favorite line in the entire thread.  

Timberhick

And yet somehow that is supposed to be a selling point.
If you are going to overly punish people for FFAPvP, why bother having it in the game then?