Skills

The Muster – Sacrifice, Skills and Different Stories

Ruins by the road from Chronicles of Elyria.
~ victoriarachel ~ 5 Comments

Well, there was some darn big news this week that has stolen most of the air time, and rightly so. If you have not watched the pre-alpha first look video and caught up on the KickStarter news, then you really need to do so. However, the Muster is still here to pull together a few of the other news stories that were missed in all of the excitement.

Videos were not the only new media this week, we have a whole host of new screenshots to look at and some members of the community began to question exactly what it is we are seeing. There was also a magazine interview over at Gaiscioch which covered a lot of interesting topics, including some information about changes to the skill system. Finally, is starting with high influence ruining the fun of the game? Spoiler: Only if you treat Chronicles of Elyria as a typical MMO. Continue reading →

Chat Log – Concerns, Part 2

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We all have concerns about the game. We are all human after all. At the beginning of last week the developers took the opportunity to take the time to address as many of the concerns that were being posted on the forums as they could. This lead to two and a half hours worth of Live Chat between Jeromy ‘Caspian’ Walsh and community member BicycleWalrus on his channel DM21 Gaming.

Carrying on from Part 1 posted yesterday this chat log is all about bringing you my Top 3 Topics from the second part of the live chat as before the video can be found here, and the transcript made by community members Xilana and Maygus can be found here. Lets get started! Continue reading →

Journal Discussed – Maps, Cartography, and Navigation

A character holding a sundial in Chronicles of Elyria.
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Explorers often get a raw deal in many MMOs. There is this whole wide world, but nothing new, nothing unknown, nothing that actually requires exploring. That is what makes me excited about the cartography skill, it is what made me excited enough to make it the topic of my first ever blog post three months ago. I am really pleased to see that now we know more about the topic all those things that I was excited about, expansive skills, exploration, community interaction, are all there. If you haven’t caught up yet head over to the Journal Abridged to get all the details.

Of course with all my excitement I still had questions about the new system, as did many other members of the community. Luckily with an active developer team no question goes unanswered for too long… well as long as you do not ask about magic or combat. How they are still keeping those systems a secret I do not know. Let us find ourselves on the map and travel our way through tedious clichés and see what else we learnt about maps, cartography and navigation this week. Continue reading →

Journal Abridged – Maps, Cartography, and Navigation

A character holding a map in Chronicles of Elyria.
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This series takes the Developers Journals and gives you all the information broken down in to simple sentences. No waffle, or chicken for that matter. If you want discussion then you are going to have to wait for the Journal Discussed which will hit later week.

With the world of Elyria being on the larger side you are going to want to find your way around. However, this being the game that it is you are not going to be able to hit your ‘M’ key and have a perfect map of the world at your fingertips. No you are going to have to make that map, and then you are going to have to know how to use it (or of course pay someone to do those bits!). You can read the full version over at MMORPG.com, then read it all again with the abridged version below. Continue reading →

Journal Discussed – Character Roles, Skill Advancement, Crafting and Professions

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It has been a packed week for Developer Journal with a double bill landing this week. Luckily with the topics being so linked it is easy enough to talk about them together, so that is what we are going to do. If you haven’t caught up yet then the Journal Abridged for Character Roles and Skill Advancement covers how we might decide to build our characters from the wealth of skills available. Whereas Crafting and Professions focuses on how we are going to perform some of those skills if we choose to take on a Producer role, and some of the information Suppliers might want too.

With a lot to get through I think this is one of those times were we are just going to have to jump straight in, so lets get started! Continue reading →

Journal Abridged – Character Roles and Skill Advancement

An anvil being used for crafting in Chronicles of Elyria.
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This series takes the Developers Journals and gives you all the information in easy to manage parts. No turbos, no superchargers or any whooping v8s. If you want discussion then you are going to have to wait for the Journal Discussed which will hit sometime this week.

Skills to pay the bills, is how the saying goes. But which skills are you going to pick? There are so many different options in Chronicles of Elyria. This Developer Journal focuses on how you can customise and build the character you want to play. You get to decide your role in society and how you are going to go about earning your crust. You can read the full version over at MMORPG.com, then get a recap with the abridged version below. Continue reading →

Forum Finds – Disguises

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Hidden within each Developer Journal is a phrase that hints towards as yet unannounced features. The forums are abuzz after each journal scouring the text and examining each and every word to try to uncover the clue. This week was no exception. I thought the information uncovered really needed highlighting, so it is the focus of this Forum Find.

Did you always think it was odd that in other MMOs you knew every stranger’s name and they somehow knew yours? Well, Chronicles of Elyria that will not be the case. Just like in the real world you will not have the mystic ability to know people’s names before being introduced. As Caspian informed us on the official forums:

In Chronicles of Elyria, all characters- NPC, PC, OPC, etc… start out unnamed. You don’t know who they are until they introduce themselves to you, and vice versa. However, through the use of disguises, you can create alternate identities…

Continue reading →

Forum Finds – Animal Skills

Chronicles of Elyria Town
~ victoriarachel ~ 1 Comment

We know there will a wide range of skills in Chronicles of Elyria, including some really interesting skills not often seen in other MMOs like cartography. What we do not know yet is what other skills are out there or how we get them.

A few more skills have slipped out, and along with them the words “skill tree”, here is the post by Jeromy ‘Caspian’ Walsh in response to community members kingfighsher (great big apologies for spelling it wrong to begin with) and Lordnym discussing skills in the now somewhat derailed, or perhaps just diverted, Will behaviors affect survival? thread on the forums.

Animal Taming is currently part of the Bardic Skill Tree. Animal Husbandry is one of the Lore skills.

Animal related skills have been confirmed though their impact on the world and all the details of how they work are still unknown. Continue reading →

Forum Finds – Music

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If you have ever thrown a party you will know the importance of great music. Music also turns sitting around the campfire from being out in the cold and dark into an enjoyable evening. It is true for an MMO gathering too and while it might seem a small addition this forum find made me dance.

Community member Amarok was posting in the Entertainer? thread and made this comment:

It would be great if the music system would be similar to that of LOTRO

If you are not familiar with it then there are numerous YouTube videos of some fabulous performances. Continue reading →

Forum Finds – Cartography

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This series of posts brings to light some of the most interesting forum activity over at the Chronicles of Elyria community forums.

The forums might be a little tricky to navigate at the moment but don’t worry that is due change in the coming months (you can give the developers your suggestions for features you want to see added here). If you do venture in, and I strongly suggest you do, you will find developers spilling their juicy secrets in almost every single thread! Who can blame them? They finally get to share their excitement with us.

The thread I want to bring to your attention today is World Exploration, Maps & Equipment, started by community member Silv, which contains this exciting revelation from Jeromy ‘Caspian’ Walsh:

The map system is one we’ve been working on for a long time. We wanted to do something different here than has ever been seen before – something that really speaks to our sandbox-style world, and the ability for players to create original content.

Cartography will be one of the earliest skills available to players. The skill allows you, using in-game tools, to draw/sketch/stencil maps of your area. The higher your cartographic skill, the more precise and high fidelity the tools available to you will become. Then, you can distribute your maps to others for free or for purchase. Likewise, others will be able to take your maps and add additional information to them. (X marks the spot!)

I’m withholding another really cool feature of cartography. I hope you’ll forgive me, but when I reveal it, I think it’s going to be huge. Stand by for a future dev journal.

This excites me for numerous reasons. Continue reading →