Overview
The most dynamic and immersive MMO to date, Chronicles of Elyria is the first MMORPG where your character ages and dies, encouraging you to think beyond your character to their role in a larger story.
Fearless in its design, it embraces a character's ability to impact other characters. A closed economy, finite resources, non-repeatable quests, and a fully destructible environment means the world is experienced differently for every character. Each time you log in there is something for you to participate in. Local, regional, and national conflicts are continuously unfolding, giving birth to repeated opportunities for you to change the course of history.
Enter the world as a member of a player-run family, then work your way up from a humble adventurer to a landed vassal, develop your dynasty, and work your way to King. Not interested in running a kingdom? The fully skill-based system and lack of classes means you're rewarded with the ability to create the exact character you want to.
Will you follow a path of virtue... or something darker?
Learn More at: http://chroniclesofelyria.com/
Register Using Friend Code: DEF968 to help our family get some beta opportunities.
General Design
Q. What classes do you have?
None! Chronicles of Elyria is a fully skill-based system, in which the skills you use determine which skills you're good at. There are, however, schools you can join which will provide certain benefits such as ranks and titles, and will help you develop certain skill sets more quickly.
Q. What kinds of skills are there?
Skills will be revealed in an upcoming content milestone. Stay tuned!
Q. I read somewhere this was an RTS, RPG, kingdom management... thing. What does that look like?
Correct! To the adventurer it's mostly an AARPG. If you purchase land and start building a town it takes on more sim-like elements. Running a county or duchy will feel a lot more like an RTS, and for the Kings, it plays more like a kingdom/resource management game. At each level of play new user experiences become available help make managing your new role easier. And unlike in most RTS/Kingdom Management games, in CoE, your units are the other players!
Q. What do you do to prevent people from stealing your mail?
Shh! This is one of our best kept secrets.
Q. What are the mini-games you mentioned for non-combat skills?
It's hard to describe without pictures. There will be more to come in a future content milestone.
Guilds and Families
Q. I read somewhere you start as part of a family?
Yep! As part of character creation you pick a family. This impacts everything from where you start, to which possible skill bonuses you begin with, to what physical attributes such as hair color you can select.
Q. Does it have to be a player-run family?
No. You can select NPC parents as well, but they tend to be less talkative in Family Chat.
Q. What if I don't want to be constrained by family restrictions?
You can opt to start as a ward of the state. You get more flexibility in character creation, but lose most of the starting benefits of a family.
Q. Are there guilds?
Absolutely! With a metric ton of new features I'd say we're really the first MMO to support guilds.
Q. What if I want to bring my guild with me to Chronicles of Elyria?
Great! We'll be providing codes which will allow you to bring your entire guild into your family or guild so you can get a jump on building a powerful dynasty or enterprise.
Q. How do I make sure my friends start on the same server?
When you provide a friend with a game code it will allow them to create a character on your server, even if the server population is capped.
Q. How I do I make sure my friends start in the same area as me?
As part of character creation they will have an opportunity to pick a family that is close in proximity to yours.
Death and Dying
Q. Wait, players age and die?! Really?!
Yep. When we thought long and hard about what we wanted to achieve with this game - dramatic story telling, rich, evolving history, a balanced skill based system, etc... it became clear to us that the only way to achieve that was if characters were constantly cycling. But don't worry, we're spending a lot of time thinking about how we can make the process of death, and birth an enjoyable and interesting part of the game.
Q. So, there's dying, and then there's DYING?
Correct. During normal play you can get knocked out or receive a fatal wound in which your soul temporarily leaves your body. Neither of those are perma-death. But each time your soul leaves your body your soul's connection to Elyria gets weaker, shortening your total life span. When you reach your maximum age, you will sleep the Final Sleep and be no more. That's DYING.
Q. Do I lose experience if my soul becomes separated?
There's no experience in Chronicles of Elyria. However, you may experience some skill atrophy if you're dead for long. And also, the process of being ripped from the physical world takes a toll on the soul. Each time you die, it will reduce your available life span.
PvP and other Unsavoury Activities
Q. Is there PvP?
Yeah. Lots. Everywhere. Kingdoms go to war, assassins wage their silent battles in the night, highwaymen lay wait in ambush on the unsuspecting passer-by. However, except in times of war, PvP is illegal, and the penalty is stiff. So while PvP is possible everywhere, it's highly unlikely around civilized areas.
Q. Griefers. Tell me you've at least eliminated the griefers!
Actually, more or less. In Chronicles of Elyria, crimes such as attacking other characters is punishable by time in prison. The more time someone spends in prison, the shorter their playable lifespan, the more their skills atrophy, and the less powerful they will ultimately become. So, we've kind of removed most the incentive around griefing.
Q. What about gold farming?
We recognize that not all players can (or want to) spend the same amount of time per week farming gold for that special armor. We also recognize some people have a ton of free time, but not a lot of money. We're attempting to equalize this by having an in-game exchange market.
End-game Content
Q. What does end-game content look like?
There isn't any. No, seriously. This game is about being a part of an epic, ongoing story-line. Fill your characters' days adventuring, siegeing, farming, running a town, county, or kingdom. Spend time increasing your family's holdings and building your Noble House. And then, in your characters' final days, let them sleep the final sleep, while your soul grows young again and re-born into another character to make their own mark.
Q. Is there raiding?
No.. and yes. There are no static raid dungeons. However, world events will frequently cause big, bad, nasties that to need to be dealt with to roam free or take shelter in an abandoned ruin.. Also, as players amass a large amount of wealth and hide it in their castles other, less savoury players may choose to break in and steal it. Finally, kingdoms will often go to war and siege each others' castles. All of these can and will require a varying number of players to be successful.
Q. How big is the world?
Really, really big. More details to come.
Influence / Influence Points
Q. What are Influence Points?
Influence Points (Influence or IP) is our pre-launch currency. Influence gives us a way to quantify and reward players for their contribution to making the game successful.
Q. How do I earn Influence?
There will be many different ways to earn Influence, such as: recruiting other players to the game, contributing during crowd funding campaigns, being particularly beneficial and helpful on the forums, submitting bugs during open/closed play events, and contributing high quality player-created content.
Q. What can I do with Influence?
Ah, the million dollar question. We're still working out all the possible things you can do with Influence, and we're open to suggestions. Some ideas we've already had are: starter packs, free lives, soul packs, land, buildings, noble titles, legendary items, custom surnames, the ability to name locations, etc...
Business/Planning
Q. When will the game be finished?
Not in 2015. Beyond that, it's too soon to tell.
Q. Will there be a beta? How do I sign up?
There will be a beta. When available, invitations will be sent automatically to people in order, based on Influence.
Q. Are you hiring?
Great question! Since this changes from time-to-time, your best bet is to bookmark our Jobs Page.
Q. What's the business model?
Chronicles of Elyria uses a unique business model that harkens back to the days of coin-op arcade machines. In short, when you buy the game you get a free life. Then, you play until your character dies the "Final Death" (perma-death). After that, you buy another life from the character creation screen and continue on.Before you get all upity about perma-death, please read the previous FAQ question titled: "Q. So, there's dying, and then there's DYING?"
Q. How much does the game cost? How much does a life cost?
No exact price has been set, but we anticipate it will be on par with the retail cost of other PC games. Lives will be roughly the cost of a game expansion.
Q. Can I contribute to the development of the game?
Games such as this requires many resources. The best way to get involved is too see our post on Influence Points, or head to our Investors page.
Q. How many servers will there be?
Our plan is to push the limits on the number of players available on a single server. As a result, it's our goal to keep the number of servers small.
Q. Do you plan to have regional/international servers?
Yes. We do plan to have regional servers.
Q. Are there micro-payments?
No. At least not in the usual sense. We don't like a model where only people with money can get access to the coolest things. So anything in the world can be purchased with gold. However, we understand not everyone wants to spend time farming for gold, so we do provide an in-game exchange that allows players to get gold for real-world currency.
Q. Is this pay to win?
No. Anything that can be achieved through purchasing, can be achieved without.
Game/Engine
Q. What engine/technology will you use?
We're currently using the CryEngine for the proof of concept. That may change for the final game.
Q. I'm confused, I thought you were using the Soulborn Engine.
When you think of a typical "game engine" you think of the set of libraries used to perform model/terrain/water/particle rendering, camera movement, animation, physics, user input, and sound. These are all, in general, things that the user experiences directly on the client-side and defines the look and feel of a game. For these things we're using the CryEngine.
In contrast, there are a set of services/libraries running on the back-end that drive the soulpool, the dynamic story engine, etc... These servces are scanning for and initiating dramatic situations and controlling the hierarchical, goal-based AI of the NPCs. These services also define the rules/mechanics which make Chronicles of Elyria different from other games that use the CryEngine. This collection of server-side logic and services is the Soulborn Engine.
Q. What will the system requirements be?
It's too early to tell exact requirements, however it will require a PC running Windows 7+, with a video card that supports DirectX 11+.
Q. What platforms will it be released on?
As we're currently built on the CryEngine, it will run on Windows PC. We are looking at compatible consoles as well, and the game is being built with a game pad in mind.
About Soulbound Studios
Founded in 2015 by industry veterans Jeromy Walsh and Eddie Smith, Soulbound Studios is a growing team of talented game developers that have banded together to create something truly inspiring. By challenging what it means to be fun, re-imagining what is possible, and re-defining "immersive", Soulbound Studios aims to create games unlike anything ever seen before. But this passion for creating groundbreaking games isn't just what we do, it's who we are. It's part of us. It's Soulbound.
Running a successful game company is like running a successful guild. It takes a leader that can attract strong talent, selfless, dedicated officers, a shared vision of success, and a commitment by all members to push for the betterment of the team. But more than anything, it takes a group of like-minded individuals who want to do it all, see it all, and face all challenges – together.
Meet the Leadership
Jeromy Walsh, Owner/CEO
Jeromy is the creative and technical director of Soulbound Studios. With his relentless passion for creating new worlds, developing new game systems, and solving tough problems, he uses his imagination, technical acumen, and past business experience to drive the long-term strategy. A 15 year veteran of the game industry, Jeromy began programming games in the early 90's, beginning as a MUD Wizard writing LPC code in text-based Multi-User Dungeons he quickly moved to developing 3D games and First-Person Shooters. After finishing degrees in Computer Science and Psychology from Missouri S&T he joined Liquid Entertainment as a Tools/Engine Programmer and later Pandemic Studios as their Senior/Lead Tools Programmer.
Jeromy has numerous credited and uncredited titles in the Free Roaming Adventure and RTS genres including Dungeons & Dragon: Dragonshard, Mercenaries, and Star Wars Battlefront. He was most recently an Instructor at DigiPen Institute of Technology and a Senior Software Engineering Lead for Microsoft. When he’s not programming, Jeromy is a lover of board and card games, fantasy literature, ancient mythology, and has spent over 20 years as a storyteller and game master across multiple digital and print role playing systems, including Dungeons & Dragons, White Wolf, and Pathfinder.
Eddie Smith, Art Director
Eddie is the Art Director and Lead Concept Artist of Soulbound Studios. His extensive art background goes back to an early age on up through to his first coming into the game industry as a college intern in 1997. Eddie has an undying love for art, design and visual storytelling. His influences are Ralph McQuarrie, Syd Mead, Joe Johnston, John Byrne and Michael Pangrazio. Eddie Graduated from Cal State San Bernardino with a degree in Studio Art/Painting and also study's screenwriting in addition to directing shortfilms. His game industry credits include FASA Studios - Mechwarrior 4, Bungie Studios Halo and Halo 2, and Crytek's Ryse: Son of Rome.