Hail All,

With the introduction of our Exposition Point (EP) sale this week I wanted to take a moment and share the relative value of EP during exposition. This should give players a rough idea of how much EP they're going to want to purchase, if any, and what they can hope to buy with their EP. Note that the values listed below are relative, are subject to change, and are just a guideline.

Before we jump into the numbers though I wanted to briefly remind people what EP are, and what their purpose in Chronicles of Elyria is.

First, Exposition Points are a virtual currency that is available between now and launch that allows people who have a Bloodline Package and above the ability to customize their Pledge Package to some degree. This can be witnessed in the awarding of EP that comes with each package above Bloodline. Let me emphasize again, EP items will not be available after launch, as the Bloodline+ packages will no longer be available.

Pay to Build

But, EP serves a second purpose in Chronicles of Elyria beyond just package customization. When a player enters a new MMO on launch day, the world is teaming with beautiful settlements, sly merchants, experienced trainers, and a multitude of organizations and schools in which to join and gain faction with. In most MMOs these settlements are entirely designer-driven, and the merchants, trainers, and factions are entirely NPC-based.

That's because the settlements, trainers, and merchants are props in the world, a backdrop against which the action of the game happens. But in Chronicles of Elyria the settlements, trainers, merchants, and organizations are a core part of the game and cannot be ignored. The creation and destructions of settlements, the gaining of skills through a master-apprentice relationship, and the development of new economies are some of the things that make Chronicles of Elyria unique and exciting, and are best done with other players.

For that reason, we've chosen to seed the world's crafters, merchants, trainers, guild leaders, head masters, and settlers with the players who fund the game during early development. That is, all the roles listed above will be pre-populated during a three-month period of time just before launch called Exposition. It's during this time that the players can build out their settlements, set up their shops, organize their guilds and schools, and train in their skills - all in preparation for launch day. That way, when the servers finally open, the larger percentage of players will be joining a server that's already filled with exciting plot-hooks, guilds vying for power, and settlements that are mid-construction on exciting new buildings. In short, players will be joining bustling worlds and thriving economies, with the early players welcoming them in, rather than a land-rush of new, unfamiliar players with the uninformed educating the uninitiated.

But, it's also important to remember that these early pioneers in Elyria, while playing an important role in Elyria's history, are at the mercy of the same laws as the rest of the player-base. And, just like players who come in after launch day, anything that can be gained can be lost, and the relevant question with respect to nobility is when they'll lose their titles, not if. Again, those who participate in Elyria have done so to help build a functioning world for others on launch day, not to gain any kind of long-term advantage.

That all said, let's look at the relative EP values.

Kits

As discussed during our Kickstarter, we wanted to provide a set of kits which players could purchase to easily customize their pledge packages. These kits are limited to one per type, per account, and are capped by having the relevant titles or tiers. The kits are:

Requires Exposition Access to purchase

Profession Kits: 100 EP ea.

These kits provide the starting equipment, tools, and patterns or techniques necessary to begin your occupation as a crafter, gatherer, explorer, or champion. (ex. Smithy kit, Carpenter Kit, Miner Kit, Soldier Kit, etc...) If the game supports a profession, chances are good there will be a kit available to help you get started. Individual items value at 20-40 EP.

Storefront Kits: 125 EP ea.

Take your profession to the next level with a storefront kit. These kits provide the fixed location assets necessary to set up a shop, storefront, or other establishment on leased land. They'll typically include blueprints and resources for a small building, crafting stations or other furniture, and additional decor to help give the location a welcoming feel. (ex. forges & anvil, bar & tables, loom & spinning wheel, display cases and racks, etc...) Individual items value at 25-50 EP.

Land-use Kits: 175 EP ea.

The land-use kits help to further establish your profession by providing a parcel of land on a non-coveted parcel in which to build your commercial or residential building, or to use the land for agricultural purposes such as farming, horticulture, breeding, or pet-rearing. (ex. stables, stalls, fields, bee hives, plant boxes, seeds, saplings, etc.) Individual items range from 10-100 EP.

Requires Mayor / Baron title to purchase

Settlement Kits: 625 EP

Settlement kits are designed to help customize your settlement. They'll typically include a set of pre-made, pre-furnished buildings and a small amount of infrastructure to create the type of settlement you want to create. This could be a mercantile settlement, one focused on harvesting of resources or agriculture, or the production of goods and items. (ex. trade hub, mining town, sea port, farm belt). Individual items range from 100 EP to 250 EP.

Defense Kits: 325 EP

These kits are designed to add a small number of defenses to a settlement in the form of a large amount of fencing and a couple of lookout towers. These are sufficient for basic defense of inner settlements, but not for baronies. Fencing is generally around 10 EP for 32m of fencing, plus 25-50 EP for the lookout towers.

Requires Count title to purchase

Infrastructure Kits: 1,250 EP

As a count, your job is to help capitalize on the resources of your county - natural and otherwise, and to ease the distribution of those resources. Infrastructure kits help work toward that goal and include a set amount of road, but then further include things like mining equipment and rigs, waterwheels, etc. Infrastructure kits are fairly biome specific, but then further focus on one of the organic or inorganic resources prevalent in the county. (ex. Mining infrastructure, lumber infrastructure, farming infrastructure, etc.)

Requires Duke or Royal Package to purchase:

Religion Kits: 5,000 EP

Each religion in Elyria has their own deities, or lack thereof, with their own rituals, ceremonies, shrines, places of worship, and religious symbols. The Religion kit contains a collection of religious buildings, shrines, and decor to distribute throughout the Kingdom to, increase the overall presence of the religion. Individual items range in value from 10 EP for religious items, all the way up to over 1,000 EP for a large cathedral.

Technology Kits: 5,000 EP

Each biome has a specific set of resources, and specific needs. However, within each biome there is often more than one way to solve a problem and the technology kits offer the additional of universities and schools to help foster learning in specific areas, as well as the introduction of specific technologies into the kingdom which may help solve problems in new ways. Technology kits will include the buildings for schools, as well as the patterns and techniques for advanced technology. Individual EP ranges from several hundreds to a thousand for the colleges and universities, to 100+ EP for the patterns and techniques, depending on level of advancement.

Culture Kits: 5,000 EP

The culture kits, like the religion and technology kits, are meant primarily for Kings, however have been made available to Dukes just in-case they want to focus the culture of their duchy on something other than, or in addition to, the overall culture of the kingdom. These can be things such as a cultural focus on military training, performance & the arts, food, etc. As with infrastructure kits, culture kits are biome specific and help to focus the culture of a region through the placement of additional buildings and structures.

Military Kits: 10,000 EP

The military kit includes defensive structures such as ramparts and castles, as well as siege equipment such as trebuchet, catapults, etc. Individual items range from several hundred to several thousand EP.

Quality level

The prices for the above kits are set such that each community member can customize their package with the EP that was included with their package. However, that's by no means the extent of the customization that can be done. The contents of all the above kits are of what one would consider standard or common quality. Players are free to purchase additional items a la carte which will be of higher quality. In general, we follow a tiered approach as follows:

Common: 1x

Uncommon: 2x

Rare: 5x

Treasured: 20x

Legendary: 100x

This means that to determine an approximate price of a rare equivalent of a common item, one can multiply the common item by 5. So, for example, a common building that costs approximately 100 EP would cost approximately 500 EP. Similarly, if fencing costs about 10 EP for 32m, it might cost 1,000 EP for 32m for the best available stone rampart.

A la carte items

The above packages give a decent idea of what kits we're planning and what you can expect out of them, however, to give a bit more detail, here's a listing of a la carte categories which would be included in some of the above kits, and which can be purchased separately. Again, the prices are going to change somewhat, and are included here so people can gauge the relative value of their EP and its buying power. If the values below don't line up precisely with what's listed above, that's because the kits above are all provided at a 20% discount of the items they contain. So if a kit meets your needs, it's always better to buy the kit than the individual items.

All values below are the common quality costs. Use the previous quality list to calculate higher quality items. For example, if a piece of equipment would normally be 35 EP, the rare equivalent would be approx. 175 EP.

Resource Stockpile: < 10 EP for a stack

Crafting Materials: < 25 EP for a stack

Contracts: < 25 EP for a stack

Patterns & Techniques: < 50 EP

Blueprints: < 100 EP

Tools: < 10 EP per tool

Containers: < 25 EP

Crafting Stations: < 50 EP

Equipment (clothing, armor, weapons): < 75 EP per item

Store Inventory: 100 EP+ for a few random common items

Decor & Lighting: < 25 EP per item

Furniture: < 50 EP for a set

Livestock / Bee hives: < 50 EP for a small stock

Pets: < 50 EP for a single trained pet

Mounts: < 100 EP for a single mount

Transportation: < 100 EP

Caravan Wagon: < 200 EP

Siege Equipment: < 250 EP

Crops: < 100 EP for a field

Plants & Trees: < 150 EP for a set of saplings

Land: 100 EP+

Furnished buildings: 200 EP+

Fences & Walls: 10 EP / 32m

Roads: 25 EP / 32m

Schools & Academies: 750 EP+

Cathedrals & Shrines: 1000 EP+

Well, that's a small sample. After the v3 website goes live we'll get the actual EP store set up so you can spend your EP.

Pledged to the continued development of the Soulborn Engine and the chronicling of Elyria,

Caspian

Added the follow-up post.

-Caeoltoiri