The biggest MMO on the show floor at PAX East 2016 this year was tucked into the Indie Megabooth area as it seems that the time of the traditionally published MMORPG is at least on hold, if not at an end. Like Star Citizen and Crowfall before them, Soulbound Studios are seeking crowdfunding for their title, Chronicles of Elyria to the tune of $900,000 and are well on their way. The Kickstarter for the title is now out, and can be backed via the official site.

I spent time talking with Jeromy Walsh, the CEO and Creative Director for Soulbound at their PAX East booth, discussing their plans for Elyria in order to get a handle on this latest offering in the fantasy sub-genre. I was struck by the sheer number of gameplay layers that they are hoping to include at launch. Everything from aging characters, offline player scripting, non-instanced destructible player housing/cities, deep crafting systems, player contracts, and one of the most old-school paper and pen style exploration systems I have ever encountered anywhere (let alone in an MMO – requiring supplies, player made mapping, and terrain/locations that differ on every server).

Calling their title a “Sandpark” (or perhaps a “Themebox”), Walsh said that while they will have a main story that is designed to play out of a 10 year span, this will be very much influenced (and possibly even derailed) by players who will occupy many positions of power that would normally be held by an NPC in a traditional themepark MMO.

Game of Souls

A key part of both the story and the questing is the notion that your actions have a bearing on your “soul”, an important system as your soul will be reborn into many characters over the course of gameplay (since a character has an effective lifespan on 10-14 real-world months of life). This will guide you, over time, towards dark or light quest hooks dependent on how you have previously handled the story.

While Walsh would not be drawn on the details of the story that will unfold, he did drop a large (and tantalizing) hypothetical situation. With a character only lasting a finite amount of time in the world, he hinted that a dark soul may be able to find a path to immortality through unlife – becoming a lich (an undead sorcerer, for those unfamiliar with the term).

However, the mantle of lichdom would come with the traditional downside – the existence of a phylactery which, once destroyed, would cause perma-death for the “immortal” player. Walsh then ran through the steps that a player could take to secure their phylactery which went from holding it on their person (a poor choice as characters never exit the world and could be hunted down while offline), placing it in their home (a better choice, though as homes can be destroyed or broken in to, could also result in easy discovery/destruction), and then all the way to creating tunnels underneath their home filled with traps and NPC’s/players to defend it (creating, in essence, a dungeon that might exist in other MMOs). Yes, in Chronicles of Elyria it is expected that other players will be the equivalent of raid bosses.

Skills for Days

Walsh also took me through the concept of their skill system. Every ability will be trained by players (though initially seeded by some NPC’s until the “economy” for it settles in) through a master/apprentice system. This will function by allowing an apprentice to use the same skill as a master when grouped with them, thus allowing them to gain skill ranks in the ability (which will take between 2-4 hours to learn, to the point where the skill can be used independently of a trainer).

Skills will also not be tied to a traditional skill tree – crafters will not be forced to learn how to forge a dagger before a longsword, before a claymore as each skill is discrete.

A Life Less Lived

Another seldom seen feature is the complete persistence of player characters – when the player logs off, the character persists in the world and can still be interacted with and even killed. To offset this fact, each character can have offline scripts applied allowing them to react to the world still – through training skills, running a shop, or defending itself.

Overall I was very impressed by the concepts of Chronicles of Elyria that Walsh and his team are planning, though with the many layers of systems I reserve some judgement as to whether they will be able to produce such a grand tapestry as they are preparing to weave.

Do You Want to Know More?

Soulbound Studios was also kind enough to get back to me after the convention with a large number of questions that help outline Chronicles of Elyria for those new to the title.

Development

MMO Central: How long has the game been in development?

Soulbound Studios: * The design began in 2000 as a brain child of the owner.

* The development began in 2010 as a hobby project in the owner’s spare time

* The company was launched with three people January 1st 2015

* Full Idea-phase funding came through and the team grew to about a dozen people the beginning of 2016

MMOC: How is development of the game progressing? What sort of launch date are you targeting?

SBS: The game is progressing as quickly as it can on a small budget. The exact date is predicated on the success of the Kickstarter; however, we’d like to see a release the end of 2017

MMOC: How big is the development team right now and what is their main focus currently?

SBS: The team is currently at around a dozen people, in addition to a few off-site contractors.

MMOC: Are you using an existing game engine or a custom engine? If custom, what kind of capabilities?

SBS: We’re using the Unreal Engine 4 for our front-end client. For our back-end, we’re working on a custom story/AI engine, in addition to looking into some potential third-party support.

Crowdfunding

MMOC: Why crowdfunding, rather than a more traditional Dev/Publisher arrangement?

SBS: A couple reasons.

1. Creative freedom.

2. We’re an unproven team, in spite of having many experienced developers with a large number of titles. We’ve never worked together, so we recognize we’re a big risk for publishers.

3. We’re making the game we think players want to play. This gives us an opportunity to make sure.

MMOC: How did you decide upon your chosen crowdfunding platform?

SBS: Kickstarter is one of the most well-known crowd-funding platforms and we have already backed a number of projects on Kickstarter ourselves. Both as individuals, and on behalf of the company.

MMOC: What, if any, backer benefits are you considering now or in the future?

SBS: We’ve got a full list of rewards that we’ll be announcing some time the week before or Kickstarter goes live. We’ve tried to get a good mix of digital and physical rewards, all things we feel our users will enjoy, and help get the Exposition of the world started.

MMOC: What portion of the project’s total funding does the crowdfunding effort represent?

SBS: We, the owners felt it was very important that we go all in before asking others for financial support. As a result, we’ve invested everything we have at about $0.5M, and are now seeking another $900k. However, we’ve already spoken to some friends/family who are looking to put in another half-million. So at present, crowd-funding represents about 50% of the funding. With that said, we want to make sure we have plenty of buffer, and so will likely be seeking additional investors. This gives us the opportunity to speed up development, increase our targeted market, and potentially even cover additional platforms.

MMOC: How long will the crowdfunding campaign run for?

SBS: The crowdfunding will go from May 3rd to June 3rd.

MMOC: If applicable, what options will there be for new supporters after the campaign ends?

SBS: We recognize it’s become increasingly popular for crowdfunded games to allow residual investment after the Kickstarter ends. While we’re looking into this as an option, we want to make sure that people understand the importance of the Kickstarter itself. So at the moment, we’re encouraging those people who are able to support us during the Kickstarter to do so.

Infrastructure

MMOC: What platform(s) are the MMO due to launch on?

SBS: Right now we’re developing on/for Windows PC. However, using the Unreal Engine, the option of cross-platform to Mac, Linux, or even Consoles is still on the table. If crowdfunding is successful enough, we’d look very seriously at expanding to consoles.

MMOC: What sort of server architecture are you planning on (megaserver, individual shards, something else)?

SBS: The nature of the game requires a lot of people interacting in a single world. As best we can, we want a single server per region – NA, EU, AU, etc. This gives players the best opportunity form alliances, guilds, establish strong governments, etc.

MMOC: What sort of player caps will the server(s) have?

SBS: We’re looking at making the back-end as horizontally scalable as possible. This means that player caps are going to be less about how many players a server can support, and more about how many it can support in a single location. We’re not yet up to a point where we’ve established an upper bound, but ideally we’d like to see about 100k players per server.

MMOC: What server regions will you have at launch? (US/EU/OCE)

SBS: We’ve got a very strong following globally, and would be looking to do releases in NA, EU, as well as OCE.

Monetization

MMOC: What are your monetization plans on release? Buy-to-play? Subscription? Free-to-play?

SBS: CoE uses a new Buy-to-play model that integrates very well with our game mechanics. Players purchase Sparks of Life that allow them to live for approx. 10-14 months before their character naturally dies of old age. Risky behavior, however, can shorten the lifespan of players. We feel this balances the server nicely, with those looking to play more civilian type roles able to play for as little as $30 per year. Those more risky, will pay a bit more.

MMOC: Are any RMT shops planned, if so what type of gear will be for sale?

SBS: We have no plans for any kind of in-game RM shops. The extent we plan to take this is the purchase of Sparks of Life and Soul packs before character creation. All in-game items (aside from a few Kickstarter rewards), will be available in-game.

Setting

MMOC: Is the game primarily a theme park or a sandbox?

SBS: The game really isn’t either a theme park or a sandbox. It’s something new. It’s a blending of the two, where there’s a constantly evolving story-line, like a theme park, but created by the players like a sandbox. Chronicles of Elyria is really about adding the mechanics and creating the tools necessary to allow players to experience the same excitement and range of emotions they’d feel reading their favorite epic fantasy novel.

MMOC: What kind of genre does the game take place in?

SBS: We like to think of it as a mid-fantasy game. It has a very medieval feel, but with element of high fantasy that gives it its own unique flavor.

MMOC: If applicable, who are the main NPC protagonists and antagonists?

SBS: With a game that includes aging and dying, protagonists and antagonists are going to come and go with regularity as the story-line progresses.

Systems

Describe the game’s primary (and any secondary) progression system(s) (skills, abilities, levels, etc.)

SBS: Chronicles of Elyria uses a unique skill-based progression system. It’s unique, because it encourages players to be useful at all levels of progression, rather than racing to the end. It also encourages collaboration between players, as players will the primary method other players will learn new skills.

MMOC: Is the game a class-based system? Can you give an example of your archetypes?

SBS: The game is not class-based. However, we divide our skills up into different skill trees that cater to different types of roles. We refer to them as Producer, Gatherer, Explorer, and Champion. These serve to identify the types of activities people will do who descend one skill tree or another.

MMOC: What, if any, forms and methods of Player vs. Player interaction are you currently planning on including?

SBS: CoE is an open-world PvP game, with a twist. Players will be able to engage in friendly duels, arena combat, as well as battlefield and siege warfare. In addition, while it’s technically illegal and the penalties will be stiff if players are caught, PvP combat can really happen anywhere in the world. A player is never 100% safe.

MMOC: Are there plans for an achievement system? Will this be tied into any other systems (e.g. perks/buffs/gear)

SBS: There is an achievement system planned, and it does tie into other systems. It ties into the soul system with respect to passive bonuses, as well as the title system, as people can take new surnames upon completing certain achievements. Finally, the dynamic story-engine will key off of the completion of different achievements.

MMOC: Will a pet system be included? If so, cosmetic only or will there be some tangible player benefits?

SBS: We are definitely having a pet system. Pets can be tamed and used in combat, as well as mounts in some cases.

MMOC: Will there be mounts? What form will these take? Are you planning on any flying in the game?

SBS: There will be mounts. There will be both mundane and in some cases more fantastic mounts. We have no plans for flying in the near future, as air travel significantly changes the travel mechanics of the game.

What form of structured social groupings (e.g. Guilds in other games) are planned for release?

SBS: There are multiple social systems in CoE. There are in-game families, with shared bloodlines and additional perks. There’s organizations, such as guilds, schools, and associations, and there’s a town system that allows players to build up hamlets, villages towns, cities, and even large capitals.

MMOC: What is the duration of the day and night cycles currently (if planned)? Does it have any in game effect?

SBS: Right now a full in-game day is 2.5 hrs (with 1.5 hrs of daylight, and 1 hour of night). The day/night mechanics effect a large number of systems, including the rate at which characters get fatigued (we all get more tired at night), weather and temperature, feeding and hunting patterns of creatures, and of course, visibility.

Crafting

MMOC: What type of marketplace do you plan on implementing – auction house?

SBS: We don’t have a specific marketplace planned. Instead, our contract system allows players to set up their own economy through things like player-ran stores, consignment shops, auction-houses, and even banks. It’s actually possible to create a loan agency as well, so those enterprising individuals can seek capital to start a new business.

MMOC: Global or regional or direct sales by players?

SBS: All in-game exchanges happen as direct sales through players.