Saga of Lucimia | A Throwback to Group-focused MMORPGs | MMORPG

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Saga of Lucimia | A Throwback to Group-focused MMORPGs | MMORPG

Saga of Lucimia is a great example of gamers helping themselves by making the kind of game they want when no one else will. We caught up with Project Lead Tim Anderson to chat about the passion project, its goals, progress, and when we can expect to see the fruits of the team’s hard work.

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Nanfoodle

EQ1 fan in me is very excited!!! Gonna watch this one. Very unique.

Nanfoodle

When Magic comes, will there be classes like Paladins, Mages or open skill system. For corpses, will you have ways you can get help to get back your corpse. Like in EQ1 getting a Necro to summon your corpse? If dungeons takes weeks to do, I can see fighting to get back a corpse could be huge.

Nanfoodle

@Billmurphy When you say "Early Access will be coming in mid-September" Is that also 2017?

Eldryth

They've talked before about their plans for magic- I'm sure Renfail (a lead dev) will come by to answer in more detail, but basically it's heavily tied to the story progression.  At the initial release, it'll be a very low-magic setting; magic is lost to the world and the only remainder is a bunch of magical items called Relics.  You can find them throughout the dungeons, they range from standard magical equipment to items containing spell-like effects that you can use if you're built for Relic use.  You can also specialize in alchemy, I believe, which I don't think is considered magic?  That and Bard some pre-magic support options.

In chapter 2 (two years after launch, roughly), magic will be rediscovered and you'll be able to start looking for spells.  But that'll also be a slow start, since you have to seek training and then seek out lost spells to learn.

Edit: Was typing when you made your last post, a Early Access is this year.  They mentioned it'll be possible to make something like a Paladin, but it's an open skill system and it'll be difficult to fit everything into your build- plus there's only arcane magic in the setting, so you may be able to find similar spells but a different theme?  And I don't know much about their corpse recovery.

Gaming.Rocks2

Early access is September 2015

BillMurphy

Nanfoodle said:

@Billmurphy When you say "Early Access will be coming in mid-September" Is that also 2017?

Nope, this year. But it's going to be a really ROUGH EA, not marketing.

Renfail

Nanfoodle said:

When Magic comes, will there be classes like Paladins, Mages or open skill system. For corpses, will you have ways you can get help to get back your corpse. Like in EQ1 getting a Necro to summon your corpse? If dungeons takes weeks to do, I can see fighting to get back a corpse could be huge.

There are no gods, so you won't see "Paladins" in the traditional sense. However, if you are an Intelligence-priority Fighter archetype, you could emulate some of the magical abilities that are typical of Shadowknights or Paladins. But we have no undead in our game, which is where Paladins typically shine in traditional fantasy. No plans for there to be a summon-corpse ability, but there may be Relics that help you locate corpses. Or perhaps summon =P We may work that in at some point. Yes, fighting back to your corpse in backup gear is a "big deal". You should be trying to avoid death, which is why we're keeping the sting there, so players learn how to play instead of bum-rushing content. Strategy + teamwork win the day.

Renfail

Nanfoodle said:

@Billmurphy When you say "Early Access will be coming in mid-September" Is that also 2017?

We'll be getting our Indiegogo backers in September for some server stress tests, then opening the doors to the rest of the world for full Early Access. 2015

Renfail

Eldryth said:

They've talked before about their plans for magic- I'm sure Renfail (a lead dev) will come by to answer in more detail, but basically it's heavily tied to the story progression.  At the initial release, it'll be a very low-magic setting; magic is lost to the world and the only remainder is a bunch of magical items called Relics.  You can find them throughout the dungeons, they range from standard magical equipment to items containing spell-like effects that you can use if you're built for Relic use.  You can also specialize in alchemy, I believe, which I don't think is considered magic?  That and Bard some pre-magic support options.

In chapter 2 (two years after launch, roughly), magic will be rediscovered and you'll be able to start looking for spells.  But that'll also be a slow start, since you have to seek training and then seek out lost spells to learn.

Edit: Was typing when you made your last post, a Early Access is this year.  They mentioned it'll be possible to make something like a Paladin, but it's an open skill system and it'll be difficult to fit everything into your build- plus there's only arcane magic in the setting, so you may be able to find similar spells but a different theme?  And I don't know much about their corpse recovery.

This.

Renfail

BillMurphy said:

Nanfoodle said:

@Billmurphy When you say "Early Access will be coming in mid-September" Is that also 2017?

Nope, this year. But it's going to be a really ROUGH EA, not marketing.

Yes. This is NOT a "we have a polished game we want to market" type of Early Access. Instead, we are getting our community involved from Month 18, basically. And it's gonna be ROUGH. Things will be broken, there will be bugs, you are here to TEST, not to play a polished version of the game so you can get a head-start on people. You will be testing, you will be helping us work out the kinks of early combat and then dungeons and zoning and crafting and etc., and things will evolve within our "vision" and the help/feedback of the community. It'll be ugly, it will go through multiple iterations, and it's a two year process from now until the launch of Volume I.

Nanfoodle

Renfail said:

BillMurphy said:

Nanfoodle said:

@Billmurphy When you say "Early Access will be coming in mid-September" Is that also 2017?

Nope, this year. But it's going to be a really ROUGH EA, not marketing.

Yes. This is NOT a "we have a polished game we want to market" type of Early Access. Instead, we are getting our community involved from Month 18, basically. And it's gonna be ROUGH. Things will be broken, there will be bugs, you are here to TEST, not to play a polished version of the game so you can get a head-start on people. You will be testing, you will be helping us work out the kinks of early combat, and things will evolve within our "vision" and the help/feedback of the community. It'll be ugly, it will go through multiple iterations, and it's a two year process from now until the launch of Volume I.

@Renfall Will you be charging for EA?

Renfail

@Renfall Will you be charging for EA?

Yes. Early Access is directly tied to pre-orders. Exactly like Shroud of the Avatar.

Nanfoodle

Renfail said:

@Renfall Will you be charging for EA?

Yes. Early Access is directly tied to pre-orders. Exactly like Shroud of the Avatar. I really want you to do well. Kinda came out of no where for me and something I will most likely jump on when that time comes. Looks @Billmurphy lol, guess we will see if mmorpg.com stands by their word on how they judge games =-)

Solar_Prophet

Forced grouping? Yes, because not being able to do anything until you find a group is fun, right? Still tolerable for a strong game though. Corpse runs? Being penalized because your internet (or the healer's) decided to crap out during a fight sucks. Still, that's also tolerable. Even the fact that the devs present themselves as extremely unprofessional (at best) and regularly troll here wasn't enough to put me off completely. 

Now I find out there's no undead, religions, or divine magic? Screw that noise, I'm out. Good luck. 

vtravi

Game sounds amazing. I don't have the time to test a game in EA, but you can bet I will be there day 1 when this game releases. I just hope the game has in game voice chat. Makes grouping so much more fun.

Renfail

Nanfoodle said:

Renfail said:

@Renfall Will you be charging for EA?

Yes. Early Access is directly tied to pre-orders. Exactly like Shroud of the Avatar.

I really want you to do well. Kinda came out of no where for me and something I will most likely jump on when that time comes. Looks @Billmurphy lol, guess we will see if mmorpg.com stands by their word on how they judge games =-) We'll be keeping MMORPG.com and many other places in the loop and I'm sure you'll see more articles + information + opinions cropping up in coming months

Renfail

vtravi said:

Game sounds amazing. I don't have the time to test a game in EA, but you can bet I will be there day 1 when this game releases. I just hope the game has in game voice chat. Makes grouping so much more fun.

We are all VOIP users, and that's high on our list of priorities: having a good in-game VOIP system to allow for hands-free grouping. Really the only way to roll for the coordinated group-based style of play. Type for roleplay, VOIP for groups/raids

Nanfoodle

Solar_Prophet said:

Forced grouping? Yes, because not being able to do anything until you find a group is fun, right? Still tolerable for a strong game though. Corpse runs? Being penalized because your internet (or the healer's) decided to crap out during a fight sucks. Still, that's also tolerable. Even the fact that the devs present themselves as extremely unprofessional (at best) and regularly troll here wasn't enough to put me off completely. 

Now I find out there's no undead, religions, or divine magic? Screw that noise, I'm out. Good luck. 

Community will form that will support each other. How they end up doing healing later when thats a thing will factor into how well this game does. I hope for a solid trinity system in the end, Tank, CC and support like in the EQ1 days. As for no undead, Gods or religion. I am pleased as punch. IMO thats a breath of fresh air and I hope they keep to their guns. So sick of the undead and daemon vs God theme I am ready to just snap.

Renfail

Solar_Prophet said:

Forced grouping? Yes, because not being able to do anything until you find a group is fun, right? Still tolerable for a strong game though. Corpse runs? Being penalized because your internet (or the healer's) decided to crap out during a fight sucks. Still, that's also tolerable. Even the fact that the devs present themselves as extremely unprofessional (at best) and regularly troll here wasn't enough to put me off completely. 

Now I find out there's no undead, religions, or divine magic? Screw that noise, I'm out. Good luck. 

As long as you are a team player, sociable, and get along with others, you won't have downtime. Instead, you'll be out there grouping, roleplaying, interacting, and growing within the world. It's not just about adventuring and getting phat lewtz; there is also crafting, buying, selling, roleplay, lore, storyline, and most importantly, community.

Jason and the Argonauts. Captain Malcom and the Serenity crew. Frodo and the Fellowship. Zeus and the Olympians against the Titans. You are part of an overall story within a group-based telling, not a single hero in a single-player storyline.

As far as no gods, undead, or divine magic: this is our take on a high fantasy setting. If you want cookie-cutter, there are plenty of other games out there. We're doing something different, something unique, and if you follow the storyline in the Story So Far you'll understand the "why" we are doing it this way

It's about the journey, not the destination. And players within our world are on a very unique journey, one that will take them through a changing world and an evolving storyline that will keep evolving as time goes on.

Nanfoodle

@Renfail, love reading lore. Where is this backstory posted? Do you have ebooks I can read so I can read it off my phone? PDF even?

EDIT: found them: HERE Just a suggestion, can we get a PDF for offline reading?

Renfail

Nanfoodle said:

@Renfail, love reading lore. Where is this backstory posted? Do you have ebooks I can read so I can read it off my phone? PDF even?

EDIT: found them: HERE Just a suggestion, can we get a PDF for offline reading?

I've thought about doing PDFs for every 10 chapters. There are 30 chapters for Volume I. Eventually, I'll put the whole Volume out there, but this way we can do episodic volumes every month as content releases and still have time in between to do the stand-alone lore (like the Wandering Hermit tales, which we've published one of, and there are several other chapters to be published that John wrote earlier this year)

Painbringer7

Solar_Prophet said:

Forced grouping? Yes, because not being able to do anything until you find a group is fun, right? Still tolerable for a strong game though. Corpse runs? Being penalized because your internet (or the healer's) decided to crap out during a fight sucks. Still, that's also tolerable. Even the fact that the devs present themselves as extremely unprofessional (at best) and regularly troll here wasn't enough to put me off completely. 

Now I find out there's no undead, religions, or divine magic? Screw that noise, I'm out. Good luck. 

I don't really see the problem with forced grouping...?  Unless this game has a feature that does not let you stray to far from your caravan or group (which I suppose it could, but not that I have read of).  Just because you are "Grouped", does not force you to talk to each other or even play as a group. As long as you can keep what find for yourself, then you can all run off and do your own things ( a group of solo players if you will ). I would just use the caravan as a dump hub for items.

Renfail

Painbringer7 said:

Solar_Prophet said:

Forced grouping? Yes, because not being able to do anything until you find a group is fun, right? Still tolerable for a strong game though. Corpse runs? Being penalized because your internet (or the healer's) decided to crap out during a fight sucks. Still, that's also tolerable. Even the fact that the devs present themselves as extremely unprofessional (at best) and regularly troll here wasn't enough to put me off completely. 

Now I find out there's no undead, religions, or divine magic? Screw that noise, I'm out. Good luck. 

I don't really see the problem with forced grouping...?  Unless this game has a feature that does not let you stray to far from your caravan or group (which I suppose it could, but not that I have read of).  Just because you are "Grouped", does not force you to talk to each other or even play as a group. As long as you can keep what find for yourself, then you can all run off and do your own things ( a group of solo players if you will ). I would just use the caravan as a dump hub for items.

We are, actually, putting a limitation on caravans that keeps you from getting too far away. This was mentioned in the article that Bill wrote. We don't want players abusing the system to "skip" across zones and sections of the world. It's not set in stone yet, but you'll be limited to within a couple/few zones, and you don't have city recalls. The closest you'll be going will be the nearest outpost/city that you discovered on your journeys.

You won't be able to run off and do your own things solo. The mobs of the game are designed so that overland mobs need at least 3-4 players to take down, with some 4-6 person content, wandering raid mobs, and overland camps for 6-8 players. The only way you'll solo anything is if you go to a zone that is far, far beneath you in skill level, but even then you won't be 100% safe from getting killed, due to the fact that we don't have hitpoint bloat.

Instead, we have D&D style hitpoints. A "max level" character in full raid gear might have 300 hitpoints, but just because you are in raid gear doesn't mean you are invincible. Even if you went back to the starter areas, or areas below your "skill level", they'll still be able to hit you, and for serious damage.

Coupled with that is the fact that some mobs in zones actively seek out players, zone-wide. Which means you are never, ever "safe", even when you think you are out of aggro range of a mob. Something could be coming over the hill, following your scent, and ready to bash you over the head.

You will almost always need a group when heading out to do anything on the adventuring side of the game, and we're working on group crafting as well. You'll be able to do some things within cities on your own, but when it comes to heading out into the wilds, you'll always want to go with 2-3 other players, at the very minimum.

In short, you wouldn't be able to use the caravan as just a dump hub. We'll be putting mechanics in place to block that sort of stuff. They are meant to be there to help coordinate your static group of friends/guildies, and then you can bounce back to the nearest outpost in between your core sessions (if you play more than they do) and hang out with other people and do small overland content on the off nights.

Slapshot1188

After reading this line "The team of twelve working on Saga of Lucimia are all rookies to the world of game development" does anyone actually have any doubt where this is heading?

Painbringer7

I see. Well then, the complaint really should be about forced babysitting instead of grouping. Your game has a lot of mechanics I personally like very much.  Grouping not really being one of them.  I suppose for me, it would all depend on the player base this game attracts. I've played far to many "Online Games" with the guttersnipes of the world (not going to group with those types under any circumstance). Either way, the game looks good; and I hope you do well.