2018 State of Elyria Retrospective

Slapshot1188

As we all eagerly away Caspien's annual State of Elyria update I thought it might be beneficial to do a review of last year's update and what was promised.  He is very longwinded so I will skip to the section called 2018 MAJOR RELEASES. At the end of each section is my grade and reason.

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2018 Major Releases

Previous years had us presenting playable demos of CoE to the relatively small percentage of our community who were fortunate enough to make it to either PAX East or PAX West. But 2018 is going to see a far greater audience of players getting their hands on Chronicles of Elyria. This is primarily being done through three major releases that will happen throughout the year. Let's look at each.

Character Creation & Your Akashic Record - NEW!!
As we've been making progress on Character Creation we've observed that it's quite fun just to see what kind of characters can be created. Given the range of values allowed by the different bloodlines it's both interesting and exciting to see what types of characters are possible within the different tribes, and what happens when breeding members of the different tribes together.

We've also recognized that many people in the community want to see the stuff they've received in the game that isn't playable yet - things such as their Phoenix pet or other animals. As a result, we're going to be releasing a simple client to the players at some point during the year that we call "My Akashic Record." The client has the single purpose of being both a character creator, so you can experiment with the various tribes and bloodlines that are possible to create, and a virtual space for showing off in-game items you've acquired and will be usable during exposition or after launch. After we release the Exposition Store (EP Store), many items purchased will be viewable here. Items such as furniture, buildings, animals, siege equipment, and other things you've acquired. There's no timeline for the release of this tool yet, but we're working on Character Creation right now.

END OF YEAR GRADE: F - Did not release

Slapshot1188

Pre-Alpha with VoxElyria
Beginning around April, and the completion of Release 0.3.0, players with Alpha 1 access will able to log into a pre-Alpha version of Chronicles of Elyria using the VoxElyria client. For those unfamiliar, VoxElyria is a voxel-based web client that we've created to quickly iterate on gameplay mechanics. It still connects to the Chronicles of Elyria backend, but doesn't use the Unreal Engine as a client. This separation means that we're able to get CoE into the hands of players even while we continue to iterate on systems which are heavily dependent on the UE4 client; systems such as crafting and combat, which require a full 3D user-experience.

As this is a Pre-Alpha release, it'll be under NDA and will be put into the hands of our Alpha 1 backers first. Anyone who has a pledge package with Alpha 1 access, or who has purchased Alpha 1 Access from the a la carte store will be among the first to step foot into Elyria.

After that, we'll continue to increase the size of the pre-Alpha audience at irregular intervals, depending on how the pre-Alpha testing is going. We'll first move onto backers with Alpha 2 access, then Beta 1 access, then Beta 2 access, and finally we'll open up access to all community members who have purchased a package and will lift the NDA. In the meantime, we wanted to show you some Work-In-Progress characters. Here you can see what a couple of the tribes look like in VoxElyria.

Image 10 - Voxel Model of Dras

Image 11 - Voxel Model of Janoa

Image 12 - Voxel Model of Kypiq

We're super excited to get players into CoE this early because the feedback we'll be receiving will allow us to make changes to the gameplay mechanics even before we complete Alpha 1. This is earlier in development than has ever been done before, and gives players the opportunity to provide real, meaningful, actionable feedback.

END OF YEAR GRADE: F (Can there be an F minus?)- Not only did it not release, but entire VoxElyria concept was scrapped. This is after the entire ElyriaMud was scrapped and turned into VoxElyria.   

Slapshot1188

Alpha 1
Later in the year we'll be completing Version 1.0.0-Alpha.1 and releasing it to our Alpha 1 backers. This release will have all the same features that players in the Alpha 1 and 2 cohorts will have come to enjoy while using the VoxElyria client, but will be using the UE4 client. This will be the first opportunity players will have had to play a functional version of the game outside of a PAX Event and it will have all the necessary features of the above Feature Area list.

END OF YEAR GRADE: F - Did not release

Slapshot1188

Conclusion

Last year, 2017, was undoubtedly a year dedicated to the laying of a strong foundation and the building of a solid support system. New architecture was written, new systems were created, and the game overall has improved radically in visual fidelity and performance. Looking back at the PAX East Parkour demo, the PAX West jousting demo, the release of the v3 Website backend and homepage, the various screenshots, etc. it's easy to see the progress that was made, but it's also relatively easy to see the absence of many core gameplay mechanics. That was 2017.

This year, 2018, is all about building the framing and the siding. It's that most exciting time in the development of a game when the core systems have been built, and attention is turned toward the rapid development of new gameplay mechanics. It's that period where a game really starts to take shape and become recognizably different from the other options that are available.

In short, while 2017 was about foundation, and 2019 will be about the trimmings and interior decoration, 2018 really is the most important year in the development of CoE. And more than anything, we're excited we get to continue to share the journey and process with you, our community. We hope to see as many of you as possible in the pre-Alpha VoxElyria client in the spring, and then in Alpha 1 later this year. If you haven't taken the plunge yet, and are still sitting on the fence, remember the Dance of Dynasties has already begun. The Kingdoms, Duchies, and Counties are already largely established on the servers, and now is the time to start meeting the Nobility and Aristocracy so you'll know who to play with during testing, and who to ally with during Kingdoms of Elyria later this year.

Pledged to The Continued Development of the Soulborn Engine and the Chronicles of Elyria,

Caspian

END OF YEAR GRADE: F - Disaster.  Literally, they listed 3 MAJOR RELEASES for 2018, some of which were supposed to be just weeks after the State of Elyria was posted, yet they delivered absolutely none.  Nothing. Nadda.  ZERO.  Kingdoms of Elyria... LOL.. too funny.



Is there anyone who can dispute giving them an F for non-delivery of ANY of the 3 major milestones they listed?

goboygo

Ill take your word for it, looks like you did the research.  I haven't seem much at all from this game except a cash shop.  One really solid cash shop.

Slapshot1188

goboygo said:

Ill take your word for it, looks like you did the research.  I haven't seem much at all from this game except a cash shop.  One really solid cash shop.

Well they also produce very verbose Lore that they base sales around.  

kitarad

Thanks @Slapshot1188 that analysis gave me a good idea about the progress. T

Kyleran

kitarad said:

Thanks @Slapshot1188 that analysis gave me a good idea about the progress. T

Or lack thereof rather.

I  did not remember all of those goals, but I think he blew off the 2018 state of COE mid year review in a terse discord conversation very late on a Saturday night's 

https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/474505/coe-july-not-state-of-elyria-discord-update-very-wow/p1

Kyleran

Slapshot1188 said:

goboygo said:

Ill take your word for it, looks like you did the research.  I haven't seem much at all from this game except a cash shop.  One really solid cash shop.

Well they also produce very verbose Lore that they base sales around.  

I'd score both of those with a solid B for effort.   

Could have been an A except its pretty clear despite Caspian's claims to the contrary, resources have been pulled from developing the game to focus on fundraising. 

Slapshot1188

Kyleran said:

Slapshot1188 said:

goboygo said:

Ill take your word for it, looks like you did the research.  I haven't seem much at all from this game except a cash shop.  One really solid cash shop.

Well they also produce very verbose Lore that they base sales around.  

I'd score both of those with a solid B for effort.   

Could have been an A except its pretty clear despite Caspian's claims to the contrary, resources have been pulled from developing the game to focus on fundraising. 

Much good.  Very WOW!

Waan

Thanks for this. Even though I know it's a train wreck, this summary just reaffirmed how much of a disaster CoE actually is.

Slapshot1188

Waan said:

Thanks for this. Even though I know it's a train wreck, this summary just reaffirmed how much of a disaster CoE actually is.

To me, it's not just about how bad the development has been.  It's about the ability to believe what Caspien says.  That's why each year I recommend that people go back and look at what he said the prior year.

IMHO you will find a staggering amount of promises and statements that just get forgotten over the year.  Then the new year comes and it's Groundhog Day all over again as people lap up what he says and toss money at him because of... promises.

I think by simply showing someone's own words and then the reality that occurred it is a powerful statement.  Certainly the opposite of "Much Good. Very Wow!".

IMHO we are in the exact same spot this year as we were last year at this time.  Except instead of "VoxElyria", which replaced the prior year's ElyriaMud, we now have promises that Pre-Elyria is right around the corner.

Do I believe people will get into some kind of Elyria Alpha in the short term?  Yes, I do.   But for a game that was supposed to launch in 2017 and is (per last official word I saw) scheduled to release in 2019... it's going to be eye-opening how incomplete it is.  Watch for some mixed messages as he hypes some system and then also discretely mentions that some features will not be in at "launch".

Mendel

I had a lot of issues with their fictional write-up of the blacksmithing skill.  I got a bit of grief about that, especially when I labeled it as fiction, and not anyway an accurate description of a game system in development.  It's been almost a year (I'll have to look that up), but has there been any other crafting system to which they gave similar treatment?  It certainly hasn't shown up in discussions here, although I may have missed it.

Lack of a similar 'vision document' on cooking, tailoring or other crafts only reinforces my initial thoughts -- that the blacksmithing document was more someone regurgitating an episode of Forged in Flames than anything tangible.  The SBS team has proven itself able to produce quantities of fiction about their game.  That that hasn't expanded to include other craft skills that are believed to be in development is very suspicious to me.

Edit: I looked it up.  April 2018, so it's only been 9ish months.

Waan

Slapshot1188 said:

Waan said:

Thanks for this. Even though I know it's a train wreck, this summary just reaffirmed how much of a disaster CoE actually is.

To me, it's not just about how bad the development has been.  It's about the ability to believe what Caspien says.  That's why each year I recommend that people go back and look at what he said the prior year.

IMHO you will find a staggering amount of promises and statements that just get forgotten over the year.  Then the new year comes and it's Groundhog Day all over again as people lap up what he says and toss money at him because of... promises.

Because of all the noise everywhere, you forget what's been said and promised. Only when you put it down black and white, you see what's really going on. It's staggering that he's been able to keep this going for years. I think I've seen you mention fanatics before, it certainly fits the term...

Wellspring

So, in summary, they accomplished 0 of their goals for 2018? That's a perfect score of awful.

Gutlard

Don't you need to turn in an assignment to get a grade? Usually when you don't you don't get an F, but a 0...

Gut Out!

Slapshot1188

Wellspring said:

So, in summary, they accomplished 0 of their goals for 2018? That's a perfect score of awful.

Pretty much. There is a thread now on their forum asking why nobody discusses the fact that the developers never hit deadlines.   It's currently got a -9 vote on it.  Why should SBS feel even slightly embarrassed by missing every "Major" release for 2018 when nobody holds them accountable?  

MadFrenchie

TimEisen said:

Seems like yesterday I commented on another site about his timeline being unrealistic, and he replied to me that I didn't know what I was talking about. Not that it matters, the cult of personality that forms around crowd funded games is nothing short of religious. 

Confirmation bias and sunk cost fallacies are very powerful things.

I see posts on the official forums of folks performing Olympic-level mental gymnastics to turn bad events into de facto good ones that indicate great things on the horizon!  Yet, they seem completely oblivious to the past actions of Caspian that would lead anyone who isn't letting emotion cloud their mind to recoil in disgust at the moves SBS has made since.  None seem to grasp that the deadlines were set by SBS themselves, and were shared solely to entice them to buy in.

I have half a mind to create a throwaway account just to post a thread entitled: "To Caspian: How Gantt Charts Actually Work"

MadFrenchie

Curious: Kotaku and other gaming news outlets have only recently began to note the state of this game's development and react accordingly via public articles.  Since @Slapshot1188 has been taking note for over a year now on public forums..  Does that make him an "early adopter"???? 

Slapshot1188

MadFrenchie said:

Curious: Kotaku and other gaming news outlets have only recently began to note the state of this game's development and react accordingly via public articles.  Since @Slapshot1188 has been taking note for over a year now on public forums..  Does that make him an "early adopter"???? 

No.  It makes me a Harbinger.  Just ask Caspien.

Kyleran

Slapshot1188 said:

MadFrenchie said:

Curious: Kotaku and other gaming news outlets have only recently began to note the state of this game's development and react accordingly via public articles.  Since @Slapshot1188 has been taking note for over a year now on public forums..  Does that make him an "early adopter"???? 

No.  It makes me a Harbinger.  Just ask Caspien.

That's right,  he gave us our swell monikers after a particularly critical series of threads here.

Told people to try and shout us down for the "good" of the game.

Clearly when it fails we can shoulder all of the blame.

cochs

Elyria is a kind of blueprint for how to make a lot of money without doing anything.  I mean a smart unethical person could take this and improve on it a lot.   If I was going to create a scam studio I would combine Elyria with a much bigger scope, more akin to SC.  So instead of delays due to obvious incompetence, I'd have some really hard problems to put out as the reason for the delay.  

The trick would be how to deliver enough over time without releasing actual gameplay. Once you do that it's all over.  So I think a bunch of limited mode clients.  Same idea as what Elyria has done but smarter and by design.  So a character creator, probably some mini games using elements of the game but simple to make.  Actually I might make a client that lets you walk around and interact socially.  Single area made to look really good.  Not hard to do, leaves people thinking if this looks good, maybe the combat will be good also (the hard part you don't want to actually implement).

And the thing is I don't think players have learned anything from Elyria.  Not the ones that bought into it.  If they fell for it, they would fall for the same thing just done better. 

Fortunately if anyone actually tried to scam like that intentionally, it would invariably get leaked.  Unfortunately there is enough incompetence on all sides to ensure Elyria is not the last project we see like this.

Slapshot1188

TimEisen said:

Slapshot1188 said:

As we all eagerly away Caspien's annual State of Elyria update I thought it might be beneficial to do a review of last year's update and what was promised.  He is very longwinded so I will skip to the section called 2018 MAJOR RELEASES. At the end of each section is my grade and reason.

--------------

2018 Major Releases

Previous years had us presenting playable demos of CoE to the relatively small percentage of our community who were fortunate enough to make it to either PAX East or PAX West. But 2018 is going to see a far greater audience of players getting their hands on Chronicles of Elyria. This is primarily being done through three major releases that will happen throughout the year. Let's look at each.

Character Creation & Your Akashic Record - NEW!!
As we've been making progress on Character Creation we've observed that it's quite fun just to see what kind of characters can be created. Given the range of values allowed by the different bloodlines it's both interesting and exciting to see what types of characters are possible within the different tribes, and what happens when breeding members of the different tribes together.

We've also recognized that many people in the community want to see the stuff they've received in the game that isn't playable yet - things such as their Phoenix pet or other animals. As a result, we're going to be releasing a simple client to the players at some point during the year that we call "My Akashic Record." The client has the single purpose of being both a character creator, so you can experiment with the various tribes and bloodlines that are possible to create, and a virtual space for showing off in-game items you've acquired and will be usable during exposition or after launch. After we release the Exposition Store (EP Store), many items purchased will be viewable here. Items such as furniture, buildings, animals, siege equipment, and other things you've acquired. There's no timeline for the release of this tool yet, but we're working on Character Creation right now.

END OF YEAR GRADE: F - Did not release

Fantastic work sir. I'd love to see you do a write up on many of the crowd funded games. I apologize if you do and I've missed them. We are at a point when studios need people that don't forget and don't fawn and hold them accountable. 

Hey... writing up articles on Crowdfunded games is your gig on here!

I think you just came up with a topic for yourself.  Go see what was stated at the end of 2017 for each game in 2018 and give them a report card grade on what they delivered.

PieMonster

Been lurking on CoE for years, but enough now.

I'm a veteran IT consultant and company director employing 30 staff, including developers. I have never in 30 years seen such an appallingly managed and communicated project before funded to near $5m.

It's my view that there has to be a line which is drawn, which once crossed represents fraudulent criminal behaviour. Seems to me personally that Caspian is very close to this given the 2018 debacle, intentionally or not. I think he needs to play very careful now.

Its one thing to miss deadlines and for large delays to be introduced in a project. But its another to not deliver on any of your commitments, repeatedly, to constantly alter fundamental aspects of the original commit, and not to provide clear and more realistic remedial plans. And without any consequences to date. And then to act like he has to the community which provided his income for the last several years... its... quite unbelievable really.

Frankly, at least SC has produced something - even if we can all agree its currently way off expectation, more deeply funded and CR is a total dreamer / marketeer. I was lucky enough to pull my $3k+ invest there before the portcullis dropped, and whilst tempted I never put funds into CoE as a result.

If this ends up in a pile of poop and no legal action happens to hold people to account on behalf of supporters, it will frankly be a travesty. Just my opinion though, and I'm sure there are alternative views.

Crowdfunding terms cannot be allowed to become a direct hall pass for making commitments you know you cannot deliver on to entice people to give you their money. That hurts us all, and its wrong.

Slap is right to call it. Period.

Tiller

I can't believe they are still making this.

Torrsk

It would be interesting to see you type that on the official forums PieMonster. Probably get -50 within the first day. Not that you aren't right.

Someone talked about this on the discord. To be met with the normal "Trolls be trolling" "Why do we care about a troll website". Completely annoying the fact that zero goals have been met. But then they are completely blinded. 

While I myself didn't really expect much to happen. Figured something would, like the pre-elyria to be released. Yet the sad thing, people keep saying "oh if nothing happens this year I'm out". For nothing to happen and them keep defending SBS. The white knights are taking over in full force.