Originally posted by Isane

Originally posted by emperorwings

If this lives and is out of development in under 5 years then i'll give it a try. Good to see NPC acting like players. And if I read right NPC raiding mobs that can hunt you.

 

Very Viable in what is essentially a small group game for adventuring......

The NPCs will just wander to a set of rules and appear to be doing more than standing at a spawn point.

Mount & Blade has a very similar system where roaming mobs track based on skill, pretty easy to do when you may only have 1-10 players in a world instance + all the NPCs.

Well, no.  Not exactly.  Your comment about having NPCs act like players being 'viable' in this system is certainly correct.  Where you went wrong when talking about Citadel of Sorcery is the idea that NPCs will 'just wander to a set of rules and appear to be doing more than standing at a spawn point'.  This is NOT how NPCs behave in CoS.  

They will not 'appear' to be doing more than standing around... they are out doing things.  They are given a goal to accomplish.  They will attempt to accomplish this goal.  They have true purpose and take action to accomplish that purpose.  They are also reactive in that other world events like running into PCs, or running into other NPC enemies, will cause them to react and change their short term goals, though the may return to their long term goal afterwords.   This is not an illusion of NPCs moving around to make it look like they don't just stand there, we're creating a living world where every NPC has a purpose and uses our A.I. net to accomplish those goals.

When we repopulate an area, it isn't by respawning the same mobs, or randomly creating new ones to do the same things.  What we do is monitor populations of NPCs in a given area and when it falls too low we set new goals by the enemy forces, who then make plans and send in their minions to try to accomplish those goals.  It is unlikely that you have played any other MMO using this system since we wrote it specially for this game engine and game design.   We hope you'll enjoy it.

Originally posted by sharif

So what happens when you die? Do you lose anything? Do you start a new character? Better yet if your arch nemeses kills you. Will all the hate between you two end as though you are a new person? I didn't find these answers on the web site. Any insight would be nice.

 

Oh one more thing This game just sounds too good to be true. Here is to wishful  thinking!! I just hope they don't change anything from what they said they would do.

Isn't that the question everyone wants answered in life? What happens when you die?   Hmm, I could wax philosophical... but I won't.   Instead, about  death in Citadel of Sorcery:  we want death to matter, but we don't want to kill players who have put in months (years?) of time on their character.   So, death is not permanent... well, for some. 

Fallen Heroes are 'of the blood' in the world of CoS, and people playing our game are Fallen Heroes.   Those of the blood are special in this world, for they are descendants of the first sorcerer who was not present when the world was 'reflected'.   So their souls do not easily cross the veil, and they can be resurrected, but normal folk of the world cannot.   Thus, when you kill your arch nemesis, he's probably dead forever (unless he is also of the blood, but that's unlikely).

So now you know you can be resurrected as a player, but at what cost?   Well, that was the crux of the matter, for we need it to matter.   Any game where death is not punished has no tension, no excitement.   You need something to protect in order for battles and other dangers to matter.  So we have decided on a system that both rewards the player for staying alive and punishes them for dying.  The longer you stay alive the greater the reward (to  a point) and the more you die the worse it is for you (again, to a point).    But, more than that I'm not allowed to release.   The actual punishment for dying and reward for staying alive will have to wait for later when we get to Beta (or somewhere thereabout).   No, we're still not close to that, and don't ask, we won't tell.

As to your last point, we're still right on track to deliver exactly what we promised.    We refuse to deliver anything less.  Just be patient, Rome wasn't built in a day.

Originally posted by Sandbagger

... I wonder when they will release info on the first race and which one?  Anyone heard a rumor?  Or will Jatar give us a hint (if I ask nicely)?

Well, since you asked nicely     (And we were just about to release information on the first race anyway), you can find information on the Verduren race on the www.citadelofsorcery.com web site.   Look for the Races tab at the top of the About CoS  page.   We will continue to release information on each of the six playable races in Citadel of Sorcery over the next few months.  If you have any questions about the Verduren after reading, let us know and we'll see if I can answer them for you.

Originally posted by Sandbagger

Some of the things that concern me are:

1) Are there enough of us?  Meaning, people like me, who want more from a game.   People who want cooperative intriguing adventures with serious depth to the story?   I'm so tired of mindless killing, (I'm all for combat... lots and with serious consequences and good strategy).  I just want a point to the battles, not just "I got 50 EXP, 20 gold and a dagger".   The question is, with all the people playing games like WoW, and being used to that kind of game, will this game be too different?   Will people not play it because you have to actually think and follow a story? Are players afraid of change?

2) Can enough content actually be included in this game to achieve their goals?   It is want I want, no doubt, but how can it be done?    I'd love to hear more about how the quests will be accomplished.  How each player's journey through the game is different.  How the choices and actions I take can possible affect my character's life or the world.    Or... how they can even just change the outcome of the quest.   Seems a tall order in a computer game... easy in table top though.

3) Long development.  On their site they show this as being in development for some time, but from what I gather this is still got a ways to go.  Now, I don't mind waiting, that's not my issue.   How will such a big game get done by what seems like a small developer?   I wish I could help.   I'm just looking for reassurance that this game will actually get done.   All of my friends are talking about this game and all of us want to play, so I'm really hoping for the best.

Sandbagger,

Thanks for your interest.  I come from a table top background myself and it's one of the reasons I find working on Citadel of Sorcery so interesting.  It is a game that is finally attempting to make real involved and exciting quests... but I've said all that before... so let me get onto answering your three questions as best I'm allowed at this time.

1) Well, I can't answer for the player community.  Perhaps some of the people on this forum will answer if they are interested in playing a game that has a story that matters, and that offers you the chance to make decisions that change the outcome of the quest.  We'll have to wait and see on that score.  We have received a lot of email from players telling us they have been waiting for a game like this, so we are very hopeful.  Personally, this is exactly what I've been wanting to play.

2) Here is an area I can speak about a little deeper.  The Quest system in Citadel of Sorcery is unique as far as we know.  It is not randomly generated, nor is it linear.   Each Quest is a fully designed, rich story, hopefully worthy of an entire novel series.  The plot of the quest is set, but the path through it is not.  Once the plot begins a player has the chance to make decisions all the way through.  What they do will change the quest radically, and when they reach the grand climax (and it will have a grand climax) how the player did on the way there will influence the outcome... as will their actions during the climax.     This is not your run of the mill MMO quest, nor a linear RPG game either.   We are hoping to capture the fun of a table top adventure while removing the tedium of all the paper tracking required in such a game.    This is the core of the game and we're spending a lot of effort to make it sensational.  How we accomplish this feat is something I can't really talk about in detail.   The other part of your questions is  'how will we make enough content?'   Well, we're using lots and lots of Quest Writers and Builders.   It is where we are spending and will continue to spend the most time and effort.

3) This game was planned as a long development.   Early on we were mostly working on the design and the new technology that is needed to build this unique game play.  A large percentage of the technology and design work is already done.  At this point we're really only about a year into actually working on what players might think of as the 'game' (even though there is a LOT of work already done on what you might call 'behind the scenes'  elements).    As time goes on we're shifting effort more and more to the game play building side, which means in the coming months we'll have more to show than we have previously revealed.   As for us being a small developer... that's true, but this kind of innovative game is very difficult for a larger developer/publisher to attempt.   New R&D is often too  risky for them.   We have taken the risk for them and can now show this new kind of game working.  The proof is in the pudding, as they say.   At this point we have so much invested that there is no doubt we will eventually complete the game, so don't despair, just be patient.   We're talking the long but sure route to completion and so far nothing has put up a roadblock to that success.

I hope that answers some of your questions.   I look forward to having a CoS style adventure with you in the future.

Originally posted by Zorvan

Originally posted by Jatar

 

There are good reasons why this sytem is used in CoS and many other games.  It has to do with level balancing in groups.  If a high level PC comes down and joins a low level adventure, they will gain the same amount of experience as the other members of the group, but since the other members are lower level it will benefit them more, thus helping to 'catch them up' to the higher level player.  

 

So then what's to stop high levels just powerleveling everyone? I'm assuming you plan to have some sort of check and balance for this system? Otherwise, the game will be filled with "Powerleveling 100 gold per level" and noone really playing the game.

When higher level players travel with lower level players they have to come 'down' to their area of play.  This is governed by the Citadel Tier system.  And though the challenges scale to the groups overall 'power' the amount of experience awards don't change.  Therefore, a higher level player traveling with a lower level group cannot help them advance quicker than normal, but they can join their lower level friends and go adventuring.  As a side note, you'll notice that the higher level player will be getting negligable EXP gains while doing this, so it's for the fun of it, but they won't choose to travel in lower Tiers normally if they want to advance their character at a decent pace.  Also, lower level players cannot go up to higher Tiers until they earn their way up.

All this means that power leveling assistance won't be possible.  Everyone must earn their character's progress.

I'm sorry, but even though we may have recently posted somewhat monthly developer updates  we have never guaranteed that we would post every month.  The dev. log at www.citadelofsorcery.com is for  MMO Magic  to post development news as it happens.  There are times, (like now) that the only thing that has happened in the last thirty some days is more of the same work.  This is likely to go on for some time to come.  As we explained in some of the recent dev logs, we're in a period of just adding content.  Nagging us for development news is not going to do you any good.  Progress continues, we'll post to the log when something noteworthy comes around, not when people demand. 

However, we would like to say that we appreciate your excitement for the development of Citadel of Sorcery, which is the reason we have a dev. log in the first place.  We felt that the fans of the game might like a glimpse into some of what goes on in the making of a game.  If you have questions, feel free to ask them here, we might even answer a few.  :)  And yes, eventually there will be future dev. log updates, but expect them when you see them, not by the calendar.

Just to add or ask another question, is it the case that actually the mirrored world is the same world but a flag is set and you can only see people within your story, and that your charachter is really just made up of humdreds of factions which generate story and if you are with other players the these factions get combined to generate common story.

Is it the case that hunting with other players you could inherit one of their enemies or would that be too complicated?

 

Ah... no.   (though  untwisting your question was mind boggling.)  We're not really going to get into the details of 'how' we create story and interaction with NPCs across time.  It's too much to explain, and not something we really want to talk about anyway.  The answer I will give you is that we just track a LOT of information about who, what, where, when and why you did things wherever you go, and use that information in the game and quest generation system.

The answer to your second question is 'yes', there are some instances where traveling together with other players will cause you to make NPC friends or enemies you might not have made otherwise.  The old 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend, etc.' holds true in CoS. 

The system in CoS behind this NPC interaction is very complex, and a very important part of our game design.  The mechanics of it are unimportant to the player as it would just confuse people to try to understand how it is done.  However, when actually playing the game it is very simple to understand.  Do bad things to NPCs, make enemiles, do good things for NPCS make friends.

Enemies very in what they do to a player, but the worst ones may actually try to thwart you in all of your adventures, Quests and Missions.  They might set traps for you, or attempt to steal whatever it is you're after.  They might join your current adversaries, or blow your disguise.  Generally, they are a pain in the ass as any good nemesis should be in a story. 

The good news is, like most elements of CoS, interaction with your enemies is not liniar scripted, meaning, you CAN stop them from doing you dirty, and even kill them (perminently).  What you do about your enemies is up to you.  NPC allies can also help you get out of some dire spots, or give you important information when you could really use it, etc.

Hope that explains a little more.

 Thanks Falendor.  It is ambitious, but if it was easy, everyone would do it.  :)

Meanwhile, though CoS is not a typical PVP MMO game, we are also not a typical PVE game.  We plan a new type of MMO game, and we do hope the type of dangerous world we are creating with people hunting you, wars, traitors, spies, evil cults, group strategy A.I. and more will still give you the intense combat situations you are seeking.  Give CoS a try when it comes out, maybe we'll make you a believer.  

Originally posted by Falendor

So basicly my consern is that when im in the big shared world will i still meet peaple who have gone on the same quests as me (killed my arch nemesses) or are you planing on having sooo mutch game modulatet to mix in sooo many ways that no two characters will ever have gone on the same (major) quest spratly?

Hmm, several answers here... first off, yes... you can meet people who have sort of gone on the same quest as you.  Sort of because each quest is customized to each player's story to the point where they are so different that you may or may not even recognize the same quest.   No one could possibly write a quest walk-through that would tell you what to do where correctly, since your version will be radically different.  It is based off your past history and the choices you make during the quest.  The permutations on all the variables in our quests make them nearly limitless in variety.

Next... you mentioned 'killed my arch nemesis', which isn't possible.  Your arch nemesis belongs to you, as in, that NPC was created for your story, placed into the world for you, and will ONLY be dealing with you on your quests.  He or she is uniquely generated for you and used in your quests (unless you kill him, of course).  But don't worry, if you do kill him, I'm sure you will make new enemies down the road.   Other players have their own personal allies and enemies in their story.   The point is, you are correct, no two characters will ever go through the same exact quests in Citadel of Sorcery.

Unfortunately, the 'Hype' comment system in MMORPG leaves no easy way to discuss someone's  review of a game. However, we can at least rebut or discuss negative hype reviews in this thread. Often their negative review is simply a misunderstanding of the game since they are interpreting the short description of the game. We acknowledge that there are also those people who just aren't going to like this kind of game no matter what we say or build. We can't change some of their minds, but we do hope we can at least answer some of their questions or enlighten some of those with the wrong impression of Citadel of Sorcery.

So let's get started by beginning with the latest 'hype' post by Falendor. Here is his comment as posted in Hype, I quote:

Maybe its just how the stuff is shown in the article but i really dont see how this is any diffrent from any other "story based" MMO, and an instance is still and instance even if you call it a "reflected world"

First off, before I comment on Falendor's suppositions I'd like to say that there is nothing wrong with the other MMOs I may use in comparison. They are simply different, and my comparisons have to do with pointing out those differences, not in saying what is better or worse.

With that said, Falendor states: "i really dont see how this is any diffrent from any other 'story based' MMO".  The problem is that he doesn't give any examples of which MMO he is comparing. If Falendor would like to post a reply in this thread and give me an example of an MMO and what he considers one of their better quests, I'd love to compare that to show him the differences that set Citadel of Sorcery apart from those games. However, in case Falendor chooses not to reply, and since he states 'any other story based' MMO', let's pick one. How about LOTRO? That's certainly a game based on one of the greatest stories ever written. In LOTRO they have an Epic Storyline, which I found to be one of the more interesting parts of the game. At various points in the game you are allowed to progress that epic storyline with a small quest. Let's take one of those quests and do a little comparison with a quest from CoS. Because I don't want to write a novel here, I'm going to try to be brief with descriptions from both.

In LOTRO's epic quest, at one point you are sent to rescue a guy who is held captive. You are given a bit of story to explain why you need to save the guy. Then you are transported to an instance of a small area just outside the wall of a bandit camp. You have a temporary companion who MUST survive the quest or you 'fail'. The quest consists of opening the gate and getting into a battle around a camp fire. Once over, and assuming you kept your NPC buddy alive, you move forward twenty feet and fight another set of bad guys. Again, if you win and keep you guy alive, you move twenty feet forward to another battle. You repeat this until you reach the end with your guy still alive. Should you fail, you may start over from the beginning and try again. Nothing changes, it is completely linear. You do the same thing in the same sequence over and over until you get to the end of the linear quest with your NPC guy alive. End of Quest.

Now, I'm going to describe a similar segment of a quest from CoS. The only problem here is that unlike LOTRO, this wouldn't be a quest, it is too little, to insignificant. But that's OK, let's take a look at this as if it was a quest in CoS anyway just to see the difference in how the game play works.

An NPC comes to you and tells you that a captive inside a bandit compound has information you need about a secret plot to kill the king. First difference from LOTRO, you can choose NOT to rescue this guy and get the information, it's up to you. But let's say you choose to rescue the guy, the NPC offers to come with you, again you decide if you want him to come along or not. I mean, he might be a liability, or he might be too important to risk, or he might be a spy or traitor. Clues you got earlier may help you make that decision, but it's up to you.

But... let's again assume you choose to let him accompany you into the bandit camp (so that we follow the ONLY choice you get in LOTRO). In LOTRO, your only option is to open the gate and get attacked by the bandits. In CoS you decide how you want to get to the prisoner. Do you want to make a frontal assault on the gate? You can if you want, but you can come up with a better plan than that, can't you? How about luring some of them out of the compound first and ambushing them to cut down the odds? Or how about climbing over the wall and trying to hit them with surprise? Or what about putting on a disguise and trying to fool them? Hmm, there are more things I might try, but this is enough to get the point across, which is, YOU pick how you want to accomplish your mission.

Now, let's say no matter what option you choose you somehow get into a fight, (it's one possibility), If your NPC buddy dies... he dies. The story goes on. We NEVER go back and make you repeat a quest portion over again. Like real life, you make your choices, roll the dice and live with the outcome. The Quest and your story goes on, and the repercussions of that NPC dying have to be dealt with, quests aren't linear.

But there is more... while in the bandit camp trying to get to the prisoner you spot an old enemy who seems to be working with these bandits. You ran into this guy on another quest, and he made a deal with you, and then screwed you and stole the treasure. You have a few seconds to make a decision, if you are in disguise, he might recognize you and point you out to the bandits. Do you want to try to stay away from him? Or, do you want to try to kill him when no one is looking and hide his body behind some crates?

Or, if you are in a battle with the bandits and he spots you, you might see him dash off to get the prisoner before you can get to him first. The point being that this is a personal enemy of yours, one that any other player wouldn't know, and one that is out to screw you, or get to the goal before you do. He is unique to your adventure, part of your personal story, not another player's. In LOTRO every player goes through the same story with the same NPCs. It's linear Pass or Fail. In CoS every player goes through the quest in their own way, making choices that change the quest, and there is no pass or fail, what happens on this quest will continue your story, no matter what the outcome.

I hope that explains just some of the difference between CoS and other story based MMOs that you may have played. There is more, but this enough to point out that CoS IS different from any other story based MMO that we have played.

Falendor's second point is, and I quote,

" an instance is still and instance even if you call it a 'reflected world'"

True, well, sort of, I mean, that's the same as saying a boat is still a boat, even if you call it an Aircraft Carrier. That's basically true, but our Reflected Worlds are Aircraft Carriers compared to row boats in other MMOs, so are they the same?

Again, Falendor didn't give any examples of other MMOs to use as a comparison, so I'll just pick a few big ones, how about WoW, EQ2 and LOTRO? In the above 'story' comparison to LOTRO I described a quest that takes place in an 'instance' of their world. This instance is the same type of instance used in the other two MMOs I just mentioned. It is a small area where a group of players is temporarily transported to complete some linear or other short piece of game play.

Now let's compare that with what we call a 'Reflected World'. There is a reason we choose to name it differently. Part of that reason is because of our Universe mythos, but let's ignore that part for the moment and look at just the mechanics. When you enter a Reflected World you are entering the ENTIRE full planet, not a little segment of that world. Every NPC, every adventure, every quest, every mission, everything is there for you to play. You could choose to stay in that Reflected World and adventure for as long as you stay online. Everything is there, and even more importantly, that world knows about you and your history, your friends, allies, personal enemies, hostile cults, etc. Everything you have done in the past is reflected in this world. If you screwed with the Thieves guild in one town on another quest, they will remember you when you show up, worse, they may have assassins out in the world setting traps for you or hunting you down. Everything about this full Reflected World it set to be your personal playground, your personal story, your continuing adventure. This is not just some repetitive instance that is the same for every player. It is an Aircraft Carrier compared to a row boat of other MMO games, they are both boats, yes ,but there really is no comparison.

Having said all that, I'd still love to discuss this further with you Falendor if you would like to supply examples of games that you believe are similar to Citadel of Sorcery we can take a look and see if you can prove your point. We haven't found them, but maybe you have played MMOs that we haven't. Let us know, give detailed examples of their story driven quest or instance system and let's compare the difference. I'm willing if you are; love to hear from you.

Sorry, but you'll have to wait until you die to find out what happens when you die... such is it with life, such is it with the game ;)

And although we appreciate your enthusiasm for the game, your questions about jumping and death animations are getting too specific  for this stage of discussion.  CoS is a game still very much under development, and we are only releasing some broad information at this time.  

As for terrain, yes we plan to have diverse terrain for lots of exploration, but further details will have to wait until we release information and screenshots on the terrain system some time in the future.  I can tell you that this is part of what is currently under development, and that we are using an entirely new type of terrain generation system.  Lots of R&D involved, lots of innovation, lots of bugs, (got to take the good with the bad).  We'll fix the bugs long before we release the game though :)

We understand that you want to know every little detail about the game, but there is a time and place for each thing, and the time for some of your questions is stil coming.   I answer what I can, but there are things I'm not allowed to talk about on pain of death (game character death, and no, I can't descibe what that looks like, lol).

Originally posted by savarage

       The first thing I want to ask is are there going to be npc allies in any form meaning: anything from deeply intricate partners with their own storyline, to basic assisting guards, or soldiers in huge epic battleground like fights, to just npcs that help you because they hate your enemy; but are just as happy to carve you up (i.e attack everyone), or are they going to be just quick easy meat shield summons that are cast by mages then dismissed as quickly. I personally would prefer deep characters but there really hard to write and design.

       The second thing I want to ask is if there are npc allies of any type will you make sure that they are not complete morons like in other games where the npc allies are as bright as a bucket of tar at midnight and about as fast acting too. The thing that really gets annoying is that you would figure a npc ally would at least be as smart as an enemy or perferably smarter but they generally are even dimmer than regular enemies in most games.

       My final question pertains to the animals and mosters that populate the game world firstly are they going to be placed with a real world sense of population i.e not hugely overpopulatted (unless there is a reason ( that would make a good quest now that i think about it) any way will the animals in this game have an ecosystem meaning that they will eat other animals and as such create a real living world that works like a simplified version of real world effects on the enviroment.

        p.s. Will things like dragons and other large, predatory, or otherwise hostile creatures have an effect on the places they live i.e dragons lairs are mainly deserted of wild life and have a few scorched trees and some slagged rocks around; or extremely evil demons creating a curroption zone around them due to there extreme grim nature that causes the life in plants, flowers, and trees to wither and decay (that would be epic). This last thing is just me wishing so no need to get to worried about to huge expectations it is just me fantasizing about an epic example of an enviroment effect.

Yes, there are going to be PC allies, but perhaps not like you are asking. They will seldom travel with your party, instead they will help you at times. You can seek them out, or they may come to you, but they will not act as party members (as in a solo player traveling with three NPC group members). Like all creatures in CoS, we have various levels of intelligence which are used as appropriate. However, the reason NPCs will not travel with you as group members is simply that our quests are so deep and involved that you will need all the intelligence of real players to handle everything we throw at you.

But, during your quests, missions and adventures you will interact with NPCs (allies and enemies) and create personal relationships with some of these NPC characters. The NPCs that become your allies or enemies will not be the same ones as other players. They will be your personal friends or enemies. These NPCs will tend to show up in your quests, but not in other player's quests. After all, this is your character's unique story.

As for NPC or monster populations, CoS uses a completely different system for distributing these NPs throughout the world. Most games use a type of grid system to populate the world evenly and guarantee encounters every few feet. An NP stays within their grid square and if killed pops back into existence somewhere in that square a few minutes later. CoS does NOT use this system. Our goal is to create a more realistic world, and one way of doing this is to give all our monsters their own goals and tasks. They don't hang out in some grid square for no apparent reason and they never pop back into existence when killed. This does not mean that if you move through a portion of the Reflected Worlds and run into a den of creatures that has taken up residence here, and you kill them all that this portion of the world will remain unpopulated forever. But instead of popping this group of monsters back into existence, what happens is that over time other monsters will move into the area because it is now available. It might be a completely different kind of monster, and they might be up to something different than the previous inhabitants. Therefore, players will not know what they might expect to find here even if they have been through this area before.

Due to this system of monsters having their own agendas, it is therefore possible to run into areas that don't have a lot of creatures at the moment, or you might wander into an area where a whole community of creatures has recently taken up residence... or you might run into a raiding party moving through on their way to destroy a town, or just a loan scout. The world is in motion, so even we don't know what density of creature population you will run into at any given place at any given time.

I'll talk more about seasons and environmental effects later on, we're still developing a lot of that technology and so I don't want to talk about it prematurely.
 

Leveling in CoS involves a new system that I can't talk about quite yet, but ignoring that part... I can still answer your question in more general terms.  Going up levels in CoS does use a familiar increased EXP system.  Example (though these numbers are pulled out of a hat) 1,000 for level 1, 2,000 for level 2, 4,000 for level three, etc.

There are good reasons why this sytem is used in CoS and many other games.  It has to do with level balancing in groups.  If a high level PC comes down and joins a low level adventure, they will gain the same amount of experience as the other members of the group, but since the other members are lower level it will benefit them more, thus helping to 'catch them up' to the higher level player.  

However, don't dispair, yes it takes more EXP to level as you get higher up, but the amount of EXP given in adventures increases as well.  Thus the speed in which you level up does not slow, but hopefully remains constant thorughout the game (as long as you are taking on adventures that match your level of experience).  

The fact that we allow PCs to create their own character 'class' really doesn't change the dynamic of this system.  Going up levels gives you points to spend on Abilities.  These points can be spent on ANY ability you wish to improve, with a couple caveats.  You must have the Tomb of Knowledge for the Ability (gained through adventuring for it) and you must currently be a member of that League, in good standing.  However nothing stops any player from doing these two things and therefore, gaining any Ability for their player that they wish.

Your worry about 'Timmy' changing his mind later on is no problem.  An Echelon 1 Ability cost the same number of Study points when you are level one as it does when you are level 200.  The number of Study points awarded at each level is the same.  So, since you gain levels at a constant rate, and are given Study points at a constant rate, and can learn any Ability at any time, there is no disadvantage to learning a new line of knowledge later.

Now, the personal diary.  We call it the Journal, and each player has one.  They can write whatever they want in their journal, and place markers on maps with links to information.  Thus they can mark a place on their map and write something about it.  When the hover their mouse over that marker it will show the title, and if they want they can click on it and expand to whatever they wrote about the place.  They can even share markers with other group members if they wish.  (Example: "Meet me at the cave I marked on the map", and when the group member looks at their map they will find a marker placed there showing the location of the cave).

Sorry, but when it coms to writing large books that players wish to share with other playrs, there will be no 'GM" based reviewing, etc. here.  We're not going to spend the time to read books that players wrote to make sure they fit the world, etc.  If players want to write that kind of thing they will need to run their own web sites and police themselves.  We have enough to do writing our own stories and ongoing changes to the daily evolving world of CoS without having to police player writing..

Sound and Music questions are simply getting into an area in which we are not yet releasing information (as it is too much in flux).   I apologize, but you'll have to wait until a later date for those details. 

As for your final question, the Jenemos race was created by Morphael to make his evil machines.  These machines  combine magic and science.  The Citadel does not employ much in the way of machines, prefering to rely on their socerey, but certainly these elements exist in the world... and Morphael is pursing this type of technology to his evil ends.   That's really all I can state about this right now.  (Most of this can be gleaned from the Lore on www.citadelofsorcery.com anyway).

I love your example, very amusing.    The fact is that Citadel of Sorcery fully supports this type if NPC interaction... and more.  There are, in fact, NO static NPCs that are required or stay in one place at all times.  Let me give you an example, our stores close, the shop keepers go out to do the things all people must do when not at work.  While the shops are closed PCs can't shop at those stores.  (But... we do open up the Black Market in the Underworld during the opposite hours, so there is someplace to do business, if a bit shadier in nature).

NPCs have relationships with other NPCs, they go out for a drink together, get in arguments, get drunk, stop and chat, have family, pretty much anything you would expect in a real world situation.

In CoS there are no quest givers that give out a particular quest to each player who talks to them.  You therefore cannot tell another player to go talk to the guy on the corner and he'll give you a quest to retrieve Maxwell's silver hammer.  When you need a quest, the game knows it, and circumstances will lead you into a quest.   This is part of the personal story system of the game.  Your story is different than another players because of how the quest system looks at your past and present and creates the ongoing quest/mission/story that comes next in your adventure.  Though again, don't read 'solo' when we say 'personal'.  Anyone can group up with you and while grouped your personal quests merge and the split off again when you part.

Anyway, to conclude, NPCs lead their lives in the game, and you are part of those lives.  Your interactions with them will impact both your lives as well.

The NPC A.I. net is one of the areas that is currently under heavy development.  It's an exciting time in our NPC's lives :)

 The idea of 'personal' property does seem to be missing in most MMO games.  However, in CoS this is not true.  In fact, we go even further.  You cannot just walk into anyone's house without being invited, or you will suffer the consequences of your actions.  Our NPCs live lives, have property, develop relationships with the player (good or bad). This is all part of the non-static world system we are creating, where time moves on, people (NPCs) live lives, have friends and family, go out to pubs, etc. 

Players are not gods in our game, they are people, part of a complex society wth pecking orders, laws, police, jails, courts and lots and lots of bad guys.  Certainly players are given a lot of leeway to do their own 'thing' in the world... but, unlike other games you may have played, you WORK for somebody.  In Tier One your direct comander is Faceless, who is one of the 'Bondead', a lieutenant under the Sorcerer Shadowlord.  Faceless is assigned as commander of the Fallen Heroes (which is what you are as a player).  Therefore, you will sometimes get called in and assigned some task, duty, quest, mission, etc.  Failure to follow orders has punishments, and Faceless is NOT a nice guy.  He might even lend out your services to one of the other Bondead.  You might have to do something for Whisperer, head of the Citadel Spy Corp.  Or Cyclops, commander of the Citadel Infantry.  

The point is, this is a world with a level of reality that includes personal possessions, punishments, commanders, jobs, and a full on war that is transpiring between the Citadel and Morphael.  When you enter our world, expect something different.

Unfortunately, the answer to the first part of your question will be as unsatisfying as a Oreo cookie without the filling.   We aren't releasing detailed information on the combat system quite yet.  So you'll have to wait to get your answer about 'targeting'.

However, that being said, I will try to give you a little more satisfying answer to the second question.  You wanted to know about Non-lethal take downs.   With Citadel of Sorcery being so heavily designed for in depth and interesting quests, and not just kill grinds, we HAD to have non-lethal take downs.  These come in three varieties. 

The first is that when an opponent gets down to a certain percentage of their remaining health they will be disabled.  This means they are out of the fight on the ground, but conscious.  They can still try to do something for themselves (like a healing potion, or certain types of magic healing) but... their active defense is gone (they still have passive or course, you know, their armor, etc.), and they can't do any offensive combat.  If their opponent decides to finish them off there is not a lot they can do about it.

The second state is Unconscious.  This happens when a opponent takes damage up to and beyond their remaining health.  They are, of course, disabled, but in addition when unconscious they cannot do anything for themselves... and worse they are dying.  The blow that did this can cause various types of ongoing damage and they will 'bleed out ' eventually.  How fast depends on how much damage they took beyond their available health and this could be a few seconds to a bit longer, depending.  There is an opportunity here for someone to heal them and stop them from dying.  This can be done by their group members, or their opponents.  If an opponent wants to capture them, then they can bind them and heal them enough to keep them from dying.

Third... there is the choice to Surrender.  Before an opponent actually gets knocked unconscious ,or becomes disabled, they can choose to surrender.  This is an obvious state, because they drop to their quivering knees.  At that point their adversary can decide what they want to do... kill or accept the surrender. 

It should be noted that fair is fair... so PCs can also be disabled, knocked unconscious, surrender and be bound.

There are times you're going to want to just kill your opponent, and you can.   But it is critical to our game to have these non-lethal outcomes to combat available for the right circumstance.  Since you are in a REAL story during a quest, and what you do next will change the course of the quest, you often need information.  Questioning a defeated opponent is one of the best ways to get information, and yes, threats can often be employed.  But be careful, information gained under duress is not always accurate, you'll have to decide.  Is this bastard telling me the truth or only what I want to hear?  Hmmm.  The game play in CoS is about player decisions, judgment calls and following your 'gut'.  

Yes, there will be plenty of things made especially  for females!  First off, we have some female designers working on the game, so this isn't a matter of males trying to make stuff for females (and botching the job.  I mean, what a guy thinks a girl wants to look like or wear, well, that's a recipe for disaster). 

Speaking of clothing... did you know that you will NEED to own more than one outfit?   There are different parts of the game that will require you to dress appropriately.  Come on, you don't wear rusty old armor when you are invited to a meeting with the ruler.  Or... if you want to go to the public baths you'll need a toga, or if you want to infiltrate an enemy stronghold in disguise you'll want to don one of their uniforms, or if you want to go for a swim to cross a river... plate armor would drag you to the bottom!   And to tie this into your original question, girls outfits for all of these situations are not only different than boys, but designed from the ground up for females (not adapted from males).

Pets is a more difficult to answer area.  The nature of our EXTREMELY involved stories and quests make  pets a  problem in some situations.  Remember, you don't wander around killing monsters you run into as a general rule in CoS (like other MMOs).  That character 'Grind' type of game play isn't what this game is about.  You CAN just wander around the world, that's not a problem, and you will occasionally run into an enemy patrol, or killing party or troop on the move, etc., but it's not the same as walking around and fighting monsters that live on a 'grid' and pop back into existence when they die.  So you have to start thinking in terms of a different kind of game play, one that doesn't lend itself well to the pets idea.  However, we haven't ruled them out completely yet.

What WOULD you do if you went out wandering the world?  Well, you might run into a large troop of Recreated (a kind of undead that make more of themselves by killing people and using their dead bodies to sew together new creatures to swell their ranks).  If the troop is too big for you to handle on your own, you would want to conceal yourself quickly (magically, or just use the local terrain; i.e. hide in the bushes).   Then you could track that troop (their tracks will be quite obvious and even a newbie will have tracking skills capable of following a whole troop of monsters) to their lair where they make the Recreated.  Now you can try to do something about this 'nest'.  You could try to sneak in and see if you can destroy what they use (can't tell you yet) to make Recreated.  Or you could try to pick off smaller groups and whittle them down to size.   Maybe you want to go get reinforcements from the Citadel and come back and take these guys out.  Or... you might want to just go in and kill the whole lot of them (if you have the power available and are willing to use it, more on Uber Abilities later). 

The point is, even though this isn't a Quest or Mission, when you do just go wandering the world you won't be out killing popping monsters on  a grid, you will get involved in some Adventure (this example being the lair of a Recreated troop).   CoS is a living world, where monsters have their own agendas, and are not mindless fodder for players.

(one additional note... this was a very appropriate topic for Mother's day... and speaking of that... happy mothers day to all you mothers).

 Well... there will be a type of invisibility spell in Citadel of Sorcery, but I think you'll still like it.  First off, no cancan dances with bells jingling, that is a dead give away that there is an invisible person present to NPCs.  But it goes deeper than this.  First off, NPCs come in variaties of skill levels and intelligence.  You might be able to dance the cancan while invisible in front of a low level monster with low intelligence and just confuse him.  On the other hand, our entire system has skill levels.  You might THINK you are invisible and walk in front of someone with more skill than you and he can see you.  Or make a noise and they cast a reveal spell decloaking you on the spot.  There are other parts to this as well, but I don't want to get into every bit of this (like tetheres, that let you walk as an invisible projection of your body, but your body is left behind... and if someone, anyone, or a door, or anything goes through that tether... well, bad things would happen to your projected self.

Anyway, there is a lot to this, and I can't go into Abilities on here yet.  But trust me when I tell you that this isn't simple invisibility that gets you past everything.  We are a Quest based game, and any ability that would ruin our Quests... won't be included.   Everything has a cost, everything has a counter.  Nobody is safe all the time.  :)

No comments in this post are to be taken as gospel, since Abilities are still very much in flux.

There are currently six races in the Citadel of Sorcery universe (six that a PC can play I should mention). The races are:
Verduren, Jenemos, Human, Gargoyle, Tyven and Waerian. First off, it should be noted that the human race is just as special as the others. Each will have their advantages and disadvantages. Too often in other games human means 'mud', or nothing special. This is not the case in Citadel of Sorcery.

We haven't released details on all the races yet (beyond what's in the Lore), and I'm not going to get into it here either. But... a few tidbits can be mentioned.

Gargoyles are not made of stone, however, their images are often carved into stone and put on corners of buildings as wards against grim spirits and demons. This gave them the reputation of being made of stone. To even further this myth, gargoyle society honors their heroes by creating statues of them rather than grave markers. Gargoyles do NOT fly and do not have wings, but they do like high places and can leap safely down from higher than normal distances. Oddly, they love cheese... more on that later.

Humans were the first race, created by the Dead Gods. Because of this they are more wide spread than the other races. They are the most prized 'stock' for Morphael's experiments in making new creatures since they are the original form of intelligent beings. Some of them are also the descendants of the first Sorcerer, and therefore, more likely to be strong in 'the Blood'.
Waerians have underwater societies, though they can exist on land as well. Their skin is scaled, and cold doesn't bother them all that much, though they hate deserts.

Tyven... well, they really don't understand most of the other races, I mean, what is this nonsense about owning something? They have the curiosity of a child, and the cunning of a fox, which they resemble in some ways. Oh, and then there is that strange attraction they have to anything egg shaped.

Jenemos, well, they aren't pretty, with big ears and big eyes (the better to see and hear, but do nothing for looks). They generally live a solo nomadic life, only getting together with their own kind for occasional bacchanal style parties in which very odd behavior is normal. They have bad luck, I mean really bad. This affects their enemies the most, but sometimes hits them or their companions. Life is one big joke to the Jenemos, and they would rather put a monkey wrench into Morphael's plans than just about anything else. A practical joke is considered high humor, though with their luck, throwing a pie in someone's face is likely to get them splattered as well.

Verduren are more powerful in daylight than night's darkness due to their ties to the growing things of the world. They can also blend into foliage like a chameleon, almost becoming invisible.

There you go, a few things about each race, though by no means all the details. We'll release more about the races in the future, keep an eye on the www.citadelofsorcery.com website for a 'Races' page