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Citadel of Sorcery Correspondent - Introduction
Citadel of Sorcery Correspondent Mike Balent pens this article that introduces players who may not be familiar with the game to the differences between CoS and other MMOs.
Introduction:
Citadel of Sorcery is an MMORPG currently in development. The game offers many unique features, and is finally breaking the mould of the countless clones in the market today. CoS will be a game that can challenge your mind, where decisions you make will affect your future, for better or for worse. Time to explain how I believe MMO Magic (the developers behind CoS) plan on doing this:
Quests in Citadel of Sorcery:
The quests in CoS are the true glory of the game. Let me start off by saying that these quests are not boring, uninteresting, linear quests. None of the “retrieve 10 pieces of fur from the wolves 15 miles away” quests that seem to flood today’s MMORPG market. These are no mindless quests that you can do when you are half asleep…Instead these quests will make you actually use your mind. The quests will make players have to think before they make every action, and players will NEVER be doing a linear, boring, uninteresting quest again!
Interested? Thought so, it only gets better from here on out.
Firstly, all quests can be done alone. No player will ever be forced to group for quests (or for many other activities). Now, this does not take away the option of grouping. While CoS always has the option for soloing, players can just as easily get in a group of up to eight and quest. The grouping option is always there, but you can always solo for any quest. That way, whether you feel anti-social or very social, there is always an interesting quest for you to do.
Now, onto the key part of the quests: the actual quests and the storyline. Within the evolving history of the ongoing world, each player has their own personal story. Every player creates their own unique story by the choices they make, and nobody else will ever be doing exactly the same quest as you (unless they are literally joining you in your quest). This means that you follow your own personal story, which nobody else will ever do. Even though these quests further your own personal story, it is possible to have other players join your quests as well. This will end up affecting all players’ personal stories.
The thing is; this story isn’t written in stone from beginning to end. Every single action you do will affect the outcome of your story. For example, say I was given a quest to help save a town under siege. Now, if I decide to help this poor town, and ended up saving the townspeople, perhaps they would help me later in return. If I needed help defeating an evil army, perhaps they would return the favor and help me. That is just a possible example of how every action can somehow affect the future story of your character. No one will ever be able to predict your story, or attempt to ruin the surprise for you; no one will ever know the outcome of the next event until it happens.
Also, many of these quests aren’t small. They can actually take one to two weeks (actual time) to complete! But there is no need to worry; there is no rush in completing these quests. There is a special system that automatically stops your storyline until you decide to continue it. For those wanting a shorter group mission, these are available as well. And when you don’t want the deep involvement of a Quest or Mission, you can always go on an adventure. These have to do with getting involved in the changing world as it happens, and what you do matters to the progress of the world!
Reflected Worlds:
Now that we went over some of the quest information, it is time to explain about where these quests are done, and explain about the Reflected Worlds.
All quests will be done in Reflected Worlds. The Reflected World is a true reflection of the real world. Though you may think this means an instance, truly it is very different from instances you see in other MMO games. When you travel to a Reflected World the whole world is there for you to enjoy. This means that you can travel anywhere in a Reflected World, and you are never limited to certain areas. Up to eight players can go into the Reflected Worlds at once, and players can come and go as they choose.
Now, there seems to be a lot of hate towards instances. It is really a matter of opinion if it is worth the payoff. The Reflected Worlds are a part of the world story, more on that later. These Reflected Worlds allow for a unique personal story with interesting quests that are an actual challenge. You even get to try a new kind of crafting system. On the other hand, if you are looking for a grinding game, with linear, boring quests, then I suppose you won’t like the Reflected Worlds system in CoS. For me the better game play is worth these massive instances without a doubt.
NPCs:
NPCs play a rather large role in Citadel of Sorcery, and can have an effect on your own personal story.
NPCs never stand around in the same spot day after day. They never continue to do the same actions constantly. Now, of course, if someone’s job was a farmer, then most likely they will be in the farm all day. After the day is over, they may pack up and go inside for rest. Or maybe they will go out for the night with a group of other NPCs. Or, perhaps they are planning something evil in the night, an attack against a rival farmer who has been selling his crops for a lower price. As you can see, the NPCs’ life goes on; they do not wait for you to do something. They live on with their life and are very active at all times…..whether for good or for evil.
NPCs can also give quests to players, but the NPC will ONLY give this quest to you. If you are asked to take on an evil religious cult (since you somehow received a reputation for slaying evil cultists) then he will only ask you for your help. If another person talked to that NPC they would not receive this quest. If you had not fought an evil cult in the past, then the NPC would probably not have asked you for help with his problem. What you did in the past may affect the future of your character, and the future quests you receive. Every decision you take may change your character’s story.
Conclusion:
Citadel of Sorcery is a truly unique MMORPG. It is unlike anything on the market, and finally breaks that mould of clones that some of us hate so much. CoS is for the gamers who are interested in something new…a game where what you do has an effect on your future, and life always moves on. Where NPCs actually live their own lives, moving from place to place, doing daily activities. Where there are challenging quests that take determination and thought to complete, where one must think before every action. For these reasons, and many others, is why I believe that CoS will be a great MMORPG.
The link to "Read more here." does not go to the rest of the article.
The link should be working correctly now.
It just goes to the gamelist articles section but clicking on this article just comes back here. Is what is in the first post all that was written, or is there more?
anyone else notice that every single news post always starts off with broken links? you guys may want to look into that, could be some sort of a bug
It just goes to the gamelist articles section but clicking on this article just comes back here. Is what is in the first post all that was written, or is there more?
There's more (I wrote it).
Just an error with the links.
ok, it should be working now.
I'm not sure I agree with the decision to appoint correspondents from unreleased games like CoS.
Nothing against Mike - I know he's eagerly anticipating CoS and thus makes a fine choice - but everything there is to go on is either posted on the website or by a developer here. Until the game goes into some sort of non-NDA test phase there's little a correspondent can do except basically parrot back hype and marketing propaganda.
While I would agree with appointing a correspondent for an unreleased game like WAR (which is going to release for certain) or Aion (which has had extensive testing - just not in NA), CoS is so far from release that any information released now can only be taken with a monsterous grain of salt.
CoS could be the next Gods and Heroes for all we know, or have a similar release schedule as Darkfall. It just seems too early for a correspondent to be part of it .
Hi Jakin,
I disagree. I'm just spreading the information about CoS. Just because a game is in early development doesn't mean it doesn't deserve time to be looked at. I'm just spreading the current information about the game that others might not know. Due to the fact it is in early devolopment many people probably know very little about it (and taht's normal). There hasn't been a news report about it since March.
For games lie AION, it is the same thing. Players in the US/EU haven't played it, they're just writing what the developers tell them; which is exactly what I'm doing.
P.S. I might not have the time to reply; I'm on vacation :P
Very nice write up, Mike. You've at least got me a little more interested in the game than I was before. Just remember to keep an impartial mind when reporting on new developments, and I think you'll be a fine correspondent.
Thanks
-Mike
This sounds very interesting. I think it would be challenging to make an evil character and see how it's able to progress in the world.
I'm also concerned at how they're going to maintain a massive world "feel" when it seems like you'll just be in an instance.
At the moment I have only had a cursory glance over the article, but I will certainly be reading it in more depth later.
I disagree with what an earlier poster said about Mike being the choice of correspondent.
The reason being that I have read a lot of Mike's posts on this forum, and I know that he is a true MMORPG fan. With this in mind, if CoS has his attention for breaking the current trend of stale MMO's then it should certainly be something interesting and worth checking out.
I've been crying out for something different within this genre for sometime, and this game may just offer something fresh. Once other developers see this potential then hopefully the genre on whole will evolve. So keep up the good work Mike, and I'll look forward to seeing how this game developes.
I think a lot of people get that view when they first read up on CoS. I'd write an article about why these people are incorrect, but there's not enough information currently released to do so. Remember, CoS is in early development and is not yet ready to release more information about the game (it's currently a secret). For now, though, I can give you a quote from Jatar (COS developer:
"I'd have to type about twenty pages to answer that, and go into many areas that we don't want to release yet.
There are MANY things to do outside the reflected worlds. There are things like: mini-games, tournaments, story elements, social events, guild related, quest related, information and research, character or guild maintenance, shopping, tours and tutorials, meetings with the high and mighty, diversions, performance and entertainment, many, many things to do under most of these areas. Too many to talk about, and details that I'm not yet allowed to go into, but LOTS to do for players"
As you can see from that post, there are many things to do both inside and outside of Reflected Worlds. (If you're interested in learning more, read my FAQ here or check out their homesite here)
And thank you for the kind words Majestico.
Nice Write up Mike.
The quests sound nice until you read more on them
They are all instanced 1-8 players
I had no idea you could type like that lol I enjoyed the read.
i like the game and the writeup,
puhlease make my actions mean something in the game world
This is absolutely nothing except a bunch of over embellished smoke and mirrors. They for some reason or another they dont like to state HOW they will go about making there quests not a grind (ie how is it diffrent from kill 10 bears). Also the reflecting world is just a sugar coated way of saying instance! What is diffrent about it? Its a mirror of the live world where only you and 8 friends can play... is this sounding anything like an instance to you guys? But not to worry the team behind this had helped developing screen savers
. Look i would love to see this hit on everything they say and be an amazing mmo but the simple fact is there good at talking out of there @ss. Read what they write for what it is not this amazing new 7331 mmo in which no one has ever dreamed of attempting. Yet again I say this not to anger or throw stones but to simply to put what they say into a resonable context.
Good job Mike, really enjoyed the read up.
This is just a write up right , not official ?
Well... To do what they are describing would require a technology that doesn't really exist *yet*. If I was involved in the creation of such technology, you can bet that I'd be rather vague about it, during the development stages as well... ^^ If they can achieve even half of what they are aiming at, it will change MMO gaming in a BIG way. I'll be fascinated to see how this develops.