This is a Fangame, meaning it is the fictional work of the creator. Fangames do not exist as real games, mods or extensions for already existing games
Roads of Elysium Online is an online multiplayer action-adventure game developed by
Goldenhawk Studios and published by
World Anvil co., designed to be the online component of Roads of Elysium. Like the single-player game, Roads of Elysium Online is presented through both first and third-person perspectives, and players may freely roam its open world of Elysium.
Gameplay elements include shootouts, hunting, mount riding, interacting with non-player characters, and maintaining the character's honor rating through moral choices and deeds. Similar to single-player, a bounty system governs the response of law enforcement and bounty hunters to crimes committed by players. Players traverse the open world alone or in a posse of up to seven players, with or against whom they can partake in organized activities.
Developed in tandem with the single-player, Roads of Elysium Online was viewed as a separate product despite the development team's wishes to translate the single-player's elements to a multiplayer environment. They took lessons learned from the multiplayer of
Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto Online. However, much like those games, at initial launch, it suffered widespread technical issues resulting in the inability to play missions and loss of character data, but was met with praise particularly directed at the scope and open-ended gameplay.
Plot Overview
The initial story line starts during the mission called
Land of Opportunity, with the narrative taking place only six months after the events of
Roads of Elysium. In online mode, Players take on the role of a silent protagonist who moves to Ar’kael in search of new pursuits. With the wounds surrounding the event’s of
Roads of Elysium still fresh, things seem to have changed for the better on the continent in the wake of the clean up effort. However, while things on a surface level seem to be getting on well, it's obvious that things are not what they seem.
Now surrounded by Kingdoms now without leaders, brewing civil unrest and a plethora of other internal issues growing in the wake of mass tragedy throughout the continent, the player is thrust into the middle of it all with a choice to make.
Either become a
hero; a shining beacon of hope for all who cross your path, or turn to the darkside, adding fuel to the flames of unrest and sowing the seeds of chaos and instigation.
The Choice is Yours
Development
With the initial release of
Roads of Elysium having being launched on 27 October 20XX, Roads of Elysium’s Online public beta opened on November 27, 20XX, to players who owned a special edition of the base game, and then progressively opened to all owners. The progressive release was a choice by Goldenhawk to mitigate any major performance issues caused by the sudden influx of players and also to provide a smaller pool who could focus on potentially game-breaking bugs. As production for online mode grew over the months, Goldenhawk added and adapted several modes during the beta stage, and made changes to the balance and economy.
However, upon release of the full online mode following the discontinuation of Beta, many players reported that they had difficulties connecting to the game's servers and the Social Club web service, and others further reported that the game would freeze while loading early missions. In response, Goldenhawk released a technical patch a week after initial launch in an effort to resolve the issues. The microtransaction system, which allows players to purchase game content using real money as well as implemented the purchase of gold bars for in-game items such as weapons and cosmetics, was also suspended as a fail-safe to prevent players from losing items as well as forcing the company to potentially have to provide mass reimbursements. Problems continually persisted the second week following launch, and some players reported their player-character progress as having disappeared. Another technical patch was released combating the issues, and players experiencing issues were told not to recreate their multiplayer avatars. As recompense for the technical issues, Goldenhawk allowed players the opportunity to purchase multiple forms of microtransaction content for free.
Following the near-disastrous launch, Goldenhawk announced that as recompense for the ongoing issues, that they would be releasing new official content once every month for the next year. Following the year, the company would then go back to their initial update roadmap. While initial development was shaky, Roads of Elysium’s fanbase praised the studio for their quick responses during times of outage, with many taking to twitter and various social media to publicly give their thanks and support to the studio and it's developers.
In the years that followed the release of RoE Online, Goldenhawk studios would go on to release 3 new separate beta servers. A secondary version of the game client available to the general public referred to as
RoE Experimental, this version is available to everyone who owns RoE Online. It is named so because it is generally a less polished version of the game and is used for testing new features or fixes before they reach a wider audience in order to ensure that they are ready. It is not intended to be the primary branch of play for users. Experimental servers were used for small testing patches before Stable pushed to Beta, instead of full dedicated builds.
Goldehawk Studios took to twitter to announce the release of the Beta server’s stating that
. . .The servers exist for load/volume/stress testing. Those who go through the process of manually opting into this branch (it's not super visible - by design) and dealing with whatever issues the current build on it may have, get to sometimes see content and systems not quite ready for prime time.
Goldenhawk studio's also announced that while the beta servers would be open to the public, that they would be locked following the release of new content. When new content was to be announced, the servers would reopen again, allowing for public testing and feedback.
Gameplay
Roads of Elysium Online is the multiplayer component of the video game Roads of Elysium. Played from a first or third-person perspective, the game is set in an open-world environment. Player progression in the single-player story does not affect the multiplayer game. Upon entering the game world, players customize a character and are free to explore the environment alone or in a "posse" group. Players can partake in organized activities with or against members of their posse, or against other groups. As players complete activities throughout the game world, they receive experience points to raise their characters in rank and receive bonuses, thereby progressing in the game. Camps can be temporarily set up throughout the world, either for an individual player or a posse, where players can rest, access their wardrobe, craft, cook, and fast-travel. Horses were the main forms of transportation before the release of other mounts, of which there are various breeds, each with different attributes. Players must either train or tame a wild mount to use it. Increased use of a mount will begin a bonding process, which can be increased by cleaning and feeding it, and the player will acquire advantages as they ride their mount. Players must also insure their mounts so it heals over time and can respawn.
Dispersed throughout the game world are story missions in which players complete tasks to advance the game's narrative. The game world also features events in which up to 32 at a time players can partake individually or within a posse group. Event types include a deathmatch mode including a variant devoid of firearms and a race mode by mountback. Players are notified when a competitive event begins somewhere in the game world and are given the option to immediately travel to the event. Alternatively, players can join specific events at will. Outside events, non-player characters ("strangers") in the game world offer missions, such as contract killings or camp raidings. Up to four players can join a temporary, ad hoc posse group for the duration of a game session.
Alternatively, for a small fee, up to ten players can join a persistent posse that regenerates when its leader comes online. Within a persistent posse, players can customize the group's style and track player stats. Friendly fire can also be disabled so teammates do not injure each other. If two players continue to kill each other, the game presents two optional modes: parley, in which the players cannot interact with each other for a short period of time; and feud, where the two players partake in a three-minute shootout.
In addition to in-game cash, which can be used for supplies, Online adds
Gold Crown, a second in-game currency used to purchase luxury and special items. Players acquire gold nuggets by completing challenges and can convert 100 nuggets into gold crowns. Rather than having to travel to a town's store, online player characters can order supplies anywhere from a handheld catalog. The orders become available for pickup in any town's post office or the player's camp. Similar to single-player, online mode uses the Honor system from the single-player story, measuring how the player's actions are perceived in terms of morality. Morally positive choices and deeds like helping strangers and abiding the law will add up to the player's Honor, while negative deeds such as theft and harming innocents will subtract from the player's Honor. Some story missions can only be initiated if the player's Honor is at a particular level.
Gameplay is mostly non-linear, with a mixture of quests, random events, and free-roaming exploration of the world. The player can also choose between multiple different races for their character: including
Tabaxi, Kvharo, Human, Nér, Mer, Huldu, Varúlfur; each with their own “race-advantage” which provides the player with endless playstyles.
Exploration
Roads of Elysium Online spans across all of the continent of Ar’kael, reintroducing familiar territories as well as other continent’s not released but
mentioned in base-game. From the dry desert wastes to the tropical jungles, a huge variety of environs can be explored in the game, with all zones accessible regardless of faction or player level; though it should be noted that some areas are harder than others and should the player venture to areas beyond their level, they would become difficult to the point of near- impossibility. Some zones also become accessible only through DLCs, and are often included as free expansions. Expansions for the game are released quarterly – this means the game will receive 4 expansions per year. Each expansion often tends to be free and gives the player many hours of new content to the game as they are released.
Combat
Combat is highly reminiscent of the previous games made by the studio and are solely action-based. There are light attacks, heavy attacks, blocking, bashing, dodging, sneaking and using spells and abilities. There are no auto-attacks or "random" mechanics in combat as seen in a typical MMORPG — everything must be done manually.
In addition abilities are unlocked by spending Skill Points. Skill points can be earned from main storyline quests, ranking up in PvP, and increasing your character level. All abilities are divided into skill lines, and each skill line has its own level. The level of a skill line is increased by using abilities belonging to that skill line - the more abilities from a particular skill line you use, the faster the skill line will level up. As you increase the level of a skill line you will unlock more abilities and passive abilities to spend skill points on.
Six abilities can be slotted on your ability bar at any one time. The 6th slot is reserved for a very powerful ability called an
Ultimate Ability, which can only be used after acquiring a certain amount of a resource called Ultimate Points. Ultimate Abilities have varying costs. Ultimate Points are earned by simply attacking enemies.
Weapon Classes also return from base game and include:
DLC
Event Quests are
special quests with unique rewards that can only be undertaken for a specific time. Some require players to be a certain level before participating, while others are open to hunters of all skill levels.
Event Quests usually follow with the release of
Holidays. Holiday’s are seasonally-timed updates for
Roads of Elysium which offer some change to the game or additional content as an act of good will towards the community. Rare items, special functionality, and map decorations are just some of the possible content used to set the tone. Typically, all seasonal events coincide with their respective holiday, such as
The Midau'tumn Festival for Thanksgiving and
Festival of Ice for Christmas.
While active, these seasonal events may offer new season-appropriate items or character/creature spawns. In addition for both single-player and multiplayer, environments may also change as well potentially affecting the player and environment around them!
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