This series takes the Developers Journals and gives you a run down of the key information covered. This is the bare bones, just the straight talking facts if you want discussion there will be an accompanying Journal Discussed article which will be posted later in the week.

Chronicles of Elyria’s has a lot of interesting features but the dynamic nature of your characters is one my favourites, as I discussed previously in my post about aging. This week’s developer journal expands on the topics of Time, Aging, and Offline Player Characters so head to MMORPG.com to read it in full or read the abridged version here (or, of course, you can do both!).

Passage of Time

Four days in our world is equivalent to a year in Elyria. That means approximately 90 Elyria years, per single year on Earth. A day on earth corresponds with one of the four seasons in Elyria.

Adventures

• When adventuring outside city walls players are affected by fatigue, hunger, temperature, and thirst. Provisions to counteract these will need to be taken or risk death.

• Nighttime will bring with it new creatures not seen during the day, both mundane and magical.

• Rest will be required if you are out adventuring for a few hours. If resting at night lighting torches may warn of creatures about to attack.

• While out in the wilderness your characters hair will grow, your face will get dirty, and you may earn permanent scars if you die on your journey.

• Barbershops will be in the game to allow for hair cuts, and to wash your face. It will not remove those scars.

• Seasons will have associated weather effects, such as snow which may impede characters.

Farmers

• Some plants will be seasonal so can only be planted at certain times, meaning you may have to wait a few days to plant the crop you would like.

• Breeding animals will also be affected by the seasons.

Aging

• Characters start at the ages of 12, 15 or in some cases over 18. These ages correspond with different playstyles, more information in a future journal.

• Characters will by default live to somewhere between 80 and 120 years, or 10-16 months in our time.

• Visual indicators will be provided of your character aging including changes to your characters hair, skin texture and tone, even height in later years.

• Non-Player Characters (NPCs) will also age.

• There are three dimensions of attributes each with three aspects which represent force, reflex and endurance.
  • Physical – Strength, Agility, Stamina
  • Mental – Will, Reason, Focus
  • Social – Persuasion, Intuition, Leadership

• Some of the attributes are harder to maintain with age. This includes:
  • Physical – Strength, Agility, Stamina
  • Social – Persuasion

• Other become easier to learn and are more effective as you age. This includes:
  • Mental – Will, Reason, Focus
  • Social – Intuition, Leadership

Offline Player Characters

• Your character remains in the game world when you do not, they will age at the same rate.

• You can script Behaviours for your character which gives instructions to the AI controlling your character while you are away. 

• These Behavious will allow your character to carry out actions such as train skills, run a storefront, perform weekly trade routes, and more.

• There will be provided Behaviours at launch, however, a lot of support will be provided for those who want to script their own Behaviours which can be shared and traded with the community.

• You can die while offline. Though by utilising these Behavious and other player characters you can be very effective at staying alive.

So on that bombshell, that is it for another Developer Journal. There is an awful lot there to sink your teeth into. Why not jump on over to the official forums or down to the comments to share your thoughts.