The Chronicles of Elyria forums have just had their first makeover showing that the developers are at least listening to their community when it comes to making the important changes, the forums are a serious business after all. The developers are still using the forums to engage and are responding to questions about all sorts. Some of the most interesting news pops up in unexpected places, which means it is easy to miss like this week’s forum find.

In a thread about the price of the game started by community member kingfighsher, things took some interesting turns. From the price, to price per life, to how long a life was, to how quickly time passes for your character, ending up at the time cycles of the world. Yep, the community moves quickly! It was that point that the ever watching Jeromy ‘Caspian’ Walsh stepped in with this post which starts a little something like this:

There is a day/night cycle, and changing season. However, Elyria’s day/night cycle is longer than Earths, and there are fewer days per season. The end result is the game will shift between night and day at a comfortable rate (a few times per RL day), with seasonal effects changing ever so slightly over a 24 hour period of time. After four RL days you’ll be back where you started.

This builds a picture of the world we are all going to be living in, and I mean living. It is features like this that make worlds feel alive. Aesthetic changes during play time keep the world interesting. They encourage you to stay longer and can help build long term attachments. Continue reading →