Chronicles of Elyria | Design Journal #3 –Time, Aging, and Offline Player Characters | MMORPG

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Chronicles of Elyria | Design Journal #3 –Time, Aging, and Offline Player Characters | MMORPG

Learn how day and night cycles, seasons, character aging, and offline player characters creates a dynamic gaming experience unlike anything seen before.

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Murmelix

This is an incredibly ambitious project. Their concept sounds pretty solid so far. One question come to mind: When a whole day irl represents a season, and there are dangerous creatures at night... at what rate the sun will cycle the sky?

demodar

There are a lot of complex and interesting concepts that you can add to gaming , but so far i don't think its in the possibility of the game developers to do and our computers (generally , game console /pc machines) to handle . The general part of an mmo to create thats a huge chunk of time and if they do everything chances are it will take them too long and their mmo will be old before it comes out . Not to mention making some mechanics seemless and into the world and good to control with the UI is down right close to impossible. Not to mention if estimated time is actually 2016 , they would have screenshots not concept art , and probably prealpha gameplay

saker

It is good to see some people trying to create a really immersive interesting MMO. We see so little -real- innovation in MMO's today. I wish them all the very best and will continue to watch this with interest.

Buccaneer

saker said:

It is good to see some people trying to create a really immersive interesting MMO. We see so little -real- innovation in MMO's today. I wish them all the very best and will continue to watch this with interest.

Looks really interesting.  On paper this type of gameplay is something I would enjoy.  I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Wizardry

I will lay claim once again that this design sounds exactly like i had mentioned years ago in the way i would design a game.

However i would not have offline aging,it caters too much to those with time to play and really hurts those that have little time to play,each player should be able to progress or play at their own times.I do see now the reasoning,it is because they have the npc's aging as well so if you did not play much those npc;s would be 100 years old while you remained a teenager,which would look unrealistic as well of course the other players around you would be aging..

There is one larger problem that i had thought about years ago when thinking of these exact same ideas.That is GROUPING....

How are you suppose to have grouping if you have players ,some with enfeebled physical abilities while others are strapping young 20 year olds.In other words,nobody will want aged combat vets,unless you plan on reasoning with your foes ..lol.

I guess i have to understand way more of what this game is doing,perhaps there are no creatures,maybe this is just a pvp game idk.Maybe their direction is one of all soloing,which i am never in favor of in a mmo.

None the less i still commend the developer for going this route,it is really tough to pull off and i wish them all the best because it is the type of game i want to play.

rajah.com

The makers of Wish tried this ...

samurai225

Offline AI gameplay does sound like an interesting feature with having the AI take over with scripted orders. The whole years/season/ real-world time I see as being a problem since its like you miss a week and its already around 2 years in the game gone. Here's hoping!

Ozmodan

Sounds great in concept, but this will be a major headache to implement.  The entire problem with this aging process is that people play their characters for greatly varying time spans and don't get me started what a morass offline stuff is, just brings to mind bots which most of us dislike.

While I would love a more realistic MMO, this design just makes me shudder.

RiverBird

What people don't seem to get is that the developers of this game aren't trying to make an MMORPG in the form of an MMORPG. They're trying to make an immersive story driven world with episodes of non-repeatable quests that cater to the game's main story which will probably play out over several, several years.

I've fallen in love with this games development and have kept a close eye on it because there are things about this game that ring with me, and it's the closes thing out there to my "Dream Game" so I'm gonna stick with it's development so I can learn to understand what goes right or wrong with it.

Usually most things sound like a headache and most of the time they are. But depending on how much the developers understand every gameplay element and how each portion of the game works, it can be easy or not to implement. Luckily for them the genius behind the project has been working on theory crafting for the last 15 years, so at the very least there is a decent amount of theory crafting as to how everything in the game is put together.

RiverBird

Wizardry said:

I will lay claim once again that this design sounds exactly like i had mentioned years ago in the way i would design a game.

However i would not have offline aging,it caters too much to those with time to play and really hurts those that have little time to play,each player should be able to progress or play at their own times.I do see now the reasoning,it is because they have the npc's aging as well so if you did not play much those npc;s would be 100 years old while you remained a teenager,which would look unrealistic as well of course the other players around you would be aging..

There is one larger problem that i had thought about years ago when thinking of these exact same ideas.That is GROUPING....

How are you suppose to have grouping if you have players ,some with enfeebled physical abilities while others are strapping young 20 year olds.In other words,nobody will want aged combat vets,unless you plan on reasoning with your foes ..lol.

I guess i have to understand way more of what this game is doing,perhaps there are no creatures,maybe this is just a pvp game idk.Maybe their direction is one of all soloing,which i am never in favor of in a mmo.

None the less i still commend the developer for going this route,it is really tough to pull off and i wish them all the best because it is the type of game i want to play.

TFirst off the important thing to note is that as you live your character's life, and even after they die, your "character" lives on, it's just the mortal body and that bodys life is done, the progress is stored through the soul that reincarnates into a new body, carrying over certain things from your previous life.

Another thing to note is that since there are no classes, you can chose your role of being an expert craftsman or an adventurer, and when you die in the game, you don't petma die, you kind of come back to life somehow but eventually when you get older you'll eventually perma-kill.

Now that you've got some insight, to what you've said. About the offline aging, they've thought up something called "OPC" instead of an "NPC", which is an offline player character. Players can create contracts and bind other players to contracts, essentially creating quests for other players by requisitioning goods or guards. OPC's can be used by online players to do certain goods, and even while players are offline they can earn the benefits and rewards of taking on these contracts. This helps somewhat in the fact that one player who spends x hours on the game, but the other player spends y hours. Or while one character ages ingame both are essentially still being a part of the world and 'Aging'. And as I said, even when your character perma-dies their character isn't done, just that life and they start a new one with benefits carried over.

The developers stated that there will be magic, and combat isn't the one and only gameplay element, someone in their later ages levels their intuitive and wisdom skills faster than they would if they were younger, and this makes them better canadits for other gameplay roles such as nobles or lords of their own lands. There are certain stats that improve faster at certain ages and those stats affect different elements of gameplay. 

The important thing to note is that, as I said this game is looking to be an immersive, story driven mmo, and the goal is for the players to work together to get through the games story. So regardless of your age there is something, some role you can play in the world that progresses the worlds story. It's taking what it means to be a roleplaying game from the RPG part of MMORPG on an MMO scale.

This game should rather be called... an RPGMMO lol

SouzouMiguel

RiverBird said:

Wizardry said:

I will lay claim once again that this design sounds exactly like i had mentioned years ago in the way i would design a game.

However i would not have offline aging,it caters too much to those with time to play and really hurts those that have little time to play,each player should be able to progress or play at their own times.I do see now the reasoning,it is because they have the npc's aging as well so if you did not play much those npc;s would be 100 years old while you remained a teenager,which would look unrealistic as well of course the other players around you would be aging..

There is one larger problem that i had thought about years ago when thinking of these exact same ideas.That is GROUPING....

How are you suppose to have grouping if you have players ,some with enfeebled physical abilities while others are strapping young 20 year olds.In other words,nobody will want aged combat vets,unless you plan on reasoning with your foes ..lol.

I guess i have to understand way more of what this game is doing,perhaps there are no creatures,maybe this is just a pvp game idk.Maybe their direction is one of all soloing,which i am never in favor of in a mmo.

None the less i still commend the developer for going this route,it is really tough to pull off and i wish them all the best because it is the type of game i want to play.

TFirst off the important thing to note is that as you live your character's life, and even after they die, your "character" lives on, it's just the mortal body and that bodys life is done, the progress is stored through the soul that reincarnates into a new body, carrying over certain things from your previous life.

Another thing to note is that since there are no classes, you can chose your role of being an expert craftsman or an adventurer, and when you die in the game, you don't petma die, you kind of come back to life somehow but eventually when you get older you'll eventually perma-kill.

Now that you've got some insight, to what you've said. About the offline aging, they've thought up something called "OPC" instead of an "NPC", which is an offline player character. Players can create contracts and bind other players to contracts, essentially creating quests for other players by requisitioning goods or guards. OPC's can be used by online players to do certain goods, and even while players are offline they can earn the benefits and rewards of taking on these contracts. This helps somewhat in the fact that one player who spends x hours on the game, but the other player spends y hours. Or while one character ages ingame both are essentially still being a part of the world and 'Aging'. And as I said, even when your character perma-dies their character isn't done, just that life and they start a new one with benefits carried over.

The developers stated that there will be magic, and combat isn't the one and only gameplay element, someone in their later ages levels their intuitive and wisdom skills faster than they would if they were younger, and this makes them better canadits for other gameplay roles such as nobles or lords of their own lands. There are certain stats that improve faster at certain ages and those stats affect different elements of gameplay. 

The important thing to note is that, as I said this game is looking to be an immersive, story driven mmo, and the goal is for the players to work together to get through the games story. So regardless of your age there is something, some role you can play in the world that progresses the worlds story. It's taking what it means to be a roleplaying game from the RPG part of MMORPG on an MMO scale.

This game should rather be called... an RPGMMO lol

Not just working through the story, but CREATING a story all of your own. The way you interact with others will organically create unique storylines, akin to how we create "storylines" of our own as we go through our daily lives through our choices. If you decide to ally with someone, there might be conflict that arises with another individual as a result. Having to work through that is part of what makes CoE's experience a compelling one.

martinmillan

This sound so amazing - I really hope they can put thought into action. And make the gameplay/lore as good as the idea seems to be.

Copperfield

is there any ingame video on the net of this game? or is it currently only paper design?

martinmillan

Copperfield said:

is there any ingame video on the net of this game? or is it currently only paper design?

Ive been looking for that aswell - dont think so tho.

kinkyJalepeno

Ok so I start playing on a Saturday and its the middle of summer. I log off and log back on the next day and all of a sudden its Autumn, the day after that its winter.. Every day I play its going to be a different season based on 4 earth days per game year. That just ain't gonna work folks.

FvonS

Wolfhammer said:

Ok so I start playing on a Saturday and its the middle of summer. I log off and log back on the next day and all of a sudden its Autumn, the day after that its winter.. Every day I play its going to be a different season based on 4 earth days per game year. That just ain't gonna work folks.

Well, the idea is to have a life of about 90 years pass in a year of real time. That way if you'd play the game for three years you'd be able to experience three generations. What would you change then? Do away with seasons?

Octagon7711

Does remind me of the first Fable, I liked the idea of time, the effects of fighting, and how your character changes according to your good/evil decisions. ------------- Looks like all they have are concept images with videos to come. Early concept building stage, looks like.

RadixMalorum

I'm very interested, but my gut is telling me that the time cycle might be too short. Just my opinion though. I will play this!

SouzouMiguel

Copperfield said:

is there any ingame video on the net of this game? or is it currently only paper design?

As of right now, there is no in game video footage. We have some ingame renders though on our website in the media section

ZoeMcCloskey

Watching, hoping, we shall someday see. I think a bit more than 4 days per year would be better personally. Maybe 7-8 days per but probably no higher than that.

RiverBird

Copperfield said:

is there any ingame video on the net of this game? or is it currently only paper design?

There's no ingame video yet, keep in mind this game decided to go public far earlier than most games do in the stage that it's in. They do have an actual world that they seem to be hiding around. On their website there's images from their game along with other concept art. From what you 'can' see it looks great

RiverBird

Wolfhammer said:

Ok so I start playing on a Saturday and its the middle of summer. I log off and log back on the next day and all of a sudden its Autumn, the day after that its winter.. Every day I play its going to be a different season based on 4 earth days per game year. That just ain't gonna work folks.

You forget that this is a fictional universe and perhaps not each day will correspond as it does in america or Earth. Remember game of thrones? Winter can last several years. In different fantasy universes seasons can last several years and the calendar from which they base their lives on can't always be the same as ours or mirrored to this world, remember it's a fantasy world so I doubt it'd be as simple as "each day is a season cuz that's how it is on earth".

Just as you said that'd be awkward and they know that, from what you can tell they haven't TOLD YOU, OR ANYONE in any post whatsoever that, that's how the seasons are going to work.

DrunkWolf

It sounds really cool, I hope they can do everything they want in the game and make it all work. would be nice to see something different. but until i actually see some game play and how its working, its all just talk and hype.

Kaneth

In theory this game sounds completely and utterly amazing. Certain aspects make me a bit leery though. Like the OPC thing. I can understand the idea behind it, but it could also turn into a potential nightmare if tons of people decide to logout and run a storefront in a single location. That's a ton of server load in a single area. The passage of time also seems a bit quick. 4 days per year and if a character lives to be 90, well then you're looking at roughly 22.5 weeks for a life just shy of 6 months. Depending on how much affect the aging process really has, someone who only enjoys combat may find themselves not liking their character for potentially the last real life month of their character's life. At the same time, something like a real life week per year is probably too long of passage of time. The game also doesn't sound super alt friendly. First, if you do the traditional thing and make a bunch of characters just to hold names, well then you have multiple opcs in the world where you may or may not be doing anything with them for months. By the time you get around to them, they may be too old to really get a good start for what you want to do. Of course, at the same time, you are basically getting a new main every six months with carry over skills so that might appease alt-o-holics like me. Despite all of my rambling, this game might be the second coming if it works out the way they are planning it. It is certainly super different than ANYTHING else currently out there. I think the idea is something many of us have had over the years. The potential for roleplay is enormous. The potential for massive fun is also there. Keeping my fingers crossed.

RiverBird

Kaneth said:

In theory this game sounds completely and utterly amazing. Certain aspects make me a bit leery though. Like the OPC thing. I can understand the idea behind it, but it could also turn into a potential nightmare if tons of people decide to logout and run a storefront in a single location. That's a ton of server load in a single area. The passage of time also seems a bit quick. 4 days per year and if a character lives to be 90, well then you're looking at roughly 22.5 weeks for a life just shy of 6 months.

You live up to 120 and can start es early as 12, it's said you'll have somewhere around 10-16 months of play time per life. Remember the actual character, it's progress, what it's done in the world and other things don't get deleted, it's soul is basicly the "character" people play and that "soul" is carried into the next life which will have benefits over it's last life. The character continuously gets stronger and stronger with each life, and you're not just repeating all of the same content each life, the world is different and it's main story progresses, even through death the world is still evolving.

The OPC's are interesting, and from what I've read it seems that they're pointing in the direction of multiple servers per region instead of a mega shard per region.

And well yeah, it's not that alt-friendly, you have to pay per life, that's the business model, so if you wanted two characters you'd have to pay for both of them, and if you don't play on one and only the main one well you've not been very efficient with your money then But people don't seem to have an issue with Skyforge or other games where there's only 1 character and you just switch classes or gameplay metas on the fly.