The Chronicle: Developer Journal #9

Dana · February 2006

Rapid Reality's community manager Luke D. Peterfreund has authored a new developer journal for MMORPG.com that looks at player-character size and how it impacts gameplay. We also have one exclusive image of the game.

Size Matters says Creative Director, Adam Ghetti. And indeed, in The Chronicle, it does. Instead of giving a general size to our Players, and not varying from that much, weve created completely different character types who size accordingly. With the Fairy being the smallest playable character type, at one foot (30 centimeters) tall, and the Treefolk being the largest, measuring in at 14 feet (4.3 meters), yes, size does matter. With 9 playable races, this will prove that although you might be looking down at your teacher, you will have to look up to their wisdom.

Keep in mind, size isnt always everything. An old proverb says The bigger it is, the harder it falls. While this holds true in The Chronicle, it will have its balances. Larger Races, while easier to hit, will have a vast amount of life, as apposed to the smaller races, which will be harder to hit, but easy to bring down. With speed and agility factored in, it will be interesting to see the tactics our players will use against each other. Where size and racial features count, no 1 race will be able to outperform another.

You can read the full article here.

theanimedude · February 2006

Well, I always knew the chronicle was trying to be new and exciting, but I am glad to hear even more experimental design by the team at MMOCenter.

That is one thing I find nice about the smaller studios: theyre always ready to try something new.

I, for one, am glad to hear that they have found ways to try and balance their diverse playing opportunity, and cant wait for them to finally finish up so we can test the first of their games ::::08::

_Seeker · February 2006

Well said. I agree.

Elnator · February 2006

Erm...

Nice writeup by them but it's been done. EQ did it. Quite successfully. Armor only fit certain races. It wasn't as verbose about it but the same general idea was in use.

Destros · February 2006

*double post*

Destros · February 2006

"Luke is awesome! He's not just a good CM, he's a pretty good friend."

Rrramiriarn · February 2006

i was there, luke made him do it...

JimLad · February 2006

In the actual thing it said:
'The Fairy, at one foot (300 centimeters), will of course be the most difficult to hit.'

Since when was one foot 300 centimeters?
Good to see such a broad choice in character design, it really adds to the RP side of things.
Also the smaller characters going where big guys can't go is pretty cool.
I just hope they balance it right.

anarchyart · February 2006

Originally posted by Elnator

Erm...
Nice writeup by them but it's been done. EQ did it. Quite successfully. Armor only fit certain races. It wasn't as verbose about it but the same general idea was in use.

In EQ only certain races could use certain types of armor, and dang you Elnator you got me missing EQ! In the Chronicle this idea will be taken to the next level and be much more specific to size/race. Sure looks promising!

gunungmerapi · February 2006

I agree about the issue of balance. However I would prefer that the characters size makes the game more challenging and even hinders at times rather then being just a obscure statistic that goes unnoticed dureing real time combat.