What happens to your hero in the MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria when you are offline and pursuing your activities in “real life”?
Your hero does not simply disappear from the world of Chronicles of Elyria when you log out of the game. He remains active and becomes what’s known as an “Offline Player Character”. The game’s AI then takes over your hero and will play for you. There is a specific reason for this: Since your hero’s lifespan is limited, you obviously want to make the most of this limited time. So the AI takes over the hero and ensures that he also improves during this time or does things that would otherwise take a lot of time. Furthermore, each player character has an important place in the world and is part of the story developed by the players.
If your hero suddenly were no longer in the world, it would have an impact on the story. However, you can only experience a continuous and exciting story if all heroes are always available. Another reason is the time that progresses in the game. Some shops are only open at certain times, there are seasons that affect harvesting, and traveling to other areas can take several days. But since you cannot play 24/7, you would miss out on many things in the game. These tasks can be taken over by the AI.
Decide for yourself what your hero does
Of course, an AI is never as intelligent and flexible as a human, which in games that use a similar system often leads to the hero doing strange or “dumb” things. To prevent this, each player in Chronicles of Elyria can determine how their character should behave once they are offline. You can set behavior patterns and specific activities that the hero will carry out. This includes patrolling certain trade routes, training skills, tending to your garden, running a shop, and much more. How it relates to attacks from other players when you are offline is still unclear at the moment.
