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What Illarion means to us e aim to create a complex online role playing game (multi user dungeon). Some may moan and say "there are so many MUDs. why not join another project?". The answer is simple: A student of computer science (which we all have been at the beginning of the project) must be familiar with network programming, threads, AI (artificial intelligence), software development in teams, object oriented programming, etc. These, combined with our hobby (roleplaying) and other reasons, led us to the conclusion to program such a game on our own. We want to learn and have fun, and feel that this is best achieved by creating our own game, instead of joining an existing one. We greatly appreciate input and exchanges of knowledge/experience from players and other programmers alike. A feature that is very important to us is the depth of real roleplaying in Illarion. We want it to stand out from your every other RPG, that mainly puts focus on hack and slash monster fighting. In Illarion, it should be possible to live your whole life without ever killing a monster. This we try to ensure with the vocations system. The different crafts available supplement each other, so that craftsmen need to work together to be truly successful. We try to let roleplaying run the course of the game, since character interaction is very important to us. Most games underrate roleplaying and instead focus on technical detail, where as in Illarion it's the other way round (even though Illarion is not the worst game of it's genre technically either). In most other games in this genre, you can always see the other characters' names, which often leads to conflicts. In Illarion, you have to introduce yourself to someone if you want them to recognize you. The magic system is very complex: There are different runes, each with a specific meaning. Players must explore spells by trying out meaningful combinations (with a total of 4 billion possible combinations). They must learn about each rune from masters of the arcane arts. The chance of success in casting spells is determined by the mage's skill with each of the combined runes. Druid magic consists of potion brewing. Once a wise druid has explained the herbs to you, you can set out to find them in the places they grow. Potions are made by experimenting with different mixes of herbs. You can lead a successful life without killing monsters, because there are no experience points. You can live as a craftsman or trader instead. There will be a social system. Your rank in this system will depend on the amount of money you spend on luxury goods (expensive clothes and food for instance), so you can reach powerful positions in politics. This enables you to play a feudal lord, that protects his people in court and war, taking money from them instead. It is possible to knock player unconscious instead of killing them. This way you can be a robber instead of a murderer. In other games there is often trouble with people talking about their skill values and experience. In Illarion you will not know any of these values although you know their tendency. Other graphical online games often have no races. Here you can pick from several races with their own graphics and cities (e.g. the elves live in tree houses, the dwarves in caves, lizardman in the ocean, etc.). Many actions will change your alignment. If you kill a unicorn or summon an undead, you will drop in alignment, if you hunt vampires or heal players it will rise. This will influence your spell successes since each spell has an alignment value (i.e. an evil sorcerer casts evil spells easily, and is bad at healing magic). These are only some examples on how we will encourage roleplay. Not everything is developed yet since we are still working on the game. You are welcome to check it out and tell us about your ideas and comments on the appropriate boards in the forum.
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