Erion
| title: | Erion |
| url: | link |
| download page: | No link! |
| license: | Donation |
| genre: | MUD |
| developer: | Erion mud |
| platform: | Mud |
| release: | 2005, Ongoing |
| features: | text |
| last edit by: | Dark |
Description
Though superficially similar to games like Aardwolf, players will be quite surprised to see how unique a game Erion turns out to be, despite it's seemingly very familiar premise.
As you might expect, in the game you will play as an adventurer in the fantasy kingdom of Erion where you will find yourself battling monsters to gain experience, completing quests and missions, equipping armour and weapons, and if you are good enough advancing to the status of a legendary hero. One of the first unique things in Erion however, are the starting selection of races and available classes. Choose from one of 15 different starting races ( all of which have the ability to evolve into stronger forms), which range from not only the expected human, elf, dwarf and troll, but also such unusual creatures as ilithids (better known as mindflayers), Felines, the fox like Kitsun, Shades, fishmen, giants, or Zoogs, intelligent rodents. Similarly, the game has nine classes, which include not only the expected warrior, cleric, thief and wizard, but also such unusual classes as the mind powered psyionicist, gaian (powerful mages who summon the strength of the earth), archer and illusionist. Each class also has three different subclass paths to choose from each with their own skills and abilities, Necromancers for example can choose to become a bone collector, skilled in hardening their own bones as well as making things out of the bones of their enemies, voodooist, an expert in draining the life from others while strengthening themselves, or a diabolist, using all their skills of dark magic to inflict pain on foes with fire, disease and poison. Even traditional classes come with unusual skills, the warriors of Erion for example can call forth their warrior's soul in demon form to fight along side them and protect them from harm. Since you can have that not one, but two classes at once, (both of which can have plus subclasses), and you have a huge amount of room for customization, particularly since in Erion, unlike in other games once you hit the maximum level of 151 and become a legend, there is still a good bit more to do, whether earning Faux levels to improve your character still further, or trying for account wide achievements by adding a new character to your roster. .
One major aspect of gameplay in Erion revolves around pets and familiars. All characters can own a pet who can of course help out in combat and even gain experience like a player, wear armour and wield weapons, indeed some classes such as necromancers and the Archer's beastmaster specialty make their pets a major focus of activities. Another thing about Erion's classes which makes the game rather more new player friendly than most, is that while each class gains possibly slightly fewer skills and spells than in some games, most of these are fairly straight forward in their use and application and actually alter the way people play rather than being passive or only applicable to certain situations, for example the Archer's "shoot" skill lets them shoot arrows at targets in nearby rooms and thus attack from a distance, which makes them play very differently from say a warrior or a thief, whilst the monk's combat abilities like kick and jab can be employed strategically to dazzle opponents.
Of course, all the interesting spells and combat options in the world wouldn't mean much if there weren't a world to explore or tasks to do. While Erion is most definitely a game all about the combat where advancement comes through slaying monsters, the various options for who, how and where and when to attack keep the game interesting. Firstly, Erion has a system of autoquests and expeditions, in which a player is tasked to go to a given area and slay one or more monsters, or find a given item. This is also where Erion's extensive and easy system of navigation and speedwalks come into play since to get to an area, mostly it is just necessary to type "runto" and the area's name to have the character go there automatically, for example "Runto valley of the elves." The "where" command for finding specific monsters is also your friend when doing autoquests. As well as automatic solo quests, global quests are also occasionally run in which players of similar level may compete to see who can slay a certain number of monsters in a given time, these are a fun competition, and what is particularly nice in Erion is that the game will run these often but players can only compete in them every three hours, meaning that most everyone will get a chance at them and the same quests aren't repeatedly won by the same people. All quests reward the player with quest points, which can be used to purchase different benefits. Additionally, since levelling up is relatively easy and each level takes the same amount of experience Erion isn't a game where you feel as if your standing still for too long.
Not everything in Erion is automatic however, since the game also features a large number of missions. You can begin these right in the colourful town of Hillock hills where you start the game.
Erion has a large amount of onrunning minigames, challenges, or small extra sides which you can look out for while exploring. For example, enemies may drop scrabble tiles when defeated which can be used to make words for bonuses, their is a regular unscramble the phrase competition, in which letters are scattered round the world, and several other daily events from treasurehunts to double experience time. Also, keep a look out whilst running around the world, since a host of new and surprising things tend to pop up while exploring, from chocolate bunnies or quest pills that may be eaten to give extra quest points or other rewards, to spell sigils that may be worn, runes that can be bound to equipment to make it stronger, and even ice shards that can be traded with a mystical witch for unpredictable bonuses.
The world the game takes place in is fairly large, a good fifteen thousand rooms spread over many different areas, albeit all of them fitting a fantasy theme. Some involve extra efforts to traverse, such as finding keys or using flight or underwater breathing abilities, albeit that unlike in some games such things don't tend to be too much of a stumbling block, (I particularly like the use of a keyring item which can hold any door keys you find), and equipment that lets you freely pass doors or fly isn't hard to come by.
If all this isn't enough, Recently Erion's developers have been adding in even more activities as alternatives to combat. These include a detailed fishing system, and several skills for crafting weapons and armour, from mining for precious ores and elements, to skinning enemy corpses and smelting metals into ores, gardening, foraging for supplies even book binding your own magical grimoires. What is particularly fun about these crafting activities, is that they can be done anywhere throughout the world, making them a nice alternative when looking for mission clues.
The game has a screen reader mode which removes the ascii map, and reduces a large amount of spam, and the prompt, battle spam options and in game room details can all be customised according to what a player wants to see. Also the staff, while quieter than in many muds are extremely receptive to access suggestions, though many of the inherent features of the way Erion works such as the "runto" and "where" commands, as well as the "scan" and "oscan" commands for showing close by objects and monsters already exist as a major help for visually impaired players (indeed though the game features Ascii maps I was quite amazed how much information was available in text by default). Also, unlike many games of it's type, Erion has far fewer aggressive monsters who will attack without warning, meaning that blind players don't tend to be at a disadvantage of speed when fighting most of the time.
Erion does have the ability to group with other adventurers, and indeed player houses which both compete with each other and are specialized to a certain playing style, for example the adventurer's house for explorer types, the slayers house for those keen on monster murder, Artisans for budding crafters, or the alchemists house for those experimenting with potion brewing. Indeed, unlike most organisations in online games the different houses even come with their own spells and skills, for example at the beginning all new players will be in the newbie house who's spells include a guard against experience loss on death and a "beginner's luck" spell to make strikes in combat more accurate.
The game is entirely free to play, and though the developers gratefully accept donations to help with costs of running the game, donating is entirely voluntary and there aren't any donator items or in game donation currencies that need to be bought to gain advance gear (you only advance in Erion through hard work and lots of crafting or monster murder).
You can connect to Erion, you'll need a mud client such as Vipmud or mushclient and the address, erionmud.com port 1234. However recently, Erion has launched it's own preconfigured, stand alone version of Mushclient, featuring an extentsive soundpack, with lovely background music, and atmospheric sounds for the game's diverse activities, Find out about the soundpack here and use the button to download.
For more about the game, and to read reviews or vote for Erion you can Go here to visit Erion's page on the mud connector site
With rapid advancement and yet the ability to keep advancing long enough for any power gamer, a huge amount to explore and always the chance of finding a random reward, plus a friendly community always ready to help with missions or the location of quest targets, Erion is a great game whether your looking for a quick ten minutes giving goblins what for, or to spend hours on trying to be the best. Definitely far more than it might appear on the surface and highly recommended for newbies and experienced mudders alike.
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Updates: entry 2 Feb 22 and description 2 Feb 22