Eternal Lands

Infobox VG
title = Eternal Lands


caption = Gameplay screenshot from the 1.7.0 client
developer = Radu Privantu
version = 1.7.0 (July 16, 2008)
released = NW|0.5.7 pre-alpha: Feb 13, 2003 0.8.0 alpha: Sep 2, 2003 0.9.0 beta: Nov 30, 2003
genre = MMORPG
modes = Online Multiplayer
platforms = Windows, Linux, Mac OS X
media = Internet Download
requirements = 32 MB OpenGL 1.2 graphics card
input = Keyboard, Mouse
Website = [http://www.eternal-lands.com]
Forums = [http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/]

"Eternal Lands" (also known as EL among players) is a free to play multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) initially created by Radu Privantu in 2002. Pre-alpha version was launched for public on February 13, 2003. [ [http://www.devmaster.net/articles/mmorpg-postmortem/part1.php Eternal Lands' MMORPG Postmortem, part I] , written by the lead developer Radu Privantu]

Eternal Lands' outstanding difference from other role-playing games is that there are no castes, that is, your character is not tied to a certain profession or certain racial attributes. Every character can basically do everything the others can do. Background, attributes and profession can be developed during gameplay and changed or amended anytime.

Gameplay

The setting is a medieval fantasy world, with both historic elements such as medieval architecture and weaponry as well as fictional elements such as other humanoid races, and magic. It is currently made of up two main continents: Seridia and Irilion in the world of Draia. Seridia is the first continent, and the place in which new players spawn. It consists of 14 main maps, 7 storages, 2 main PK maps, and the only spot to find the Wraith.

Character building

Players begin play by selecting the race, name and appearance of their character. Skills, abilities and alignments are automatically given their initial values. There are six races available; Humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, orchans (half-orcs) and Draegoni (dragon-men). [ [http://www.eternal-lands.com/page/races.php Playable races] on Eternal Lands' official website]

The latter three races are pay-to-play races; in order to play a character which is one of these races, you have to donate money to the game.

Eternal Lands does not have fixed character classes, and it is possible for any player to improve any of the 12 skills in game. [ [http://www.eternal-lands.com/page/skills.php Skills overview] on Eternal Lands' official website]

Getting started

System requirements

A computer with a 3D-accelerated graphics card and an internet connection is needed to play "Eternal Lands". The software download itself is free.

"Eternal Lands" currently supports the Microsoft Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X operating systems and the X86, X86_64, IA64 and PowerPC architectures.

In-game activities

In-game activities include exploring the 39 different outside maps (plus numerous insides and caves), fighting, improving skills, creating items, questing, worshiping gods, socializing with the other players, and player killing.

Productive skills

The productive skills of Eternal Lands are called alchemy, crafting, engineering, manufacturing, potion, summoning and tailoring. The items can be created by inserting certain materials into the "manufacturing window" and attemping to mix them. If you fail mixing, you might lose the materials. Success chance is defined by your skill level and the item's level. If you succeed, the item appears into your inventory and you receive experience.

It is also possible to mix in certain "schools" in which you will receive extra experience but not the item. You lose the materials though. [ [http://www.el-cel.com/info/schools.php Skill schools] on an Eternal Lands' fansite]

All skills do increase Overall experience with which obtaining "pickpoints" is possible, so levelling is possible without ever doing combat.

Harvesting

Harvesting is the skill in which you gather the resources, such as flowers, minerals or ore. These items can be used as materials for creating items of be sold directly to NPC. Harvesting some materials requires different tools.

Combat

Fighting is broken into attack and defense skills, which you can improve by fighting monsters or players. For every successful hit landed on opponent you will be receiving attack experience and by dodging a hit defense experience. Amount of experience will be determined by the level differences between you and the opponent.

It is also possible to fight with magic, ranging and summoning skills. Ranging experience is obtained by hitting opponent with an arrow or bolt shot with one of game's 8 different bows or crossbows. Summoning experience is obtained by successfully summoning a creature and magic experience by casting spells. Both summons and spells require certain materials.

Player killing

On the main Eternal Lands server, there are only a few select areas where players can attack one another, so that players don't have to engage in player versus player combat if they don't want to. However, there is also a pay-to-play PK server [ [http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=39570 PK server introduction] on Eternal Lands' official forums] which allows for players to fight each other nearly anywhere. It is not very populated due to the fact that it recently came out, but is growing every day.

Developement

The game client is open source and may be developed by anyone. [ [http://cvs.berlios.de/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/*checkout*/elc/elc/eternal_lands_license.txt?rev=1.1 Lisence of Eternal Lands] ] However, the license does require modified clients to be approved by administrators before it is possible to connect the main servers. For testing purposes, there is a test server.

Critical reaction

About.com awarded 4 out of 5 stars, praising the game's graphics (considering that it's a free game) and realistic crafting and food systems, but found it hard to get the audio working. [ [http://linux.about.com/od/softgame/fr/fr_EternalL.htm "Linux Game: Eternal Lands"] , a review at About.com]

Other reviews indicate that the graphics lack quality and the game is slow paced, thus sometimes earning it low review scores. It does, however, consistently maintain worship as a mature and friendly community.

Spin-offs

There are several games derived from "Eternal Lands":

"Landes Eternelles" [ [http://www.landes-eternelles.com/ Landes Eternelles: Jeu de rôle 3D online massivement multijoueurs] (Page in French)] is a French port currently in development. Although it is architecturally identical to "Eternal Lands" and shares some of the graphics and other gameplay mechanisms, it has a different role-play approach with different races, geography, storylines, religion and quests. Landes Eternelles is currently in open Beta stage.

"Other-Life" [ [http://www.other-life.com/ Other-Life.com] ] is a project that attempts to create a more challenging variant of "Eternal Lands". It was started by Steven Wilcoxon (known with a nick Learner), a server developer of "Eternal Lands", and is based on that game's server and client code. The game is not open for testing yet.

References

External links

*http://www.eternal-lands.com/ — "Eternal Lands" official website
*http://developer.berlios.de/projects/elc/ — Client development site
*http://wiki.beplacid.net/articles/Eternal_Lands_Network_Protocol — Client network protocol documentation
*http://www.landes-eternelles.com/ — French version of the game
* [http://pc.gamezone.com/news/01_15_04_03_21PM.htm "Eternal Lands Looks to Map a Place in Community-Friendly, Free MMORPGs"] — article at GameZone (January 2004)
*https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EternalLands — Install guide for Ubuntu Linux