Adellion: Preview
Devin Cambridge, 2003-10-27

Adellion started out in 1999 as a volunteer project of developers wishing to create an archetype for the burgeoning MMORPG game industry. Forming an English limited liability company, Honourbound Ltd., they banded together and licensed the Torque engine to construct a new type of MMORPG whose emphasis became to mirror our world rather than provide an escapist domain of magic and mayhem. What has taken a long time and might have collapsed from it's own weight, Adellion may come to fruition due to the recent announcement of a publishing deal and partnership with French Canadian MMORPG distributor Alchemic Dream Inc. The combination of the Torque engine and Alchemic Dream will allow Honourbound to reach a wide demographic. The game engine easily ports to Windows, Mac, and Linux while Alchemic Dream possess regionalization expertise (they will publish the game in English, German, French, and Spanish; thus, hitting the major markets in Europe and the Americas).

Compromise and the Real World

The authors originally envisioned a MMORPG that would dwarf all other MMORPG's. The sheer size and scope would inspire awe in the gaming world. Unfortunately, due to limitations in the game engine, the team decided recently to reduce the size of the world, an unexpected boon to game play as recent play tests have shown that the last thing gamers want to do is spend hours running from location to location. Technical compromises aside, Adellion's intends not to compromise on human and social interaction. The game designers want Adellion to be a world free from the cliché hooks of magic and monsters. The game will be absent of dwarves, elves, orcs or any other creatures of fantasy. Only humans and terrestrial plants and animals will inhabit Adellion's medieval setting. Thus the game will serve as a test bed for social interaction. The world begins with a few cultures. The player characters will decide at creation whether to join a pre-existing group or start solo. Six cultures will pre-exist at the start of the game, city-expansive Salarians, the mountain dwelling Tarians, the forest protecting Dalmites, the religious Drulons, the merchant Sakoians and the Sea-faring Aethans. As the world progresses, the developers hope that cultures will rise and fall and will come under the control of the players themselves allowing players to enforce laws of their culture thru NPC guards and servants. The game objective focuses on building strong cultures thru cooperation rather than focusing on amassing personal wealth and glory. Altruism aside, standard game play will abound as characters can choose to be soldiers, rogues, farmers, merchants, priests and a wide variety of combative and non-combative professions. The game designers have already published a list of weapons such as swords and archery equipment. In addition, ship combat and mounted units have also been specified. For those who see the world as an easy free-for-all target, the game designers warn that for those who cannot be dealt with by simple socialization, will be stricken by a fatal disease called yvorac.

Generic Brand TM Gaming

For the most part, Adellion will seem like a generic MMORPG, and in conception it is. However, the development of such a project remains interesting (perhaps more so than the in world development of Adellion will ever be). The marketability of such a world seems tough on the outset. However, if the developers remain true to their intentions and produce a system that allows the gamers to refine the basic mechanics of the game play as well as look and feel of objects within the world, Honourbound may have product in the form of a MMORPG toolkit comparable to the GURPS role-play system of the pen and paper RPG world. All that Honourbound needs to do is maintain balance and an objective code base to allow the world to be easily modified to just about any genre. To track the development of the project be sure to visit the Adellion website at www.adellion.com.

Stay tuned to MMORPGDot.com in the next couple of days, since we have more Adellion goodies coming up for you!