There are a couple English multiplayer mods available, but neither are particularly comprehensive. I have the mod tools put out by Nival once it became clear that the package multiplayer gameplay was beyond ridiculous.

One thought I've had, in relation to experience earned is to set the experience from kills equal to the health of the enemy killed. There are obviously other changes that need to be made, but I haven't refreshed myself with enough of gameplay (especially beyond Gipath) to really have any further ideas yet.

The only change, which might be needed, - nerf to Armor values or buff to weapons. Perhaps cutting all Armor down by 50% should do the work. And even then I don't think it is truly important. Other than that, I think multiplayer is fine. You need to keep in mind, that MP was made with multiple players in mind, and there were already people who could solo all of MP and it took them much less than 100 hours (I think it took around 40 hours for one of players) to make character capable of completing the hardest mission solo. 40 hours isn't really much imo.

There is a shortcut way to gain massive amounts of EXP by completing specific mission on Suslanger if you have already played Evil Islands before and just want a quick start.

That player has "completed" MP by different characters and by different approaches. The most "safe" and reliable was tankomage, 20/20/35 in primary stats. Your first experience with MP will take much longer than 40 hours, MP has much steeper difficulty curve, and there will be normal monsters who are much stronger than final boss in SP. Recommended order of taking skills is such (I am not sure about their proper English names as I play Russian version of the game):

1. Skill which increases your maximum Stamina (blue bar). All 3 Ranks.
2. Skill which increases your Stamina regen. All 3 Ranks.
3. Skill which increases your maximum Health. All 3 Ranks.
4. Thunder Magic skill. All 3 Ranks.
5. Acid Magic skill. All 3 Ranks.
6. Mind (3rd primary Stat). All 3 Ranks.

It is recommended to focus on making powerful Acid and Thunder nukes as there is no other way to damage top-end monsters. It is recommended to make "batteries" - healing spell with runes in all your armor pieces for autocast setup. Also you will have to forget about running because you will be encumbered most of the time. Also never auto-attack as tankomage because your blue bar regenerates when you stand still. But it is recommended to always wear sword because it provides additional bonus to Defense.

Keep in mind that unlike in SP, you aren't that much limited by EXP (though you still need to plan your skill progress carefully). Make a character, toy around with various stuff, spells, approaches. If you play long enough, eventually game will overflow experience cost of skills into negatives and eventually all skills will start costing 0 EXP, so you can eventually learn all skills.

I actually did remember the quest you were talking about. I don't think it had ever occurred to me to run it with such a low level character. It speeds up the beginning character build immensely. But it's kind of a bum deal because I loved playing in Ingos so much (something about the snow).

And I have been toying with various character builds. It's the highlight of rpg-ing IMO. Of course, I've been playing with one of the available English mods, so there are a few adjustments.

Trying out a warrior build with 25-35-15 and with all three levels of dexterity taken (with mod, that's 12 additional dexterity points as opposed to the 3 additional points in unmodded play).

Also messing around with a 15-25-35 mage with all three levels of intelligence/mind taken first. Was curious if the not-quite-right experience spending would be offset by the additional experience gained because of higher intelligence. So far it seems to be panning out.

I do remember the auto-heal gear and have made heavy use of that. I seem to recall players back then stating that acid fog was the key spell to use for the most part. But I never did figure out the proper build back then in which I was able to use an effective attack spell.

Intelligence provides minor EXP boopst (around 30% or so), while each new skill/skill level increases cost by 100%+.
Problem with 15-25-35 is very low Strength, which means much slower HP growth. You will need at very least 1200 HP for very last map or you run the risk of being 1-shotted and it will take quite a time to reach such amount of HP with 15 Strength.

Your points have been well made. But let's assume that going forward, a multiplayer character will essentially be going it alone (I don't foresee true multiplayer arising for this game) and that it will work its way from gipath all the way through each area and each quest. What changes would need to be made then?

How long should it take the average player to build a character capable of completing the hardest quest? 60 hours? 80 hours? 100 hours?

Your comment regarding weapon damage and armor is spot on. I always thought it ridiculous that an obsidian sword on Gipath does less damage than the armor rating of even the mid-level characters. Outside of a really lucky critical backstab, it's impossible to melee with Gipath gear against Gipath enemies.

Evil Islands multiplayer can be played with friends, it should be easy to setup. If you want to play only solo, you might consider using cheats if you want faster pace.

Which ones? l've been looking for a while and only managed to find one called "Eraser Mod" and another one called "Parhelion", although l could't find a download link for the last one.

This is the one I'm currently using.

http://members.chello.nl/s.dekker/pagina8.html

For example, I cheated up a warrior character for testing purposes. He has 30-42-15. 99 melee. and level 3 sword. Total attack rating of 166 using a diamond sword. I don't believe I can make it any higher. And this is already higher than unmodded play would allow. Zombies on hardest map have 150 defense and 95 armor. My top of the line melee character cannot even touch them. That's not balance.

Just for kicks I put it back to an unmodded state and my warrior fell to 30-33-15 and an attack rating of less than 130. And that isn't going to do anything against a 150 defense enemy. And it won't make a difference how many players are doing it together on multiplayer. Nobody is breaking through that with a melee character.

Even as a caster you need to go extra mile to pierce monster's armor in last maps.

But the extra mile is possible with mages. And I love that it is necessary to build the perfect character and play it perfectly in order to complete the final challenge. That's something that more rpgs need to implement IMO.

But should the final quest only be doable by the perfect mage build? And not by a melee build? Or a ranged build?

Maybe Evil Islands was to make up for the Rage of Mages series where, as many players joked, it was called that because mages were so inept and underpowered in relation to fighters. :-p Now the tables have turned and fighters get the short end of the stick and mages are exalted to their rightful position.

Out of curiosity, isn't that one of the things the "Honest Group" mod changes? Since l know neither russian nor polish, l don't have a compete idea of what it modifies.