Alter Aeon
| title: | Alter Aeon |
| url: | link |
| download page: | link |
| license: | Donation |
| genre: | MUD |
| developer: | dentinmud internet services |
| platform: | Mud, telnet |
| release: | 1995, ongoing |
| features: | text, sound |
| last edit by: | Dark |
Description
Alter Aeon is one of the most long standing and well known muds on the internet, and has been running since 1995. The game takes place in a medieval fantasy world, full of creatures such as kobolds, dragons and vampires. As is usual in this style of game, players may choose a primary character class which dictates their abilities and weaknesses, however unlike most games, they are not limited to one class. Players choose in succession from the six classes of warrior, mage, cleric, thief, necromancer, and druid, and may level each in turn, learning spells and abilities from each class they wish as they progress through the game. This makes the game extremely flexible, since players can learn abilities and specialize as they wish - for instance learning both the control of undead servants of a necromancer and the healing abilities of the cleric to keep those undead minions up and fighting.
New players start on the small island of Sloe, and will eventually progress through the larger islands of Kordan and Archais before reaching the main continent of Alter Aeon where most of the game takes place.
The amount of territory to explore in the game is truly staggering, with tens of thousands of rooms and unique locations, all described in atmospheric detail. Locations range from forests to bogs, oceans to deserts, and even different planes of reality, giving a very diverse set of places to explore. Indeed, exploration by itself is often rewarded, as players can earn in game awards just for traveling around and seeing as much of the game as they can.
As is usual with a fantasy game, most progression also comes through battle, however with the diverse class system there are many different ways to defeat enemies: using defensive or offensive magics, hand to hand fighting (with some extra moves such as disarming thrown in), engaging in magic protections or even grouping together with others and fighting cooperatively. For those who wish to group with other players a lot of additional options are open, including specializing their characters for certain group roles, such as the group's healer or main fighter. This is however entirely optional, and players can progress just as well solo if they wish.
The game also has a very large player base, and chatting in game is encouraged, whether to trade for and buy items across the in game auction, ask for a hint or just get some commiseration after you've been stomped on by a black wyvren.
Player vs player combat does exist, but only in a limited form. Players can register for pvp if they want to attack and kill other registered pvp players, or they can enter pvp arenas and battle without registering.
As well as exploring and fighting, a lot of quests and achievements are available in the game, from simple requests to go and fetch a given object and deliver it, to more complex puzzles or mazes. Players are also awarded with experience or achievements for such activities as turning undead, stealing souls as a necromancer, or stealing generally as a thief! Other activities such as brewing potions (or poisons), devoting life to a god, or engaging in trade and economics are also available in the game, ensuring that there is always something new to do.
Alter Aeon is also continually expanding. New spells and abilities to learn, new areas and monsters, level cap increases, and occasionally new classes such as necromancer and druid. All details of recent updates can be found on the games' website or by typing "changes" in the game itself.
As well as its gameplay, Alter Aeon is also one of the best adapted muds for visually impaired players. A low spam mode, textual map options and other useful settings are all available with the set blind command, or players can start directly with all these set by using the VI specific log in on port 3010 if using a telnet client.
In addition, Oriol Gomez and other players have created a custom client for blind players called Mush-Z. This is a version of the MushClient program that has been heavily scripted and configured to work uniquely with Alter Aeon. It has innumerable extra functions and triggers, including hotkeys, function aliases, and grouping features.
Mush-Z also adds an incredible number of sounds as well as background music. Some of the sounds can indicate events in the game, while others are just for atmosphere. Indeed, when using Mush-Z, Alter Aeon ends up feeling almost more like a full scale audio rpg adventure game than a text-based game.
The soundpack supports virtually all screen readers by default, and shouldn't require extra configuration. If you run into trouble, there's an in-game channel for tips and techniques to get it configured correctly.
For more details on Mush-Z, the main Mush-Z website can be found here. The direct download link for Mush-Z can be found above.If you don't wish to use the Mush-Z client, any other client such As VIPmud or Monkey Term can be used instead, though Mush-Z is highly recommended for Alter Aeon. Complete mud novices are especially encouraged to use it, and even veterans will be able to make use of its advanced features.
With the diverse range of in game activities, locations to explore, quests to complete, the interesting range of spells and counter measures used in combat, Alter Aeon is a highly addictive game even before you factor in the extra ambience and functionality of the Mush-Z client pack. Best of all, both are free! Donating to Alter Aeon can gain the player credits which can be used to buy rewards such as weightless containers for increasing the amount your character can carry or buying extra practices to earn skills, but these are all entirely optional.
For more about the game, including reviews or the chance to show your appreciation by voting you can ,a href=http://www.mudconnect.com/cgi-bin/adv_search.cgi>visit Alter aeon's page on the mud connector site here
Whether you're an experienced mudder or new to muds entirely, Alter Aeon is highly worth playing, and Mush-Z is the icing on the cake.
Thanks to Dentin, Alter Eaon's creator for some assistance with this entry.
Community
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Updates: entry 2 Feb 22 and description 2 Feb 22