Quick Basics For The Brand New Player
When starting out in a game it can be a bit overwhelming with all the new concepts and mechanics you have to get use to. This is multiplied when dealing with a game so well rounded and massive as Alter Aeon. Personally I've ran into sticking spots, and others have contacted me when they hit similar spots. This post is meant to go over some basic stuff to help people get up and running quicker, and hopefully avoid some of the sticking spots myself and others ran into when opening the game for the first time.
Simplified Movement With Mush-Z
I honestly wouldn't have played alter without the number pad movement system with Mush-Z. One of the biggest issues I've had with ever picking up a mud is typing in my directions I wanted to move. This is not necessary with Mush-Z though. You can use your number pad to move around. The 5 is where you are, and pushing a button in relation to the 5 will move you in that direction with plus climbing down and dash climbing up. If you don't have a number pad you can do the same with alt and your right hand keyboard buttons where the crack between K and I is your current location similar to how 5 works on the pad.
Turning Pagebreak Off
By default Alter only shows you so many lines of text before you tell it you want more. This is best disabled so everything will print to your output window. To do this use the command 'conf page off'. This way you can enter in a command and see everything all at once. It makes for a much better experience, and it is how the vast majority of screen reader users play the game.
Config mud -forceThis command does three things which are very important. First it turns off the prompting for lines, then it turns on auto door. This way mush-z makes a ding when you are in a room with a closed door. This is essential for game navigation. It makes life so much easier. Finally it turns on auto split. This splits looted gold with everyone in your group, and it is a setting everyone I've ever grouped with has turned on.
Adjusting Game Volumes In Mush Quickly
Sometimes opening a game for the first time can cause a sonic tsunami to hit you all at once. To adjust volumes in Mush use alt+f12 to cycle through the categories, then alt+f11 to turn up and alt+f10 to turn down the selected category. To mute all sounds quickly use control+f12. To turn on or off the random sounds that play to add flavor to your room use the command 'config randomsounds'.
The Output Window
Everything you get sent from the Alter Aeon server shows up in your Mush-Z output window. This is a text copy of everything you are hearing read out with your screen reader while playing. You can switch between the game window and the output window with control+tab. This is useful for going back and reviewing something you missed. Output can be toggled on and off with the command alt+control+O. If your output gets full (it is limited by notepad's max length) you can simply control tab to it, select all and delete.
The Mush-Z Shortcuts For Checking Your Stats & Common Tasks
These are straight forward, and you'll use them all the time. Alt+H: check your health Alt+V: Check your movement Alt+M: Check your mana Alt+G: Check your gold on hand Alt+T: Check your target's hp when fighting Alt+D: Sit down / Sleep Alt+E: Stand up and wake up
Use Your Mush-Z Buffers
You can go through your Mush-Z buffers by using alt left and right arrow, then using alt up and down to read the different items in the selected buffer. This is very useful for going over what mobs have said to you, keeping up on chats, and seeing what sort of XP you are getting. Also after leveling your new unlocked skills will show up in your learned buffer, this can be quite helpful. You can sort your buffers by moving them left and right with alt+shift left and right.
Pay Attention To Room Short & Long Descriptions
Especially in the beginning, you can get useful information from the room descriptions. These may tell you when there is an alternitive room exit like when you will need to type enter cave, or enter crack instead of just walking in a direction.
Mush-Z and autofill
There are a lot of proper nouns which can be difficult to spell properly. Mush-Z helps with this. You can type the first letter of what you want, or the first two letters then hit tab to autofill it. Note: This works with the last thing spoken to your screen reader by the client. So to get a mob's name you would have to type mobs to get a list of mobs in the room, then you can type talk w, press tab, and it will autofill in the name Whelan for you. This is something you'll still find useful at level 150.
Function Key Aliases
In Mush-Z as you learn a skill it is automatically added to a function key alias. For example when you first join the game the skills or spells you start out with will be assigned to f1 and f2. This way you don't need to type out the commands, you can just press f1 or f2 to perform the skill or spell. This continues as you learn more, and it can be changed later to whatever you want your function keys to be by redoing the alias for the keys.
Use The Help Command Often
Alter Aeon might have one of the best built in help systems I've ever seen. You can simply type help and a keyword, or a group of keywords to read about practically anything in game. For example help stab will give you three results. To read about backstabs you type in help 1.stab, for blood letting stab help 2.stab, and for mush-z versions help 3.stab. Using help will allow you to learn about most things in game without needing to ask a question every minute.
Keep Your Tips On
There are tips both from Alter Aeon, and from Mush-Z. Keep both of these on when starting out. They will pass along a lot of helpful information for the new player. A lot of questions you'll naturally have will be answered with these tips.
Put Your Stuff In a Bag
Early on you'll be collecting random stuff, and it is best to put your stuff in a bag. You can only carry so many individual items in your inventory, but when the items are in a bag you are only limited by weight. As you upgrade bags you can quickly empty one container into another with the command 'empty 1.container 2.container'. Just replace word container with the bags you are using.
Use Spell/Skill Find To Find Teachers
Whenever you unlock a new spell, if it isn't critical you need to walk to a teacher and learn that spell. Typing in 'spell find SpellName' is a perfect way to find every spell or skill you'll be able to learn on the first three islands. When at a teacher you can type 'slist' to get a listing of everything they teach.
Talk To All The Mobs
NPCs or mobs as they are called in Alter will give you your quests and jobs to do. Talking to every mob you come across in towns and cities will keep you moving forward and finding new quests, jobs, and sometimes equipment.
It's Okay To Do Some Mini-Grinding
On the first few maps it's perfectly okay to walk around and murder all the aggressive mobs. This will get you some extra levels and practices to play with, and this will make the beginning quite a bit easier. Not much is needed, just a couple extra levels so you are more prepared moving forward.
Loot Everything and Identify It
Almost everything you kill will have loot inside the corpse. Use the 'get all corpse' or 'loot all corpse' to get the equipment out of the corpse. Then identify it with the command 'id ItemName'. Also look on the ground after kills, sometimes items will spawn outside the corpse. Also chests and other containers are great for finding looted equipment.
You Don't Need To Keep Everything
Hoarding is a real problem, and it is quite easy to do. If you have something special keep it, if it is specifically useful to your class, or if you got it as a quest reward. If it is easy to get again, there is no need to keep it though, you can always go back to get it if you need it later. Watch your weight, and don't get too heavy because it hurts your movement cost for everything in game.
Follow The Quests
This is the most important thing you can do when starting out. The quests will take you from map to map, and from island to island showing you most everything you need to know. If you follow the quests you'll progress through hundreds of tasks which lead to the mainland down the road. Skipping out on these will severely hamper your Alter experience.
Use The Quests Nearby Command
This command shows you a list of what quests are available in your current location. It won't show quests if you haven't done the proper things to unlock them yet, but when in a new location it can give you an idea of the feats and deeds currently available.
Use The Nearby Command To Find Maps
nearby shows you a list of all maps which are...well near to your current location. This is good for exploring, and also for building up a spatial awareness of the Alter World. It is quite large, so don't expect to know it all at once.