Aetolia and Iron Realms Entertainment are proud to announce the beta test of its newest proprietary MUD: Aetolia Classic!

You can participate in the beta right now simply by connecting your MUD client to classic.aetolia.com, port 2007. As this is a classic server, there is no planned support for the Nexus client as Classic predates a lot of the code and technology used to support it.


What is Aetolia Classic?
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It's a re-release of Aetolia as it was at January 2007 - the oldest backup we still had available to us. This version of Aetolia will run purely independent of Aetolia Prime (what we will now call the modern version of Aetolia).

Aetolia Classic will follow its own design principles rooted in the era from where it came. It will also have its own storyline, entirely different from Prime's but rooted in the same beginnings. In 2007, the Kerrithrim event had yet to happen which is what we consider to be the start of Aetolia Prime's Albedos storyline.


Staff
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Aetolia Classic will be headed by Luke Moore, who you have come to know as Keroc in Aetolia. He will be taking on the role of Varian in Aetolia Classic as its Producer.

Luke has been a staple of Aetolia Prime for over a decade now, and we're truly sad to see him go. However, we have the utmost faith that Aetolia Classic will flourish in his capable hands.

We understand that this leaves a large void in Prime as far as combat goes. Going forward, Tiur will now become responsible for handling combat in Aetolia and we have utmost faith in his ability to step into the massive shoes Keroc is leaving behind.


Beta participation
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The beta period will run for 72 hours, starting from now. Once the beta period is complete, we will be doing a data wipe and resetting in preparation for a proper release.

Some of you may have old characters available to you from 2007, if you were playing back then. Feel free to log them in for the beta period if you remember your password from that time. If not, just create a new one!

Since it's a beta, we're letting you boost your characters for the sake of testing. Simply type BOOSTME in-game to be given access to all your skills and have your level set to 99.


Known issues
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Unfortunately, AB files and HELP files are stored and backed up differently to the rest of the game data. The oldest backup we were able to retrieve for those is around 2011-2012. This means the some files might currently contain information not applicable to Classic. This is a work in progress.


Development plans
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Look forward to a post from Aetolia Classic's producer in the next couple of days that will outline his plans for Classic's development, and how he will ensure Classic remains true to the sense of the word.


What's different?
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With 13 years of development separating Classic and Prime, you can expect that things are going to be very, very different. Here's a small sample of what to expect:
* No in-game mapping or pathfinding. Until Aetolia Classic gets its own website, you can find old map images on our website at http://www.aetolia.com/classic-maps/ and navigate using those like we used to back in 2007!
* 2007 is long before class revamps. It's so long ago that Teradrim still use slingshots and have Mentis.
* Ashtan still exists as a city.
* Kelsys is still around.
* The war system is there.
* Plenty of original Gods: Arion, Lleis, Dhaivol, etc.

- Jeremy Saunders, President of Iron Realms Entertainment

Penned by my hand on Gosday, the 11th of Severin, in the year 487 MA.
Discuss this post on our forums:
https://forums.aetolia.com/discussion/3481/announce-post-3077-aetolia-classic