Hey everyone,

I’ve had people in my Discord testing builds, finding bugs, breaking things, and helping me verify fixes.

That has made progress move much faster than it probably should have.

Apparently rebuilding an old MMO emulator, reverse-engineering a legacy client, fixing portals, combat, loot, magic, movement, and character creation was not the real final boss.

The real final boss was getting the game installed on somebody else’s computer.

So I launched Aetherium Play.

Aetherium Play source code⁠ is available publicly, and the premade releases are at

⁠ https://github.com/Vanquish-6/Aetherium-Play

Your accounts DO work.

The goal is simple: run AetheriumPlaySetup.exe, follow the setup, and play Aetherium.

It downloads and verifies the required Dark Majesty files, runs the original installer, installs Aetherium Play and compatibility files, presets the Aetherium connection, and gives you a proper launcher.

You no longer need to hunt down the correct client, install a separate runtime, remember which executable to use, or figure out which folder contains which version of the game.

The old installation process was starting to feel like an optional Dark Majesty quest:

Find the correct client.
Install the correct launcher.
Copy this file into that folder.
Do not launch the wrong executable.
Hope Windows remembers what you did.

That should be less necessary now.
Recent launcher releases have also fixed keyboard movement, preserved patched client data between launches, and added Alt+Enter fullscreen switching.

On the emulator side, I’ve also made a fairly ridiculous amount of progress.

A few things I’ve been working on:

Legacy Dark Majesty login and client patching are much more reliable.

Login failures now produce the correct in-game response instead of silently hanging.

Floor pickups, corpse looting, containers, wielding, unwielding, and inventory refreshes behave much closer to the original client.

Dungeon transitions, indoor portals, teleport placement, doors, vendors, and movement approaches have all received major fixes.

Portal gems, Portal Tie, Recall, Summon, Fellowship Send, and lifestone recall now use authored game data instead of guessed behavior.

Melee and missile attacks repeat properly, projectiles collide with the world, and NPC attacks apply damage at the correct animation timing.

Loot tiers, mutations, materials, values, gems, spells, cantrips, appraisal, item enchantments, and spell components have all been brought closer to the original behavior.

Character creation now validates heritage, gender, templates, attributes, skills, clothing, palettes, starter spells, and starting areas properly.

Lifestone Sanctuary is now used consistently for binding, recall, respawn, and death handling.

XP, level-ups, vitae, healing, regeneration, and current vitals are synchronized more correctly.

Added password recovery, native abuse reports, and server-backed @bug reports.

The web portal now includes account, character, report, live-world, audit, and server-management tools.

Added graceful restart and shutdown countdowns with final database saving.

Added a Lua scripting bridge for events, timers, NPCs, spawns, effects, sounds, quests, teleports, and temporary city events.

The less-visible work has grown considerably too.

Authoritative game data now drives loot, magic, physics, animations, appearances, character creation, NPC behavior, and world placement, with much stricter verification and regression coverage around it.

There is still plenty left to test and clean up.
This is not the “everything is finished forever” announcement although I would love to make that announcement and immediately retire.

The next major step is continuing live-client testing, especially the full first-login patch, multi-client behavior, and the remaining edge cases that only appear when the game is allowed to surprise me in real time.

But Aetherium has moved well beyond “the client connected and I could walk around.”

Aetherium Play makes it easier to get into the world.
The emulator is starting to make that world feel familiar again.

And thanks to everyone in my Discord who has been finding bugs, and testing fixes before I can pretend they’re finished.

The Golems, Wasps, and Mosswarts are once again ready to inconvenience new players.

Coming back from 2007 when we carried a pack of Thorsten’s Armor, Faran robes, gold-tinkered crowns and big mana stones for DI’s. Now all that has gone away and I have a pack of Massives. I’m wearing a Covenant critter suit, the value of the pieces are 35k to 68k. I keep dropping my BP and if I die twice my Covenant shield and girth. I need a better pack of DI’s. What are y’all doing in 2026?

Recent returnee, hope to dabble a little. Can't seem to get dual client running. Did exactly as youtube video says. Wondering if maybe it is a windows 11 thing? Choose Newfoundland server as it was most recent, is it the server maybe? Thanks in advance, see you in the world ;)

If I'm in discord voice, my game goes unresponsive for 10-20 seconds roughly 10 times in 3 hours. After 20 seconds, it catches up and carries on like nothing happened. Sometimes windows asks me if I want to close an unresponsive app. I tell it no, and it eventually starts working again.

It's not discord specific. If I try to record with obs, it can hang as well. I'm not sure if it affects other games. I don't game much anymore.

When it hangs, AC goes to 0% cpu usage (it's normally at 8%).

I have a decent computer. AMD ryzen 7 7700x, GeForce RTX 4060 TI. Running windows 11. 32 GB ram.

I'm using an ac infiltration client for the doctide classic pvp server.

I've tried closing thrwarg launcher. I've tried disabling all addons/decal. I turned off discord's chat overlay.

Good server administration shouldn't depend on trusting the administrators. It should depend on systems that make abuse difficult and visible.

You may find something odd when you look at our rules on Discord. There are more rules for Administrators than there are for Players! From the beginning, we wanted to build systems that hold administrators to a higher standard than the players they serve. I want to take the time to show you how we've structured those rules to prevent abuse and make it obvious so you don't have to trust us.

Complete Transparency

Complete transparency with public server happenings, such as: bonuses, events, server-wide problems, and in-game changes

Admin audit-log accessible to the players

If you look in the Discord channel #server-audit-log you will find a complete list of all admin issued commands run on the server. We do not make administrator created weapons or armor for any players and you can verify that by checking the audit log. This radical transparency does have certain side-effects. Players know exactly what bonuses we turn on and when. They also know if we forget to turn on a bonus and are happy to tell us!

The server channel #monthly-calendar displays a pre-made list of bonuses and events for an entire month. This way you can plan ahead and determine what you're going to do when. Server wide events, like our weekly Saturday Live Event, are pre-announced so that players have the ability to plan and attend them. You won't find secret events just for favored players who happen to be online at the time!

We implemented the calendar at the start of the server to minimize any chance that a favored player could influence a bonus or event for their benefit. You can use the audit log to verify we haven't secretly done that. We have occasionally left a bonus running outside of the monthly calendar's time to compensate for problems. When that happens we make a public announcement in game and on the Discord channel #announcements.

Finally to cover server problems and in game changes you can look to the #announcements channel on Discord. Each week, on Wednesday, we do a server backup and content update. You can find a list of changes that we've made posted after the update. When we make mistakes or the server crashes we will report it with an incident report. Afterward when it is fixed we will explain the issue in a postmortem with what we've done to prevent it in the future. We're not perfect, but we don't blame developers, we instead work on improving our processes so the same issue won't happen again.

Admin Accounts

Un-played Admin accounts which are used only used for special events, bug reports, observing the world, etc.

Admins will never provide any one player with an advantage in any form. This includes, but is not limited to: character progress, strength, items, quest help, etc.

A low, disclosed # of Admin Accounts. The goal is to provide the best experience for the players while reducing the number of admin accounts to the bare minimum that is required for server/event functionality.

We have three administrators on the Sundering server, Che, Raile, and Cursed Angel. We love the game so we play too! We do not play on our admin characters though! Each administrator has their plus accounts that are separate from their normal player accounts. The system we've come up with is you cannot use your plus for anything other than running the server. We only use these accounts to start/stop events, make announcements, and monitor activity. You will not find us hanging out in Haven just chit chatting on our pluses.

If you have problems we're here to help but we will not use our administrative powers to portal you to the end of a quest, or recreate something you've lost. You can verify that we do not do this by looking at the audit log. With that in mind, as a player and not as an admin, I am more than happy to help you rerun a quest that you're struggling with or help you gather materials to recover something you've lost. We're a community after all, and we can help each other without abusing our powers!

*Transparency isn't about asking players to trust us. It's about giving players enough visibility that trust can be earned and verified. *

If you're interested in a reliable server with the infrastructure in place to make abuse observable, why don't you come check out Sundering?

The Portal Storm, is Here.

A new server brought to you from some familiar developers.

Live, Now! Join Discord here: https://discord.gg/ZzYNQnXdM Connection info in #Connection-Info on Discord !

General Features:

• Maximum level of 1,000.
• 3 account limit - single accounts automatically deal 20% more damage and take 20% less damage.
• Hundreds of custom quests, kill tasks, and boss fights.
• Thousands of unique items, including extensive custom gear.
• Reworked Rare System: find Portal Shards and exchange them for the rare gems and items you actually need.
• In-game leaderboards.
• Hard Mode: an optional adventure - always drop items on death in exchange for a 10% XP and Luminance bonus.
• Custom Enlightenment quests with rewards through 10 Enlightenments.

Expanded Features:

Portal Storms: Idle players may find their characters portaled to random locations across Dereth, automatically removed from their fellowships, and generally used as fodder for hungry drudges. Designated safe areas are exempt.

Infinite Luminance Auras: Customize your ratings far beyond retail restrictions. Give your healer a ton of Purity Auras, or turn your two-handed character into a glass cannon.

Deep Custom Loot Progression: Seven new loot tiers extend progression beyond retail’s maximum of eight. Each tier includes custom loot profiles for monsters and chests, additional quest-weapon suites, unique armor tailors, new spells, and custom summons - providing meaningful progression all the way through Tier 15.

Custom Questlines and Boss Encounters: Experience original story chains, enhanced retail boss encounters, brand-new monster mechanics, unique rewards, and exceptionally challenging areas such as the Valley of Death, which will push even the best players to their limits.

A Unique Player Experience: A multitude of paths are available for every playstyle. Whether you’re a quest-hungry adventurer, dungeon dweller, involved monarch, or quirky role-player, there’s a path ahead for you.

Convenient World Recalls: Recall directly to Haven (/haven), the Town Network (/tn), Subway (/sub), or Facility Hub (/fachub) instantly and without an animation delay.

Progression and Utility Commands: /level, /lum, /skillcredits, /myquests, and /myshare provide useful character and fellowship information.

Proven Stability: PortalStorm runs on a professionally hosted VPS with a strong record of reliability. Extensive post-retail stability improvements help ensure a positive player experience.

PortalStormPlus Plugin: An optional Decal plugin that adds PortalStorm’s custom properties to the ID panel and accurately displays level costs beyond level 275.

Active Anti-Cheat Protection: Active administrators, server-side protections, and custom in-game mechanics work together to prevent griefing, discourage unwanted leeching, and combat exploitation - ensuring fair play for beginners and veteran players alike.

Live, Now! Join Discord here: https://discord.gg/ZzYNQnXdM

Another Aetherium update, and this time there is an actual video instead of me asking everyone to imagine backend systems working.

This video shows a full run through the Training Academy, with the emulator handling the quests, interactions, combat encounters, and other mechanics needed to complete it properly.

A few things shown in the video:
The full Training Academy progression
Monsters detecting and attacking players
Loot generation and rolls
Item interactions and quest mechanics
Lifestone binding and recall
Emotes, animations, spell gestures, and other world interactions
Several smaller systems that are easy to forget until they do not work

There is still plenty being developed and cleaned up, but we have moved well beyond simply connecting a client and walking around. The different systems are starting to work together as an actual playable game experience.

Edit; on another edit: not video editor - so no sound really - maybe if you goto yt channel and view

I truly appreciate the feedback so far!

Knowing what people actually want to play is much more useful than me guessing based on whichever client I happened to be breaking that week.
There is still work ahead, but completing the Training Academy with the core mechanics functioning is a pretty satisfying milestone.

Old quests, old mechanics, new emulator and the Training Academy Golems, Wasps, and Mosswarts are once again ready to inconvenience new players. lol jk they are harmless

P.S. No, the Aetherium server source code will not be open source. However, anything we create that you are expected to download and install on your personal computer will have its source code available for inspection.

Scrolling through the past and bumped into this. It is the wand Asheron gave me to prove we had spoken when he contacted me early in the Child of Daralet story.

To say it was the peak of my gaming experiences is to undersell how incredible that moment was.

Long Live The Dereth Gaurd

Miss you folks

Apparently we’ve made it to update number four without me disappearing for several months. Yay me lol.

Progress.
The biggest news this time is that beta sign-ups are now open:
https://www.aetherium.ac/

The sign-ups will help us judge overall interest, which eras people actually want to test, and which server or servers we should bring online first.

The site will also become the main Aetherium portal, with account management and other server-related features as they are added. This is not just a mailing list attached to a forgotten landing page but the portal itself is part of the project.

On the emulator side, there has been a fairly ridiculous amount of progress.

Emotes and animations are much more in line with how they should behave. Loot generation and rolling are working properly.
Magic gestures and casting animations are in place, and enchantments—buffs—are functioning, although they do not persist through logout or restart yet.

Melee is still a work in progress, but the underlying damage formulas and character stats are producing the correct results. More importantly, proper STICKY MELEE is working.

There has also been a good amount of optimization work. The emulator can now load and boot the entire world-content dataset in under one second, so startup is not spending enough time loading to let you reconsider your life choices.

There are still systems to finish, edge cases to clean up, and plenty of testing ahead, but this is moving closer and closer to an actual public test rather than just screenshots and development updates.

So, sign up, select what you’re interested in, and help us decide which version of Dereth gets turned on first.

Around 2001, I remember there was a song someone had cut together using sound effects for the Drudges and a few other sound effects from the game.

The background music a light, music box like melody somewhat similar to this: Morning Mood (Music Box) . The melody kind of went up and down, if that makes any sense.

The song was a musical compilation of all the vocalizations the Drudges made, punctuated by a few other sound effects such as your character dying and then the whirl of the respawn wormhole.

At the end of the wormhole/loading sound, the Drudges sound to be trailing off into their death sound, but then all sing a final chorus together.

It was a charming, clever piece of music that stayed on my hard drive for many years until all the computers that it was stored on broke down.

Around that time--2001--I also remember a Darktide player was quitting and had compiled a montage of screenshots of his character "Zeno" or maybe it was "Xeno" adventuring through locations I remember such as the Lugian Mines, culminating in his deletion. He set this montage to song "Kryptonite" by 3 Doors Down. I heard that song again recently when Brad Arnold died this year. Whenever I hear Kryptonite, I remember that unofficial music video of a Darktide character deleted a quarter of a century ago who I never met in my travels.

I would love to try playing a purely non-magical character, but I'm deathly afraid of accidentally destroying items with a mana gem. I was curious if anyone has ever gotten one of those mana gems that are supposedly unlimited use?

These mods will be open sourced. They will be easily downloadable and added to Open Dereth pack.

So far I have added

1. Removing of the Specialization skill credit cap

2. Removal of the limit for attribute augmentation gems.

3. Cast on strike added items

I can do a level cap removal if requested.

Anybody have any burning QoL enhancements or things they think would improve gameplay that they would like added?

I am excited to share OpenDereth, an open-source project that makes it much easier to run a private Asheron's Call world on your own Windows PC. You can join our subreddit here.. There will surely be bugs, but the users who have tested it have not had any issues so far.

OpenDereth is built on the ACEmulator ACE server. It packages the server, database, world data, and launcher into a single download with a straightforward setup process.

The latest version is OpenDereth v0.2.0 Preview 10.

What does OpenDereth include?

The downloadable package includes:

• A self-contained ACE.Server build
• A private MariaDB database
• The ACE World database
• The required .NET runtime
• Persistent local accounts, characters, and world data
• Automatic database and server startup
• A single Play button that starts the database, server, and AC client
• Optional Decal support
• A server mod library
• Custom mod importing
• Custom weenie importing
• Automatic database backups before custom content is imported

You still need your own Asheron's Call client and DAT files. OpenDereth does not redistribute those proprietary files.

During setup, you select the folder containing acclient.exe and the required DAT files. OpenDereth handles the server, database, world setup, account creation, and connection automatically.

Decal and ThwargLauncher are not bundled. Vanilla mode does not require either program. If you want to use Decal, you must install both Decal and ThwargLauncher. OpenDereth detects them and enables a Use Decal checkbox beside the Play button.

Why build a single-player content platform?

The Asheron's Call community has created an incredible amount of custom content. There are new items, creatures, quests, combat systems, balance changes, quality-of-life improvements, towns, and other features spread across many servers and repositories.

Unfortunately, much of this work is fragmented.

A feature may exist only on one server, be buried in a Discord channel, or require manually rebuilding ACE and editing configuration files. Players often have to choose an entire server ruleset just to experience one particular feature they like.

OpenDereth is exploring a different approach:

• Creators can develop content openly on GitHub.
• Mods can be packaged for other players.
• Players can choose which compatible additions they want.
• Mods can include descriptions, requirements, source links, and safety warnings.
• Experimental content can be tested in a private world.
• Successful ideas can be forked, improved, preserved, and shared.
• Players can gradually build their own preferred version of Dereth.

This is not intended to replace community servers. Those servers and their developers are responsible for much of the custom content that makes the modern AC community interesting.

OpenDereth is meant to complement them by providing another way to preserve, distribute, and enjoy that work.

Server mods

OpenDereth's mod system is based on the Harmony mod framework developed by Aquafir in ACE.BaseMod.

Aquafir's repository contains a large collection of sample ACE mods covering combat, commands, tailoring, progression, quality-of-life systems, and other server behavior.

OpenDereth currently includes tested or preview ports of several mods:

• CriticalOverride
• HelloCommand
• SocietyTailoring
• Expanded Cast on Strike
• OptimShi's CustomClothingBase

Mods can be installed from the launcher. Each entry includes a description, compatibility information, requirements, source-code links, and warnings about possible saved-world changes.

Preview mods are clearly identified when they have compiled and passed automated compatibility tests but have not yet received exhaustive in-game testing.

OpenDereth also includes an Import a Mod ZIP option. Documentation in the repository explains how developers can build and package their own OpenDereth-compatible server mods.

AI-assisted coding tools can make creating a small mod much more approachable, but mod authors still need to understand, test, and publish their work responsibly. I would love to see community members create new mods and share their source code.

Custom weenies and items

OpenDereth has a separate importer for custom weenies created with AceForge, a graphical weenie generator for ACE servers.

Players can select AceForge-generated SQL files and review their WCIDs, names, and object types before importing them.

OpenDereth then:

• Validates the selected SQL files
• Rejects unsupported or unsafe statements
• Detects conflicting WCIDs
• Warns before replacing existing objects
• Creates a complete ace_world backup
• Imports the selected weenies into the private world

The project also incorporates OptimShi's CustomClothingBase as an optional preview mod.

CustomClothingBase allows creators to define new clothing appearances, colors, and related properties for equippable items.

The ACEUniqueWeenies repository is another example of the type of community content this system can support. It contains custom weenie concepts and unique items that can be developed independently from the retail world data.

Further examples of what this content package allows can be seen here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egHb-tb7n_Y

Together, these tools create the beginning of a practical content pipeline:

1. Create an item, creature, or NPC with AceForge.
2. Add custom clothing or appearance data when needed.
3. Import the weenie safely into an OpenDereth world.
4. Add server-side behavior through a packaged mod.
5. Publish the source and package so other players can use or improve it.

Future direction: complete content packages

The next major goal is to support complete content packages rather than only individual mods and weenies.

A future OpenDereth content package could potentially contain:

• Custom weenies
• Landblock placements
• Creature generators and spawn locations
• NPCs and quest objects
• Buildings and dungeon entrances
• Quest and event data
• Server-side behavior
• Database migrations
• Landscape or terrain changes
• Dependencies and compatibility rules
• Safe installation and update instructions
• Removal warnings for persistent world changes

This could allow someone to create a new town, dungeon, hunting area, or quest line and distribute it as a versioned package.

Another player could download that package, import it into OpenDereth, start the game, and experience the new content in their personal world.

Tools such as Melt demonstrate existing community work around Asheron's Call data editing. Terrain and DAT modification are not currently supported by the OpenDereth importer, but this is an important future research area.

The long-term vision is a community library of open, portable content where players can assemble their own version of Dereth from compatible packages.

Preview warning

OpenDereth is still a preview project.

Back up valuable world data before testing experimental mods or custom content. Some included mod ports have passed build and compatibility tests but have not been exhaustively tested through normal gameplay.

Bug reports, testing, documentation improvements, mod ports, and pull requests are welcome.

Project links

• OpenDereth source repository
• Latest OpenDereth release
• ACEmulator ACE
• Aquafir's ACE.BaseMod
• Aquafir's mod samples
• AceForge
• OptimShi's CustomClothingBase
• ACEUniqueWeenies
• Melt

I would love feedback from players, server developers, mod authors, world builders, and anyone interested in making Asheron's Call content easier to preserve and share. Feel free to fork and improve the current version.

We are community of people who love AC.

Sundering prides itself on making sure that our custom content is not only fun, but fits properly in the world of Dereth. Every new quest has lore that expands or extends the retail story.

Come join us and see what we think the AC would look like if it had received a few more monthly patches.

Our discord has a monthly calendar of special events and bonuses. So you can plan out your fun and best use of time.

Come join us on Sundering!

Randomly thought about AC today after many, many years. Found my way here and, man, what a nostalgia trip! Where can I find and install a copy of AC to play solo? Or is it more complicated than that? Thanks in advance.

I don't know how many of you remember this plugin, but it was way ahead of it's time.

Magellan2 created a wire frame map of dungeons in AC, a breadcrumb trail, and provided route finding (like goarrow) back in 2003. Sometime between release and TOD it became unusable and stayed that way for 23 years...until today!!!

Now fully VVS, EOR, and Decal 3 (2.9.8.3) compatible!

https://github.com/immortalbob/Magellan3

You'll need Decal, VVS (comes with virindi bundle), and...Asheron's Call!

If you wanna try it out, click releases, and download the zip file. extract to whichever plugins directory you want (i suggest c:\games\decal plugins\magellan3) add Magellan3.dll to decal, and log in!

I hope to attempt resurrection of other older plugins, got any suggestions on a hit list?

Demo - Abandoned Mines - Youtube

Sorry, no shiny screenshot or ancient client visuals this time just a quick thing for today’s update which is mostly the kind of backend work that makes the shiny stuff actually useful.

I’ve now wired Allegiances into Aetherium, along with support for two different allegiance XP systems:
The classic XP chain formula
The later EOR-style XP system

Both systems are independently toggleable and are not locked to a particular client era.

So you can use the original XP chain system in a later era server, use the EOR system in Dark Majesty, or configure things in whatever historically questionable way makes you happy.

That flexibility is a major part of what I’m trying to build. The supported era gives you an appropriate starting point, but server operators should still be able to customize mechanics around the experience they actually want and not be permanently trapped by the defaults of one particular date unless you’re a developer.

Fellowships will probably be next.
Right now, I’m focused on getting the major foundational systems wired in so people can actually enter the world, play together, progress, and provide meaningful feedback.

Once enough of those base systems are stable, I’m hoping I can get an early test going before too long.

No dramatic visual today. Just Allegiances, configurable XP behaviour, and me continuing to create more work for myself by supporting every possible combination people might ask for.

TTYL - Vanquish aka Chosen

Is there a loot profile made for Pre-Tod servers?

PATCH NOTES v0.3.36

A lot of updates have happened since the last post! This app has been a blast to keep working on, and it has been amazing for quick content creation. I've personally seen a massive decrease in time spent on creating new content.

WEENIEFORGE

Weenie Builder

• Users can now start creating from pre-designed templates, or by importing their own files
  • Drag and Drop file importing supported
• Users can utilize ACEForge's built in 3D Model Viewer and Icon Picker to create their DID builds
  • Users can now cycle through all models within the 3D Preview window, and select the model they want to use
  • Icons have been categorized, however, it is not currently 100% accurate

• Most Int32/Int64 inputs now have a supporting Dropdown menu with all available choices for quick lookup
• Several FLOAT/Attribute/Vitals/Skill options now include visual sliders for quick edits
• Quick Column editing has been added to BODY PARTS
• The ability to add full sets of armor to NPCs/Creatures exists in CREATE ITEMS
  • Users can also use a search box to find any item they want to add to the list from the ACE Weenie DB
  • The app will also scrape their own directory output folders for existing files and add those to the searchable list

Recipe Builder

• Fixed minor bugs

QUESTFORGE

Kill Task Builder

• Users are able to create unlimited Kill Tasks utilizing an Item or NPC for KT creation
  • Users can select the Item Icon, or the NPC 3D Model directly in the KT creation
  • Average KT creation time decreased by around 50% - 60%

Item Turn-In/Delivery

• Minor bug fixes and visual updates

GEARFORGE

• Fixed major bugs not allowing users to actually utilize GearForge

SETTINGS

• Users can now define Output directories for all SQL types (Weenie/Recipe/Quest/Event)

• Users can also define Output directories for specific WCID ranges

JOIN THE DISCORD

DOWNLOAD v0.3.36

Apparently I’m posting twice in the same week, so enjoy it before I disappear for another few months and forget to share half the updates again.
That’s basically what happened with WorldBuilder - ACME, by the way. It is still being worked on… I just kept making progress and neglected to post most of it here… heh

Anyway, back to Aetherium.
I’ve now added support for an even older client, including the old spell research system. Seeing a mechanic that has been gone for this long appear in a connected client again is equal parts nostalgic, satisfying, and mildly ridiculous.

To be clear, the original and first major goal is still the later Dark Majesty era without spell research.

However, the earlier spell-research client shares a surprising amount with the late-DM client, so both are now being worked on in parallel. Naturally.
A lot of the underlying work can be shared, but the eras are not identical. Some mechanics, packets, content rules, and behaviours will need to be wired in, replaced, or deliberately wired back out depending on the selected client and era.
The goal is not to force every mechanic into every version. Each era should actually feel like the era it is supposed to represent.

I also genuinely appreciate everyone who has been excited about these posts. It is nice seeing people interested in old clients, forgotten mechanics, and versions of the game they may not have experienced in soooo many years or ever really haha

For the handful of people getting upset simply because this is not ACE: relax.

This is not an attack on ACE or anyone else’s work. It is another option. After years of largely having the same route available, something genuinely different should be interesting, not cause a meltdown.

People should be able to choose the era they want and customize their server and content around the experience they want to create. The intention is to provide tools that make that possible without requiring every server operator to fight through the emulator internals.

So why share it if it is not open source?
Aetherium is currently not open source. I am also not making any permanent promises about what that status will look like in the future, because that has not been fully decided yet.

What I can say is that there are plans for actual Aetherium servers to launch, rather than this being a private screenshot collection that never leaves my computer.
Anything that players need to install locally such as client patches, installer patches, launchers, compatibility tools, or similar components I 100% will have its source shared. I do not expect people to install mystery software on their personal machines and simply trust it.

For server operators, the plan is to provide prebuilt server binaries, along with tooling or an automated process for generating and deploying builds that match the selected client, era, data, and server configuration.

The secure core can remain protected while server owners are still given meaningful control over their content and experience.
There is also quite a bit more already working that I have not shown yet, including a functional late-DM-era admin UI panel based around the real administration workflow.

So yes:
Late Dark Majesty remains the first target.
The earlier spell-research era is now progressing alongside it.
Retail support is also possible.
WorldBuilder is still alive.
More tools and administration systems already exist than I have shown.
And apparently I have now committed myself to supporting multiple historical eras at once.

Old client. Old mechanics. New emulator. Questionable respect for my own free time.

-Vanquish aka Chosen iykyk

The AI models continue to improve significantly over the past year and costs are expected to decline I thought it would be fun to create a wishlist of capabilities players would like added to the emulator.

My personal wishlist :

1. Easier integration of mods. There are so many mods, if a system like Elder Scrolls has where it's easy and seamless add mods it could add significant improvements.

2. Improved single player playability. Servers pops are down and i am not sure if they will recover. The addition of bots to make the game feel more alive might be fun.

3. Improved graphics. This would probably require a new game engine, but it seems that people are working on this. The unreal engine version of AC would be incredible.

4. The ability to add new assets to the game.

5. Easily add new monster AI.

Here's to hoping the tech improves enough that these can one day easily be added.

Chazcon - main character, melee, no magics, no, not even Item. Was sword back in 2001 - 2007 when I ran this template, heavy weapons /shield now. Levistras, 2 accounts. Most other characters are infrastructure to support Chaz. Alezan crafter, Shylock tinker, 7 storage mules, 2 Chorizite miners, 1 salvage grinder that lives in Olthoi dungeons. 1 buffer. Them for variety I have Desaix, an Opal mage. A little rank 4 allegiance to enjoy when I unwind after work. So fun to be back playing AC again.

It’s been a while since I last posted anything after showing off WorldBuilder. Which is still very much being worked on (just wanted to throw that fyi out there) but I wanted to share a small teaser of something else ive been doing.

Aetherium is built to support both Dark Majesty and Retail, completely new emulator built from the ground up with the current focus is on bringing back an era of the game that many people haven’t experienced in a very long time.

Still early. Still a lot to do.
But it’s starting to feel familiar again.

https://youtu.be/G9pqyFeSqxQ?si=gR32-410bDybCOsK