Accursed Lands - Game Characteristics

Game Characteristics

Accursed Lands is a text-based game with a parser that tries to understand standard English. For instance, the player can type examine third man to look at the third man of a crowd. Accursed Lands uses a classless system: players may practice and learn any skill they see fit for their character. As the player characters practice, their chances of success in that area increase gradually. The only way to gain proficiency in a skill is through practicing that skill. Skill game mechanics are hidden from the player. The player is provided with a subjective measure of his character's skill, relative to what his character would perceive as the racial averages. This is done in order to preserve the player's immersion as well as to reduce the temptation to focus on skills above roleplaying.

When players meet for the first time they do not know each other's names. To recognize each other later, they need to find out the other's name and "name" them as such. Also, since skills build gradually with practice, it takes time to become good at doing things, and some characters get better faster than others, due to their natural abilities. Most races have only two arms, and can therefore only hold two items at once, though wearing items such as backpacks or pants that have pockets allows them to carry more items. The more weight a person is carrying, the slower they move; a greater burden means they have a more difficult time completing certain actions.

Movement is affected by the type of terrain a character is traveling through; each terrain has its own creatures, and some items can only be found in certain land types. A player's altitude and the height of things around them affects their field of vision, and different land types have different smells and sounds associated with them.

Accursed Lands provides two ways of looking at the player's surroundings: the wilderness view and the room view. The room view displays a description of the room and any people or items that happen to be present. This is the default view while in a town or other location of interest. The wilderness view is an ASCII representation of the surrounding area and land types, as well as any locations of interest that are within view. Both views are dynamic: the viewer's capabilities and other factors, such as the level of ambient light, causes the view to be displayed differently to different viewers.

The Accursed Lands world contains over six million ground level rooms, as well as rooms above ground level (in the air or in trees), below ground level (underwater), and in an underworld (cave system) that constantly grows, due to the ability of players to dig their own tunnels. Most of these rooms are generated automatically by AL's wilderness server.

AL's wilderness rooms differ according to the type of terrain they represent. They range from open desert and plains to thick forests and large mountains. Each type has its own properties, items, native animals, sounds and smells. All terrain types affect the viewer's field of vision and speed of movement, some provide food or drink, and others shield players from the sun or provide firemaking materials.

When players enter a location of interest, such as a settlement, the game switches to local room descriptions for easier exploration. These locations usually provide things like houses, NPCs, libraries in which to study, shops to purchase or sell goods at, shops to rent so players can sell goods they find or craft, and resources to use in crafting.