Fork · Setup · Handoff

Take it from here

Shadowgain is a fork of the Asheron’s Call Emulator (ACE). Everything below is what changed, how to stand up your own copy, and where to turn the dials. If this idea speaks to you—it’s yours to run with.

The fork

BaseACEmulator / ACE

Forkgithub.com/Royel-Payne/ACE

Branchshadowgain-usage-leveling

StackC# / .NET · MySQL · Docker

All changes are server-side. A stock retail client connects and plays with no modifications—the work lives entirely in the emulator.

What the fork changes

Skills rise only by use. Buying ranks with pooled experience is disabled; the retail proficiency system is unshackled from its 15-minute timer and re-tuned so repeated, meaningful use is the whole path.
Every skill is trained from the start. No credit economy and no specialization—what you become is decided purely by what you do, over a very long time.
Attributes rise by use too — a system that doesn’t exist in stock ACE. Strength from striking and from hauling while overburdened; Endurance from taking hits and from exertion; Coordination from ranged attacks and spell-aiming; Quickness from movement; Focus and Self from the magic schools. Everyone starts at 10 in all six and climbs—through use alone—toward the same ceiling.
Skills are uncapped and stay visible in the retail client past the old ceiling—no client modification.
Vitals are earned, not bought. Health, stamina and mana track the attributes that govern them, so closing the “buy power” loophole doesn’t leave characters under-tuned for the world’s content.
Attributes remain capped on purpose—the vitals system is built on that ceiling, and endless attributes would break combat balance. Skills are where “unlimited” lives.

Running your own

It runs like any ACE server. In broad strokes:

# 1. clone the fork and check out the branch
git clone https://github.com/Royel-Payne/ACE.git
cd ACE
git checkout shadowgain-usage-leveling

# 2. build & run with the repo's Docker setup
docker compose up -d --build

You supply the two things every ACE server needs and that can’t be redistributed here:

The Asheron’s Call client data (the DAT files) from your own game install.
A retail client to connect with.

The world database self-seeds on first run, and the emulator’s own documentation covers the standard setup in full detail. See the ACE project’s upstream docs for the canonical install guide; this fork changes gameplay logic, not the deployment shape.

This page intentionally contains no server addresses, keys, or credentials—just the public fork and how to build it. Stand up your own world; don’t look for a door into someone else’s.

Tuning it

None of the rates are baked in. Every gain rate, curve and threshold is a live server-config value (ACE’s PropertyManager), changeable in-world with no rebuild. The defaults ship the mechanism, not a balance target—pace is yours to set. A representative sample:

Dial	Does
`skill_gain_multiplier`	global grind-rate for skills
`skill_gain_magic_multiplier`	magic vs melee balance
`attribute_gain_multiplier`	global grind-rate for attributes
`attribute_gain_mental_multiplier`	how fast Focus & Self (the arts) climb
`skill_overcap_growth`	how far skills reach past the old cap
`burden_strength_divisor`	Strength earned from hauling weight

…and roughly two dozen more, each with a sane default. Slow and grindy out of the box—because the point was always the climb.

The idea behind it

This started as a simple wish, posted more than once in a server community: a world where skills and attributes are unlimited but can only be raised by using them—so mastering everything takes years, and what you practice is what you become. You start weak. You beat on chickens with a starter club to earn the strength to carry more, to equip better gear, to survive tougher fights. A mage keeps a little muscle just to haul components; a fighter who takes enough hits naturally grows tougher over time.

The guiding principle of the build was to ship the systems that make that vision possible—not a finished, balanced economy. Whoever picks this up gets a working skeleton and a wall of dials. Make it yours.