AC is one of my favorite games of all time (neck and neck with Ultima II (I'm old)). I still play on the emulators from time to time - endlessly searching for more Hoary Mattekars.
I played on Thistledown and ran a little portal bot named Stip Dickens an Ayan Baqur that helped ferry people into the Shard of the Herald event. That was a lot of fun.
The loot system was also one-of-a-kind. I don't see that level of randomness in many other games.
The game felt like the writers and staff were highly literate and well read. I now know so many real life herbs and plants due to their use in spellcasting. And AC taught me words like "Mnemosyne".
And each month we would get several pages of amazing lore. (Side note, there's an ongoing web serial called "The Wandering Inn" that reminds me quite a bit of AC. People dropped into a video game like world, insect people, references to a "Zeikhal"(similar to a town name)....
So, I just want to thank you for your work on AC. It's had a profoundly positive impact on my life.
I really appreciate you writing this guide. As a long time Linux user, I've always wanted to learn AWK, but it seemed too daunting. Three minutes into your guide and I immediately saw how I could use it in my day-to-day usage.