Alter Aeon Online Help

Keywords are:  'offset'

'offsets' are magical numbers used by the game to automatically change
the game state over long periods of time.  Offsets are usually used to
keep portions of the game in balance, and usually are very slow acting.
It can take weeks for an offset to effect a change.

Typical places where offsets are used would when determining alignment,
calculating what percentage of exp should come from backstabbing, or
how much exp a monster in the game might be worth.

In the case of gold and experience offsets, higher numbers mean simply
that there's more gold or experience available.  Not all offsets are
like this however.

For another example, take the alignment offsets, which are visible via
the 'graph' command.  These offsets give a direct indication of how easy
or difficult it will be to change or maintain a given alignment - when
the evil offset is zero, it will be pretty easy to become evil.  When
the evil offset is near its upper limit of 50, it becomes very, very
difficult to become evil.

The alignment offsets are unlike most of the other offsets, in that
they change quickly in the short term.  They also have a long term lower
limit, preventing players from engineering transients to avoid the
effects of the offset.