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Updating UO to a next gen MMO

courtjester12804

courtjester12804

Sorceror
UO was my first MMO ever and I'm very faithful to the entire concept behind it. But let's face it, the current way UO is set up is outdated. Companies like Blizzard have popped out games like WoW, Trion is getting ready to release Rift, and many other MMOs have stepped up to the plate. One of the best things about UO is it's skill system. The problem comes when you are already at your highest skill set. Similar to other MMOs, you get to max level and what do you do, raid? pvp?

Luckily, UO is so old that questing was not really implemented. Nor was your typical leveling system of 1-99. I say luckily because that means we, as dedicated UO players and shard owners, have something to build on. I see that a couple leveling systems have been released and some people have released some individual quest scripts.

As a result, I suggest some of us get together and work on an overhaul that includes the following modifications:

-Normal skill leveling at an expedited rate (possibly 5-10x faster skill ups) without access to dungeons
-Once a player has attained 700 total skill points, graduate them to a leveling/questing system
-Players gain access to certain dungeons at certain levels, similar to the way that WoW dictates which dungeons you can enter based on gear rating
-Questing throughout the world could be implemented in quest hubs located in different areas, leaving choice up to the players where they want to level (Tram/Fel, Ilsh, Malas, Tokuno)
-Starting out with a level cap of 10 or 20 would give us a reasonable goal for quest creation without overwhelming us (this also allows for further expansions raising the level cap and giving us time to create additional quests)
-Add some new gear sets to be spread throughout the dungeons
-Quest rewards can be XP along with money and/or a piece of gear
-Crafting gets some new recipes only available through quests/dungeons once at max-skill and certain levels to help add to some of the gear
-Add Xanthos' Spell Crafting system and possibly Nerun's Distro as standard to have a fully spawned world (Spell Crafting is a personal preference of mine that I feel no shard should be without)
-There are some pretty good scripts out there that can be incorporated for quest lines or events such as "A Contagious Zombie" and Starlazer's Vampire Pack1 for starters.

This is the summarized version of my vision but if there are people that would like to get together and work on this with me, I think it would be a refreshing option to put a whole new level on top of a solid framework. I have been around RunUO for the better part of 7 years as a silent member and I want to give something back to the community that has allowed me to revisit one of my favorite games stress-free and whenever I wanted to.

I think having members involved with this will also help to increase the confidence and scripting ability of some of the members that just don't know where to start by learning from some of the old pros (you know who you are) that have been giving us some amazing scripts for years now.
 
M

merlyn2000

Sorceror
alot of this 'system' can or has already been implemented thru cutsom script releases - or the tools to do so have been ... such as your xp-based dungeons, this can be accomplished through using skill gates as the entry point into said dungeons, or using xmlspawner2 as a method to check skill levels before allowing entry into same dungeons. the xmlspawner system also already has an extensive quest system as well as methods to allow tracking a players XP points. as an examle i can already create an xmlspawner to place an xmlattachment on a player when a particular kill has been made, or a quest has been accomplished.

what you ask for can be done today, with exception to the actual content.

one could even create custom spells, schools of magic, or other custom skills - all using the xmlspawner2 system - although i cant demo a proof of concept i am quite certain that i am correct.

there are many other custom script packages that add nealry as much functionality in their own right.

all this said, dont misunderstand my reply. im not arguing that you are wrong, on the contrary. we as a community CAN benefit from features that you describe, im just saying that trying to implement these features in the core would be time wasted when we have the tools already - time that can be used writing in the content.

now if you ***REALLY*** want to 'raise the bar' how about a way to connect multiple runuo servers, each with their own map, each one communicating with the others, all running the same scripts, thus allowing a virtually unlimited world to conquer? get that going and you'd have thousands of players to interact with, and may go days without crossing paths ... think about how much fun that would be ... always having new lands to conquer ... id pay for that technology to be implemented in the core (assuming i have enough money of course lol)
 
courtjester12804

courtjester12804

Sorceror
Actually, that sounds like a great idea IF we can get some cooperation from other shard owners who are willing to work under a single set of rules in order to provide said universal environment. I did not take offense to your post, by any means merlyn. I greatly appreciate any constructive criticism or feedback that might help breath some life back into UO for me. I've recently quit WoW for the 4th time, which most likely will be the last time. I looked into Rift and am only mildly entertained with starting over in a new game yet again, having to deal with the same idiots I just escaped from in WoW. I fully intend on turning my focuses back to UO and crafting something that will be new to me for more than a week. I will look into the systems you mentioned and see if they fit what I would like to do. Thank you for the direction.
 
sec_goat

sec_goat

Squire
merlyn2000 said:
now if you ***REALLY*** want to 'raise the bar' how about a way to connect multiple runuo servers, each with their own map, each one communicating with the others, all running the same scripts, thus allowing a virtually unlimited world to conquer? get that going and you'd have thousands of players to interact with, and may go days without crossing paths ... think about how much fun that would be ... always having new lands to conquer ... id pay for that technology to be implemented in the core (assuming i have enough money of course lol)
Click to expand...


Are you familiar with Minecraft at all? Some people on there had written a script that allowed that to happen, you could take a teleporter from one server to another. . . all written in java, but I assume it would not be too difficult to write something like this if you knew what you were doing?
 
LordHogFred

LordHogFred

Knight
This is definately not impossible, however in order to benefit from this sort of modification fully would require making client modifications.
It's all well and good having multiple servers with different worlds but the client needs to have access to these worlds. If you are just talking about having multiple mirrors of Tram, Fel, Malas, etc then this is fine. If you are thinking of having different servers using different world files then this becomes a problem because the client can only support 6 (I think) map files. A single server is capable of providing access to all of these 6 worlds already so, with the exception of world decor, every server would be the same.
A much more interesting approach (in my opinion) to this however would be to use multiple servers to support instances. Whenever a party enters a dungeon a "mini server" would be started up and place those players in the dungeon. This way you could have heavily scripted dungeons without the worry of having to restrict access to other players or needing to reset the dungeon. Of course this has it's own problems with each "mini server" using extra resources, etc.
Don't take this the wrong way, I think your idea is excellent. Once we have access to an open source UO client then all of these things will be possible. The limited factor that we all have to work to is the restrcitions of the client itself, when a stable open source UO client is available then the potential of what can be done with RunUO will be endless.
 
Vorspire

Vorspire

Knight
For a long time now I have strived to re-create the WoW game-play environment on my own private RunUO server, but unfortunately it never went public and a lot of things still need done...

Instanced dungeons ere definitely on my to-do list, with the use of Map.Register and a simple core mod to allow seperate Map indexing for certain ID ranges, it can be entirely possible;
Here is the theory, at least:

A party of players enter a dungeon (a series of 'permission' checks against 'lockouts' can allow access)
The system determines if said DungeonRegion has already been used on a generated Map instance.
-If the DungeonRegion has been used, a new map will be registered and the DungeonRegion on the new map will be used.
-If the DungeonRegion has not been used, the system will use it.
The above allows for "lobbies" to be created in the form of map instances, where the "rooms" are the DungeonRegions, meaning that you don't generate 1 map instance for every 1 DungeonRegion that needs to be used.

Of course, the system ill have to be outfitted with all sorts of other features, but that's the base theory anyhow.

As for a sustainable level system, if interested, I did release this a while ago, it caters for WoW up to WOTLK:
>> http://www.runuo.com/community/thre...ystem-utility-sdk-implimentation-guide.95577/

There are a few other things I was working on that might be interesting or help spark some creativity;
http://www.runuo.com/forums/members/vorspire-albums-developments.html

Multiple server connections have been discussed in this topic, so here's my two cents;

I once wanted to create some sort of global battle system, whereby shard owners could install it and register their shard as a battle shard on a simple website that would track stats and ranking, etc...
It's kind of how WoW has theirs set up, multiple servers belong to battle groups, there are multiple battle groups too (to lighten overall server load across realms)
If you want to enter into a PvP battle on your shard, you simply use a command to queue yourself.
You will e queued based on information the shard owner as provided on previously discussed website, a server will be chosen at random to be he host for the next battle and players are then connected with each other on a single battlefield.

There would be a lot more to it, copying players data etc, r maybe even just spoof packets back and forth to display players on the respective locations on each shard... who knows.

What's your input, forum? :)
 
Zajigateli

Zajigateli

Sorceror
I'm more worrying about graphics and design of UO. Modern players, often, choosing in what to play first are drawing attention to the graphics of game and then to the gameplay. When will appear "Tera" or "Vindictus" UO will have Serious problems.
 
P

Person

Sorceror
UO's power was always in the details. You could do so much more in UO than any other MMO, but they are starting to catch up.
 
Pure Insanity

Pure Insanity

Sorceror
Jeff said:
You can do a lot in WoW now... infact, a lot more then UO.
Click to expand...

Yeah, as long as you team up with a group of people. It's nearly impossible to do any quest on there without a group of people. Sure...it's fun if you and your close friends are playing at the same time. But WoW is full of trolls and idiots now, and no one wants to team up with them for anything...
 
Jeff

Jeff

Lord
James420 said:
Yeah, as long as you team up with a group of people. It's nearly impossible to do any quest on there without a group of people. Sure...it's fun if you and your close friends are playing at the same time. But WoW is full of trolls and idiots now, and no one wants to team up with them for anything...
Click to expand...
You are wrong, probably because you haven't played anywhere near recently. I just started playing again about 2 months ago, i went from level 1 to 85 (max level), playing the hardest class to solo with (currently rogue) in 1 months, without any help or ever grouping up... please get your facts straight before you comment on things you obviously have no knowledge about. The game has changed ALOT since you played (im assuming 3-4 years ago).

Additionally, I've been doing Raids and Dungeons with complete PUGs and everyone for the most part (at least more then 75%) are all very kind, respectful, fun to play with. I've even been able to say "Hold on one second I need to make some food, be back in 5 minutes....", in the middle of a dungeon, in a group of players I've never meet or played with before, and never have I been kicked or disrespected.

The game itself is FULL of mini-game quests. And the quests themselves have been redone to involve the player more... Something they do now which UO should consider doing is 'phasing'. Phasing adds a HUGE level of realism to the game world. You can complete a quest and move to a new phase within the zone which changes not only the static elements but the terrain/ocean/environment itself. This allows them to incorporate a storyline into the game, and change the world to reflect it. It's really amazing, never seen anything like it in any MMO.
 
Jeff

Jeff

Lord
Design-wise its meh, having a list of things that are visible per phase is weird, and memory intensive, instead you should just have a property on items that describes the phase they are in... IPhasable.PhaseId... then when you execute CanSee, you check if the PhaseID is the same as the players PhaseID.... much easier. Having ((PlayerMobile)m).m_VisList is just strange to me.
 
Dougan Ironfist

Dougan Ironfist

Sorceror
I guess I don't get what you are saying. Regardless of method, the items must exist. This method allows items to persist thru multiple phases, so you don't need one copy of the item per phase. When the script executes CanSee, it does check the player's phase to the phases the the item is visisble. Seems to me that it is already setup exactly as you are describing. If there was an IsVisibleTo method in Item.cs like there is an IsChildVisibleTo, then the PlayerMobile would not need to be changed at all. I can't find anything like that though, so it falls to the PlayerMobile to test for visibility.
 
Jeff

Jeff

Lord
I get that it can pass through multiple phases, but at the same time there is a list... a better bet would be to allow it to apply to x number of phases, minPhaseVisibile, maxPhaseVisible, and make max nullable if its indefinate. Storing a list of visible items to the player is just asinine.
 
Dougan Ironfist

Dougan Ironfist

Sorceror
There isn't a list of visible items being stored to the player. Maybe you should read it again.

The only list being stored to the player is a list of phasing systems and what phase the player is currently on, and yeah keeping track of that isn't asinine it's necessary. Only one phase system on your server, then it uses only one int and one strine from the whole system no matter how big or small. How is that memory intensive? If you are referring to the OnPhaseChange() routine, I got that right from the Item.Visible property in the core. If it is good enough to be used in the core, why shouldn't I use it?

How exactly is minPhaseVisibile and maxPhaseVisible different from PhaseStageStart and PhaseStageEnd other than in name alone? Sure PhaseStageEnd, oops maxPhaseVisible, could be nullable. Oh wait, thats right type int cannot be nullable.
 
Jeff

Jeff

Lord
I do appologize about the list thing, I was reading your "Core Mod" section of your post incorrectly... anyway, cool. But ya, still think you can use int? for items that never move out of phase.
 
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