Something I have been thinking about...

[Whitebear]

I'm relatively new on here and have not posted much until now, but this interested me and inspired me to put my two cents in. There have been a lot of ideas on here ranging from minor updates to completely new endeavors. I just wanted to weigh in on some that seem noteworthy. As was recently commented, 2.0 just came out and is only just stable at this point (as far as anyone knows). There is currently a huge connection issue created by the encryption changes in the latest patches. There have been interim fixes for some of it, but many are still having issues with it. I would say its not just yet time to leave RunUO and move on to entirely new projects, unless of course you don't mind seeing RunUO simply fade away. RunUO is great and I would really hate to see it fade into oblivion like so many other emulators have when the Dev's just decided to move on.

And with regard to the open source PlayUO discussion earlier, I offer a different perspective. My background is in intelligence and law enforcement more than computers, though I've been playing around with programming since the 80's (which translates to "What ever happened to good old basic and DOS?"). It has been my experience that cheaters/hackers have do and always will exist in ever growing abundance and proficiency. In most respects "cheaters" parallel criminals in their behavior and views. They are already breaking numerous rules and often many laws, so what is one more to them? That's why most cops don't support bans on firearms. Sure you make the guns harder to get for the law abiding citizen, who might use it to defend himself and his home, but the criminal who is already breaking much more serious laws could care less if he is breaking a law by buying and/or selling firearms to use in his crimes. Same is true in cheating. I'm sure the cheaters are out there saying "Oh! You mean this isn't open source? and it's illegal to reverse engineer it?! Uh-oh! I better stop doing it then, because it's wrong." It would be nice if that was reality, but it isn't. Hopefully the parallel there is apparent. My point is, no cheater with the skills to hack, reverse engineer, or otherwise mod PlayUO is going to be held up by it not being open source. They are already doing it, and distributing their versions to their friends. I agree that going open source would just allow the shard dev's a chance to legally protect their hard work by having their own custom clients.

All of the above is meant with the utmost respect for everyone at RunUO and in this thread. If I've offended anyone it was not at all my intention. It's just my input, as I hope to see RunUO continue to grow and be a viable platform. RunUO is great, whatever direction you decide to take it. I also agee with Ilutzio that for all the input we have posted, there hasn't been so much from the RunUO Dev's.

[yarex]

1. Separate code logic into independent assemblies (ddls).

2. Comment all function in code using c# comments, so the proper documentation can be generated.

3. Use resharper tool to remove all unnecessary code

just my 0.02$

[neizarr]

I guess it depends on what you mean by rock solid. If RUO 2.0 is rock solid then packaging it up and releasing it would probably be a good first step before taking others. If you meant it in some other fashion like the core is solid, but maybe various other scripts need work still, or some other facets I as a newbie to RUO and the community don't understand then just ignore me of course. But before moving off to other projects I definately would like to see RUO 2.0 released as completed, particularly if it is rock solid and ready for said release.

That said, I agree with many others that a non-OSI client is desperately needed. One that can take full advantage of the protocol and lift limits that OSI imposed on it's client such as items limitted at 0x4000 max, wearables that exceed 1000 and keep their animation while sitting, more than the current number of layers and more configurability in their drawing priorities. Configurability of sitting in chairs, configurability of dealing with containers. All these features are 'locked' by OSI because they only need to deal with their own server and don't need more, but most shards that have a lot of customizability need these things.

There is another client in development by the author of Mulpatcher, which took some steps towards this. His client breaks through the 0x4000 max barrier, and he spoke of making more layers available for his client, but I think his attention has been drawn to other projects or perhaps too consumed by Mulpatcher to continue.

PlayUO seems really nice, and only missing a few features like sitting in chairs, and the ability to break these barriers I spoke of, but it seemed functional last time I played with it. Unfortunately it also hasn't seen a new release in approaching two years (3/05). Projects that are for one reason or another not progressed by the author would probably do well to be made open source and allowed to fork off to various others. Eventually someone who knows what they are doing and has the enthusiasm and energy for the project might take it up and bring it to new heights and we can all benefit from that.

But a solid flexible client for RUO and all UO Emulator servers would be a next big leap that would make many of us happy and one step closer to abandoning OSI for anything but their art.

As for trying to develop an entirely new custom game, I think the big problem there for most has never been a lack of ability in the programming end, but a lack of ability in the artistic side of matters. Whether you are designing art for 3d or 2d, when you lay before someone the fact that they have to create thousands upon thousands of high quality items and animations and such to make the world equivalent in depth to UO, it usually is the issue that stops most such projects and attempts dead in their tracks. The graphics in UO may be outdated, but one must admit, they are decent quality in general, and finding teams of people who could produce the sheer volume and quality of such art for free(and sometimes even paid) would be daunting. Not impossible perhaps, but to date it has not been accomplished by any project I have seen. So unless you can gather the artists and solid commitments and work from them prior, I wouldn't even bother with working on a custom game that wasn't basically an emulator or at least leveraging the art of some other commercial game that people would have to buy to use it.

Of course, all the above is just my opinion, and not meant to ridicule anyone or their attempts to do anything or their decisions not to do something or other. What I would like done by you? Keep supporting the RUO platform, bring RUO 2.0 to release at some point, and perhaps looking harder at getting PlayUO going again.

[Nott32]

Originally Posted by Pyro-Tech

One thing i think would be helpfull is adding in a GUI for RUO

I agree a GUI would be nice with buttons for quick commands like shut down server, etc.
-------------
Another thing I would like to see is a web based account system (No not the one now..a more accessible one). That runs on a separate port such as 8080 that allows people to edit accounts(Change password, etc.), make new accounts, view the status such as current users online, total # of items/Moblies... It would also be easily customizable via CSS and HTML files. It could also list all scripts currently installed(Customs) all you would have to do is add on top of each scrit file a commented line for the server to look for that tells everything about the file...such as

//NAME: System
//VERSION: 1.8.7
//AUTHOR: Nott32
//LOCATION: scripts/modded/system/mainhandler.cs
//REMOVE scripts/modded/system/*.CS

would display on a page like this:

Installed Custom Scripts:
NAME - VERSION - AUTHOR
System - 1.8.7 - Nott32
Example#2 - 0.1 - Bobhubert

REMOVE command would tell the server that all files in the specified directory are part of the same script that way it does not Display the header from those script files also.
Hope you take my Idea into consideration,
~Nott32

[Protius73]

There are alot of things that can be done with RunUO to make it more appealing to the masses.

Probably highest on the list would be allowing for dual servers running on the same list.

Id also like to see the races removed from the core and added to the data folder so we can define our own. As it is now its possible to add in race definitions and have the players choose there own races. BUT if we wanted to add in race restrictions to certain items we cant because the server doesnt recognize the new race. Like if a players race was Race.Orc and we tried putting a race restriction on a peice of armor it would pop an error code saying Server.Race does not contain a definition for Orc.

Id also like to see support for custom maps as well, would make it easier for us to truly make our worlds Unique.

All in all though RunUO Rocks totally... its the best EMU ive seen ever.

[Malaperth]

Dual servers running on the same 'list' is a client issue, and isn't dealt with in RunUO.

As far as the races go, many have done this successfully. You can either mod the core, or create a new class that pulls in the data from the Race class.

Also, people make custom maps all the time, so I'm not sure what you need for 'support' in RunUO.

[marrisa9]

i would like to see it run with windows 98 and with out duo prosser
as i cant even upgrade and the same with uoconect i cant use it eather
please dont say get a new comp i like all my comps i built them
please just make this work for us 98 users thank you

[WarAngel]

Originally Posted by marrisa9

i would like to see it run with windows 98 and with out duo prosser
as i cant even upgrade and the same with uoconect i cant use it eather
please dont say get a new comp i like all my comps i built them
please just make this work for us 98 users thank you

It's not possible as Microsoft has offered no .net support for Win98.

[marrisa9]

i dont understand why 2.0 cant work with 98 when 1.0 worked just fine
why did the log in concept have to change and why duo prossers when we have a single prosser even the svn wont work like uogateway i think it says something about
it takes win xp i could be wrong but it doesnt work for myself

[WarAngel]

Originally Posted by marrisa9

i dont understand why 2.0 cant work with 98 when 1.0 worked just fine
why did the log in concept have to change and why duo prossers when we have a single prosser

Actually, I was wrong. 2.0 does have support for Win98. I don't have an answer anymore.

[BeneathTheStars]

Originally Posted by marrisa9

i dont understand why 2.0 cant work with 98 when 1.0 worked just fine
why did the log in concept have to change and why duo prossers when we have a single prosser even the svn wont work like uogateway i think it says something about
it takes win xp i could be wrong but it doesnt work for myself

You dont need a 'duo' processor to run RunUO 2.0. RunUO 2.0 just added support for those with a dual core processor. You may still run it on a single core.

What are you talking about: log in concept? work like uogateway?

[Trios]

I would say work more with a seperate client system.

I would love to see a client system that is more RunUO focused. It connects to the server and the server gives it the info it needs. If the starting map is different it displays different locations to start. If there are more races you can select them from the drop down. I know complications would arrise from this but it would be an awesome system and it would truely allow for custom servers.

- Trios

[FingersMcSteal]

For me it would be a blank slate...

Errm, ok this is hard to explain.

Basically a blank core, like a core with no files (art, maps etc etc), from there give US the ability to create our own 'Game Servers' and connecting 'clients'.

Just having the very basics to run the server console as a very cut down version with all the networking (packet setup) to talk to the client and we design A game from there.

This comes from an idea i wanted to try but just seemed too difficult for me to try, anyone remember a game in arcades called 'Escape From The Plant of The Robot Monsters'. It was release back in the 80's i think and featured cheesy graphics (Dude with shades on looking cool) running round killing robots to basically save the world type stuff, just thought it would be cool if i could have got the graphics and everything into a RunUO format.

I just think it would be so funny getting that old game into a RunUO format and release as a free shard (world) to play in, replacing all of the UO graphic content with that games instead, but with things like homes, guilds PvP etc etc... oh yeah and the 'Ray Guns', the old style that shoots the green beams (corny joke ment).

Potential for others to create additional applications, like animation creating progs and graphic editing utils would be good i think.

Lot of work tho i'd imagine.

Hey you asked

** EDIT **
I actually have this on MAME, it's so bad it's addictive...lol.

[BladeWise]

I have some old alpha code to allow a Multiserver use of RunUO... I was able to allow in game server switch (at the moment only character switch, without items, char stats and skill) all this without changing the core so much (only modifying the NetState and some other things to allow inheritance of these classes to create the bridge to other servers)... this experiment was in a quite advanced state (server broadcasting, multi server comunication and management, gumps to allow these features and so on) but I discontinued this due to "real life" businnes...
I think a multiserver option could be quite good, my idea was that people could create his own UO network (many servers detached providing different game styles, sharing a single account... like many MMORPG do), moreover this kind of script was able to share the UO world on different servers (I thought about instance servers and world servers and so on)... RunUO probably has good performances and there is no need to share the world, and using a static ServerList is enough for this purpose, but I think this is an interesting task...
I think this is really the only missing feature RunUO is missing (I repeat, probably has not so much interest for many people reading this, but since "sky is the limit" this could be an interesting task to complete ^^).
Btw if someone is interested I can provide my code or some screenshots ^^

[HellRazor]

Very interested, please share the code. Maybe someone can carry on the work.

[Nott32]

Yea seriously lol that sounds really kool!

[Amadeo]

Originally Posted by Ryan

What would YOU like to see next for RunUO? I mean really RunUO is pretty rock solid...

MySQL or MSSQL addition supplement

[vdm]

I think the base Runuo core is excellent for a plan to _think_ about a new game. It woudn't hurt to discuss it and see what people come up with. Yes, there will be issues, like about graphics for clients but i think it will be fun to alteast discuss it. To start for example with a very simple, topdown view of a 3D Mobile that walks and allows basic functionality. At its least will might be fun to do while waiting for changes from osi and keeping Runuo in sync.

To improve Runuo itself..
A thought might be to create an interface for account info and such.
For example, create a simple "shard site package" that you can add to runuo with a simple forum, news poster, faq and shard info page.

This way you can just log into your favorite shards forum with your account info. (If that is a good think, i leave up to you). Maybe a diff username & password to login and set your shard-account info in the profile so that you can link/display your HK, a character doll as avatar or whatever else.

Shard owners simple edit/hackup the masterpage & css to get a complete, custom look for thier shard's site.

[vdm]

Oh though I doubt there is much animo for, but siege support would be cool

[Midnightdragon]

Originally Posted by Kenko

I would love Spellweaving, ML quest system and Peerless System, as well as harvest systems..

Anyways I already love RunUO

I agree with this alot really. Since the emulator is stable why not fill it out with all f the current EA features to pretty well clone them? I think most people are looking to atleast have what EA has and then either add or change it from there.

Another thing I wanted to mention. Why not do something with expansions this may be a bit much to ask though but I had always thought it would be cool to be able to "toggle" expansions on and off somehow. Maybe not toggle the expansion on a running shard but have some kind of installation that asks what era of UO you would like your shard to be using and then have it install the proper set of scripts and such for that type of shard.

I guess that is a whole lot of work though but was an idea I had for a while.

Something else I had thought about was a tool for applying custom code to the existing server. basically an auto merging tool that would take your new scripts and merge them into the existing scripts in your server to take most of the work out of adding billions of custom scripts. It could create a backup and such before altering the server to prevent major accidents. Basically tools such as this to help people maintain and modify the shard would be nice. Could include those in the distro or something.

So many things can be done but I think my most important suggestion would be filling our EA clone content. Not only is this the easiest to accomplish but the highest in demand from what I have seen.

[Malaperth]

Another thing I wanted to mention. Why not do something with expansions this may be a bit much to ask though but I had always thought it would be cool to be able to "toggle" expansions on and off somehow. Maybe not toggle the expansion on a running shard but have some kind of installation that asks what era of UO you would like your shard to be using and then have it install the proper set of scripts and such for that type of shard.

More or less, this already exists in CurrentExpansion.cs in 2.0.

[Anti-Basic]

Only for aos and above. And really, having an installtion program like that that would let you choose expansion, rulesets, maps and moongates, then load/edit the scripts and spawns for the chosen options would be nice.

Also having a GUI like Jeffs working on would be nice, with tabs of stuff, like a maps tab with spawns, player density, etc hell maybe integrated into UOAM or something (altho I don't think thats open source) a graphs tab with various statistics of the server, a tab with on the fly command buttons a la pandora's box, and of course a tab for command line. Scripters could even make custom tabs for their own projects etc. But, thats a LOT of work. Who wants to upgrade Krrios with a larger battery?

EDIT: After further thought, I think using just the bitmaps from UOAM would be legal, being that since the bitmaps are generated from your own client files, He cannot copyright them. Correct me if I'm wrong tho. Altho, using the map viewer from pandoras box would be easier and open source.

[kethoth]

dont know if this was already posted in here but how about a utility that allows you to "build" an item like a weapon or armor and convert it into a script

[mordero]

hmm there exists a tool that does that search for "script magic"