Age of Valor :: View topic

Red Squirrel · AoV Owner

I know it's been very dead lately. It's been months since we've had even a small update. I apologize for that and hope to make up for it sooner or later.

Here's the scoop on what has been going on, some may already be aware.

1: shard revamp started - plan to totally redo the shard's content and some back end changes. The biggest back end change being the SQL. While there is still lot of quircks I say it's a success.

2: OSI research. There has been lot of background research done using various resources and there are some plans to change certain things to be more like OSI.

With the SQL project alone, we've grown far behind schedule as while it is working, it was not easy and took much longer then expected.

I've also run into a major barrier with it, given the way things are coded are not really meant for real time saves. The issues are mostly null checks that are missing in areas where it would never be an issue with snap shot saves.

I've come to the conclusion that even though the SQL saving itself pretty much all works, there will be TONS of figuring out to do as there are lot of very nasty weird issues.

I decided to take a break and start working on another of my projects for a bit, then come back to the shard later (not really sure when tbh).

So that said, and thinking of all the other issues with RunUO (the craft system... OMG code nightmare) I am toying with the idea of making an emulator from scratch. Sadly, if I do go this route it means we start at 0 and all the work we did is null. We could port lot of the logic but the code itself not quite. I am not dead set on this yet, though as it is a HUGE project. It would take at least a year to get the engine going to the point of making a pre-AOS shard.

However if all the systems are done properly and cleanly, stuff like adding all the mobs should be rather simple and fast, just long and tedious.

Now lets say I do go this route, we would become the official beta shard for the system, and it would be released to the public. RunUO competition, if you will. Wink

Now, if I'm going to do such a large project, I will do it well. It will be Linux 64 native, use some kind of real time storage system - maybe mysql, but maybe something custom, not sure yet. Also I would maybe even add some kind of load balancing mechanism of some sort. I would go for the gold here.

But that's just a thought that came to mind, there is a lot involved in making an emulator, and I might just end up getting back to the grind and trying to figure out the RunUO issues.

I just want everyone to know we did not forget about the shard, and we did not just leave it. It will just be a while before we do another update due to the state. I can't push out anything new until SQL is 100% stable for production.
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dprantl

Seriously, are you kidding? So the shard has been void of updates for over a year now. By updates I mean things that players can actually see/use. That shard that everyone was making fun of for being so behind is now WAY AHEAD of this one. OSI is out with Stygian Abyss for a long time. Now you bring up the possibility of 1) Spending more *years* making a UO server emulator from scratch AND 2) wiping and starting from the beginning? So maybe in the middle of 2012 when no one is playing UO anymore, you will just be coming out with your newfangled UO emulator (and there are already dozens of them right now). Remember when I told you SQL would be much harder to implement than you thought? Embarking on huge projects that take years... for what?

Just ask yourself why you are hosting a UO server. Is it so you can practice your coding, or do you have something to prove to the UO dev community? Or is it because you want to provide a fun shard for YOU and your players? I emphasize you because you probably haven't played UO more than 10 minutes for years.

If you really want to have a fun shard that players play on, you need to make it unique enough for people to want to come here. That means a good bunch of custom content. THAT's the biggest reason that at peak UOV there were over 30 players on. Make it very close to OSI, and what reason do people have to come here rather than the other 1,000 shards that are the same? You may also want to consider supporting UO:KR. So you don't like it... does it matter what you like? Lots of other people do, and you are trying to attract players. Check out the playerbase of even the crappiest shards that support UO:KR. From what I hear, RunUO already supports it and adding it in is super easy. Maybe also look into supporting the UO:SA client. If you are the first to do this, just watch the shard's popularity soar. Yes, it's in beta, so? It works and in not likely to change a whole bunch, hence the meaning of "beta".

Red Squirrel · AoV Owner

While demise may be ahead now, it took them over 3 years to get to the point they are at, and there's even some systems we have they don't have yet. I'm sure they might eventually catch up, but once our foundation is solid the rest will be peanuts. Content is very easy to code. It's the foundation that takes long. Without a proper foundation you have more instability, crashes, reverts, lag, long world saves etc... There are lot of shards out there that use cookie cutter premade scripts, but I can probably go on there and crash it in about half an hour.

My goal is to not only have good content, but have a solid system that is stable. If users don't notice what is going on in the back end, it's actually a good thing. It means it's working as it should. 99.999% uptime is near impossible to get, but my goal is to get it.

Also the reason we chose to not support KR is due to legality issues. While the old client is legal to emulate, the KR client is not legal to emulate. RunUO were even approached by EA about it and if they were to support it they'd get sued, or something - forget the gist of it. So that's why they are not supporting it. If I turn around and support it I'm sure we could be in trouble.

There are also tons of packet changes to do to support it, and if I want to support KR AND the 2D client it would be a pure mess to handle all of that. I rather just support one client. Reverse engineering is not my cup of tea.

The SA client is already supported on TC1, it was a no brainer to implement, it's still the 2D client, it's just another patch. Most of the changes are client->server packets. There's one server->client packet I need to figure out to "unlock" the gargoyle race but once I figure that out it will be possible to make gargoyles. The race itself is already semi implemented on TC1. (the hues and stuff are all wrong but that's easy to fix). Really SA will be easy, if we even do implement it. The hardest part will be implementing flying. RunUO's movement system is messed up and overcomplex for no reason.

Once we catch up with OSI, we'll be able to pretty much keep up 100%. There are actually certain things I've released in the past that were not even a day old on OSI, such as the virtue artifact system.

Just need patience, but trust me at some point we will have a huge release. Whether I go with custom emulator, or just figure out the RunUO issues, it will happen, and before 2012. My goal was BY 2010, which I may not hit, but it could potentially be IN 2010. Another big delay was my house renovations. For about 3-4 months I was not even touching code.
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Death · AoV Administrator

Afraid I'm going to have to side with the players in terms of coding an emulator from scratch. That right there is just madness as you're only 1 person and you're gambling on the fact that it will work as intended in the end. There's nothing wrong with dream and dedication but it's just a bit out of reach.

It took teams of people years to get where they're at in terms of UO emulation. I can understand revising what work has been done but doing it all over from square one (although possibly beneficial in the end) is too large a gamble, considering the aftermath of you needing to support and revise everything on your own. This project is too large for one person alone IMO.

d.

DOCTOR THUNDER

Jesus tapdancing christ! I can't fucking wait for duke nukem forever, oh wait, I mean Valor forever to come out. This sure is great waiting for Red to not open up new player registrations. Its great being the ONLY person logged on.

Way to go red, you sure know how to run a GREAT server. fuckin fag, get your shit together. Give the loyal players something worthwhile to play on. Or just quit wasting our time and your money, just pull the plug.

I am not gonna pull a tony montana and quit, I will be here to heckle and harass till the end comes.
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Red Squirrel · AoV Owner

DOCTOR THUNDER

I just told you to cancel it. No sense wasting your money and our time waiting for something that will not happen in the next 2 or 3 years.

Either that or get your head out of your ass and fix the basics so there is a playerbase. Instead of saying you are going to try to recode everything, just fix the problems! Put in a few donation items, like dye room tickets. open up new acct registration. Holy crap... maybe people might try out valor!

But if you are going to threaten option #1 instead, just save us the hassle and do it.
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Death · AoV Administrator

My biggest concern is the gamble that's being done. Although you may have worked to create a solid foundation, there's no guarantee that will be enough to sustain the playerbase.

For devs and staff, it's important to have a good foundation but players will not care so much about saves. Take demise for example. They have 30 second saves, but people don't quit about the saves. They may complain but that's about it. There's a few crashes due to the introduction of new scripts, but still there's very few players who leave because of them.

Players need the updates and content to sustain their interest in the shard. Players want to be able to indulge in UOML and UOSA content as well as fool around with custom systems. All these things are 10x easier to implement and are infinitely more important to the players. After all, it's the players that will ultimately determine the success of the shard.

I'm not saying that the foundation should just be ignored, just that there's an uneven distribution of resources being spent on the foundation when other projects are equally as important.

And so concludes my 0.02$.

DOCTOR THUNDER

sorry red, but you got fucked on your interest rate. why didnt you get a home equity loan? the 10k I owe is at 3.25%
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Red Squirrel · AoV Owner

d.

d.

DOCTOR THUNDER

yeah, might as well postpone new player registration until you have built us all valor security compatible computers too.

It might be hard to code all of the stuff, but it is also hard for us dedicated players to sit around luna bank with no one else logged on. No one is happy in this situation. You are paying 200$ a month for a server that NO ONE uses. We are unhappy every time we log in. And now we get an update that says " No one forgot about the server, but any change has been postponed until Red has recoded the whole goddamned system again." Might as well postpone any updates until you have personally visited all of the player's houses and approved their computer setups and UO installations.
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geezushhchrist

sorry red but every server ive played on that has been based off of custom stuff that's super hard to get has had 30+ people on unless its like 3-5 in the morning where they are i think i said why bother with removing stuff permanantly and make them WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY hard to get and mass delete all the ones that you make harder to get buy i mightve been thinking that and post this is helping me not break things lol
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