# Eleventh Official Chat

### Monday, 16 October 2000

Abaddon | Okay folks, welcome to another UOX3 House of Commons Chat
Abaddon | I think this makes it number 11 now, and they've all been a success
Abaddon | Tonight's topic isn't set, it's just an open topic. So if you have any questions, submit them through QuestionBot via /msg QuestionBot !addq Your question goes here
Abaddon | So, let the questions start rolling in

# Questions

- For those of us with lower end machines or modem connections than wish to host a shard,.. what are the best ways to reduce lag/slowdown? (GodLike, 1 votes)
- Can UOX be modified to allow use behind a firewall? Right now it won't work since it requires that you put the machine's IP in the config file (MithDragon, 1 votes)
- UOX3, the server emulator, is still in development? (I'm out of touch) (Loon, 1 votes)
- Will using uox screw up your osi game? (Lady_Erica, 1 votes)
- Will the Linux version be made available again on the uoxdev site? (MithDragon, 1 votes)
- Will we ever see a young system implemented in uox? (PoseidonXIX, 1 votes)
- Are you thinking of adding a possibility of making new command levels by easy manual configuration? (PoseidonXIX, 1 votes)
- I've heard there's a way to replace the .wav files in UO with custom ones. Any plans to make this process as easy as with the WarCraft II sound editor? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- I am unfamiliar with UOX3, but C++ is the current language that we can use to add personal scripts? (Loon, 1 votes)
- What's the deal with all the client crashes? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- I am familiar with Sphere, and I would like to know the best way to integrate into UOX3, scripting and such. (Loon, 1 votes)
- When can we expect the new script engine? (Antitheus, 1 votes)
- Can UOX ever be matched up to be just like regular UO or when precasting took place? :D (Xmyth, 1 votes)
- How much processor power does NPC AI gobble up? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- Will the new "trigger" system require more or less cpu/ram? (TWIG, 1 votes)
- Can we got a "lock, decrease, increase" function added to our stats? Similar to the way the skills are set up (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- When are you guys going to make the houses more secure so that people cant loot them unless your doors are locked? (HellSaviour, 2 votes)
- Recently I've been Running a complete world, All dungeons, All cities, Vendors etc, etc I set it up to save every 20 mins, Only problem is When this Save starts the world completely becomes frozen, Currently I'm running a Win98se with 256mb of ram and a amd 800 any ideas what may be causing (BoardQuestion, 2 votes)
- What does OSI think about UOX? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- Any way to implement flight into UOX? I've seen mongbats over oceans and mountains before… (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- Another housing question: I can open chests from directly under them in a two-story complex. Anyway to fix this? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- Is it possible in the future to add a "poison resistance" skill?? (TWIG, 1 votes)
- I'm obviously in the dark, but does the UOX3 have their own client? And if not, do they plan on making their own? (Loon, 1 votes)
- How would one make magic resist work with poison as well? (TWIG, 1 votes)
- How long, do you estimate, will the UOX3 project, be around? (Loon, 1 votes)
- How would one make magic resist work with poison as well? I mean, would I need to do some c coding? (TWIG, 1 votes)
- I'm interested in getting involved with UOX3, but I have not the slightest experience with C++, what program/learning method would you suggest to learn C++ for this type of thing? (Loon, 1 votes)
- I've worked with Sphere, and there is a thick-line between the source (hard-code) and the editable stuff (scripts,etc.), however in UOX3 it seems like there is a gray area, the UOX3 is source is totally open to revision? (Loon, 1 votes)

For those of us with lower end machines or modem connections than wish to host a shard,.. what are the best ways to reduce lag/slowdown? (GodLike, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, we do have to cater to low end machines. Your best bet on a low end machine is 2 things. First of all, don't run the client on the same machine as the server
Abaddon | That's just inviting lag (OSI have yet to write a truly CPU efficient client). For the next suggestion, your best bet is to set NICE to 0 in server.scp

Can UOX be modified to allow use behind a firewall? Right now it won't work since it requires that you put the machine's IP in the config file (MithDragon, 1 votes) Abaddon | UOX as it currently stands does work behind a firewall. I guess most people miss the point of the entries in uox3.ini
Abaddon | Those are the valid list of shards that show up in the server list. Those IP values in there are the points that you end up relaying to.
Abaddon | You could, for instance, enter into a shared agreement with another shard, and by doing so, you can put their IP in your uox3.ini, and they can put your IP in their uox3.ini
Abaddon | Thus, you can relay between each other. Free advertising of sorts
Abaddon | Because of this, the IP value in uox3.ini must point to a valid connection accepting server. I don't see how it's all that hard to put the firewall's IP in instead of your local IP
Abaddon | And it also allows varying access to your shard. An internal LAN listing, a public internet listing, and a local one
Abaddon | And only if you have the right location will you get through

UOX3, the server emulator, is still in development? (I'm out of touch) (Loon, 1 votes) Abaddon | It's definitely still in development, and it's kicking along strong. For those who have been out of touch, your best resource currently is www.uoxdev.com
Abaddon | You can find logs of previous chats, a number of boards, and links to tools and other downloads

Will using uox screw up your osi game? (Lady_Erica, 1 votes) Xuri | Nope :) At least not any more than can be fixed :) Do a backup of login.cfg and that's the only file you'll need to have to log back on the OSI shards.
Xuri | Oh yes, if you use WorldForge, backup your .MUL files.
Xuri | (statics0.mul, staidx0.mul and map0.mul)

Will the Linux version be made available again on the uoxdev site? (MithDragon, 1 votes) Abaddon | The Linux version is, as always, packaged up as source
Abaddon | UOX3 is open source, meaning that the source is always available and free to everyone
Abaddon | All flavours of Linux to my knowledge come with their own compiler
Abaddon | Windows does not. Thus, we tell the Linux users to compile up their own version. Libs and other things are different from machine to machine on Linux, so for best performance, it's best to compile it yourself
Abaddon | Makefiles are included with the source distribution

Will we ever see a young system implemented in uox? (PoseidonXIX, 1 votes) Chaos- | heh
Abaddon | We've not exactly had an overwhelming request for a young system implementation
Abaddon | With the rapid skill gain generally seen on PR shards, and GMs much more readily available, it hasn't really been a huge request
Abaddon | If we do receive a large request for it, then obviously the community would want it. But as it stands, no, there aren't any plans in the near or middle term future for such a system

Are you thinking of adding a possibility of making new command levels by easy manual configuration? (PoseidonXIX, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, one of the things we.. ahem... forgot to document with the last devupdate.txt was the addition of a command called 'setcommandlevel
Abaddon | This is currently restricted to account 0 and command level of 5 or above
Abaddon | So it is now possible for you to strip people of GM or Counselor privs
Abaddon | But it also means that you can more meaningfully use the commands.scp as intended
Abaddon | The commands.scp allows you to define what clearance value a certain command has
Abaddon | Anywhere up to 255. So you can now more reasonably reallocate commands to more levels, and by using account 0, allow you to set people to different levels
Abaddon | A more intuitive and useful system will come along at a later date however

I've heard there's a way to replace the .wav files in UO with custom ones. Any plans to make this process as easy as with the WarCraft II sound editor? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Xuri | That is something that will have to be done either by the Tool Dev team (when a new lead dev for that team is assigned) or by a "freelance" tool programmer, as it will not be a part of UOX3 itself but instead external tools like WorldForge etc. (Goes under Client-editing :)
Xuri | Keep the questions coming in people, here's how: Questions are submitted by /msg QuestionBot !addq Your question goes here

I am unfamiliar with UOX3, but C++ is the current language that we can use to add personal scripts? (Loon, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, scripts as they currently stand are either trigger based or essentially definition files. We do have that new powerful scripting engine in the works (and it's generally getting better by the day)
Abaddon | However, the main server of UOX3 is entirely written in C++, and that is freely available for general download
Abaddon | Remember that any changes made need to be made public if requested. So it's more a case of the entire server is available for customization, not just a script or two, here or there

What's the deal with all the client crashes? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, client crashes depend almost entirely on the shard itself
Abaddon | The mistake that many novices make is dumping huge numbers of items and characters in a relatively small area
Abaddon | This, generally, causes the client to kark it. We have been working on making the network aspects more bandwidth friendly, and I believe that Thyme's walking rewrite he's working on will help to reduce it greatly
Abaddon | I've also found an optimization or two in some of the send routines, and I hope to have them in the next build. I've noted certain magic crashes in the past, and I've also been working on improving those as well
Unseen | I have historically found a common cause of crashes is bad items or too many items
Chaos- | I also find magic usage causes client errors quite a bit

I am familiar with Sphere, and I would like to know the best way to integrate into UOX3, scripting and such. (Loon, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, your best source for anything UOX3 related would definitely be www.uoxdev.com
Abaddon | The guides there, as well as the docs that come with UOX itself, explain a lot of things (even though they still need work)
Abaddon | Scripting's fairly simple and self describing, just open up some of the scripts and you'll see it
Abaddon | But your best bet is to just give it a whirl

When can we expect the new script engine? (Antitheus, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, as always, the best answer will be: when it's ready
Abaddon | Due to a lot of RL stuff happening to me recently, I haven't been able to spend the time on it I should have
Abaddon | However, remember we're documenting the engine heavily as we write it as well
Abaddon | I believe we've got around 150 API calls for UOX3 planned, and are up around the 30-35 event mark now
Unseen | Documenting?.....going to have a heart attack :)
Abaddon | So it's certainly coming along, we just need to ensure that you have the best resources available to you, and that the first release of the scripting engine should be a useful powerful one

Can UOX ever be matched up to be just like regular UO or when precasting took place? :D (Xmyth, 1 votes) Abaddon | It's not so much a question of can, but should
Abaddon | I think it would be fair to say that a number of things that OSI have done have... disappointed a number of users in the past
Abaddon | We personally don't feel that OSI necessarily has the best way of doing things, and so we do have our own customizations
Abaddon | However, one of the aims we have is in giving you, the shard op, the set of tools to make it whatever way you wish
Unseen | In terms of item weight/cost/etc... we try and match as best we can, but the scripts are open to customization
Abaddon | Some things realistically would be hard to make scriptable, but we're going to provide you with an extensible scripting language, and as you have access to the source... you can always change anything to your heart's desire

How much processor power does NPC AI gobble up? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | It depends on the intelligence of the particular AI
Abaddon | Most of the AI doesn't usually take all that much processing power
Abaddon | We're working on ways to reduce the power needed, even still. However, with the upcoming script engine, a lot of the power needed will highly depend on the scripter
Abaddon | We're going to allow you to write NPCs to be as smart, or as dumb, as you wish them to be

Will the new "trigger" system require more or less cpu/ram? (TWIG, 1 votes) Abaddon | This was kind of answered in the prior question, in some ways
Abaddon | Yes, it'll need more memory (I'm guessing a few MB more), because the script engine will be doing it's own garbage collection, and resource maintenance, and what not
Abaddon | That does take some memory. However, the increase in requirements won't be terribly huge at all
Abaddon | It depends on the scripts you write, when it comes to CPU utilization

Can we got a "lock, decrease, increase" function added to our stats? Similar to the way the skills are set up (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, that depends. There's no intuitive client mechanism for doing so, as it currently stands
Abaddon | From a server perspective, it's probably not all that hard really, but the interface the client has to work through may be a bit kludgy, I don't know
Abaddon | If enough people scream and rant for it, then of course we have to look at it

When are you guys going to make the houses more secure so that people cant loot them unless your doors are locked? (HellSaviour, 2 votes) Abaddon | Housing implementation, as it currently stands, is a tad messy. We want to clean up a lot of the implementation details involved in housing. Once that's done, then certainly we'll be working to improve houses even further
Abaddon | We understand housing is a critical aspect to a PR shard, and that a lot of people want it
Abaddon | So once we clean it up, then we'll look to extending it

Recently I've been Running a complete world, All dungeons, All cities, Vendors etc, etc I set it up to save every 20 mins, Only problem is When this Save starts the world completely becomes frozen, Currently I'm running a Win98se with 256mb of ram and a amd 800 any ideas what may be causing (BoardQuestion, 2 votes) Abaddon | Well, every 20 minutes is a bit harsh. If you think about it, OSI only really save once a day :>
Abaddon | Yes, the time required to save things is very large, and we would like to reduce a lot of it. But remember, the shard is essentially frozen for a very good reason. It ensures world consistency
Abaddon | The other option would be to take a snapshot of the world as it stands (doubling memory requirements during a save). Not much fun there either
Abaddon | Basically, you just have to wait until the world finishes saving. Otherwise you could run into corruption issues

What does OSI think about UOX? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | Who knows what they think? I certainly don't
Abaddon | In essence, OSI put a clause into the TOS for T2A that people cannot play on a PR shard, without risking getting their account banned
Abaddon | Now, they cannot track whether you play on PR shards or not, not without doing something invasive to your machine.
Abaddon | And a number of people on PR shards well... just didn't like OSI shards any more, so they don't even have an account still :>
Unseen | I haven't used OSI in over a year myself

Any way to implement flight into UOX? I've seen mongbats over oceans and mountains before… (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | That will be coming in soon, as part of Thyme's walking rewrite. It'll also include swimming NPCs

Another housing question: I can open chests from directly under them in a two-story complex. Anyway to fix this? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | That's a bug with range checking issues, I'll see what I can do to fix that for the next build

Is it possible in the future to add a "poison resistance" skill?? (TWIG, 1 votes) Abaddon | Adding skills requires client and server modifications
Abaddon | However, reusing an existing skill to your purpose doesn't. So it may come under an aspect of magic resistance
Abaddon | Other skills have been reused by UOX (Spirit Speak is more a language skill)

I'm obviously in the dark, but does the UOX3 have their own client? And if not, do they plan on making their own? (Loon, 1 votes) Abaddon | No, UOX doesn't have it's own client. Yes, EviLDeD has plans for a client, though I'm not sure where that currently stands

How would one make magic resist work with poison as well? (TWIG, 1 votes) Abaddon | It would be something more like a generic resistance skill, as compared to magic resist or poison resistance
Abaddon | So when you were poisoned or attacked by magic, then it would do a skill check, as compared to just magic attacks

How long, do you estimate, will the UOX3 project, be around? (Loon, 1 votes) Abaddon | As long as there are people willing to code and support it
Xuri | Until #uox3 freezes over!
Abaddon | It's now been going for over 3 years
Abaddon | It's had it's rough patches, sure, but I myself have been involved for over 12 months now (makes me one of the longest coders, right Xu? :>)
Abaddon | I can't foresee it dying any time soon
Xuri | Correct. :>
Abaddon | Crikey, even the uoxdev.com message boards are active. 6000 posts in a period of 2 months or so, and only 250 registered members or something like that
Abaddon | I'm almost always writing a dozen posts a day or so, in response to questions
Xuri | As for those that cry out "What about when UO2 comes!?"
Xuri | ..
Xuri | Most likely the same people who cried out when EverQuest /AC came.
Abaddon | There's a large impetus on UOX, and it would take a hell of a lot to grind it back to nothing
Xuri | UO2 Won't be the end of UO, and it won't be the end of UOX either.

How would one make magic resist work with poison as well? I mean, would I need to do some c coding? (TWIG, 1 votes) Abaddon | Yes, it would involve C coding
Abaddon | Essentially, you'd scan quickly through the source, find where a player is poisoned. Do a simple skill check on magic resistance based on poisoning quality
Abaddon | If the skill check passes, then you resist the poisoning. If not, you get poisoned, and your skill slowly grows
Abaddon | That'd be basically what you need to do

I'm interested in getting involved with UOX3, but I have not the slightest experience with C++, what program/learning method would you suggest to learn C++ for this type of thing? (Loon, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, for Windows people it's much easier. Grab a hold of Microsoft Visual Studio if you can (preferred tools of the dev team :>)
Abaddon | It has colour syntaxing and a few other niceties in there
Abaddon | As for learning C++... I was entirely self-taught, for the most part, so I just say get in and get your hands dirty :>
Abaddon | You should be able to find some web resources that have much more gentle introductions than the UOX3 source
Abaddon | And when it comes to programming questions on UOX3, I'm almost invariably always in #uox3, so I'm free to answer most questions uox3 related
Abaddon | And even some general coding ones

I've worked with Sphere, and there is a thick-line between the source (hard-code) and the editable stuff (scripts,etc.), however in UOX3 it seems like there is a gray area, the UOX3 is source is totally open to revision? (Loon, 1 votes) Abaddon | Yes, that's true. The entire source for UOX3 is available. Every aspect of the server is controllable via source, and it's all in the source files downloadable
Abaddon | We're hoping to implement the powerful scripting engine soon, so that it reduces a lot of the source modification / recompile / run necessity (already got JS script reloading working mostly)
Abaddon | If you download the source for UOX3, that's everything involved in the builds we release. We don't hide a thing
Abaddon | The only caveat is this: If you make modifications, and run a shard with them, you need to make those source changes freely available if asked for them