# Tenth Official Chat

### Monday, 2 October 2000

Abaddon | Okay folks, welcome to another UOX3 House of Commons Chat! There's no set topic tonight, so it's general open season stuff. It would be nice if you read the previous Logs to get up to speed (www.uoxdev.com)
Abaddon | All questions are directed and controlled through QuestionBot, if you want to add a question, type /msg QuestionBot !addq Your question goes here
Abaddon | So, let the questions begin

# Questions

- Do you plan to add a delay between potion uses? or could you tell me how I could do this? (Thaliq, 1 votes)
- Will the spawn.scp issue be dealt with for the next release? (BoardQuestion, 2 votes)
- When do you plan to release the new system (in other words, how many more releases?) (Sir_Fawnpug, 1 votes)
- Will there be a uox4? (Gul, 1 votes)
- All I have is UO, no T2A. Will UOX3 still work? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- Spellbook opened as containers POLL (GodLike, 1 votes)
- I am very interested in modifying NPC behaviors, does UOX3 provide a good..uh.. "NPC smartification" process? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- Any word on Runebooks? (GodLike, 1 votes)
- Any word on having a super-user friendly map editor like Starcraft in with UOX3? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- Is UOX3 user friendly in the sense that any 'newbie' could load it up and start their own shard? If not, what sorts of things would they need to learn, and where would they find them? (Maraxion, 6 votes)
- Does UOX3 support IPX network play? (TaleBearer, 2 votes)
- Are you going to help/support the shards ? (angelic_t0rmet, 2 votes)
- What's been the biggest problem in trying to emulate UO so far? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- When UO2 is finally released, will the UOX team switch to that, or continue working on the UO1 UOX? (TaleBearer, 3 votes)
- Do NPCs slow down a server as much as a player would? (TaleBearer, 1 votes)
- How about the player vs. player part…Will you allow shardmakers to implement their own rules/systems of Player killing? (angelic_t0rmet, 1 votes)
- Are people using UOX able to make their own objects and assign custom actions to them, like say a potion that kills the person who drinks it automatically, or polymorphs? (Maraxion, 1 votes)
- Can new spells be added by the person running/programming the UOX shard? (Maraxion, 1 votes)
- I just installed the newest version of uox3. I have an old version of uox3 as well. What I want to know is, what files do I need to transfer into the new uox3 directory in order to keep the structures and such that I built on the old one? (Duskwalker, 1 votes)
- I know this may be a silly question But I haven't been keeping up with Uox for awhile, but does the latest client with UO, work with uox? (Alton, 1 votes)

Do you plan to add a delay between potion uses? or could you tell me how I could do this? (Thaliq, 1 votes) Abaddon | I'm not up to date on my alchemy, so I don't know if there are any further delays involved with them, if so, please mail me (dsstratton@hotmail.com) the information
Abaddon | or send it to me after the chat's over with

Will the spawn.scp issue be dealt with for the next release? (BoardQuestion, 2 votes) Abaddon | I know this one is an important one for most of the shard ops, and as such it will be dealt with soon. I haven't had a chance (due to RL commitments) to have a good long look at it yet, but I hope to this week
Abaddon | I'm hoping that we can fix this particular issue for the next public build

When do you plan to release the new system (in other words, how many more releases?) (Sir_Fawnpug, 1 votes) Abaddon | Basically, it'll be ready when it's ready, and not before hand. How long this will take, I don't know, I can't put a finger on it, but I do want you to know that things are progressing very nicely
Abaddon | We're achieving the goals we wish to, and the Script engine is coming along nicely, having resolved an issue with it earlier this week

Will there be a uox4? (Gul, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, hopefully we can kill this question off once and for all. No, there won't be a UOX4. Yes, there once was a UOX4, but it didn't have the capabilities of UOX3. Yes, UOX3 will come along a long way, and we're hoping to get out of beta into a real release number by the end of year

All I have is UO, no T2A. Will UOX3 still work? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Xuri | UOX3 works with any version of UO that is supported by Ignition. And Ignition supports all T2A and non-T2A versions of UO above 2.0.0.

Spellbook opened as containers POLL (GodLike, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, I was interested in getting the responses from shard ops, but so little of them seemed to even care about the possibility, so I've basically decided for them.
Abaddon | The ability to open a spellbook as a backpack will be taken out at a later date, and the more efficient utilization of spellbooks will be put in. It most likely won't make it into the upcoming build, due to the fact that Gunther is unable to code for us, and Thyme is very busy, so I'm going to have to spend a fair bit of time bug fixing, rather than adding niceties
Abaddon | But perhaps the build after that

I am very interested in modifying NPC behaviors, does UOX3 provide a good..uh.. "NPC smartification" process? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Xuri | Hum. Well there aren't really that many ways of modifying the NPC behaviour RIGHT NOW. But that will change when the new scripting engine (which is very cool (shameless copy of Ubiq)) arrives.

Any word on Runebooks? (GodLike, 1 votes) Abaddon | To be honest, I haven't had a look at rune books, though I have been told they're rather useful. I'm not sure exactly on how they are implemented on OSI, but I'll have a look at it when I get the chance, and see what can be done. No promises though, we want to nail the bugs and get a new version out first if we can :>

Any word on having a super-user friendly map editor like Starcraft in with UOX3? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Xuri | Hm. Well. Currently there's WorldForge, and another tool I know is being worked on though that one is not near being released at the moment (I THINK). Oh and there's a 3D Map Editor which is great when it works but unfortunately is very buggy and crashes a lot.

Is UOX3 user friendly in the sense that any 'newbie' could load it up and start their own shard? If not, what sorts of things would they need to learn, and where would they find them? (Maraxion, 6 votes) Abaddon | Generally, UOX is user friendly enough that any one can pick it up and run it with little difficulty
Abaddon | There's a plethora of tools (ShardAce, Xuri's WorldBuilder, and others) that make the life of a GM much simpler
Abaddon | There's extensive documentation with the download package and online, and the boards are active and generally response time is pretty good
Xuri | As well as several setup "guides" which guide you through the setup of UOX3 step by step.
Xuri | (sorry Ab :)
Sephiroth | also, there are usually people available to help you in the channel #uox3 on this server.

Does UOX3 support IPX network play? (TaleBearer, 2 votes) Abaddon | No, UX3 doesn't support IPX network play, because the OSI client itself does not
Xuri | It does however support TCP/IP network play ;P

Are you going to help/support the shards ? (angelic_t0rmet, 2 votes) Xuri | Yep. Already do that, and will continue to do so in the near and far future.
Unseen | If you want, private message me exactly what you mean by that
Xuri | If you run a shard you can get support in #uox3 channel here on stratics network, as already mentioned.
Xuri | Or you can go to the message boards at www.uoxdev.com and state your questions there.

What's been the biggest problem in trying to emulate UO so far? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, early in the days (when I didn't code, I didn't know about it), I imagine the hardest part of the process was getting all the packet structures correct and working, that would have been no mean feat
Abaddon | Nowadays, the hardest problems we have are bug fixing, and deciding on particular implementations of things. i.e. Do we do things the OSI way, or our perceived better way?
Abaddon | I mean, in what other emu could one smoke? (albeit it for RP effects :>)

When UO2 is finally released, will the UOX team switch to that, or continue working on the UO1 UOX? (TaleBearer, 3 votes) Abaddon | Not an easy question to answer, for a number of reasons. For one, at the moment, the entire coding team consists of myself and EviLDeD. There are a few freelance coders, who help us out occasionally, and do submit fixes and what not.
Abaddon | But starting an emu from scratch wouldn't be easy, that's for sure, and one of the big questions would be "Would people even want it?"
Abaddon | Not to mention the fact that in the next 3 months I graduate from University, so I'm going to have to earn an honest living, kind of takes a big hit out of my free time :>
Xuri | Nooo

Do NPCs slow down a server as much as a player would? (TaleBearer, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, it depends on what particular aspect you're talking about. NPCs have to be intelligent to a degree, and the server generally does all the calculations for them (who they attack, where they walk, things like that). So it takes a fair degree of CPU time, which a PC would not do.
Abaddon | However, a PC takes a fair amount of network bandwidth, which NPCs don't impact on at all. So the more PCs you have, the faster the connection you'll need
Abaddon | However, there's nothing stopping someone writing a supremely intelligent NPC that logs in like a PC would :>
Chaos- | A side note that I've learned from my experiences, don't set the NPCSPEED settings in server.scp too low, you will experience serious lag, and the NPCs move a little too fast, best setting I've seen is 0.6
Unseen | Big difference though as Ab explained; PCs=server and bandwidth hit, NPCs=only server hit

How about the player vs. player part…Will you allow shardmakers to implement their own rules/systems of Player killing? (angelic_t0rmet, 1 votes) Abaddon | Certain aspects of the PvP stuff is controllable, in that the number of murders before going red is controllable, and you can decide on whether animals are gray or not
Abaddon | But generally, the rules are coded into the server. You can control whether a region is guarded or allows aggressive magic, and the abilities of a region's guards. But other rules are controlled by server code (which is freely available :>)

Are people using UOX able to make their own objects and assign custom actions to them, like say a potion that kills the person who drinks it automatically, or polymorphs? (Maraxion, 1 votes) Unseen | You can currently script quite a few functions into items. The new scripting system be worked on will allow even more functionality
Unseen | I'm also working on a custom item maker that will (hopefully) make creating custom items with various abilities easy to make
Unseen | I've seen people do some pretty cool stuff with the current Trigger system
Xuri | And that trigger system is nothing compared to what's coming.
Unseen | Of those two, I've seen the polymorph before
Unseen | Yes, the new system is MUCH more powerful

Can new spells be added by the person running/programming the UOX shard? (Maraxion, 1 votes) Abaddon | Well, as it currently stands the only way to change the behaviour of the spell is to alter the server's code. Due to a limit in the packet format, you can't rename spells (to my knowledge)
Abaddon | But you can fundamentally change the way they behave. With the scripting engine that we're working on, we hope to be able to allow you control over the behaviour of the spells, and allow you to reload the code while the server's still running, so you can change the behaviour of a spell during the shard's execution, without having to stop

I just installed the newest version of uox3. I have an old version of uox3 as well. What I want to know is, what files do I need to transfer into the new uox3 directory in order to keep the structures and such that I built on the old one? (Duskwalker, 1 votes) Abaddon | It would really depend on just how old a version you were using. Your world files are chars.wsc and items.wsc, so all you should need to copy is chars.wsc, items.wsc and accounts.adm
Abaddon | Those 3 files are the only crucial ones. HOWEVER, if you used modified scripts, you'll have to transfer them too
Chaos- | Oh, for the shard admins: I feel an archive should be saved, like a simple ZIP file. Whenever you make changes. Always comes in handy down the road.

I know this may be a silly question But I haven't been keeping up with Uox for awhile, but does the latest client with UO, work with uox? (Alton, 1 votes) Xuri | Well, there's only one answer to that; Yes. :) Make sure you have latest ignition.cfg though.