Shard Opinions

[Aquarius]

Frankly, I debated on where to post this and if I chose wrong I apologize!

I'm currently in the very barebones stages of developing my shard and compiling all of my thousand ideas into something reasonable and/or feasible. That said, I would love to use this community as something of a soundboard for ideas, which ones might be most popular? I understand that opinions are like assholes because everyone has one but I'd like a general consensus so I don't find I'm doing something either a.) overdone to death or b.) so "out there" it'd garner no interest!

First question
On a roleplay-enforced shard, do you prefer high fantasy with a multitude of actual races (human, elf, dwarf, etc) as options? Or do you prefer more mid-fantasy with human cultures (western vs eastern Europe vs Mediterranean etc) being the primary focus and higher fantasy creatures being strictly NPC or "special" races?

Second question
What client is the most versatile in the form of being able to create custom maps from scratch via Dragon/UO Landscape etc, and implementing scripts from other people?

 

[Lokai]

I think you are in the right Forum.

Personally, I like roleplay, but not a huge fan of pseudo-races (meaning, races that are only different because of some physical traits or stat mods or other such.) If you are going to have multiple races, and want them to mean something, then you might have to go "out there" so to speak. For example, make it so the races start in towns that make sense for their race, not just everyone starting in New Haven or a generic "start area". These towns would have Vendors of their own race, and if you want to go one step further, make it so everyone does not speak the same language. I created a Linguistics skill for my Skills system that used a modified server where understanding speech was dependent on race unless you developed your skill. You would not need my Skills system to do something similar, where players would start with one "language" and could learn other languages (either from Teachers, books, or scrolls, or even just by listening to and interacting with people of that race.)

I don't do much custom map-making so I can't really speak to the second question, but I know there are several here who are good with that stuff.

As to script-compatibility, I think most people try to keep their scripts up to date with the most current releases, both of ServUO and of the Client, however, most of them still work with the ServUO and RunUO versions that were in effect at the time of the last use of MUL files in the Client, and I know there are many world-builders who swear by the last Client build that used MUL files before EA switched to UOP files. If that Client really is the best one for custom map-making I don't think you will have a problem implementing most custom scripts with your Server.

The most difficult types of servers to make work with current custom scripts seem to be servers that either use an older ERA, such as Age of Shadows or Renaissance, or that try to add EC compatibility, as some gumps have unexpected results in the EC.

 

[Zavreyon]

Second question
What client is the most versatile in the form of being able to create custom maps from scratch via Dragon/UO Landscaper etc, and implementing scripts from other people?

Most of the map making tools are older and use the mul format. Dragon for sure only renders to .mul files and only the older, Pre-ML map0 size (6144x4096). I can't speak too much to UOLandscaper, but I believe it is somewhat less restricted on maps/sizes. If using dragon, you can still render and then cut/resize as needed with other tools though. And with maps rendered with both UOL and Dragon, you can later convert your .mul files into .uop files with other tools. CentrED+ has the ability to edit maps in both mul and uop format. It's more of a post processing and building tool, however.

I am currently using 7.0.15.1 for map work. It's not technically the last client with muls, but pretty close and has an installer so I don't have to worry about trying to patch to a specific point. Once I'm done with the map editing, if/when I decide to use it for an actual shard, I will likely just convert the muls in uops and barring any further changes, use the latest client from that point forward.

 

[Aquarius]

Most of the map making tools are older and use the mul format. Dragon for sure only renders to .mul files and only the older, Pre-ML map0 size (6144x4096). I can't speak too much to UOLandscaper, but I believe it is somewhat less restricted on maps/sizes. If using dragon, you can still render and then cut/resize as needed with other tools though. And with maps rendered with both UOL and Dragon, you can later convert your .mul files into .uop files with other tools. CentrED+ has the ability to edit maps in both mul and uop format. It's more of a post processing and building tool, however.

I am familiar with both Centred+ and Dragon but have always ran into the issue of restricted .mul sizes, yes! I enjoy utilizing Dragon or UOLandscape as I like developing base landmasses with Photoshop, which allows more organic land shapes imo. What tools are best to convert .mul to .uop? And following up, what is the latest client that still uses .mul? It has been a hot minute since I have played UO so I am behind on client versions!

 

[ETsCat]

need help. adding a tocanoo replacement and can't get it to load. it loads the trammel map instead. and I can't walk

Post automatically merged: May 17, 2019

 

[Anon the Felon]

7.0.23 is the last mul client. 7.0.20 was hailed as the most stable client. ~7.0.6 was the last client with simple animation to item conversion, so it's super easy to add custom mounts.

I started with 7.0.20 and have been very happy.