UOSteam - Bye Bye?

[Ce Jayce]

Looks as if it's the end of UOSteam (Again?)
If it's no longer being supported and updated will it break in time UO patches and become unusable?
UOSteam was a pretty powerful tool and I much preferred it to Razor which I used for years. Is there any other alternatives out there or is it back to "Good, old" Razor again?

Talk/Rant/Whatever

 

[Kalamus]

Yes I'm sure in time when UO changes their packets again it will break UO Steam.

Thanks for the heads up. I've been delaying updating mine due to being lazy. I went ahead and grabbed the final release and added it to my archives. I also prefer it to Razor which will probably cause me to stop updating UO once it breaks unless UO adds something I can't live without.

 

[Ce Jayce]

I presume all of the code behind UO Steam was private? - I never bothered looking into the whole dev side of things over there other than helping out with user end scripts for it on the forums. Regretting that now. *sighs*

 

[Kalamus]

Yeah it was all keep private to prevent hacking and exploits that Razor is prone too.

Also for anyone wanting to grab it while it's still up, here is the download link for the final version. http://uos-update.github.io/UOS_Latest.exe

 

[Hank]

I dislike UOSteam, I like Razor but I do hope they come back and update UOSteam someday.

 

[Toriad]

It's unfortunate to see another tool go the way of the cobwebs. Love it or hate it, development of better tools for playing UO is always a good thing.

 

[xXHopeXx]

I like UOSteam more than Razor ... it's for people who can not scripting, like me, much more user-friendly.

 

[xG00BERx]

I have talked with Kraz (One of the two) UOSteam developers many times, he warned me this was coming months ago.

This really sucks but I am trying to see if I can get the source code from it.

What would I do with it exactly? I would probably give it to the ServUO dev team so they could update it too!

I don't know. I just hope we can keep it going, if not I may have found my new project although I am a little hazy on this kind of stuff since UOSteam was so great!

 

[terrapin]

Ah bummer! I like both, Steam and Razor and would love to see the 2 combined - I like the loot system used in Steam and other then grabbing ground scores with Razor can't seem to figure out how to loot with it like Steam! and I like the simple macro recording and edit mode in Razor since I can't right clk and change things in Steam! So my wish is to see a merge between the 2 and code written in to let the server side know if it's been hacked for any exploits...

 

[Ravenwolfe]

If they are willing to provide the source code, I'm sure we could maintain it. It would save us having to develop another assistant because I'm not sure if Mark will continue to update Razor.

 

[m309]

@Insanity you should ask that they turn the source over to ServUO so it could be maintained by the dev team here. Not that I think they would, but its worth a shot.

 

[xG00BERx]

The way I see it is they probably have the same fear as all the other Assistants, the do not want the public to get hold of them and write malicious copies of it and such. If there were to be a special ServUO Directed at coding this and vowed to not release it to anyone and you could prove it to the two owners there could be a good chance of getting it.

I have messaged Kraz but it still shows he has not seen it.

 

[Praxiiz]

The way I see it is they probably have the same fear as all the other Assistants, the do not want the public to get hold of them and write malicious copies of it and such.

I have heard this argument before, but I'm not sure that I agree with it. The rationale is that if you release something as open source it an be recompiled with malicious code and redistributed.

First of all you don't really need the source code to do that, you could alter a library or the executable itself to steal passwords or do other malicious things.

Second, if that is a valid argument for not releasing something as open source, then it would apply to a whole array of software not just UO Assistants.

Someone could release malicious versions of Linux for example. Someone could prepackage a RunUO or ServUO with compiled executables that have malicious code. The list goes on and on.

Players downloading malicious software is an issue that is completely separate from UOSteam or Razor releasing their source code. If players are willing to download software from anywhere without making sure it comes from a trustworthy source, there is nothing you can do to protect them.

How does anyone really know there isn't malicious code in Razor, UO Steam, or another assist program? The answer is you don't really know. Without the source you trust but you don't know for sure.

The other argument is that it will show people how to hook packets, alter client behavior, and generally bot and cheat and make Life hard for shard owners.

This information is not only readily available everywhere on the internet, but it is also already available for UO.

MasterControl is completely open source and seeks to be a replacement for Razor's decrypt library.

UltimaLive is also completely open source and shows packet hooking, dll function forwarding, starting up a . Net assembly inside the client, and other things.

UOExt shows packet manipulation from a process outside the client.

UOSDK is a .Net library that has methods to manipulate all sorts of client files and do much of the grunt work associated with the client.

There are others too. Will releasing an assist program's source code cause more work for the community and individual shards? Maybe. The projects I just listed haven't so far. In any case, it's probably worth it.

How many times will the UO emulation community reinvent this wheel? We need a completely open source assistant and client launcher that the community can maintain when (not if) its developers move on.

 

[xG00BERx]

I have heard this argument before, but I'm not sure that I agree with it. The rationale is that if you release something as open source it an be recompiled with malicious code and redistributed.

First of all you don't really need the source code to do that, you could alter a library or the executable itself to steal passwords or do other malicious things.

Second, if that is a valid argument for not releasing something as open source, then it would apply to a whole array of software not just UO Assistants.

Someone could release malicious versions of Linux for example. Someone could prepackage a RunUO or ServUO with compiled executables that have malicious code. The list goes on and on.

Players downloading malicious software is an issue that is completely separate from UOSteam or Razor releasing their source code. If players are willing to download software from anywhere without making sure it comes from a trustworthy source, there is nothing you can do to protect them.

How does anyone really know there isn't malicious code in Razor, UO Steam, or another assist program? The answer is you don't really know. Without the source you trust but you don't know for sure.

The other argument is that it will show people how to hook packets, alter client behavior, and generally bot and cheat and make Life hard for shard owners.

This information is not only readily available everywhere on the internet, but it is also already available for UO.

MasterControl is completely open source and seeks to be a replacement for Razor's decrypt library.

UltimaLive is also completely open source and shows packet hooking, dll function forwarding, starting up a . Net assembly inside the client, and other things.

UOExt shows packet manipulation from a process outside the client.

UOSDK is a .Net library that has methods to manipulate all sorts of client files and do much of the grunt work associated with the client.

There are others too. Will releasing an assist program's source code cause more work for the community and individual shards? Maybe. The projects I just listed haven't so far. In any case, it's probably worth it.

How many times will the UO emulation community reinvent this wheel? We need a completely open source assistant and client launcher that the community can maintain when (not if) its developers move on.

I have never worked much with hooking and such but if you or any other developers want to create a Open Source project like this and get a GitHub thing working for it, I will join that team in a heartbeat. I love UO and I love the statement about recreating the wheel because it seems there has always been issues about these assistants having to be recreated! I have heard 0 words back from Kraz since I last talked with him and sent a message about UOSteam and that was the fear overall, was the client being used to break/ruin PvP even worseso then he believed UOSteam broke healing and he created UOSteam.

He told me these concerns more then 4 months ago I believe and what his concerns with it are now I have no idea but I have yet to hear back from him.

Once again, If anyone wants to start a side project assistant I will happily help as I love the idea of and and I see learning experiences down that road.

 

[Hank]

@Praxiiz - You said what we try to say but in a much more intelligent fashion, Excellent post. You speak the truth.