Changes to Uru and Such [Split from "Four new ages for Uru"]

[diafero]

I don't know if you have heard the ground breaking news yet but Cyan are planning to release fan made ages onto Moul Again, they may well be able to fix some linking problems that we can't.

Well that's pretty cool. It took just, what, 12 years or so?
But unless they are rewriting the linking logic, which I doubt, I think the problems will remain the same there.

Mod Note: This topic was split from here.

[Deledrius]

But unless they are rewriting the linking logic, which I doubt, I think the problems will remain the same there.

Cyan isn't, but if there's something we can fix and provide to them, it might be worth investigating. Any suggestions, diafero?

[diafero]

Uh... it's been a decade since I looked into this.^^

What I did back then was to base everything onto our own abstraction: the xLinkMgr loads the AvailableLinks.inf and img/AgeInfo/* files to form a database of known ages (with their display name linking rules) and spawn points (with their titles). Then users just have to call xLinkMgr.LinkToAge(ageName, spawnPoint) and everything else is taken care of. On top of that, my create_dataserver script checks the Python files of fan ages to make sure they do not use ptNetLinkingMgr, and it also checks the PRP files for linking responders. This should (mostly) rule out any form of linking where age authors can make mistakes such as picking the wrong age display name, spawn point title or (and that is the worst mistake, at least with Alcugs as a server) linking rule. I also have a linkfix script that can patch some commonly reoccurring Python files to replace ptNetLinkingMgr usage by xLinkMgr.

Given that you control the engine, I'd suggest to equip plNetLinkingMgr with such a database and make it reject and/or correct linking requests with the wrong linking rules (and display name and spawn point title, though those only affect the UI, not database consistency). That would even work for linking responders embedded in PRP files.

[Aloys]

Well, that looks like a nice can of worms waiting to be opened.

For context, Chogon posted this over at the MOUL forums:

It has been a long time since the last update to MOULa. This update will be the start of many more updates that will include fan created content! Thanks to all the fans that created these updates and to all the fans that have worked on getting these updates to MOULa (which involves lots of people!).

Including:

+ Physics compatibility with Korman created Ages (PR533 and PR555 from H'Uru)

I wasn't aware of an incompatibilty here to start with, but it's nice to see this included.

Looks like things are looking up, that's great news. Lots of positive energy coming from Cyan lately.

[Chacal]

Maybe it's due to lots of positive money coming to Cyan lately.

[Charura]

Maybe it's due to lots of positive money coming to Cyan lately.

Specifically for Moul(a) or just being generous? Maybe you have some insider info?

[Tsar Hoikas]

Given that you control the engine, I'd suggest to equip plNetLinkingMgr with such a database and make it reject and/or correct linking requests with the wrong linking rules (and display name and spawn point title, though those only affect the UI, not database consistency). That would even work for linking responders embedded in PRP files.

I would forward a subset of the linking rules to the server and let it perform load balancing (and instancing decisions...). I think there is some value in the way Guild Wars 2 handles instancing. Of course, this would probably need drastic changes such as removing the concept of age vaults... So not now

Thanks for the links to your scripts. OU is way behind the times on basic Uru server administration knowledge like how a data server works, so I've been working on a MOUL-centric data server script, which, of course, has its own set of fun to handle... It's always interesting to compare approaches.

Maybe it's due to lots of positive money coming to Cyan lately.

More due to folks collectively holding the feet of the OpenURU organization to the fire recently. They (OpenURU) have been the roadblock, not Cyan.

Specifically for Moul(a) or just being generous? Maybe you have some insider info?

Cyan did just have a successful crowd funding initiative for a new game that raised over one million smackers...

[Aloys]

More due to folks collectively holding the feet of the OpenURU organization to the fire recently. They (OpenURU) have been the roadblock, not Cyan.

Bummer. I'm way out of the loop on all things OU, but a quick glance at the forum doesn't show a lot of activity there to say the least.

[Deledrius]

More due to folks collectively holding the feet of the OpenURU organization to the fire recently. They (OpenURU) have been the roadblock, not Cyan.

Bummer. I'm way out of the loop on all things OU, but a quick glance at the forum doesn't show a lot of activity there to say the least.

Until very recently, due to the aforementioned prodding, the forum has been the most active thing in the organization.

But things are looking up. We hope it will continue.

[Christian Walther]

Activity seems to be mostly on Discord rather than the forum these days.