Shard Revamp Information Thread

[Red Squirrel]

This thread serves as the central point of info on the 2009-2010 shard revamp. Please note that this is NOT a shard wipe. So you are not going to lose out on anything.

However, some things may change such as artifacts/customs but we will reimburse equivalent items if we do in fact remove any items but there are no plans for sure. If you have mostly OSI items you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Throughout the years of AoV there have been many customs and other stuff added and we have strayed from what UO should be. The issue is some customs overpower what OSI has and without finishing everything OSI has, we should have never made this many customs. So the shard revamp is an effort to steer us back in the right direction.

We are aiming to go OSI clone + some custom and some changes. But the rule of thumb will be 90% OSI 10% custom. Customs that do not affect game play like the in game chat or the event system are exempt from this and will remain.

The revamp will also consist of major back end changes to clean up some of the nasty left overs of RunUO code. Some of the ML stuff is very hard to code using the existing system. We will either start from scratch and write a server engine in C++ or just totally revamp RunUO, which is our main goal.


Below or the phases and steps that will be undertaken. This plan can change at an time. Each phase will most likely consist of a release.


***edit (Apr 15 09)***
This thread now has the revamp plan:
http://www.uovalor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4580


This could change at any given time as we discuss things further. Note that this is very rough and there are many missing steps.

The revamp is planned to be completed by September/October 2009 but only released by end of 2009 as there will be lot of beta testing and possibly changes as we progress. We want to ensure this goes in very smoothly and that everyone is happy.

There is no expected downtime during any of these updates, other then regular server wars. The only possible downtime is when converting from file based to mysql, as there may be a data conversion required but we will plan to minimize downtime as much as possible.

Also, this should not discourage players from playing on the current live server as the final product of the new server will be a mirror of what you have previously obtained, minus changes. For example, if you recently obtained an ornament of the magician, you will have that item on the new server. If you recently obtained an item that has been removed or changed, you will get the equivalent, or something of equal value. We may decide to reward a monetary value for the items as gold will be very valuable on the new server with the introduction of the exciting plan for an automated auction system which recycles items in the economy (More details provided later on).

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4036, old post ID:25824

[dprantl]

PHASE 2: In game affecting existing stuff
- Recode loot system to take advantage of new property system

I hope this includes instanced corpses?

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4036, old post ID:25826

[Red Squirrel]

Most likely

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4036, old post ID:25827

[Death]

PHASE 2: In game affecting existing stuff
- Recode loot system to take advantage of new property system

I hope this includes instanced corpses?

A very large portion of OSI implementations will be included (Provided time permits. We're setting a date goal and might come off a bit short before release but we'll introduce it later on). Instanced corpses is a very high priority as well as completing the buff/debuff system and other useful implementations they have done recently.

Archived topic from AOV, old topic ID:4036, old post ID:25831