*holds out hand in a "thumbs up" gesture*

Yeah!

Was MontuZ feeling okay when he did that post?

Alright, I guess this is a good time to rant about POL and UO in general.

With a few POL shards being run by dedicated devs, but very little distro or core development occurring in the 'back office', I am more than a little worried.

I can keep running and scripting my shard as long as there is a client for players to use and as long as there are players wanting to sign up. In fact I still love POL, and even after 6 years I still find it fun.

But the long term hibernation of the POL core devs together with the release of KR gives me a fear of the future. The end is drawing nearer. Whether that's tomorrow or next year or whatever, I don't know.

POL097 may never be officially released and it might be the last POL. Those pesky packethook ram issues might never be solved. I might never get my death exported function. But at least 097rc3 gives me something to work with. I love it.

It appears KR uses a new logon packet and it's beyond my ability to get that working. KR uses new artwork and map formats entirely and I really doubt there will be the workdwide community to develop the utilities to work with them for those of us with custom maps and artwork.

From what I can see, all UO emulators have lost a lot of activity in the last few months.

Am I depressed? Far from it. It's just that I am being realistic enough to see that our stable world of UO is dying but I will keep going for as long as there is an interest in the shard I work on.

I can't even find someone who wants to learn POL and let me train them in return for some work on my shard. It's so much hard work running a shard that there's little time for anything else.

I am not sure there are any new scripters being attracted to POL.

Would I turn to RunUO? Probably not, it's still UO and it would be years of work to even make the same shard.

There ya go MontuZ. Love hurts, but it's still love.

I am feeling the same thing as you ONG but as far as I can tell POL is still the best we have out there for as long as there is an out there to have.

You said it though and stated the same fears I have.

Unlike you though I am a bit depressed. I am tired in a way because like you I am or have been the solo scripter for what feels like ages, When I get someone to help they want to do what they want and it's like pulling teeth to get them to do things my way.

Frankly the devs dropped the ball between POL 0.95 and 0.96 and let RunUO get the upperhand and now it's a long hard battle coming back. Here we are again with a almost released new version with packethook memory leaks and almost no activity from the devs.

Now don't get me wrong. I understand how things are too. They are busy. The enthusiasm is gone. And the "new kid in town" (RunUO) has taken over the turf.

All I can say is please finish POL 0.97 and fix the leaks. I have supported POL and still do. Like I have said many times it is the best emu around. If POL dies I will not go to another emu. I'll run my shard for as long as I can and the good Lord lets me. I have been doing this for as long as you ONG and if I stop I think I'll be lost for a while.

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now.

If the devs did not care I am currentely going through college and work in C++ and couple other languages, I would love to DEV pol if they would so let me. I can devote, between my book, college and work, about 10 hours a week to pol. Its not a whole lot but its a start. They are working really hard and like I have said before, real life just sucks.

i m totaly a nub at scripting.. but i would like to learn !

Ifrit, welcome aboard.

We were all newbs when, well, when we were new.
*laughs*

Just start small. Don't try to create the "Uberest whamo bango shard the world has ever seen" until you have learned the basics.

I think most everyone grabs POL or some other emu and jumps in thinking they'll be creating custom AI scripts and designing new religious rites in a day or two and then the reality sets in and either they plow through and work on learning or they throw up their hands in frustration before even giving it a try because it looks so overwhelming.

There is a lot to learn but you'll find that taking it one piece at a time you'll get there. If you have ssome programming experience it helps but it is not a prerequisite.

The lack of development is two fold, and directly related: small community, and small development team.

We have a small dev team because we hand select talented, motivated, and skilled programmers who have proven themselves useful from within the community. But because the community is small, than available pool of recruits is therefore small.

What are we doing about it? Everything we can to increase interest and community. We're rewriting the website to facilitate community building and user sharing. We're trying to create and publicize the big and exciting POL shards. We're trying to keep the software as up-to-date as possible, while responding to the community's concerns, desires, and demands.

What can you do to help?
1) Spread the world about POL. The more people that know about it, the better.
2) Cooperate in the community. Help each other out, take an active interest in our goings-on. Make suggestions, and if you have any useful talents, please lend them to us.
3) Run successful, fun shards. The best form of advertising is showing how wonderful the games are that run on POL servers.

Coming from a bug and exploits background, I have to say that of the three big UO emulators, POL is, and has always been, the most secure, the most stable, and the least vulnerable to attacks. That is why I choose to be a part of this team, and why I'm staying dedicated to this project.

Cheers.

If that is the case, why is your "Drake online" more important lately over the pol server just counting your posts you made lately. Sorry but people like OldnGrey, Yukiko and several others are quite longer part of the pol community. Even me, i just changed my name a while ago.

Sorry but if you show your interest in more of your own game, it is clear that the pol community wonders what is happening, cause they are interested in Pol Development not in Drake Online Dev. We all appreciate the Pol development.

My posts for help recruitment are there because, obviously, I have very little free time of my own to devote to this, my own pet project, and am looking for people to help out with it. I cannot readily do the same the for core development; I must undertake those tasks personally. DO, I hope, will be used to spotlight POL's uniqueness amongst the other UO emulators, highlighting its capabilities, its expandability, and its ability to be customized to whatever the user wants.

As for longevity, I was on the Distro Team five years ago, and now I'm on the Dev Team. Only recently have I elected to be part of the Community, and since joining I've helped finish up 097, plan 098, made core changes to 098 beta, revamped the website, and discussed the future of POL as a server and a community to greater lengths than you realize.

I really don't think my dedication to POL is something you're qualified to question.

I have to be lazy in typing what I want to say, but in reality Old n Grey has summed it up perfectly for me.

I love POL, have used it for many years since POL089 I think it was.

All I want now is to get our Particle Effects back in the new 2D Client (6.0.1.7 and later). I used to have all the particle effects running beautifully in the 3D clients, but moved to 6.0.1.7 in order to start supporting UO:KR. At least login in to the shard with UO:KR works (Thanks Shinigami) and the packet hooks for items and backpacks all work.

POL, let it endure please.

Regards
Justae

Haaa Okey Thx
But What i want to do it only somme small costomize script...
I Know Alot Are Good Here And I Don't Have Any Knowledge bout Script !
If Any One Want To Give Me Somme ''Hand''
Here My Msn!
player_killer@msn.com !