Which client?

[bodom]

Hi there!

First of all, thank you to all POL past and current developers for your great work.

We have recently resurrected a very old POL093 shard. After some months of work (hard work, since we had no source files for the scripts...), I have now ported the server into POL099.

I think I've been reading every single documentation line written for the core during this time, but, as far as i can remember, I couldn't find any instruction on how to setup a client, and that's why I am asking for your kind support in this forum.

At the moment, we are still running client 2.0.0 with ancient mul files. We have no plans to implement new expansions, but we would still like to be able to "cherry pick" some features from them like the party system, the support for multiple realms, custom housing, the virtue system, and few more.

I've read POL virtually supports any client, but what's the most POL-compatible client? Which one is the "recommended one"?
Also, considering our plans and needing, what client would you suggest us to use?

I would like to switch to a new client just once and then stick to it virtually forever, so picking up the right one is a crucial decision.

Thank you everybody for your advice.

[Nando]

First of all, congrats on the new shard! POL tries hard to be compatible to every client, and I haven't heard of any client that doesn't work. If you find any incompatibilities, we'll do our best to fix that. Most of the support depends on the scripts you are using.

I don't have much experience with the different versions, but I would choose the latest ones. They have new features that you can choose to support (via script) and most likely had many bugs fixed. The only limitation is that uoconvert is not aware of the .uop format yet. This is the format used in the new clients, so you'll need to find an "UOP Extractor" to convert them to .mul files.

You might have to set up packethooks if the core is not aware of some function, or enable flags to be sent with the A9 and B9 packets. I think most options would be in servspecopt.cfg. For the packet flags, they are in "UOFeatureEnable" (and in the packet docs you'll find the flags you need). You might also need to change the "TotalStatsAtCreation" entry, because some newer clients have 90 (or 95, I don't remember) as the sum of initial stats.

[bodom]

Thank you for your prompt answer!

I am now on the process of converting the old custom assets from the deprecated verdata.mul and merging them into the new muls (most tricky part is extracting custom hues for verdata), I will you update you when done!

[bodom]

I've forgot to post an update

It look like there is no tool around to extract hues from Verdata since OSI itself never used this feature. Luckily, I've managed to write one. The work is now done, everything seems to work fine.

We are using Mondain's Legacy (sligthly modified) data files with 5.0.9.1 client. Why this client? Because after some experiments it looks like to:
- Have all features we need (and a lot more that i still plan to implement)
- Be very stable
- Be the last one handling Felucca and Trammel with a single map (they splitted the map from 6.x series)
- Be compatible with POL096+ (client 6.x requires POL097+, it is not a must now but in the process of migrating the shard from POL093 to POL098/99 it has been a requirement to allow a smooth transition)
- Still use the good old mul files
- Be supported by razor
- Be supported by injection (*sob*)

[Tomi]

Hi,

Just a small correction, the latest clients support felucca/trammel with one map aslong as you use the old .mul files and make sure you enable .diff usage on serverside.

For the question about clients what to choose, my options would have been something < 4.0.3 or then some of the latest HSA clients due to smooth boat movements.... but thats my opinion

For hues removal from verdata, Im not sure if Fiddler is capable of it but I should rmeember mulpatcher should have had this feature implemented.