The only reason why I am asking this question is because a friend of mine got started developing his shard with runuo and that is where I was introduced to it and got to know it.
I was looking around for some software and came across this site, read some about it, and became curious.
Which is better?
Be aware, I don't want to have to make "everything" for my shard, but having set maps and towns would be really helpful.
Penultima vs RunUO
Moderator: POL Developer
Re: Penultima vs RunUO
And can this run under linux without heavy modification or addition of software?
-
Yukiko
- Distro Developer
- Posts: 2825
- Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:41 pm
- Location: San Antonio, Texas
- Contact:
Re: Penultima vs RunUO
Well, first of all, you are asking if POL is better than RunUO on the POL forums so you are probably going to get a biased opinion here.
That having been said, from my personal perspective, I think that eScript, the scripting language that POL uses is easier to learn than C# that I believe RunUO uses. If you have used C# or C variants then that is a moot point. I never had the joy of learning C and as eScript is close to Pascal, which I did learn, I had no trouble with POL. Also, I have spoken with others who are not experienced programmers who have looked at RunUO code and POL scripts and have chosen POL for its gentler learning curve. So if you haven't done much programming or none at all, that might be a reason to choose POL.
POL is an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) environment. I believe RunUO is as well. So that has no bearing on your choice. However, the one greatest advantage POL has over RunUO is its versatility. POL allows you to dynamically set Custom Properties (CProps) on objects and through the use of these CProps you can do just about anything you would want to do. A CProp can be thought of as a variable that you attach to an object. In that variable you can place data that can be used by other scripts to affect that object. An example might be that you place a CProp called Protection on a character and you set the value of that CProp to "Fire". This could be used by your combat scripts to reduce any fire damage that might be done to your character. This is just a VERY simple case for how CProps can be used. CProps are not like an object's members which are statically defined. CProps can be added, modified and removed from an object dynamically at runtime by your scripts. An object's members may be able to have their value modified but you can't add or remove an object's members.
POL offers you a secure environment. There are two components to a POL server; the Core and the scripts. The Core is a virtual machine (VM). scripts are compiled to pseudo-code (P-code) which the Core executes. This gives POL an extra level of security by isolating your compiled shard files from your host computer. The Core is running your scripts and not your CPU so if your scripts are buggy they won't crash your computer. Plus script's access to the hard disc is restricted within the POL directory. There's no chance of a malicious script corrupting other parts of your hard drive. I have been working with POL since about 2001 and have never seen a report of a script breaking out of its sandboxed directory and causing any problems.
Finally, there is a FreeBSD and Debian Linux distribution of POL available.
At this point I have to warn you I am not by any means an expert programmer. So forgive me if my explanations are not totally accurate.
In RunUOs favour however I have heard that its developers have tried to emulate the EA version of Ultima Online as closely as possible. With POL and the current Official Distro that is not the case.
I hope you found this helpful.
That having been said, from my personal perspective, I think that eScript, the scripting language that POL uses is easier to learn than C# that I believe RunUO uses. If you have used C# or C variants then that is a moot point. I never had the joy of learning C and as eScript is close to Pascal, which I did learn, I had no trouble with POL. Also, I have spoken with others who are not experienced programmers who have looked at RunUO code and POL scripts and have chosen POL for its gentler learning curve. So if you haven't done much programming or none at all, that might be a reason to choose POL.
POL is an Object Oriented Programming (OOP) environment. I believe RunUO is as well. So that has no bearing on your choice. However, the one greatest advantage POL has over RunUO is its versatility. POL allows you to dynamically set Custom Properties (CProps) on objects and through the use of these CProps you can do just about anything you would want to do. A CProp can be thought of as a variable that you attach to an object. In that variable you can place data that can be used by other scripts to affect that object. An example might be that you place a CProp called Protection on a character and you set the value of that CProp to "Fire". This could be used by your combat scripts to reduce any fire damage that might be done to your character. This is just a VERY simple case for how CProps can be used. CProps are not like an object's members which are statically defined. CProps can be added, modified and removed from an object dynamically at runtime by your scripts. An object's members may be able to have their value modified but you can't add or remove an object's members.
POL offers you a secure environment. There are two components to a POL server; the Core and the scripts. The Core is a virtual machine (VM). scripts are compiled to pseudo-code (P-code) which the Core executes. This gives POL an extra level of security by isolating your compiled shard files from your host computer. The Core is running your scripts and not your CPU so if your scripts are buggy they won't crash your computer. Plus script's access to the hard disc is restricted within the POL directory. There's no chance of a malicious script corrupting other parts of your hard drive. I have been working with POL since about 2001 and have never seen a report of a script breaking out of its sandboxed directory and causing any problems.
Finally, there is a FreeBSD and Debian Linux distribution of POL available.
At this point I have to warn you I am not by any means an expert programmer. So forgive me if my explanations are not totally accurate.
In RunUOs favour however I have heard that its developers have tried to emulate the EA version of Ultima Online as closely as possible. With POL and the current Official Distro that is not the case.
I hope you found this helpful.
Re: Penultima vs RunUO
But is there set maps and towns or do I have to create everything like that myself?
-
Yukiko
- Distro Developer
- Posts: 2825
- Joined: Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:41 pm
- Location: San Antonio, Texas
- Contact:
Re: Penultima vs RunUO
The maps and buildings are part of the Ultima Online client that you install from EA Games. You might have to decorate the towns and place doors and other objects but the walls, roofs, roads, waterways, oceans and islands are all there because they are provided by the client. You might be able to find someone with the data files containing the decorations and things I mentioned. Just ask on the forums.