ML client / Samurai textures / world population questions

[Puck]

Hello everybody.
This was a rather longish post, but I decided to shorten it:

When I point UOX to the ultima mondains legacy directory and launch it, I get "Not Found" on map1.mul, staidx1.mul and statics1.mul. So I follow the advice and go to maps.dfn and use the "maps.4x.clients.old" file instead, as suggested, but then I get 2x "Failed" on loading of "map0.mul". I noticed the older map.dfn file hast a comment about being related to "MAPCOUNT" UOX3.ini. I only got a UOX.ini, as far as I can tell, and there's no "MAPCOUNT" to be found.

1) Should I actually just: "make copies of Map0, Statics0, etc and rename them to Map1, Statics1, etc." as stated in viewtopic.php?t=1776? (Actually I'm gonna try this now)

2) Also, when I use the ML 3D client, it seems the textures for the samurai and ninja clothing are missing. They are just deep black. Should I be worried about this? Ignore it? Is it possibly not an issue with the gamefiles but maybe the modern graphics drivers? I googled but was unable to find anything.

3) I used the community made spawn.dnf and the default UOX3 world files from the download section. Any advice how to quick-and-dirty-increase the low-level wildlife all over britannia? We don't have all that much need for finely tuned monsterspawns, we just need more chickens, birds, sheep, dogs, rabbits, you name it. If there's any advice that could spare me a few more hours of learning things, I'd appreciate it. Not that I'm lazy... it's just I already spent quite some time, and I'm exhausted.

Thanks for reading.

[Xuri]

Hiya, and welcome!

1) I don't think map1, statics1 and staidx1 are actually required. They seem to have been patched into the game in later versions (because the files exist in my current, up-to-date UO folder), but they have never been necessary to run UOX3. The "Not found" lines are warnings, not errors, and you should be able to run UOX3 fine with or without them.

The reason why they didn't exist in the past is that both the two first "facets" of the world - Felucca and Trammel - used map0, statics0 and staidx0, only displaying some of the stuff in those mapfiles differently (no leaves on trees in trammel, etc) due to data in the "mapdif#.mul" files, I believe.

I believe the MAPCOUNT entry is obsolete, it was used to specify the number of map-files UOX3 should try to load - but I think it does this automatically now, so if you have map0 through to map13 it tries to load them all (haven't tested, might not be true).

2) Yeah I remember seeing that issue with the ML 3D client myself. Haven't touched the client for a loooong time though (seeing as how it's obsolete!), so not sure what's up with that now.

3a) You can go into NPCLISTS.DFN, locate the various "forestspawn" npc-lists, and add more entires of chickens, birds, sheep and dogs (even if they're already in the lists - the more entries there are in a list for a specific NPC, the more likely it'll be picked when spawning), and then open spawn.dfn and increase the MAXNPCS entry of all regionspawns that use those lists.

3b) Or, you can create your own spawnregions if there are some regions missing NPCs at all.

First, open DFNDATA/NPC/npclists.dfn in a text-editor, and locate (or create a new) npc-list that you want to base your spawns on. Basically, UOX3 will, when spawning from such a list, pick randomly from the list each time.

Secondly, go in-game and get the top-left (NW) coordinates (using [the b]'where[/b] command) and the bottom-right (SE) coordinates of an area you want to spawn the NPCs in your chosen NPC-list in.

Thirdly, open spawn.dfn and add a new spawn-section (using a unique ID) where you use NPCLIST=name-of-chosen-list to specify what to spawn, and then follow the examples of other spawnregions there and/or the explanation at the top of the file to configure the rest of the spawnregion.

Alternatively, create a new "custom-spawn.dfn" file and stuff your unique changes into there so you can easily keep track of your own changes. UOX3 reads both files. Just keep in mind you still need unique REGIONSPAWN # ids.

[Puck]

Thanks for your quick reply!

about the spawns:
friends are getting itchy (and so am I, after over 20 hours of researching and tinkering) so before I read your replay, I just opened the spawns.dfn in wordpad, searched for every entry of "weakforestlist" and just increased the maxnpc count by a factor of 4

I can't find the link in my mess of open browser tabs right now, but I read a discussion between you and somebody else about world population, where I found links to insideUO and the working spawnregion editor... but that just was too much hassle right now (when I got more time, maybe ill look into it) so I went with the text editor thingy.

I'll explore the other options I got soonish.

Either way, thanks on many different levels

PS: orko rocked

[Puck]

Alright, seems we're getting along pretty well over here. Server crashed 2 times after running for a few hours each, I don't know whats up yet. I'm trying to run it using from a command line thingy now, to see if it spits out any useful error messages.

2 more questions, if I may?
we're regularily losing ownership of our packhorse. just like that. don't we treat it properly, do we lack skill or is this something that is worth looking into?

Also, I can buy tinkers tools which I can use to make tinkers tools, but the crafted tools seem non functional.

I googled and used the search function here but am non the wiser.

[Xuri]

Are you feeding the packhorses? They're currently setup with a hunger-system, and the default value of PETHUNGEROFFLINE in UOX.INI is probably set to 1, which means they'll continue to hunger even while your characters are offline. I guess it was made this way to "force" you to stable your animals when going offline or risk losing them.

You can disable the offline hunger stuff by setting the above ini setting to 0, and you can disable the hunger-system for the packhorses (and any other creature) altogether by removing the FOOD= line in their DFN entry.

There's also a PETOFFLINETIMEOUT setting which is the number of days a character has to stay offline before his pet automatically "goes wild" again. You could try to increase that value too.

The tinker's tools (Bug found! Thanks. Will fix.) you can fix by adding the following line (highlighted in red) to jse_objectassociations.scp:

Code: Select all

..
0x10E5=4006
0x10E6=4006

// Tinker Tool
0x1EBC=4003
[color=red]0x1EB9=4003[/color]

// Leather Repair Tool
0x0EC1=4002
..

Then press * in the uox3 console window, followed by "8" to reload the Javascript engine, and your tools should start working.

[Puck]

Nice, thanks! Will squish the bug right away.

I've been feeding grapes to my lama now, and the little bugger doesn't run off anymore When the first horse ran off, I was already looking through the ini to see what I can find, but those variables just suggsted maybe the server thought people were offline even tho if they werent. Logs seemed okay, however. Either way I'm relieved. I like stubborn pack animals running off into the wilderness and getting killed carrying a hard days work - I just wouldnt have liked bugged animals running off.

I'll take care of the tinker's tools thing right away - but while I got your attention... in the blacksmith crafting menu under shields the buckler does, as it seems, jack all. You click it, the window closes and that's that. Not sure whether you aware of that, so I thought I just mention it.

Basically we're running really smooth here now, and we're having quite a time, too. it seems only one last hurdle remains -so far- the server going down around every 4th hour. No logs that indicate anyhting. Tried running it from the command line interface, but all I get is "uox has encountered a problem" standard windows thing, and no clue where to look for hints.

Now I'm totally aware that this is not enough information to start troubleshooting, but maybe you got a tip on how to get more info on what's going on? I mean, it's no biggie and not a real hindrance at all, worldsaves are plenty and fast, it's just... it sort of nags me

I never tried this before and in less than a day we're up and running and now I can't let my lack of knowledge have this last itty bitty victory.

PS: seems the standard spawns were totally alright and enough - you just need to give them a bit time to actually spawn and populate the world, right? because with my modified spawnfiles, we were wading kneedeep in lifestock.

And once again, thanks for your time and for helping us.

[Xuri]

For some reason the crafting system refuses to craft the first item defined, i.e. [ITEM 1] in DFN files in DFNDATA/CREATE/*.dfn.

Temporary fix:
Open DFNDATA/CREATE/smithing.dfn

Locate the following

Code: Select all

[ITEM 1] 
{ 
NAME=buckler 
ID=0x1b73 
RESOURCE=METAL 10 
SKILL=7 0 100 
ADDITEM=0x1b73 
MINRANK=1 
MAXRANK=10 
SOUND=0x002A 
} 

then change it to

Code: Select all

[ITEM [color=red]367[/color]] 
{ 
NAME=buckler 
ID=0x1b73 
RESOURCE=METAL 10 
SKILL=7 0 100 
ADDITEM=0x1b73 
MINRANK=1 
MAXRANK=10 
SOUND=0x002A 
} 

and move it to the end of the file, just below [ITEM 366].

Next, change the following

Code: Select all

[SUBMENU 3] 
{ Shields 
ITEM=1
ITEM=2 
ITEM=3 
ITEM=4 
ITEM=5 
ITEM=6 
MENU=0 
} 

to this:

Code: Select all

[SUBMENU 3] 
{ Shields 
ITEM=[color=red]367[/color]
ITEM=2 
ITEM=3 
ITEM=4 
ITEM=5 
ITEM=6 
MENU=0 
} 

Reload the DFN files by pressing * followed by "7" in the console window, or restart UOX3. The buckler should now be craftable (at least, it is for me).

[Xuri]

Basically we're running really smooth here now, and we're having quite a time, too. it seems only one last hurdle remains -so far- the server going down around every 4th hour. No logs that indicate anyhting. Tried running it from the command line interface, but all I get is "uox has encountered a problem" standard windows thing, and no clue where to look for hints.

Now I'm totally aware that this is not enough information to start troubleshooting, but maybe you got a tip on how to get more info on what's going on? I mean, it's no biggie and not a real hindrance at all, worldsaves are plenty and fast, it's just... it sort of nags me

Hm. Does the server crash even if you just leave it idle, i.e. none of you log in for the duration of X hours? If not, then the only real way of figuring out what's causing the crash is to run UOX3 in debug mode, for instance through Microsoft Visual Studio 6/2005/whatever - or to identify a particular, reproducable action in-game which causes the crash. :/

Btw, don't be afraid to post bugs or ask questions. That is what these forums are here for The more questions, the better!

[Puck]

It just crashed on me after running only rather short - I lost the (probably not very helpful) information windows gave me to some copy/pasting and lack of coffee. I just remember it pointed to uox3.exe (duh) and js32.dll. And then it occured to me, I probably have an ancient version of java (don't remember why I turned off autoupdate -.-). Could that actually matter?

Tonight I'll leave the server running to see whether it crashes when nobody is online.

[Xuri]

Any installation of Java you might have won't affect this in the least, since js32.dll is a dll file that comes with UOX3 and is created based on the integrated Javascript-engine that UOX3 uses.

[Puck]

Drats. I was hoping for an easy way out

btw, I also noticed that when I melt stuff I created I always get the message "0 ingots are placed in your pack" or something like that, even tho I actually get some.

[Puck]

The tinker's tools (Bug found! Thanks. Will fix.) you can fix by adding the following line (highlighted in red) to jse_objectassociations.scp:

Code: Select all

..
0x10E5=4006
0x10E6=4006

// Tinker Tool
0x1EBC=4003
[color=red]0x1EB9=4003[/color]

// Leather Repair Tool
0x0EC1=4002
..

btw, just thought I'd mention the _starting_ tinker's tools you get placed in your pack when choosing tinkering as starting skill... this one still doesn't work even after fixing the entry. don't know if that points to more serious problems.

On a consumer level I can absolutely deal with it

[Xuri]

Doh. Add another line saying 0x1EB8=4003 to the same file to fix ^^

[Puck]

heh, thanks again.

some more questions, if I may? Any help greatly appreciated.

1) Our horrible crash loop of doom™.
Here's what I do: I take a freshly unzpped all-in-one thingy and point it to the UO directory. As expected, works fine. duh. Then I take my patented shared folder (uploaded here http://www.mediafire.com/?dxkww0tezi3) and when I try to start the server, it immediately crashes. Forever and ever into all eternity (if i had the patience and the hardware) Of course, it does the same in the UOX installation it "grew" in, I just thought for testing purposes it would be nice to isolate it.

Now I don't know why, but I tried something and this at least gave me a clue: I looked at the effects.wsc which contains this:

Code: Select all

[EFFECT]
Source=0x4357
Dest=0x149c
ObjPtr=0xffffffff
Expire=36468
Number=43
More1=0
More2=0
More3=0
Dispel=0
AssocScript=65535

o---o



---EFFECT---

[EFFECT]
Source=0x41bc
Dest=0x149c
ObjPtr=0xffffffff
Expire=36375
Number=43
More1=0
More2=0
More3=0
Dispel=0
AssocScript=65535

o---o



---EFFECT---

[EFFECT]
Source=0x3bf7
Dest=0x149c
ObjPtr=0xffffffff
Expire=29546
Number=43
More1=0
More2=0
More3=0
Dispel=0
AssocScript=65535

o---o



---EFFECT---

[EFFECT]
Source=0xffffffff
Dest=0x149c
ObjPtr=0xffffffff
Expire=8281
Number=43
More1=0
More2=0
More3=0
Dispel=0
AssocScript=65535

o---o



---EFFECT---

[EFFECT]
Source=0x4356
Dest=0x149c
ObjPtr=0xffffffff
Expire=41203
Number=43
More1=0
More2=0
More3=0
Dispel=0
AssocScript=65535

o---o



---EFFECT---

[EFFECT]
Source=0x420e
Dest=0x149c
ObjPtr=0xffffffff
Expire=23765
Number=43
More1=0
More2=0
More3=0
Dispel=0
AssocScript=65535

o---o



---EFFECT---

When I clear those entries right out of effects, the server starts again (havent done any further testing so far, but at least the crash loop of doom is stopped for the time being. The only thing I noticed in there, is that all effects are targetted at the character of my friend.

I tried to find out what the sources actually are, but this is where I hit a brickwall. I'm happy enough I got _that_ far, actually. Now the question is... "dubbayoutee-eff?"

What kind of effects does this file actually hold? Would it be a temporary solution to just keep it empty and set it to write protected, if all else fails?
[2-5 cleared out, moved them to other threads]

6) can a character serial actually "conflict" with anything but another character serial? Like items? At least I assume no two characters can have the same serial. Wouldnt know why I want to know that, but I seriously do.

[giwo]

6) can a character serial actually "conflict" with anything but another character serial? Like items? At least I assume no two characters can have the same serial. Wouldnt know why I want to know that, but I seriously do.

Nope, Character Serials and Item serials are separated by an offset (Characters should start at 0x1 where Items start at 0x40000000). As far as conflicting, that *should* be impossible even from Character to Character, as we have a pretty robust object factory that handles serialization.

[Puck]

Oy, thanks.

Any chance on helping me a bit with this effects.wsc thing? Is there something I could read to teach myself to understand what it means?

Or a short explanation what is stored in there? Is it ... harmful to clear it out, should it stop the server from restarting?

[Grimson]

Any chance on helping me a bit with this effects.wsc thing? Is there something I could read to teach myself to understand what it means?

Effects.wsc stores all types of timers.

Or a short explanation what is stored in there? Is it ... harmful to clear it out, should it stop the server from restarting?

I wouldn't clean it out, it can mess up things, for example it could cause polymorph spells to not revert.

AFAIK you experimented with the worldsaves and char serials, it's quite possible that you removed a char related to one of the effects. That shouldn't crash the server, but there is a possibility we forgot to validate an object somewhere. If I find enough free time during the next week I'll try to reproduce it and fix the crash.

Generally, you shouldn't manually change things in the worldfiles or mix different versions together unless you know exactly what you are doing (or have at least a working backup ).

[Puck]

thanks o7 we figured it out, it was the damn sheeps, and the elfs fault. (after all, he shore them!)

described here:
viewtopic.php?t=1851