If ya can't beat em, emulate em

People have been trying to create MMORPG server emulators almost as long as there have been MMORPGs. There have been emulators for Ultima Online, Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot for sure. I remember playing around with FUSE and UOX back in the day. The focus of this artical is on a little project called RunUO.

RunUO is a Microsoft Windows .NET Framework based server emulator. The core of the application is the actual engine that drives the game. This core provides low level services like networking, packet parsing, memory management, etc. The cool thing about RunUO is that the majority of the actual game logic is scripted. The scripting language is C# and I think you can also use VB.NET. So the engine is using the .NET Framework's ability to compile and execute code at runtime. This scripting allows you to customize your server any way you like.

When you download the RunUO system you get a set of scripts that emulate pretty much every aspect of a commercial Ultima Online server. You get shop keeper NPCs, monsters with AI, weapons, armor, crafting abilities, the full UO spell system, the new Age of Shadows stuff, housing including custom house creation, and a whole lot more. It's incredible the amount of work the RunUO developers and community have put into this project.

The RunUO web site claims that the server can handle "well over 1000 concurrent users with ease." I can't say if this is true or not but I know there are several very large servers (In Por Ylem, UO Gamers) out there handling lots of players. I've had a RunUO server running on one my machines for over two weeks straight without restarting and its still clicking along. I set up a bunch of spawners and it has spawned almost 30,000 creatures. I log in and whack a bunch of them every now and then though.

My plan has been to set up my own little theme based server. My cable modem should support a fair number of players. If I ever get some time I'll actually work on it. If I come up with any neat scripts I'll post them here.

Many of the server's out there are trying to recreate what they think of as the glory days of UO. Back when the PKs ruled the land and the newbs cowered in fear for their lives. There are also other servers out there that concentrate on crafting and community activities. You can pretty much find whatever type of server you like. Many of the servers start you out with elevated stats and skills and give you nice items. Some have accelerated advancement so you aren't a total newbie for too long.

I suggest you install UOGateway. This application gives you a list of all the popular servers that are registered and updates the list every time you run it. It also hacks your UO client to remove the encryption. The encryption must be removed in order to play on an emulator server.

There is also UORazor. Razor is a UOAssist type utility that provides lot of addon features to the client. It has advanced macroing, consumable item tracking, etc. Be careful though because some servers do not allow the use of such tools.

If you don't have a copy of the client you can actually download the full client from here. It's meant to be for a 14 day free trail to play on the commercial servers but it also allows you to play on the emulated servers for free.

Some other server emulators:
Dawn of Light - DAOC
UOX Classic - UO
UOX:NG - UO
UOX3 - UO
EQEmu - EQ
Hacker's Quest - EQ