EasyUO :: News

Thanks by Cheffe

Fri, Oct 15th, 2010

Thanks for the many replies. I've read them all and I agree that there are many aspects to this that my post didn't reflect on. It's good that you posted your views and filled in the gaps.

How to progress from here? I suggest if you have never spent any time on OpenEUO then you should at least download it, look at it and say what you think. If you're a scripter, start with the OpenEUO manual that is stickied in the OpenEUO forum.

I've seen contributors are already trying to put together a collection of useful snippets. Lua is very adaptable. You can change just about anything in it or add your own stuff. Don't like OpenEUO's complicated version of FindItem? Simply use one of the available solutions (e.g. FluentUO) or write your own and keep reusing that. Once it becomes clear what people use the most we can add that to OpenEUO permanently and forget all about the built-in low-level stuff. Right now, the easiest way to include another file is the dofile() function.

Although these last few days have been quite taxing for me also, I'm still scurrying around, trying to take in what users say and write new code at the same time. It's hard to say what you should do or can do to help. I think the best is simply to use what's there and try to fill in what's not there or ask others for help. That way things will get done.

If it turns out OpenEUO is inadequate in some way or another I'm willing to do whatever is necessary to make it more useful for people, even if that means I have to rip it apart and put it together differently. But for that I need input and people who care and maybe also add their own stuff.

For now, I will review the old EUO 1.5 and see if there is a way to integrate Lua into it, of course without changing any aspect of its current functionality or breaking anything. Maybe I could also fix some old problems. OpenEUO still needs some tinkering but it really works fine for the most part I think.

Whatever changes will happen in the next month, you can bet the following will remain an integral part:

- Lua
- the new uo.dll and its commands (e.g. UO.ScanItems etc)
- user libraries (written in Lua) that make uo.dll easier to use.

I'm not sure about the new menu stuff so you should probably leave that away for now. Whatever misgivings some of you may have about OpenEUO, we'll try to fix it. Look into the above things and your time won't be wasted.

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The Current Situation by Cheffe

Fri, Oct 15th, 2010

I have read many comments in the last few days concerning the recent announcement. Some were positive, especially from contributors, others were doubtful but willing to go forward, and a few were very negative and also fairly vocal about it. Although it's hard to judge the real situation based on that small sample, I think it's safe to say most non-scripters aren't very happy. They can't run their scripts for the time being and also seem to have little trust in the upcoming changes. From their point of view everything is perfect now. They visit the site, download the tool, download a script, press start and it'll play the game for them.

But it wasn't always like that. In the beginning, around August 2000 or so, EasyUO was a tiny tool that allowed clicking, pressing keys and scanning pixels, plus one more feature which set it apart: reading the character's position. This basically allowed it to automate mining quite successfully which wasn't possible previously because your char might run into a wall due to lag (everyone still had modems back then) without the script noticing.

With time, more features were added and the tool became more popular, drawing in flocks of scripters and gaining enough momentum to build a lively community. Things weren't easy, especially the language. But people made do because it was all they had, helped each other and rejoiced at every new feature that was added. As a developer, that is probably the best environment you can find yourself in. Everything you do is instantly noticed and incorporated into scripts.

It was years until OSI finally found out what was happening. I've heard the story from someone who was friends with a GM. Apparently one of them noticed a fully automated miner in all of its glory and a whole group of GMs gathered around a screen and admired what it could do and messed with it, proving it was automated.

Anyway, just as I shared EasyUO with everybody free of charge, many scripters shared their scripts with each other and indeed with anyone interested. That was the spirit back then. Because most scripts were difficult to set up (you had to place bags in exact positions etc), you almost had to be a scripter yourself to run scripts. So a lot of learning was required to get it working, but people showed real effort and were in turn helped by others. Most of all, I remember Orngrimm who used to surf the boards (and still does) while at work and jumped at any opportunity to answer a question, in German or "Denglish", often beating me by minutes.

Due to its success, EasyUO was eventually swarmed under by an influx of less knowledgeable users, turning our little community of makers into a community of users. This was deeply resented by many veterans, especially the dumb questions from people unable, unwilling or simply too lazy to learn how to script or in some cases even read and follow simple instructions. After a while, veteran scripters became so sick and tired and even outraged by the sheer stupidity of their users that they started to make their scripts truly foolproof. They did that not of their own free will but because they had no choice apart from keeping their scripts private.

A PSL and rating system were built to support them in their efforts. After scripts have become more stable and complaints have died down, the next problem was all the leechers who downloaded scripts but never even bothered to rate them or give thanks and usually only registered when something didn't work and you had to PM or even email them the solution. In a misguided effort to stop leeching, our site designer introduced the "scriptbit" system. Search the boards if you're interested. All those posts are still there.

Eventually we simply had to give up and accept the new realities: Somewhere along the way this has turned from a scripting community into a takeaway service. And I appear to be the chef indeed. Although in reality, I haven't done very much to improve EasyUO from the end user perspective since 2005. I have simply kept it up to date and happen to be the owner of the program, but the scripters have built the PSL and made all of this possible for you to enjoy.

I hope this helps you a bit to see where these things come from and why we veterans sometimes label you as leeches. I'm sure you have other things to do in your life, maybe come home after work to your wife and kids and want to play some UO without breaking your index finger. That's all very nice and I'm the last person who would begrudge you that enjoyment. After all I built this tool so it gets used. But right now you're standing in my way. And you're not helping this community at all. You give nothing back to us, taking things for granted just because they've been this way for a long time, becoming hugely dependent on them and then blaming me for tampering with this perfectly convenient system without which UO becomes unplayable for you (and yes of course you can't script!). I'm probably not without fault here, it's just the way things go and I don't see any easy way in retrospect how we could have saved our little community the way it was.

But Lord do I want those days back when I could release a new feature and everyone was like HOLYSH*T! I cater to scripters, scripters cater to users. I never made this tool for you! And I'm sometimes completely surprised when total strangers start rioting when I'm only trying to improve the situation for my guys. And they used to complain a lot about the old EUO language. The Codename Alexandria project failed because of missing file and path support. There are so many examples. That's why I set out to revamp the system. I simply never expected to get so completely ignored and all my work rendered irrelevant. It's true, you never asked me to do this work. I know you think it's already perfect. BUT THIS ISN'T ABOUT YOU. It's about the scripters. Imagine there are people who enjoy scripting. The problem is they won't switch as long as all their users are still clinging to that relic. And I end up doing all the work myself without any kind of productive environment.

I'm sure other people who have tried to build a scripting engine for UO have felt the same. It's nearly impossible to compete with that download-click-and-forget feature of the current setup. It simply never occured to me my old tool would steal my audience. Even EA feels it apparently. They've added that wonderful detection of theirs and now they can't ban users because EUO and the PSL are an integral part of the game. Can't even make users switch to a different client if EUO doesn't support it. And how considerate of them to add OpenEUO detection in client 7.0.9.0 and above. Didn't even bother to hide it so a blind man wouldn't see it. I wonder if they realize that should I screw this up they're going to feel it deeply, maybe even to the point where they can pack their bags and leave.

Some of you have suggested I should have given warning in advance. Well I did. In April. And I said users shouldn't worry as there'll be an emulator and everything ready for them. Which was basically begging to be ignored some more. Yesterday I was seriously considering whether I should give up, turning my back on EUO. I'm sure some of you would love that... how did it go: "Someone is going to update easyuo for you, dont worry, you will get either hack or someone close to you will leak the code and it will be another group, hopefully open that will keep it updated." Really can't see why anyone wouldn't like them leeches.

Anyway, the situation right now seems to be productive, although in a very subdued manner. Should I accept the suggestion of updating EUO 1.5 one last time there's a chance things will slide back the way they were. On the other hand, if things would remain productive all the same then I'm torturing end users needlessly. Keep in mind, I already did this last April and it didn't work. So despite what I said yesterday I will update it for one last month to clear the air and simply hope it won't all go down the drain a second time.

All in all I must say I find this really really sad. A sad day when a developer must drag users kicking and screaming to the next version. I'm sure we can all agree on that, if for different reasons.

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