Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 168 posts

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#21

Post by squidleon »

Fokamul wrote: post #11
devin wrote: post #3

Congratulations! I don't know how busy player-run shards are these days, but I look forward to exploring this once you've gotten it a bit further.

Most active is UO Outlands. Several thousands players? They've reworked a lot of systems and it's basically 100x better than original UO. There are several systems in place, which original devs wouldn't even dream of and saying that, official Ultima Online is still running. :D It's PvP server, but with balanced PvP which really works for everyone. Not like original devs, they just dropped PvP because cookie-cutter pl…

Outlands is impressive from a technical standpoint, they've put an insane amount of work into it and the player count speaks for itself. I played there for a while.

Personally though, I feel they've overengineered it a bit. So many custom systems layered on top that it starts to feel more like WoW with UO graphics than actual UO. The original charm was in the simplicity you, a sword, and a world that didn't care about your feelings. But that's just my taste, and clearly thousands of players disagree with me, so what do I know. And yes, the fact that official UO is still running in 2026 is both beautiful and insane

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#22

Post by reactordev »

haolez wrote: post #18

UO was the only game that I've ever played where you had "commoner" players. A lot of players failed to scale up, or to obtain top notch equipment. But the game was fun even for underpowered players, so they kept playing. The really powerful players were famous, like celebrities. It's very different from modern games, where each player looks like the fantasy version of a Marvel super hero.

Being a legendary blacksmith was the whole point. Where crafting was the end game state for crafters. The gear produced was max durability, max dmg, max armor rating. The furniture for your castle had to come from someone, somewhere.

The whole point of the game was to live in this fantasy world, not beat it. There were no quests. No antagonist. Just good and evil and everyone in between. For once I wish a studio would take this to heart and build something like that again. Minecraft exploded due to this sandbox nature. However, you still got to give players a shovel and a bucket.

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#23

Post by squidleon »

simlevesque wrote: post #20
haolez wrote: post #18

UO was the only game that I've ever played where you had "commoner" players. A lot of players failed to scale up, or to obtain top notch equipment. But the game was fun even for underpowered players, so they kept playing. The really powerful players were famous, like celebrities. It's very different from modern games, where each player looks like the fantasy version of a Marvel super hero.

I think you'd like Arc Raiders.

Too old for arc raiders :D :D :D !

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#24

Post by orphea »

squidleon wrote: post #16
kethinov wrote: post #10

I'm a fan of UO and I love seeing more projects like this. Nice work! Obligatory nitpicky aside, a time-honored tradition of HN: I've long been irritated by the use of the term "server emulator" in gaming contexts. Technically these projects are just reimplementations of a proprietary networking protocol. Nobody calls Samba a "server emulator" because it reimplements the Windows file sharing protocol, because Samba i…

Ha, you're absolutely right from a CS perspective! it's a protocol reimplementation, not emulation in the traditional sense. I've thought about this too. "Server emulator" stuck in the UO/MMO (other example Mangos is "Wow emualtor") community because RunUO and similar projects used the term 20 years ago and it just became the standard label. At this point fighting it feels like your Wikipedia edit war, technically co…

  > other example Mangos is "Wow emualtor"
Do they call themselves an emulator? I'm seeing "a server" or "a reference implementation".

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#26

Post by squidleon »

DeathArrow wrote: post #25

I like seeing how more projects use .NET, which is a great platform.

Thanks! I've been developing in .NET for 20 years and it's come a long way , from the Windows-only Framework days to what it is now. NativeAOT, cross-platform, incredible performance. And if you've never tried it on Apple Silicon the M4 chips are absolutely insane. The server compiles to a single native binary and runs like a dream on ARM.

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#27

Post by tarellel »

reactordev wrote: post #22
haolez wrote: post #18

UO was the only game that I've ever played where you had "commoner" players. A lot of players failed to scale up, or to obtain top notch equipment. But the game was fun even for underpowered players, so they kept playing. The really powerful players were famous, like celebrities. It's very different from modern games, where each player looks like the fantasy version of a Marvel super hero.

Being a legendary blacksmith was the whole point. Where crafting was the end game state for crafters. The gear produced was max durability, max dmg, max armor rating. The furniture for your castle had to come from someone, somewhere. The whole point of the game was to live in this fantasy world, not beat it. There were no quests. No antagonist. Just good and evil and everyone in between. For once I wish a studio woul…

UO Outlands has been pretty popular for a few years. They’ve implemented a lot of custom aspects (specialties), craft, new dungeons, land, as well as weekly quests and events. My brother and I play it a few hours a week. It’s incredibly popular for the nostalgia and its player base seems to be pretty consistent. It reminds me of early UO where your exploring, learning, and dying a lot. And there tends to be players everywhere you go.

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#28

Post by tarellel »

devin wrote: post #3

Congratulations! I don't know how busy player-run shards are these days, but I look forward to exploring this once you've gotten it a bit further.

UO Outlands has been pretty popular for a few years. They’ve implemented a lot of custom aspects (specialties), craft, new dungeons, land, as well as weekly quests and events. My brother and I play it a few hours a week. It’s incredibly popular for the nostalgia and its player base seems to be pretty consistent. It reminds me of early UO where your exploring, learning, and dying a lot. And there tends to be players everywhere you go.

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#29

Post by theultdev »

haolez wrote: post #18

UO was the only game that I've ever played where you had "commoner" players. A lot of players failed to scale up, or to obtain top notch equipment. But the game was fun even for underpowered players, so they kept playing. The really powerful players were famous, like celebrities. It's very different from modern games, where each player looks like the fantasy version of a Marvel super hero.

Yup. Tibia you had this too. People begging in the depot for gold and "itens plx"

Re: Show HN: Moongate – Ultima Online server emulator in .NET 10 with Lua scripting

#30

Post by squidleon »

orphea wrote: post #24
squidleon wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ha, you're absolutely right from a CS perspective! it's a protocol reimplementation, not emulation in the traditional sense. I've thought about this too. "Server emulator" stuck in the UO/MMO (other example Mangos is "Wow emualtor") community because RunUO and similar projects used the term 20 years ago and it just became the standard label. At this point fighting it feels like your Wikipedia edit war, technically co…

> other example Mangos is "Wow emualtor" Do they call themselves an emulator? I'm seeing "a server" or "a reference implementation".

You're right, I just checked , MaNGOS calls itself "a server" now. They probably had the same realization at some point. Maybe I should update my README too and just call it "a modern Ultima Online server" instead!. Less baggage.
Post reply on HN