So you say you have a 'server emulator', eh?

What is a server emulator? In the case of Project Rubi-Ka our team has spent countless hours studying and understanding the structure of packets being sent back and forth betweent the Anarchy Online client and Funcom's servers. With help from past community projects we have been able to get a firm grasp of most of the packets being sent by the client.

This allows us to do basic things like simulate a login, simulate the server accepting a character creation, retransmit player movement messages, etc. But server emulation goes far beyond just replaying messages at the right time. Server emulation requires you have a firm grasp of how the existing server structures it's data in memory, handling things like player inventory, player stats, active nano programs, armor, equipment, implants. It takes alot of design and alot of critical thinking to determine the best solution.

What should I not expect to see?

We have no access to any original source code for Anarchy Online. We have ultimately no idea exactly how specific things are coded to behave. We simply can observe and emulate. That being said there are cases where we do not have a clear picture of how Funcom is handling 'xyz'. One example of this is pathfinding. We just don't know intimately how Funcom handles pathfinding. But we do know a little on how they handle movement. As such we have implemented our own pathfinding system based off of common libraries used in the game development community. So you can expect some differences in behavior.

One thing we certainly will never have is live server player data. This is highly confidential data that would constitute a major breech of player privacy. As such we will never be bringing over characters from Live, even if a mechanism should exist to do so.

What is the current status?

We'd like to periodically provide updates on the overall status of the project. We will also be reaching out to our testing community as different windows for testing become available. Community input and feedback is vital to the success of the project and we value the communities input. For the most part the list below is accurate, although not every single nano program for example has been fully tested as this will take quite a bit of effort. But the general mechnisms exercised by the nano programs listed have been implemented. Much of the Shadowlands content has not been tested as our focus will be on Rubi-Ka for the forseeable future.

Current Features Implemented:

• Combat
  • Auto Attack
  • Special Attacks: Brawl, FastAtack, Flingshot, Burst, Aimshot
  • Attack Range
  • Attack/Recharge Bars
  • Combat Stats: Evades/Dodge, Attack Rating
• Nano Programs
  • HoTs, DoTs
  • Heals
  • DD Nukes
  • AoE Nukes
  • Team Buffs
  • Buffs
  • Charms
  • Mezz
  • Stuns
  • Debuffs
  • Teleports
• Pets
  • Engineer Attack Pets
  • Engineer Dog Pets
  • Beauracrat Attack Pets
  • Beauracrat Other Pets
  • Beauracrat Charms (currently only one active charmed pet)
  • Metaphycisist Heal Pet
  • Metaphycisist Attack Pet
  • Metaphycisist Mezz Pet
• World Content
  • Static spawns
  • Dyna Bosses with random modifier (still waiting to implement naming system)
• Loot
  • Looting works but loot tables not implemented.

Features Not Yet Implemented:

• Missions - We have made much progress with missions but it is still not ready for prime time.
• Combat
  • Sneak Attack
  • Dimach
  • Ammo/Reloading
  • Full Auto
• Nano Programs
  • False profession
  • HP/Nano drains and transfers
• Dynamic Spawns - We still have not implemented random spawned NPCs you find wandering around large zones like Greater Tir County, although many of the spawns are considered "static" spawns that always spawn in a single location.
• Scripted Spawns - Some spawns are scripted by Funcom's servers and as such we will rely on the community to provide details on how these scripted encounters will work. An example of this is Uklesh the Frozen in ToTW upon his death Khalum spawns and then Aztur, we believe this will be server driven.
• Loot tables still need to be worked out.
• Chest loot needs to be worked out

Much work has already gone into this project and we suspect we'll rely heavily on the community going forward to help us flesh out our implementation.

Please stay tuned as we will reach out to the community as testing and content topics arise.

Ciao!

Sincerely,

Portaler

Developer | Co-Founder