I don't know if anyone around these parts still remembers my name, but for about a year after UOX went open source I contributed to the project and was an active member of the community. Anyway, I remembered the large number of talented coders involved with UOX and thought I'd ask here if anyone is interested in working on an Asheron's Call emulator called ACXP.

Specifically, we are in need of someone to break the code involved in calculating the CRC for each packet sent between the client and server. The current project lead inherited the codebase from an old team that lost interest, and I recently joined up since he needed help. Not being a cryptographic expert myself though, I thought I would turn to other members of the emulation community and ask for help.

Asheron's Call's protocol differs fundamentally from UO's in that rather than encrypting the entire contents of each packet, each packet is sent unencrypted, but includes an involved CRC calculation as part of the packet. If the client receives a packet with an incorrect CRC, it assumes the packet was corrupted during transport and simply ignores it. Unfortunately, the CRC code the client uses changes fairly frequently, and the code we're working with is from December of 2001. So what we need is someone capable of figuring out how the CRC is calculated in the current client.

If you are serious about helping out with the project, please drop me a line at either jhenry@ccs.neu.edu, 621669 (ICQ), or Anthracks82 (IM). We can provide you with source code to how the calculation was performed as of December to give you a general idea, although the license we inherited from the old team prohibits public posting of the source at this time. I for one would like nothing more than to open source it, but my hands are tied. Also, it isn't strictly necessary for you to have an active Asheron's Call account, or even the game installed, but it would certainly be helpful.

Sounds fine with me! Right now we are making some rather serious progress so I'll give you an update soon as I have something hard.

Developers Wanted

Hello Everyone,

Once again I come out of the wood work seeking more developers.. Seems to be a trend this week with emulators. ;-) With us reaching summer it seems the majority of the Development Team have gone quiet and aren't responding to my e-Mail again...so what I'm seeking are a few more people who would like to help work on this emulator..

Skills that you will need to be considered..

• Knowledge of Microsoft Windows Based TCP/IP Programming (C++)
• Knowledge of Microsoft Windows Based SQL Programming (C++)
• A working version of Microsoft Visual C++ (version 6.0 or .NET)
• A desire to work actively as part of a team.
• A love of Microsoft's Asheron's Call and the desire to help the team produce a world server which is, in many ways, better than the original.

Benefits to joining our team..

• Self Satisfaction at being a part of the most exciting emulator project in the world. There are many different Ultima Online(tm) Emulators out there, but only one AC Emulator remains.
• Access to the special 'Developer Only' areas of our forums. See the latest and greatest ideas for the project before they are made public.
• Developer's Titling (+$name) and (limited) Admin Powers on all worlds regulated by the central login servers.
• Special e-Mail forwarding addresses with yournamehere@acxp.ath.cx (hopefully soon @acxp.org) for a stylish way to show your status with the project.

We need good people if this project is to keep going, if you are just interested in 'leeching' the code or being a "1337 |)00|)" and not actually contributing to the project, please, don't bother applying, it will just waste your time and mine.

If you are interested in helping move forward one of the largest emulation projects ever conceived, please, send me an e-Mail and we will see what we can arrange.

Thank you for your attention and interest!

Delenn• Trinity
Project Manager
trinity@acxp.ath.cx

Just wanted everyone to be aware that thanks to developer BaCkBuRn, we now have a new domain! From now on, you can use http://www.acxp.org/ to connect to the ACXP project!

Thanks again to BaCkBuRn!

"Mainly the situation here is that I've been informed by numerous, very reliable, people that the release of this other emulator contained important information that was obtained from an accidentally leaked data file from a previous version of the ACE (Asheron's Call Emulator) software.

The posts provided by Lunac, a well known hater of me due to the fact he is fully convinced that I formed a huge group of people to conspire against him (LOL) back in the ACE Days, were provided to members of the community in order to help insure their security when we were informed of a potentially large security breach was made public.

As for yelling, if you felt a database of your user's ID/Password information had been breached, would you also not do all that you possibly can their draw attention to that fact?

Lunac goes forward to say...

"To explain a little .... ACEv4.1 is not pirate code/release! LOL. Its not even ACE really."

If he can further say it isn't ACE really, then why attempt to play off the ACE name? Obviously that is an attempt to imply that it is a release from the new ACE (ACXP) team...

When the original ACE Team stopped all development of the team, I was currently a sitting member with them. (In NO WAY coding on the original team, I ran the website and test server as well as the occasional suggestion) Rather than see the loss to the AC Emulation Community, I asked for permission (And was granted) from all ACE Developers (Sentou included) and given the source code for further development. I informed them I would be continuing the ACE 4.0 Project under the name ACXP but all internal information to ACXP is still ACE.

It is blatantly obvious that Lunac's attempts, as always, are to mislead and deceive the community into thinking he is some poor victim of endless prosecution. This is a great shame given all his attempts manage to do is cause trouble in the AC Emulation Community.

"If she bothered to look closer she would notice. Sentou sent the code to me to be developed further... which I am doing together with G70mb2."

The ACE team was re-founded, by permission, as above by me and a handful of others. The basis of saying it is a pirate release is based upon his choice to name it in a deceptive fashion. As stated above, all permissions were given to me by the development team.

"Even if old user database was included, no harm would have been done. Since all, ALL user data was ..."made up". And according to Zone and TG reps ..you shouldn't give out your password and account info to anyone no matter what, if ya do, yar on yar own. (little logic and common sense no?)."

I stand entirely behind my decision to warn the community at a potential security breaches, if he feels that the community is simply on their own when a massive breach of this kind is made, I fear for any who would dare use his creations...

"I really dont have time to argue with bitter old, former sentinels, suffering from self-esteem problems and with ego issues."

A blatant stab to attempt to provoke a reaction. Simply put, childish.

"While some are trying to develop, "others" just simply ..well, are bitching hourly, daily, and monthly."

?

"Anyways ..old ACE code is pretty much ACServer code. Yup! Thats right :) ..ACE/ACXP code is based on ACServer code. And Akilla is orignal coder of 1st AC Emu.. ACServer. See? Its kind of our code anyways."

Microsoft Windows is based upon the Xerox design and idea...does that mean Xerox owns Windows? No. The original basis of ANY emulator on ACS was done an extremely long time ago and according to Akilla, founder of ACServer, the two projects no longer share any common components.

"And on top ..Former ACE team leader (Sentou) stated that anybody who wants to develop it can, as long as they dont make it fully public."

Correct, more emulators are good for the Community! But attempting to imitate another emulator for your own fame is not. Obviously that was Lunac's purpose in this situation.

"Plus Sentou admited that ACE code was based on old ACS in part. We own the ACS, ACE and ACXP code in a way, (since its all based on same code anyways) and I dont remember Trinity asking for permission? :) Pirated?! Please!!! :) How can 2 out of the 3 original authors of an emulator be writing a "pirate" version of thier own emu? Makes no sense."

Nothing here is even relevant given the information stated above, once again Lunac is grasping at straws attempting to prove he is right and the facts are wrong, a serious shame.

It is well known that Lunac uses his site for Pro-ACServer comments while attempting to blame/defame any other emulator out there, I am very sorry he is attempting to use your site also to further his methods."

I see Trinity assumes that ACEv3 code is her property only. Thats quite false. This is what sentou had to say to me:

"Here is the source code to ACE v3...please post this on your website...the new ACE(ACXP team) team has done absolutely nothing so I am giving this out to everyone. It still only works for the January patch I believe...maybe December"

Code was taken down later on due to legal reasons, but in a personal chat with Sentou I was inforemd that I can use the code further in any way I see fit, as long as the source is never released. I was give total control. Also, I was told that all ACE technical related support was disconntinued and Sentou recommened that ACdome takes that task. Also, I am not evil :) LOL, This what G70mb2 (maker for ACEv4.1) had to say.

"The version numbering has been changed to 4.0.1.0, because the ACEv3 readme.txt file mentions v3.1, v3.2 with a list of features for each and I do not want to confuse people with a 3.1 release that does not include the features listed by the ACEv3 team. It is a continuation where ACEv3 left off, and all my releases will mention this fact and acknowledge who the original coder's where. I do not want to take credit for something I did not create, but will take credit for any modifications that I perform using the G70mb alias"

"Started work on updating ACXP for use with the APRIL client today. Thats the scoop. No gurantees but ill have an internal build done by this weekend. Ill setup a server with trinity's blessing for you all to have fun with, im guessing trin wont be releasing the server till its packed full of goodies."

"Hello everyone, been trying to decide how to do this for a few days so I've decided to post it flat up.

Until I can get a few people familiar with coding in C++, I'm afraid I'm going to have to place the ACXP Project on hold.

I'm in the middle of moving right now and I do not have the time nessassary to do exclusive coding on this project and the previous programming offers have failed to be followed though on by those people...

I'm inviting anyone intrested in assisting in this project in coding or similar way to send me an e-Mail ASAP so I can help you get started with the project.

This isn't an easy desicion but without assistance, and with my extremely limited programming knowledge, I'm unable to be the sole programmer for this project."