Although I like the phrase virtual hibernation when it comes to describing the status of AC Emu Dev community, the phrase Virtual Death might be more appropriate. But it might not be that bad, within few months anways, and a possible resurrection might be coming. I've received few email's from individuals claiming to be working on AC emus. Since I have received similar mail before, with no after-results or releases, I will inquire further before publishing anything more. There have been so many false starts and failed projects in AC Emu community I cant even count them all. So more caution might be in order before anything is confirmed. Although I have received interesting communications from a European based AC-Emu project worked on by few Norwegian guys (ShAC Emulator Pro?). So, all is not dead, perhaps. At least there is a pulse, and ACdome.

Long time no update! Well, its no secret that I've been engaged in a full scale game development project, "Freelance". Freelance, which is currently under development, is taking away most of my time. As always, for more information on Freelance, visit the temporary Freelance/CSD homepage here. I will try to update Acdome as often as possible. Even though AC-Emulation scene is pretty much in deep hibernation at this moment, ACdome has been receiving amazing amount of hits and pageviews. Over the past two months the monthly pageview count has more than tripled. ACdome will not be abandoning the AC emulation community anytime soon. Hopefully I will be updating with greater frequency, more than just once a month.

Additional Server: A New Server (Europa) has been added to the ACdome network. The status page has been updated as well. Also, as you probably have already noticed, servers have been named for easier identification. Jupiter being the current ACdome server, and Europa being the new machine. I intend to add at least one more machine by end of January 2003. Both machines are undergoing extensive preparations and hardware upgrades and will stay offline until further notice.

I am moving ACdome to a more reliable server. Server move should be fully completed by tonight and with some luck there will be no down-time or any serious difficulties. Although, DNS data might take little longer to update so I am not guaranteeing anything.

Lots of news and interesting developments...

New Emulator(s): I've had this information for quite a while now. In the past few weeks I have received tons of emails from people claiming they are developing AC emulators. (mostly people asking for technical assistance or source code resources) Only one of those claims has proved to be truthful. Although I didn't want to post or publish...

Bot Runner Update: I apologize for the lack of updates on Bot Runner project, but I've been working hard on the Bot Runner, plus some other projects which I intend to make public within the next month or so. Although there is lot of work do be done, I have made some serious advancements with Bot Runner. Certain parts of the project have been totally completed, and I have started work on some of the more direct and "functional" areas of the Bot Runner. Soon, I will be adding a Bot Runner Project page here at the main site where you will be able to follow the development process more closely.

UAS update: In the last week or so I have received mixed information from various UAS project members about the current UAS progress and development situation. It seems it might be a long time before there is another public release of UAS since the complete rewrite of UAS seems to be taking long time to complete. Final project completion seems far away, more than previously expected. (Countering the previous reports and information I received) This might be due to the fact that UAS team has only one coder at this time, or that writing a complete emu from scratch might not be a walk in a park. I wish the UAS team all the luck and I hope they hit the release date of '2002' they are aiming for.

I will try to update ACdome at least once weekly from now on. Due to some serious developments in my personal life even this loose update schedule seems barely possible.

As stated before, if you have any exclusive AC-emu related news or information please feel free to report it. Submit News

Hi, very quick and important piece of news. Yesterday I released a very buggy version of ACCM, which had large amount of faulty and old code that was creating some serious problems. Such as the "invalid path/version" error. ACCM has been updated for October 2002 compatibility and 'path' error/problem has been resolved. ACCM 1.0(061) has improved error detection and prevention code. Also, I have added October client to the ACCM database and posted October client executable for download. You can get the official announcement at ACdome.

Yay! ACdome is back after 4 months of "away-time". Anyways, I am back now as is ACdome. Back but in limited functionality. Many pages are down, aprox 40-60% of all links are dead or misdirected, and all emulator downloads are unavailable as well. I have misplaced most of mine AC-Emu related files in recent HD upgrades and HD file clean ups. So in short the files section is semi-dead for now. Although I am certain I will find them ..or some of those files anyways...soon.

According to some rumors it seemed people thought I was forced to shut down by the U.S. Department of Justice, or that I died in a car crash, or that my site was hacked..?! I am here to counter those rumors and claims. I have been away on a vacation in Europe for past 2 months. I decided to take the site down before I leave and concentrate on some other projects as well my vacation preparations.

Few things to clear up. ACS has been discontinued by Akilla and the "Team", and I took the ACServer.org website down back in April to reflect that. He has moved onto better things. As for the current situation. I think BSAE is still being developed by BlackStaff, but I haven't heard from him in long time so I cant really confirm that. Before I left for Europe I tried to get various AC-Emu development teams (3 in all including members of ACS group) to join and start development on joint AC-Emu project then named United Emulator Project or some such silly name. This of course to speed things up in AC-Emu scene. I suspect by the "tone" of the things before I left, that even w ith all this new manpower the project didn't get far. I believe project has been taken "underground" or simply abandoned. This was some 4 months ago so I have little or no information on their progress. Other than that, currently to my knowledge all AC-Emulator projects have been either discontinued, abandoned, or put into virtual hibernation. I will try to bring some of those emulator downloads back up. I will do this as soon as I "re-discover" those "lost" files.

BTW, I am currently looking for some skilled webmaster(s) to help me run ACdome and its various "appendage" projects. I wont be able to run or update ACdome as I did pre-April, considering some new developments in my personal life. (new job, school, moving, etc) Until I get some capable webmasters to help out, don't expect daily updates as before, or weekly for that matter.

BSAE 1.0.1 (former ACEv4.1) Clarification:

Posted on 04-17-2002 18:51 by Lunac: G70mb2 aka BlackStaff has made some changes to his emu. First and most noticeable is the name change. Its BSAE now (BlackStaff's Asheron Emulator) and is tagged as Beta v1.0.1. All references to ACEv4.1 will be removed immediately from any and all sections here at ACdome. BlackStaff explains further:

"....Here is the name changed version of the compiled code. I have removed all references to ACE from the program names, except where I acknowledge that it is based on the ACEv3 code. And Disclaim any credit for the base codes creation. The Launcher is still called ACE launcher as I do not have source code to compile a new one. I will use BSAE for the name for any releases I make, it stands for BlackStaff's Asheron Emulator and is tagged as Beta v1.0.1...."

I hope this solves certain issues floating around in ACE Emulation community.

This should throw some light at certain issues:

"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"

"A PIRATE VERSION OF THE ACE SERVER CODE IS BEING DISTRIBUTED BY A NON-ACXP/ACE TEAM SOURCE. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THOUGH THIS SOURCE DECIDED TO PLAY OFF OUR NAMES AND MARKS THAT THEY ARE IN NO WAY RELATED TO US. THEY ARE ALSO, REPORTED, TO BE IN POSSESSION OF AN OLD ACE SERVER LOGIN/PASSWORD DATABASE WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE ORIGINAL HOST (MYSELF). [sic] WE APPOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVIENCE THIS ACTION TAKEN BY THIS PERSON MAY CAUSE YOU AND WILL CONTACT THE HOST PROVIDER OF THIS VERSION SHOULD WE BE INFORMED OF ANY ATTEMPTED SECURITY BREACHES DUE TO THE DISTROBUTION OF THIS INFORMATION."

"To explain a little .... ACEv4.1 is not pirate code/release! LOL. Its not even ACE really. And it does not contain original ACE/ACXP user database (passwords and etc). Format has been changed a little and old user data was removed. 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. Trin has got some issues ..obviously :). 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 really dont have time to argue with bitter old, former sentinels, suffering from self-esteem problems and with ego issues. 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. 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. 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."

• * Altars - now function correctly. This was an easy fix, not sure why it was not done before.

• * !spawnid command - This change was needed to make the Altars work
• * New Format: !spawnid [object] [model] "Name" [selectable] [equippable] [scale]
• * Changed the server screen layout - same just put things in different spots.

• * Correct combat system - distance to target and add animations for combat - High
• * Self Spawning monsters - timed spawns, attackable - Medium
• * Add Doors to buildings - Low on the list, but hate seeing no doors where there should be one
• * Saveable Avatars - PK/NPK status, location, items, and stats between login sessions - Low

• * Spawned objects would stop being selectable after !spawnid of monsters - Further testing being done to replicate.
• * All current bugs associated with ACEv3 are still present

"Yup. Few months late, but hey! :) I finally decided to do something productive and compiling ACEv3 seemed like a good idea. It has PvP but its quite messed up. No range checking, player animations, or LifeStones. PK and NPK altars are not operational either. So if ya want to PvP, you will have to play around with the database. According to Cheksum the code I received was very "latest" but unfinished. Also, according to Cheksum, the new inventory code that was introduced had an effect on altars. Making them un-workable. The good news is that weapon creation and inventory/equip systems are operational."

That's right! ACEv3 source is available for download now. This release comes straight from Sentou himself. This is what he had to say in a short email sent to me.

"Here is the source code to ACE v3...please post this on your website...the new ACE 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"

Well I think this is great. I am sure someone will pick up the code and continue developing. I want to thank Sentou and entire ACE team for all their hard work.

"It is my sad duty to report that due to the inability to work with the ACXP Team, we will no longer support or provide information to the ACDome Website.

The host of that site refuses to respect the wishes of the ACXP Development team in regards to making previous versions of the software available for download by the public. It is the wishes of the ACXP team a previous, buggy, and unstable version of the software not be posted for download in order that the community will not get the wrong impression regarding the state of the emulator.

The host of that site refuses to remove that download and it has been decided by the current Developers to be based upon the desire to cast an undesirable shadow upon our project in the attempts to get people using another AC Emulator that they themselves host.

We find no fault with the developer and coder of this other emulator as we are very sure that he is not involved with the shady practice of the ACDome host and would encourage all members of the ACXP community to continue to Boycott the ACDome site until such a time as this issue can be resolved to the satisfaction of the ACXP Development team.

This situation greatly saddens the development team and myself as we do not see why any fan of the AC Emulation Community would seek to bring ill-will on any project and hope that the ACDome host will contact us and work to resolve this issue in a timely fashion.

As a followup, the host of ACDome (Lunac@ACDome.com) thought in his infinate wisdom to proceed to abuse his powers on the ACServer.org message boards to delete my account, thus dragging ACServer into the fray.

I feel really bad in this situation as it does drag Akilla further into this mess and I do plan to communicate my displeasure to him later tonight. I am also composing a few news articles which I am hoping to have posted to several high bandwidth/views Asheron's Call sites regarding the degrading of the AC Emulator community...

I invite the community to e-Mail Lunac (lunac@acdome.com) and inform him that you won't stand for his practices as well as work to inform your fellow community members to boycott all ACDome sites until such a time as either a formal appology is posted or the site is closed down.

Again, it is a shame to see someone whom I had hoped would be a very intresting ally in the ACEmu community turn to Nazilistic practices of censorship on a community forum that I myself help found.

This is a sad day for the AC Emulation Community, I'm sure you will all agree on that."