Dear GMs.
Greetings all and a continued thank you for your patience. Plenty of excuses but those aside we would like to extend an offer to build our GM (Game Master) community. While a fun game experience for the players remains our collective end goal, it is the community, specifically the GMs, that are at the heart of CODEX. The tools we offer are not a game engine, instead more of an isometric massively multiplayer toolset. We offer the CODEX Client and within it World Creator to create maps, Core + various lua scriptsets, and the ServX server binary to interpret the lua scriptsets with an ever expanding feature set/API. There are known issues and many features to add so we are looking for feedback to prioritize the features and issues to help streamline our efforts along side yours, as well as contributions to scriptsets and maps.
CODEX is still in active devlopment and as such, a full game should not be expected. A game server hosted by Corp Por LTD will become available at times but should not be expected. With access to the CODEX client, one can begin testing and using the World Creator to create maps, as well as host a server and experiment with the scripts.
Anyone seeking to playtest CODEX in the current state would do well to keep in mind that playable game scriptsets will be limited and active servers might not exist at times. Though it is always possible to play locally or with friends if one sets up and hosts a server. Also consider the documentation is incomplete and community contributions will help alot in this area.
Join us on Discord to request your test Steam Key. These Steam keys will, more than likely as of now, be revoked sometime in the future. We believe the potential of CODEX is well worth an asking price for life-time access but we also believe a product should be sold instead of a promise. CODEX is funded only by the community so if you’re able, please Donate via Discord.
ServX
ServX is the rename of our fork of Shards Engine. The Shards Engine powered Legends of Aria and before that Shards Online. The Config takes three options for scriptsets; Core/Game/Mod. Core will generally point to a directoy containing the official Core lua scriptset provided and maintained by Corp Por alongside community contributions. Game will point to the gameplay scriptset utilizing and extending the Core functionality, this is where individual gameplay can be defined and maintained seperate from Core. Finally Mod, where a single scriptset folder can be pointed to, overwriting scripts from Game and/or Core allowing a custom layer that can be maintained seperate of Core or Game. At the bottom of this page we’ve tucked two new links to aid in development efforts.
ClusterX
Alongside ServX is ClusterX that allows linking multiple instances of ServX together. ClusterX can scale ServX horizontally, distributing resources between CPUs and/or machines. The load is split by how many players on each instance; the more players one a single instance the more resources that single instance will use.
Client
A round of polish has been done to improve visual fidelity, the build plays well (after fighting many things that worked in editor but would fail to work in a build). The networked movement seems to be keeping well sync’d and on point; we are excited to see how it meets PvP expectations. Also within the Client is the World Creator, which is how all of our maps are built.
Thanks
Thank you all for your time in reading this and hopefully your interest in CODEX. The community is the heart and with your help we can all grow. Our goal is to always include the community where possible and reward Game Masters with their talent to fabricate fun experiences for us all to enjoy.
Smoozilla
I would like to introduce myself a bit more formally with some history. I have been on a this quest since I first repaired my early HP desktop that needed a new motherboard. That rabbit hole of technology lead to Sphere Server 55i and it was incredible to my young mind. A game I enjoy playing so much (UO) offered more options than I ever imagined (Emulation). I wanted rideable bears, rideable dragons, I wanted new weapons, I wanted static houses you could own. This was all possible; I only needed to learn how! Well it never was as easy as I assumed it to be. Time and time again I would be humbled by the work necessary to pull off these things and more, be it using an emulator like Sphere Server or a game engine like Unity. At any rate, I used my tech skills to earn a living in the ways that paid. This was mostly backend/front end Javascript for various webapps. Spare time I would learn game development and would occasionally visit old forums, one of those being RunUO and specifically the help wanted area. This is where I found Miphon. Dude is no Smoozilla and I’m no Miphon, but he’s great at what he does. He got a job at Citadel Studios, game designing on Shards Online. Then he got me a job at Citadel Studios writing lua scripts for Shards Online. Was right up my ally, I wrote lua scripts for years. I watched, and helped, Shards Online change to Legends of Aria. I’ve always kept a low profile, moreso after the first year. I (eventually fully) learned it was easier to simply write the scripts, arguing only with Miphon and no one else. I went by my first name: Kade. The times spent at Citadel Studios are stories of their own but ultimately I got to work with great friends and forge my knowledge of the Shards Server, gaining invaluable experience along the way. It’s easy to see the rename to ServX is inspired by ServUO, while the spirit of ServX isn’t far from RunUO and allow me to say; I am humbled and honored to see interest from some of those part of that great community. I hope more than anything I can do right by all the people that came before me to show me da wae. Shall we each find further joy and more friends within a wholesome community of ultimate individuals. Be it playing, scripting, map building, GMing, hosting, or anything inbetween.
