UO-The Expanse: the (edu) Repack-

Since going offline in 2017, work continued on the 'shard, in spite of forward progress being a lot slower than before. However, without an audience to deliver content to, more time was spent on eliminating hiccups and giving the 'shard a better look, instead of creating custom content. This will be the most comprehensive and educational, free shard repack ever released. The UO-The Expanse custom client with the Foresty Spaced desktop installed, and some special tools for UO*, are available to download as a whole package from UO-The Expanse's Mediafire account, and the freeshard software is available to update through Github.

There are over 4,600 custom scripts installed, plus hundreds more script edits to give the 'shard a significantly expanded, "traditional UO-look". See the images and short video below that detail more on the Forestry Spaced desktop. Itemized documentation will be available inside the download, but another page of information is also linked to this page. Tthe website does contain a mountain of knowledge about the 'shard and all of that content is also in the edu Repack. You can also view several videos via the YouTube channel, as well: http://www.youtube.com/user/UOTheExpanse (Note: Some content has changed since the videos were published, but has not been removed, like color schemes or graphical updates.)

*Many tools are custom-wrtten to work with just UO files.

Join the Discord server for UO-The Expanse to read more about the edu Repack contents, plus get current news about repack updates. UO-The Expanse Discord: https://discord.gg/d6xUazt3t4

Q:

What is a Paladin, err, Repack?

A:

A repack, in this case, is a customized UO free shard that has been archived (stored in a ZIP or RAR file) for easy distribution, so others may run a "local" version of the repack contents. That is what the UO-The Expanse the (edu) Repack is; UO-The Expanse free shard added to a ZIP file for anyone to download and run their own "local" version of the 'shard. By "local" we are talking about running the 'shard from a home-based computer and not a publicly hosted web-server.

Q:

How much does it cost?

A:

The repack is free and comes with the custom client, plus the free shard software, which also includes a copy of the custom client. (It is recommended to use a duplicate installation of a local client to use for the free shard.)

Q:

How do I get the repack?

A:

There are a few things to download: client files (for running a local instance) and the scripts under 4GB, art files (PSDs and TIFFs) under 2GB, tutorial package under 100MB. Exact sizes will be posted once the packages are complete.

Q:

When will the repack be available?

A:

A Beta release is scheduled for the first week of December 2022, with a specific date being announced in a few weeks.
The edu Repack is currently available for download through MediaFire. (see the bottom of the page for the link)

Q:

How large is the entire edu Repack?

A:

Current contents put the archive total at 2.44GB. This is a single download, but split into smaller archive sections, and contains two sets of client files (one for running the local freeshards, and the other for PLAY as the local client). The two versions of the freeshard files are identical, except one set contains the Blue Magic Expansion, created by Peoharen, a.k.a. BKnight. One of the features of this repack is teaching. There is a lot of documentation that covers a variety of topics from working with UO graphics, to establishing and maintaining a 'shard economy, to creating storyarcs and custom content, althought not all of the teaching material has been installed yet*. In-game tutorials for XmlSpawner** will also be available in Green Acres, which is generally treated as a "Staff Member only" location. Overall, not much hardware is needed to run a 'shard, and any graphics program capable of Opening, Editing, and Saving BMPs, and TIFFs, can be used to work with UO graphics, but one that can handle layers is more helpful.

*A second document package will be released in 2023, which will also fill out the rest of the custom content information.

**The Xmlspawner Training System, or XTS, is a unique creation, but built to be installed on any other free shard that is running Xmlspawner, with or without all the XmlAddons installed. The files create Gumps that display information, as well as sample code for learning Xmlspawner on-the-fly. The XmlQuestNPCs cover different levels of the training so any one player can repeat any level at any time.

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