Highly Performant & Scalable Ultima Online Server Emulator https://www.modernuo.com
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Kamron Batman 8e39da2810
fix: creatures track and chase targets reliably around corners (#2590)
### Summary

Fixes the long-standing reports of monsters losing track of players who run around a corner ("Is monster AI not using pathfinding? It seems to be LOS blocked by statics"). Root-cause investigation compared current behavior against RunUO line-by-line and traced the regressions through the AI overhaul era (#2232, #2246, #2379, #2401, #2461).

### Root causes and fixes

1. **Movement contract** — `MoveTo`/`ApproachTarget` returned false on every healthy mid-chase tick (true only on arrival), so MeleeAI's RunUO-inherited *"move failed and beyond RangePerception+1 → Guard"* clause — which RunUO only evaluated on genuine blockage — fired **every tick of every chase**. A mounted player trivially opens 17 tiles at a corner, the monster guards, Guard nulls the combatant, and re-acquisition is LOS-gated — unrecoverable through a wall. Movement now reports failure only on genuine failure (no step taken with no working path, or approach give-up). ArcherAI's equivalent clause moves to the hard leash.

2. **Last-known-position pursuit** — while a combatant is in LOS its position is recorded each think tick. When the target vanishes (corner, hiding, recall), the creature walks to the last-seen spot, stands guard there ~10s (restoring RunUO's guard grace, which had decayed to a single tick since #2246), and **re-engages instantly** if the same target re-enters view — bypassing the 10s reacquire throttle.

3. **`ChaseLeashRange`** — new virtual on BaseCreature (default `RangePerception * 2` = 32 tiles) replaces the inline `RangePerception * 3` (48) in Melee/Mage/Archer AI. Per-creature tunable via `[props`.

4. **Group movement demoted to a crowding refinement** — previously any uncontrolled creature with one ally within 8 tiles on the same target used greedy ring-stepping for the *entire* chase, with wall-slides counted as success, never invoking the pathfinder — the "aggroed but won't come around the corner" symptom for spawn groups. It now engages only near the target when allies actually contest the ring, and blocked/wall-slid steps escalate to the pathfinding approach primitive.

5. **Mages close distance on broken LOS** — a mage within casting range but LOS-blocked by geometry stood at the wall holding a spell target until the 60s combatant expiry (ProcessTarget short-circuits Think and its RunTo stands off at RangeFight). Geometry-blocked mages now close in until LOS returns, both pre-cast and while holding a target. Hidden targets (CanSee) and poison-cure priority unchanged. The new movement contract also stops the constant spurious `OnFailedMove` teleport rolls mid-chase.

6. **Move budget: one actual step per AI tick** — nothing advanced `NextMove` on a normal step (RunUO's `m_NextMove` budget was lost), so code paths attempting several moves in one think tick could cross multiple tiles at once — visible as "warping" when crowded creatures jockey for position. A successful step now consumes a half-step budget (floor 50ms): blocks intra-tick double moves, stays safely below the timer interval so legitimate next-tick moves are never jitter-throttled, and does not reintroduce `TransformMoveDelay` inflation. Blocked attempts consume nothing, so retry ladders (repath-and-step, the collision fan) are unaffected. `CanMoveNow` is also wraparound-safe now.

### Reference behavior

RunUO requires LOS to *acquire* a target and to *land* a hit or spell — never to *continue* a chase (its MeleeAI LOS bail-out is literally commented out in stock code). Chases drop only on: target hidden, target dead/off-map, beyond `RangePerception * 3`, 60s without combat interaction, or blocked movement while far away. This PR restores those semantics while adding the last-known-position investigation on top. NPC run flags are untouched — pace is AI-timer-driven and most NPC art has no run animation.
2026-08-23 01:13:00 -07:00
.config feat: adopt serialization generator v4 (field-side linkage, anchored timers) (#2586) 2026-08-22 17:54:02 -07:00
.github fix: Require only runtime packages on Linux, and check ICU and tzdata the way the runtime does (#2561) 2026-08-07 15:03:08 -07:00
branding feat(build-tool): add application icon and refresh MUO.ico (#2487) 2026-06-14 11:59:54 -07:00
dev-docs docs: update serialization docs and skills for generator v4 (#2588) 2026-08-22 18:29:27 -07:00
Distribution/Data fix(throwing): grant Str/Dex stat gains for the Throwing skill (#2514) 2026-07-02 23:07:36 -07:00
Projects fix: creatures track and chase targets reliably around corners (#2590) 2026-08-23 01:13:00 -07:00
tools feat(network): allowlist false-positive IPs, escalate on behavior (#2556) 2026-07-30 23:12:17 -07:00
.cursorrules chore: Adds AI instructions and SKILLs for ModernUO codebase (#2347) 2026-03-01 11:42:19 -08:00
.editorconfig chore(docs): Adds UnmanagedDataReader & BinaryFileReader documentation (#1968) 2024-10-01 17:07:51 -07:00
.gitattributes fix: Adds migration checks to CICD, updates dependencies, adds Fedora 37, alpine 3.17 support (#1309) 2022-12-22 12:12:47 -08:00
.gitignore perf: Sleep the event loop when idle. Fixes networking micro-stalls. Adds event loop instrumentation. (#2559) 2026-08-09 13:24:59 -07:00
AGENTS.md chore: Adds AI instructions and SKILLs for ModernUO codebase (#2347) 2026-03-01 11:42:19 -08:00
azure-pipelines.yml chore: Cleans workflows for NodeJS 24 (#2394) 2026-03-28 21:55:29 -07:00
CLAUDE.md docs: update serialization docs and skills for generator v4 (#2588) 2026-08-22 18:29:27 -07:00
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md Create CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md 2020-05-05 08:51:39 -07:00
CONTRIBUTING.md chore(license): Removes CLA requirement. All contributors moving forward will retain copyright. (#2038) 2024-12-31 02:52:58 -08:00
Directory.Build.props feat: Bumps dependencies. Introduces Serialization Generator v3 (#2584) 2026-08-22 15:48:53 -07:00
FAQ.md docs: Updates FAQ for time zone issues. (#1368) 2023-03-10 00:18:36 -08:00
GEMINI.md chore: Adds AI instructions and SKILLs for ModernUO codebase (#2347) 2026-03-01 11:42:19 -08:00
global.json feat: Adds Build Tool for Publishing/Setup (#2392) 2026-03-28 21:21:50 -07:00
LICENSE Fixes more line ending issues (#267) 2020-09-27 13:54:56 -07:00
ModernUO.slnx feat: Adds Build Tool for Publishing/Setup (#2392) 2026-03-28 21:21:50 -07:00
publish.cmd feat: Adds Build Tool for Publishing/Setup (#2392) 2026-03-28 21:21:50 -07:00
publish.ps1 fix: Adds stamp check for build tool versioning (#2400) 2026-04-06 16:18:02 -06:00
publish.sh fix: Adds stamp check for build tool versioning (#2400) 2026-04-06 16:18:02 -06:00
README.md chore: Simplify server requirements section in README (#2582) 2026-08-21 19:22:04 -07:00
rider-settings.zip Cleanup/Housekeeping (#242) 2020-09-12 15:31:21 -07:00
Rules.ruleset chore(docs): Adds UnmanagedDataReader & BinaryFileReader documentation (#1968) 2024-10-01 17:07:51 -07:00
SPONSORS.md chore: Updates readme files (#2247) 2025-07-27 11:04:32 -07:00
stylecop.json Updates formatting rules (#199) 2020-08-25 18:00:51 -07:00
THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES docs: Adds RunUO-Encryption notice attribution to DarkStorm (#2369) 2026-03-12 23:35:47 -07:00
version.json feat: Adds Build Tool for Publishing/Setup (#2392) 2026-03-28 21:21:50 -07:00

ModernUO - Ultima Online Server Emulator for the modern era!

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Ultima Online Server Emulator for the modern era!

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Requirements

Supported Operating Systems

Windows 10/11/2012 R2/2016/2019/2022/2025 MacOS 14+ Debian 12+ Ubuntu 22+ LTS
Alpine 3.22+ Fedora 42+ RedHat 9+ CentOS Stream 9+ AlmaLinux 10 openSUSE 15.6+ SUSE Enterprise 15 SP6 Linux Mint 21+ Arch

Required Frameworks

All Operating Systems

.NET

Windows

VC++ Redistributable v14

Hardware

Use vCPU RAM Storage
Development / test 2 dedicated 2 GB SSD
Small live shard (< 50 concurrent) 4 dedicated 4 GB NVMe
Medium (50200) 48 8 GB NVMe
Large (200+) 8+, high clock 16 GB+ NVMe

See dev-docs/server-requirements.md for more information.

Development

git .NET

Supported IDEs

Jetbrains Rider 2025.3+ space VSCode space Visual Studio 2026

Getting Started

  • Install prerequisite requirements
  • Clone this repository (or download the latest):
    • git clone https://github.com/modernuo/ModernUO.git
  • Open ModernUO.sln to start developing

Building/Publishing

Run ./publish.cmd (Windows) or ./publish.sh (Linux/macOS) with no arguments to launch the guided build tool. It will:

  • Check prerequisites (.NET SDK, native libraries)
  • Walk you through configuration and platform selection
  • Build and publish the server to the Distribution directory
  • Show deployment instructions for cross-compiled builds

Command Line

./publish.cmd [release|debug] [os] [arch]

Linux Prerequisites

Fedora, CentOS, RHEL, AlmaLinux, Rocky, etc

dnf upgrade --refresh -y
# RHEL-family distributions (CentOS Stream, AlmaLinux, Rocky, RHEL) need CRB and EPEL enabled.
# Fedora skips this block.
dnf install -y dnf-plugins-core
dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb
dnf install -y epel-release
# Prerequisites
dnf install -y findutils libicu libdeflate libargon2 tzdata

Ubuntu, Debian, etc

apt-get update -y
# The ICU runtime package carries the ABI version in its name (libicu74, libicu76, …) and has no
# stable alias, so match it by pattern rather than pinning a release-specific name.
apt-get install -y '^libicu[0-9]+$' libdeflate0 libargon2-1 tzdata

Only the runtime libraries are needed — the -dev/-devel packages are not. Run ./build-tool --check-prereqs to check the current machine and print the exact packages your release needs.

zstd is not listed because ZstdNet bundles libzstd for every platform, and liburing is not listed because IORingGroup issues io_uring syscalls directly.

If the shard's configured time zone is a legacy alias such as US/Eastern, Debian 12 and Ubuntu 24.04 also need tzdata-legacy. See Platform Prerequisites for what each dependency is for and what breaks without it.

OSX Requirements

brew install icu4c libdeflate argon2

Running the Server

  • Follow the publish instructions
  • The Distribution directory is portable — copy it to your production server for deployment
  • Run ModernUO.exe or dotnet ModernUO.dll from the Distribution directory
  • On first run, the server will prompt you to configure game data file locations

Troubleshooting / FAQ

Want to sponsor?

Thank you for supporting us! You can find out how by visiting the sponsors page.

Collaborators

Kamron Batman Mark1145

Thanks

  • RunUO Team & Community
  • Voxpire, the ServUO Team & Community
  • Karasho, Jaedan and the ClassicUO Community



Development Tools & Plugins provided with ♥ by

JetBrains
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Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation.

This program will not transfer any information to other networked systems unless specifically requested by the user or the person installing or operating it

Teams & Roles

Approvers & Committers: Development Team