Shard Updates 6/12/23

The UO Evolution Shard project in now to be 12+ years old! It is truly hard to believe!

We are the only free shard that has live content updates every Friday for over a decade!  The staff has been also been very dedicated to entertaining all of the players, and to keep this a top FREE shard for everyone to enjoy...

UO Evolution has grown to massive proportions.  We now have a patch that is over 1 gig, thousands of accounts and millions of items.  I really never expected that this shard would continue to grow this large and be enjoyed by so many players around the world.  

Lately we have run into many software/hardware issues, that require upgrades.  We seem to have fixed the shard freezing we had last year after the forced server upgrade by our host.  The "upgrade" doubled our operating costs, created unexpected problems and required extra coding. Kane has coded a temporary solution for some of the issues, but it does require a lot more work to completely resolve.  The internet keeps evolving and forcing us to get new equipment/software to protect the shard from viruses and combat new hacks from the rise of AI

I have personally invested a lot of my personal time and money to keep this game alive for over a decade. I has been the great players and community that have kept me motivated with all of their support of this UO project.  

I have to make another big decision this week to make a substantial expenditure into the hosting, shard hardware, router, server, graphics card and a new, and firewall.  My costs have also substantially increased due to inflation and the need to buy new hardware.  I am also moving to a new host, which is now very expensive to run a shard of this size.  I am now asking for additional support from the community to make all of these improvements.

These new upgrades will help keep our "old" custom shard, current and relevant into the future so we can continue to stay a top shard

If you are able to donate to YOUR shard, this month would be a great time to contribute.  We have been busy planning the future expansion and development and are now in need of additional funding to complete the work.  I will be making some one-of-a kind donation rewards for everyone that specifically supports this upgrade and expansion

The projected cost is going to be over $2,500 in upgrades and expenses! As you can see, we are committed to this project. I would like to see the community come together and financially support this expansion and help take the shard to the next level

We are going to improve the shard by doing the following:

1. Upgrade to the current version of .NET 4
2. Create a Shard Launcher (Shard Custom Patch, choice of clients, .net framework all-in-one easy software package)
3. Upgrade the website
4. Upgrade the wiki (currently working on this)
5. Move the RunUO software from Windows 2012rc to current build Windows 2022 (completed, working out bugs)
6. Upgrade the graphics and add thousands of new images/items to the shard patch (completed)
7. Working on customizing the ClassicUO Client to work with our shard (in testing)
8. Upgrade the server, test server and hardware, workstation (upgraded the server and bought the workstation)
9. Purchase software licenses
10. New Hosting Company with customer service, prepay service, backups (currently working on this)

Kane has dedicated his time to improving and upgrading our project for the past 6 months, so please thank him for all the work 

The new equipment will allow us to keep adding new systems and features and any additional funds will go into new content, prepaid services and advertising

Again, thank you all for the continued support of this project!

Donate Here:
https://uoevo.com/wiki/Donations

Read our Donation Philosophy:
https://uoevo.com/wiki/Donation_Philosophy

Make a Monthly Subscription:
https://uoevo.com/wiki/Donations#Donation_Subscription