I'm curious to whether this is true, that classes that are a 'base' class or a 'derived' class must be registered as a reference type and cannot be registered as a value type. I am planning on expanding this example with more complex classes for my applications, but wanted to cover this before I moved on and have to rewrite code accordingly.

For example: (C++)

[source lang="cpp"]
class Base
{
public:
virtual void execute() = 0;
};

class Derived : public Base
{
public:
Derived();
~Derived();

virtual void execute();

int value;
};

[/source]

And this is how I registered them for angelscript NOTE: addRef() & Release() are left out for clarity.
(asOBJ_REF type)
[source lang="cpp"] // Register the derived type
result = asEngine->RegisterObjectType("derived", 0, asOBJ_REF ); assert( result >= 0 );
result = asEngine->RegisterObjectBehaviour("derived", asBEHAVE_ADDREF, "void addRef()", asMETHOD(Derived, addRef), asCALL_THISCALL); assert( result >= 0 );
result = asEngine->RegisterObjectBehaviour("derived", asBEHAVE_RELEASE, "void Release()", asMETHOD(Derived, Release), asCALL_THISCALL); assert( result >= 0 );
result = asEngine->RegisterObjectProperty("derived", "int value", asOFFSET(Derived, value)); assert( result >= 0 );
result = asEngine->RegisterObjectMethod("derived", "void execute()", asMETHOD(Derived, execute), asCALL_THISCALL); assert( result >= 0 );[/source]
And this is how I registered them for angelscript
(asOBJ_VALUE type)
[source lang="cpp"] result = asEngine->RegisterObjectType("derived", sizeof(Derived), asOBJ_VALUE | asOBJ_POD | asOBJ_APP_CLASS_CD); assert( result >= 0 );
result = asEngine->RegisterObjectProperty("derived", "int value", asOFFSET(Derived, value)); assert( result >= 0 );
result = asEngine->RegisterObjectMethod("derived", "void execute()", asMETHOD(Derived, execute), asCALL_THISCALL); assert( result >= 0 );[/source]

When I use the asOBJ_REF version of the code it works properly, but when I use the asOBJ_VALUE version I receive a access violation. So my question is whether this is true or am I registering the value type version incorrectly?

It says here that hierarchies are only supported for reference types. I think this is because a cast must be able to return a null handle if the cast fails, which can't be done with value types.

That much aside, why are you registering the value type with asOBJ_POD? A POD data structure can only hold other POD types (int, float, char and pointer), and can't have a destructor. That might what your problem actually is, since it looks as though you aren't trying to cast between base and derived types anyway.