A couple of questions

[Menny]

Hello,
don't know if this is the right section to ask such questions, but i couldn't find the answers myself.

1) What is the difference between TMW server and eAthena server?

2) I've found that the development of Mana Mobile has started. Could someone tell at which stage the client is now? Could somebody give the answer, is it possible to play tmw from mobile phone under meebo and symbian, but it has many bugs, or it's possible to play tmw the same way as the windows client, without any critical bugs, or it's not possible to play it at all?

Thank you for all answers.

Regards,

Menny

[Bjørn]

1) eAthena is a Ragnarok Online server emulator that was picked for this project years ago. The TMW server, now called manaserv, is a new server written from scratch over the past years, with which we try to make it easier for us to create the game we really want. We can more easily write the features we want to have and make it easier to develop content for the server.

2) First off, it's possible to play the current TMW client (0.0.29.1) on an N900. It's not playable without using the stylus and it drains your battery fast, but it kind of works.

However, to improve the experience of playing TMW on a mobile phone, the Mana Mobile project was started based on Qt. This will allow us to develop a nice mobile UI and a generally mobile-ready client for both MeeGo and Symbian phones. However, this project is still in a very early development stage. It will take a few months at least until it becomes interesting for players. See this wiki page for more information:

http://doc.manasource.org/mana_mobile

(note that to reduce the development effort, only manaserv will be supported)

[Menny]

At first thank you for the detailed answer. I'm trying to understand which one of servers/clients will be better to use at the current moment. I had some experiences with ea ragnarok servers in the past, but to make a clear picture of the current situation between this two servers of tmw, could you please answer some technical questions.

1) I found this client - "ManaPlus (TMW Client Patch)", as it's said - ManaPlus is extended client for tmw and similar servers. Main difference is more features and more secured code. So as i've understood for now it's better to take this client, or i get something wrong?

2) The same client's page says - Support only eathena server. (Manaserv work with many bugs). So as it supports only ea server, it means that currently it's more stable and featured, and it's better to take ea, instead of tmw for the new server, or your statement - "(note that to reduce the development effort, only manaserv will be supported)" means the vice versa?

3) And could you tell a couple of words about current progress about all the clients/servers. Which one has the active development, and which one is currently stopped for development, and not recommended to use. Because i'm as the new one here, found many different clients/servers of the same game, and now completely confused which one should i take for the new project, in order it can be stable, features completed, get active support and future development. If you could give the links to the src of all your recommendations, would be grateful a lot to you.
Thank you.

Regards,
Menny

[Crush]

The ManaPlus client is an unofficial client. It is based on the official client, but has a lot of additional features targeted at powergamers playing on servers which use the old server softwar (eAthena). It is maintained by 4144, so it is sometimes nicknamed "4144 client". All of the features might be a bit confusing for new users, so I would recommend a beginner to use the oficial client.

Servers using the new server software (Manaserv) are currently only supported by the official client, but the Manasource server software is still in development and, in my opinion, not really playable yet. There already are servers online, but for real gameplay the old server software is still superior.


Regarding current development efforts: both the current eAthena TMW and the new TMW based on Manasource currently have active development communitys which work mostly independently but also exchange content and personnel.

[Matt]

Huh, Mana mobile? Why didn't anyone tell me?

edit: You started that back in May oO
Does it means TMW will be a launch title for the next big Nokia phone?

[Menny]

to Crush
Thank you for the detailed information that gives all the answers. But would like to clarify one thing in your words - "but for real game play the old server software is still superior." Does it mean that if i planing the server for many players, and want it to be more stable i should use the old ea server?
And could old ea, or new tmw host about 1-3 thousands players online at the same time?

Thank you.

Regards,

Menny

[bigglesworth]

Bjørn,

Where is the best place to follow Mana Mobile's development?

I know about http://doc.manasource.org/mana_mobile & http://gitorious.org/mana/manamobile.

I'm able to log on and drag the map inside the program window. I'm delighted. :-)

[Crush]

to Crush
Thank you for the detailed information that gives all the answers. But would like to clarify one thing in your words - "but for real game play the old server software is still superior." Does it mean that if i planing the server for many players, and want it to be more stable i should use the old ea server?

Depends.

When you want a playable server online in a week, go for eA.
When you are planning ahead and think rather in years than in weeks, you should go for Manaserv.

When we just implement half of the features we are planning you will have a server software which is a lot more flexible and has a lot more features than eAthena. Just the scripting language itself is already a reason to use Manaserv. But also note that eAthena was written for one purpose: simulating the game experience on the official Ragnarok Online servers as exact as possible. So a lot of features are hardcoded to fulfill this requirement. Manaserv, on the other hand, strives for allowing server admins to create their own game with their own game systems from scratch.

And could old ea, or new tmw host about 1-3 thousands players online at the same time?

AFAIK there are eA servers based on Ragnarok Online which have that many clients and are stable. But I don't know how many of those are flatfile based (our eA branched from the mainline eA before they added support for relational databases).

Regarding Manasource: although scalability is one of the requirements of Manaserv we hadn't got the opportunity to do a real stress test with more than a handful of users yet, so I can't promise anything.

[Menny]

Thank you again, you've cleared the confuse in my hand.

So the last question i suppose, could you tell me the place where i could get the up-to-date src of manaserv and it's client, the svn link where the development is going. I found this one http://gitorious.org/mana is this right place to go?

Thank you.

Regards,
Menny

[Crush]

Yes, that link is correct. (We are using Git for version control)

[Menny]

Thank you once again for all the information i've got.

[Matt]

<angryoldmanrant begin>

But I don't know how many of those are flatfile based (our eA branched from the mainline eA before they added support for relational databases).

That is not true, Elven just couldn't figure out how to use the RDB and/or the RDB support was damn-Chocolate Cupcake-broken at the time.

<angryoldmanrant end>

[Matt]

BTW, there is already a "Mana mobile" by Square, so don't let your ass get sued!

http://www.gamespot.com/mobile/rpg/mana ... index.html

[Crush]

BTW, there is already a "Mana mobile" by Square, so don't let your ass get sued!

http://www.gamespot.com/mobile/rpg/mana ... index.html

Interesting. That game looks exactly like the Game Boy game Final Fantasy Adventure (Mystic Quest in Europe) with new graphics (I loved that game when I was a kid).

[Menny]

Looking at those screens i can truly say that square mana sucks.