Page 2 of 4

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 25 Dec 2012, 22:48
by Nard
Matt wrote:Well, I read the documentation, I know what the abbreviations stand for, I was just speaking from the standpoint of new users
Good point, now it is time to give it a try, and you will see that it isn't much more difficult to play than mana client.
The WTF was a pun, it stands for what it usually stands for.
oh !?

If you still have questions, It wil be a pleasure for many manaplus users as myself to help you in game as we do it everyday for new players. The same applies to all project members and players who didn't try it yet. :)

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 26 Dec 2012, 21:43
by Big Crunch
i would support this move. Provided we: A. Have an ubuntu like Long Term Stable client and B. Do something about the Alphabet Soup at the top of the screen. Something like that is necessary IMO, and will prevent super new features from being introduced server side. That said it could be a good thing to have major server and client releases only be separated by a month or two on a yearly schedule. Icons substituted for the jumble of letters or hidden away in a menu or hotkeys would clean up the look and make it more palatable.

BC

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 27 Dec 2012, 06:00
by Alige
Big Crunch wrote:Do something about the Alphabet Soup at the top of the screen. Something like that is necessary IMO, and will prevent super new features from being introduced server side. [...] Icons substituted for the jumble of letters or hidden away in a menu or hotkeys would clean up the look and make it more palatable.
Greetings Big Crunch, we indeed intent to create new icons for that menu, that work is in progress. Futhermore, much more will be replaced, in the setup window, by icons. It is just a matter of time and since there are very few developers for the ManaPlus client, it takes more time than you think. Be aware that we are doing our best, using deep brainstorms, in order to make ManaPlus be a much more user-friendly client. That isn't a piece of cake if you consider the number of features that client currently has, which is really amazing.

I maybe misunderstood your intentions, and I apologize for that, but I think you should stick to giving help, hints or ideas, like you always do, instead of criticizing this project ("alphabet soup"), because the fact is that ManaPlus is the best client ever made for games such as The Mana World. I am sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that 4144 would be pleased to hear all you have to say about his client, and your help would certainly be most welcome, considering your skills.

Best regards,
--Alige

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 28 Dec 2012, 16:59
by Big Crunch
Ali-G wrote: I maybe misunderstood your intentions, and I apologize for that, but I think you should stick to giving help, hints or ideas, like you always do, instead of criticizing this project ("alphabet soup"), because the fact is that ManaPlus is the best client ever made for games such as The Mana World. I am sure, without a shadow of a doubt, that 4144 would be pleased to hear all you have to say about his client, and your help would certainly be most welcome, considering your skills.

Best regards,
--Alige
You misunderstood my intentions.

BC

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 28 Dec 2012, 19:20
by Frost
ManaPlus has a nicely packaged client for the Mac, while manasource has effectively dropped support for the platform. ManaPlus thus has slightly broader platform support.

To my knowledge, the only specific advantage of the manasource client is that it's available in Linux software repositories. Can we try to get ManaPlus added to the major distros (maybe Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora, and FreeBSD ports)?

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 06:56
by Ablu
Mana client has not dropped Mac OS X. Socapex (who did the ManaPlus builds now) first provided a easy way to compile mana on Mac OS X (http://doc.manasource.org/compile_mana_from_source#os_x). But of course having a complete ready and compiled version is way better especially for not that technically adepted people.

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 15:05
by blackrazor
cody wrote: Just to state the obvious: Those repositories brought almost all of us here.
I wasn't brought here by any specific OS repository. I was a member of the Eathena community, also actively playing Ragnarok Online shards powered by Eathena RO emulation. But I was looking for a legal alternative and original artistry, and was advised on the Eathena forums to try out TheManaWorld. That was back in 2007.

As for the topic at hand, I think that 4144 (and friends) have put an enormous amount of hard work and love into making a client that well supports the TMWathena server and also gives many players the options they want. Could the interface be improved? Certainly. But from information in this thread, they are already hard at work on that, too. Kudos to them. :)

Why does there have to be only one official client? Couldn't we have two?

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 15:19
by argul
blackrazor wrote:
Why does there have to be only one official client? Couldn't we have two?
Why not none?

We should not care if you Mana, ManaPlus, ManaBot or yet other clients are used.
The server (of TMW) is not changed lately, so the basic functions to play are already in a broad number of clients.

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 15:24
by Ablu
Well TMW should always tell new users to play with the client that offers the best gameplay and the best gaming experience. Not mentioning any client (and probably mentioning multiple clients) could confuse users i think

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 15:28
by blackrazor
argul wrote: Why not none?
Players see a game through the client, and to a lesser extent, the forums and website. A game with no official client will have trouble attracting new players. You have to point them somewhere, so they can play the game. Where you officially point them, makes it official (in my opinion, anyways).

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 15:35
by Jenalya
blackrazor wrote:
argul wrote: Why not none?
Players see a game through the client, and to a lesser extent, the forums and website. A game with no official client will have trouble attracting new players. You have to point them somewhere, so they can play the game. Where you officially point them, makes it official (in my opinion, anyways).
Additionally, we might want to introduce new features int he future, which will need to be supported by server and client (e.g. active skills). For those kind of features the client we consider the official needs to support the feature in some versions before actually introducing it.

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 15:39
by 4144
Jenalya wrote:[Additionally, we might want to introduce new features int he future, which will need to be supported by server and client (e.g. active skills). For those kind of features the client we consider the official needs to support the feature in some versions before actually introducing it.
ManaPlus already support active skils (Skills what can be used like attack aciton)
Server support limited number of this skills too. (not very usable, but supported)

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 18:41
by meway
I use the old client. Manaplus needs a pdf instruction manual. So I'm against it unless manaPlus wants to support only tmw-eathena and drop unnecessary features (by this I mean functionality for mana-serv). Maybe provide two clients one for basic users and one for advanced. Thats just my opinion and pref.

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 18:47
by Crush
meway wrote:Maybe provide two clients one for basic users and one for advanced. Thats just my opinion and pref.
This could be done more easily by having an "advanced" checkbox in the options menu which unlocks the more obscure features.

Re: serious proposal to make ManaPlus the only official clie

Posted: 29 Dec 2012, 19:26
by 4144
meway wrote:I use the old client. Manaplus needs a pdf instruction manual. So I'm against it unless manaPlus wants to support only tmw-eathena and drop unnecessary features (by this I mean functionality for mana-serv). Maybe provide two clients one for basic users and one for advanced. Thats just my opinion and pref.
ManaPlus dropped manaserv support long ago