Mana/TMW Development Weekly Summary

[Bertram]

Hi everyone,

After some thoughts about it, I've decided to create a thread where I'll post news about what's going on, weekly.

Other people are invited to help me into it, as the development of a MMORPG doesn't only concern code, but also content, graphics, scripts, quests, sysadmin tasks, and so on.
Plus, this thread will relate about what is happening in TMW, but also in the manasource project (notably the Mana client), as the two projects are part of a big family anyway, whatever people are saying.

The news posting will be kept short, informal, and spoiler-free, most of the time!

I already thank everyone supporting this idea and bringing news here. You rock guys/girls!!

Stay tuned!

[Bertram]

Dev Week 2011 03.28 / 04.03:

There were several fixes and optimizations for Manaserv:
- Optimizations on the game server sync buffer
- Codes cleanups on game handler and the chathandler
- A crash fix on guild leaving
- Fix on character selection

The Mana client isn't left behind as work on merging the movement code is going on.
Cody also fixed zombies appearing in the character dialog for Manaserv.

Also, even if it's still unofficial as no news has been posted, the TMW 0.5.1 windows installer
has been added in the downloads page! Thanks to everyone involved in bringing that!! Enjoy!

Best regards.

[Jenalya]

Bertram, thank you for this idea.
I think, this thread gives a good room for keeping the community up to date about development progress and adding some transparency.

I might give a short overview about what was added with the recent content update:
- You can ask Luca now on which skill you are focused on.
- Lena points you to Tulimshar if you want to start her quest, but didn't finished the pre-quests before.
- Cindy and the yeti battle is on an extra map on which you can't log in (like in the Candor fight map).
- Parua offers the possibility to make announcments for Candor.

And a little outlook at what will be coming in near future:
- Easter Event is nearly finished and is planned for 15th to 30th April.
- Golbenez is about to finally keep his promise about his place of leisure.

Also we're gathering ideas about a new structure in the quests to add some storyline, beginning with a new village to start the game in, as already pointed out in the accordant threads. Note that this is still in very early development.

[Jumpy]

hello,

French translation for latest mana client has been done 100 %
reviewed all the existing translation in french too.

waiting to install it with translation pushed to reviewed in context each sentence.

[Byakushin]

As a representative of the press, I heartily endorse this idea! I have advertised this thread on the Manapress blog (http://manapress.wordpress.com/). Will continue to provide irregular, mangled and strange summaries of any topics brought to my attention here!

I also think this thread serves a purpose (and crowd - particularly the easier access to publish for developers) different from the blog so I hope for a prolonged and productive coexistence for these two. If you want to write up a post for the blog at any point, please don't hesitate to drop Wombat (or me, if there's ever a time when I'm more easy to reach) a note!

[Bertram]

Hi!

Dev Report - Week 2011.04.04 / 2011.04.10:

Manaserv:
- Drop rates handling was fixed thanks to Cody.
- Code cleanups by Thorbjorn.

Mana 1.0:
- A lot of code and doc cleanups by Thorbjorn and Cody (for the Code::blocks update).

Mana 0.5.1:
- A large amount of work has been done to be able to bring a windows release of the mana and tmw client
thanks to some nice team work.
- As told by Byakushin and Jumpy. Translations were updated.

Website:
- We also fixed the irrelevant links we found here and there on the website.

Stay tuned!

[Jenalya]

In the eAthena content development, the last testing, reviewing and improving of the Easter Event was done by alastrim, Kandiman, enchilado, Pjotr Orial and me.
Thanks to Tiana for conceiving and scripting.

Beside of that we're working on a more detailed idea of the quest rebalancing and a tutorial quest.

Also, Baseballboy joined our team and is working on the maps for the tutorial area and new snow maps.

[Bertram]

Hi!

A lot of amazing work has been made this week, including a new release!

Dev Report - Week 2011.04.11 / 2011.04.17:

Manaserv:
- Thorbjorn made some nice advancement on equipment handling with unofficially supporting the loading of an arbitrary number of slots in manaserv and making the client able to display what's equipped or not. Still WIP, though. More to come.
- With the work on equipment handling done, we discovered and fixed two bugs linked to database updates for equipment in the account handler.
- Thorbjorn also fixed a nasty bug present at beings creation leading to some random crashs in the game-server.
- Cody also made some nice work on attribute code cleanups, and other smaller code cleanups.
- Finally, I fixed another nasty bug leading to the monsters movement speed to be never calculated and added better debug log report in the game-server + some smaller code cleanups.

Mana 1.0 (TmwAthena + Manaserv client):
- Jaxad also disabled the sprite caching, preparing the addition of it for OpenGL and fixed the sit action timing for the Manaserv client.
- More work was made on the movement merging effort. I guess we're close to be finished now. 2 years and a half old milestone almost ready, hurray!
- I added a non-blocking fade-out and play system for music when changing maps, and a position check system for Manaserv, verifying the actual position of beings every 5 seconds or so, and fixing their positions if it was too different.

Mana 0.5.2 (TmwAthena only client):
- Cody removed annoying trade messages spam, and fixed the buy window to properly display the number of buyable items, and many other smaller fixes.
- He also changed the portable behaviour to save its config in the settings/ folder.
- o11c also permitted us to add better authentication failures reasons in the tAthena client, helping people understand better what's going on, and also fixed client HURD compilation.
- And finally, the 0.5.2 client version was release as the new official latest TMW client, with the above feature included!

See you next week!

[Jenalya]

In this week I fixed a conflict of the Easter Quest and the Speed Skill minigame in pachua.
o11c, thanks for reporting.

Baseballboy improved the maps that are planned to be used for the tutorial.

Alastrim did some changes in the Graveyard Inn content, which is planned to be released at the beginning of May.
To avoid disappointments I'd like to mention here, that this release won't include the Reaper yet, but some other quests adressed to high level players.

In May another event is planned on which I'm working on. You might want to read a book to be prepared for it, so you DON'T PANIC when being asked some questions by the event npc.
Thanks to everyone who helped brainstorming for a new reward.

[Bertram]

Hi!

Dev Report - Week 2011.04.24 / 2011.04.18:

Nothing big this week, but yet, I added scriptable items support in Manaserv.
Some work is in preparation, but I'll say more when it comes into committable state.

Stay tuned!

[Jenalya]

In eAthena content development:

- we're working on the event planned in May, that means some scripting by Ali-G, enchilado and me, and some new graphics by enchilado.
- alastrim added a nice option to the banker function, that will allow you to choose if you want the NPC dialogue to close after opening your storage.
- Ali-G fixed an error in the Wizard Hat spritesheet.


I'd like to note here that I'm only posting about projects I'm either involved in or whose developers gave me their explicit ok to do so.

[Jumpy]

Hi

French translation and revision completed and sent for next update.

thanks for making any comment on french translation in mp

Sincerly

[Crush]

I've added a scriptable crafting system to Manaserv. Currently it is still chat-controlled, but thanks to the scripting engine it is already very flexible and allows a server administrator to do a lot of stuff.
http://doc.manasource.org/crafting

[Bertram]

Hi,

Dev Report - Week 2011.04.25 / 2011.05.01:

The work done this week is quite amazing

- First of all, I'm pleased to say that the new movement handling code has been merged in the currently named master version of the mana client. This means smoother movement handling for remote players (the guys playing with you, but also the monsters), and for your own character!!

This isn't perfect, but it's a great step forward for us as it's making it look a bit more professional now, simplifies the code by removing duplications there, and removes most movement glitches seen so far.
You can already try it using a nightly build for instance:
http://nightlies.manasource.org/

- I also added on hit and on critical hit custom effects support for the master client, which means that content developers will now be able to specifiy the particle effect seen on and the sound heard when hitting a monster, for instance.

- The master client is now also animating your character attacks with the actual attack speed on tAthena. Remote players will keep the default speed as the server isn't sending the information for them.
This will soon be fixed in Manaserv, though.

- nmaligec also pointed out that the target circle files weren't installed in cmake builds. This is now fixed.

- Cody unleashed its coding powers and fixed no less than 10 bugs and crash courses in the client.

- There were a few other minor bugfixes done by thorbjorn and Jaxad, too.

- And don't forget Crush's and jumpy's work (Details above)!

- Something else to notice: A lot of good team work has been also done last week. I thank particulary thorbjorn for its review time taken.

- Last but not least, the next version of the mana client, hence of TMW, will be the 0.6 version, including all the new features in it, but still excluding manaserv support for now. This will permit you to get the new features much quicker than first planned, and will permit us to get more feedback about the new features.

See you next week.

[Jenalya]

Yesterday we made a release of new content.

This includes the GY Inn with a lot of new quests adressed to high level players. Most scripting work on this was done by alastrim, TheKandiman and me before this thread started, but release got delayed for several reasons.
Ali-G corrected some mapping errors in the inn.

Dark_Mage made a new daily quest for low level players, maybe you should visit the Tulimshar bakery again.

This is a good opportunity to also have a walk on Tulimshar beaches. You might find a mysterious stranger who can give you a hint on another event that'll take place soon.

Ali-G lighted up the color of gems in the icon for gemrings, so now you can differentiate them better. And he started some reorganzing of our graphics folder which helps a lot to get a better overview in there.

alastrims option in the Banker script I mentioned last week got in too.

Thanks to TheKandiman for checking all the scripts for spelling and grammar errors and writing the news for this release.