Event: Blanc's Trial

[jesusalva]

DISCLAIMER: This is an inter-server event. Rewards may be claimed on both The Mana World Classic and Moubootaur Legends. The event may change without prior warning at any time, if deemed necessary by staff. You can participate in this event if you play in any (or all) of those:

• TMW Classic

• Moubootaur Legends

• TMW rEvolt

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blanc23.png (150.28 KiB) Viewed 21810 times

When? July 26th (Trial Date) ~ July 31st (???)
Where? Moubootaur Legends' Superior Courtroom (server.moubootaurlegends.org Port 6901) (Trial only) The Crossroads (Mana Launcher/Part II only)

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Kytty, a Game Master, has caught Blanc and issued a ban for all his crimes against Manakind! However, Blanc appealed, and The Mana World Team in its infinite foolishness wisdom decided to grant him a Council Trial. What could possibly go wrong?

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About Part I: The Courtroom is located in Moubootaur Legends' server, Tulimshar, Magic Council, 3rd floor. On July 26th, 1900 UTC, staff and players will reunite to judge Blanc for his crimes against manakind.

Charges:

Spoiler:

• Smuggling unobtainable items,

• trading for real money,

• scamming,

• begging,

• cheating,

• abusing bugs,

• illegal use of the Mirror Lake to obtain undue advantage over other players,

• theft (stolen ship? stolen goods?),

• botting; and

• environmental pollution (leaving shipwrecks behind in different servers! Unbelievable!)

Note: You can skip the quest requirements by disabling the tutorial in @ucp. However, you still need to pay the travel money fee.

About Part II: Details haven't been disclosed yet. We'll see what happens during the trial!

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Mana Launcher Beta Release

To participate completely in this event, you'll need to use the Mana Launcher. It just reached beta, it really needs testing, and the event is a great opportunity to have it mass tested before it eventually finds its way into Steam.

It is necessary for Part II only, but it is now available, as early as Part I. The Mana Launcher (aka. "overhead") allows you to make use of Mirror Lake features.

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/JvwkpRWVDPk
Installation instructions: https://wiki.themanaworld.org/wiki/Installation

Download buttons are on installation page; do read the instructions carefully, or you may end up finding yourself in a limbo state. Sysadmin appreciation day is on July 28th, bring us sysadmins some cake and we'll happily fix whatever mess you get yourself into for not reading the instructions.

While the account is linked, you'll not be able to use ManaPlus directly to login. However, if you didn't like the Mana Launcher, you can unlink your account once the event is over. This will revert the changes made by the Mana Launcher. You'll not be able to link it again if you already set it as your home world.

In any case: You can contact staff if you need help. We're always over IRC, Discord, forums, and in every server. Have fun!

[AnonDuck]

Ban him!
Or even worse: Make him a developer!

[Livio]

That stuff doesn't work on this vegan computer and I can't even open that video.
So I cloned https://cgit.themanaworld.org/launcher/renpy/ and launched it.
It complains that there's no graphic acceleration despite ManaPlus actually worked nicely for years here.
So, I got this launcher using twice the RAM to tell me that I don't have the right drivers to choose from a menu.
You chatted about a text interface alternative but I haven't found it.

Spoiler:

I forgot the name of the guy who installed ManaPlus in a some sort of DIY portable console.

[jesusalva]

That stuff doesn't work on this vegan computer and I can't even open that video.
So I cloned https://cgit.themanaworld.org/launcher/renpy/ and launched it.
It complains that there's no graphic acceleration despite ManaPlus actually worked nicely for years here.
So, I got this launcher using twice the RAM to tell me that I don't have the right drivers to choose from a menu.
You chatted about a text interface alternative but I haven't found it.

Spoiler:

I forgot the name of the guy who installed ManaPlus in a some sort of DIY portable console.

Try running it from Ren'Py 7.3.5 which still has SDL support and is mostly compatible. It'll likely require you to remove a few lines (two settings in options.rpy and an if clause in soul.rpy) though.

The command line version might be outdated; it was lite.py script.

[asuratva]

Out of curiosity, why use Ren'Py for Mana Launcher? AFAIK, it's an engine designed specifically for visual novels. Seems an unusual choice for simply launching Manaverse.

[jesusalva]

Out of curiosity, why use Ren'Py for Mana Launcher? AFAIK, it's an engine designed specifically for visual novels. Seems an unusual choice for simply launching Manaverse.

Cost-skill-benefit, truly. With current staffing, their skill sets and time availability, Ren'Py provided the least cost in setting up the interface for the most benefit (incl. in "not spending five years doing it" ─ it already took two and I'm not going to give it a third).

The core functionality is actually a REST API which is somewhat documented and could also be written in better languages ─ and full of bloat from a dozen failed attempts and features which turned out to be infeasible. In theory, if someone with decent skills in any other front-end language and a year available (would be roughly two or three months when full time, which for FLOSS games means a year), they could somewhat trivially rewrite the Mana Launcher without much work. Heck, without even using much if any code from the Ren'Py project itself.

[asuratva]

Ah, that makes sense.

In retrospect, it's pretty obvious and I should've guessed as much
Thanks for taking the time to answer the question anyway

[jesusalva]

Blanc escaped!

But the GM Team is on his track, he can't have gotten far!

All players should arm themselves in the Crossroads Server (all your equipment from the Home World will be on storage).

We will find him, and slay him for the final time!

The event happens from July 28th to July 31st.
* Having a Mana Launcher account with a Home World is necessary to enter in the Crossroads.
** Remember to buy consumables and cards with Nico Goethe to maximize your power. Cards can be inserted in weapons.
*** EXP and GP from Crossroads won't be ported.
**** The bounty will be paid by TMWT in all servers.

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→ Watch the trial

[jesusalva]

We found Blanc!

He hid inside an abandoned Castle and locked it down. We'll be setting one of the portals to the forest where he the castle is at.

ManaPlus_Screenshot_cr.themanaworld.org_2023-07-27_21-40-48_1.png (184.38 KiB) Viewed 21438 times

We believe that in order to assault the creepy main castle he is hiding at, each adventurer will need to individually go through a pentagram's trial and kill probably 3 (three) of his top henchman and steal the keys. We also believe that dying inside the dungeon will make the keys to disappear and force a start over.

So, to make sure our efforts are not thwarted, we'll convene today, at 19:00 UTC, for a joint effort.

Note: The event will be available until the 31st, but the staff will be there when the event starts at 19:00, so if any balancing issue is found, it'll be fixed during this push. Remember to buy consumables, and remember Crossroads has more consumables such as potions which temporarily increase stats, scrolls which heal party members, and much more. Do not be afraid of spending money in these.

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1. Enter the portal portrayed in the image; It is the gift house ─ first portal in event area

2. Retrieve at least 3 keys from the same pentagram dungeon

3. Assault the Castle where Blanc is hiding ─ the creepy looking one, I mean!

4. Find, and defeat, Blanc

A hard mode is available, but it offers no extra rewards. Blanc will regenerate if there are no players on the boss room. Monsters inside the castle will re-spawn continuously, but other monsters will respawn only at set times.

[Wellvin]

Mana Launcher displays a "Performance Warning" page that reports "This computer is using software rendering". But there is no button "Accept low performance & continue". All it allows is quit.

[jesusalva]

Mana Launcher displays a "Performance Warning" page that reports "This computer is using software rendering". But there is no button "Accept low performance & continue". All it allows is quit.

That's because Ren'Py 8+ (with Python 3) does not support software rendering.
Still possible if you use Ren'Py 7 (which also downgrades to Python 2).

I believe the code is somewhat compatible with Python 2, so I compiled a version in Ren'Py 7.4.11 ─ you might want to try it out. (keep the manaplus folder if you already have it)

https://files.catbox.moe/y98ram.zip

It was not tested so don't blame me if it explodes
And don't try to link/unlink the Crossroads ─ it will not work and if it does, it'll cause a possibly unrecoverable damage.

[Wellvin]

Ren'Py developers are taking a wrong direction because visual novel players expect those games to run on low-spec computers.

I ran Mana Launcher on a computer that has hardware rendering. Screens where I need to type text (like mail address and password) are impossible to work with because Ren'Py interprets key press as commands: "v" changes some voice settings and "h" hides the screen by making it black.

How can I connect to the Crossroads Server directly with ManaPlus and not use Mana Launcher ?

[jesusalva]

I ran Mana Launcher on a computer that has hardware rendering. Screens where I need to type text (like mail address and password) are impossible to work with because Ren'Py interprets key press as commands: "v" changes some voice settings and "h" hides the screen by making it black.

There's no auto focus, you must click on the text field to interact with it. Copy paste also works, if you're wondering, but you must select text fields. They're clumsy, I know. There used to be a web interface, it is currently buried in the crypt, no longer runs and was shut down.

How can I connect to the Crossroads Server directly with ManaPlus and not use Mana Launcher ?

You can't. Actually, there is a text only wrapper, but you can't link accounts from it.

[Wellvin]

I clicked on the text field last time and tried again. Ren'Py still interprets my key press as commands and fails to paste.

Then I'll have to wait for the implementation of the ManaPlus direct logging feature.

[jesusalva]

I clicked on the text field last time and tried again. Ren'Py still interprets my key press as commands and fails to paste.

Then I'll have to wait for the implementation of the ManaPlus direct logging feature.

Can't reproduce. Show me.
If you need, we can also schedule a session in Google Meet, Discord or Jitsi for screen sharing purposes.

PS. I'm not sure about the later, while it is technically doable we lack anyone with the bare minimum knowledge required to fiddle with ManaPlus source code But then that's jak1 area, not mine