Writing a minimalistic server for vanilla WoW

[bravsein]

Hello!

This is about a personal project I've been longing to do for some time now. Since a while now I have stopped playing WoW, but as I'm quite experienced in C++ I thought I'd try the following:

Write a minimalistic server for vanilla WoW for experimental, personal purposes

All it would feature is being able to login with a fixed character, and being able to travel around in the standard maps (non-instance; Kalimdor, eastern kingdoms, etc.)

I also don't want to use / modify Mangos in this case, as this would be all about the development process and trying it on my own

My questions to you:

• Is the above a realistic objective?
  
• How much work would such a project require? (Boilerplate code excluded, just the basic stuff to make the client "happy")
  
• Do you have any other recommendations for me regarding this?
  

[lillecarl]

I dont think this is a one-man job, i mean just look at mangos, lets say that mangos one and zero aint even close to "done" (blizzlike) and they have been developed for awhile now, with over a million lines of code(with libraries) i dont think its a one-man job... Please contribute to mangos instead )

[Auntie Mangos]

The biggest issue for this still remains that documentation for file formats, and the protocol used is scattered around tons of different sources.

If you really want to try, go for it. It is possible, and if you need pointers, you'll find many of them in our sources.

[shumi]

i would like to too create at least the login for the wow server so i can understand further more how it works.

Cus now really i don't understand that much.

[lillecarl]

Packet sniff a running vanilla server and work from the sniffs:)

[Auntie Mangos]

There is quite a few options to chose from. IMHO you should start with reading sources for old servers e.g. OpenWoW, LudMilla/Pandora/CrFusion, and of course old MaNGOS versions.

[Patman128]

Login and being able to move around? Like a sandbox?

I'm not even sure if you have to handle movement packets. Maybe ping/pong. Just start with a login server with static login details and go from there.

[faramir118]

For keeping the client happy, in addition to handling CMSG_PING, you need to periodically send SMSG_TIME_SYNC_REQ. There may be more, but that's all I know for sure.