tiredashell

Thanks for the responses, really fascinating. The thing I've always wondered is exactly how much is normally taken care of by MMO servers. If all they do is relay coordinates of NPCs and PCs, that's one thing. But if the servers are actually responsible for sending down content, such as the design of monsters and whatnot, it would seem like an insurmountable problem. I specialize in network security so I'm familiar with some of the tools in question, but for this application I wouldn't know where to start. Learning more about how MMOs normally work internally might be a good start. If you have any tips in that regard (beyond studying the mangos source, which I'll definitely do) I'm all ears. Either way, much appreciated.

I'm a C++ developer with zero experience in game server emulation, and I'm intrigued to learn more. Could anyone provide a high-level explanation as to how the reverse-engineering process works for an MMO? Do you simply run the game on the official servers and log all incoming/outgoing packets for later inspection, or is the process more complex?