Unkle Nuke

Absolutely brilliant! Looks like freghar managed to come through and find a funny name for the latest milestone despite the naysayers! Although it might serve best as a sub-text to the more official designation: ...as suggested by vladex. Good job! I tip my hat to your multi-faceted talents, dear sirs.

Well, MaNGOS is a learning project. How about providng an example of these masks, for the benefit of this patch and education of everyone curious to know? For those wanting to learn, you need teachers. Though the lessons come from artificial or human repositories of knowledge, only the human aspect can teach the art of reason where artificial methods can only impart technical details.

Why the sudden decision to move Playerbot to an entirely different forum site? So now this means I now have to go register at yet another forum? If it means you feel one of the two best low-pop core mods will have more contributions from other developers and playerbot will actually improve far more, then so be it. However, there's nothing stopping those potential contributors from participating here, either. It seems Playerbot was doing just fine here and has enjoyed the best possible exposure, something I'm not so sure it will have elsewhere. Since every single MaNGOS server admin/developer comes here first, it makes more sense you'd want Playerbot right up front where it can be easily found instead of surfing all over the place to find it. Once this thread dies off as the majority of activity shifts over to the new thread, you'll start seeing people posting here asking things like: * "Can someone update this for the latest mangos?" * "Is this project dead?" * "Whatever happened to playerbot?" It is your baby now, blueboy, and you can do as you wish. I'm not too keen on the idea, but that's just my opinion.

First, thanks to Konctantin and caeruleaus for your help. Dealing with the inner plumbing of the client leaves my head spinning. Second: Pure, epic win! May your camels always be blessed with three humps!

What I got from that was: My response: I'm always amazed at some of the questions that get asked in these forums. Doesn't anyone ever read the FAQ, rules, and project statement? By the way, I really like the idea of the more modular playerbot. The less mucking about with the main source tree, the better it is for playerbot's development in avoiding some of the headaches with core changes that tend to surprise the devs here in the Core Mods section.

UDB is primarily English. YTDB is primarily Russian. Both do support other languages, to a limited degree. YTDB forums support for english language does leave something to be desired, as do most of the Russian MaNGOS sites. You can use a Subversion client (SVN) to download the DB and then pick any version of the database you wish. Otherwise, you may download through your web browser by clicking all the links inside TRUNK.

It's unavoidable that you must maintain any additions you make to the database. This means making proper backups of such data and importing them back into your database. One thing to bear in mind is client versions after 3.2.2a no longer support custom items in the same way. The DBC data is now hard-linked, which means you must use existing item IDs. You can no longer make your own IDs. Your custom items must be added through unused items in the DBC that are of the same type, i.e.: custom dagger must use a dagger type weapon.

You must have Git installed for your computer operating system. It comes packaged with most Linux distros. For Windows you will need to install msysgit. If you also wish to have a GUI for msysgit, you can choose from TortoiseGit or Git Extensions For Windows. Once you have properly installed and configured Git, you can then simply clone the MaNGOS repository. The last MaNGOS revision that supports 3.3.2 can be found in the 0.16-dev2 branch.

Repacks are lame. Compiling your own server means you never have to worry about not having the latest binaries. It may be more work, but you'll thank yourself for knowing how your server is put together. It makes one a better administrator and trouble-shooter. For Vehicle patch, I think that Wotja's work is still the "official" code base. I wish everyone would try to contribute there instead of insisting on hijacking the project with their own forks. This might have been nearly completed by now with more teamwork. Maybe then things would not be such a mess, either.

faramir118, thank you for your dedicated efforts to make a new map extractor. The one currently supplied with MaNGOS has gotten a bit long in the tooth. Combined with vmap_rewrite, I'm greatly looking forward to the vastly improved terrain handling. mmap and vmap v3 (as it ought to be named when accepted into the core), are fundamental fixes that improve functionality of the entire play experience and it has been long overdue. I take it you need testers to provide feedback from the numerous maps before any further progress can be made in developing or refining the code? I'm completely lost in regards to generating the maps. I understand you must supply the map number and then the X and Y coordinates, but I have absolutely no idea how to obtain the proper values for X and Y. Will any X and Y coords from the specified map work or do you need the origin? A simple text list of all maps and their X,Y coordinates would be most helpful. Then all anyone would need to do is plug that data into the generator or batch file.

It helps to actually read the names of the branches in SilverIce's Github repo. If you do not provide the proper branch name, your pull will fail. For his cameras patch, the branches are named Cameras_clearly and cameras_changed.

You might also be able to do such a simple boss using just ACID.

Should there be an upcoming 003 release, there's one feature I'd really like to see... forbidding specific items by their ID, except where placed for auction by a player. I've found some occurrences where players have purchased some very rare items that otherwise required a high-level profession or exalted faction reputation. For example, I just don't think having the Mechano-Hog placed at auction by the AHBot should even be allowed. Same goes for gear that normally would only drop from major instance bosses, like any loot that drops from Kil'jaeden or Arthas.

Maybe it wasn't that no one "got it" so much as they didn't want it. Nobody likes Vogon poetry, after all.

There's also the human factor involved, something IT security specialists like to call "Trustability". (Don't you just love the way professions make up words?) Role-based security implies a low degree of trust among the administrative staff. In other words, you're not really all that sure what your GMs, devs, or mods might do behind you back. This is based on the truism that power corrupts. Give a guy some freedom to execute commands and he will invariably begin to abuse those commands for his own convenience. In an environment where staff members are not socially close, such as friends might be, this allows a staff member to feel a certain anonymity that can "hide" his misdeeds. Where you have a small staff that is closely bonded, you can have a high degree of trust. Peer pressure, personal integrity, or even old-fashioned decency will incline one to honor those ties of trust more than the impersonal environment of a large server staff. Here, you're a valued friend or well regarded colleague, not just another cog in the machine. It's a social place where you are more likely to actually care about the consequences of your actions, if not fear being cast out by your peers. Role-based security is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it helps to limit the damage a staff member may inflict by tightly defining their role. However, it can also act as a barrier to expanding trustability by insulating people from each other within a hierarchy that can quickly turn into an elitist cult of personality. At that point you again have abuses of power. If you use such a security model, it is still your responsibility, as the administrator and server owner, to foster an esprit de corps among your staff members and encourage the social dynamic of a high-trust environment to avoid some of the pitfalls that can occur with boxing everyone into their specific area. No matter what security model you adopt, not one single line of code can be an adequate substitute for common sense, sound judgment, and a sensible regard for your server's staff. Be vigilant, but be kind.

Well, one can only avoid just so many shots before your opponent draws a bead on you. Besides, all the ducking and jinking around might cause you to stumble into a hit or maybe your feet just get too tired to move fast enough.

The only two situations I know of where you would get an <Unknown> tag instead of the actual name for your pet, bot, or any NPC: 1. The database is lagged and cannot provide the data to the server. 2. The server is unable to find the correct data. You will find this error on heavily loaded servers, especially during lag spikes. As blueboy said, the only way to correct the problem after it occurs is to log out and clear your cache.

A good administrator ought to be able to keep control of his helpers. If he can't then he should probably find another hobby. I peruse my logs at the end of each day to make sure nobody is abusing their privileges. I follow a zero-tolerance policy. If you're not mature and responsible enough to follow my rules, you lose your status. No second chances, no reprieves. On the other hand, juggling security levels to properly assign usable commands can be a huge pain. A role-based system would simplify this, but it would require a rewrite of the security management currently in place. This assumes a server with a large management structure. Servers that are set up with the administrator also being the only developer wouldn't benefit greatly from a role-based management scheme.

Suddenly, I feel the urge to beat my brains in with a brick wrapped in a slice of lemon. Or is it just to go out and drink a few dozen Pan-Galactic Gargleblasters? To be honest, I know enough to resolve simple conflicts, but rewriting code to fix things is just a little beyond my reach at this time. As such, I do feel a bit more gently towards those poor souls who think C++ is an improved vitamin, yet, that's no excuse not to learn how to use a diff utility for three-way merges. As for the crashes, didn't the fellow who presented his version of a final patch say that quest objects were the cause? Doesn't that sound like a TYPE_MISMATCH error or is it a case of me knowing just enough to sound ignorant?

I would think most of the SQL portion to be handled by MaNGOS rather than, say, UDB. The reason being that some tables, especially the templates, are not touched by the database developer groups. I was looking forward to trying this one, but I will instead heed your warning and wait patiently for the completed code.

If using the Alterac Valley battleground as a starting location isn't recommended, perhaps the camps outside the entrances would be better. The camp near Southshore could be the Alliance start area and the camp near Tarren Mill would serve as the Horde start area, dressed up with whatever NPCs, vendors, and buildings you wish. It does make one wonder if it might be possible to eliminate all zones, except those related to battlegrounds, so you could have a "war server".

It would help if the criticism were more constructive. Simply saying "stupid code" does nothing to solve any issues with said code. Otherwise, how would anyone here grow and learn as a developer if nobody provided feedback that has technical merit? This does involve some fairly extensive changes and I agree that having input from Vladimir and the other core devs is essential. It just would not be worthwhile to be forced into rewriting major parts of the code if you overlooked something. On the other hand, you've come this far on your own and it's very likely you can complete this code with a bit more research, Schmoozerd. I'd be a willing tester for this. Compiling one more core patch would be little trouble since I'm in the middle of patching my server's source for an update. If I understand correctly, the second patch does remove the NoAura and NoItem functions? Is this the one you would prefer to have tested? I have no experience with retail so forgive me if I must ask for some information. Which quests would you recommend using as part of the testing, aside from Azuregos' Magical Ledger?

Thank you, zergtmn. Okay, you apes! You got some places to start. Now quit lurking and start submitting!

Yeah, they do have their issues, but it's easy to forgive when you consider it's a free service.

prmsye, your comments are typical of one who does not care how something works just so long as it works. MaNGOS has the stated purpose of being educational, which means learning how to implement features in a properly integrated way that uses the correct data. This means you will find a lot of broken features. It takes time to work out how things work and then code it. Every single server I've seen that does have those features working which are broken in MaNGOS use hacks and workarounds with hard-coded values, dummy procs, and forced checks, just to name a few, which results in an unstable and very difficult to maintain code base. This is not and never will be the way MaNGOS developers intend to achieve a fully working server. As one who compiles and maintains his own server, I'd rather have more stability and maintainability than a Frankenstein patchwork of code. Just look at the long list of crash reports from those who do use such patched servers. I think that's what is meant by Trinity's Eye of Acherus patch not being like retail. SilverIce's camera patch lays the foundation that will allow this Eye of Acherus patch to become accepted into the core, once the code makes better use of it. It will also allow the gnome telescope, Eye of Kilrogg, and other spells that involve remote viewing to function correctly.