Unkle Nuke

Welcome to MANGOS, alexthecat! To answer your question: That depends on whom you may ask and why you're asking. If all you wish is having a server just to play WoW, then you'll obviously go for whichever fork or project has the most "working" features, regardless of how that is achieved in the program code. Like the Trinity Core project, MaNGOS R2 is a fork of the official MaNGOS, started by those who felt they could do things quicker and better. Whether they have managed to do so is a question I leave more qualified persons to answer. Like many of the other forks, they have more game features implemented than the official MaNGOS core. On the other hand, if you are interested in how things work, want to learn the way in which the client and server function together, and wish to add or fix features in a manner that replicates retail behavior through proper server functionality, then you might want to stick around and roll up your sleeves to dig into come code. The focus of MaNGOS is learning. As an example of the difference in how things are done here...You may see other MaNGOS-based servers that brag they have multi-seat vehicles "working 100%". I assure you this is a half-truth, at best. While it may seem to work fairly well in game play, this is done through trickery, by using hard-coded values that force a spell or function to activate at a point determined by the programmer, rather than to use the information sent from the client and having the server program respond accordingly. While taking such "shortcuts" means people can experience more game content like retail, and it has allowed these other servers to leap ahead of MaNGOS in this regard, those methods do not promote a deeper understanding of the mechanics involved. MaNGOS will eventually have vehicles fully implemented, but not until it's done according to the standards established here. In the long run, it's really up to you to do your homework and decide what best suits your needs and interests. I most certainly hope you will stick around and learn a thing or two, possibly becoming one that brings new ideas and brilliant work to this community and project. Should you choose to adopt R2 or some other server core, please bear in mind that only the official MaNGOS projects are supported in these forums: MaNGOS, MaNGOS-Zero, and MaNGOS One. For other server cores, you will have to seek technical support from their respective forums or websites.

I figured the One server is more similar to how Zero functions than the master (Three?), so I did a brief comparison of the diff between the commit in One with Zero's code. Zero does not have this patch, but it does look as though the patch in One should drop right into Zero's code base with little modification, if any.

Oops! Sorry about that. I completely missed the fact you were referring to the class trainer. I suppose it was the mention of "feral tree" that gave me tunnel vision. :8 I was under the impression that MaNGOS-Zero was nearly complete in its features, the closest of all the MaNGOS branches to being just like retail. Either that view is totally wrong, given all these major bugs you keep finding, or it's possible you made a mistake with updating your database, thus introducing errors into the table data. It could be a database issue, with the wrong value set by one of the DB devs for either the class trainer or the skills. By the way... Did you happen to install ACID 1.0.3? It mostly concerns the behavior of trash mobs, but is as nice an addition to your server as ScriptDev0 or movemaps. It would certainly help if others had similar reports. Then, we could confirm if it's a bug or just a bad DB installation. The only trouble with the MaNGOS-Zero community site disintegrating is that you are going to need some sort of tech support. Now I wish I had been a little stronger in my arguments for giving Zero and One their own forum sections here. This way, it would at least give all of you a central point to gather and try helping each other. I'm willing to go the extra mile to help someone, especially you, but I'd hate to persuade myself to actually set up my own Zero server to help confirm these as bugs, since I've been trying to get my own server back online and make the transition from Windows XP over to Debian on my server box. Then again, it might be as fun as when you were first setting things up, working with you on these issues... if you don't mind me tagging along like a lost puppy. :lol: (note to self: read up on running multiple server instances.) If it can be confirmed as a bug, you may wish to post this and the other issues you've found, like Rockbiter, in the Bug Reports section. One post per bug, with [Zero] prefixed to the subject to identify which server branch it concerns. At the top of the body of your post, place the revisions of the server, scriptdev, and database, plus any additional branches like movemaps or playerbot. Use as much detail as possible, so others can try to reproduce the bug. Be ready to post logs and/or stack dumps of the errors if you have them.

Here's a talent calculator for client 1.8.4.4878. I even went ahead and selected the Druid class for you. What I love about this particular calculator is the ability to pick any expansion and any patch version, up to WoTLK 3.1.3. :cool:

Try copying libmySQL.dll from your MySQL installation into MaNGOS. It's possible the version packaged with MaNGOS is incompatible with your version of MySQL. The most recent version of MySQL is 5.5.20. You can also get a Windows all-in-one installer for 5.5.19 from this MySQL page, which comes with MySQL Server, Workbench, all the connectors, sample models and databases, plus full documentation. The only older version Oracle offers for download is MySQL 5.1.61. If you need an older release of MySQL, take a look at the SkySQL Archives. Other server projects seem to prefer using MySQL 5.5.9, but MaNGOS should work with any version, provided you copy the libmySQL.dll from your database installation folder into your MaNGOS server's folder.

Looks like they're fixed, lillecarl, since the colorful code boxes show up now. :cool: Thanks, MCP, stfx, faramir, and the rest!

Well, bless my bytes! If it ain't LordPsyan, back home at last! Welcome back and I hope you'll enjoy things around here more, Psyan. Thanks for resuming support of your baby, MangChat. Further development pretty much died off after xeross disappeared. I had always hoped MangChat would evolve into a full chat client that can directly connect to a server, maybe even have an Android app version. Look forward to what new ideas and features you have planned and hope you can lend a hand in other places, too.

If you're using the ZeroDB, mangos-zero-database, that is in the Github repository alongside MaNGOS-Zero and ScriptDev-Zero, then your testbed is indeed using a database derived from UDB.

The MaNGOS Git repository's history only goes as far back as client version 2.4.3. The original Subversion repository still exists, which has the source revisions for client versions 1.6 to 2.4.3. Just be aware the older revisions were still very much a work-in-progress. Here's the svn: svn co https://mangos.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/mangos mangos Backporting Zero will be a lot of work. You may have to edit the extractors to work with 1.8.4 for obtaining maps, buildings, and DBC files. There are many hard-coded values in the core and scripts for class abilities, spells, and items that may need deleted or edited, as well. As you mentioned, pets behave much differently and that code will likely require some large revisions. Things like packet captures and users' WDB caches may be extremely difficult to obtain from public resources, since that data is six years old. Many devs and their projects were squashed out of existence by lawyers, back when. It's possible someone has that data archived and could provide it for you. You might be able to edit the exisiting Zero database to client 1.8.x values by also researching data archives in places like Allakhazam, Thottbot, and WoWHead. WoWWiki has sections with current and historical information for all the major client versions. Old YouTube game play videos might prove useful, too. Basically, you'll need to wear two hats... one as a developer and the other as a virtual historian, hunting for clues to rebuild the past. One site you may find interesting is LostWoW, where many zones and features the existed in past clients are discussed and shown, but no longer exist in subsequent client versions. It mostly deals with beta areas that weren't part of gameplay, like Old Ironforge and Ironforge Airport, both of which are now playable areas in Cataclysm, oddly enough. However, places like Programmer's Island and the old Player Jail are reachable with the correct GM teleport coordinates in older clients. I have a lot of things archived on my storage drive and optical disk, though I didn't get into MaNGOS until just around the release of client patch 2.4.3. If I can dig up anything that might help, I'll fire off a PM to you. I'm going to be tied up for the next few days, but it will be interesting to see what you manage to find. :cool: Let's hope you'll pull it off and there will be a new, unofficial 1.8 branch of MaNGOS Zero, if not a new project entirely. I'm rooting for you!

That's why we have the MaNGOS Wiki. You'll find a kinds of useful information, like the structure of DBC files. You'll find the link to it at the right-hand corner of the banner across the top of this site/forums. The UDB Wiki has fairly extensive documentation on the structure and table format for a MaNGOS-compatible database. The WoWDev Wiki is also another source of what is publicly known about the inner workings of the client. I'm not sure how useful capturing packets will be, since the client and server will likely be sending some packets that neither understands, giving errors instead of data. IF you could find an archive of actual retail packet data for 1.8, it would serve you much better...pardon the pun. For getting correct database information, that would require finding archives of actual retail players' WDB files, where game content they played through is cached in the client. You can also glean some database info from parsing the DBC files with SQL queries. Patman and Schmoo opened my eyes to that one, though I have no idea how that is done. Maybe, if we both asked very politely, Patman or some other wise Jedi would be willing to impart knowledge on how to build a database for an unsupported client or at least how to get the data with the proper SQL syntax to parse the files.

After a storm of posts, this thread has gone so very quiet for far too long. What has become of The MaNGOS Foundation and this discussion? Where do things stand at this point? I haven't done very well as a programmer, since I was inspired by members here last year to work on Outdoor PvP. Learning C++ has been painfully slow, due to real life and a series of hardware failures. But I still feel a great interest and passion for the server project and the ideals of MaNGOS, even years after joining this community. How can I help, TheLuda?

I think it has to do with a slight problem between client and server sending coordinate updates to each other and how the packets are acknowledged. I remember Vladimir recently discussing this elsewhere in the forums. If I recall it rightly, he said that MaNGOS's own internal update movement handler can set a unit's coordinates without waiting to receive a packet from the client. This means the stuttering movement of following creatures is due to both the client and server being out of sync on position updates. It can be fixed, but that means doing major surgery on the server's movement code, if I understand correctly what Vlad was saying.

Have you tried deleting the folder with the created binaries and cleaning the solutions before recompiling? I just recently pulled and compiled Zero and SD0 with no errors, using VS2008 on WinXP SP3. Did you happen to install VS2010 Service Pack 1 and the Windows PSDK? Also, did you pull your sources from the MaNGOS Zero and ScriptDevZero develop branch instead of master in each repository? Xenithar and I found out right in the middle of setting up his local repo that the Zero devs had changed the names of the branches. You can still use master, which is considered stable, but develop has many more improvements and is what I recommend.

Way to go, lostone! :cool: It seems the simplest things are the cause of 99% of the errors people get when setting up their first server. Well, it is your first Zero server, anyways. You'd think I'd learn by now to start with that simple stuff when trouble-shooting, instead of over-thinking the problem. Lesson learned and thank you for that, lostone. The "greeting card" is a wonderful touch, and I think it's great. :lol: But... I have to inform you that MaNGOS has a strict policy against posting screen shots. You might want to re-read the forum rules regarding the posting and discussion of materials found in or generated from the game client. I know it seems harsh, and I hate being a buzz-kill, but TheLuda has had this rule in place since day one to avoid any possible infringement that would have lawyers killing the dream he's worked so hard to protect and nurture. In a way, TheLuda is the father of us all by founding MaNGOS and providing everyone a place where the right to learn is a fundamental, inalienable human right...or should be.

Visual Studio can be quirky, more so than other compilers, especially if you have VS2010. There is the chance it was a bad compile. To minimize this, I do not have any other programs running while compiling with Visual Studio. Compiling a large code base like MaNGOS does require a lot of system resources. Try cleaning the solutions, setting the build configuration to "Release", and re-compiling both components.

Thank you for explaining the issue more clearly. I would encourage you to begin working on your code. It may be that another developer can offer useful insights, but it is possible you have ideas that will work very well as they are now. With code to show the other developers, it will allow your work to progress quickly. I wish you good luck and hope your work will end with a great improvement to MaNGOS.

I'm not sure I understand the intent of your post. Are you proposing to develop improvements to the way NPCs and creatures follow a player or mob leader [em]as your own project[/em]? OR Are you simply saying [em]someone else[/em] should figure out a way to use code from pets to make creature following work better?

Is player "Wreck" an actual person logged into your server or is it a bot of some sort, like you would have if using Playerbot or Auction House Bot? If you don't use bots and you have other people allowed onto your server, it may be entirely possible there is a player using a cheat engine. I had opened up my old server so kids in my family and their friends could play on the condition they help me troubleshoot my server. One of those friends thought it would be okay to use a cheat engine he'd never had the nerve to try on retail. Aside from crashing my server and earning himself a 5-day ban (he was just a kid, after all!), I had similar errors in my console because he was "ghosting" on my server with that cheat engine.

For future reference, it is best to use a service like Pastebin or Paste2, which preserves formatting for easier reading of plain text, scripts, and programming languages, then posting the link to the pasted text or code so others may view it as needed. When posting a very large file in this way, also avoids cluttering a thread for easier navigation and reading in the forums. If you had read your own log file, which you kindly provided above, you will notice right away a great many errors regarding ScriptDevZero. When you compiled your server, did you place a folder named ScriptDevZero in your MaNGOS-Zero source code? That folder should have been located inside /src/bindings/ and then copied the ScriptDevZero source into it. After compiling MaNGOS, you should have then done a second compile using the proper VC solution (scriptVC90.sln, for example) or GCC makefile for ScriptDevZero. If you did do this, then the multitude of errors are due an improper database installation and update. I recommend you carefully re-read the guides in your Zero documentation, as well as here in these forums and at the UDB forums on how to correctly set up your databases. You configuration files are also incomplete. It looks as if you simply did a "quick and dirty" setup by going with the defaults on everything except where you needed to enter your information for database access and server IP. It is strongly recommended to more carefully read through the documentation for each section in the configuration files. I would specifically point out the need for configuring logs in more detail and the PID files used by the server components for debug information. If you don't do your homework, then you can expect such fundamental errors.

At higher levels, don't Arcane mages benefit more from Mage Armor and Mana Shield together than they do using Molten Armor or Ice Armor? Molten Armor does increase your crit rating, which helps a lot when lower-level gear does little to improve that, but Mage Armor boosts Mana regen while Mana Shield can absorb a lot of punishment, especially since its short cooldown allows it to be cast very often. Arcane is a bit different in its workings than the elemental specs, with some unique buffs and debuffs making up for the lack in massive DPS of Fire or survivability of Frost, especially when properly geared and glyphed.

I think Xfurry is also working on a backport for MaNGOS-One, if the world_pvp branch in his one repo is indeed meant for that. I know foohey posted a patch for a do-it-yourself backport for One, with some extra scripts for Outland and Silithus. However, it was committed to his Github repo last March, which is when Xfurry was still working on Outdoor/World PvP as a ScriptDev2 patch instead of the core mod it is now, if I recall correctly. The patch may be obsolete, though the scripts might still be useful. I'm hoping we'll see a backport for Zero, soon, so all the 1.12 fans can slug it out in Silithus and Eastern Plaguelands.

Alright. Assuming there were no errors in the configuration files and you should not need to worry about a firewall of any kind since your host machine is also the server... Did you set your realmlist in the realmd database to your loopback address, 127.0.0.1? Is the loopback address also used in the conf files?

You're certain you downloaded and compiled the code for MaNGOS-Zero from the correct branch of their Git repository? It should be from develop, not master. Also, did you double-check to make sure you applied all the SQL updates in their proper order and to the correct databases (mangos, characters, realm, and scriptdev)? If you have a firewall or router, did you forward the ports that mangosd and realmd use? You did copy all the necessary .conf.dist.in files to your server's main folder, changed the extension to just .conf and then edited the settings in them to enable/disable features, set ports, and such? Are you playing WoW on the same computer that you're also using to run the server or is the server on a dedicated machine? Have a look at the log files generated by the server and see if they report any errors, assuming you did not disable that feature in the settings of the conf files.

Pay attention to faramir's advice. He's made significant contributions that has brought MaNGOS leaps beyond what it once was. Repeat after me: "faramir is wise...faramir is wise..". :lol: There is a mountain of tutorials, guides, references, code examples, and even full books online that you can use for free. What I offer you next just scratches the surface. Remember... Google is your friend. You'd be amazed at the volume of links you'll find to useful stuff just by typing "learn C++" into Google's search box. Bruce Eckel offers both volumes of Thinking In C++, probably the most definitive introduction to not only the language itself, but the concepts of object-oriented programming. His website is Mindview Inc and you can find the book in PDF format at Planet PDF as downloadable ZIPs or get the HTML version, complete with source code examples, right from his Free Electronic Books page. Of course, you cannot pass up Bjarne Stroustrup's website, the father of C++! Then there's the three most popular sites dedicated to learning just about everything to do with C++: C++ Reference CPlusPlus C Programming Roy Souther has a very well done introduction and reference guide to C++, with plenty of links, at Silicon Tao. If you prefer a more Microsoft-oriented approach to C++, CodeGuru is one of the better places. If making video games and related software is your thing, from newbies to the seasoned pros, you cannot go wrong with GameDev.net, one of the best websites around for learning everything about making a video game ( and I do mean everything!). Last, but not least, I highly recommend Free Programming Resources for links to free tools and materials for all the popular programming languages. For information specific to WoW and MaNGOS: The MaNGOS Wiki, of course! PseuWoW is working on creating an open-source game client, similar to WoW. They're a great place to start understanding how WoW communicates to the game server, among other things. Once you've mastered C++, feel free to give them a hand. 8) The UDB Wiki can teach you a lot about how a world database is put together for MaNGOS. The ScriptDev2 and ACID forums will teach you all about the MaNGOS EventAI and creating your own scripts to handle game content like dungeons, world bosses, holidays, world events, and special NPCs. The WoWDev Wiki has loads of technical information on the inner workings of the game client. The WoWWiki is the definitive encyclopedia for the game. It has a very good section on UI programming with Lua, although WoWAce is much better for UI add-on development. I hope this helps you and good luck! I look forward to what you may offer to this community.

Are the needed core changes you've proposed the only reason why you feel this code is not suitable for inclusion into MaNGOS? Regardless, I believe I speak for a great many in thanking you for all your hard work to have Outdoor PvP (or should it be called World PvP?) working as well as it does. It's thanks to you, Schmoozerd, and Daemon Cantor that I was inspired to try and pick up C++ once more. It's slow going, especially after just recovering from a fried system, but I do wish to give back more to this community by contributing code and helping out with projects such as this one... hopefully in the near future.