The Mana World

This is release is a stability update to 0.0.29, which admittedly featured quite some crashes (we fixed four) and other smaller glitches. This was only to be expected after such a large update, and public scrutiny helped to quickly find most of the remaining issues. Thanks to those who helped us by reporting the bugs they found!

Two new features also sneaked into this patch release. It is now possible to change your password yourself, in the character selection dialog (so I can stop doing it for you ;)). Also, when you're in a party, you'll now see the leader of the party displayed in bold. As usual, see the changelog for the full list of changes: https://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=106790&release_id=688651

For the Windows installer, we've finally replaced the images that were allegedly fanart of copyrighted material. However, with my artistic talents lacking, I've had to mash them up from existing graphics. If you feel up to the task of beefing up our next installer with some shiny new TMW-themed art, be sure to submit your alternative here: http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=6812 (0 comments)

For once, I just don't know where to start. So much has changed since the last release that we needed a very long time before the client was in releasable shape again. However, I think we eventually managed!

This release clearly is our largest ever. First, many improvements and new features were merged in from the Aethyra project. Then, we spend a month merging our own two grown apart clients, one that supported the eAthena server and one that supported the tmwserv server (support for this server is currently a compile-time option). Finally, we spent two months fixing, improving and generally cleaning things up in order to prepare for this release.

The list of changes is way too long to go through, but I'll mention a few of my favourites. The client now supports more eAthena features, among them is the ability to form a party, which allows you to see who else is online and to share experience and pickups in combat. Also, direction changes are now propagated properly, support for NPC storage was added and you can now specify the initial attributes of a new character. Then, there is the new tabbed chat window, which makes it much easier to keep track of private conversations. Finally, archers will enjoy seeing their arrows fly through the air.

Almost complete translations were done to French, German, Polish, Spanish, Swedish and Chinese. Over a dozen other languages feature partial translation. Unfortunately due to the font we ship, the Chinese translation isn't enabled by default, which we hope to resolve in a future release.

The full list can be found at the release notes: https://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=106790&release_id=682467 (0 comments)

As the version number suggests, this is just a small bugfix release. The main thing that got fixed was to make the translations work on Windows. Also, translations for German, Spanish, Finnish, Swedish and Polish got updated. (0 comments)

The biggest visible change in this release is the switch to using TrueType fonts instead of bitmap fonts. This was necessary in order to properly support internationalization and also allowing people to chat in their own language when it wasn't using the Latin alphabet. Another nice feature that we hope to start using soon is support for animated tiles. This should allow mappers to make maps feel even more alive.

Translations in Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, German and Danish are most complete, and incomplete translations for about two dozen other languages exist. Unfortunately due to not having time to figure out how to use gettext on Windows, the Windows installer doesn't have the new translations for now. (0 comments)

It's already been more than three months since our last release, but I'm happy to say quite a bit has happened in this time. Not the least of which is our switch from Subversion to git, which will increasingly allow us to work more efficiently and more easily merge changes between branches. The Aethyra fork followed us in this switch, which has made it easier to share improvements.

We've also set up new Game Masters and are in the process of formalizing the guidelines along which they work. For a long time, Platyna was the only one caring to do this job. The Game Masters are there in the interest of the community, and their actions are made public.

With this release we made the client even more dynamic. Hair styles and colors, skill names and status effects can now be passed via updates. Several improvements have also been made to the GUI, with resizable NPC dialogs (a change imported from Aethyra), minimap centering, equipment allowed in the shortcut bar, available slots in inventory shown, mouse cursor that hides when not used, etc. All in all, quite worth the upgrade! (0 comments)

As many of you have noticed, this weekend the server started having problems. It turned out to be an issue with the harddrive. Currently the server is up again with a temporary harddrive that Platyna borrowed from a friend. Unfortunately, the last backup was from 30th of October, some of you will have lost some progress. We're sincerely sorry for this, and we will try to make sure we're better prepared for these problems in the future.

On a happier note, we've now got enough donations to pay for a brand new hard drive! A big thanks to all who donated! I'll see if I can add a page to the website soon so your contributions will be remembered, and maybe somebody will add a special item to the game later, just for donators? :-) (0 comments)

Two months ago we released a new version of the client. New features are the ability to show custom being effects (which will soon be used when we introduce the magic system by Fate) and some particle engine improvements. Also, names and chat are now positioned in a way so that there is no overlap when possible.

In other news, our server is running out of disk space. We have never asked for donations before, but Platyna, our server administrator, would really like to upgrade the server with two new and stable disks that will carry this project, among others. If you would like to contribute, see the fund raising forum thread for details:

http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=5073 (0 comments)

On Sunday we released a new version which brings features such as: whispering to other players, friends and ignore lists, shortcut window, particle effects on NPCs, improved accuracy of monster targeting and many others. During the process we also fixed numerous bugs.

Please note that Guichan 0.8 is required when compiling this version yourself. Binaries for Windows and Mac OSX are available under downloads. (0 comments)

We made it! I'd like to thank everyone who nominated TMW. Your help is really appreciated.

The Mana World is one of the finalists for the "Best Project for Gamers". Again I'm asking you to vote if you think this project is worth it.

You can use this link: http://sourceforge.net/community/cca08-finalists

Best regards (0 comments)

Sourceforge opened votations to choose the best open source projects. If you like The Mana World you're kindly invited to provide your support by nominating TMW as best project or best project for gamers (or both of course).

You can use the banner in the SF project page to start nominating.

http://sf.net/projects/themanaworld (0 comments)