The Mana World

Data Rollback 2014-04-17

Due to crashes taht did not occur during testing, we have made the difficult decision to roll back the code and data files to a known good backup at 18:00 UTC yesterday, a loss of about 10 hours.

We've kept a version of the content update, but parts of the new save subsystem are not working.

We have identified the probable cause of the crash (an error in the logic used to autokick a spammer), but are unsure exactly how long until we can bring the new code back up.

-o11c

The more things change... 2014-04-16 Attention Major Release:

• Mana EOL
• Server dependencies
• Script clean-up
• Magic clean-up
• Sprite 1.5 - Npcs As Sprites
• Tilesets
• Travel / Death / Warps
• Client-data clean-up
• Tonori Improvement
• Graveyard Improvement

Mana EOL: With this release, we are finally declaring the Mana client obsolete. 90% of players are already using ManaPlus.

Server dependencies: The next release of the server code will require a newer version of GCC: 4.7 instead of 4.6. This is possible because Ubuntu is releasing a new LTS so that servers can reasonably be expected to be able to upgrade.

GCC 4.7 will be supported for much longer - a year and a half or two years, until the next Debian release.

The next release will also drop the dependency on Flex and Bison ... which is more significant for making the build system simpler and the surrounding code cleaner than for actually being hard to acquire.

Script: TMWA increased the level of debugging for script parsing. The script language no longer allows default fall throughs or '-' for a menu option. It now reports Unused & Duplicate labels The menu fix was added to pave the development of dynamic menus. Simply running your script in the server reports all errors in the scripts.

Magic: Magic is now using a new config file format, which will simplify build dependencies in future. Anybody with local spells will need to manually convert them. Although we have some helper programs (tmwa-spell-convert and tmwa-sexpr), For support of these ask on IRC irc://chat.freenode.net/themanaworld

Sprite 1.5/Npcs As Sprites: Sprite directory naming convention cleaned up. If an NPC wasn't animated it was made into a player sprite with equipment. Thus anything you see most the NPCs wearing will/can be wearable player gear. We fixed and added more gear than was currently in the main so a bunch of new items have been added. Additional attack frames add more weapon varieties and NPC animations. As since the npcs are a sprite any action the player sprite can do the NPC could. It allows us to implement a mobile NPC. Most of the sprites have dyes now. Including the player sprite. This will make adding new races easier.

Making the NPCs player sprites makes it easier to create them as well. If you can edit an xml you can create a NPC. This will make it quicker to start developing. Custom/Special NPCs still exist, (see GY INN), They need to be justified as to why they can't be a Doll model.

Errors in the sprite should now be clearly visible as we fixed the error image in the client-data. It will draw an ugly error tile.

Tilesets: Naming covention enforced to make dealing with sets easier. Unused/old or broken sets fixed or removed from repo except the plain castle set. The Forrest was removed as it needs to be properly cut to make it easier to map with. Tilesets will begin to be collasped into each other. As they share a common/similiar theme and/or style. We added animated water to some of the maps. The tileset will work with all of the maps and tilesets in game. We've begun to fill empty spaces in the tilesets with a Open/Free marker. These will help us find maps with errors.

Travel / Death / Warps: Plain Hitchiker Towels are now part of the starting gear. If you lost, sold or don't have a towel ask the nearest soul menhir for a replacement. All towel colors are available and each is set to a location. Only the plain undyed towel can bind to a soul menhir. The towels now have to wait to recharge to be used again. Death is no longer travel system. Localized graveyards keeps you close to the action. This means shorter walks back from the graveyard and illia doesn't reset your savepoint anymore.Using a towel, a warp or walking is the only way back to a city. Ship Travel does not cost anything anymore. The ship now moves between the major docks. The ferry schdules are available by the docks so you know where it currently is. Once aboard wait for the ship to come into the location you want and disembark. Dyrin's sect of wizards "The Travelers" have appeared in more locations about the world. speaking with 2 members of his sect will allow you to move between them, for a price. Members are located throughout the world.

Tonori Improvement: Added major art map additions to Tulimshar & surrounding areas. Castle, Noble, Beach Cliffs , & etc. Starting area clean-up. Quest now uses bitmasking. Sorfina gives you your first towel. Altered NPCs and map to make room for Beach Cliffs. The children playing hide & seek have been spread out more to encourage exploring the wider areas surrounding the city.

Graveyard Improvement: Added major art map additions to the Graveyard & surrounding areas. More maps to grind Xp and to offer a change of pace. These maps also have 3 new mini-bosses for 60+ level characters. The Graveyard reset has been removed. -TMW Team

Old Tree, New Grind 2014-02-03

Today's update includes bug fixes for the Christmas Event (thanks to Chay). Also the famous Hurnscald tree is back to its usual form.

Southeast of Tulimshar, in the caves, you will find the new map 043-4 which was designed to give you a better possibility to train your character at the levels around 60-80. Besides well-known monsters you will find three new mobs there: Trolls, Undead Trolls and Undead Witches. Thanks to Fother for the great Troll graphics!

Have fun with this update!

-Cassy and a bunch of lunatics with magic markers

Christmas Season in The Mana World 2013-12-25

Happy Holidays!

This year has been horrible for Santa. Nothing turned out as it was intended, in fact he didn't even make it at the usual date.

Gladly, Avalia, Santa's utterly attractive apprentice stepped in to make Christmas happen for all of the children and lonely people around the mana world. Go to his workshop and see if you can help to make the magic of christmas happen,

... or make it a complete disaster, Orum has some helpers hidden in Nivalis who will guide your way sabotaging christmas.

This release is very late, so we are going to change reward and event time accordingly.

The good thing is that you will now be able to visit Santa's Inn throughout the year. Cassy breathed life into all those reinboos of last years Holidays. Fothers Candied Slimes are going to cause the sweetest nightmares you have ever had. Not sure if you are cruel enough to kill a Pollett.

- The Mana World Development Team

Icon and Weapon Updates 2013-11-30

With this update we ship new and better item icons. Those have been done a long time ago and we finally finished reviewing them all.

The behavior of items when you do not meet their requirements has changed.

As a result, a new type of ranged weapon has been introduced: the Sling Shot. You can get it somewhere in Tulimshar. We are aware of some small graphical glitches.

The behaviour of the happy-curse for dark mages has been changed. You might want to try it out. ]:-)

-TMW Development Team

Halloween 2013 2013-10-30

Happy Halloween!

Also, some minor bugs have been fixed with Waric and Rossy. Alas poor Waric, Will he ever learn to behave properly?

-MadCamel

Fixes in Server Code 2013-09-28

As you might have found out we had another restart yesterday.

Most of the changes for this restart are under the hood: this was a Server Code release. Meaning the server's software was changed but not the content. Hence user-facing changes are minimal, but we'll outline below what's relevant.

The restart didn't work as smoothly as expected but we are working hard on fixing all the issues which turned up.

Currently known bugs that affect players:

• None

Other bugs:

• GM logs are now full-buffered (faster) instead of line-buffered.
• Admin documentation is wrong.

Fixed bugs:

• Problems with startup speed (possibly not new, fixed anyway).
• Guildbot wouldn't start.
• Some accounts and storages with corrupted items were deleted.
• You can turn every direction except right.
• Inability to trade, except when naked.
• Warp bug related to the new Orum/Waric quest.
• Elemental bonus/malus not applied to magic.
• Update stats from the new CDN.
• Script bug with Kylian and checkweight.
• Drop order was wrong.
• Rossy caves now notice when you win fights.
• Fix an incorrectly marked assertion, which could fail.

If you encounter any more bugs or problems please report back immediately. Post on the forums http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17729

A big behavioural change has been made to the Login Server From now on the login name is case sensitive, this means it matters whether you write a capital letter or not. e.g. if you registered an account name Test, and always logged in as test, this now no longer works. You have to log in as Test. If you forgot how you originally registered your account, and cannot log in, please checkout the forums http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=17737.

Please be aware that these code changes were necessary to move the game forward. The server was formerly very hard to work on or modify. This update goes a long way to fixing that and will allow the developers to bring you new and exciting things in the future.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience. We have been working as hard as we can to fix all the issues above.

-TMW Development Team

Astral Magic Extension 2013-09-14

We have a small content release today. A witch in Tulimshar has found some daunting spells for mages who are experienced in Astral Magic. Talk to her about that. Maybe she is willing to teach you.

With this update, we have added some minor bugfixes for the Waric script, Bluepar sprite and Wicked Mushroom sprite.

-TMW Development Team

Announcing Code update - Introducing Dark Magic 2013-09-03

First, a technical announcement. During a future restart, TMW will start requiring your username to exactly match the case that you signed up with.

Previously, this was enforced erratically, and led to people losing access to their accounts. If, after the update, you are unsure of the case of the account and have already tried lowercase, UPPERCASE, and TitleCase, please contact o11c or Frost.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled content news.

Today we have introduced two new pieces.

First of all, the Orum extension is finished. Orum and his master Waric have set a new base to mess with Sagatha. Seek them out! They hide somewhere in the Caves north of Sagatha's Forests.

Someone has seen a few new spells being used. No one is yet sure what exactly it is but a dark aura has been percieved somewhere north of Hurnscald. Find it! Maybe you can gain something useful!

Last but not least we have to announce bad news for the project but good news for her: Jenalya has, after finishing the Orum extension, resigned from her position as Lead Content Developer. We dedicate this news to her and wish her only the very best for her future. She contributed beyond words and her leaving will leave a spot we will have to work hard to fill. Wushin and tux9th took over as Lead Content Developers and give their best to bring quality content to you, like Jenalya did.

-TMW Development Team

Wushin overhauled caves, Ferry now goes to Nivalis 2013-06-29

This release brings a few new additions to the game:

Wushin overhauled the desert caves with an awesome new cave tileset. Also the sewers below Tulimshar are now accessible. Make sure to check them out!

Malivox took the occasion to stop camping in the desert and moved into a small house south of Tulimshar.

Frozenbeard has expanded his ferry service in Nivalis. You can now go between Nivalis and the other major docks both ways. Proper docks for Nivalis are being worked on.

With a ferry now serving Nivalis, Dyrin will send you somehwere else in Kaizei instead, away from Nivalis.

As usual there are also a lot of smaller fixes and changes. Thanks to everyone who reported issues and helped fix these things!

-TMW Development Team

Double Exp and Drop Weekend 2013-06-07

This weekend we're temporarily doubling both the experience rate and the drop rates for all monsters, to give the chance to recover from the rollback we had due to filesystem corruption.

There are also some bug fixes and new content:

The craftsmen of Tulimshar have finally moved to the renovated Forge at the Northern Market, so the Wizard's Inn is back to offering a calm stay for visitors.

In the woodland area the mysterious Evil Obelisk which summons beings from the astral plane for the mundane price of gold has drastically reduced its demands.

On the technical side, in case of network congestion, you will no longer be kicked with an invalid packet error.

- TMW Development Team

Server Crash and Rollback 2013-06-05

We had a server crash, and had to restore everything from offline backup.

34 hours were lost, from about 17:30 (UTC) on 4 June to about 03:30 on 6 June. This affects the game, the forums, and the wiki.

We're going to set up hourly offsite backups of game, forum, and wiki data so that future outages are less painful.

-Frost

Small Bugfixes 2013-04-28

We're having a bugfix release today.

The main areas that have been fixed are Brodomir's PvP Cave and Orum's quest, both in the caves below Hurnscald.

Additionally, there were a lot of small fixes on maps, spelling and grammar, and more.

We'd like to thank all the people who reported issues and helped testing!

-Jenalya

Easter Event and Miley's Hero 2013-03-21

Today we have a content release.

As always there are a number of bugfixes, but also two new quests.

One of them is an annual Easter event created by Pjotr Orial. It lasts from March, 22th to April, 25th, and can be repeated every year. Watch out around Hurnscald for some hidden Easter Eggs!

The other quest is about the admiration of a little girl in Hurnscald that sees you growing from an inexperienced adventurer to an impressive hero. Backstage, this was also about a great community effort. veryape conceived of the idea for this quest and was able to make it happen with the help of many people who were assisting with the graphics, scripting, spell checking, testing and giving valuable feedback.

Lastly, Brodomir's cave under Hurnscald has been made easier for attracting fighters from all over the world.

-Jenalya