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AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

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Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#51

Post by Zetaphor »

nerevarthelame wrote: post #43

I can't wrap my head the enormity of reverse engineering a WoW (or any MMORPG) server. It just seems like there are so many possible types of inputs to the actual server, with so much of the logic happening in Blizzard's black box, that it wouldn't be possible to come up with a decent server emulator. Impressive work.

As someone who has reverse engineered an online games protocol (Anyland, admittedly much less complex in scope), I can provide a little insight. I started from a known point that would be easy to replicate and observe, and then just built out from there. Once you've got a foothold you can start to build up an understanding of how the various components interact, and with each new discovery you increase gain new insight into other as yet unmapped systems.

This is still incredible work on their part that would require an incredibly deep understanding of the game mechanics in order to reproduce their artifacts by observation

Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#54

Post by _akhe »

Rexxar wrote: post #45
mikedelago wrote: post #10

Hey, I'm on the contributor team for AzerothCore, mainly focusing on maintaining the docker images and linux build CI! Cool to see it here. AzerothCore's "killer feature" is that it has a module system, where the game server can use C++ code to hook onto events. It's pretty slick and works quite nicely. One of the things I've been interested in working on is setting up dynamic linking for the modules so it's easier t…

Do you know if it would be possible to create a new client and create something completely different than wow or is it fundamentally tied to wow gameplay ?

Why so you can change the timeline and seize the crown from Thrall when he invited you to join him in Durotar and you declined? Because you have my axe if you do - the Horde should have stuck to its wild roots!

Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#55

Post by mentos »

w-ll wrote: post #37
jwells89 wrote: post #19

While the most common uses of cores like this is to spin up “blizzlike” servers or “funservers” that use the original content but with boosted XP, loot, etc multipliers, to me what makes them interesting is when combined with client modding, the possibility of custom content — new zones, quests, loot, races, classes, and with some ingenuity even new systems. They’re good foundations to build on. One would be hard-pre…

I learned so much C# eary modding https://github.com/runuo/runuo an open Ultima Online server.

I’m pretty sure the restart server function in RunUO was from my contribution in highscool 2001 :)

I remember it wasn’t implemented and I asked if just starting a new process and stopping the old would work? Someone said try and see, it did and I shared the code and it made it into the next build.

Over 20 years later I owe a career in game development to RunUO.

Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#56

Post by Gyrmrch »

Wow, the nostalgia I just got... Idk how it is now, but back in the day, you could easily get 15 players by hosting one these repacks and posting on reddit and ac-web. Ran a shitty level 60 twink server one summer of one these repacks, made a donation item similar to hearthstone packs, where you would get 5 random items. I surprisingly got a few donations... I had to shut it down due to school starting, but man, that was such a fun summer.

Its an incredibly fun learning experience to be honest. This really sparked my interest in programming. The freedom to create I felt! To think all i wanted to do was recreate swifty PVP videos... Private WoW Servers Hold an incredibly special place in my heart.

Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#57

Post by Cloudef »

LandSandBoat (ex. topaz, ex. darkstar) is another server-emulator for similar era MMO "Final Fantasy XI" https://github.com/LandSandBoat/server

Seems it still has commits from when it was called darkstar made by me :)

- https://github.com/LandSandBoat/server/commit/0de00388eacf01...

- https://github.com/LandSandBoat/server/commit/47b3a5f9a3845d...

Not sure why the code called the compression zlib, but now looking at this code 10 years from now, it's certainly simply a dictionary based compression.

Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#58

Post by SuperNinKenDo »

Takes me back to playing blizzlike private servers back in the day. I miss those times, as much as I felt that was time I could have spent better. I didn't have the dread of wasted time then, I could simply be present in a way that feels closed off to me now.

Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#59

Post by BlueTemplar »

jwells89 wrote: post #41
netbioserror wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tradeoff has been in time investment. It takes very little time to get the gear and materials needed to start working on Mythic Dragonflight raids, while Heroic and Normal can get started even faster and are actually quite easy by comparison. Meanwhile in Classic, the skill ceiling is low but the time investment is through the roof. My first time in Classic was SoD and just leveling to 25 was damned exhausting. I…

The thing about Classic is that it doesn’t work well if one is trying to race to cap and raid readiness. Leveling and gearing up is as much “the real game” as endgame raiding is. As such, it works a lot better when played at a relaxed pace with less of a focus on the destination, as the majority of players did back in 2004-2010.

Huh, this surprises me, as I tried it around 2010-2012, and I found the first 20 levels or so so dull that I only managed to get two characters up to lvl 20 or so and then dropped it forever.

I guess my mistake might've been in trying to approach it as a typical RPG, while I should have instead tried to find some players to befriend in the game ??

Re: AzerothCore: Self-Hosted World of Warcraft 3.3.5a Server

#60

Post by time0ut »

mikedelago wrote: post #11
skerit wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks very interesting. What's the default content like? Looking at the SQL in the repository, doesn't seem like there's that much quests provided?

The repo represents a "BlizzLike" server in its' entirety. The 640MB of SQL actually does contain all of the quests for WoW 3.3.5a. A sibling commenter quipped about which quests are bugged and which aren't, but the reality of it is that the vast majority of quests work perfectly fine, including the quests that are heavily scripted (such as the Battle for the Undercity)

That is impressive considering Battle for the Undercity was bugged for months in official WotLK classic.
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