RO is changing. A lot. Its changing too much for me to keep up on jobs, skills, and important features on the project and my life future needs to take priority. For most of the time I worked on this project it has distracted me from my priorities in life. I kept up with it for a very long time and I tried to catch up on things for many years. With the complete recode of the elemental system on r900 I felt I finally got all caught up and only had a few bugs here and there related to skills that needed to be fixed and I just needed to finish up whats missing for the Summoner job. But I was so wrong. The thing is I felt the need to keep things up to keep the project alive and not have people wondering if the project is dead or not. Plus after doing so much work it felt like ending it would mean I wasted years of my life doing this for....what??? What exactly did I get out of this? Some fun, a hand full of thanks, and some credits and rep. Kinda felt like someone who played a MMO for many years and can't quit knowing it would make all that past time feel like it was all for nothing. A waste.

So whats the issues with the project itself? Well....

1. The Base Code Is Too Old

3CeAM is running on eAthena r14767 which is around 9 or 10 years old. A base that dated has been found to have some issues with newer compilers like VS 2015 which I have resolved this year. But other issues appeared after running the program made with newer compilers which I fixed some. But I realized that not only is there a lot of hidden issues needing fixing but things like plugin's and other .dll files are dated and need updating along with the code that uses them. I have little knowledge of this stuff and can't do it by myself. Other projects like rAthena and Hercules are much more up-to-date for newer compilers and OS's. 3CeAM's base code is just too old to keep up with. Especially when im the only one working on it.

2. Keeping Things Up-To-Date Is Impossible

When it comes to development in this project there's a few key things I focus on most. Jobs, skills, any systems related to the jobs/skills that require them, and client support. I don't bother with things like the banking system or equip swap or other non important things. This pile of stuff I pushed off grew over the years and now while client support is good, many features in them don't work since I never coded them in. Im always busy working on job/skill related stuff most of the time. Its very time consuming. But after spending many years catching up on the official support for skills and these job/skill related systems I finally caught up in r900 with the exception of Summoners and a few skills that could use a quick recode.

Looking at whats been going on in official kRO the dev's have been changing things with the 3rd job skills....A LOT!!!! They will increase the max level for some of them, change how some of the skills work, and do these massive skill updates. That would be kinda fine with me if it wasn't for the fact that they keep changing things. How many skill updates Rune Knights got? How many freaken times Sonic Wave got changed? How many times did they change a large number of 3rd job skills for each job? Each job must of gotten at least 3 or 4 massive skill change updates to their skill set. Its enough to drive me crazy trying to keep up with it all.

Remember how long it took me to go through every 3rd job a few years back to comb through all of the code to get each of them up-to-date with the 2011 skill updates? Even after that I had to go back and revisit the parts I held off on knowing they would be very complex and time consuming to do. Now it feels like half or most of what ive done was now a time waster since I will have to do this exact procedure ALL OVER AGAIN combing through the code and kRO change logs to update each 3rd job skills 1 by 1 to get them up-to-date again. I did it once, im not doing it again.

3. Newer Client Support.

In mid 2018 official kRO increased the value that handles item ID's from short (16-bit 32k item limit or 64k however you look at it) to int (32-bit allowing over 2 billion ID's). But the way they did it made things difficult. Many existing packets relays on item ID's and so they decided to change this value in all already existing packets. To support newer clients over 50 or probely 70 or 80 or maybe more needs updating. But not only updating but many which only have 1 versions of itself requires additional code to keep backward support for older clients. Such a change is a huge workload and would require multiple updates to get it working. Me not having the time for this crap if I did it would just say FUCK IT and remove ALL of those packets and only readd the latest versions of each one to significantly reduce that workload. I would make a copy of the source files that handles the packets and put them to the side in the SVN for those who want 2018-06-20 or older support because that change will make it so only 2018-07-01 and newer clients will work. Won't be the most popular choice but im not up for trying to keep backward compatibility with years of clients. Just going to be a pain in the ass.

4. The 4th Jobs Workload

It took many years since the beginning to get the 3rd jobs caught up. Some of that time spent figuring out how to implement them in the system on their own layer and also inherit the features and permissions of the previous jobs. That was a big challenge since noone knew exactly how the job management system worked. Me and a few others made multiple prototype codes to find the best method until I found the right way to do it. Knowing this knowledge I can create a new layer for 4th jobs. But these jobs come with a lot more then just a hand full of skill sets.

When 3rd jobs came, so did the introduction of a new game mechanic that split cast times into variable cast and fixed cast and it also introduced cooldowns. It was a nice and much needed change and it didn't take long to code this stuff in. 4th jobs however are adding new game mechanics much bigger then this. When you change to a 4th job, level 201 to 250 will give you a new kind of stat points called T.Stats and you use them on 6 new stats that are added to the 6 that existed since day 1 of RO, making the total number of stats in the game 12 now. This also comes with a hand full of new sub-stats which we can just call T.Sub-Stats. Coding all of this in will be a big work load since no new stats were added since the early days of RO server emulators. Also new to the table is something called AP which will be a new requirement for some if not all of the 4th job skills according to info I found in a updated skillinfo_f.lua file. So now we will soon have to mange HP, SP, and now AP.

Info extracted from newer client exe's shows some of the new buff skills increases T.Stats and also increases T.Sub-Stats. Combining that with the new AP requirements and you now have over 100 new skills that will require all of this to be coded in and working to allow those skills to work properly. This is a workload much MUCH greater then what the 3rd jobs were and doing this alone will just stress me out. Especially when this is only a free time hobby that brings no income.

5. A Project Managed By 1 Person

Managing the project by myself has been somewhat stressful at times. It used to be developed by a small team but everyone moved on with their lives. And I got used to doing it all by myself. I knew the code inside and out because almost everything was being done by me and I knew what was done and what still needed to be coded in. Well this became a big part of the project's downfall. Doing it all by myself is a lot on me and it prevented things like a updated base code and .dll's, server/client features, and other things to fall behind. Sure 15peaces made patches you can apply to get those other features working but its not something officially in the project's code.

I tried working with the team at rAthena before only to quickly find out that some of the dev's there don't do a good job at coding. Some would code something in and commit it to the GIT and those changes would cause problems. So dev's have to go back and fix the bug or the issue which sometimes causes crashes and commit again. And even with that the fix won't even fix the issue as if the dev didn't test it. WTF!!??!! The dev would commit multiple times on that code before its actually working. I can only imagine the number of issues in that project's code. When you code something in your supposed to TEST IT BEFORE RELEASING IT!!!! Test it thoroughly to make sure it works EXACTLY how its supposed to and test some scenario with it to make sure it doesn't cause problems or crashes in case there's any hidden bugs. And even if it works properly, find ways to shrink the code down to make it smaller and optimize it to use a few CPU cycles and little memory as possible.

I follow a procedure when I do my own coding. Code it in, do simple tests, shrink and optimize the code if it passes the test, test again for the same expected results, do extra testing (thorough testing through stressing the code and running scenarios that might cause issues), and then release it if all passes. Its because of this 3CeAM has a history of being stable and extremely rarely has any crashes or bugs. If there's one thing dev's should take from this example, do it right the first time and give it your best at all times. If your often having to go back to your previous work or the same piece of code repeatedly to fix it then your doing something wrong. The lack of this procedure in rAthena made me quit in less then a month as I refused to fix/cleanup other people's messes. This is why I worked alone for so long. I was afraid to let or ask others join the team.

Final Note

3CeAM was fun to work on and I learned a lot from it. It was very popular before rAthena and Hercules existed since at the time people wanted 3rd jobs in their servers. But those golden years are gone and trying to keep this project alive will just be a waste. Its time to let go and move on to new hobbies. Im very interested in the 4th jobs but im not interested in trying to code them into a old very dated project. If I do such a thing it will be in rAthena (which is in a better standing then when I saw it years ago), or Hercules. Anything with 3CeAM will only happen if its a paid job and thats if I even choose to accept it.

Thank you to the community for supporting the project and being with me all these years. It was a fun journey.

In May 2012 I did the Sorcerer 2011 update and noted that the elemental system would be worked on in a separate future update. But it never came due to many other things having a priority over it. Not only that but I didn't know much about them and detailed info on them was lacking. The 2011 iRO document had info, but it was small compared to what the entire system holds. And to top it off, the system with its current coding is kinda....meh. So I avoided working on it.

But now that things are pretty much up-to-date and complete for all existing jobs and the latest jobs like Star Emperor and Soul Reaper, there really isnt much to do other then bug fixes and code cleanups. But after coming across some code for the status's that elementals give to allow autocasting bolt skills, I felt its time to tackle the system. Starting with r888 I spent a lot of time updating checks for them and figuring out how this entity is supposed to be handled and how to recode it in the proper way. Then with r889 came the 2nd update to them which brought huge changes. Took much longer since I was still figuring out how to handle them.

That 2nd update made a huge difference with their sub-stats. I added a command to show their sub-stats so I could see if their being calculated correctly since there's no official way to see this. Seeing how well the command worked I decided to keep it in so player's can use it in other server's to see the sub-stats of their elementals. Below are 2 pics showing before and after the updates....

Before r889

After r889

Seeing this big of a difference I really want to do more to improve the system and make it work like official. But to do that I will have to recode the entire core of the system which will take a lot of time to do. Along with this, all of the skills that the elementals cast will need to be properly recoded as well and with that I wanted to know exactly how they work before doing so. Matter of fact, I want to know how everything works. So for around a entire week I spent most of my free time doing research by poking around in aegis files and its zone.exe and created a document containing all of the data and information ive extracted from the files.

With the document now complete I will now share everything I learned from this research....

Elemental Spirits Information.txt

I learned a lot of interesting things about the elementals but at the same time wondered what the hell they were thinking when they made this system. That thought popped in my mind multiple times which isn't good. I feel like they failed to make a proper logical system and kinda rushed it. But hopefully the current dev team at Gravity will rework it into a more proper system when they do the update for the Sorcerer's skills. But seeing that no dev note announcements were made yet and the fact that most of the existing 3rd jobs already got updates, Sorcerers will likely be last on the list due to the elemental system. Might not hear anything til mid or late 2020. Lets cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Expect more major updates in the next few upcoming updates for 3CeAM.

But due to some info that came out recently ive decided to change my plans around. According to the info, gravity has decided to redo most (if not all) of the Rebel job....I shit you not. Check the link below....

http://ro.gnjoy.com/news/devnote/View.asp?category=1&seq=2956632&curpage=1

Sending this through google translate on Korean --> Japanese --> English....

Hello. Ragnarok user of everyone.
RO1 studio gravity alien team.
 
Recently and stand out success of Riberurion of the Black Forest, the Riberurion against this
Awakening of Riberurion (tentative name) is in preparation to support.
 
Riberurion awakening (tentative name) is more powerful! Easier! Work aims to allow play,
It tries to provide to be able to more freely develop.
 
This is scheduled to Riberurion in the content, such as the following can be adjusted.
 
- At the maximum level is 175 Riberurion, maximum job level will be extended to 60.
(Mayflies, even level and job level will be extended to the same misinformation.)
- HP of Riberurion, the SP table will be adjusted. It will increase significantly.
(Mayflies, also HP, SP table will be adjusted misinformation.)
- Setting of the weapons and ammunition will be adjusted.
→ "" that had been separated into bullet "Wavelet series" wavelet-based "bullets and" howitzer system bullet
It will be changed so that it can be used in all of the gun.
→ "Sphere bullet" will be modified so as not attached.
→ attack power and the price will be adjusted.
- Skill tree will be extensively modified to be able to develop a combination of the skills of the various series.
(It will be skill tree future public to be Byongon.)
- Some of the Gunslinger, skills Riberurion will be adjusted changes.
→ the coin series skills and weapon-based skills to reliably distinguish enhance the usability of the nose humanity skills
We would like to minimize the burden of the bullet and the coin double consumption.
→ to adjust the skills, such as to be able to develop a combination of the skills of the various series.
 
This time Riberurion awakening (tentative name), you have to consider
applying to the time of similar in South Korea and Japan both countries.
 
The two countries have been ready to hit it off trying to make to the further fun content Riberurion.
 
For more information, please refer to in future updates, website information of each of the country.
(The purpose of the update is in May.)
 
As you can look forward to even more fun Riberurion you to prepare to the best of our ability.
 
Thank you very much.

....yea. Just a big WTF. So their reworking the job in and out. Expanding their max base/job levels to 175/60 (Kagerou/Oboro also getting this level cap increase), redoing the entire skill tree, changing how some of their skills work, even changing how some of the Gunslinger skills work, rumor that some rebel skills will be combined, able to shoot sphere type bullets with all guns (Imagines shooting gernades out of a revolver), just many things. The update will come out in May on both kRO and jRO.

All of that killed my mood on the Rebel development. Like WTF really? I FINALLY start on development for them after gathering scraps of info for somewhere over 2 years and now this data is useless? *sigh*

Summoners are also getting some work as well. The Sea branch of skills just got a bunch of update this week and more is likely to come due to the 2nd wave of skills their going to add to them in the future which is also making me not want to develop any of their skills. Why work on something knowing ill have to redo it?

I just might do some more random updates like I usually do. Things tend to work out best when I don't focus on one thing. Heck maybe I should just loosely code in the above skills. Loosely as in make the basic functions and important restrictions work. Like add Hammer of God to only work on Crimson Marked targets and fail to cast on non marked instead of adding the complex random ground targeting when using on non marked targets.

I still have a lot of things in my "Things To Do" list. What are you looking forward to? Any new skills? Features? Bug fixes? Blah blah blah?