sketchyphoenix

In my 7 years of RO playing (hehe... Get it.... Role playing? K nvm) i have concluded the following in my opinion:
 
WoE/ BG players/ PvP players: 75%
Actual leveling/ PvM: 10%
Players who play custom servers that take an immense amount of work to develop yet die in 2 months: 15%
(Did that add up to 100%? Smh)
 
If you don't have woe you won't have a population. Guild packs will attract them, yet they will leave your server after another woe server opens with a g pack and your server will die THUS the short cycle of a private RO sever. But this is highly debatable I'm sure, this is just what I've been seeing.
 
tl;dr don't go too crazy with the customize button. Add a nice BG system + woe treasure and your server will do fine.

Xray was a client modification by Meruru,
before all the lua/lub stuff, all the data inside the lua was hardcoded in to the client
which made adding items pretty hard.
 
Meruru rewrote functions that read the hardcoded data, and made it read from txt files.
 
still annoyed he didnt opensource it (Meruru ?)
Pinky was nice too

rest in rip eA. i cri everytim ;-;

Your server isn't ready unless your cash shop donation system is ready

It's not helping anything. Here's why.
 
What you're saying is that wasting processing time and memory (that increases with each player on the server, I might add) to clutter up the entire codebase with potentially large amounts of cache for the off-chance that 1 tiny little entry is going to have anything remotely useful to gather from it. The best part? You can still gather all that player data and not a single bit of it is useful if it turns out somebody just plain wrote buggy code. This is literally how you should not debug a program, ever.
 
Crashes that happen that can't be so easily figured out from crash reports are almost always buggy code. It doesn't matter what skill somebody used, what level they are, what they were doing because all that data is accurate. What's not accurate is how it's being handled. That takes time to localize the problem, studying the flow of execution, identifying the error, correcting it, then testing it.

It's not helping anything. Here's why.
 
What you're saying is that wasting processing time and memory (that increases with each player on the server, I might add) to clutter up the entire codebase with potentially large amounts of cache for the off-chance that 1 tiny little entry is going to have anything remotely useful to gather from it. The best part? You can still gather all that player data and not a single bit of it is useful if it turns out somebody just plain wrote buggy code. This is literally how you should not debug a program, ever.
 
Crashes that happen that can't be so easily figured out from crash reports are almost always buggy code. It doesn't matter what skill somebody used, what level they are, what they were doing because all that data is accurate. What's not accurate is how it's being handled. That takes time to localize the problem, studying the flow of execution, identifying the error, correcting it, then testing it.

Ind you know what time it is.

Hercules Plugin Manager: Hooking
 
Hello~! What?!
In March 1st we started the Hercules Renewal Phase One, in order to prepare Hercules for this update, and now 7 months later it's fully complete, we've gone all over the map-server's code, taken hundreds of notes, modified thousands of lines, and have greatly improved our knowledge, making it very much worth the effort. HPM Hooking
Zero Processing OverheadNormally programs that avail hooking end up paying a price for it, processing-time-wise, HPM Design frees Hercules from that toll -- absolutely no processing overhead to functions not being hooked to. Smart, Flexible Design Hooks receive all function params as pointers, whereas the original is int pc_dropitem(struct map_session_data *sd,int n,int amount)the one for the hook shall be (struct map_session_data *sd,int *n,int *amount)which allows for hooks to modify any and all data as it pleases.
postHooks receive one additional param, which accounts for the result of the original function, int <name>(int retVal, struct map_session_data *sd,int *n,int *amount)In this case it'd allow for the postHook to react properly to what the original returned, in this case (for pc_dropitem) 0 (failure) or 1 (success) Hooking is a simple operation, it is possible to hook an infinite number of times to the over 2k hookable functions (all the interfaced ones, accounting for over 99% of map server) HPExport void plugin_init (void) {     addHookPre("pc->dropitem",my_pc_dropitem_preHook);  /* int my_pc_dropitem_preHook(struct map_session_data *sd,int *n,int *amount) */     addHookPost("pc->dropitem",my_pc_dropitem_postHook);/* int my_pc_dropitem_postHook(int retVal, struct map_session_data *sd,int *n,int *amount) */ } DocumentationThe sample plugin has already been updated to demonstrate hooking, the documentation present in the wiki will be updated shortly. Hercules-Hooks Updates This covers how we'll maintain the hookable points up to date with the game server's code The cache that boosts the hooks -- Made Possible Thanks to Haruna! -- is maintained by an application, for a couple days it will remain like that so we can keep an eye on it and debug as we go, once we're confident with it we'll enable its standalone mode, which will make the process automatic (without the need for developers to proofread and approve) and able to follow up on any new commits within seconds of it landing on the repository. Also in
Haruna has redesigned the Makefile for plugins, so those of you not using windows will need to re-enter your plugins in it (its much easier now, Haruna provided a very straight-forward documentation in the file) Pre-existing plugins will need to be recompiled, given the chances in the Hercules Plugin Manager, attempting to load any not-recompiled plugin will lead to it not being loaded (and a warning in console will be displayed) Design by
Haruna, Xgear, Gepard and Ind Special Thanks to
Hercules Team, Contributors, for all have contributed to us getting here, Thank you all very much! Takkun for the MSVC-2012 project files Haruna for the MSVC-2010 project files Link~u!
Commit And - On the Horizon
Script Engine UpdatesThose of you who lurk our page on github probably have already noticed some stuff from it, we'll soon be resuming, for those of you not familiar with it: Many syntax additions and improvements (Thanks to Haruna!) Limitless array support, improvements to array storage and processing Support for Char and Account variable arrays (and no more limit on amount of char/acc vars), improvements to processing and storage of char/acc variables. Catching UpWe hear you, we're lagging on staying up to date with the releases of other projects, we'll be prioritising towards catching up with them. Hercules Stress Test ServerI'll be delaying the release of our Stress Test Server, while it is now viable thanks to hooking, I'd like to prioritise catching up with other releases

Hercules Plugin Manager: Update
Hello~! What?
This is the first major update to our Hercules Plugin Manager, HPM, since it has been first introduced some 3 months ago Made Possible Thanks to Haruna, Gepard and Xgear In this Update
Initial Char and Login Server support Custom Packet support (and thus ability to override existent packets) in all 3 servers Initial Custom Data Struct supportThe ability for a plugin to create and append data structs to existent data, currently available to player units (map_session_data) and network pipes (socket_data), we'll be extending this to others as we go by, drop us a word if you need it somewhere it isn't available yet Documentation Update
The documentation is currently being updated and will be available over http://herc.ws/wiki/HPM once it is complete The sample (src/plugins/sample.c) has been updated to demonstrate the usage of the new features Up-and-Coming
HPM HooksSince HPM was first released we've greatly advanced in the design of this feature, which will take full advantage of our Hercules Renewal Phase One and be extremely efficient Hercules Stress Test ServerOur Stress Test Server will become a reality as soon as the HPM Hooks is released, as it is the one condition necessary for it to function as we intend it to Link!~u
Commit

It's not helping anything. Here's why.
 
What you're saying is that wasting processing time and memory (that increases with each player on the server, I might add) to clutter up the entire codebase with potentially large amounts of cache for the off-chance that 1 tiny little entry is going to have anything remotely useful to gather from it. The best part? You can still gather all that player data and not a single bit of it is useful if it turns out somebody just plain wrote buggy code. This is literally how you should not debug a program, ever.
 
Crashes that happen that can't be so easily figured out from crash reports are almost always buggy code. It doesn't matter what skill somebody used, what level they are, what they were doing because all that data is accurate. What's not accurate is how it's being handled. That takes time to localize the problem, studying the flow of execution, identifying the error, correcting it, then testing it.

We're going to hold back the HPM update a bit, we have reached some stuff we wanted to discuss further, however I'll not delay the script.c interface update: https://github.com/HerculesWS/Hercules/commit/583272234fc96da7911029cd3cad13a7fb386e9e
Thank you again.

i don't see gdb hard to read
>_<

ream and 3ceam happened because of a serious lack of organization in eA. devs all had different opinions on when / how we should've done 3rd jobs so nothing was done. another team had to do it. same thing with renewal/preRE. I don't want to make Paradox look bad or anything but I wish he hadn't stonewalled some of those decisions especially when i threw the idea of just merging with 3ceam on the table. he didn't like the quality of the 3ceam code and he was adamant on adding in all this new content on his own (or at least getting the rest of the team rallied behind it, but historically things like this rarely happen) even though at the time eA's development was at a crawl since most of the team was either burned out or just too busy to devote much time to eA.
 
by the time any kind of action was taken, it was too late. the community had already fragmented and eA was being passed up in overall progress.

the upcoming update for the HPM is about (days away) to rollout, I'll make sure to include this in it

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.

Introducing Hercules Plugin Manager
Hello~! What?!
I can't express how awesome this is. It's awesome, so awesome. ...Incredibly awesome, yet another awesome feature brought to you by Hercules Thoughtfully Designed
This features' design began long ago, a precursor to this feature, which demonstrates for how long we've been planning it, is the Hercules Renewal Phase One Usage Example
Can be used to create @commands Can be used to create script commands Can be used to create console commands Can be used to replace core functions with your ownA example of how handy this can be: when any RO emu updates a section of the code that is used by a user's modifications, e.g. Harmony, no matter how silly the edit is (e.g. a tab alignment update) the user has to wait for his modification's developer to update his patch (unless he manages to update it on his own), if the developer in question starts to use the HPM for his hercules users instead of a patch file, his users using hercules will no longer have to wait for updates unless the way the code works changes on hercules' end. All About It - Documentation
Its being done, most of it is already available in our wiki Hercules Plugin Mananger Building HPM Plugin for MSVC Building HPM Plugin for GCC Links~!
Hercules Console Input Update (HPM Friendly) Commit Visual Studio 2010 2 Notes
The plugin "sample" is currently missing projects for msvc2010 and msvc2012, thats because I dont have them, this will be solved asap, once one of our developers who possesses them logs in. Login/Char server plugin support is currently disabled, it should be enabled by the next release, which will also include Hooks support (as an alternative to overloading)

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.

Introducing Hercules' Stress Test Server
Hello~!
 
The "Stress" Part
Over 1.000 IndAI units (equivalent to +1k online players) will be in the server playing 24/7, farming, going to pvp, doing woe, playing battlegrounds, doing anything a player does, this will create a perfect scenario for us to debug and test Hercules.
 
The Development Benefits
We'll be able to keep track of performance usage 24/7, making us able to detect whenever a update increases a server's usage, allowing us to further optimise said update in order to take the processing down. With the AI characters doing stuff non-stop 24/7 we'll be able to identify and fix any crashes existent. Hercules will gain a super stability boost thanks to this. How to connect / Moving in and out
This is the fun part.
No new clients, and no sclient/clientinfo/blablabla edits will be required. get to the test server by typing '@hercules warp', test whatever you like, and go back to your server with '@hercules leave'. This technology *might* also be employed in the future by us to create hercules-hosted inter-server events.
 
Entirely Secure
The only data your server will pass to our test server upon warp is the name of the character (and maybe hairstyle vals).
The test server is unable to modify (or even access) any data on your server, it is entirely secure and damage-free.
 
Unique to Hercules
The ability to connect through your ordinary client will be made possible by our custom server hosted over at herc.ws, the code won't be made public.
 
Coming
I felt inspired to write about this feature, which is why this announce is out before the feature itself.
This is one of the features to be powered by our Hercules Plugin Manager and will be made public once the HPM implementation reaches the level capable of sustaining it.

FAQ
what if i dont want my players to go to the test server?@hercules is a command like any other, you can restrict access by groups.conf (by default only gms will be able to use it) what if i dont have a test server to use as a gateway to the hercules stress test server?we will also provide clients for those who don't have/want to use a server as the gateway

I need all the badges so I can go to Indigo Plateau and be a Pokemon Master.