Cryo's ongoing thread of beginner questions

[Cryosepsis]

Well, I know that I'm going to have lots of questions, and rather than posting a new thread every time I need help, I thought I'd just keep them all in one ongoing topic.

Currently, my main dilemma is whether I should use a repack for my first private server; or if I should compile for myself. I understand that compiling my own server will give me the greater ability to edit, but is it advisable for someone who is just starting out in emulation? And if I do choose to compile for myself, will my server feature the quests / mobs and drops / instances / etc as seen in say the retail version of vanilla or tbc, or will it be a bare world which I'll have to populate from scratch?

Any help in clearing things up would be very much appreciated.

[thebigman]

after compilation, you put in a database with all this shit in it into the world, but essentially, until that point, yes its blank.

whereas a repack has a preloaded database and mysql usually built in. Do a compile first, add the database with your own mysql and essentially its your own little repack void of scripts.

[Facerolling]

Hello again,

I created a very detailed step-by-step tutorial on how to compile your first server. ArcEmu is a very good core to learn to customize easily as it features a Lua engine. Lua is a much less complicated programming language than C++, which is what other cores rely on for custom scripts.

Give it a try, let me know if you get stuck anywhere, and ways to inprove it : http://www.mmowned.com/forums/world-...30-1-11-a.html

[stoneharry]

A repack will let you mess around and have fun.

Compiling your own will let you work on your own projects and customise it properly.

Compiling your own can be a lot harder and is not a easy task for those not familiar with computing.

Leading on from what Minisword said, the cores are written in C++ and primarily this should be used. However ArcEmu have Lua support which is an interpreted language, and very easy for beginners. Lua/Python/Visual Basic are usually the sorts of languages that people start at and learn from. You will still be able to achieve a lot with Lua. I would advise to find a ArcEmu one since it is much more user-friendly.

ArcEmu and Trinity etc do not support 4.x yet. Only unofficial core branches support 4.x, and even then it's not very good and really buggy.

[Cryosepsis]

Minisword, your tutorial looks very comprehensive, I'll definitely follow it and let you know how things turn out for me.

Stoneharry, I understand that learning to compile and mod my own server will be challenging, particularly given my lack of experience, but that's a big part of the fun for me. I've wanted to make the transition from user to creator for quite a while, and this to me is an exciting first step in that direction. I've been lurking this forum for a few days, and having found a community of helpful and engaging modders has lit a fire under my butt, haha.

I've read your posts elsewhere about the present difficulties with 4.x, and I'm fine with that myself. To be honest, I get enough of the WoW-lite experience in retail; a big part of why I wanted to get involved in this kind of project was that I rather missed the pre-Cata gameplay.

Thanks again for the prompt, helpful feedback everyone.

[Cryosepsis]

Hi again guys! I've already posted this in facerolling's thread, but I thought it wouldn't hurt to repost about my issue here. So I've been compiling my own ArcEmu server, and in running arcemu-world, I was spammed with this:

[01:47][Arcemu]!!! possible invalid format in file DBC/Spell.dbc (us: 234, them: 240)

From what I've gathered from searching the forums, this results from my WoW client version not matching the server version. Does us/them suggest that this Arcemu core is compatible with a lower version of WoW than I have? I've patched my WoW client to 3.3.5a as per facerolling's guide, and I'm using the trunk that he suggested for this build, so I'm not sure why there would be a discrepancy. I don't know how to check the compatibility of my Arcemu trunk, so I haven't been able to verify this issue for myself.

I could use a little bit of handholding at this point, I'm not sure how to proceed. As always, any help would be greatly appreciated!

[stoneharry]

The revision of ArcEmu you are using is telling you that the DBC's you have put in the server folder are not in the correct format for the patch of the server.

Aka, reextract the DBC files from your client and put them in the server folder replacing the old ones.

[Cryosepsis]

The DBC's I have in the server are already ones that I extracted from my own client. Hence my speculating that there's a discrepancy between the server version and client version. I know my client is patched to 3.3.5a, because I did it myself. I don't know, nor do I know how to figure out, what version my server is compatible with. Thus, I'm at an impass. Unless the issue is caused by something completely different altogether...

edit: faceroll helped me fix this problem.

[Cryosepsis]

And now I'm getting this :

[13:56][Arcemu]Authentication request from 127.0.0.1, result FAIL.

Going to dig for a solution on my own, but if you have any input regarding this, please do share it.

edit: Once again, fixed by facerolling.

[Cryosepsis]

Well, I've successfully compiled my first server! Been in game for the past couple of hours fiddling around and testing things out; everything so far seems to be working in perfect order. Wanted to give a big thanks to Facerolling for his tutorial and all his help through the problems I encountered during the process. I've learned a lot so far, but obviously I've only scratched the surface. I have more questions regarding the compiling itself than I think you guys will have the patience to answer. Luckily there's plenty of already existing threads around here that are just packed with info.

I'm off to find new and exciting ways to torture my new toy. Thanks again for the help, everyone!