New to WoW emulating, and wondering how to do a few things... Please help

[SkullTraill]

Hi guys,

So as the title says, I am new to all of this. I have around 8 years of experience running minecraft servers, so I have some knowledge of databases, config files etc.

I am renting a small VPS, and running a MoP repack (that was set up by my friend at the hosting service). I have no intention of making this server commercial or opening it up to the public, it is purely for me friends and I who used to play WoW up until MoP, and then after WoD we quit. We just want that MoP experience again. And so we have about 15 players wanting to play, no more than 20 at most.

The server/repack is already up and running on the host, but I was wondering about a few things:

• Is there a way to create/patch/distribute a custom client that my friends can use to log in without having to install from bnet/patch manually by themselves? Most of them are not technical and I'm not sure if they'll bother if they have to manually edit files. If I could just send them a zip of the required files and they just run an .exe that would be ideal. Is this possible? If so, how? (Ideally this would include WoD models as well, so literally no technical steps required from my friends, just unzip and install)
• How do I increase exp gain rate?
• Is there any way they can register their own accounts? Without me having to make accounts for them manually? This is for a 5.4.8 repack... is there any account creation web software I can use?
• I would like to add items from Legion for transmog, how do I do that?
• [Optional] is there an easy way to fix scripting issues/non-working content? Like how would I go about fixing stuff?

EDIT: I am using TrinityCore with some MoP 5.4.8 repack

[stoneharry]

Hi guys,

So as the title says, I am new to all of this. I have around 8 years of experience running minecraft servers, so I have some knowledge of databases, config files etc.

I am renting a small VPS, and running a MoP repack (that was set up by my friend at the hosting service). I have no intention of making this server commercial or opening it up to the public, it is purely for me friends and I who used to play WoW up until MoP, and then after WoD we quit. We just want that MoP experience again. And so we have about 15 players wanting to play, no more than 20 at most.

The server/repack is already up and running on the host, but I was wondering about a few things:

• Is there a way to create/patch/distribute a custom client that my friends can use to log in without having to install from bnet/patch manually by themselves? Most of them are not technical and I'm not sure if they'll bother if they have to manually edit files. If I could just send them a zip of the required files and they just run an .exe that would be ideal. Is this possible? If so, how? (Ideally this would include WoD models as well, so literally no technical steps required from my friends, just unzip and install)
• How do I increase exp gain rate?
• Is there any way they can register their own accounts? Without me having to make accounts for them manually? This is for a 5.4.8 repack... is there any account creation web software I can use?
• I would like to add items from Legion for transmog, how do I do that?
• [Optional] is there an easy way to fix scripting issues/non-working content? Like how would I go about fixing stuff?

EDIT: I am using TrinityCore with some MoP 5.4.8 repack

To give a quick answer:

- On patching: Easy answer, no. Hard answer, yes. The 3.3.5a patching system has been fully emulated. You can send a client update on login or through a launcher, this then activates a blizzard downloader executable to download the blizzard installer through HTTP or torrent, or you can skip the downloader stage and send the installer directly. The installer can update the wow.exe with a new client version and write any MPQ updates.

https://www.ownedcore.com/forums/wor...plication.html (Sending Patches To The Client Through The WoW Application)
GitHub - stoneharry/Blizzard-Updater: Blizzard Installer
GitHub - stoneharry/Blizzard-Downloader: Blizzard Downloader & Some Blizzard Installer stuff (DO NOT USE INSTALLER IN HERE - use the other repository that has it and is more up to date)

This would be hard to update for MoP but not impossible. It would be easier to write your own launcher.

- Xp rates can be configured in the config files usually.

- For account creation, I added it to the login screen. Most people use a website that inserts records into the necessary login tables. This is quite simple to create but hard to keep secure, there are many out there on this website and others. Maybe not for MoP, but you could easily update it for other patches since the table structure does not change much for login between WoW versions.

- Not sure on transmog, prob requires DBC updates.

- TrinityCore has SmartAI which allows for AI creation through database table data. I scripted everything using Lua with Eluna. There are various options out there.

[SkullTraill]

To give a quick answer:

- On patching: Easy answer, no. Hard answer, yes. The 3.3.5a patching system has been fully emulated. You can send a client update on login or through a launcher, this then activates a blizzard downloader executable to download the blizzard installer through HTTP or torrent, or you can skip the downloader stage and send the installer directly. The installer can update the wow.exe with a new client version and write any MPQ updates.

https://www.ownedcore.com/forums/wor...plication.html (Sending Patches To The Client Through The WoW Application)
GitHub - stoneharry/Blizzard-Updater: Blizzard Installer
GitHub - stoneharry/Blizzard-Downloader: Blizzard Downloader & Some Blizzard Installer stuff (DO NOT USE INSTALLER IN HERE - use the other repository that has it and is more up to date)

This would be hard to update for MoP but not impossible. It would be easier to write your own launcher.

- Xp rates can be configured in the config files usually.

- For account creation, I added it to the login screen. Most people use a website that inserts records into the necessary login tables. This is quite simple to create but hard to keep secure, there are many out there on this website and others. Maybe not for MoP, but you could easily update it for other patches since the table structure does not change much for login between WoW versions.

- Not sure on transmog, prob requires DBC updates.

- TrinityCore has SmartAI which allows for AI creation through database table data. I scripted everything using Lua with Eluna. There are various options out there.

Thank you so much for your reply!

Over the few days since I made this thread, I have done a lot of my own research and realised how much harder this is than I originally expected... especially for MoP++ onward versions.

As for the patching, thanks for all the info, that will come handy down the line, but what I meant was if there was any way to make my own client (for example with account creation as you mentioned) and share it simply with my friends. Like for example, if it would be possible for them to install regular blizz client, and then run a patch by me to make it automatically log in to my PS. I realise that's not possible now, but yeah, wondered how these mainstream Private Servers like warmane and frakz did their custom clients.

Yeah figured out the config file for exp rates

Very interesting idea for the account creation. Much better than having a site! After reading the trinitycore docs, I figured out how to easily create my own signup form for MoP, but now I am more interested in the in-client signup. How does one go about modifying the client to have in-client signup?

Transmog... doesn't that work by default using the transmog NPC? What I meant was like how to import items for transmogging. I assume that would have to be done BOTH client side and server side? Client side for the models and stuff, and server side it would have to have the items in the items_dbc table... right?

Oh very interesting, regarding the AI creation! I will look into that.

Again man, thanks for the superb answer! If you wouldn't mind, could you add me on discord (skull#0001) or skype (skull-traill) or PM your usernames I'll add you? I promise you I won't bug you constantly, but I'd love to be able to chat about this stuff. I've got a lot to learn!

[stoneharry]

As for the patching, thanks for all the info, that will come handy down the line, but what I meant was if there was any way to make my own client (for example with account creation as you mentioned) and share it simply with my friends. Like for example, if it would be possible for them to install regular blizz client, and then run a patch by me to make it automatically log in to my PS. I realise that's not possible now, but yeah, wondered how these mainstream Private Servers like warmane and frakz did their custom clients.

The patching I described is a means of getting the custom patch to the player and installing it seamlessly. It emulates the method Blizzard used in the old days. I'm not sure how the mainstream servers do it because I haven't been involved in the WoW emu scene for many, many years. But using the official tools is the best way in my opinion, because it looks so damn sleek, and is literally a exe that updates the WoW installation.

Traditionally people just add a new MPQ file in and sometimes a new WoW.exe, and often write their own launcher to handle managing and updating those files.

Very interesting idea for the account creation. Much better than having a site! After reading the trinitycore docs, I figured out how to easily create my own signup form for MoP, but now I am more interested in the in-client signup. How does one go about modifying the client to have in-client signup?

You will need to modify the WoW.exe to disable checks on the GlueXML & FrameXML Interface files (guides and tools for this out there).

Then you can modify the GlueXML interface files to add the account creation panel and message, and server side interpret that message and carry out the action.

I hijack the normal account creation packet but prefix it such that the server knows it is a create request rather than a login request. I then respond with a unused error code that I have changed client side to display a different message.

Server side: Edge-of-Chaos/AuthSocket.cpp at master . stoneharry/Edge-of-Chaos . GitHub
Client side: Misc-WoW-Stuff/AccountLogin.lua at master . stoneharry/Misc-WoW-Stuff . GitHub

Transmog... doesn't that work by default using the transmog NPC? What I meant was like how to import items for transmogging. I assume that would have to be done BOTH client side and server side? Client side for the models and stuff, and server side it would have to have the items in the items_dbc table... right?

I'm not sure how transmog works, all of the emulation I did was in 3.3.5a and prior patches.

If you wouldn't mind, could you add me on discord (skull#0001) or skype (skull-traill) or PM your usernames I'll add you? I promise you I won't bug you constantly, but I'd love to be able to chat about this stuff. I've got a lot to learn!

My discord is ----- but I'm not that active.