This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/wowservers by /u/killerwife on 2024-12-11 08:43:48+00:00.
Hello everyone,
Long time no see. We have been hard at work over at cMaNGOS ever since the last community post. There have been quite a few big changes
over the last couple years. I will segment them into 3 parts this time around, Core, Vanilla, Tbc and Wotlk.
On the global front, there has been a massive rewrite of some internals, specifically LFG and BG, making them asynchronous and as a result
introducing some blizzlike bugs, that could not occur before. This also means they are less of a hog on the main thread, which helps with
performance. This work also included some rethinking of how to communicate between inter-core components, should they be in their own
asynchronous thread OR in a separate process entirely. (official architecture runs in separate processes, but maintaining that would not
be feasible) These rewrites specifically for LFG were essentially three different reworks, because the systems are distinct in all
the expansions, but they are now at least unified in a kinda-sorta samey structure making them not a hell to approach.
All npcs now correctly use attributes (strength agi etc) under the hood. This means mobs respond better to buffs/debuffs, and also means
they scale more correctly in some cases - health multiplier affects stamina buffs for example. This data was painstakingly acquired my mind
controlling / enslave demoning monsters, as it is otherwise not obtainable. As a result of this, some mobs now also have resists, as that
data can also only be acquired through charms.
Some of the contributors have swapped the playerbot implementation to the ike bots. Ask more around the discord if you want to know more.
There has been a general pass at race conditions in the core, mainly vmap and mmap systems. This should reduce the number of weird
crashes that occur.
Next onto the vanilla section.
Zul'Gurub has been used as a testing ground for new UnitCondition and CombatCondition tech in connection with creature_spell_list.
As a result of that, all bosses are now much closer to how they are meant to be as well as moving most their timers and scripts to
the database, making them adjustible without a core restart.
Through out the world there have been improvement to veins, for now mainly endgame ones, with proper official groupings and spawns.
In addition that, we have been adding more missing patrols and overall world feel to the vanilla world.
One standing out improvement is the T0.5 questline, which has had a major quality pass over it, adding AI to bosses, adding missing RP
and scripts. Loot for some quests has also been adjusted to make them in line with official data.
Currently the vanilla world has 3 main todos:
- Rework General Rajaxx now that formations are a part of the core
- Second rework pass of Cthun (due to his complexity, he still needs more work and testing)
- Unification of Vanilla Naxx rework with Wotlk Naxx. Vanilla rework was done earlier when not all tech was available and wotlk one
albeit different mechanically, can now be brought to the same level of quality due to core feature access.
TBC - You are not prepared (yet)
Eversong Woods and Ghostlands have had a major review. In contrast to the Draenei zones, which were finalized around 2018, BELF zones
have now been brought to the same level of quality. It ranges from patrols, gossips, adding spawns and even deleting spawns (murloc
zone was too difficult incorrectly). One remaining part is the Zul'Aman entrance with tons of RPs which are yet to be done in the
future. (and anyone is welcome to help, they are all listed in a github issue)
These zones, including the draenei ones have had a significant rework of herbs and vein spawns. Overall, more than 30% of spawns were
missing, and now are also grouped correctly. (unlike the old zone wide pooling) This results in more than 100 new herb/vein spawns.
Over the course of 2023, 44 previously stock bosses and some very early vengeance ones were reworked using the newest tech, that
was prototyped in Zul'Gurub. This included correcting some spells, scripts, missing RP and other nice additions in bulk. This also
included Hydross and Kael'Thas, since they were an early version of the AI improvements. All of these bosses can now have their timers
adjusted from the database and without restart as well.
Next, Miraco specifically has been tackling the rest of dungeons, spawns, trash, RP, and has recently finished his general improvements.
This changes the feeling of the instances mainly due to more correct patrols and group occurences, which impact the difficulty greatly.
Essentially every dungeon has been worked on, as well as some raids.
Wrath
The wotlk core has always been a bit behind on the curve of polish, mostly in all cores when we compare the quality of finish of vmangos
and vanilla world and cmangos and tbc world. As a result the work done on wotlk has been more exploratory than all the other expansions
we maintain and the notes reflect that.
One of the overarching tasks was a big review of player abilities. It started out by closing most if not all issues related to base
abilities and their talents. Then it progressed into a full review of all glyph implementations and their modernization. We added
scaling to pets that did not previously have them (we do not actually know all the coefficients, but some are better than none).
This probably resulted in hundreds of scripts being added/edited, making the base gameplay at least work at last. The main thing
to note here is that the core is now capable of all the shenanigans any player ability might have to offer so fixing anything (yourself)
is no longer a struggle.
The outdoor world has continued to evolve under the guise of Grz3s work. This time around he reviewed and improved all of Zul'drak,
Sholazar Basin and is currently on track to finalize all of Icecrown. This includes quests, patrols, RP, spawns and all those zones
have to offer. The remaining red headed stepchild is going to be storm peaks and pass over dalaran, after which the outdoor northrend
will essentially be done.
One small detour me and grz3s did was Zul'drak and Wotlk Naxx, which have been fully redone with their spawns and boss AIs. This
includes usage of all the shiny newest tech used in tbc and Zul'Gurub, meaning that those are on par now with what you can expect
quality wise in cMaNGOS. Ulduar has also seen some work, the plan over the holidays is to modernize all scripts so that their structure
is easy to iterate upon by any wotlk enthusiasts. The same plan exists for EoE and OS in the future, so that even if the raids arent
incredibly polished due to time constraints, they use the new codebase for scripts and are easier to work with. Specifically here
I would like to call out the incredible work of Miraco on tbc, because without someone with a full focus on wotlk instances,
it is unlikely they will get the same point as vanilla and tbc. Any contributors are welcome and you have my guarantee that everything
wotlk instances need (maybe icecrown citadel being an exception) is already possible, just needs a dedicated scripter to make them work.
While this list of work done is long, this does not encompass all we did. The whole world as usual has seen some polish, from abilities,
scripts, modernizations, small updates to the core due to leaks, and so on. There are definitely areas we still lack, but they are
fairly well know at this point, we have the data, but as usual its all about manpower and we do what we can. cMaNGOS pretty much has the
last (un)dead tbc core in active development, so we are trying to keep the torch going, while still maintaining the other two cores
(specifically wotlk more, because it has an active db dev). During this time one of our main devs for vanilla, Cala has left, so here
is a shoutout specifically for keeping up the torch for cmangos-classic for so long.
The shoutout has to also be extended to all the devs that are in active service. Me (killerwife), AnonXS, Grz3s, Tobschinski, Insunaa,
WarlockBugs, and then the stalvart reviewers NeatElves and evil-at-wow. Also friends and family has to be given credit for their
continued support and lack of being annoyed, namely Brotalnia from vmangos, celguar from SPP, Shauren and Modox from TC.
Since it has been a while, I will ofc be answering any questions on this thread as well.
Cheers, and to another year of wowemu.
Killerwife
