Development:Joining the project

'What TMW is' is not an explicit definition anymore. In the future we'll be having 2 unrelated servers with different server technologies and different gameworlds.

TMW-eA (current game) So you want to help this project, but you have little or no idea how to get into it? The Mana World eA development team is not a closed circle like many other projects. You don't need to apply to anyone or ask for "being taken into the team". You don't have to ask for permission to work on something or wait for someone to assign a task to you. A team member is basically anyone who volunteers to do something for the game. For further information and assistance, you should contact Jaxad0127 either on the forums or in IRC. Technical aspects The technical aspects of development of TMW-eA include tweaking our residential TMW-eA server and server-sided software. The server is done in C and scripts are done in the eA scripting language. Notably TMW-eA is an SVN snapshot from eAthena (a Ragnarok Online game server emulator software) in early 2004. We've extensively hacked it over the years (it was at the moment of taking the snapshot in transition from the basis of an old hacky MUD server to the current eAthena codebase). The technical aspects of the TMW-eA project also include packaging data updates for the client. Future client development is being done by the Manasource project. The client is done in C++ and potentially in the future in Qt. We still have a Mantis issue tracker at http://mantis.themanaworld.org. Manasource issue tracker: http://bugs.manasource.org Content Content means: new monsters, new equipment, new maps, new NPCs, new quests, new anything into the game. Content does not mean: GFX, SFX. Before anything can get into the game, it should be designed. After that it should be implemented server-sided. Then GFX and potentially also SFX can be requested for it and it can go into the game once they're done. Currently visioning ideas is a collective process anyone can take part in and the people doing scripting are cherry-picking whatever ideas they want to get into the game. Scripting stuff is also a free for all process. Once there is a good idea to expand the world, in general new maps can be requested. Reading the forums thoroughly and asking publicly usually gets you answers rather well. TMW-eA content development forum Graphics Graphics development could currently (May 2010) use a few pixel artists going about and retouching old mistakes in tilesets and monstersets. Also if the content development crowd picks up and starts to provide concepts which would require new GFX work to be done, then there is going to be a demand for new equipmentwork, tilesets and monstersets. Please remember to pay attention to our guidelines. Also do hunt for unfulfilled REQ topics on the forums if you're looking for something to do. Newbie pixel artists or people doing their first pixel art piece ever are also very welcome. The community can be pretty harsh at times, but there are also people around who actually do know what they're talking about. It is up to you to distinguish between these two. TMW-eA GFX development forum SFX / Music The SFX and music development scheme for TMW-eA is currently not really all that active and occasionally some things are discussed over at content development.

TMW (the future dream, currently doing CR1) TMW is done a bit differently. We are having an organized approach to developing things. Content for the game world is going to get released in a controlled fashion in Content Releases (CR). Currently (May 2010) we're working on CR1, codenamed 'Alphaville Acres'. The scope of CR1 is to produce a tutorial island for the game world. This goal is split into several different subprojects. All subprojects of a given CR might not be open at the same time due to other subprojects blocking them. Most notably no one will be allowed to do equipment work until the playerset is done or no one will be allowed to do monsterset work until the tilesets are done and the monsters and gameplay are designed beforehand. Technical aspects For the server we're going to use manaserv from the Manasource project. For the client we're going to use the mana client from the Manasource project. Essentially TMW is just a client project of manasource which is trying to portray a game world and an MMO experience using the Manasource technology platform. So if you want to help on the technical aspects, we'll be only doing packaging of client data updates and server sided content updates ourselves and we're directing you to help the Manasource project for other technical development. Manasource issue tracker CR1 subprojects In general, we have a read only forum section for CR1 development so we can do things in peace. Contact Rotonen for access, but be prepared to come with references of you being useful there. We're in dire need of pixel artists (base tileset work, tileset object work, playerset work, spriteset work) Link to the read only section In addition to this we also have an open development section for CR1 where anyone can comment on things. What is brought up there instead of the read only section is up to individual artists / contributors and how they want to work. This is also a really good place to ask questions or give feedback on things you see on the read only section. Currently (May 2010) open CR1 subprojects: Tilesets & Mapping subproject (AxlTrozz) Soundscape and Music subproject (saturn) Gamesystems & Gameplay subproject (Freeyorp) Playerset subproject (currently very lost and without a clear lead) Future CR1 subprojects yet to be started: Equipment design (stats) Equipment graphics Item design (stats) Item graphics Monster design (stats) Monster graphics Quest design NPC graphics Testing