ManaPlus was forked off of the original Mana Client to provide many additional features. It replaced Mana as the official client of The Mana World. Since it has it's own wiki, we won't provide a detailed explaination of every feature here.
This article is a quick and dirty run-through of some common features. Feel free to improve it as necessary.
Developer and Website
- Website: http://manaplus.org/
- Lead Developer: 4144
- Getting Support:
- Ask another player
- Forum thread
- IRC (chat.freenode.net channel #manaplus)
- Whisper 4144 in game
All bugs should be reported to 4144 or mentioned in the IRC channel.
Operating System Support
The following operating systems are supported:
- Windows
- Mac OS X
- Android (Beta)
- Linux, with pre-built packages and source code listed on http://manaplus.org/
Getting Started
When you first run ManaPlus, it will do some tests to auto-detect the best video settings. When this is done, you will be presented with a login screen. To log in to the game:
- Click The Mana World and click Connect.
- Type in your user name and password (cAsE sEnSiTiVe). Click Login or push Enter on your keyboard.
- If you don't have an account, click Register instead and fill out the form.
- If you wish to read any update news, change "Update" from Auto Close to Normal.
- ManaPlus will check for and download updated game content. When it's finished, if you had set "Update" to "Normal", click Play.
- You may now select a character and click Play, or click an empty space and click Create.
- Congratulations! You are now in the game!
Interacting with the game
You can do several things now that you're in game.
Basics
- Walking: use the arrow keys
- Talking:
- Push Enter or Return to enter the chat box
- Type your message
- Push Enter or Return again to send the message
- Talk to an NPC (Non-Player Character)
- Click the NPC, or
- Push N to target the NPC and push T to talk to the NPC.
More features
- "Whisper" (or Private Message) a player:
- Push Enter or Return
- Type /w player_name some_message . Replace "player_name" and "some_message" as appropriate. If "player_name" has one or more spaces, put it in "Quotes"
- Push Enter or Return again.
- A new tab in the chat box will be created. Click it and you can now whisper that player without the /w command.
- Going AFK (Away From Keyboard)
- Type /away to use the default AFK message (you can change it later)..
- Type /away some_message to use "some_message" as your away message.
- Rotate or turn without walking: Hold down Left Alt and push an arrow key
- Buttons in the top right of the screen. Hover your arrow on one to see a keyboard shortcut ("u key" means "unknown" or "unset").
- ONL: Online Players List
- HLP: Help with ManaPlus
- QE: Quest Log (not available in TMW)
- KS: Kill Status (or, how much longer until I level?)
- :-): Emotes (Smilies) List
- STA: Character Stats
- EQU: Currently Equipped Items
- INV: Inventory (what you're carrying)
- SKI: Character Skills
- SOC: Social (Friends, Parties, etc.)
- SH: Shortcuts (AKA Items/Spells hotkeys)
- SP: Spells
- SET: Setup (or Settings)
Change Hotkeys (Keyboard Shortcuts)
Many players do not find the default hotkeys very ergonomic and easy to use. To change them:
- Click SETup
- Click the Inpt tab
- Click something you wish to change
- Click Unassign
- Click Assign
- Push the Apply button.
- If your new hotkey is already used for something else, a message will display warning you to change it to avoid problems.
Enable Extra Features
In Setup, you can enable some extra features which may be useful. Below is a list of several tabs in Setup and some useful features you may wish to enable. Those enabled by default aren't listed.
- Touch (for those on smart phones and tablets)
- Show Onscreen Keyboard Icon
- Show Onscreen Joystick
- Show Onscreen Buttons (remember to change the buttons if needed)
- Chat
- Hide Shop Messages (occaissional whispers containt !sellist etc., these are for the built in shop support)
- Use Local Time (use your computer's clock to timestamp chat messages)
- Misc
- Highligh Monster Attack Range (how far away monster can be and still attack you)
- Show Warp Particles (sparkle effect where you can walk to a different map)
- Highlight Player Attack Range (how far away you can be and still attack, changes depending on weapon)
- Accept sell/buy requests (if you want to set up a player shop)
Improve Performance
Sometimes the game does not run so well. Below are some tips to improve performance.
ManaPlus
Under Setup:
- Video tab:
- Disable Custom Cursor.
- Switch between Fast OpenGL, Safe OpenGL, and Softwae to see which works best. Tablet and smart phone users should use Mobile OpenGL.
- On older computers, set the FPS Limit between 20 and 60 (you may need to experiment).
- Visual tab:
- Set Gui Opacity slider to max (all the way to the right).
- Set Ambient FX to Low or Off.
- Set Particle Detail to the minimum (all the way to the left).
- Set Particle Physics to Best Performance.
- If performance does not improve after all other changes, uncheck Particle Effects.
- Performance
- Check all options under Better Performance.
- Uncheck all options under Better Quality.
- Experiment with the settings under Different Options.
Outside ManaPlus
- Close all unnecessary programs, including those in the system tray (the "tray" of icons near the clock).
- Perform a system update (e.g. Windows Update, Synaptic, etc.). Ensure your video card driver is up-to-date.
- Scan for viruses and spyware.
- Defragment your hard disk.