Why the 4144 client

Tarq fighting a Terranite

I recently decided to upgrade one of my systems from Ubuntu 10.04-LTS to 11.10. Having done a bunch of migrations I knew it was a lot easier just to back up and do a fresh install. After reinstalling I decided instead of using the 4144 client I'd give the official client a try again. But within a very short time I'd removed the official client and re-installed the 4144 client.

One very small detail in the 4144 client made me switch back to it - the display of how much damage has been done against a monster. It's a detail that doesn't really matter against weak monsters like fluffies and pinkies, but is really nice to have when you're facing Yetis, Terranites, Fallens or Jack'o. It's a small detail I'd love to see in the official client.

I didn't get a chance to test the stability of the main client on the Auldsbel server. The last time I used the official client it froze on my end when I logged in as GM and entered an area players were. I confirmed this behaviour several times.

Getting Ubuntu to recognize current manaplus

There are several The Mana World clients floating around. The Mana World web site links to a really old client in the downloads section. Many people switched to the 4144 client which until recently was located at http://tmw.cetki.com/mana/. Recently it's been updated and switched to http://mana.cetki.com/.

Linux users if you installed the old client 1.1.2.20 and go to install the new client you'll find both your Gnome menus and the command line link to the old manaplus client. But if we find the paths we get:

$ whereis manaplus
/usr/games/manaplus /usr/local/bin/manaplus


Both the command line and menus recognize the old manaplus because the /usr/local/bin/manaplus is part of the PATH statement:

$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games


The simplest way to change our Gnome menu is to click system then preferences then main menu and select the games tree then click on the manaplus icon and click the properties button. Chance the command from just manaplus to /usr/games/manaplus.

But this doesn't solve the real problem, which is the path for manaplus is looking to /usr/local/bin first. And why does it do this? Because it's before /usr/games in the $PATH list. In Ubuntu we can change this by editing the /etc/environment file at the PATH section:

sudo vi /etc/environment
PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/games:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin"


All we had to do is shift /usr/games from the end of the file to near the beginning. As long as it's before /usr/local/bin the newer version of manaplus will take. Note that if you do this you do not need to change your Gnome menu as per above.

The PATH doesn't take immediately. You need to log out of your xsession (but not reboot) and log back in for the PATH change to activate.

Manaplus 1.1.2.20

Recently I compiled the 4144 Manaplus 1.1.2.20 as per these instructions: http://tmw.cetki.com/4144/ubuntu/. One of the things I noticed that was slightly different was when someone killed a monster any drops I tried to pick up too early were labelled as not mine. I like this slight change. Of course all drops if ong enough can be picked up by anyone.

 

Manaplus 4144 Client

Up to this point I've resisted trying the 4144 manaplus client, but Nard convinced me to give it a try this morning and I found it quite interesting. The auto-target and attack feature is really nice, especially when I came across it by accident (hitting x instead of z). I like the stats it keeps and shows (amount of damage done to a monster).

Nard and I spent a bit of time killing yellow slimes this morning. 

The big news for this Tarq character is that thanks to the assistance of Wayne I managed to brew monster oil and make my Setzer! I also reached level 61. I pumped the points into vitality to take on the mogguns. To this point I haven't put a lot of points into Luck, but it looks like I should be. It may be the point where the other stats are starting to cost too much for the time it takes to level.

Next item goal is the Warlord Plate. Funny enough though I still haven't completed the Noah troupe mask quest. I suppose I should finish it before my next level. I'm also thinking about collecting items for when I become a mage... though the warlord plate will keep me busy enough at a cost of 75 iron ore and over 150 coal... I may end up buying a bunch of coal.