Got your PM, figured I'd post it here in case someone else needs the info as well. Make sure your server is offline so that all the changes will take place. Also, make backups of all your files, just in case. Back in the day I was SOO cocky I used to modify live sites/apps, in doing this I actually crashed the content management application for a MAJOR retailer. They were down for 2 hours while I restored from backup. While it's good to learn from your mistakes, it's better to learn from other peoples mistakes.
The issue is a map file conflict. What I mean is, the server side map file and the client side map files don't match. These are suggestions based on a standard server/client setup where you're using exported IMG files for the server, and OEM WZ files for your client. If that's not the case, let me know, and we'll walk through the other ways.
Here are a couple repair options:
1. Manually edit them to match: (I did this at first, DON'T DO THIS METHOD)
a. Go to your map with the issue, let's say "102000000" which is Ellinia. Open up your client side map wz file with a wz editor, I use HaRepack. Then open up your server map file of the same name. Search for "life", that's all the NPC/mobs/etc. Copy the information from your client side WZ file so that your server side file matches, or vice versa. As long as they match, that's the goal, so either way you do it it's good. As you can see, this is a HORRIBLY lengthy process, that requires WAY too much work. I only did this on a couple NPCs to test it and see if I could fix the issue. If you only have a couple that are an issue, this is an ok method, plus it'll allow you to make changes, like I removed a few NPCs like Cody altogether and added some new ones.
2. Clean export of IMG files: (method I used for full repair)
a. Like I said, I made some permanent NPC changes but this will fix you back to original. Go to your client, I HIGHLY recommend clean wizet files when doing this. Use a wz editor, such as HaRepacker, and open your Map.wz file. Go to Export for server IMG.
b. DO NOT transfer the entire thing! I recommend only transferring the map files that are broken. For example, open the newly made IMG and transfer only the 102000000.img to your server. I say this because I originally transferred the entire wz export to my server and it caused a MESS of issues. I did my restore, and copied only the issue maps (Ellinia, New Leaf City, Perion, Kerning City) and restarted the server. Not only did I not have any issues, but my problem was fixed.
Once you've got your maps squared away, you can modify them the way you want, just make sure you're doing the identical changes to the WZ file on your client side so it matches the server side to prevent this from happening again.
I hope that helps, it's a weird problem that apparently no one understood. I talked a few people on another forum and got several "I just live with it" replies. I've been programming for FAR too long to "live with it".
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