Thank you so much for keeping this thread and these resources alive. I've been meaning to setup a PWI server for ages now... I think I will do that this weekend. Since you guys are the mostly likely to know, I have a non-dev question - Which version of PWI is considered the "best" or most well liked? I played back in '08 when it first launched in NA but haven't kept up with it. Are the older versions better? The newer ones? Thanks so much!
1,000,000% a matter of personal opinion.
Speaking from a general and outsider standpoint, a lot of us (me included) think 1.3.6 is the version that did things right and is the "best" however there is an equal amount of people that prefer say 1.5.1 or 1.4.5.
Asking a question like that is almost worth a topic of itself (please don't make another one, I am sure there are a few floating around) due to the shear fact that each version is unique and has its own cult following behind it that will argue it until the end of days.
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From a developer stand point, the older versions are not quite as resource intensive as the newer versions and are a tad bit easier to work with due to the less "moving parts" for lack of better terminology.
and from a personal stand point. If you are just starting out with messing around with pw servers. save yourself one headache (because there are many with this game) and start with the older version first to get them working then work your way up
343 did his damn best to make setup almost fool proof and in my book makes this one of the better ways to start out.
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I have to echo what he said; "the best" is *definitely* subjective, and HIGHLY at that..! That being said, I still tend to lean toward what is known as v136, or pretty much any purely ultra "classic", with ONLY the original THREE races / SIX classes.. Not even getting into the 'politics' of if there is or isn't anything 'wrong' with the new classes (or game balance), it is kind of really nice to have the ALL ORIGINAL game with only THREE races split into SIX classes. That being said, there ARE some things that I would construe as "unfair" or "imbalanced"... And that is, the all original game (3 race/6 class) didn't really have weapon/equipment restrictions, as where (along the way) the company (PW/Wanmei) decided/thought it would finally be a good idea to start hunkering down on those types of restrictions... EXAMPLE: A cleric, can use a BOW... A blademaster/warrior CAN equip a magic sword... HOWEVER; the "daggers" (as release with the Tideborn race, assassin class) cannot be equipped by (AFAIK) ANYONE except an assassin..! So, yes, if you ask me, NOT fair... IMHO they should have either kept the "no restrictions" thing going, or they should have 'doubled back' and made these types of restrictions for ALL races/classes..! (IE remove the ability for clerics to equip a bow)..!
All that being said, I did play the "retail" / "official" game from ~2008 - ~2012; so I am also very familiar with up to v145, as they were on v145 when I quit (retail) in 2012..! So I pretty much have a "soft spot" for ANY version between v126 (126 131 136 142 144) and up to v145... Anything after v145 and I personally think they started to go/get "crazy stupid ridiculous"... To name a few: reawakening, meridian, war card/avatar, reflection, being able to switch demon/sage (although I'm pretty sure they had that in 145 and before
: ) ~ there's just a LOT of "silly" stuff in the newer (and current retail) versions, if you ask me...! Even "homesteads", even "guild bases"... I'm sure, since it's officially a "free to play pay to win" game, that these things are likely sub par compared to other games with the same types of features of the same genre; that it's all just another way for them to keep milking this cash cow...! Ergo, they probably didn't put "full effort" into these features even, as they're just a way to make money for them! That is, their ONLY driving factor is income and revenue generation; not necessarily the actual quality of the actual content they create (again we can circle back to things like meridian and war card/avatar - heck even Genies [IMHO])...! So, bluntly put, I'm pretty sure they were/are at a point where they're just trying to compound more crap into the game just to keep people playing (and more importantly ~ cash shopping)! Some will like these things, some will not... I am definitely falling into the category of NOT... Because every now and then I do log back into retail just to see if anyone I used to play with still plays, or if at an event (like a LAN party) we will (for the nostalgia) log retail and go do something 'classic' like a TT(/HH)...
But as you can see, I've already started to go down that rabbit hole; just like Fluzzy was mentioning..! We could 'debate' this all day long...! But overall, this package is meant for people to "tinker" and LEARN with..! That is why all the different versions that I include, are included..! Honestly, and personally - I'd have to say out of ALL the different versions we have access to, the ones most "important" to me (regardless of whether I actually like them or not) [IE for archive purposes] would be (what's known as) v136 (which I think is actually 126 if I'm not mistaken, but obviously heavily modified to almost 'replicate' the early v1.4.x (up to genesis)... 131 (because the 131 in this release has the old school names from PW_MY), 145 because that's when I quit (which the closest thing in this release is 146), and 155 just because it's "newest"... So in terms of (to me) archival importance, or say like if I was going to actually make a physical (tangible) release available; it would focus on 131 136 146 155, because then that covers "lowest" "highest" and the "best two" in between..!
With all that out of the way, in terms of "just starting out"; I would (just like like Fluzzy said) recommend starting on v136... There's a few reasons v136 is the "base" package for this installation (that is, you actually HAVE to install v136 before any others)... First reason being, that's what I started with back when I joined this forum. Second reason is, I saw NO reason to basically do completely separate releases for all the different versions, as they seemed to "keep coming"... So a LOT of the NEEDED "base stuff" (like XAMPP for the website stuff) and all the MySQL, tomcat, libraries, and so on and so on; are ALL in v136... So that is why 136 MUST be installed first, and prior to any other "add on", as is in this release... So all those add on's are basically just "drop ins" of the new game server files alone... Because all the 'important' "BASE" stuff had already been installed with v136...
So my recommendation, at least from the server admin side/point of view; would be to start out with v136... As the versions go up, not only is there more "in game" but of course and by extension that makes the server side "that much more complex" as well
Once you "master" 136, or if all you really want to do is "tinker" game side (play), then go for whatever version you want! As I have tried to make this the best "all around" release for almost anything you could even want to do with it... Whether it's learn linux and or servers, or whether it's just tinker around and play the game (by yourself with family/friends/guild/etc), or if you wanted to dissect it (if or once you "know what you're doing") to make an actual "public" private server...! THAT being said, it is NOT designed to be a "production server" right out of the box... Could you use it for that? Sure if you really wanted to, but I highly doubt it's actually "secure enough" to do so
Since you played retail in or around '08, I would also reinforce the idea of starting out with v136, because that will also probably be the most familiar to you... If you jumped straight into something like v155, that would be (IMHO WAY too) overwhelming - even just as a "player"..! Not to mention the server side..!
Put it this way, there were enough 'significant' differences (server side) between 136- and 142/144+ that others "around here" and myself "pushed" for RZ to create the split sections (yea PW used to only be ONE section): "136-" and "144+"..! I can't even begin to actually get into what they all are/could be; but there are some pretty major differences between server and client: gshop files, various data files, etc... That operate completely different between "136-" and "144+"...!
So in my words; I'd say "do yourself a favor, and (at least) start out with v136"
Then once you've "picked up" on things and learned a few things, then you can try out another one if you want
: In my (this) release, you are able to install ALL versions if you want, and you can even actually switch in between which one is "active", though ONLY ONE can be "active" at a time (for what should be obvious reasons)... Though if you *really* knew what you were doing (and had a beefy enough machine) you actually could run them all at the same time >.> I would NEVER actually recommend that, and you would probably need a machine with NO LESS than 512GB of RAM... But yea, there is a "service" I created called "pwversion", and it will allow you to chose which version out of any/all installed verion(s) to be "active"
Though/although that is also something you should probably hold off on "tinkering" with until you've installed (just) v136 and "mastered" it
At any rate, I'm glad you're going to check it out ~ please feel free to leave any feedback; questions/comments/concerns/etc!!! This will likely be the LAST release/update I do for this package as, from what I have heard, the "leaks" will be "no more"... So I figured I would go out with a HUGE "bang" for this packages TEN year anniversary..!
I am actually still in the process of mirroring (taking an up to date mirror) of pwdatabase, and then once that is done "we" will actually be creating a torrent too; so to anyone and everyone out there, please contact me if you would like to help be a "primary" seeder of said torrent once everything is all ready for that !!!