Meursault wrote on Apr 16
th, 2016 at 3:16pm:
Personally, I'm quite curious how it can be done without sourcecode, as much here seems to imply is possible. And by how, I mean how with detail, not like "how to play the flute: Blow in one end and move your fingers up and down the side".
With server source (and the database of assets, of course) it seems like a straight forward, if tedious, adaptation. But I can't imagine how you could get the server logic right without the code, or at least a solid spec which Turbine most certainly does not have. Even if you captured every packet for days it wouldn't convey the state that had built up, the server isn't a RESTful.
Did the WOW pirate servers start with a leak of the WOW server code? Are there any pirate MMO servers that didn't start with code? If so, how did they do it?
Believe it or not, the server is actually comparatively easy(compared to the client). The server emulators were made by basically programming the server-side from scratch, based on an understanding of client-server architecture and looking at "what the game is asking for". The lions share of the work is done client-side, the server is mainly just keeping the different clients synced)
There are no art assets, the server is not sending texture packs or monster models in game-play, all of that is client-side. The server does have to have a database, but its more like what everything does, the numbers side of it(I know on my earliest WoW server I could edit weapon stats in a text document, later iterations required SQL)
A lot of stuff had to be put in by hand. My first forays into private servers left me with an empty world, items, but 0 mobs, NPCs, etc. The quests were "there" but they weren't playable, it was just the bones, so to speak. All of that stuff had to be scripted by hand.
In UO servers the community thought this was vital. Fully working servers were few and far between, the forums would berate anyone who dared ask for one. Having to script everything yourself was considered "part of the experience"
The first few wow servers I found were the same, and the development communities equally as toxic(I hang out on the Vault, and I am calling these communities toxic - that should give you some clues).
I know it was popular to tweek the games and make them less like the original, but it was usually jsut the original turned up to 11. Faster XP gains, higher levels, bigger numbers on weapons, etc. I remember back when the WoW level cap was 60 somebody made a server where the cap was lvl 255. In the UO world, some guy had made a sword that let him hit mobs that were 12 screens away.
Its all doable without source code, but much of it might be extremely tedious. These are always community projects; one guy making it by himself would go insane.