Fossil | 4.0 | Development Thread

[Peonso]

In an age of war, price inflation, hunger, hate and many crypto-nft scams, there is not much hope left that things will get better. Let's be honest, they won't. The best course of action is to neglect your children and job even more, and alienate yourself from this crazy world. Dive down the drain with us on this nostalgic trip.

Fossil is an old school Tibia 4.0 tribute. With totally unbalanced gameplay from pre-7.0 era. 4.0 Thais, 5.0 Fibula and 5.2 Rookgaard and most of the epic infamous broken game mechanics.

https://imgur.com/Ob2zevq

https://imgur.com/GYvKXfT

As soon as I end a basic map/client/website it will go online. VPS already set up, it's happening. Fine tune will happen while it is live, it's supposed to be broken and for fun. It's an adapted server with otclient, don't expect it to be perfect, gonna do my best up to my ability and any help I get. I will have hybrid shit from 4.0 to 6.4 era, not sure if I'm adding 6.4 monsters or gonna stop at 5.2 that added Giant Spider and Demon Skeleton, that would mean missing minotaurs and orc species. Adding spell scrolls, old loot, old items, item map spawns, no skulls, crazy summons, monsters trapped by field and weaker monsters. Gonna be low rate, map is small, not much content. Not sure how hard gonna go with the client to simulate old client, or what QoL changes to keep from newer functionalities. No custom stuff.

Spoiler

• [7.1] Real Tibia Map as close as possible (https://otland.net/threads/7-1-real-tibia-map-as-close-as-possible.270484/)
• Creating server based on Tibia 5.0 (https://otland.net/threads/creating-server-based-on-tibia-5-0.233209/)
• Historia - Tibia 6.4/7.72/8.6 Announcement (https://otland.net/threads/historia-tibia-6-4-7-72-8-6-announcement.188495/)
• Tibia Server 6.4 (https://otland.net/threads/tibia-server-6-4.253608/) Tibia 6.4 OT Server (https://otland.net/threads/tibia-6-4-ot-server.254488/)
• 7.4 realmap 4.0 sprites? (https://otland.net/threads/7-4-realmap-4-0-sprites.245810/)
• Tibia 7.1 Brainstorming thread (https://otland.net/threads/tibia-7-1-brainstorming-thread.270732/)
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJTEb29KCpCfskbifmv19Ow
• Tibia Archive - Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1QqQjG_NWgMZnqbQmYQKUzwk9VNqm5gfH)

Fossil is happening, spread the word. Help me, what do you want to see there? What I should not miss at all?

 

[Olddies]

Never played on these versions only 7.1+ but looks cool

 

[Rexxar]

I like this. Has a neat "old meets new" kinda retro vibe.

 

[evansiruis]

Looks like a ton of fun, cannot wait to play!

 

[kor]

what do you want to see there? What I should not miss at all?

What I want to see there? Definitely not an OTClient with mixed sprites. It's just another "oldschool" 7.7 server with smaller map and few graphics imported.

 

[Ahoi]

something really new nice

 

[LordCompi]

Looks nice, remember to remove prewalk animation, I coundnt memorize how I achieved it in cip client, I think it was something like set the speed to 0 on clientside and remove counting frames of outfit by patching binary.

Good luck with project

 

[kay]

What I want to see there? Definitely not an OTClient with mixed sprites.

Agreed, gotta say it would be much more interesting and nostalgic with the old client (or a look-alike clone) than with OTC.

 

[Peonso]

Looks nice, remember to remove prewalk animation, I coundnt memorize how I achieved it in cip client, I think it was something like set the speed to 0 on clientside and remove counting frames of outfit by patching binary.

Good luck with project

The animation is easy to remove by having only the standstilll sprite, that gonna happen. But I like your solution of setting speed to 0 client side. Only my character is supposed to "jump" sqm, or everything moved like that?

 

[LordCompi]

The animation is easy to remove by having only the standstilll sprite, that gonna happen. But I like your solution of setting speed to 0 client side. Only my character is supposed to "jump" sqm, or everything moved like that?

Yeah as far I remember it was jumping, I will post here video if I find it

 

[Peonso]

Yeah as far I remember it was jumping, I will post here video if I find it

I was just checking that on that youtube channel I linked, everything jumped. Kinda weird, having the monster play the move animation only while standing still (the ones that have one). Gonna have to fix that.

What I want to see there? Definitely not an OTClient with mixed sprites. It's just another "oldschool" 7.7 server with smaller map and few graphics imported.

Agreed, gotta say it would be much more interesting and nostalgic with the old client (or a look-alike clone) than with OTC.

The whole purpose of OTC is about being able to set the looks and behavior as you want. I think not needing a 32bit OS to run the client is a win. It also won't have mixed sprites, the gif is meant only to show the work in progress. Of course it won't match exact 4.x client behavior because I'm not going tooo far on that, but the plan is to get it to as close as possible.

 

[Maps]

haha fun project good luck
i'd recommend skipping rookgaard combined with high death loss for rpg
put old lvls for voc instead, according to sources added below:

Berufe	Sorcerer	Druid	Paladin	Knight
Level / Donation	7 / 2000	6 / 1000	4 / 800	5 / 500

I think not needing a 32bit OS to run the client is a win.

nice work on ur otc mods but if u could run ur serv on old clients would be rly cool,
recently i was shown "winevdm" software to run 16-bit software on 64-bit windows and it works great

GitHub - otya128/winevdm: 16-bit Windows (Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.0, 3.1, etc.) on 64-bit Windows (https://github.com/otya128/winevdm)​

if ur still gathering old info, definetly recommended websites,
old Tibia as told by the legendary Alatar himself:

http://www.alatar.de:80/misc/tibia/eng_tibia.html​

runes, items, monsters, spells, maps, anything u may want to know:

http://www.jungbluth.de/tibia​

and ofc the well known guildpage that's still updating ancient history to this day:

Nightmare Knights (http://www.nightmareknights.com)​

 

[Rexxar]

but if u could run ur serv on old clients would be rly cool

Personally I think it would be better to just make a clone of the old client, rather than ask people to mess with their windows installation just to run old legacy software. Especially since winevdm seems to come with a number of compatibility issues, and can be messed up by a simple windows update.

 

[Peonso]

Devblog - Week #1

I was struck by the desire of running a "pre-7.0 era" server after reading Demon Hell PRE 7.0 (https://otland.net/threads/demon-hell-pre-7-0.280382/). I already followed most threads in OtLand regarding that sort of server for a long time, none of them ever went past the testing phase. I don't have the knowledge to mess with the old client, and many reported issues with it caused problems with development, also making the player base have to mess with gimmik solutions to run the game client didn't seem like a good idea. That leave Otclient as obvious choice, being easily editable I don't think simulating old behavior on it will be hard, of course I will miss stuff and it won't be perfect, but it is what it is. I'm versed on OTHire and @Znote AAC, so they were obvious options, OTHire already being 7.72 means there is less stuff to remove. Gonna start with @kondra Otclient v8 to check if all the fuss about it is justified, not being able to edit the sources might be an obstacle in the future that might require a swap.

So with the combo of OTHire/Otclient/ZnoteAAC defined it was time to set the scope. After lurking through the thread that I linked in the first post, it became obviuos that 3.0 and before the game was actually unplayable, from not even have basic combat mechanics, to have no monsters (spider/troll/cyclops) and not even dungeons. With 6.x updates and futher the game was mostly developed already, resembled the famous 7.4 version too much, already missing many of the features people would want to see in that kinda of server. With that in mind I thought that going for some hybrid thing covering 4.0 to 5.2 was the best spot to be on, and as nothing is set in stone I can change my mind later. The map should cover the minimap posted on the first post, regarding mechanics, every broken thing people want to see and abuse, it's supposed to be for fun, to make people at least grasp what it was to play on those times. 4.0 was released May 20th, 1998, 5.2 that added Rookgaard was launched March 17th, 2000, that is the timelapse we are set to pay tribute to.

With main tools and scope defined I went for the resources to make it happening, the famous Hellviper minimap (How to extract maps from .MAP extension files? Version 5.1 real Tibia (https://otland.net/threads/how-to-extract-maps-from-map-extension-files-version-5-1-real-tibia.275455/#post-2651853)) I already had, it supposed to be 5.1 map files, as you can see there is no Mintwallin or Madmage room yet, Karr Chaos on Nightmare Knights (https://www.nightmareknights.com/) report they were added with the 5.2 update. As a map base, I started with [7.1] Real Tibia Map as close as possible (https://otland.net/threads/7-1-real-tibia-map-as-close-as-possible.270484/) and butchered it a lot, as I want Thais from 4.0 (know as Tibia City back them), with screenshots from @Dark Gladir gallery Tibia Archive - Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1QqQjG_NWgMZnqbQmYQKUzwk9VNqm5gfH) and the 5.1 minimap I dig in to make it ressemble the best I could, it still not ready, but I will get there. Regarding sprites, @jo3bingham and @Rexxar Anyone has Tibia 5.0 sprites or even 4.0 (https://otland.net/threads/anyone-has-tibia-5-0-sprites-or-even-4-0.262180/#post-2536210) made it possible. I'm using ImageMagick to batch convert the files to PNG and add magenta background, so I can work with @EdMignari ObjectBuilder, I still have to manually edit some sprites, since their original white was swaped to magenta, work is also close to done. I'm adding 4.0 sprites mainly, and gonna complement with 5.0 ones for the missing stuff, since I'm adding some content from 5.2 gonna need to add some sprites from 6.0, but not most of it (there is no 5.2 client available).

Since adding the sprites is a tedious task and revamping the map is kinda frustating by lack of information, on the breaks I went to set up the server online. OtLand hero @Gesior.pl teached us how to get a free VPS here How to get FREE VPS from Oracle Cloud (https://otland.net/threads/how-to-get-free-vps-from-oracle-cloud.279318) with his guidance and some more google searches I was able to put it online, I'm not proficient on Linux, so I used @Joriku guides Your first open Linux ubuntu server (https://otland.net/threads/your-first-open-linux-ubuntu-server.267364/) and OTServBR RealMap 12.20 (Linux Ubuntu complete) (https://otland.net/threads/otservbr-realmap-12-20-linux-ubuntu-complete.267534). My long time friend Evan from @Peora also gave me some help to get it done.

You can try out Fossil current work in progress right now in Fossil - OpenTibia Oldschool (https://fossil.servegame.com/), the only stuff available are the sprites in the client (also added some basic textures and the old font) and the resemblance of a map, I'm focusing on the map and ending the sprite file before adding anything else. So there is no script set, no NPC in the map, nor any respaw fixed from the default 7.1 map I got. I might update the live version after every session of meaningful progress is done. I'm also documenting all the changes needed and mechanic details from extensive research that I have been doing.

Last but not least, as I'm writing this I'm setting up a Discord for anyone that want to follow Join the Fossil Discord Server! (https://discord.gg/cujCnT38YG). Hope I have more to show on weak 2 of development.

With that I hope to gave an insight on path taken to put a server online, and how awesome OtLand is, because I'm standing on the shoulders of giants.

 

[Rexxar]

Tibia Archive - Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1QqQjG_NWgMZnqbQmYQKUzwk9VNqm5gfH)

Omg thank you for this. That's an amazing library of old cool stuff.

Man... watching all that old 7.0 stuff and earlier brought back so many memories of playing tibia back then, and hanging out on the forums seeing people post screenshots of the old school stuff (6.x and earlier). I miss the old days of actually having to have a torch (or light spell) to be able to see when exploring caves, made things so much more atmospheric.

 

[evansiruis]

Playing the work in progress, a lot of fun and nostalgic moments often.

 

[Jizzor]

Awesome! Feels very unreal to see those old graphics come back to life again

 

[messenoire]

Omg thank you for this. That's an amazing library of old cool stuff.

Man... watching all that old 7.0 stuff and earlier brought back so many memories of playing tibia back then, and hanging out on the forums seeing people post screenshots of the old school stuff (6.x and earlier). I miss the old days of actually having to have a torch (or light spell) to be able to see when exploring caves, made things so much more atmospheric.

Sorry to hijack the thread but also check out nightmareknights.com and there was tibia-alumni-society.net/cobalt-tower too

 

[Rexxar]

Sorry to hijack the thread but also check out nightmareknights.com and there was tibia-alumni-society.net/cobalt-tower too

Oh man. Thanks! I love the fact that the alumni society's site still links to the old gamigo forums... Good times were had there.

 

[Peonso]

Devblog - Weeks #2-3

Mostly steady progress, greater part of it on map, really close to achieving a really cool reacreation similar to what the map would look like in 1998-2000. What is missing now are part of the maps that should be accessible, have minimaps available but the lack of screenshots will require some creative work to make it ressemble what it should look a like.

Yesterday I ended map action/movement scripts, even bringing back stuff like Thais gates, Mintwallin gate and miscelanious stuff through the map. Rookgaard is already populated by NPCs, and Tibia City gonna be the next.

Here and there some mechanics tweaks are made: famous "parcel block" already in; no pz lock or logout block; monster being able to be lured regardless of spawn distance; old character mana and health regeneration; monsters being idle on position while there is no player close on the same floor; and no stairhop delay.