Documentation

This directory contains the technical documentation which is bound to the code: the packet descriptions, game mechanics and implementation notes.

Where the documentation lives

We split the documentation by how closely it follows the code:

• The documentation website, built from the docs-website folder, holds everything a user, server operator or new contributor reads: getting started, deployment, the admin panel, the server features and the architecture.

• This folder and the Readme.md files under src hold the documentation which is derived from the code itself. A lot of it — the packet descriptions above all — is generated from the sources, so it belongs next to them and is versioned with them. The implementation details live here too, for example the plugin system.

That is also why there is no wiki: documentation which is based on the actual code should live with the code, and everything else is on the website, where it can be searched and navigated.

Contents of this folder

• Packets: the structures of the messages which are exchanged between client and server, generated from the XML sources at src/Network/Packets

• Master Skill System: the master skill tree, its rules and how it is implemented on client and server side

• GameMap: how the game map and the area of interest management work

• Packet structure tests: how the packet structures are verified

• Progress: the implementation progress of the packet handlers. See also the normal skill progress and the master skill progress

• Player refactoring plan: an internal plan for the refactoring of the player class

• architecture overview.png: the big picture, explained on the architecture page of the website

Documentation in the projects

Several projects document their implementation next to their code:

• Network and its analyzer
• Persistence, its EntityFramework implementation with the migrations cheatsheet, and the data initialization
• AttributeSystem
• Pathfinding
• Interfaces
• ClientErrorLogDecryptor
• ExDbConnector