Rydian and I have anecdotally mentioned Aura, and its role in data mining, several times, but we haven't written up a post about it. Well, guess what this is!
First off, for those of you who don't know, Aura is a Mabinogi Server Emulator being written in C#. It is under active development.
[SIZE="4"]Legality[/SIZE]
I'm sure the first thing on many of your minds is "is this legal"? The answer is "Probably... in some cases." Copyright law is still stuck in the pre-digital era. One need only look at DRM to be convinced of this.
Running a private server sets you up to be liable for damages, especially if you charge for access or otherwise take away from the publisher's profits. They don't like that.
However, Aura is a server emulator. It is not a private server. Aura is software, written for nonprofit reasons. The Aura Project does not, and never will, host a running instance of the software for people to connect to. The difference is subtle but important. Users of Aura can set up their own (semi-)public Aura servers. At this point, they have created a "private server" using a "server emulator".
Data miners generally would have a local Aura server that they, and perhaps a friend, use to test/mine/mess around. This type of use is virtually undetectable by Nexon, and you're not stealing profits or other money from them.
Aura is not a copy of any official server. It has been written totally from scratch. Aura uses no original game files or code, requires no edits or modifications to the client to run, and does not require any Nexon or devCat specific files to execute. This, along with the fact that the Aura Project is not hosted in the US, puts Aura firmly in the light-gray zone of legality.
[SIZE="4"]How does Aura help with datamining?[/SIZE]
Aura helps whenever we'd like to extract client information on a subject that's difficult or impossible to obtain on an official Mabinogi server... Or dangerous. Some examples:
- Nekojima, GM Island, and all other hidden maps cannot be accessed in North America without finding an exploit. Instead of hacking into Nexon, which is very illegal and could mess up the game for a lot of people, Aura was used. By having Aura instruct the client to load the area in question, one can run around and explore it with the client, with no inconvenience to anyone else.
- Nao's breast dialog was removed from North America. Aura allowed us to simulate what this dialog would have looked like.
- Rydian managed to blackrobe himself while investigating new skill info and descriptions. Had he done so on an official server, that would have been the end of his character, and possibly others as well. However, on Aura, it was easy to undo the damage and continue testing.
- Aura's research on the client and server internals allows us to guess at many questions and surmise how things work in the game.
- Aura allows us to simulate all those "what ifs". Like... What if Ferghus chased sheep? or What if there was no lag? or What if your horse was the size of a poodle?
[SIZE="4"]What Aura is NOT for?[/SIZE]
- Drop rates, damage rates, skill specific things, etc.
- Official information in general
- Playing Mabinogi. Aura can't replace the official servers, nor compete with services offered by Nexon, and Aura does not condone such.
[SIZE="4"]More information[/SIZE]
Want to learn more? Want to grab a copy of Aura to mess with? Want to contribute something?
Check out the project website: http://aura-project.org/forum/
Drop by the Aura chat: https://gitter.im/aura-project/aura
View the getting started guide: http://aura-project.org/wiki/index.php/Getting_Started
[SIZE="4"]Other Aura[/SIZE]
Aura also gives us useful data tools like MabiPale and repwa (A tool that allows us to dump out the region information to view events, props, etc)
There's also significant creative/entertainment potential in Aura:
[video=youtube;U9zywnGnYx8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9zywnGnYx8[/video]