Fractured/contrib/fractured-dev-extras/CLIENT-PATCHES.md

Fractured Client Patches

Binary client artifacts that pair with this server. They live on the Releases page, not in the tree, so the repo stays lean and binaries can be re-downloaded without bloating git clone.

This file is the table of contents and install guide.

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What ships in a release

Artifact	Size	Purpose
patch-enUS-4.MPQ	~5 MB	DBC + GlueXML bake. Adds CLASS_PARAGON (id 12), the character-create slot, glue strings, talent-tab DBC entries, and the Paragon resource bar definitions. Required for character creation as Paragon to even show up.
patch-enUS-5.MPQ	~40 KB	FrameXML overrides. Replaces stock PlayerFrame.lua / RuneFrame.lua / ComboFrame.lua / UnitFrame.lua with Paragon-aware versions: rune simulator, combo-point simulator, server-authoritative resource sync over the PARAA addon channel, action-button usability + click guards.
patch-enUS-6.MPQ	~160 KB	The ParagonAdvancement addon. Replaces the talent pane (N key) for Paragon characters with the Character Advancement panel: per-class spell tabs, talent grid, Overview/Search tabs, AE/TE currency, commit / reset / preview, login-time toast suppression.
Wow.exe	~7.5 MB	3.3.5a (build 12340) client byte-patched to skip the MPQ signature check so custom patch-enUS-N.MPQ files load. Diff against stock is a few bytes; everything else is unchanged.

Server and client work as a pair: the addon talks to mod-paragon on the worldserver via WHISPER addon-channel messages with the PARAA prefix (currency push, spell/talent snapshot, commit, combo points, rune cooldowns, learn-toast silence window). Mismatched versions usually manifest as the panel rendering blank or AE/TE reading 0/0.

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Install

You need a 3.3.5a (build 12340) WoW client. ChromieCraft's free 3.3.5a download is the canonical clean source if you don't already have one.

1. Download every artifact from the latest release matching this server build: https://github.com/Dawnforger/Fractured/releases/latest
2. Replace Wow.exe at the root of your client install with the patched one from the release. Keep a backup of the original if you want.
3. Drop patch-enUS-4.MPQ, patch-enUS-5.MPQ, patch-enUS-6.MPQ into Data/enUS/. (For other locales, rename the suffix accordingly — contents are locale-independent, only the filename ordering matters to the loader.)
4. Edit Data/enUS/realmlist.wtf to point at your server, e.g. set realmlist your.host.tld.
5. Launch Wow.exe. The login screen should reach the realm list. Make a Paragon character (the new class entry on the create screen) and press N in-world to open the Character Advancement panel.

If the panel opens empty / AE+TE read 0/0 / N opens the stock talent pane: your client is loading an older patch-enUS-6.MPQ, or the worldserver image is older than commit 4d2a80d (the character_paragon_panel_spell_revoked migration). Pull both ends to the same release tag and rebuild the worldserver image.

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Building the patches yourself

The MPQs are reproducible from the dev tree (not in this repo — Classless Dev/Paragon Patch UI/ and Classless Dev/Paragon Advancement/ on the maintainer's workstation) via two PowerShell scripts in tools/:

tools\build_paragon_ui_patch.ps1 -Deploy            # -> patch-enUS-5.MPQ
tools\build_paragon_advancement_patch.ps1 -Deploy   # -> patch-enUS-6.MPQ

patch-enUS-4.MPQ is the DBC + GlueXML bake; the bake scripts live with the rest of the dev tooling and are not part of this repo by design (see the repo-tidy policy in README.txt next to this file).

The patched Wow.exe is a one-time hex-edit of the stock 3.3.5a client. The diff is publicly documented in the WoW emulation community under names like "MPQ signature patch" / "no-CD-signature patch".

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Versioning

Releases are tagged to match the state of main they were built from. The release notes call out which server commit shipped alongside each artifact set, so a contributor running git checkout <tag> on this repo can pull the matching client bundle and have a guaranteed-aligned end-to-end build.