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.

Launcher (Windows): The maintained client launcher lives in tools/fractured-launcher-electron/ (see its README for build and config). Public downloads for the launcher and mirrored patch assets are pushed to Fractured-Distro releases when a release is published here (workflow Sync release to Fractured-Distro).

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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, game-table DBCs, and a patched Spell.dbc: (1) RuneCostID zeroed on every rune-cost spell so non–Death Knight clients still send DK casts (rune costs are shown via RuneFrame.lua); (2) Reagent[] / ReagentCount[] zeroed on every spell whose SpellFamilyName is non-zero (all class abilities), while profession crafts (SpellFamilyName == 0) keep their materials. Both edits mirror server load-time corrections so client preflight and server validation stay aligned. Required for character creation as Paragon to even show up.
patch-enUS-5.MPQ	~64 KB	FrameXML overrides. Replaces stock PlayerFrame.lua / RuneFrame.lua / ComboFrame.lua / UnitFrame.lua / SpellBookFrame.lua + SpellBookFrame.xml with Paragon-aware versions: rune simulator, combo-point simulator, server-authoritative resource sync over the PARAA addon channel, action-button usability + click guards, an expanded spellbook (higher MAX_SPELLS, 24 skill-line tabs instead of stock 8) so all-class spells render, Paragon stat tooltips on the character sheet (including filtering duplicate “attack power from strength” lines so the paper doll matches server AP), a tooltip post-processor that appends ", Paragon" to the "Classes:" line on class-restricted gear / glyphs (the server bypasses AllowableClass for class 12, but the engine paints the line red and omits Paragon — the Lua hook recolors it green and adds the name so the player can tell it's wearable), a spell-tooltip post-processor that (1) recolors and appends "(Paragon: bypassed)" to "Requires Stance" lines on Warrior abilities (server-side SpellInfo::CheckShapeshift skips stance enforcement for Paragons on SPELLFAMILY_WARRIOR spells, but the client still renders the requirement from the stock Stances DBC field which we deliberately leave unzeroed so stock Warriors keep enforcement), (2) appends a Paragon line to Maelstrom Weapon (53817) noting that Fireball / Frostbolt / Arcane Blast also benefit, and (3) appends a Paragon line to Mirror Image (55342) noting that the images cast random damage spells with a cast time from the caster's spellbook instead of Frostbolt — all three patches gate on UnitClass("player") == "PARAGON" so stock-class tooltips are byte-identical to vanilla, and PetFrame re-anchored so the pet unit frame sits below the rune row for Paragon (stock layout had runes overlapping the pet portrait). A Warrior stance click bypass wraps UseAction so that for Paragon characters, clicking an action slot bound to a stance-gated Warrior ability (Whirlwind, Charge, Pummel, Shield Slam, Hamstring, Overpower, Shield Bash, Shield Block, Disarm, Revenge, Spell Reflection, Recklessness, Bladestorm, Shockwave, Concussion Blow, Last Stand, Sweeping Strikes, Mocking Blow, Heroic Fury, Slam, Devastate, Intercept) routes through CastSpellByName(name) instead of the engine's stance-gated UseAction path; the engine's stance pre-check inside UseAction would otherwise drop the cast packet client-side and our server-side CheckShapeshift bypass would never get to run. Stock classes never enter the bypass branch. The paper-doll ammo slot follows stock visibility rules (shown for hunters / ranged weapons; hidden when UnitHasRelicSlot applies).
patch-enUS-6.MPQ	~134 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, a PETS tab with live hunter pet talent trees (preview learn, no TE/AE cost), a dedicated Reset Pet Talents control (server PARAA C RESET PET TALENTS — instant, no gold, no confirmation; requires matching worldserver), bottom-row Reset all Abilities / Reset Build / Reset all Talents disabled while on the PETS tab so those paths cannot dismiss the pet or unlearn Tame Beast, and a Builds page (full-pane overlay opened from the bottom-row Builds button) for saving named, icon-tagged loadouts: New Build (+) icon picker reuses MACRO_ICON_FILENAMES, right-click for edit/delete, shift-left-click to favorite (favorites bubble to the top), left-click pops a Load Build confirm. Build swaps reset + refund AE/TE, re-spend on the saved recipe, and park hunter pets to PET_SAVE_NOT_IN_SLOT so their name/talents/exp are preserved across swaps.
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, C RESET PET TALENTS for hunter pet talent resets from the Character Advancement PETS tab, and the build catalog verbs Q BUILDS / C BUILD NEW / C BUILD EDIT / C BUILD DELETE / C BUILD FAVORITE / C BUILD LOAD for the saved-loadout system on the Builds page). Build swaps require the matching worldserver image because the swap path is server-driven (snapshot → reset → re-spend → pet park/unpark). 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://git.hisora.dev/HighSocietyRaiding/Fractured/releases (open the latest release that matches this server build)
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.

If the client shows the Paragon class on the create screen but the server replies Character Creation Failed (sometimes shown as "Error creating character") when you pick it -- or the character is created but spawns with no weapon / armor proficiencies (auto-attack greys out, can't equip anything beyond a fist), or with the proficiency skills but no passive spells like Block, Parry, Dual Wield -- the worldserver is missing one of four pieces of class-12 data. All ship as SQL migrations under modules/mod-paragon/data/sql/db-world/updates/ and are auto-applied by AzerothCore's DBUpdater on every ac-db-import run, but the SQL files are baked into the dbimport Docker image at build time -- so a stale image won't pick up new migrations. Fix:

git pull origin main
docker compose build ac-db-import ac-worldserver
docker compose up -d ac-db-import
docker compose restart ac-worldserver

Existing class-12 characters created before these migrations will keep their broken state -- the cascade only fires inside Player::Create and Player::LearnDefaultSkill at character spawn. Delete the old Paragon and re-roll after the rebuild.

The four migrations:

• 2026_05_09_00.sql -- DBC overlay rows for chrclasses_dbc and skillraceclassinfo_dbc. Without this the server can't even resolve class 12 in sChrClassesStore. See Server-side Paragon DBC overlay below.
• 2026_05_10_00.sql -- playercreateinfo, playercreateinfo_action, and player_class_stats rows for class 12. Without this Player::Create rejects every (race, class=12) pair as an "invalid race/class pair" and the worldserver prints class-N Level-L does not have stats data! integrity warnings on load.
• 2026_05_10_01.sql -- 20 playercreateinfo_skills rows (classMask = 2048 = class 12) granting every weapon / armor proficiency at level 1. Without this a Paragon spawns with only the universal classMask = 0 skills (Defense, Unarmed, Cloth, languages, Mounts) -- no Swords, no Mail, no Shield, etc.
• 2026_05_10_02.sql -- 3,314 skilllineability_dbc rows opening the class-12 bit on every SkillLineAbility row our patched SkillLineAbility.dbc modified. AC reads these rows in Player::LearnDefaultSkill to drive the skill -> passive spell cascade. Without it the proficiency skills from _01.sql exist but the passive spells (Block, Parry, Dual Wield, Defense, weapon Shoot, racial Mace/Sword Specialization, etc.) never auto- learn, so the spellbook past the racials looks empty.

After the rebuild + restart, ac-worldserver should log >> Loaded 72 Player Create Definitions (was 62 pre-Paragon), >> Loaded 1391 Player Create Skills (was 1371), >> Loaded 10219 SkillLineAbility MultiMap Data (unchanged total -- the SQL overlay replaces existing rows by ID, doesn't add new ones), and character creation succeeds for any DK-eligible race with a full weapon / armor kit and the matching passive spells.

If the client logs in successfully but disconnects immediately when entering the realm: the auth server is handing your client the wrong world-server address. On a fresh local install the seed defaults to 127.0.0.1 (commit landing this paragraph). If your DB was imported from an older Fractured checkout, the seed may still point at hsrwow.net, which sends the client to our production world server instead of yours. Fix:

# Docker:
docker exec ac-database mysql -uroot -ppassword \
  -e "UPDATE acore_auth.realmlist SET address='127.0.0.1' WHERE id=1;"
docker compose restart ac-authserver

Substitute your public hostname/IP for 127.0.0.1 if remote players will be connecting. See BUILD-NATIVE.md -> Production deployment overrides for the full list of values to set on a production box.

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Server-side Paragon DBC overlay (automatic)

The Fractured client learns about Paragon from patch-enUS-4.MPQ (DBC + GlueXML). The worldserver never reads your MPQs — it reads plain .dbc files under its DataDir (.../data/dbc/ by default).

Stock Docker installs populate data/dbc/ from a vanilla 3.3.5a extract (ac-client-data-init in docker-compose.yml). That tree has no ChrClasses row for id 12 and no class-12 bit on SkillRaceClassInfo rows, which would normally trigger:

Class (12) not found in DBC while creating new char ... wrong DBC files or cheater?

…and reject the create with CHAR_CREATE_FAILED.

To remove that gap, the repo ships modules/mod-paragon/data/sql/db-world/updates/2026_05_09_00.sql, which INSERTs the Paragon class-12 deltas into:

• chrclasses_dbc — 1 row defining class 12 ("Paragon", power=Mana, family=Warrior, expansion=2).
• skillraceclassinfo_dbc — 235 rows replacing stock entries with the patched ClassMask (class-12 bit OR'd in) so every baseline skill is available to Paragon characters.

AzerothCore's DBC loader (DBCStores.cpp::LoadDBC -> LoadFromDB) merges these rows on top of whatever data/dbc/ contains at every worldserver boot. The DBUpdater in ac-db-import (Docker) or the worldserver itself (native) applies the migration automatically — so the only steps a fresh contributor needs are git clone and docker compose up -d.

Regenerating the migration

The SQL is auto-generated from the patched DBCs that already live inside patch-enUS-4.MPQ. The bake script lives outside this repo (per the repo-tidy policy) at:

fractured-tooling/from-workspace-root/_gen_paragon_dbc_overlay_sql.py

Re-run it whenever you change the Paragon DBC bake — for example, adding a new race to the Paragon class mask. It diffs the patched DBCs against a stock 3.3.5a DBC extract and emits a fresh 2026_05_09_00.sql (or successor migration with a new timestamp if deltas change). Workflow:

# Extract the patched DBCs once:
.\tools\mpq\mpqcli.exe extract `
    "ChromieCraft_3.3.5a\Data\enUS\patch-enUS-4.MPQ" `
    -o "$env:TEMP\paragon-dbc-extract"

# Regenerate the SQL migration:
python fractured-tooling\from-workspace-root\_gen_paragon_dbc_overlay_sql.py

If the regenerated SQL has new content, commit it as a new dated migration filename (e.g. 2026_06_01_00.sql) — never edit a file that has already been applied to live databases, AC's DBUpdater will detect the hash change and re-run the SQL, which can be fine but is best reserved for emergencies.

Manual DBC overlay (rare, fallback)

If you ever need the patched DBCs on disk — e.g. for a tool that reads data/dbc/ directly outside the worldserver, or to verify a client-vs-server DBC mismatch — extract patch-enUS-4.MPQ and copy its DBFilesClient/*.dbc into data/dbc/:

Docker:

docker run --rm `
  -v ac-client-data:/data `
  -v ${PWD}\paragon-dbc-extract:/patch:ro `
  alpine sh -c "cp -f /patch/*.dbc /data/dbc/"
docker compose restart ac-worldserver

Native: copy into <CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX>/data/dbc/ and restart.

This is not required for normal operation — the SQL migration covers everything mod-paragon needs at runtime. Use the manual overlay only when you're consciously bypassing the SQL merge layer.

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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). Typical order on a maintainer machine:

1. fractured-tooling/from-workspace-root/_patch_spell_dbc_runes.py — stage Spell.dbc with RuneCostID cleared.
2. fractured-tooling/from-workspace-root/_patch_spell_dbc_reagents.py — same staged Spell.dbc, clear class-spell reagents for client preflight.
3. fractured-tooling/from-workspace-root/_patch_spell_dbc_stances.py — same staged Spell.dbc, zero the Stances field on every SpellFamilyName == 4 (Warrior) row so the client engine's "Must be in Battle/Defensive/Berserker Stance" pre-cast check stops eating CMSG_CAST_SPELL packets for Paragon casters who never picked the stance form. The server's SpellInfo::CheckShapeshift Paragon bypass takes over from there. Stock Warriors still see the server-side stance error mid-cast if they actually click while out of stance.
4. fractured-tooling/from-workspace-root/_make_paragon_dbc_patch.py — rebuild ChrClasses / CharBaseInfo / game tables, then pack patch-enUS-4.MPQ.

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.