For patching mabi pro, i would recommend manually patching the game. There's a common issue with launching the patcher, it fails to patch for any list of reasons, and then people hit problems.
First step is to make sure you don't have any partial/corrupted patch files. It will be labeled as X_to_Y.zip inside the mabi pro folder, the x will be w/e current value your pack file is, the y will be the one that follows your pack file. Ie, they change every update.
If it exists, delete it. I'm linking drahan's guide to manual patching, and this can be considered my own guide, basically rewording drahan's guide and adding
my own personal advice. Emphasis on personal, because not every step is
necessary it is just how i recommend going about things. If you want bare necessities, see drahan's guide.
http://mabinogi.ir/thread/36-manual-patching-tutorial
First thing you're gonna need to know, is your current version of the client,
this is not the same as your pack files! Best method i know of to do this, go to your mabi pro folder and find version.dat. Open it with a hex editor, depending on what editor you use is going to depend on the appearance of the contents.
The first image, you already know that i was on patch version 235, and the game needed to update to 236. The second image, contains my current client version, which is 235 as it failed to patch, again see first image. There are various ways to open the .dat file to view, but the version number is in hexadecimal form, and not decimal. You can google for a guide on how hexadecimal values work. I would recommend using some kind of converter to actually convert the hexadecimal value, into decimal so that you can easily know what number you are on. As you can see in the second image, i have hex values of 'eb 00 00 00.' Decimal form of eb, is 235, which again is my current version. Next version up would be 236, so when i patch my game, with any method, i need to make sure my version.dat properly reflects this. As the decimal increases by 1, that's all that's needed for hex, eb turns into ec. Final result, after patching:
While you can go ahead and change the version.dat when you check your version, to reflect whatever file you're getting ready to download, bear in mind if you fail to properly download and extrac said upate, you
will break your game as well as the updater! This is because the updater will think you have the recent version, meanwhile when you get in game you will be missing integral files from the update. So you can expect game crashes, assuming it even starts up. Even worse, is that you can not expect anyone else to be able to help you! They won't know what you did to break the game, they won't think of version.dat, most people will assume you run mods, or modified/removed some file that you weren't supposed to. But they won't be able to tell you what file. So i would always recommend you
never update the version.dat until you actually download the update, and properly apply it. (more on that below)
So, now that you know what version you are on, you will know what version to go to. For me, 235 to 236. Thanks to our staff, getting the file is easily done, even without the launcher. Drahan's thread tells me exactly what to do now that i know my version; i just open
http://mabinogi.ir/patch/235_to_236.zip
Pay attention to the link, most notably after the last slash. Just like the file i instructed you to look for in mabi pro, X_to_Y.zip, those are the values used in this link. As your version changes, what version you are on being x and what update you need being y, then you appropriately change the values in the address. When you type the link into a browser, it should just start a download of a zip file, to whatever directory your browser places your downloads. Check that it's fully downloaded/not corrupted by just quickly opening the zip file, i use winrar to do such but you can use whatever program you're comfortable with.
After confirming that you got your file(s) then extract
all of the contents into your mabi pro directory. Do not change the names or extensions of any files, leave all the directories alone, just extract it all straight into mabi pro. I showed the files in my previous image, that i received with the update. I don't touch them, i just open mabi pro directory, extract the package folder and everything in it, into the aforementioned directory. If it asks you to overwrite, the answer is yes, overwrite all. In the case of winrar, you will probably get a prompt similar to this image.
Now that you've extracted the file(s), you have succesfully updated your client. I said previously not to update version.dat while checking it. Now that you've confirmed your file is properly extracted though, you
will update version.dat. So, if you closed your hex editor earlier, open it up again and change it appropriately to reflect whatever version your client is on. It would be the Y value i've listed throughout, which in my case is 236.
That is the decimal value though. You want the Hexadecimal value of that, which is ec. Just like your Y value will change each update, so too does the hex value in version.dat.
EVERY update you need to change it, do not forget this. If you ever intend to, are required to, use mabi pro's patcher in the future, your version.dat will need the right number. It will also serve as a point of reference for you, so that you can keep your game updated properly even if you don't use the patcher. Without version.dat you will have a very difficult, if not impossible, time of finding what client version you are on. Without knowing that, you can't properly update, and
will be required to redownload mabi pro.
After you've got your files in place, updated version.dat, you're free to get in game. If there's any problems, it is very unlikely to be related to the steps you've taken, unless you screwed them up. If you wish to post for tech support help, i would strongly encourage you let people know you followed this guide though, this can better help them to give you the assistance you would need if a problem does occur.
Moving on to more optional processes. I would recommend either having a browser you're happy with, that can restart a download should something happen mid-download, or getting a download manager that you can configure to handle such problems for you. I like to browse with google chrome, but i absolutely hate downloading files of any size with it. My browser seems to drop the download rate to nearly non-existant over time, with large file sizes, and can just completely drop my download, making me restart the entire thing. If this is happening when downloading your mabi pro update through the browser, well you won't be any better off than if you're trying to patch with the launcher, you're still going to need to download the file over and over until you got it properly.
I personally use Free Download Manager. You can google it to look into it, but if you use chrome you will need both the application, and the chrome extension from the chrome store. Here's a screenshot of it after i've downloaded the mabi pro update, extracted the update, then deleted the zip.
I won't push the download manager though, it has features that i like, if you're interested in it you can research it for actual in depth explanations much better than what i'd do, and if you're content with your browser's downloader then just stick with it.
FAQ
Q. The launcher gives me an error about patch already existing!
A. I did cover this, but look for X_to_Y.zip inside of your mabi pro directory and delete it. Either try restarting the launcher again, or resort to manual patching.
Q. How do i know what client version i'm on?
A. Again i cover this, but look in version.dat. It's hexadecimal values and tells you precisely what your version is. For more in-depth details, read the guide.
Q. Can i do 230_to_236.zip?
A. No, the updates are sequential. You
MUST download and extract them in the proper order, one by one. You don't necessarily have to edit version.dat after every single download you apply, you can just put the final version into the file, but you still must download each and every single update, and extract/apply them in the proper order. Failure to do so can wreck your game, requiring a total reinstall of mabi pro.
Q. I tried to download the next update, but i just get a blank page and my tab says 404 - Not found.
A. You may be trying to download a file that does not exist yet. If we are on version 236, you can not download 236_to_237.zip. Make sure the file you are trying to download does actually exist. If the problem persists, you may try asking around in the forums, unofficial discord, or at worst sending in a ticket to our support team.
Q. Is there a way to tell what the most recent version of the game is, without having to download the files?
A. Yes, courtesy of drahan from his thread i reference at the start of this post.
You must know specifically what your current version is (and then you just work your way up to the latest version which is found at
http://mabinogi.ir/patch/p.txt, the first part of that text document is latest version).
Q. Every time i download the file, it is deleted or i can't find it! Help!
A. Your antivirus is probably catching the file under a false positive. This means the file is safe, but your antivirus does not believe that to be true, for one reason or another. To remedy this, it is recommended to briefly turn off your antivirus long enough to download and extract files. This carries an inherent risk though. I would suggest closing any other software and browser pages during this process, and do
not resume any until you turn the antivirus back on. Your computer is vulnerable without the antivirus, and you do not want it hijacked by something because your antivirus didn't like a small update on mabi pro.
Huge credits to drahan and his thread, again i reference at the start. This is mostly just rewording and injecting my own opinions/suggestions. But the real work and research is all from drahan. I've picked up a few tips here and there from the unofficial discord and in game, just talking and listening to people. Sorry, but afraid it's a bit more difficult to properly remember and credit everyone at this point though.
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Discord: Tonkatunk#7079
https://github.com/Tonkatunk/Mabi-Pro-Lazyfae-Mods