The Edition
Gate to Heavens Classic is the 2003 game presented the way it shipped, on a server written from scratch in Go. The original interface, the original vocabulary, the original content.
The windows are the originals themselves. Login, server select, character select and character creation, the HUD and hotbar, chat, the menu, the minimap, inventory, the character sheet, skills, quests, shops, the warehouse, party, trade, guild, friends, the world map, the post office and the NPC dialog boxes are all original widgets. Nothing you see is the modern edition's interface.
Controls are mouse only. Keyboard movement and tab targeting are not in this edition.
The Original Words
Classic reads its vocabulary out of the original string tables, so the words on screen are the ones that were there.
| Classic | Modern edition |
|---|---|
| Occult Knight, Windy Explorer, Water Spiritor, Vital Spiritor | Warrior, Archer, Mage, Psychic |
| Force, Soul, Agility | Strength, Intelligence, Dexterity |
| Zen | Gen |
| Dan | Guild |
Vitality and Coins read the same in both. Those two were already faithful, so nothing changed.
What Is in It
Four classes, 98 levels and 23 worlds, backed by 998 items, 251 monsters, 128 skills, 90 quests, 300 quest scrolls, 24 stores, 35 binding points and 51 NPC dialog scripts.
The classes do not all start in the same place. Occult Knight and Windy Explorer begin in the first world, Water Spiritor and Vital Spiritor in another, each at level 1 with its own opening spread of Force, Soul, Agility and Vitality. Zen is a second climb running alongside your character level, with its own experience table.
Registering, making a character, levelling, fighting, looting, quests, party play, trade, the warehouse, Dan membership with ranks and its own chat channel, buffs and post office mail all work, and every one of those paths is diffed against the server on each build.
Shops, crafting, item upgrade, personal shops and the friends list are all in and none of them has that automatic check yet, so they are tested by hand for a release. Crafting is the least proven of the five.
Open-world PvP is opt-in from both sides. A hit between two players only resolves when both of them have PvP mode on, and a PvP hit is the only thing that wears armour durability down, so nobody can drag you into a fight by starting one.
Slash commands work the same in both editions. A player gets /help, /who and /info; everything else needs a staff grant. GM Commands has the full list and the level each one needs.
Where It Stands
Classic is finished: it takes fixes, and new systems land in the modern edition instead. The client is the original binary and presents every button the original game had, while the server is ours. Gift card redemption is the one system the server still does not answer, because no client sends it. There is also no keybind window in this tree, so keys cannot be rebound from inside the game.
What changed in each release is in the changelog.
Running Your Own
The self-host release is on the Classic page. It carries Windows and Linux server binaries, GoMMO Manager, databases the server creates for itself with nothing to install, and the complete playable client.
A fresh install has no accounts. GoMMO Manager makes the first administrator, or the website prints the one-time password that does. Installing a Server covers the setup, Self-Hosting Classic covers what is particular to this one, and GM Accounts covers making yourself staff on your own box.
Against the Modern Edition
Both editions run the same content today: same worlds, same classes, same items, same climb. Classic's presentation is the original one, but its balance and its numbers are the modern tree's.
What differs now is the interface, the words on screen, and what is being built on top. The modern edition is where new systems and new content land first.
What Is Coming in the Modern Edition covers that side, and Where to Play compares the two.