Creating a Local Private Server for Botting Education & Fun
Posted: 17 Feb 2022, 18:22
Intro:
Hello everybody! Been botting RO for decades at this point, taking breaks here or there of course but always coming back. Use to help run the KoreRO server back when that was a thing. Before the old forums got wiped I had tons of support guides / posts up. My last run was up until iRO introduced EAC and since then my whole guild has sat inactive. LOL! I gotta say it's nice to see progress still getting put into this project after all these years. I return today because I want to teach my children the magic of scripting, botting, and nerding out. Plus it never hurts to hook them while they're young to more advanced concepts and projects that can grow with them. When I think back about the most fun things I've done, games I've played, things I'd like to share with others; botting RO is pretty high up there.
I think the overall aesthetic is still appealing enough that I could get the family playing it. The key though is to let them experience the grind a little, actually attach to the game first. Then when things start getting rough, introducing OpenKore to them. That's when the education hidden as a video game begins! Hopefully the evil plot to make the youths smarter takes off and they start reading the wiki everyday on their own. It took me a long time to get a whole guild of bots working with each other, fake talking to each other, and in general playing the game well enough to avoid detection at the higher end. I really hope someday they take it to this level on their own. Though in this instance they don't need the stress or worry of admins banning them or other players griefing them because they feel cheated. I also want to encourage exploration of the concept without fear of getting caught. Sure it takes some excitement away but this is educational, risk need not apply.
I'm (so far) attempting to do this via Anacondaq's Offline Newbie Pack 2022. The whole process of setting up your own local server could not be simpler, you launch Laragon then you launch the Hercules server emulator. Done. You can pick if you want pre-renewal, renewal, or the new 4th job class hotness with everything modern. Drag and drop some files to mod the kRO client and the game opens right up. The only problem is I cannot get the bot to connect. Which is what I've spent all my free time lately attempting to do on my own before coming to you guys asking for help. Pretty embarrassing, many years ago I once felt in sync with this community and a part of it. Now I'm struggling to do this basic task, getting old.
The Problem & What I've Tried:
Okay so, newest version of the bot, fires up, hits the server, throws "Packet Tokenizer: Unknown switch: 0AC4" directly after logging in. Alright, seen this before, no big deal just need to extract recvpackets so the bot can communicate properly. ...and that's where I'm having trouble. He has 2019-06-05fRagexe in the package for the Renewal experience, which I'm going to use since it's what I'm most familiar with personally. (he also noted the 4th job server wasn't completely stable yet so currently avoiding it thanks to that) The problem is out of all the tools (JCV's RO Tools, Packet Extractor, PEv3, Peek, etc) none of them will actually work properly. I'm assuming because the executable is already protected / patched. I tried using the ones that came in the kit (patched) as well the original versions for the dates listed on the executables. (which I found on Nemo's Full Client List) Nothing either way.
I've searched what I feel to be the entirety of the public discussion on this that I can find via google. The only thing I'm aware to do next is attempt to unpack the executables and frankly I'm not sure how. I found one guide claiming I needed to get a basic understanding in how to use OllyDbg, which I'm aware already is over my head. I’d need to watch some helluva tutorials as I’m not hip enough to know how to use an assembler level analyzing debugger. Moving on I've tried reaching out to Anacondaq's Discord Server for advice. I was hoping the man himself might have some input but I tried contacting him a while back about this and he was not happy to hear a request for anything to do with OpenKore. So far my questions in his chat have gone unanswered so I'm expanding my search for a helping hand to here even though the forums are a bit dated. Once this is posted I'll drop a link in the OpenKore Discord as well.
Possible Solutions:
Outside of one of you wizards coming in and providing the quick fix, there's only a couple paths I know of moving forward. First, keep at trying to figure out how to generate the required recvpackets file. Maybe somebody could point me in the right direction. Since it's an offline localhost server there's no security that I'm aware of. (what would be the point?) The other solution would be to boot an earlier version of RO with a client that’s already been developed for. As much as I’d like to have all the new content and bug fixes, it’s not required for this to work with the kids as an educational experience. Even the versions of the game I use to play pre-EAC on iRO where plenty functional and in depth enough for trying to hook / teach them. This might be the easiest possible path to success. If this is the case, then I'll have to learn how to build my own server instead of using the super easy n00b friendly prepackaged solution.
I'm really looking forward to hearing from you guys on how to move forward. I'm not scared of putting in the effort I'm just not sure how to best spend it currently. All advice is welcomed! Also, thank you in advance for your time! Side note: I really miss the KoreRO server. You'd think a whole server of dedicated botters would be boring but it had a great community and was lots of fun. I lost touch with everybody before it went offline. If anyone is still around from that era hit me up! /cheers
Hello everybody! Been botting RO for decades at this point, taking breaks here or there of course but always coming back. Use to help run the KoreRO server back when that was a thing. Before the old forums got wiped I had tons of support guides / posts up. My last run was up until iRO introduced EAC and since then my whole guild has sat inactive. LOL! I gotta say it's nice to see progress still getting put into this project after all these years. I return today because I want to teach my children the magic of scripting, botting, and nerding out. Plus it never hurts to hook them while they're young to more advanced concepts and projects that can grow with them. When I think back about the most fun things I've done, games I've played, things I'd like to share with others; botting RO is pretty high up there.
I think the overall aesthetic is still appealing enough that I could get the family playing it. The key though is to let them experience the grind a little, actually attach to the game first. Then when things start getting rough, introducing OpenKore to them. That's when the education hidden as a video game begins! Hopefully the evil plot to make the youths smarter takes off and they start reading the wiki everyday on their own. It took me a long time to get a whole guild of bots working with each other, fake talking to each other, and in general playing the game well enough to avoid detection at the higher end. I really hope someday they take it to this level on their own. Though in this instance they don't need the stress or worry of admins banning them or other players griefing them because they feel cheated. I also want to encourage exploration of the concept without fear of getting caught. Sure it takes some excitement away but this is educational, risk need not apply.
I'm (so far) attempting to do this via Anacondaq's Offline Newbie Pack 2022. The whole process of setting up your own local server could not be simpler, you launch Laragon then you launch the Hercules server emulator. Done. You can pick if you want pre-renewal, renewal, or the new 4th job class hotness with everything modern. Drag and drop some files to mod the kRO client and the game opens right up. The only problem is I cannot get the bot to connect. Which is what I've spent all my free time lately attempting to do on my own before coming to you guys asking for help. Pretty embarrassing, many years ago I once felt in sync with this community and a part of it. Now I'm struggling to do this basic task, getting old.
The Problem & What I've Tried:
Okay so, newest version of the bot, fires up, hits the server, throws "Packet Tokenizer: Unknown switch: 0AC4" directly after logging in. Alright, seen this before, no big deal just need to extract recvpackets so the bot can communicate properly. ...and that's where I'm having trouble. He has 2019-06-05fRagexe in the package for the Renewal experience, which I'm going to use since it's what I'm most familiar with personally. (he also noted the 4th job server wasn't completely stable yet so currently avoiding it thanks to that) The problem is out of all the tools (JCV's RO Tools, Packet Extractor, PEv3, Peek, etc) none of them will actually work properly. I'm assuming because the executable is already protected / patched. I tried using the ones that came in the kit (patched) as well the original versions for the dates listed on the executables. (which I found on Nemo's Full Client List) Nothing either way.
I've searched what I feel to be the entirety of the public discussion on this that I can find via google. The only thing I'm aware to do next is attempt to unpack the executables and frankly I'm not sure how. I found one guide claiming I needed to get a basic understanding in how to use OllyDbg, which I'm aware already is over my head. I’d need to watch some helluva tutorials as I’m not hip enough to know how to use an assembler level analyzing debugger. Moving on I've tried reaching out to Anacondaq's Discord Server for advice. I was hoping the man himself might have some input but I tried contacting him a while back about this and he was not happy to hear a request for anything to do with OpenKore. So far my questions in his chat have gone unanswered so I'm expanding my search for a helping hand to here even though the forums are a bit dated. Once this is posted I'll drop a link in the OpenKore Discord as well.
Possible Solutions:
Outside of one of you wizards coming in and providing the quick fix, there's only a couple paths I know of moving forward. First, keep at trying to figure out how to generate the required recvpackets file. Maybe somebody could point me in the right direction. Since it's an offline localhost server there's no security that I'm aware of. (what would be the point?) The other solution would be to boot an earlier version of RO with a client that’s already been developed for. As much as I’d like to have all the new content and bug fixes, it’s not required for this to work with the kids as an educational experience. Even the versions of the game I use to play pre-EAC on iRO where plenty functional and in depth enough for trying to hook / teach them. This might be the easiest possible path to success. If this is the case, then I'll have to learn how to build my own server instead of using the super easy n00b friendly prepackaged solution.
I'm really looking forward to hearing from you guys on how to move forward. I'm not scared of putting in the effort I'm just not sure how to best spend it currently. All advice is welcomed! Also, thank you in advance for your time! Side note: I really miss the KoreRO server. You'd think a whole server of dedicated botters would be boring but it had a great community and was lots of fun. I lost touch with everybody before it went offline. If anyone is still around from that era hit me up! /cheers