There is a game called Lineage 2, its a Korean MMORPG using the point and click movement, runs using the Unreal engine and is 3D and has been going in Pay to play now for many years, even longer then World of Warcraft by far. There is a Java Server server (the guys who wrote it only knew java) which allows anyone to run a server and play the game without paying a monthly fee for the real thing. This quick story is my few days stabbing at a laptop trying to get it to work.
The fabled Laptop
I have a Dell C840 which only works if you plug it in, the battery does not charge and is quite a chunky thing. It runs Windows XP Pro and has the correct set of program installed to allow me to update and run Lineage 2 Java Server. The server needs Java (free) development version, Eclipse to grab and compile the source code, MySQL to hold the database and a compare tool when I need to update it (Beyond Compare).
In times of old
The Server held my characters from years ago and the accounts of other people that used to play and I tried to first just update, build and run but a lot had changed, they introduced too much new stuff and finally I gave up and wiped the database. Game guard (which runs client side) had always been a problem but I always managed to find a way around these problems and play the game. I would always get bored after a few days and wonder why I had dug the laptop out and it would go back to the bag and Lineage 2 would once again be a passing fad.
A Fresh start
I updated everything, made sure everything was as it should be, configured the various files so it listened on the right address and run the server. The way the client works and how they manage to somehow not break the law is you edit your hosts file, this points the address which the client is looking for at your local LAN and thus oyu are now playing your server instead of the real one.
Almost working
The game started, I logged in (it auto created an account) and I made my character but as soon as I started to run around it was not long before I got a pop up in game from Game Guard telling me that I was running a hacking tool. At this point the game closed and I went off looking around for a fix. I found on the official L2J Forum basically them saying that the client was nothing to do with them and no talk of illegal fixes would be allowed. Now call me stupid but a server without a working client seems stupid to me, yes there is people and ways to get around it but every single time I have to find a work around just to get the game running – pretty sad.
Conclusion
Maybe before I might have struggled on and found ways around these problems but in my heart I know that even if I did get it working, I would have spent maybe one week playing it and got bored. I think it is a good time for this one game to remove the client (free up some space – its a big one) and wipe the laptop and put Linux on there maybe. I shall stick for now with WoW server, thats works all the time !
