The Original Client
Which client each RF version speaks to, how the launcher points it at a server, and why versions are not interchangeable.
One Client per Version
Each RF server here speaks to the game client for its own episode:
| Server | Client |
|---|---|
| RF Online Giga 4 Episode 2 | Giga 4 Episode 2 |
| RF Online: Red Army | Episode 2.1.5 |
| RF Online: Secret of Holystone | Episode 2.1.6 |
| RF Online: Golden Age | Episode 2.2.3.2 |
The client is a program we do not control and cannot patch, so the server has to speak exactly what that client expects, down to the byte, for the episode it happens to be.
Versions Are Separate Games
An RF client from one episode cannot talk to a server from another. Not “mostly works”, not “works until you log in”: the two do not agree on the shape of the very first message.
That is why these are separate servers with separate downloads rather than one server with a setting. Between episodes the message numbering changes, the record layouts change, the data tables change, and in some cases the encryption on the wire changes algorithm rather than keys.
So: match the client to the server, and check the version list before you start.
What the Launcher Does
You do not point the client at a server yourself. The RF client reads who it is and where it is going out of a small file in its own folder, written just before it starts, and getting that file wrong produces an empty error box with no explanation.
rflauncher.exe, which ships in every RF release, writes it. It:
- asks the server whether it is up, and what version it is running,
- takes an email and password and gets an account from the server,
- writes the handoff file into your client folder,
- starts the client, already logged in.
Copy it into your client folder, run it instead of the game executable, and that is the whole
setup. The address it points at lives in launcher.ini beside it.
The launcher holds no database credentials and no local account list. If it says the server is offline, it is because the server did not answer, and there is nothing else it could have asked.
Accounts
Created through the launcher, or on the server’s website if the operator runs one. The same account works in both, because both read the same accounts database.
There is no account approval step and no separate character-creation tool. Characters are made in the game client, where they always were.
What Is Different from the Original Service
Everything above the wire. The formulas, the drop rates, the balance and the systems are ours. The parts that have to match the client match exactly; the rest is a game we own and can fix, which is why a bug report here can actually be acted on.