Newbie Spellweaver
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Overview
The purpose of this guide is to explain how to Install, configure and setup a Virtual Disk Image(.vdi) to enable you to run a PT Server of your choice within the confines of a Virtual Machine without having to do so on your personal computer. Not only will doing this completely mitigate any risks to your personal machine, but it will allow you granular access control over your private server in ways your host machine rarely could. Before we proceed with the guide, you must understand how the concept of a Virtual Machine works.
A Virtual Machine is an emulated instance of an Operating System. When you load this system, it thinks it's whatever instance of Windows or MacOS you've configured. In the IT world, these VM's are primarily used as "Test Environments" to run scripts/code without risking any damage to existing infrastructure. However, the customization can be overwhelming to those who haven't set something like this up. Vormav and SunnyZ have publicly released per-configured instances of OracleVM with the PT server already setup and installed. However, there are drawbacks to these packages not stated at all. This guide will work for any PT server as it would if setup on your own machine, and can be used to host any type of application or web service.
First, you will not be able to use a shared clipboard to copy/paste files from the Host Machine(your computer) to the Virtual Instance of Windows. I don't know why, and I have no need to research and troubleshoot this as my workaround is much easier. In Server Settings, click USB > USB 3.0 (xHCI) Controller. This will allow you to plug in a thumb drive and select it from the Devices Menu at the top menu bar of your Virtual Machine and seamlessly transfer files between your computer and your VM. The next one is most important: The Network settings will need to be configured if you are wanting to do anything more than connect via localhost/127.0.0.1
I want to be very clear about this. These VM repacks are not configured to host your server publicly, or even from within your LAN! You will need to configure this to work properly. You will also find Google searching help on this issue very difficult. Here's the good news; I am going to share this knowledge up front in this guide so you won't need to hassle with that. I'm going to be candid, Windows 2003 sucks. In today's world the use of it is unthinkable and the resource argument is null. We're going to be setting up a fresh, shiny new modern instance of Windows 10. Let's proceed with the guide.
Step 1: Installing Oracle VM
Visit this webpage:
Run the installer package and follow the default location options. Once the application is installed, you will notice there are no servers listed under tools. That's okay because we are going to create one! At the top Menu Bar, click on Machine > New. Type in the desired name of your Server. This will represent the.vdi file name. Now specify the folder location of your choice, but you can leave this as defaulted. Now you will notice you need an ISO Image, so let's go get that!
Download Windows Media Creation tool here:
Now, go back to OracleVM and click on the ISO Image drop down field arrow and select "Other..." now click on your Documents folder and then navigate to the Windows.iso you just created and click open. Now click Next at the bottom. You will be at the Unattended Guest OS Install Setup page. You'll want to configure the username and password to whatever you would like. You can leave the Product Key blank, you wont need it. Hostname and Domain name aren't relevant unless you are really serious about connecting to a specific domain, but for security reasons go ahead and change the Hostname and Domain name to something other than the default and then click next.
This is where things kind interesting, you will want to select the base level of RAM and CPU power. I recommend 8000MB of RAM and move the slider to the maximum within the green bar section for Processor usage, then click Next. Now in the Virtual Hard disk section it's going to want you to select how much hard drive space. By default it will set 50GB. This will not be enough IMO. I recommend setting this to at least 100GB and click Next. This last screen will provide an overview of the configuration of the .vdi we are about to create, once you finish reviewing everything click Finish to complete the setup.
Step 2: Configuring the Network
You will now see your Server created under the Tools section at the top. Don''t run the server just yet, it's Network time. This is where things get complex depending on your wants and needs. We are going to add Network adapters step by step to cover all your different needs based on your wants. Click on the Tools tile and on the right side you will see three tabs. Host-only Networks, NAT Networks, and Cloud Networks. We;re going to select Host-only Networks and start with our configurations.
Click on the Create+ tile and click Yes to allow OracleVM to make the change to your system. Now in the Windows search bar, type View Network Connections. You should now see a new connection you just made through OracleVM called Ethernet 2. Some people have reported you need to Left CTRL click on Ethernet 2 and your actual Network/WiFi connection and then with both selected right click "Bridge Connection". I personally have not needed to do this step but it may apply to you so come back to this step if you're still experiencing issues later.
Now go back to OracleVM. You'll notice this VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter you've created has the DHCP server disabled. This is no good. Ensure "Configure Adapter Automatically" is set and then click on the DHCP Server tab. Check the Enable Server box and the data generated in the fields including the Server Address should already be propagated. Click on Apply and we are done with this particular step. Now click on your Server under Tools and then Right Click > Settings. On the left navigation menu, click on Network. You will see 4 Adapter tabs. This is where we get granular with Network access.
If you only want to be able to connect to your Virtual Machine from your computer, we can be more restrictive. Select Adapter 1 and set to NAT and click Enable Network Adapter. (by default, this is usually set.) Now click on the Advanced arrow at the bottom to expand our settings. Change your Adapter Type to Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM) and then ensure Promiscuous Mode is set to Allow all and ensure Cable Connected is checked. This will allow you to use the internet from within the VM itself (I.E. surf the web on Firefox). If you want to make this server public and allow external IPs outside your network to connect, click on the Port Forwarding button.
Add a specific name for this port service. For example if this is for a web server to host your site files, you can call the port Website 1 and then in the Protocol field, select TCP. Now for the host IP, it will be whatever your external IPv4 address is. To find this, simply google search "'what is my ip"". Just make sure you have your VPN disabled for that first. Now enter your external IP in this Host IP field. Now enter the desired port in the Host Port field. Enter it again in the Guest Port. Leave the Guest IP blank.
Repeat the above steps for all ports needed to run the services needed on your Server. The standard ports will be 80, 8080, 443, 336, and 10007. If you are using files or apps that require other ports, be sure to enable those as well. Click Ok and then select Adapter 2 tab. Now Enable the Network Adapter and select Host-only Adapter in the Attached to field. In the Name field, you should see the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter we created earlier selected, perfect! Now click on Advanced and for Adapter Type, select Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM) and then set Promiscuous Mode to Allow All. Ensure Cable Connected is checked and click Ok. We've just helped you connect to your own PT Server via the LAN method which I will explain later.
We have one more step, so click on Adapter 3 and Enable the Network Adapter. For the Attached to field, select Bridge Adapter from the drop down and then select the USB adapter or Network Card of your host machine. Now click on the Advanced arrow again and for Adapter Type, select Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM). Set Promiscuous Mode to Allow all and then click on Cable Connected and click OK. We are finally done with this part! Now before we can configure the last step, we need to boot up your Virtual Machine. Go down to Step 3 and the come back to this part right after and follow the next step here to finish Network setup.
Final Steps:
1) In your Virtual Machine, open command prompt and then type ""ipconfig /all" and hit Enter. We are looking for the IPv4 Address for the Bridged Adapter we setup in the 3rd Network Adapter Tab earlier. The MAC address can be reviewed in the Network Settings of Oracle VM and cross referenced with the information in Command prompt to verify the info is correct. Now write this IPv4 address down. It's how you're going to connect to your Virtual Machine/Servers from all your computers within your LAN.
The last thing we need to do, so point your Router Port Forwarding to this specific VM. Open your router admin portal, usually at
Your Networking setup is now complete!
Step 3: Imaging a new copy of Windows 10
Click on your virtual machine and then right click > Start. The VM will power up and you''ll see the Virtual Box screen before you see a prompt to press any key to boot from an external source. Don't press anything and wait for the screen to clear and it will boot up Windows as normal. You'll see a setup screen for Windows and you will have to go through the first time setup process, this is normal. The GUI is self explanatory and easy to do on your own, the only think I'll add is that you will select "I don't have a key" and continue with an offline account and opt out of features. You won't ever need to actually register your copy of windows and it wont interfere with your ability to actually use the machine.
Once you are done provisioning the local user account for Windows, log in and boot up the desktop environment for the first time. You will want to open Microsoft Edge and download the following useful tools:
Now you will want to download the needed items to run your PT Server:
The two best Repacks currently on RageZone as of 12/16/2022 will be listed here. The first is the ZeroPT Source Code Repack with it's incredible potential of adding whatever you like with
The second Server is the EPT 3215 Repack posted by @Phatkone. This repack is in a clean state and highly stable with the latest features including Tier 5. The only drawback is it does not have source code so the ability to develop this further is extremely limited and dependent on DLL hooking and messing around with hex editing and debugging tools, which has been and continues to be an inefficient and sloppy mess. For out of the box fun, go this route. But if you're serious about development, definitely go with the ZeroPT repack. I would love for someone to do a new repack of ZeroPT but the features of EPT 3215 added.
Step 4: Setting up your PT Server and Database
Originally, I wasn't going to do this part by since we are already this deep into things, what the hell. Remember those Microsoft installers from earlier? Time to fire up
Now we need to setup the database tables. For the sake of simplicity, let's use the more modern SQL DB files from the ZeroPT repack which are totally compatible with other Repacks. Download the
Right click on the Databases folder and then click Restore Database... Under the Source option, select Device and click on the ... tile to the right. Now you will see the Select backup devices window. Click on the Add button. Select each ZeroPT database file one at a time starting with AccountDB.bak and import the data. It will automatically fill up the Database it created with the necessary tables to start logging into the server without issues. In total, you should have created the following tables after importing everything:
AccountDB
ArvernusPT
BillingDb
BillingLogDb
ClanDB
GameLogDB
ItemLogDB
Launcher
LogDB
PCRoom
rPTDB
SoD2DB
SodDb
You will be missing ServerDB from the DB files so create a manual entry by right clicking Databases folder and then entering ServerDB for the Database name and clicking Ok. You're now done with this step! It's time to choose which Priston Tale Server repack you'd like to develop and play with.
Choosing a PT Server Repack
ZeroPT (Source Code) Open source Classic T4 Repack which allows you unlimited access to the game and server code and to modify it however you want with the knowledge of C programming.
ePT 3215
Closed source Classic T5 Repack loaded with newest features, but limited access to modify the game and server code through DLL hooking and Hex Editor/OllyDBG.
If you are serious about Server development, choose ZeroPT. You can try to take the assets from ePT3215 and code them into the ZPT repack for the first ever open sourced server with T5 features. If you are looking to just play the game, save the hundreds of hours and enjoy the ePT 3215 Repack, it's in a clean state and very stable.
ODBC/SQL Connection
Here is the ugly truth. ODBC is not used anymore and we don't need to use this at all. Server repacks use SQL.dll and Clan.dll files. The kicker is that they won't work for YOUR machine and SQLEPXRESS database because they were configured for someone else's machine. Editing these files is tricky and they are extremely temperamental. Instead of editing these, head over to EuphoriA's Workshop and generate some brand new files custom tailored for your machine
Server Hotuk.ini & General Configuration
The default Hotuk.ini file that came with your repack is fine. Over the years these have been all over the place in terms of structure and information. To keep things basic and simple for now, just change the IP address information for the following fields:
*GAME_SERVER YourIPv4Address YourIPv4Address YourIPv4Address
*ENABLE_CLAN YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80
*CLAN_SERVER YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80
There are so many functions that can be enabled/disabled and this would an entire guide that would need to be written. Over the years features have been added to the game and things end up being tossed in here. Basically if you don't know what it does, don't enable or add it. It can break things to where you can't log in or event see NPC's spawn. On that note, make sure your Server Repack comes with a Char and Field folder included in the main Server Folder. If it doesn't copy and paste these from your Client's main folder into your Server's main folder. This will ensure monsters spawn within the game.
Your GameServer folder will contain NPCs, Item Files, Map Spawns, and other important information stored by the server. If you want to make tweaks to any of the above, it would be done through here. But without a source code, you may have to tweak the client and server.exe via Hex Editor.|
Finally, there are also application tools created by devs over the years that have a GUI based interface where you can manage player data, edit items and NPCs, and change item mix formulas among other things. They are scattered among various repacks, I don't believe a comprehensive repack of these has ever been released. Most new accounts can be manually added via MMSE and the SQLEXPRESS database.
Game Client to connect yo your Game Server
You will only need to do two things here(editing registry files is a thing of the past) is modify Idata.bmp in your clients image folder. And ptreg.rgx in the main client folder. In the case of EPT3215 lets use these as an example
Idata.bmp
*MotionBlur false
*CameraSight OFF
*ScreenSize 0
*MicOption OFF
*Sound On
*CameraInvert false
*Server1 IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine
*Server2 IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine
*Server3 IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine
*ServerName Your Server Name
*Version 3215
*TestVersion 10
*FullMode Off
ptreg.rgx
"Version" "3215"
"Graphic" "0"
"Network" "0"
"ScreenSize" "0"
"ColorBPP" "32"
"MotionBlur" "true"
"CameraSight" "ON"
"Sound" "Off"
"CameraInvert" "false"
"FullMode" "Off"
"MicOption" "OFF"
"Server1" "IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine."
"Server2" "IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine."
"Server3" "IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine."
"ServerName" "Your Server Name"
"Account" "admin"
In the case of EPT 3215 you should now be able to connect with both Game.exe and GMgame.exe. That's it, you're done! If you are going to make your server public, consult with reputable Server Owners on how to secure your web scripts and hotuk.ini file to help prevent CVE's. This is very important.
Step 5: General Website Information
There is no point in sugar coating this. There never has been and likely never will be a great webpack floating around for you to have a fully functional website with a sleek UI loaded with features since this community has been founded. Why? Because Priston Tale is ancient, and it uses Active Server Page(.asp) files which by default do not get along with modern day web hosting solutions such as Xampp. These .asp files are totally reliant on IIS(Internet Information Services) which is an add on feature within Windows that has to be setup and configured. Frankly this abomination is something I refuse to write a guide for. SunnyZ and Vormav have configured these in their pre-imaged VM packs so you don't have to, but that doesn't mean Windows Server 2003 is worth the trade.
In short, the best websites floating around on the internet were professionally made using top of the line software such as Dreamweaver MX and used flashy images that created a nice template page who charged server owners $500. But behind that beautiful UI was a hot mess. .asp files used to generate account registration, clan scripts, and other server specific functions were dumped into IIS using a modified port such as 8080 while the primary site files (html, php) were hosted via Xampp and used port 80. The files were referenced to one another, but not loaded within the same file structure. Most server owners focused heavily on IIS friendly designs which are very basic but functional.
Additionally, the clan scripts written by Sandurr came with security vulnerabilities that allowed malicious individuals the ability to indirectly remote into your SQLEXPRESS database and delete it. Most public servers owners have quietly partnered up with the top talent developers from these forums and other places to close these loopholes and add security features to these .asp files and their server to prevent exploitation. A lot of the security fixes were not publicly released, probably because it would give hacktivists an easy time adapting to the known methods of securing servers.
Therefore, I will not be writing any guide on how to do this. There are other people on RZ who would do better than me at that anyway. That being said, I hope you have enjoyed this more modern and up to date guide.
The purpose of this guide is to explain how to Install, configure and setup a Virtual Disk Image(.vdi) to enable you to run a PT Server of your choice within the confines of a Virtual Machine without having to do so on your personal computer. Not only will doing this completely mitigate any risks to your personal machine, but it will allow you granular access control over your private server in ways your host machine rarely could. Before we proceed with the guide, you must understand how the concept of a Virtual Machine works.
A Virtual Machine is an emulated instance of an Operating System. When you load this system, it thinks it's whatever instance of Windows or MacOS you've configured. In the IT world, these VM's are primarily used as "Test Environments" to run scripts/code without risking any damage to existing infrastructure. However, the customization can be overwhelming to those who haven't set something like this up. Vormav and SunnyZ have publicly released per-configured instances of OracleVM with the PT server already setup and installed. However, there are drawbacks to these packages not stated at all. This guide will work for any PT server as it would if setup on your own machine, and can be used to host any type of application or web service.
First, you will not be able to use a shared clipboard to copy/paste files from the Host Machine(your computer) to the Virtual Instance of Windows. I don't know why, and I have no need to research and troubleshoot this as my workaround is much easier. In Server Settings, click USB > USB 3.0 (xHCI) Controller. This will allow you to plug in a thumb drive and select it from the Devices Menu at the top menu bar of your Virtual Machine and seamlessly transfer files between your computer and your VM. The next one is most important: The Network settings will need to be configured if you are wanting to do anything more than connect via localhost/127.0.0.1
I want to be very clear about this. These VM repacks are not configured to host your server publicly, or even from within your LAN! You will need to configure this to work properly. You will also find Google searching help on this issue very difficult. Here's the good news; I am going to share this knowledge up front in this guide so you won't need to hassle with that. I'm going to be candid, Windows 2003 sucks. In today's world the use of it is unthinkable and the resource argument is null. We're going to be setting up a fresh, shiny new modern instance of Windows 10. Let's proceed with the guide.
Step 1: Installing Oracle VM
Visit this webpage:
You must be registered to see links
to download VirtualBox 7.0.4 for Windows.Run the installer package and follow the default location options. Once the application is installed, you will notice there are no servers listed under tools. That's okay because we are going to create one! At the top Menu Bar, click on Machine > New. Type in the desired name of your Server. This will represent the.vdi file name. Now specify the folder location of your choice, but you can leave this as defaulted. Now you will notice you need an ISO Image, so let's go get that!
Download Windows Media Creation tool here:
You must be registered to see links
and then run the installer file. At first, it will look like Windows Recovery is loading, but that's not quite what we'll be using here. Accept the license agreement and continue. Windows will be getting things ready again, so wait a moment. You'll see a menu appear asking you how to proceed. Select Create installation media and click Next. Leave the next screen as default and click next again. You'll see Choose which media to use now. Click Iso file and click next. Now store the Iso file where you can find it, typically your Documents folder and click Save.Now, go back to OracleVM and click on the ISO Image drop down field arrow and select "Other..." now click on your Documents folder and then navigate to the Windows.iso you just created and click open. Now click Next at the bottom. You will be at the Unattended Guest OS Install Setup page. You'll want to configure the username and password to whatever you would like. You can leave the Product Key blank, you wont need it. Hostname and Domain name aren't relevant unless you are really serious about connecting to a specific domain, but for security reasons go ahead and change the Hostname and Domain name to something other than the default and then click next.
This is where things kind interesting, you will want to select the base level of RAM and CPU power. I recommend 8000MB of RAM and move the slider to the maximum within the green bar section for Processor usage, then click Next. Now in the Virtual Hard disk section it's going to want you to select how much hard drive space. By default it will set 50GB. This will not be enough IMO. I recommend setting this to at least 100GB and click Next. This last screen will provide an overview of the configuration of the .vdi we are about to create, once you finish reviewing everything click Finish to complete the setup.
Step 2: Configuring the Network
You will now see your Server created under the Tools section at the top. Don''t run the server just yet, it's Network time. This is where things get complex depending on your wants and needs. We are going to add Network adapters step by step to cover all your different needs based on your wants. Click on the Tools tile and on the right side you will see three tabs. Host-only Networks, NAT Networks, and Cloud Networks. We;re going to select Host-only Networks and start with our configurations.
Click on the Create+ tile and click Yes to allow OracleVM to make the change to your system. Now in the Windows search bar, type View Network Connections. You should now see a new connection you just made through OracleVM called Ethernet 2. Some people have reported you need to Left CTRL click on Ethernet 2 and your actual Network/WiFi connection and then with both selected right click "Bridge Connection". I personally have not needed to do this step but it may apply to you so come back to this step if you're still experiencing issues later.
Now go back to OracleVM. You'll notice this VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter you've created has the DHCP server disabled. This is no good. Ensure "Configure Adapter Automatically" is set and then click on the DHCP Server tab. Check the Enable Server box and the data generated in the fields including the Server Address should already be propagated. Click on Apply and we are done with this particular step. Now click on your Server under Tools and then Right Click > Settings. On the left navigation menu, click on Network. You will see 4 Adapter tabs. This is where we get granular with Network access.
If you only want to be able to connect to your Virtual Machine from your computer, we can be more restrictive. Select Adapter 1 and set to NAT and click Enable Network Adapter. (by default, this is usually set.) Now click on the Advanced arrow at the bottom to expand our settings. Change your Adapter Type to Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM) and then ensure Promiscuous Mode is set to Allow all and ensure Cable Connected is checked. This will allow you to use the internet from within the VM itself (I.E. surf the web on Firefox). If you want to make this server public and allow external IPs outside your network to connect, click on the Port Forwarding button.
Add a specific name for this port service. For example if this is for a web server to host your site files, you can call the port Website 1 and then in the Protocol field, select TCP. Now for the host IP, it will be whatever your external IPv4 address is. To find this, simply google search "'what is my ip"". Just make sure you have your VPN disabled for that first. Now enter your external IP in this Host IP field. Now enter the desired port in the Host Port field. Enter it again in the Guest Port. Leave the Guest IP blank.
Repeat the above steps for all ports needed to run the services needed on your Server. The standard ports will be 80, 8080, 443, 336, and 10007. If you are using files or apps that require other ports, be sure to enable those as well. Click Ok and then select Adapter 2 tab. Now Enable the Network Adapter and select Host-only Adapter in the Attached to field. In the Name field, you should see the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter we created earlier selected, perfect! Now click on Advanced and for Adapter Type, select Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM) and then set Promiscuous Mode to Allow All. Ensure Cable Connected is checked and click Ok. We've just helped you connect to your own PT Server via the LAN method which I will explain later.
We have one more step, so click on Adapter 3 and Enable the Network Adapter. For the Attached to field, select Bridge Adapter from the drop down and then select the USB adapter or Network Card of your host machine. Now click on the Advanced arrow again and for Adapter Type, select Intel PRO/1000 MT Server (82545EM). Set Promiscuous Mode to Allow all and then click on Cable Connected and click OK. We are finally done with this part! Now before we can configure the last step, we need to boot up your Virtual Machine. Go down to Step 3 and the come back to this part right after and follow the next step here to finish Network setup.
Final Steps:
1) In your Virtual Machine, open command prompt and then type ""ipconfig /all" and hit Enter. We are looking for the IPv4 Address for the Bridged Adapter we setup in the 3rd Network Adapter Tab earlier. The MAC address can be reviewed in the Network Settings of Oracle VM and cross referenced with the information in Command prompt to verify the info is correct. Now write this IPv4 address down. It's how you're going to connect to your Virtual Machine/Servers from all your computers within your LAN.
The last thing we need to do, so point your Router Port Forwarding to this specific VM. Open your router admin portal, usually at
You must be registered to see links
and login with your admin credentials. Under your router's Port Forwarding options you will need to specify your VM''s IPV4 address you wrote down as the Internal IP Address in the Router when specifying the Ports you'll be opening. This will route all External connections through those ports to the VM server, and NOT your personal computer. (HUGE security advantage).Your Networking setup is now complete!
Step 3: Imaging a new copy of Windows 10
Click on your virtual machine and then right click > Start. The VM will power up and you''ll see the Virtual Box screen before you see a prompt to press any key to boot from an external source. Don't press anything and wait for the screen to clear and it will boot up Windows as normal. You'll see a setup screen for Windows and you will have to go through the first time setup process, this is normal. The GUI is self explanatory and easy to do on your own, the only think I'll add is that you will select "I don't have a key" and continue with an offline account and opt out of features. You won't ever need to actually register your copy of windows and it wont interfere with your ability to actually use the machine.
Once you are done provisioning the local user account for Windows, log in and boot up the desktop environment for the first time. You will want to open Microsoft Edge and download the following useful tools:
You must be registered to see links
You must be registered to see links
You must be registered to see links
Now you will want to download the needed items to run your PT Server:
You must be registered to see links
You must be registered to see links
Once you've downloaded these installers, you will need to device what specific PT Server Repack you're doing to use before you continue. This is very important, because different repacks will be dependent on specific username and password configurations for SQLEXPRESS.The two best Repacks currently on RageZone as of 12/16/2022 will be listed here. The first is the ZeroPT Source Code Repack with it's incredible potential of adding whatever you like with
You must be registered to see links
. This is what I like to call the best "Classic" server you will find. It has everything you could want including an in-game f10 menu for options. However the localization is in BR which needs to be updated to English, that is a separate guide entirely. All you need to do to make this run is compile the Server and Game .exe files with the source code that's included. The reason I call this a Classic repack is it is pre-tier 5. No Versus set or later end game gear which would have to be manually added.The second Server is the EPT 3215 Repack posted by @Phatkone. This repack is in a clean state and highly stable with the latest features including Tier 5. The only drawback is it does not have source code so the ability to develop this further is extremely limited and dependent on DLL hooking and messing around with hex editing and debugging tools, which has been and continues to be an inefficient and sloppy mess. For out of the box fun, go this route. But if you're serious about development, definitely go with the ZeroPT repack. I would love for someone to do a new repack of ZeroPT but the features of EPT 3215 added.
Step 4: Setting up your PT Server and Database
Originally, I wasn't going to do this part by since we are already this deep into things, what the hell. Remember those Microsoft installers from earlier? Time to fire up
You must be registered to see links
. Run the installer and based on your Repacks specific needs for the database login credentials, run through the installer steps as default until you get to authentication method. Select Mixed Mode and specify the Username and Password needed for your PT Server repack. In the case of EPT 3215, you can choose anything you want. Complete the install process. Now run the
You must be registered to see links
installer and complete the setup steps until completion. Now we need to setup the database tables. For the sake of simplicity, let's use the more modern SQL DB files from the ZeroPT repack which are totally compatible with other Repacks. Download the
You must be registered to see links
. Now once you have these downloaded, extract the .bak files from the Rar folders and place them somewhere easy to find. Now use SSMS to connect your your SQLEXPRESS database with the username and password you created earlier. Once you're signed in, lets import those ZPT Database files. Right click on the Databases folder and then click Restore Database... Under the Source option, select Device and click on the ... tile to the right. Now you will see the Select backup devices window. Click on the Add button. Select each ZeroPT database file one at a time starting with AccountDB.bak and import the data. It will automatically fill up the Database it created with the necessary tables to start logging into the server without issues. In total, you should have created the following tables after importing everything:
AccountDB
ArvernusPT
BillingDb
BillingLogDb
ClanDB
GameLogDB
ItemLogDB
Launcher
LogDB
PCRoom
rPTDB
SoD2DB
SodDb
You will be missing ServerDB from the DB files so create a manual entry by right clicking Databases folder and then entering ServerDB for the Database name and clicking Ok. You're now done with this step! It's time to choose which Priston Tale Server repack you'd like to develop and play with.
Choosing a PT Server Repack
ZeroPT (Source Code) Open source Classic T4 Repack which allows you unlimited access to the game and server code and to modify it however you want with the knowledge of C programming.
ePT 3215
Closed source Classic T5 Repack loaded with newest features, but limited access to modify the game and server code through DLL hooking and Hex Editor/OllyDBG.
If you are serious about Server development, choose ZeroPT. You can try to take the assets from ePT3215 and code them into the ZPT repack for the first ever open sourced server with T5 features. If you are looking to just play the game, save the hundreds of hours and enjoy the ePT 3215 Repack, it's in a clean state and very stable.
ODBC/SQL Connection
Here is the ugly truth. ODBC is not used anymore and we don't need to use this at all. Server repacks use SQL.dll and Clan.dll files. The kicker is that they won't work for YOUR machine and SQLEPXRESS database because they were configured for someone else's machine. Editing these files is tricky and they are extremely temperamental. Instead of editing these, head over to EuphoriA's Workshop and generate some brand new files custom tailored for your machine
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This step is very important because no one will be able to connect to your server without these being placed into your PT Server directory folder.Server Hotuk.ini & General Configuration
The default Hotuk.ini file that came with your repack is fine. Over the years these have been all over the place in terms of structure and information. To keep things basic and simple for now, just change the IP address information for the following fields:
*GAME_SERVER YourIPv4Address YourIPv4Address YourIPv4Address
*ENABLE_CLAN YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80
*CLAN_SERVER YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80 YourIPv4Address 80
There are so many functions that can be enabled/disabled and this would an entire guide that would need to be written. Over the years features have been added to the game and things end up being tossed in here. Basically if you don't know what it does, don't enable or add it. It can break things to where you can't log in or event see NPC's spawn. On that note, make sure your Server Repack comes with a Char and Field folder included in the main Server Folder. If it doesn't copy and paste these from your Client's main folder into your Server's main folder. This will ensure monsters spawn within the game.
Your GameServer folder will contain NPCs, Item Files, Map Spawns, and other important information stored by the server. If you want to make tweaks to any of the above, it would be done through here. But without a source code, you may have to tweak the client and server.exe via Hex Editor.|
Finally, there are also application tools created by devs over the years that have a GUI based interface where you can manage player data, edit items and NPCs, and change item mix formulas among other things. They are scattered among various repacks, I don't believe a comprehensive repack of these has ever been released. Most new accounts can be manually added via MMSE and the SQLEXPRESS database.
Game Client to connect yo your Game Server
You will only need to do two things here(editing registry files is a thing of the past) is modify Idata.bmp in your clients image folder. And ptreg.rgx in the main client folder. In the case of EPT3215 lets use these as an example
Idata.bmp
*MotionBlur false
*CameraSight OFF
*ScreenSize 0
*MicOption OFF
*Sound On
*CameraInvert false
*Server1 IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine
*Server2 IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine
*Server3 IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine
*ServerName Your Server Name
*Version 3215
*TestVersion 10
*FullMode Off
ptreg.rgx
"Version" "3215"
"Graphic" "0"
"Network" "0"
"ScreenSize" "0"
"ColorBPP" "32"
"MotionBlur" "true"
"CameraSight" "ON"
"Sound" "Off"
"CameraInvert" "false"
"FullMode" "Off"
"MicOption" "OFF"
"Server1" "IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine."
"Server2" "IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine."
"Server3" "IPv4 Address of your Virtual Machine."
"ServerName" "Your Server Name"
"Account" "admin"
In the case of EPT 3215 you should now be able to connect with both Game.exe and GMgame.exe. That's it, you're done! If you are going to make your server public, consult with reputable Server Owners on how to secure your web scripts and hotuk.ini file to help prevent CVE's. This is very important.
Step 5: General Website Information
There is no point in sugar coating this. There never has been and likely never will be a great webpack floating around for you to have a fully functional website with a sleek UI loaded with features since this community has been founded. Why? Because Priston Tale is ancient, and it uses Active Server Page(.asp) files which by default do not get along with modern day web hosting solutions such as Xampp. These .asp files are totally reliant on IIS(Internet Information Services) which is an add on feature within Windows that has to be setup and configured. Frankly this abomination is something I refuse to write a guide for. SunnyZ and Vormav have configured these in their pre-imaged VM packs so you don't have to, but that doesn't mean Windows Server 2003 is worth the trade.
In short, the best websites floating around on the internet were professionally made using top of the line software such as Dreamweaver MX and used flashy images that created a nice template page who charged server owners $500. But behind that beautiful UI was a hot mess. .asp files used to generate account registration, clan scripts, and other server specific functions were dumped into IIS using a modified port such as 8080 while the primary site files (html, php) were hosted via Xampp and used port 80. The files were referenced to one another, but not loaded within the same file structure. Most server owners focused heavily on IIS friendly designs which are very basic but functional.
Additionally, the clan scripts written by Sandurr came with security vulnerabilities that allowed malicious individuals the ability to indirectly remote into your SQLEXPRESS database and delete it. Most public servers owners have quietly partnered up with the top talent developers from these forums and other places to close these loopholes and add security features to these .asp files and their server to prevent exploitation. A lot of the security fixes were not publicly released, probably because it would give hacktivists an easy time adapting to the known methods of securing servers.
Therefore, I will not be writing any guide on how to do this. There are other people on RZ who would do better than me at that anyway. That being said, I hope you have enjoyed this more modern and up to date guide.
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