Services and Tools

Only the gameserver has to be running for people to play. The rest of the programs in a release are optional, or run once.

On Windows you do not have to run any of them by hand. GoMMO Manager sits at the top of the archive and runs the lot, in the right place, from one window. Everything below is what it is starting for you, and what to do on the occasions you want one of them on its own.

You can start them in any order. Whichever one you run first creates the databases; the rest find them already there and leave them alone.

The RF archive layout

An RF release keeps its top level to two files and a set of folders:

The folder the archive unpacks into is still the one every server runs from. settings/ only holds the files you edit; the databases in db/ and the logs in logs/ stay at the top.

GoMMO Client is not in the archive. It is a download of its own, from the GoMMO Client page.

GoMMO Manager

A small window at the top of the archive: one row per server, each with a Start button, a live log pane, and the figures the server is reporting. It is the same program in every release that carries it, and settings/manager.ini names the game, so there is nothing to configure and nothing that can point it at the wrong place.

It is there because running a game server by hand is a handful of small decisions, several of which have a wrong answer that looks fine at the time. The manager makes them for you.

It starts each server in the right directory

The one that costs people an evening. Every server reads its database, its logs and its content data relative to the folder it runs from, and the archive keeps those two levels above the executables. The manager starts every server from the top of the archive, so they always land in the right place.

It shows you the logs

One tab per server, live, while it runs. The gameserver also writes logs/history.log, but the webserver writes no file of its own, so the manager keeps a copy of both under logs/manager/. That is the difference between reading why something crashed and guessing.

It keeps a server up, if you ask it to

Auto, next to a server, restarts it when it exits on its own.

It gives up after three restarts inside thirty seconds and says so in the log. A server that cannot start will not start on the fourth try either, and a restart loop that never stops hides the reason it is looping.

It shows the admin password

Your server's website hands out its first administrator account through a one-time password. Show Admin Password reads the current one out of settings/settings.cfg and tells you where to sign in with it, so you are not hunting through a console for a line that scrolled past. GM accounts covers what to do with it.

It manages accounts

Accounts opens a window over the accounts database: search for an account, create one, set its password, set its staff level on this game (0 to 4), ban or unban it, clear a forgotten UI lock, or delete it. It works with the servers stopped, so it is also how you make yourself staff on a box where you never open the website.

It sets the server up the first time

On RF Online, the first time you open the manager, Server Setup opens by itself, because nobody runs the server yet. It asks for two things:

1. Your owner account: an email, a name and a password. That account is Super Administrator on the game and on your website. Skip it and you can claim the website with the admin password instead.
2. The address players connect to. It shows this PC's address on your network, and Find Public IP looks up your internet address (the only time the manager goes online). What you pick goes into client/launcher.ini, so the launcher your website hands out connects to your server and not to ours. Turn Launcher updates on only once your website is reachable from outside: with it on, the launcher will not start the game while it cannot reach the site.

Press Server Setup at the bottom to change the address later.

It takes backups

Backups copies every database into backups/, one dated folder each, while the servers keep running. With the game server running it also takes one by itself every 24 hours and keeps the newest 10; BACKUP_EVERY_HOURS and BACKUP_KEEP in settings/manager.ini change both, and BACKUP_EVERY_HOURS 0 turns the automatic ones off. Restore puts a backup back. Stop every server first; the manager backs up what you have before it restores, so a restore can be undone. Backups covers the rest, including MySQL.

It restarts the game server with a warning

Restart, next to the game server, asks how much warning players get, from now to an hour. Everyone in game is told as the time runs down, then the server saves everyone, stops, and the manager starts it again, whether or not Auto is on. While it counts down the button reads Cancel and calls it off. Your website's admin page has the same control, and a restart ordered there is picked up here the same way.

It takes commands

Under the log is a Command box for the game server: announce <text> sends a message to everyone in game, save saves every character that is online now, kick <character> disconnects one player, and reload-settings applies what you changed on the website without a restart. Press Enter to send; the up arrow brings back the last command. help lists them.

It finds things in the log

Filter above the log shows only the lines containing what you type, and Problems Only shows only warnings and errors. Clear both to see everything again.

It updates the server

When a newer release is out, Update to and its version appear at the top. It downloads the release, backs up every database, stops the servers, puts the new programs in place, and starts again whatever was running. Your settings, your players' databases, your logs and your client/ folder are not touched; the old programs are kept in updates/ in case you need them back. It asks whether to replace the game's content database too, which you want unless you changed the game's data yourself.

It edits the settings people change

Server Settings changes the game port, the most players allowed online at once, the website port and the two website domains, without opening settings.cfg in a text editor. It checks each value first and keeps the file's comments. The servers pick changes up when they start, so it offers to restart them. Game rates are not here: they are on your website's admin pages.

It checks that players can reach you

Check Ports, in Server Setup, shows which of the game's ports are listening on this PC and whether Windows Firewall lets them in. Allow Through Firewall adds the rule after one Windows permission prompt. Whether your router forwards those ports can only be tested from outside your network, and the window tells you how.

It can start with Windows

Options at the top turns on starting with Windows (for your own sign-in, no administrator rights), starting the servers when the manager opens, Auto on for every server, and keeping the manager in the tray when you close the window. With the tray on, closing the window leaves the servers running; Exit on the tray icon's menu stops them.

It packs up logs for a bug report

Support Bundle, above the log, saves one zip in support/ with the logs, your configuration and the versions you run. Passwords, keys and tokens are taken out first, including any copies of them in the logs. Attach it to your bug report.

It stops everything when you close it

Closing the window stops whatever it started, unless you keep it in the tray. No server left holding a port, and nothing to find in Task Manager later.

The rest of the window

Along the bottom: Open Control Panel opens your own site in a browser, Logs Folder opens the log folder, and Server Folder opens the archive. Small things, but they are where you go while a server is running, and each one is correct without you having to remember where the archive ended up.

Above the log, the manager shows what the running server reports: whether it is answering, how many players are on it, how long it has been up, and how many accounts and characters exist. When a figure is missing it says why rather than showing a zero, because nobody online and cannot ask are different facts.

If your archive has no manager

Run start-server.bat (in server\ in an RF archive). It starts the gameserver from the top of the archive, and every other page here applies unchanged. You give up the log panes, the restart button and the password button, not any part of the server.

On Linux use server/start-server.sh, or a systemd unit for anything you intend to leave running. An RF archive ships two templates, server/linux/<game>-gameserver.service and <game>-webserver.service: set WorkingDirectory, ExecStart and User to where you unpacked it, copy them to /etc/systemd/system/, and systemctl enable --now them.

Gameserver

The game. It listens on one port and holds the world.

It is a single process. Login, character select and the world are all on the same socket, so there is nothing to start in sequence.

It reads and writes its database, its logs and its content data relative to the directory it runs from, which is why the start scripts set that directory rather than only naming the binary. It finds settings.cfg there, or in settings/ beneath it, and started from server/<platform>/ it looks two levels up as well.

Website (GameCP)

webserver serves your players a site where they register, see who is online, read the changelog and download the client. It gives you an admin area for accounts, staff and settings.

It is optional. Without it, players register through the launcher instead. It also serves client updates, so a server without it cannot push client changes.

It is whitelabel: it is your server's website, and it credits us only if you choose to. The GameCP covers putting it online.

Launcher

Your players run this. It is in the client/ folder you give them.

• Signs them in and starts the game already logged in.
• Downloads changed client files before starting the game. See client updater.
• Reports whether the server is up.

The launcher covers its settings file.

Game Client

The original game, which draws the world.

Gate to Heavens releases include a complete, playable client in client/. RF Online and the other games do not, because we cannot distribute those clients. Players supply their own, and the version must match the server. Game clients lists which build goes with which server.

manifgen

Writes the index of client/ that players' launchers read.

server\windows\manifgen.exe client -o client\manifest.txt -cache client\data\launcher_cache.json

Run it after changing anything in client/. Without it, launchers are not told there is anything to fetch and the update reaches nobody. Client updater covers the rest.

rfassets (RF only)

Builds the item icons and readable item names the RF website can display. That artwork belongs to the game client, so it is not included in a release.

rfassets reads your own client install and builds the pack locally:

server\windows\rfassets.exe -client "C:\RFOnline"

Without it the website works and shows names in place of icons.

Not Included

A release does not install a service, register anything, or write outside the folder you unzipped. Deleting the folder removes the server; moving it moves the server and its database.