Hercules Versioning and Available Features

[Geras 0]

Hello,

 

I have a quick question that's probably simplistic to ask, but complicated to answer. How does one understand what in-game features are available to their server setup? 

I hate to use the classic example, since it's probably like beating a dead horse, but let's use 4th jobs as an example. My server setup is:

 

• Base client: kRO 2023 08 04
• Client exe: 2022-04-06_Ragexe_1648707856
• Hercules: v2024.03
   

With 4th classes being released in kRO around 2020, my instinct would be to assume that all of these versions allow for them to be present in the game. However, I don't know this for sure and posts appear to indicate otherwise. What part of the server determines what content is available to the players? 

 

While the content may be present in the base client, does Hercules need to implement the content as well, or do we simply gain access to features based on what version of the client we place Hercules on? Apologies, since this definitely indicates a misunderstanding of how Hercules fundamentally works on my part, but I'd really like to fix this by better understanding how these components work together. 

I'm not finding any immediate answer to the question, so I figured I'd ask here. If anyone has any documentation or a location to read up on this, I'm happy to take this in place of an answer- I'm just not having any luck finding something like this even after successfully establishing my server.

 

Any help would be appreciated!

 

Regards,

Geras

[KirieZ 88]

Well, the short answer is: It depends.

 

But let's go for the long answer:

 

RO is a game that uses client/server model, and the server (in our case, Hercules) is the one which holds most of the game logic.

 

What this mean is, pretty much everything only happens in the game because the server tells the client to do so. To name a few examples:

- When you click to walk, Hercules is the one saying the client it can walk, and Hercules is the one letting other knows the player is walking

- A monster spawn only happens because Hercules is creating it and just letting the client knows the monster is there

- An attack (and a skill) only happens because Hercules calculated it and told the client that it happened

- A NPC is only shown in the screen because Hercules created it and told the client about its existence

- A Quest is received by the player because, for example, a NPC in Hercules added a quest to the player, and thus Hercules told the client about that

 

So, as you can see, pretty much everything requires something on Hercules side to work.

 

The client also plays some part on this:

- There are hardcoded limits of which IDs can be used

    - For example, an item which has an ID > 32k would only work on clients that supports IDs above 32k

    - Certain IDs for monsters/NPCs/etc won't be properly recognized in certain client versions

- There are some hardcoded logic on how skills works or shows up

   - For example, the old, ground-based effect of bard/dancer performances doesn't show in 2019 clients and newer (unless you use a patch to restore the old code in client). The ground effect would still happen (Because Hercules is controlling it), but the player would see nothing in the ground.

- UI elements are part of the client, so an older client may not have certain windows

   - But depending on the window, Hercules also needs to implement the network code to allow that window to work (e.g. Achievements, RoDEX, Equipment switch, etc)

 

Going back to your example about 4th jobs. Having a 2022 client means:

1. The visual effect for the 4th job skills are there

2. If the server says your job is one of the 4th jobs, you will see the sprite and it will be treated as a player sprite

3. You can see the new attributes window

4. You can see the new AP bar

 

But:

1. You don't have job change quests (Hercules must have the NPCs, which we don't as of April/2024)

2. You don't have a working skill tree and skills (Hercules must have the skill trees and skills coded, which we don't as of April/2024)

3. You don't have the effect of the new attributes being applied to your damage (Hercules must have new formulas for it, which we don't as of April/2024)

 

So:

Base client: kRO 2023 08 04

This means your resource files (sprites, luas, textures, maps, etc. the "visual" content and config files are from how kRO looked like in 2023-08-04).

 

For example, if a new hat is released in 2023-05, you will have the .spr file in your data.grf (but you can't get it in game if Hercules doesn't have it)

 

Client exe: 2022-04-06_Ragexe_1648707856

This means that your client will process client sided things as kRO did in 2022-04-06, this means it will be affected by client limitations from this date, and it will only load files that were expected at that time.

For example:

- if a new UI was released in 2023, you won't see it in a 2022 client, because the code was not there yet. (even if you have the images for that UI in your data.grf, you don't have the code to actually use them)

- if there is a new map format released in 2023 (map format meaning the structure of the files in the data.grf), this map file won't work here. On the other hand, if a map was released in 2023 using a structure that is compatible with a 2022 client, you can use it just fine.

 

Generally, having too different dates between Client exe and Base client may give you issues, because:

1. You have incompatible lua files (usually worked around by using translation projects)

2. You have new resources that are not compatible with your client (usually worked around by replacing the files or avoiding certain things)

 

 

Hercules: v2024.03

This is Hercules release date. This just means this is the state of Hercules code as of March/2024.

 

Hercules makes a new release every month, which may include bug fixes, new features, some custom code for something Hercules thinks is worth having, etc. You can see the changelog here: https://github.com/HerculesWS/Hercules/blob/stable/CHANGELOG.md

 

This date has pretty much nothing to do with the other 2. The only thing that it may suggest is that a 2018 Hercules will probably not work with a 2020 client, because we couldn't even imagine what 2020 client would look like when developing code in 2018.

 

But a 2024 Hercules doesn't mean it supports features from 2024 official servers, nor that a 2024 client would flawlessly work in Hercules. Currently, Hercules v2024.03 is a mix of content:

1. NPC/quest/job/monsters wise, I think we are around kRO 2015

2. Our client support is better, I think a 2022 client should work fine most of the time (some buttons won't work, though -- e.g. Equipment Switch is not there)

 

 

Hope this clarifies a bit

[Geras 0]

KirieZ, your reply is amazing. Not only does this help me better understand the interactions between the server and client, but it really helps me understand Hercules a bit more as a whole. Thank you so much for putting the time and effort into this response. I can't thank you enough!

That said, I have one last question- 

 

Is there any chance Hercules has something like a roadmap available for viewing? While the changelogs are a great help in understanding what content is released in recent builds, viewing a roadmap would really help in understanding the current and future planned content. Is there anything like this available? 

 

Regards,

Geras

[KirieZ 88]

You are welcome

 

Regarding a roadmap, not really. We do track missing features and bugs in GitHub issues: https://github.com/HerculesWS/Hercules/issues

 

There are some milestones regarding content, but they are more for organization purposes, as we don't have a roadmap like "We are trying to get X done next"