Guide: Client Downloads

[Spirited]

Introduction

This guide helps you set up and configure the Era of Faith game client to connect to a private server.

Downloads

Download a specific patch for the game below. If you're downloading a open source server project, match sure to match up the patch numbers correctly. If the patch doesn't exist in the list below, download a lower patched client and patch upwards using the provided patch archive. After you finish downloading the client, decompress it using 7-Zip.

English Client 2107 (Alpha)

Korean Client 1232

Installations

These are official installations from TQ, compressed using WinRAR. These can also be decompressed using 7-Zip.

English Installation 2107 (Alpha)

Korean Installation 1200

Instructions

These instructions have not been fully tested. Please let me know if these don't work.

1. Download a client and extract it using 7-Zip.
   
2. Open server.dat in Notepad and edit the IP address to be your own.
   
3. Add an exception to your firewall to allow players to connect to your servers.
   
4. Run the client using belief.exe with the command-line option "blacknull".
   

[CptSky]

Modified executable allowing loopback address to be used: English

[Spirited]

Modified executable allowing loopback address to be used: English

Awesome! Thanks for this!

[danielezra]

It isn't working for me, and I've been attempting to use CptSky's modified 'belief.exe' file.

I received an error message, probably telling me that I need to run 'Play.exe' first.

How can I make it work please?

the error message: https://imgur.com/a/U1nz1Rg

[Spirited]

It isn't working for me, and I've been attempting to use CptSky's modified 'belief.exe' file.

I received an error message, probably telling me that I need to run 'Play.exe' first.

How can I make it work please?

the error message: https://imgur.com/a/U1nz1Rg

You should be able to start belief.exe from command line using the command-line argument "blacknull". So you can run "belief.exe blacknull" in a command-line terminal, or you can create a shortcut to the executable and add "blacknull" to the target. Blacknull was the name of a developer for the shell TQ used for that game, and it bypasses the play.exe requirement.

[danielezra]

It isn't working for me, and I've been attempting to use CptSky's modified 'belief.exe' file.

I received an error message, probably telling me that I need to run 'Play.exe' first.

How can I make it work please?

the error message: https://imgur.com/a/U1nz1Rg

You should be able to start belief.exe from command line using the command-line argument "blacknull". So you can run "belief.exe blacknull" in a command-line terminal, or you can create a shortcut to the executable and add "blacknull" to the target. Blacknull was the name of a developer for the shell TQ used for that game, and it bypasses the play.exe requirement.

Thanks, I did that and it worked for me as you can see here: https://i.imgur.com/FCtpoht.png

However, when I click on "server 1," it leads me to an Acct and a Code login area, as shown here: https://i.imgur.com/GFiikgA.png

What account and password do I need to use here to create a new account and start playing?

By the way, I have a good Windows VPS server. Can we use it to create a game server for that game so people can play through it as a server so some people can play together?

[Spirited]

Thanks, I did that and it worked for me as you can see here: https://i.imgur.com/FCtpoht.png

However, when I click on "server 1," it leads me to an Acct and a Code login area, as shown here: https://i.imgur.com/GFiikgA.png

What account and password do I need to use here to create a new account and start playing?

By the way, I have a good Windows VPS server. Can we use it to create a game server for that game so people can play through it as a server so some people can play together?

Hm... CptSky's server isn't going to be an out-of-box solution. It's going to need quite a huge amount of work, to my understanding. I'd love to see what you come up with, though. A registration website would be a good addition... but my guess is that you can create an account through the database for now. It's based on his COPSv7 source, so you can look that up for Conquer Online and probably get some more detailed setup instructions. Best of luck!

[danielezra]

Thanks, I did that and it worked for me as you can see here: https://i.imgur.com/FCtpoht.png

However, when I click on "server 1," it leads me to an Acct and a Code login area, as shown here: https://i.imgur.com/GFiikgA.png

What account and password do I need to use here to create a new account and start playing?

By the way, I have a good Windows VPS server. Can we use it to create a game server for that game so people can play through it as a server so some people can play together?

Hm... CptSky's server isn't going to be an out-of-box solution. It's going to need quite a huge amount of work, to my understanding. I'd love to see what you come up with, though. A registration website would be a good addition... but my guess is that you can create an account through the database for now. It's based on his COPSv7 source, so you can look that up for Conquer Online and probably get some more detailed setup instructions. Best of luck!

What about your solution?

Is there a way to play on my own PC, just for myself, without others, just for playing alone?

If the answer is yes, how can I bypass the login?

I am a web developer, but I lack experience with any private server games. I have zero knowledge about that.

[Spirited]

What about your solution?

Is there a way to play on my own PC, just for myself, without others, just for playing alone?

If the answer is yes, how can I bypass the login?

I am a web developer, but I lack experience with any private server games. I have zero knowledge about that.

I don't have a solution you can download. CptSky is really the main person behind this section. I didn't even know this game existed before him. But yeah, you can host a server just fine with this, but you'll need to program the features and NPC dialogs, etc. If you don't have experience doing that, then it's not too late to learn... but this is a very advanced first project. You don't need to bypass login, to my understanding. You just have to insert the records into the database. But again, this may be a difficult first project. Learning how to set up a Conquer Online private server may be a bit easier.

[danielezra]

What about your solution?

Is there a way to play on my own PC, just for myself, without others, just for playing alone?

If the answer is yes, how can I bypass the login?

I am a web developer, but I lack experience with any private server games. I have zero knowledge about that.

I don't have a solution you can download. CptSky is really the main person behind this section. I didn't even know this game existed before him. But yeah, you can host a server just fine with this, but you'll need to program the features and NPC dialogs, etc. If you don't have experience doing that, then it's not too late to learn... but this is a very advanced first project. You don't need to bypass login, to my understanding. You just have to insert the records into the database. But again, this may be a difficult first project. Learning how to set up a Conquer Online private server may be a bit easier.

Conquer Online private server?

To be honest with you, I am not a big fan of Conquer Online. I played it a lot during 2004-2005 and also during 2013-2014, and I have had enough of that game. It's nothing special to me; and that game still exists, you can still play it, Unlike Era of Faint.

Era of Faith means a lot to me. I liked it a lot when I was a teenager, and I miss that game a lot; it's very nostalgic for me. Every 1-2 years, I check on Google about that game, that's how I found the cooldown.dev website.

I have a lot of spare time this month, and I know C# very well. I can learn C+/C++ and use ChatGPT if I need help in C+/C++ coding.

I want to try making a private server for Era of Faint or at least make the game playable on my PC. However, I don't even know how to start or what programs to use for that.

[Spirited]

Quote

Conquer Online private server?

To be honest with you, I am not a big fan of Conquer Online. I played it a lot during 2004-2005 and also during 2013-2014, and I have had enough of that game. It's nothing special to me; and that game still exists, you can still play it, Unlike Era of Faint.

Era of Faith means a lot to me. I liked it a lot when I was a teenager, and I miss that game a lot; it's very nostalgic for me. Every 1-2 years, I check on Google about that game, that's how I found the cooldown.dev website.

I have a lot of spare time this month, and I know C# very well. I can learn C+/C++ and use ChatGPT if I need help in C+/C++ coding.

I want to try making a private server for Era of Faint or at least make the game playable on my PC. However, I don't even know how to start or what programs to use for that.

Well, this conversation may be better on the thread for the server project:

But generally, you'll be using Qt Creator. It looks like the source uses MySQL as well, so you'll need to install that. MariaDB is a good drop-in replacement for MySQL and easy to install. MySQL Workbench is a good tool for viewing what's in the database and importing databases.

[danielezra]

On 11/27/2023 at 8:17 PM, Spirited said:

Well, this conversation may be better on the thread for the server project:

But generally, you'll be using Qt Creator. It looks like the source uses MySQL as well, so you'll need to install that. MariaDB is a good drop-in replacement for MySQL and easy to install. MySQL Workbench is a good tool for viewing what's in the database and importing databases.

I have no idea how to do that, I wish someone with linux server will make a project of of game server for that game that you just need to download files and play

[Spirited]

1 minute ago, danielezra said:

I have no idea how to do that, I wish someone with linux server will make a project of of game server for that game that you just need to download files and play

Afaik, not a lot of private server projects are like that, unless running your own server is an official feature of the game. There's gonna be some lite programming involvement getting this running, and some programming involvement to get working better than it already is (I don't think this is fully featured). I'd personally love to see someone working on this project and getting a real server running. I'd play it in a heartbeat. But yeah, it'll take some work. Maybe when I have a bit of time, I can try containerizing this so it's easier to build and run. But I don't have time to contribute right now with getting the new forum up and running with proper SEO and such. 

If there's anything I or CptSky can help clarify though, let us know. I'd be happy to help if you create a new thread about this and outline what you've done and what you're stuck on.

[danielezra]

3 hours ago, Spirited said:

Afaik, not a lot of private server projects are like that, unless running your own server is an official feature of the game. There's gonna be some lite programming involvement getting this running, and some programming involvement to get working better than it already is (I don't think this is fully featured). I'd personally love to see someone working on this project and getting a real server running. I'd play it in a heartbeat. But yeah, it'll take some work. Maybe when I have a bit of time, I can try containerizing this so it's easier to build and run. But I don't have time to contribute right now with getting the new forum up and running with proper SEO and such. 

If there's anything I or CptSky can help clarify though, let us know. I'd be happy to help if you create a new thread about this and outline what you've done and what you're stuck on.

Unfortunately, I have a Windows VPS, not Linux. How much time do you think I’d need to invest in programming and configuration to get everything working well and fully featured

[Spirited]

18 hours ago, danielezra said:

Unfortunately, I have a Windows VPS, not Linux. How much time do you think I’d need to invest in programming and configuration to get everything working well and fully featured

You should be able to compile and run this on Windows as well. Qt Creator is definitely the first tool you need to install to get started with this project.

[AFRIAT]

Hello guys, 
soon i will have some time to play with this emulator, im still stuck on the emulator when im getting the same thing sprited sent ( the image of the terminal ).
also im really want to make it work so i can use the emulator for game dev in the futrue, era of faith is still in my heart after 15 years or more ???
i will soon will send an update here about the progress.
P.S "danielezra" are you from israel man??? this is an israeli name for sure XD

[AFRIAT]

On 8/17/2024 at 9:16 PM, Spirited said:

Afaik, not a lot of private server projects are like that, unless running your own server is an official feature of the game. There's gonna be some lite programming involvement getting this running, and some programming involvement to get working better than it already is (I don't think this is fully featured). I'd personally love to see someone working on this project and getting a real server running. I'd play it in a heartbeat. But yeah, it'll take some work. Maybe when I have a bit of time, I can try containerizing this so it's easier to build and run. But I don't have time to contribute right now with getting the new forum up and running with proper SEO and such. 

If there's anything I or CptSky can help clarify though, let us know. I'd be happy to help if you create a new thread about this and outline what you've done and what you're stuck on.

If you or CptSky can explain how to run the emualtor after it build with Qt, this will be great, i saw you put the image of the terminal i sent in the past here, im still stuck there with not understanding how i should procced.
if you can assist on this one its will be amazing, thank you btw  .

[Spirited]

Let's move the topic of conversation to that emulator's thread in the future.

All you need to do is install Qt 5.15 and follow some instructions online for how to set up and use Qt Creator.

If you want to get started on containerizing the server... which is more involved, then here's a docker image you could start with:
https://hub.docker.com/layers/vookimedlo/ubuntu-qt/5.15_gcc_focal/images/sha256-cc10c736be3834bb824123ca827e3fcaf66d4c75ff98f5a6a8be5d12f0c73a1b?context=explore

I'm not sure if that'd be a runtime or build container. And then you'd also have to install the MySQL driver, probably. And write a Docker Compose for running MySQL in its own container (so you don't have to install it manually). I don't have time to write up an image at this time. 

[CptSky]

I've added a bit more info to debug the MySQL connection error here: 

 

[AFRIAT]

thanks!

 

 

Edited November 11, 2024 by AFRIAT

[AFRIAT]

Is there a way to get the game's assets or, even better, to get the frontend code? I'm pretty sure the download is all binary.

I would be glad to understand the server code, but if I can't modify things in the game, it will be a waste of time for me.

I really love this game and miss it a lot. Fun fact: this game was my first MMO.

I thought the emulator had also a way to modify the frontend.
revesere eniggering it will be much harder for JS developer.

[Spirited]

20 hours ago, AFRIAT said:

Is there a way to get the game's assets or, even better, to get the frontend code? I'm pretty sure the download is all binary.

I would be glad to understand the server code, but if I can't modify things in the game, it will be a waste of time for me.

I really love this game and miss it a lot. Fun fact: this game was my first MMO.

I thought the emulator had also a way to modify the frontend.
revesere eniggering it will be much harder for JS developer.

To my knowledge, there are no source code leaks besides the old Chinese Eudemons Alpha leak. And that's not terribly helpful for Conquer Online. Maybe you could use it as a base, but you'd have to implement basically everything but the engine. And that engine is way freakin' old. It'd be missing a huge amount of things even before you start focusing on it rendering a map from Conquer Online. You'd probably be better off making your own client with modern frameworks than wasting that time making it compile on something other than Visual C++ 6.0.