Understanding: create an (oldschool) p-server

Hello together,

some days ago I decided to create an old rappelz server just for me (nostalgia). The earliest server files are from [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]. But that is a good place to start. My goal is epic 4, but a running 5.2 server would be fine too (btw: if someone has the matching 5.2 sframe without gameguard it would be great).

I've read many threads which discourage me more an more. The guys in [Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...] had the same goal but cancelled their attempts.
If you got a running server you can change it like you want (db changes, lua scripts, custom shops... just throwing some words I read). Or atleast I can imagine the possibilities.
So now there is the point I don't really understand (maybe because wrong translation): Where do I get the epic 4 content like pet skills, quest exp, char/weapon stats and so on?
Can you get all this by sniffing the communication or grabbing the content of an old epic 4 client or is it just a rebuilding from memories (screenshots, videos...)?

Like I read there are enough bugs in the epic 5.2 server files. So I have to spend a lot of work/hacking to get an full functional epic 5.2 server running (btw why are the files/the data so messed up?). But to get an original epic 4 server seems to be almost impossible, right?
I don`t want to guess how much patk/pdef had the shamanic warrior buff (e.g.). I thought the data is just there :).

It would be nice if someone can help me to understand.
Thanks in advance.

1. You get the epic 4 content from an epic 4 client. The RDB's contain some of what the database table may have looked like.

The information for the pets skills from the epic 4 clients string resource, and the skill icons from the images stored within the client.

2. Let me try and help you understand bugs. Bugs existed in the normal server files anyway as they were as retail releases. There was no and still is no retail release that does not contain bugs.

Bugs greater than what existed in retail only exist because of a mismatch between the server files and the client. Since the matching client is never released with the server files, you will never have a running server version that does not need some re matching of the client to the server files.

The reason it is like this is because of the method of patching the game files. Almost every week the games undergo maintenance and the game files are patched on both the server and the client. If you have a server that has been patched and a client that hasn't there will be some minor bugs. If you have a server that was patched and a client that has not been patched for months there will be some major bugs.

So unless you know the exact week the server files were taken from the retail server, and have the matching patched client from that week there will be bugs. It is possible to fix most of these bugs. It is easier when the server and client are more closely patched.

3. If you are more interested in epic 4 then the emulator project that is being worked on by Xijezu and some other contributors may interest you also...

[Only registered and activated users can see links. Click Here To Register...]

Thank you very much ThunderNikk for your detailed explanation. You give me hope :). The Rappelz emulator sounds nice too.

I attached my sframe.exe. Can someone check if it is for epic 5.2 (is it possible to see that)? I`ve got the client (US) from a polish website and I don`t know if its the right client (the date of the installer is february 2009).