Universal Linux Launcher for NCSoft Games

*EDIT 8/24/11*

a solution to the NC Soft Launcher problem for City of Heroes has been provided by Mark on the WineHQ page for City of Heroes. it seems we've abandoned the effort to get a universal NCSoft launcher at this time.

this is a PERL script he wrote. the original page is located here and it will list the dependencies needed.

this script will update an existing install. it will also download a new version of the client if placed into an empty folder. i could not get it to work correctly with a fresh install from DVD (Architect Edition) due to a lack of a version.ini file. i recommend downloading a new client with the PERL patcher instead of trying a fresh install from CD/DVD.

complete directions for it are on the webpage provided above. make sure to place the script inside your City of Heroes install folder (ie. where you want the game to be) and run it from there. for example, mine is located here: /home/<USERNAME>/.cxgames/CityofHeroes/drive_c/Program_Files/City_of_Heroes

*CrossOver Games Specific Section*
i have made a minor adjustment to the script so that it will launch using CXG. in order for this work you must first:

1) open your Manage Bottles window in CXG.
2) highlight the City of Heroes bottle that you've made.
3) click on the Advanced tab.
4) Check the box that says "Use This Bottle as the Default for the Command Line"

that should sort it out. you can grab my CXG specific version of the patcher here. all i did was change the wine call at the end of the script to the cxgames specific method of a command line call.

NOTE: the script assumes you installed CXG with the generic .bin installer. if you used a .deb or .rpm installer, you will need to first locate the directory where the CXG program was installed, and then edit the call at the bottom of the perl script to call the correct directory.

for example, user Vauluur tells us this:

I can take a look at it.

It wasn't really useful when I last looked at it, which was back in 2008.

As best as I can tell, it hasn't been updated since 2008 either... http://sourceforge.net/projects/ull/files/ull/

cool, thanks je.

and just to keep our options open, it looks like there's also a perl script that someone put together to patch and launch the game. it's here: http://www.carnildo.com/cohlaunch/index.html

hehe, thanks wildcat! i sure was ready to give up, but my account hadn't expired yet, so since i could still post, i still tried. :P

i'm trying the perl script patcher right now to reinstall. i'll report back.

*edit* ok, i was able to reinstall with the perl script, though it put it in a weird folder. and it seems like i can run it through CrossOver with -project coh -renderthread 0.

so far so good, this perl script has been the most promising for me yet. i'll have to try actually logging in tonight, as the servers are currently down.

have a good day, all!

Right, fiddling with the perl-script since i don't know how to point the ULL to use the internal updater.

cohlaunch.pl: 16: use: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 17: use: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 18: use: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 19: use: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 20: use: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 22: my: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 23: my: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 25: my: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 26: my: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 27: my: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 28: my: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 30: my: not found
cohlaunch.pl: 32: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

Cx, is it in your CoH directory? it has to be run from there.

that's about all i can think of, if you've met the dependencies.

i actually couldn't use it to launch my game, perhaps because i use CrossOver and not straight WINE.

i did get it to reinstall the game by placing it in an empty directory, but it failed to successfully update it after that. i'll keep messing with it when i get home.

the thread with the creator is here at winehq for CoH: http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManage...rsion&iId=2980

i also get the "Unable to decompress patch CityOfHeroes.etc.etc.ncpatch" error.

i'll probably keep trying until my sub runs out, but it's getting a bit frustrating when i could just play other games instead of paying to be hassled. lots of my motivation is pure principle at this point, more than a desire to play. (ok that last part is only sort of true. Freedom does look AWESOME. )

ah, right! why didn't i think of that? i ran it with ./ out of habit, didn't even think about it. listen to Kosmos, Cx. =)

D'oh! Ohwell, I'm not used to perl-scripts. You learn something new every day

x@x:~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/City of Heroes$ perl cohlaunch.pl -live -project eucoh -renderthread 0
Can't locate XML/Simple.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/local/lib/perl/5.10.1 /usr/local/share/perl/5.10.1 /usr/lib/perl5 /usr/share/perl5 /usr/lib/perl/5.10 /usr/share/perl/5.10 /usr/local/lib/site_perl .) at cohlaunch.pl line 18.
BEGIN failed--compilation aborted at cohlaunch.pl line 18.

Unable to decompress patch CityOfHeroes_Main_2060.201107262317.0.0To2060.201108050059.1.0.ncpatch

regarding the extraction error, i need to check the version of Unrar in the repos when i get home. maybe that has something to do with it?

that's exactly where we're at, Cx. =) now we're all on the same page of being unable to update. =P =D hopefully Mark (the coder) or someone can shed some light on this issue soon.

got unrar 3.90 beta and xdelta 1.1.3, those two are the newest available in the ubuntu 10.04 repos.

//cx

good to know, thanks guys! ok, so that's probably not it then...

Tex posted in another thread regarding Linux patchers, so you might want to PM him to ask if he can tell you the patch file format.

[Edit:] Note: I'm not running CoH on Linux myself, I'm just trying to help a friend who is with OS/perl support. The script is definitely failing on the 'unrar' command, most likely due to a file format issue, since the file appears to be passing the MD5 checksum prior to that.

i appreciate your effort kosmos

I got Nicodemus' PM and I cannot comment on the patch file format.

ok, thank you for replying Tex.

thanks anyway tex

I read through my NCSoft Launcher logs. The Launcher itself definitely appears to be using unrar to unpack the patch. Here's an example of what I see there:

2011-08-09 06:55:04.9687 : 20 : Info : Patcher: BeginOp: Extracting file: CityOfHeroes_Main_2060.201107262317.0.0To2060.2011 08050059.1.0\PatchManifest.xml : () : 0%

2011-08-09 06:55:04.9843 : 20 : Info : Unrar (stderr): CityOfHeroes_Main_2060.201107262317.0.0To2060.2011 08050059.1.0\PatchManifest.xml - use current password ?

2011-08-09 06:55:05.0156 : 20 : Info : Unrar: Extracting CityOfHeroes_Main_2060.201107262317.0.0To2060.2011 08050059.1.0\PatchManifest.xml

2011-08-09 06:55:05.0468 : 20 : Info : Unrar: OK


I can't do anything with this at the moment. Perhaps not till Monday in fact. However, it shouldn't be hard to figure out if the patch archive is the issue. The perl script appears to be leaving the patch file in place when the 'unrar x' command fails. Look for it and if it is still there then try testing the archive with an 'unrar' command from the command line.

will do. thanks Kos! don't worry about rushing anything, the game isn't going anywhere. =)

well, it does unrar the patch archive, because it places the new directory with the archive contents into the .patches folder. but it isn't applying the patches. this is odd, since it claims to fail the decompression. i guess it cannot complete the process for some reason, which would then trigger the next step which should be to call xdelta.

mark, the author, can't look at it right now, but if anyone else has the skills and wants to give it a go, by all means. =)

this is where we stand so far. =)