This article is aimed at configuration of Hercules for use. It is assumed that you have downloaded Hercules, have it compiled and configured to connect.

Hercules File Structure

When you open up your copy of Hercules for the first time, you may notice a lot of folders and files, we'll walk through briefly what each one is for.

We're mainly focused on the /conf/ folder in this article.

/conf/

In the /conf/ folder, holds all of the configuration settings for a quick customization. Here are the locations for a frequent number of configuration changes. Remember that after changing any of these settings, it is always best to restart your servers for the changes to take effect.

Changing the base/job experience rates

Open up /conf/battle/exp.conf. Look for:

// Rate at which exp. is given. (Note 2)
base_exp_rate: 100

// Rate at which job exp. is given. (Note 2)
job_exp_rate: 100

and change to whatever you want, in multiples of 100. A good rule of thumb is to get your number, say you want 10x rates. Input 10, then add 2 zero's (0) to it to make it 1000.

Changing multi level ups

Open up /conf/battle/exp.conf. Search for:

// Turn this on to allow a player to level up more than once from a kill. (Note 1)
multi_level_up: no

and change it to a 'yes'.

Changing the required DEX for insta-cast

Open up /conf/battle/skill.conf. Search for:

// At what dex does the cast time become zero (instacast)?
castrate_dex_scale: 150

And change to whatever you want it to be.

Changing the max stats

Open up /conf/battle/player.conf. Search for:

// Max limit of char stats. (agi, str, etc.)
max_parameter: 99

// Same as max_parameter, but for 3rd classes.
max_third_parameter: 120

// Same as max_parameter, but for baby classes.
max_baby_parameter: 80

// Same as max_parameter, but for baby 3rd's.
max_baby_third_parameter: 108

And change it to whatever you want it to be.

Setting the max levels

Please see Edit Max Level.

Setting PK in your server

Navigate to /conf/battle/misc.conf. Find:

// PK Server Mode.  Turns entire server pvp(excluding towns). Experience loss is doubled if killed by another player.
// When players hunt monsters over 20 levels higher, they will receive 15% additional exp., and 25% chance of receiving more items. 
// There is a nopvp.txt for setting up maps not to have pk on in this mode.  Novices cannot be attacked and cannot attack.
// Normal pvp counter and rank display are disabled as well.
// Note: If pk_mode is set to 2 instead of 1 (yes), players will receive a 
//   manner penalty of 5 each time they kill another player (see manner_system 
//   config to adjust how this will affect players)
pk_mode: 0

You should also take a look at:

// For PK Server Mode. Change this to define the minimum level players can start PK-ing
pk_min_level: 55

Monsters with HP/MaxHP/Level/percent HP displays

To get your monsters to display either their level, HP/MAXHP or percent of HP remaining, open up /conf/battle/monster.conf. Look for:

// Display some mob info next to their name? (add as needed)
// (does not works on guardian or emperium)
// 1: Display mob HP (Hp/MaxHp format)
// 2: Display mob HP (Percent of full life format)
// 4: Display mob's level
show_mob_info: 0

For example, I want mob level and mob percent of HP showing, I would set this to 6.

Setting Drop rates

Open up /conf/battle/drops.conf and look for the following:

// The rate the common items are dropped (Items that are in the ETC tab, besides card)
item_rate_common: 100
item_rate_common_boss: 100
item_drop_common_min: 1
item_drop_common_max: 10000

// The rate healing items are dropped (items that restore HP or SP)
item_rate_heal: 100
item_rate_heal_boss: 100
item_drop_heal_min: 1
item_drop_heal_max: 10000

// The rate at which usable items (in the item tab) other then healing items are dropped.
item_rate_use: 100
item_rate_use_boss: 100
item_drop_use_min: 1
item_drop_use_max: 10000

// The rate at which equipment is dropped.
item_rate_equip: 100
item_rate_equip_boss: 100
item_drop_equip_min: 1
item_drop_equip_max: 10000

// The rate at which cards are dropped
item_rate_card: 100
item_rate_card_boss: 100
item_drop_card_min: 1
item_drop_card_max: 10000

// The rate adjustment for the MVP items that the MVP gets directly in their inventory
item_rate_mvp: 100
item_drop_mvp_min: 1
item_drop_mvp_max: 10000

// The rate adjustment for card-granted item drops.
item_rate_adddrop: 100
item_drop_add_min: 1
item_drop_add_max: 10000

// Rate adjustment for Treasure Box drops (these override all other modifiers)
item_rate_treasure: 100
item_drop_treasure_min: 1
item_drop_treasure_max: 10000

All item_rate_* values can range from 0 to 1000000 (100 = 100%) and item_drop_* values can range from 1 to 10000 (100 = 1.00%). The meaning of the lines is explained using the common items block, but can be applied to other blocks as well (read the comments of each block, to see, what they refer to). Where there is no 'boss' line, it is simply not applicable to differentiate between normal and boss monsters.

item_rate_common: 100

Specifies the rate adjustment for (common) items dropped by non-boss monsters. This means, if this is set to 100 (100%), all drop rates in the mob db are used, as is. If you set it to 600, drop rates will be 6 times high as in mob db. So 0.01% drop rate for cards would become 0.06%.

item_rate_common_boss: 100

Specifies the rate adjustment for (common) items dropped by boss monsters. Works like item_rate_common.

item_drop_common_min: 1

Specifies the minimum drop chance of (common) items. By default this is 1 (0.01%). All drop rates, which would render lower than this value, due to the effect of their respective item_rate_* settings, will be set to this value. Having this value set to 4 and rate to 100% would cause all cards and rare items, which are dropped at 0.01% being dropped at a chance of 0.04%.

item_drop_common_max: 10000

Specifies the maximum drop chance of (common) items. By default this is 10000 (100%). Any drop chance, which would be higher than this value, is set to this value.

Setting a limit on the amount of castles a guild can own

You can limit the amount of castles a guild can hold. Any guild that has the allotted number of castles will deal '0' damage to the emp they try to take after hitting the threshold. Open up /conf/battle/guild.conf. Find:

// Maximum castles one guild can own (0 = unlimited)
guild_max_castles: 0

Set this to whatever you want the maximum to be.

Setting what characters are allowed in a character name

Typically, we don't want character names that contain ASCII weird characters or whatnot. Here is a great example that will limit the characters a name can use to what's on the standard American Keyboard. Open up /conf/char_athena.conf and look for:

// Manage possible letters/symbol in the name of charater. Control character (0x00-0x1f) are never accepted. Possible values are:
// NOTE: Applies to character, party and guild names.
// 0: no restriction (default)
// 1: only letters/symbols in 'char_name_letters' option.
// 2: Letters/symbols in 'char_name_letters' option are forbidden. All others are possibles.
char_name_option: 1

// Set the letters/symbols that you want use with the 'char_name_option' option.
// Note: Don't add spaces unless you mean to add 'space' to the list.
char_name_letters: `1234567890-=qwertyuiop[]\asdfghjkl;'zxcvbnm,./~!@#$%^&*()_+QWERTYUIOP{}|ASDFGHJKL:"ZXCVBNM<>?

And set it to exactly what I have here.

Changing "Welcome to Hercules SVN Version!" text

The "Welcome to Hercules SVN! Enjoy! Please report any bugs you find." text can be changed or removed. Open up /npc/motd.txt and change as needed. Please keep note of the contents in the file:

// Internal default is limited to 128 lines.  If you need more, you will need to modify the MOTD_LINE_SIZE definition in pc.c

To disable this message altogether simply delete the contents of the file, [b]but do not delete the entire file itself. Errors will arise in your map server![/b]

Grf-files.txt

This is where you put the path to your Ragnarok Online directory. You only need to set grf and/or data_dir, if you load maps from GRFs rather than from map-cache.

Example:

//-----------------------------------------
// GRF List
//-----------------------------------------
// grf: C:\path\to\RO\data.grf
// You may add more in this format
// grf: 
grf: C:\Program Files\Gravity\RO\data.grf
grf: C:\Program Files\Gravity\RO\rdata.grf
grf: C:\Program Files\Gravity\RO\YourRO.grf

//------ Others ---------------------------

// Data Directory (without the actual data\ though)
// the below example would use C:\path\to\RO\data\
//data_dir: C:\path\to\RO\
data_dir: C:\Program Files\Gravity\RO\

If you have a custom GRF you add it here. For 64-bit Windows the path will be Program Files(x86).

Changing what displays with the command @help

Help.txt will change what displays for the @commands related to help (@h, @help), and help2.txt will change what displays for @h2 and @help2. The first text basically explains it all, 0 to display the help line and you can use other numbers for other GM levels.

Changing the max number of hairstyles and palettes

In client.conf, change the following numbers to the number of hairstyles/palettes you have:

// valid range of dye's and styles on the client
min_hair_style: 0
max_hair_style: 25
min_hair_color: 0
max_hair_color: 8
min_cloth_color: 0 
max_cloth_color: 4

Don't go past the number of hairstyles/palettes you have though, or else you might get errors when using a hairstyle/palette NPC, but only if the NPC goes over the number of hairstyles/palettes you have.

Overriding map-cache

If you do not want to update your map-cache each time your maps change or are added, you might want to read map data from GRFs. To do so, you need to edit map_athena.conf at:

// Read map data from GATs and RSWs in GRF files or a data directory
// as referenced by grf-files.txt rather than from the mapcache?
use_grf: no

Set this value to yes, to enable GRFs as map data storage. You need to set-up grf-files.txt to point to the archives, which contain your maps. Note, that resnametable.txt (which allows setting up map aliases) is currently read from GRF archives only.

/conf/atcommand_athena.conf and /conf/groups.conf

As of Hercules trunk r15572, the charcommands and atcommands are configured in the groups.conf. The server reads this file to decide who can use what command. normal players are id: 0, while the Administrators have the ultimate control at id:99.

Removing a command from the group Id list will disable its use in game the syntax is this:

<id>
Unique group number. The only required field.

<name>
Any string. If empty, defaults to "Group <id>". It is used in several @who 
commands.

<level>
Equivalent of GM level, which was used in revisions before r15572. You can 
set it to any number, but usually it's between 0 (default) and 99. Members of 
groups with lower level can not perform some actions/commands (like @kick) on 
members of groups with higher level. It is what script command getgmlevel() 
returns. Group level can also be used to override trade restrictions 
(db/item_trade.txt).

<commands>
A group of settings
	<command name> : <bool>
or
	<commandname> : [ <bool>, <bool> ]
First boolean value is for atcommand, second one for charcommand. If set to 
true, group can use command. If only atcommand value is provided, false is 
assumed for charcommand. If a command name is not included, false is assumed for 
both atcommand and charcommand.
For a full list of available commands, see: doc/atcommands.txt.
Command names must not be aliases.

<log_commands>
Boolean value. If true then all commands used by the group will be logged to 
atcommandlog. If setting is omitted in a group definition, false is assumed.
Requires 'log_commands' to be enabled in 'conf/log_athena.conf'.

<permissions>
A group of settings
	<permission> : <bool>
If a permission is not included, false is assumed.
For a full list of available permissions, see: doc/permissions.txt

<inherit>
A list of group names that given group will inherit commands and permissions 
from. Group names are case-sensitive.

For example, say I want to allow my level 60 GM's to use @baselevel, but I want my level 80 GM's to use the #baselevel counterpart to increase another players' base level.

The setting would be set as follows.

{
   id: 60
   name: "Event Manager"
   inherit: ( "Support" )
   level: 1
   commands: {
       baselevel: [true,false]
   }
   log_commands: true
   permissions: {
       can_trade: false
       any_warp: true
   }
},

{
   id: 80
   name: "Law Enforcement"
   inherit: ( "Support" )
   level: 2
   commands: {
       baselevel: [false,true]
   }
   log_commands: true
   permissions: {
       join_chat: true
       kick_chat: true
       hide_session: true
       who_display_aid: true
       hack_info: true
       any_warp: true
       view_hpmeter: true
    }
},

Notice that the first flag is for @, and the second is for #.

NOTE: If a group ID inherits another group ID, and you add the same command under both groups, it will cause group.conf to act unpredictably. It has been noted that it may cause no groups, to have any atcommands. Including the admin group.