Lich:Software/Installation

About

Lich is an add-on scripting engine that works alongside existing front ends. The most common installation is a combination of Lich on Windows using the Stormfront or Wizard FE. Despite this, Lich is also used by many on both MacOS and multiple Linux distributions.

Installing the Latest Stable Release

Windows

For Windows 10 / 8 / 7 users: you can download the Installer and install everything you need automatically. If you have never played before, follow the 'New Installation' instructions. If you have played before, and have used Lich before, follow the 'Upgrade Installation' instructions.

Several very popular scripts have been updated to work with the new Lich version. If your favorite script doesn't work right, and if downloading the author's latest (since 03/2020) doesn't fix it, check out this link for an updated copy. Always try the repo first - authors may be updating their scripts and adding cool new features that are not included at this link.

New Installation for Lich 5 (3/6/2021)

1. Please log into the game of your choice through the Simutronics website first. Install the launcher (not SGE), and install your FrontEnd of Choice. The StormFront FrontEnd is presently the supported FrontEnd, but Wizard will work as well, if you are nostalgic.
2. Download and Run the Installer. You will receive the Microsoft Warning because this is not distributed through the MS Store. Click on 'More Info' and then select the 'Run Anyway' button.
3. The installation may take a few minutes, especially on non-SSD harddrives.
4. A Lich5 folder will be placed on your desktop after the install is finished, open that folder and double click the lich.rbw file contained inside to start Lich's Game Entry window.
5. Use your existing Simutronics Account and Password and click connect. Then select the character you wish to play, and select the FrontEnd you wish to use. Then click the Play button.
6. Your game FrontEnd should start, and you should see Lich5 initializing. You will see it downloading files - these are the map files, wait for the download to finish.
7. You should see a window open titled 'xNarost', this is the map window.
8. In the game command line enter -> ;repo download jinx <- and wait the few seconds for it to finish. This is an alternative, maintained by Elanthia Online, to the Lich repository to facilitate downloading/updating scripts when the repository is offline.

Upgrade Installation for Lich 5 (3/6/2021)

Developers: This installer will associate all .rb and .rbw files to this installation. You may want to just check in with the Discord scripting channel to get the latest Lich files and roll your own Ruby.

Note: Back up your existing lich folder for a failsafe experience. Seriously. Put a copy somewhere safe.

Note2: You are updating to Ruby 2.6.6 and GTK3 - smoother running and more stable. This means that some of your existing scripts may need to be updated. At the present moment, the only script that is known to not be available is the Wizard script ;uberbarwiz. If that script is critical to your gaming, do not upgrade yet. When this note changes, that will mean an updated script is available.

Note3: This installer is safe to run with existing installations of Ruby. This is done to facilitate a rapid return to the prior version if something doesn't work right. Remember to uninstall your older Ruby if you are satisfied with this new installation to get back precious disk space.

1. Download and Run the Installer. You will receive the Microsoft Warning because this is not distributed through the MS Store. Click on 'More Info' and then select the 'Run Anyway' button.
2. The installation may take a few minutes, especially on non-SSD harddrives.
3. A Lich5 folder will be placed on your desktop after the install is finished.
4. Since you likely have a ton of information already saved in your previous lich folder, the fastest way to update to Lich5 is to open the Lich5 folder, open your existing lich folder, select ALL in your existing lich folder, and drag it over to the Lich5 folder. DO NOT OVERWRITE any files that already exist. If you do, your new Lich5 installation will not work. Always keep the existing Lich5 file when copying over your old information. You did back up your existing lich folder, right?
5. Log in as you normally would. The Lich Quick Game Entry and Game Entry windows will look different, so don't be surprised. The Lich Quick Game Entry window should show your accounts in tabs on the left side, click through them to be sure your characters are all still listed under their tabs.

Note4: The script 'sloot' is very popular, and it is confusing to keep track of which sloot variant out there is best, presently. Do yourself a favor - after everything is setup but before you run sloot: Delete sloot. ;repo download gtk3-sloot. Rename gtk3-sloot to sloot. Profit.

Special note to Profanity / Illthorn and other third-party FrontEnd users - this installer does not create an entry to the Environment Path variable. If you're using a third-party FrontEnd, be sure to add the Ruby4Lich5\bin directory to your path. See how here.

Additional assistance in installation can be found in the scripting channel of the GemStone Discord.

Mac OS X

Players with Macs can use Installing Lich on Macs for installation help.

This process works well for Mac OS Catalina and Big Sur.

If you have not updated your Mac OS yet, these instructions may work depending on your actual version. If you run into a snag, follow the contact instructions provided.

Chromebook & Debian variants

The following steps should install Lich and Profanity for users of Debian/Chromebooks. Profanity is a terminal-based Front-End that will let you play the game (in lieu of The Wizard or Stormfront).

Update the list of available software and make sure some requirements are installed:

sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install autoconf bison build-essential libssl-dev libyaml-dev libreadline6-dev zlib1g-dev libncurses5-dev libffi-dev libgdbm6 libgdbm-dev libsqlite3-dev unzip

Install rbenv, a Ruby version manager. Add it to the PATH so that it will work outside of its own directory, and set it up to work when you launch the shell (terminal):

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/rbenv.git ~/.rbenv
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.rbenv/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.bashrc

Run the shell's launch script now to enable those two changes and get rbenv working:

source ~/.bashrc

Download the tools to let rbenv install Ruby on its own, then install Ruby 2.5.1 and set it to be our default version of Ruby system-wide:

git clone https://github.com/rbenv/ruby-build.git ~/.rbenv/plugins/ruby-build
rbenv install 2.5.1 -v
rbenv global 2.5.1

Tell Ruby not to create documentation for its gems (plugins/packages) unless asked, because it takes a long time and they are available online. Then install the dependencies for Lich and Profanity:

echo "gem: --no-document" > ~/.gemrc
gem install sqlite3 gtk2 curses

Install Lich and Profanity:

curl --remote-name https://lichproject.org/download/lich-4.6.49.zip
unzip lich-*.zip
git clone https://github.com/matt-lowe/ProfanityFE.git

Fedora

There are notable differences between the versions of Fedora that are commonly available:

• Fedora 31 uses Ruby version 2.6.5 which has no compatibility issues with the base lich version or the Beta GTK3 variant.
• Fedora 32 uses Ruby version 2.7.1 which requires modification of scripts to match SAFE commands. This is a minor version difference, but is notable.

1. Update The Base Installation:

$ sudo dnf -y update
$ sudo dnf -y install vim git

2. Install required Ruby and Development packages:

$ sudo dnf install -y autoconf bison gcc gdbm gdbm-devel libyaml-devel \
libffi-devel make ncurses-devel openssl-devel readline-devel redhat-rpm-config \
ruby ruby-devel sqlite-devel unzip zlib-devel

3. Perform Ruby Gem Installations:

$ gem install rake
$ gem update

3.a. For GTK2 (base Lich)

$ gem install sqlite3 gtk2 curses

3.b. For GTK3 Beta

$ gem install sqlite3 gtk3 curses

4. Download Lich:

$ cd ~
$ curl --remote-name https://lichproject.org/download/lich-4.6.52.zip
$ unzip lich-4.6.52.zip

5. Clone Profanity:

$ cd ~
$ git clone https://github.com/ondreian/ProfanityFE.git

Please refer to the Profanity FE page for initial configuration and additional instructions.

Ecosystem Information

• DragonRealms Variant

This can be downloaded directly from Github at dragon-realms-lich

Resources

• Mac Installation - Lich (software)