Network Analyzer Tool for Dark Ages
Written in .NET + Avalonia, using MVVM patterns. Custom UI styling based on Godot's look and feel.
- Dark Ages Client 7.41 (current latest)
- .NET 10.0 Runtime
- Windows, macOS*, Linux*
Note
Launching a game client is only supported on Windows, as it uses Win32 APIs.
You can still analyze network packet dumps or redirect clients from other platforms or VMs.
- Download the latest release
- Extract all files to
C:\Arbiter(or your choosing) - Open
Arbiter.exe - Configure your DA installation path in
Settings(if different)
Click on the + button in the top-left corner to launch a game client.
It will automatically be redirected to Arbiter running locally on your machine.
Click on the Trace tab to begin capturing packets.
By default, all packets from all clients will be captured and displayed in the Trace tab.
You can change this by selecting the desired client from the dropdown menu.
You can filter the packets by clicking on the Filter button in the trace window.
You can search (highlight/navigate) for a specific packet by typing its command in the search box.
Click on the Save button to save the current trace to a file.
You can also right-click on selected packets to save them individually.
Click on the Load button to load a trace from a file.
You can also hold down Shift while clicking Load to append the trace to the current one.
Caution
Be careful when sharing traces with others!
They may contain sensitive information such as your character name or even password if you began a trace while logging in.
You can send both client and server packets by using the Send window.
By default, all packets will be assumed to be client packets (meaning they are sent to the server as if the client sent them).
Each packet should be placed on its own line in the text box area and in the following format:
[DIRECTION] <COMMAND> <DATA...>
Packets that you copy from traces using the right-click menu will be in the correct format already. However, you should ensure it is prefixed with the right direction (client or server) before sending it.
You can override this by prefixing the packet with < to indicate a server packet or > to indicate a client packet:
# this is a client packet
> 43 03 00 0A 00 08 01
# this is a server packet
< 32 00
For example:
# click on tile 10, 8
43 03 00 0A 00 08 01
In addition to hex values, you can also specify other data types within a packet for ease of use.
Supported data types:
#value- decimal value literal (ex:#100->64)- The hex will be 8-bit, 16-bit, or 32-bit depending on the value (smallest necessary).
"string"- ascii string literal (ex:"hello world"->68 65 6C 6C 6F 20 77 6F 72 6C 64)- Single-quote, double-quote, and backtick strings are all supported.
@Entity- entity ID replacement (ex:@Deoch->00 00 CA 1B)- The entity must have been seen before, otherwise a zero value will be used instead.
You can specify @wait <milliseconds> between certain packets if you want to introduce a variable delay.
This can be useful for certain dialog interactions or other timing-sensitive packet flows.
For example:
# click on entity 0xBEEF
43 01 00 00 BE EF
@wait 2000
// next packets...
This will wait 2 seconds before sending the next packets. This is independent of the Delay and Interval settings.
You can specify @disconnect (or @dc) to force the client to disconnect.
This can be useful when you want to "log out" after sending a packet.
You can use the # or // prefix to add a comment to the start of the packet line. These will not be sent!
The initial Delay can be set, which determines how much time to wait before sending the first packet.
This is only done once when sending is started, regardless of repeat behavior. Think of it like a countdown timer.
The Interval determines the time between sending each packet. You can think of it like the tempo or send rate.
The Repeat determines how many times to send the packets. All packets in the send window will be sent again, in order.
You can use a specific number of times to repeat, or -1 for infinite repeats.
When selecting a packet, the Inspector tab will display information about the packet in a structured format.
Sections can be collapsed by clicking on the arrow next to the section title.
You can also right-click on a field to copy its value to the clipboard.
If you wish to copy the entire structured object as JSON, you can click on the Copy JSON button on the top-right.
You can view the decrypted packet payload in the Hex tab on the right-side panel.
By selecting a range of bytes you can visualize various values in different formats.
You can calculate the CRC-16 or CRC-32 checksum of text, binary, or file contents. Optionally, you can specify a compression algorithm to use for the input.
This can be useful for verifying against the checksum of metadata files (which are compressed).
You can filter out system messages and world shouts in the Settings->Messages tab.
These accept a case-insensitive Regular Expression style syntax.
You can use the bottom text area to test your filter against a sample message,
which will show you if the message would be Allowed (shown) or Filtered (suppressed).
Individual rules can be enabled/disabled by clicking on the checkbox next to the rule name. You can move rules up or down, edit them, or delete them using the right-click context menu.
TBD
Contributions are welcomed for this project! Please open an issue or pull request if you have any suggestions, fixes, or improvements.
I personally use JetBrains Rider for development, but any editor should work as long as you install the appropriate Avalonia plugins.
To package and deploy the application binary as a single-file executable, use the following command:
cd Arbiter.App
dotnet publish -r win-x64 -c Release -p:PublishSingleFile=true --self-contained falseYou can use the platform of your choice, but the win-x64 target is recommended.
Important
You must include the published .dll files with the executable.
Special thanks to Chaos Server and Hybrasyl repositories for many of the packet structures.