How to play RLCraft with friends for free in 2020
With the squad being locked down in their homes, now might be a great time to get started with multiplayer Minecraft, however, some might find regular Minecraft a bit too easy for their liking.
For those of you who look for a challenging and chaotic alternative — the RLCraft mod pack for Minecraft is a more immersive and exciting experience that is sure to keep you and your friends hooked.
By the end of this article, you will be able to:
- Install RLCraft on your PC
- Set up a multiplayer server for RLCraft
- Add your friends to your server to play with them
Part I: RLCraft on the local machine
There are several ways to set up the RLCraft mod pack on your computer but personally I find this method to be the easiest and beginner-friendly.
Step 1: Downloading the TLauncher client
Head over to the TLauncher Website and download the latest version of their client for your operating system (Note: I have only used the Windows client and this method may or may not work on other Operating Systems)
Locate the TLauncher setup file wherever you downloaded it (usually in your downloads folder) and install TLauncher.
Once the installation is complete, launch the application.
You don’t need to create an account to use TLauncher, however, note that creating an account lets you use custom skins for your in-game character.
Step 2: Installing Minecraft (1.12.2) using TLauncher
Once TLauncher opens up, here is what you need to:
Type in a username, anything will do, this will simply be the name that other players on a server will see you as.
I will use “testplayer01” for this demo.
Leave the Accounts checkbox unchecked if you do not have a TLauncher account.
RLCraft is a mod pack (a collection of mods) that was made for Minecraft version 1.12.2 and those mods require a piece of software called Forge to maintain and run them.
Luckily, TLauncher has a neat trick that makes it so that we do not need to install Forge separately. Here’s what you need to do:
Under the drop-down list right next to the username, choose the ForgeOptifine 1.12.2 version and hit Install. (Optifine will help us run shaders that can make your in-game graphics look absolutely stunning.)
Once it’s done installing, you should see something like this:
Great! Now, click on Enter the game to start up Minecraft with Forge pre-installed.
This will create some of the preliminary files that we will be modifying later.
Once you reach the Main Menu successfully, you can close the game.
Step 3: Downloading the RLCraft mod pack
Go to the RLCraft mod download over at CurseForge to download the RLCraft Server Pack 1.12.2 — Beta v2.8.2
The download will be in the form of a .zip file which can be extracted by using applications like WinRAR or 7zip.
In the above image, we extract the contents of the .zip file into a separate folder using WinRAR.
Part 4: Installing the RLCraft Modpack
The files that we just extracted need to be added to the minecraft folder created by TLauncher.
First, copy all of the contents of the RLCraft folder (Ctrl+A to select them all and Ctrl+C to copy).
Next, locate the ‘.minecraft’ folder by following these steps:
Press the ‘Windows’+’R’ on your keyboard to bring up the Run window.
Type %APPDATA% as shown below:
This will open up a folder where the ‘.minecraft’ folder will be located
Navigate into the ‘.minecraft’ folder, you should see something like this:
Right-click anywhere and paste the copied contents from the RLCraft folder over here.
This will add some new files to this location and also bring up a window telling you that “There are files with the same names at destination”, in that case, choose the option “Replace the files in the destination”
Here is a screenshot of the folder after all files have been copied and replaced:
…and that’s it! You’ve successfully installed the RLCraft Modpack for Minecraft!
Let’s test if it works properly, click on Tlauncher.exe to launch TLauncher (I also recommend making a desktop shortcut for ease of access later on).
Once TLauncher is up and running, choose the ForgeOptifine 1.12.2 version and run the game.
The first launch could take a bit, so be patient. Subsequent launches would be faster but are still slower than launching regular Minecraft (The extra time is needed to load all the mods)
If all the mods are loaded correctly, it will be displayed in your main menu as shown in the image above. (Note that this number might change in the future)
Feel free to try out the single-player mode, but what fun are games if you can’t play them with friends? In the next part, I explain how to easily set up a FREE server for RLCraft using Aternos and play with your friends!
Part II: Setting up a server
Setting up a server for multiplayer RLCraft is much easier than one might assume, thanks to a free service called Aternos.
Here’s how you do it from scratch:
Step 1: Creating an account
Head over to the Aternos website and create an account.
I suggest you sign up for an Aternos account instead of using Google/Facebook login.
Since the server has to be manually started every time, It might be a wise idea to share the login credentials with your friends so that anyone can start up the server at any time.
Step 2: Making a basic Minecraft server
Once an account has been created, you would be greeted with a page that has an option to Create a Server.
Click on Create a Server and make sure it is for the Java edition.
For the sake of this tutorial, I’ve made a new account under the name of testplayer01.
We now have a Minecraft Java edition server for version 1.16.3 ready, but a few tweaks must be made in order to run RLCraft.
Step 3: Converting a basic server to RLCraft server
Click on the option to change the software:
Under software, select Modpacks → Curse → RLCraft
This will bring up a warning saying “Your current world will be deleted”, this wouldn’t matter to us as our current world is already empty.
Click on the option that says “Yes” and wait for it to re-install the RLCraft mod pack on the server.
Once it’s done, go back to the server view by clicking on the Server option seen at the list on the left.
Congratulations! You have successfully set up your very own RLCraft server!
There is one last important step that must be done before you are able to use the server, go to server options and make sure the Cracked field is ticked otherwise we wouldn’t be able to play on this server using TLauncher.
P.S:
Aternos might be a free service but running and maintaining servers does cost money.
They fund the server’s needs using the ad revenue generated from the site so if you use any form of Adblocker, I kindly request you to turn it off in order to support their effort.
Part III: Playing with friends
Step 1: Making sure the squad has RLCraft installed
Share this article with your friends and have them follow along with Part I and install RLCraft on their respective computers.
Step 2: Launching the server
Hit the start button on the main Server page to launch your server.
The time it takes to launch a server can vary anywhere from 2–10 minutes based on the amount of traffic Aternos is experiencing at the moment (The first time however will take longer than usual).
Step 3: Connecting to the server
Once the server is up and running click on the “connect” button to get the address of the server for all players to join.
This shows 2 IP Addresses, here’s how they work:
The IP: testplayer01.aternos.me is a static address that won’t change every time you reload the server.
The Dyn IP: bleak.aternos.host:10398 is a dynamic address that changes every time you reload the server.
I recommend sharing the static IP with friends as it is more time efficient.
The dynamic IP will be used in case the static IP method fails for some reason.
To join the server, click on Multiplayer in the Main Menu, this will open up a page where you can add new servers and join them
Click on Add server
Enter any name you like for your server, this will only determine how it is shown in your personal list of servers and won’t affect anything outside your computer.
In the server address bar, enter the static IP that we got earlier and click on ‘Done’
Your Aternos hosted server is now added to your list of servers, all you have to do in order to connect is click on it and press ‘Join server’.
In case the static IP method doesn’t work for you, fear not, simply copy the Dynamic IP and paste it into the Server Address box under the Direct Connect option, and hit ‘Join server’
And there you go, you have now spawned in your very own RLCraft server!
I hope you have an amazing time playing the game with your friends, have fun!
Disclaimer:
TLauncher does not provide an official release of Minecraft, and this article was written under the assumption that the player has already paid for and owns a copy of Minecraft Java edition and only uses a 3rd party software for the provided ease of adding mods.
