So after much further messing around, I was able to run a 2015-10-29aRagexe, I'd be able to log in and mess around int he game but it was kind of effy and walking around was weird and there are places where I simply couldn't even walk to, like for example I was trying to start the Swordsman quest and I couldn't even walk over the bridge in Izlude, it'd show my cursor as if it was a walkable path, even set my map to show me the way and told me to go there, but my character simply refused to walk there and there's also the fact that there's some features that are only compatible at later PACKETVERs but for the life of me, I cannot get into the game using any of the 2018 Ragexes, it'll either straight up say Disconnected from Server right after putting name/password, or show my server in the listing then crash after selecting it before even making it to Character Selection screen.
So I'm out of ideas of what to try.
I've already done
And https://herc.ws/board/topic/16391-2018-06-2021ragexere-char-select-fix/
Also messed around compatbility mode of windows and chanting the setup.exe settings around since I'm that desperate, try with data folder and a grf etc etc.