I fixed it.
I reinstalled both the game and the client, same error. I turned off the VPN, suspecting that despite only four programs allowed to use the VPN it may somehow be routing FAF traffic through it. I was right, it was. I was able to load the game and see the unfamiliar, modernised client.

Going to have some games against the AI then get my ranking.

I also got this, windows defender doesn't like it. How do I disable windows defender? It keeps turning itself back on.

@nr2117 For what it's worth, I have a VPN, I only allow certain browsers and bittorrent through it, everything else connects directly to the internet, however I noticed yesterday in the chat client that my nation flag was Mexico, which is not where I am based. Somehow the client is going through the VPN.

New day, restarted computer, decided to create a game with the exact same settings. This time client won't load and I got the following:

[quote]
java.util.concurrent.CompletionException: java.net.BindException: Cannot assign requested address: connect
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture.encodeRelay(CompletableFuture.java:367)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture.completeRelay(CompletableFuture.java:376)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture$UniRelay.tryFire(CompletableFuture.java:1093)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture.postComplete(CompletableFuture.java:506)
at java.base/java.util.concurrent.CompletableFuture.completeExceptionally(CompletableFuture.java:2152)
at com.faforever.client.fa.relay.ice.IceAdapterImpl.lambda$start$8(IceAdapterImpl.java:238)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:832)
Caused by: java.net.BindException: Cannot assign requested address: connect
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.Net.connect0(Native Method)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.Net.connect(Net.java:503)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.Net.connect(Net.java:492)
at java.base/sun.nio.ch.NioSocketImpl.connect(NioSocketImpl.java:588)
at java.base/java.net.SocksSocketImpl.connect(SocksSocketImpl.java:333)
at java.base/java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:648)
at java.base/java.net.Socket.connect(Socket.java:597)
at java.base/java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:520)
at java.base/java.net.Socket.<init>(Socket.java:294)
at com.nbarraille.jjsonrpc.TcpClient.<init>(TcpClient.java:27)
at com.faforever.client.fa.relay.ice.IceAdapterImpl.lambda$start$8(IceAdapterImpl.java:211)
... 1 more
[/quote]

Earlier I was getting issues with java thus I decided to uninstall supcom, deleted the folder and reinstalled.

I reinstalled the game and FAF, now I can launch the FA program, but after I get a custom cursor it's just a black screen. Thinking it might be something to do with never running the game itself I launched the steam client, that sucessfully run. Quit that, went back to FAF, still a black screen.

I noticed when I created a new game I didn't have to create a profile, and it had my existing one. Is there more config files hidden in appdata, users, games, supcom or something? Would that create the issue I'm getting?