programming question

[juronu]

i loved everquest growing up, and would like to know what programming languages i will have to learn to be able to do what ever i want with the game, inside and out. thats as simple mindedly put i can put it for my sake without going into long stories about my iksar necro,sk and sham.

and i will always be dedicated to this game. once i go buy platinum after i move, hehe

[cavedude]

C++, Perl, and not a language but just as important MySQL.

[juronu]

now if i wanted to try and create my own eqemu for my CDs at home, how would i go about doing that? do they contain all the information needed to make a server on my computer ( i have up to luclin)?


what i want to do is play EQ without the internet eventually, kind of like a single player game. and if i have to learn a lot of programming so be it.

[cavedude]

You need to use the Titanium edition of EverQuest, and then download the server/database from here. The wiki on the front page gives you all of the information you need about downloading and setting up the server.

You don't need to know how to code or work with a database just to play, though it does come in handy.

[juronu]

if i get a subscription to the live EQ, i can collect packet data for every zone just by entering the zone? will it include spawn points, spawn times, npc text, quest information, etc? sorry if im bugging you

[cavedude]

No, our current packet collection/converting methods aren't compatible with live.

[juronu]

once i get titanium i will be hanging around these boards. is getting data from pop possible? i liked the idea of it but didnt like how soe had done. and since i have nothing but time on my hands who knows what will get done once i learn programming.

[bufferofnewbies]

atm, until someone spends some time to repair the collectors, the only way to collect information from live is the good old fashioned 'watch to find the spawn point/ mobs/times in a zone' way.

Easy enough said as done in safe zones, but the rough and tumble zones will pretty much require you to go hunting there for a long long period of time. (Until you are uncomfortably familiar with a zone down to small details). yes, Angelox.. I had you in mind when I said that. :)

Oh and btw.. You really should grab Angelox's dbase. It's very well done (a combo of Cavedude's unending energy and Ang's precise touch) and he updates so often than some times you barely get one in when you have to grab the next one.(ok, not really.. but you get the idea)

[cavedude]

In addition to Angelox, the next step for PEQ is PoP/Loy. I hope to get the entire tier system working as it does on live.

[Angelox]

One thing I would like to keep clear for everyone;
It's not my database! I was just a newbee like anyone else here and wanted to see some additional things done.
My database has all of the PEQ data and Most Cavedudes data (soon will be all too) - I hope everyone understands how much work was done before I started in. I've done a lot, but it's not a fraction of the work these guys have done. So be sure to thank Cavedude and PEQdudes too, they made all this happen.
Credit goes to where it is earned and deserved - and PEQ, EQ have the most of it, when it comes to database.
I don't know if it was posted here already, but theres been some changes made; Cavedude is in charge of the PEQ database - you can see more info on this at
http://www.projecteq.net/
PEQ database is a public database, it is for all of us. The way to get things done on it, is to help out. I already offered Cavedude my help, and if anyone else can, they should go on over to the forum and offer. There are many aspects to that project so many ways to help.

[sylverwolf]

once i get titanium i will be hanging around these boards. is getting data from pop possible? i liked the idea of it but didnt like how soe had done. and since i have nothing but time on my hands who knows what will get done once i learn programming.

I believe data has already been collected from PoP. It's just a matter of time before a database update. Also, no need to learn programming as far as a server goes anyway because that's already been done for us especially with the advent of the #rules system. If you're looking to customize eqemu like most of us, all you really need to know is mysql management and perl scripting.

It's all here :)

http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=CategoryServer

[John Adams]

The only real problem I see with the PoP+ collected zones are the missing triggered spawns, and those zones the collector had no access to (Anguish, PoTimeb, etc).

I hear 2 conflicting tales about the collectors and builders too. One says it's the only way to accurately populate a zone, and another says you can no longer collect/parse packets because of Live patching. Maybe the previous is referring to older collects? Dunno. I wish I did, cuz the thought of manually adding each NPC makes me want to cry.

[sylverwolf]

Yea, some triggered spawns are going to be a pain. I sure don't want to write up the PoWater event. Also, CoD was kinda wierd. Mobs can't be pulled in the conventional way. They had to aggro first.

[Zengez]

cuz the thought of manually adding each NPC makes me want to cry.


Now, this is something I was curious about... I wouldn't mind working on the database to expand it, especially the population, which is why I pushed the merge of cavedude and PEQ's database and tried to help Angelox as much as possible (And he did a great job!) but when I played EQ I just simply didn't go to alot of zones, I soloed in random places here and there and never really explored alot, So I don't know alot about what monsters are where and what they hit for etc etc so I was trying to find a way to process data and manually form the mobs from a list of data, rather than try to remember off the top of my head...

So, am I understanding this correctly, that the packet collectors that no longer work were doing exactly that? And if so, how hard would it be to fix them? I don't know much of anything about C++ beyond real basic stuff, but it may be worth trying to get some people together to fix it so those of us that do database work and not C++ work can load the collectors on live, get some info, then log out and process it as best we can... It'd be hard but at least I could do something other than wish I could remember anything beyond the PoV Fiend Cave where I aggro kited dozens of hours :-P

So, all that to say, Is this what the packet collectors did? And how realistic would it be to get them fixed?

[John Adams]

Yes, the packet collectors grabbed zone content, mobs, etc (the Wiki on collectors shows what it did). The problem (I think) is the builder side. Since SOE changes from patch to patch their encryption or something like that, it makes chasing that a bitch. So, I think if someone would say "yes the collector still works fine, go collect" and we as a community dumped 100gb of collects at the devs feet, they might be inspired to use them. :)

However, this is my best guess, and I could be completely wrong. I don't mind it. Just trying to get someone to tell us what we can do. I'm willing to risk it. I'm at the end of my EQLive life anyway. Might as well go out with a ban! (j/k)