Question Regarding What's Possible
 

I was looking into starting my own server and was interested in some heavy customization (if it's possible.) As I know nothing at all about the process, I was curious: are you able to heavily edit zones? For instance, can you literally take out buildings in a zone, or is that not possible?

If above is possible, can you also add in things such as a huge hole in the ground?

For the most part, not on server-side. What you're looking at for graphics is in the client files. Customizing those will need
some advanced utilities and the knowledge to use them. Some things like doors and objects, can be altered in the DB, but
the main zone graphics are in the client. So if you want to "dig a big hole", You will need a shovel full of knowledge. You
might be able to weasel some tips from some of the customized server owners kicking around.

It is possible, with a good deal of work. There are some programs floating around on the forums that let you convert the zone files to .obj files you can work on with something like Blender. You then convert them back and load them up. As The_Beast said above though, any zone file changes are client based; meaning you need to distribute those files to your players or they will not see the changes.

The client itself is also hardcoded to load specific zone names, so if you want a completely custom zone you need to replace one of the existing zones that you do not want to use. Not really a huge issue as there are so many, just something to be aware of.

Here is a video I made of me running around in a map from Ultima Underworld which I imported. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0r6s6x6hVL0&t

Also, provided you are familiar with the code base you can certainly do some heavy heavy modifications. There are other videos on my channel showing me trading with NPC's (not just buying and selling, but actually comparing and trading items) and testing out a required stat system (ie, you require 100 STR to wield this axe kind of thing). Provided you can work out how to deal with the limitations of the client itself, you can do pretty much whatever you want.

That is insane! Wow! How complicated it is it to code a requirement of a stat to wear an item? I had a similar idea but no clue where to start.

Also that would be a change that would effect all players or would they need to download X and X file to get it working properly ?

That would probably work out much nicer if someone implemented evolving items (base item has no race/class, can't equip, if you have the stats it evolves into something you can equip :P)

But not knowing enough about evolving items, I'm not sure if that would be doable, you might have to actually have them equipped first ...

Well that question really boils down to how familiar you are with C++ and the eqemu code. I spent a lot of time mucking about doing custom changes in the past so I knew the layout pretty well. I never got around to finishing it, but it was relatively straight forward. The only things I had left to finish was updating the cursor image correctly when an item was not able to be equipped (can be seen in video) and then having some way of checking each slot after each item change (ie, if you remove something that gives +15 STR you need to re-check each item to make sure it is still equippable).

As for that change itself, its completely server side so no need to distribute files for that particular feature. The way I did it did need to change the database schema slightly though, as I needed 2 new fields in the items table for required stat and required stat amount.

I don't know anything about the evolving items either as it was after my time on live, so not sure how they would work out. I basically just hacked and slashed at the code to see if it was even possible, which it is :)

As to an easier/nicer way than the way I did it, most likely as I am only self taught. I certainly am no C professional. I would probably have ended up scrapping all the changes I did and re-doing it neatly as I figured out better ways to handle things anyway.