If a query cannot run super-quick, then players will notice when the server stops responding. So your idea would cause that temporary freeze as tables are dropped and rebuilt. My final solution works fine on my system so I will leave it as is.

You should have your server off before adding this package.

Ok, I wasn't sure whether that was something that could be spun off to a thread or not. These tables would only need to be dropped and rebuilt once each time a new merchant (or several) was added though, right? So just once after restarting the server post-add, it wouldn't even need an interactive command. That part was just my overactive imagination at odd, early morning hours after little sleep. :)

Edit: OK, when I go to back up my PEQ server before messing with it (i.e.: installing your solo server files, or just messing with things on my own), I am using HeidiSQL and doing "Export to SQL". Should I tick the Drop (and Create) boxes for databases and tables, so that if I need to restore after I inevitably mess up, it will drop all the tables (and the bad data) and restore it to completely pristine condition, or just the Create boxes?

To slightly digress, I backup my server every time I shut it down. I run a local VM and play single player so I only fire up the VM Linux server when I want to play and then my shutdown routine backs up the database first. So you should always make constant backups of your database.

Now, onto your question. Yes! Backup your stuff first because my queries will change things in your existing tables so you only want to run this entire package once. After you back it up, IMPORT my queries and then fire up your server. Then if you see a witch outside of the town you are in, then it loaded fine. To be more precise, see if they offer quests because that means the database was truly loaded.

Now, the queries that create the extra tables can be ran more than once because the query drops the current one and recreates them. So if you add vendors and items, you can rerun the query and get an updated list of sale items. This normally isn't an issue because most people run a server straight out of the box...meaning they aren't adding things to it because it is quite difficult and the "out of the box" setup has everything you need to play. People generally want their servers to be unique so they add custom content and such. Casual server admins don't really do this.

Now, my queries add extra vendors in the Bazaar...so you could argue that I add custom stuff. But I was quite thorough of combing the database for items before putting them on Bazaar merchants of having them be Witch rewards. It was alot of work. Trust me. I tried to avoid touching items that you can get by killing monsters, as I think those should remain exactly that...items you get from monsters.

I'm totally casual as a server admin.

Right up until I see how I could do something ... interesting.

I'll probably scan through your code a few times before I invoke it, for instance I definitely want to reinstate the PoK books as I want to recreate the feeling of being a wholly new EQ player in the time of RoF, not my experience of having to learn a game in its unfinished state (I played in beta, some time around late 97 or early 98 but that was 20 years ago) with zero documentation.

Do you know of any way to get Sunrise Hills up and running? I can't get to it on my default server.

A follow up from the problem user "Element D" had with the solo server not responding to queries. I am having a similar problem but have traced it to a failure in line "my $connect = plugin::LoadMysql();".

For whatever reason, any of the solo server scripts quietly fail (no logged errors) when it hits this line. Surrounding it with try/catch wasn't able to catch an error either. I can say, though, no lines are executed after this LoadMysql() command is hit (added debug output to validate). This affects not just searching but also "leaving" the tutorial (you get prompted that it will send you to your location and then nothing happens).

I wish I could say that I resolved this issue but I have not. I did find, perhaps, an oddity - using Akkadius "Windows server" script I found a plugins directory in both /quests/ as well as in the main server directory containing what looks like exactly the same files. I removed the plugins from /quests/ per http://wiki.eqemulator.org/p?Perl_Pl...ster_Reference line "Perl plugins are ALWAYS installed to ServerDirectory\plugins\ NOT ServerDirectory\quests\plugins\ and restarted the server but no change in behavior.

Anytime any of the new solo perl scripts its the request for the mysql connection it quietly fails and does not go past this. My setup is a new installation using Akaddius's script. Any ideas folks?

Is perl actually getting installed?

I forgot to run Akkadius' windows install script as admin, which prevented perl from installing at all, thus breaking every perl script. The second time I did it right and everything went smoothly.

The script is being ran up to the point it hits that MySQL call. You hail them, it responds, it binds, just quietly fails at that point.

Since the script is perl I would assume this means perl is running it.

I run mine on Linux. Not sure it is an issue. Just mentioning it.

Also, you can have perl installed all day long...but if you don't have the MySQL plugin installed for Perl, you won't be able to run queries. The reason you can't leave the tutorial is because it does a MySQL query to see where to put you based on your character. It is getting stuck like the other scripts in my package. I never mention this in my readme because I thought it comes default with the package...but maybe I am wrong.

So make sure the DBD::mysql - MySQL driver is installed.

Not sure if I should have created a new thread for this, but is there anything in this package that caps leveling at 70? I can command level (#level) past 70, and still gain xp, but no further leveling naturally. AA leveling is normal.

By "still gain xp" i mean it shows the xp bar increase, but when its full it just resets with no level gained.

Solo Server Package - Review
 

I have been playing this solo server for a while. First, I set it up on a windows 10 pc, and run it using the local login server. The setup was extremely easy. Akka really made it simple, compared to the old way, which used to take a full day to set up... copying the files from the solo_server zip file was no problem, and the sql script itself ran flawlessly. Anyway, on to the game itself...

The GOOD:
The added NPCs work nicely and are a nice addition. The additional quests are definitely welcome, as something new to work on! In zones that used to be train "traps" like blackburrow, befallen, crushbone, you can single pull and fight much easier than before. In all my hours, I have not had a single train. A few adds, yes, but no trains. The gear that you get from the new quests is pretty good for the level, compared to what you used back in the day, the first time through. All in all, this looks promising and will likely provide a bunch of hours of enjoyment.

The Bazaar merchants are a really, really nice addition, btw!

Things I question:

1. I am finding the npc's regen faster than they used to. For instance in blackburrow, they will be back up to around 70% in 12-18 seconds! Not sure if this was intentional, to me that makes it less solo useful...

2. I find the respawn delay to be more of a hindrance than a benefit. EverQuest is a grind. NPCs do not drop what you want every time. Because of this additional delay, it makes quests in the game that depend on rare drops, even more of a pain to do.

3. The shaman in pok would be much more useful if he was more "prolific", as in found in more than PoK. SoW is one of the key spells in Norrath, and with the shaman in 1 place, that puts people dependent on PoK... EDIT: just found the SoW pots in the Bazaar... Oops... ;-)

4. If you set the character to a GM, you will see that the "character_aura" table is missing, and this is with the latest Akka windows install.


Thank you for offering this solo server package! It is a welcome diversion!

1. Maybe compared to live "real" EQ, but the npc regen seems to me pretty accurate for the RoF2 expansion, which is the max client level which will work with EQEmu.

2. Respawns are pretty close to what I remember, having played since 1998 (beta) through VoA.

3. Yeah, with all the potions available the shaman is not really necessary. All of my characters run with at least a stack of every useful one (sow, mana regen, hp regen, haste, etc. as appropriate to their classes).

4. It's possible that your install hit a snag, all of the tables are fine on my solo server but I had to run the install twice to get it completely installed properly. Try running some aura buffs from the console and see if they show up in the auras window and actually work. If they don't you may need to reinstall over top of your existing server.

When you started playing EQ is irrelevant. The conversation here is specifically about this solo server mod with the current PEQ source, used in AKKA's great install scripts. The respawn rates were one of the very specific things this solo pack changed! The respawn rates are very different, especially for zones that used to be common for trains. Some of these very zones btw, are ones with rare spawns that are already a pain. This makes those even take longer with the longer respawn rates. These respawn rates are also very different than the default PEQ database.

Regarding the character_aura table, I found where that table was added back in June this year, so copied the sql and added that table. character_aura is definitely missing from the current peq source. Regarding install problems, nothing was in the log files after the install, and I installed this TWICE, once on a Debian Linux box and again on a windows 10 box. BOTH setups showed these SQL messages after the account.status was set to 250.

There is also another SQL error that shows up when you search in the bazaar. Apparently this year sometime a change was made to items.spellid was changed to items.clickeffect. There appears to be SQL still dependent on that spellid column, specifically when you perform a search in the bazaar.

You could reload all of the database tables from source (excluding character ones), and then take out any respawn change queries I have in my solo server package. Then load my solo server package and you will have the original respawn times but all of my other stuff.

That is exactly what I was looking into. I'm only about half way through the code so far, but I'll find the stuff to comment out soon, I hope... ;-)

Get rid of this part and you will be all set

...or reduce the time.