Where can I buy the Underfoot Client now?

[Kusig]

I am looking for a place to legally obtain a copy of the Underfoot Client to use with EQEmu. If anyone has a location as to where to get it now that Steam is no longer offering it that would be awesome. Would be even better if there was also a place to download the missing files also. Please send me a PM if anyone can help.

[rhyotte]

Have you checked Amazon?

[chrsschb]

Originally Posted by rhyotte

Have you checked Amazon?

Have YOU?

...

[rhyotte]

it has been a while...hey i bought mine from STEAM...

I have legit Seeds and UF

But if you look up amazon they have some eq stuff.. was not interested enough to really look hard at what it was. Ive been told UF was there for a good while.

[trevius]

Only the Steam version of UF is valid. Any other vendor such as Amazon will have a different client version and it will not be compatible with EQEmu. The only legally attainable clients at this point are Titanium and SoF and both are not very common to find and have their own limitations. The only way to get the SoD or UF client currently is via illegal means (which cannot be discussed on these forums). The only other option is to wait for a new client to become available, but chances seem fairly low that it will ever happen at this point.

[kaos00723]

EQemu is slowly dieing because of this and several other factors in my opinion.

For one, nobody can get a client that works anymore without torrenting it.

Database updates are also far and few in between. What is there, 1 db update per year lately?

No one has ever come out with a CMS to integrate the server to a website.

GoD isn't even complete yet, the db is nearly 10 YEARS behind live now.

Altogether, there is what, maybe 2k people playing on all servers combined at peak hours. 75% of them are probably the same person boxing multiple characters anyways.

I see the end coming soon. There simply isn't enough interest by the community to develop this thing anymore. What is there, 2 or 3 active devs left working on the source?

[trevius]

Originally Posted by kaos00723

EQemu is slowly dieing because of this and several other factors in my opinion.

For one, nobody can get a client that works anymore without torrenting it.

This is a fairly valid complaint right now. Though, Titanium and SoF are still available via legal means, but not always very easy to find available.

However, I am pretty sure that 80% or so of the people playing EQEmu over the years got their clients illegally, including Titanium. We do not condone or support illegal clients on this site, but that doesn't mean we are blind to the fact that people do get them.

Hopefully at some point we will be able to come up with a solution to the lack of a legal and fairly current client.

Originally Posted by kaos00723

Database updates are also far and few in between. What is there, 1 db update per year lately?

This is only relevant to the PEQ website, team and server. Even though the PEQ DB is the primary DB used by EQEmu, we are not really directly affiliated. Of course, we are all very thankful to the work done by the PEQ team and the fact that they are willing to share their hard work for the better of the community.

The majority of the population resides on a few specific servers. PEQ is one of those servers, but most of the rest do not rely on PEQ updates. The custom servers like EZ and THF doesn't do PEQ updates. Project 99 runs on its own DB and doesn't do PEQ updates either. This leaves a few smaller servers that rely on new content from PEQ to help maintain their server population. As far as big servers go, I think PEQ is the main one that relies up PEQ updates, and they get theirs on a steady basis, as they aren't limited to when they do releases for the public.

Originally Posted by kaos00723

No one has ever come out with a CMS to integrate the server to a website.

I am not really sure what you are referring to here. Plenty of servers have added modules to their CMS to integrate server stuff into their site (server uptime, player counts, player lists). People have also made tools such as the Magelo and Alla Clones that help integrate servers into websites. Maybe you have an example of another game that does exactly what you are referring to.

Originally Posted by kaos00723

GoD isn't even complete yet, the db is nearly 10 YEARS behind live now.

Again, this is a PEQ specific point. It is only relevant to a handful of servers. Though, new servers heavily benefit from the newer content even if they plan to customize it. Still, for the most part it is PEQ that is effected by how fast content is added to their database. Maybe EQTitan as well, but they somewhat maintain their own DB now as well since PEQ isn't releasing updates as often.

Originally Posted by kaos00723

Altogether, there is what, maybe 2k people playing on all servers combined at peak hours. 75% of them are probably the same person boxing multiple characters anyways.

I think 2k people at peak is a decent number. It is better than what EQEmu had 4+ years ago. Numbers may not be quite as high as they were a year or 2 ago, but they aren't that far off. A number of new games have taken a toll on the EQEmu player base such as Diablo 3 and SWTOR, but both of those are dying off quickly and I think we will see a rise in players this fall. We normally go in cycles where player numbers drop a lot over the summer and then pick back up through the school year.

Keep in mind that 2k at peak doesn't mean we only have 2k active players. I think it is safe to bet that there are 5 times the active players as what can be seen at any given time. People don't play 24X7 normally, and a lot are only on for a few hours at a time throughout the day. So, we probably have closer to 10k active players, which is really decent IMO.

Also, your numbers of 75% being botters is probably pretty far off. Yes, a few servers are probably heavily inflated with botters, but keep in mind that P99 should be a 1 for 1 server and they are by far the highest population on EQEmu. It is probably 40% or less botters and AFK characters overall.

Originally Posted by kaos00723

I see the end coming soon. There simply isn't enough interest by the community to develop this thing anymore. What is there, 2 or 3 active devs left working on the source?

Times in EQEmu have been far worse in the past than they are now and it is still going strong many years later. I remember when I first started running my server, KLS was the only active dev that had access to change the source. We have come a far way since then with the addition of the SVN which opens up source updates to many other people to help with.

Yeah, development these past months has been a bit slower, but most of the regular devs are still around lurking and making the occasional update. Everyone has their own reason for not being quite as active. And we always have new people who are willing to start helping with updates (such as Kayen's recent major updates).

Either way, I don't see EQEmu dying any time soon. As long as a few people in the community are motivated to keep new stuff going into the source and new servers and content, the players will keep coming back. We all love EQ and this project has one of the cooler communities that I have found on the internet (even if a few here are jerks).

[Kusig]

Shouldn't the rules for obtaining clients be relooked at since the game has gone free to play and the current client is free to anyone? The fact that the older clients EQEmu uses are no longer available by any means should add to the need for a revision. I would gladly fork over $$$ to get a working client that I didn't have try and download from some random guys torrent site or "illegally". The idea of it being an illegal download seems silly to me. It's like calling downloading a free trial stealing.

[lerxst2112]

What you personally choose to do is your business. There's no need to discuss it here.

[rhyotte]

Personally I have HUGE hopes for the *maybe* up and coming linux client You just do not know how quickly I would ditch windows for a solid linux client and linux server. The only current fly in that ointment is most of the Current Tools are windows only. Trev and Akka...?... I think are working on a browser based tool that I am drooling over. All in all, I see the possibility for good times ahead. I have been tinkering with a personal server, trying to teach myself, for a while now and it is a lot of fun. This community, including Kayen and Trevius, is a great place to spend time!

Have a good one!
Gary

[kaos00723]

Originally Posted by trevius

This is a fairly valid complaint right now. Though, Titanium and SoF are still available via legal means, but not always very easy to find available.

However, I am pretty sure that 80% or so of the people playing EQEmu over the years got their clients illegally, including Titanium. We do not condone or support illegal clients on this site, but that doesn't mean we are blind to the fact that people do get them.

Hopefully at some point we will be able to come up with a solution to the lack of a legal and fairly current client.



This is only relevant to the PEQ website, team and server. Even though the PEQ DB is the primary DB used by EQEmu, we are not really directly affiliated. Of course, we are all very thankful to the work done by the PEQ team and the fact that they are willing to share their hard work for the better of the community.

The majority of the population resides on a few specific servers. PEQ is one of those servers, but most of the rest do not rely on PEQ updates. The custom servers like EZ and THF doesn't do PEQ updates. Project 99 runs on its own DB and doesn't do PEQ updates either. This leaves a few smaller servers that rely on new content from PEQ to help maintain their server population. As far as big servers go, I think PEQ is the main one that relies up PEQ updates, and they get theirs on a steady basis, as they aren't limited to when they do releases for the public.



I am not really sure what you are referring to here. Plenty of servers have added modules to their CMS to integrate server stuff into their site (server uptime, player counts, player lists). People have also made tools such as the Magelo and Alla Clones that help integrate servers into websites. Maybe you have an example of another game that does exactly what you are referring to.



Again, this is a PEQ specific point. It is only relevant to a handful of servers. Though, new servers heavily benefit from the newer content even if they plan to customize it. Still, for the most part it is PEQ that is effected by how fast content is added to their database. Maybe EQTitan as well, but they somewhat maintain their own DB now as well since PEQ isn't releasing updates as often.



I think 2k people at peak is a decent number. It is better than what EQEmu had 4+ years ago. Numbers may not be quite as high as they were a year or 2 ago, but they aren't that far off. A number of new games have taken a toll on the EQEmu player base such as Diablo 3 and SWTOR, but both of those are dying off quickly and I think we will see a rise in players this fall. We normally go in cycles where player numbers drop a lot over the summer and then pick back up through the school year.

Keep in mind that 2k at peak doesn't mean we only have 2k active players. I think it is safe to bet that there are 5 times the active players as what can be seen at any given time. People don't play 24X7 normally, and a lot are only on for a few hours at a time throughout the day. So, we probably have closer to 10k active players, which is really decent IMO.

Also, your numbers of 75% being botters is probably pretty far off. Yes, a few servers are probably heavily inflated with botters, but keep in mind that P99 should be a 1 for 1 server and they are by far the highest population on EQEmu. It is probably 40% or less botters and AFK characters overall.



Times in EQEmu have been far worse in the past than they are now and it is still going strong many years later. I remember when I first started running my server, KLS was the only active dev that had access to change the source. We have come a far way since then with the addition of the SVN which opens up source updates to many other people to help with.

Yeah, development these past months has been a bit slower, but most of the regular devs are still around lurking and making the occasional update. Everyone has their own reason for not being quite as active. And we always have new people who are willing to start helping with updates (such as Kayen's recent major updates).

Either way, I don't see EQEmu dying any time soon. As long as a few people in the community are motivated to keep new stuff going into the source and new servers and content, the players will keep coming back. We all love EQ and this project has one of the cooler communities that I have found on the internet (even if a few here are jerks).

I hear what your saying Trevius but things simply don't look good right now no matter how you slice it.

You say the PEQ db has no affiliation with EQemu but in reality this is the only db anyone can use for EQemu if they want their server to work. Someone needs to take this thing over and put out updates weekly. PEQ is not doing their job and they are sinking EQemu fast because of it.

Simply look at the WoW emulator projects and DB's. These things get updated 5-20 times per day. The sources for TrinityCore, Arcemu, Skyfire, etc... get updated constantly on a daily basis and they make huge progress almost every day.

You want examples of a real CMS for a server? Take a look at WoW once again... There are a dozen CMS's created specifically for those servers and updated constantly. Sure you can get a Joomla, phpbb, ipb, or vb CMS and add these EQemu php scripts into them but in the end it's just that, addons that aren't secure whatsoever.

It's probably not fair to compare EQ to WoW but still.

Everyone here uses the same exact who's online script, alla clone, magelo, and peqphpeditor. It's quite sad that after all these years no one has made a complete solution for EQemu servers. Everything is a separate script. People don't want that, they want something that does everything in one single CMS script.

Also, you say that the "big" servers do their own db work which negates the need for PEQ. It's complete BS. No wonder no new server can come close to the "big" guns. You think every person that runs this emulator is an expert at SQL, packet sniffing, and C+? Without the PEQ db there would be about 5 servers left. The reality is EQemu is nearly 10 years behind live because the lack of database support. Someone that understands this stuff and is truly interested in keeping the emulator alive needs to step forward and start releasing serious db updates, like up to HoT at the minimum.

Listen, I love Everquest and I think EQemu and the community is amazing but something needs to change soon. If I knew aything about databases, programming, and php I would be doing something about it but I don't. I'm a server and website admin and that's what I'm good at.

This is what it all comes down to.... Right now it is just an extremely unfriendly experience for new server owners that have to rely on what's available right now. How does a new server with a 10 year old database and random website scripts compete? No matter how good of an admin and GM you are, you're going to fail. And I'm sorry to say, if you don't have 50+ people online 24/7 then you are failing. I'd put that number at 1000+ if this was 2001 but it's 2012 so not many people care about EQ to begin with anymore.

I'm just frustrated that one of my favorite games and emulators of all time falls so short when it comes to functionality after all these years. This project should be light years ahead of other MMO emulators but it's not even close. :(

This should be in a new thread...

[Caryatis2]

What is stopping you from doing what you said?

If I knew aything about databases, programming, and php I would be doing something about it but I don't.

99% of people are just like you. People who are not too stupid to learn but don't and then bitch that there is no progress.

You seem very uninformed. Its not a huge effort to build a custom server, solo people can do very well in a month.

The sources for TrinityCore, Arcemu, Skyfire, etc... get updated constantly on a daily basis and they make huge progress almost every day.

Statements like that show how out of touch you are. "Huge progress everyday" tells me you don't know what huge progress is. Not to mention you can't compare a game that had over 12 million players at its peak to a game that had less than 500k. That tiny fraction of people who actually do the work leads to a much larger number of people.

[cavedude]

This needs to be split to another thread, but anyway...

The lack of PEQ updates is my fault alone. Every time I go to do a proper update, something in my life comes up and stops me from doing so. I don't like releasing crap, so when I do a db update, I go over everything so that the upgrade process is as painless for everybody as possible. But, I guess it's time to start doing half assed updates and let everybody figure things out for themselves. Certainly, it would save me time and allow for no excuse for consistent updates.

As for being way behind, that bothers me too, but here is the cold hard truth... It takes a LOT of time AND skill to properly recreate the world, and the biggest problem is a severe lack of data. EQ never had the population WoW has, so we don't have all the data available to us that the WoW emulators do. Packet collects account for less than 5% of the zones' make up. Each zone is riddled with events, quests, and other happenings that you cannot get from collects alone. We can't just pull this data from our asses.

Then there is the fact that at any given time, PEQ has no more than 5 active people working and most times that number is actually much lower. People come and go, come back, go away again, etc. We all have full time jobs and lives, and EQEmu is a part time hobby... for fun. Everything we do is voluntarily released open source, I can't believe people actually would demand more from us than that.

Nobody is stopping anybody from attempting to better the project here. We are open source. But, the people that have the skills to contribute and do are the minority, most people around here either don't have the ability to contribute (and refuse to learn), or only develop for the sake of their own servers and don't share with the public. Anybody in those last two groups have absolutely no right to complain, imho.

[rhyotte]

Cavedude,

I have recently returned myself. I decided to make a server to learn. It is a lot of work, but fun learning. I really like this community. There are a lot of helpful people. I also really appreciate the PEQ db! Stuff that is in...is in good shape.

Thank all of you who work on this EMU!
Gary

[Lillu]

This is eqemu. Players come here to relive the EQ nostalgia, the way EQ was BACK in the day or to experience custom EQ, something they never did before.
99% of our community care less about the new super features of EQ live (Hero Forge and the rest of the WoW wannabe features) so why on earth would anyone get worried about how far the PEQ db is compared to live.

There's one valid point in the whole complain and that is the lack of client availability, the rest are trolling, a semi-good one, but when I read about EQemu comparison to WoW I should have stopped reading.

Nevertheless, I'm glad to see many of the eqemu veterans are still around, nice posts, even Caryatis speak the truth this time.