Starting City

[John Adams]

My turn to ask a noob question that I cannot find the answer to. I see a table for starting cities for race, class, diety. However, most times when I create a new toon they end up in Qeynos. Here's a capture of the world log upon creating my DE Wizard.


[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Name approval request. Name=DEChar, race=Dark Elf, class=Wizard
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT_TRACE] Account1: Sending EQApplicationPacket OpCode 0x0105
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT_TRACE] Account1: Recevied EQApplicationPacket
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Character creation request from Account1 LS###### (192.168.1.100:2841) :
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Name: DEChar
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Race: 6 Class: 12 Gender: 0 Deity: 213 Start zone: 5
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: STR STA AGI DEX WIS INT CHA Total
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: 60 80 90 75 83 134 60 582
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Face: 5 Eye colors: 2 2
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Hairstyle: 1 Haircolor: 12
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Beard: 255 Beardcolor: 255
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Validating char creation info...
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Found 0 errors in character creation request
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Found 'startzone' variable setting:
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT_ERR] Account1: Error getting zone id for ''
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Current location: qeynos -1.00, -1.00, -1.00
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Bind location: qeynos -1.00, -1.00, -1.00
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT] Account1: Character creation successful: DEChar
[Debug] [WORLD__CLIENT_TRACE] Account1: Sending EQApplicationPacket OpCode 0x0100

Question: Any idea why "Start Zone: 5" would be Highpass Hold?
And why the world client Error getting zone id for ''?

This is standard PEQ database, the Cavedude database and Angelox full database (no mods). Latest binaries. Windows Public server. It also happens with an Iksar, Ogre, Troll, Froglok, and... I stopped testing there.

Any input would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.


Edit: On second glance, a race I know was working before (Vah Shir) is now dropping new ones in Qeynos, too. So it's likely I do have something screwed up. I'll post a followup whenever I sort it out.

[John Adams]

Well ok... I take back what I said about Cavedude's database. :) I hadn't used it in a while. Just reloaded it, created an Ogre on an account that had a status of 0, and he went straight to Oggok.

So I don't know wth is going on. Sigh.

[Angelox]

Thanks for pointing this out to me - I would have never noticed, since I always restore my old characters, and never start new ones.
I already fixed it, tell me if it works.

edit add-
I noticed something; when you start a new character on "restored character" tables, there's conflicts on the inventory tables.
All works fine under normal conditions though (with no restored tables).

[Aramid]

I noticed something; when you start a new character on "restored character" tables, there's conflicts on the inventory tables.
All works fine under normal conditions though (with no restored tables).

Just a thought ...

Could this be related to the problem where someone's character is losing inventory items for no reason?

I don't recall any zone problems when creating a new character, but I have had a problem where when I zoned, my inventory items would dissappear and there would be errors in the log about wrong slots etc. don't recall the exact text and I erased the logs, but I deleted the character and recreated it and the problem went away. The last time this happened, was after I had dumped my tables for accounts, characters, inventory, character_backups, faction list and whatever may have pertained to a character, and sourced them into Angelox's DB. (BTW, Thx Angelox ..) I should be well past any left over links now though.

[John Adams]

edit add-
I noticed something; when you start a new character on "restored character" tables, there's conflicts on the inventory tables.
All works fine under normal conditions though (with no restored tables).
Doh, I was sure after last night it was something I was doing wrong.

Can you expand a little on what you think is wrong with restoring characters into a new database? I am not sure where the conflicts with Inventory tables would be - since all items and slots have the same IDs across all these databases (pretty sure).

My biggest concern was that new toons were not finding their home city. I'll grab your newest DB and source it in, and let you know. Thanks for fixing it.

[Angelox]

Doh, I was sure after last night it was something I was doing wrong.

Can you expand a little on what you think is wrong with restoring characters into a new database? I am not sure where the conflicts with Inventory tables would be - since all items and slots have the same IDs across all these databases (pretty sure).

My biggest concern was that new toons were not finding their home city. I'll grab your newest DB and source it in, and let you know. Thanks for fixing it.

There's nothing wrong with restoring characters to a new database - what I saw in the log was, a conflict with inventory tables while adding another new character to the database. But if no one had this problem, then it might just be me only.

[Angelox]

Actually, it would be a good idea to have everyone start in the same city - I think this is why SOE started with the "Mines of Gloomingdeep" where everyone starts out.
when players started to drop from the servers, they "bundled" them up into one zone, so the few players that were left, would find people to play with.
In our case, even a server with 40 players, is not much and they can get lost on all the towns - why not start them all in the same town, maybe cycle the starting town every so often.

[Angelox]

Just a thought ...

Could this be related to the problem where someone's character is losing inventory items for no reason?

I don't recall any zone problems when creating a new character, but I have had a problem where when I zoned, my inventory items would dissappear and there would be errors in the log about wrong slots etc. don't recall the exact text and I erased the logs, but I deleted the character and recreated it and the problem went away. The last time this happened, was after I had dumped my tables for accounts, characters, inventory, character_backups, faction list and whatever may have pertained to a character, and sourced them into Angelox's DB. (BTW, Thx Angelox ..) I should be well past any left over links now though.

It could be, This idea to restore our characters to different database is new, so anything 's possible.
I noticed that even if data that belongs to the given character is there with the proper id, but the rows are not in the same order as from the original db , then the emu won't see it, and you'll see "it's not there" error.

[John Adams]

Actually, it would be a good idea to have everyone start in the same city - I think this is why SOE started with the "Mines of Gloomingdeep" where everyone starts out.
when players started to drop from the servers, they "bundled" them up into one zone, so the few players that were left, would find people to play with.
In our case, even a server with 40 players, is not much and they can get lost on all the towns - why not start them all in the same town, maybe cycle the starting town every so often.
Naw, not buying that logic heh. Because any new player to EQ Live can skip the tutorial. Once you are done with the tutorial anyway, you are jettisoned out to your starting city anyway. Well, on Progression server it went this way anyway - but they didn't have a tutorial regardless.

Secondly, if I am an evil race and get plopped into Qeynos, I will have a great adventure starting out being slaughtered by goodly guards as I try to escape to find my "friends". :)