Moving NPCs DB Update (look here for updates)

[tcsmyworld]

I've decided to completely re-do the moving npc DB due to alot of problems with the original release.
The new release will be set up completely different , but should be alot smoother and not have the "hopping" effect of the previous version.
I've started on a couple of zones already and they are looking really good.
I'm cleaning up the starting points and adding individual paths for each npc so that they won't get stuck in piles on one waypoint.
I'm hoping to have a release with several zones completed within a week or so.
I'm still away from home but retrieved my PC so I can work on the DB so all can enjoy a smooth running moving npc DB.
I have a test server running , It's the MyWorldEQ npcmov test server.
Feel free to stop in and have a look :)

[tcsmyworld]

We have a new Host for the test server :)
Big Thanks to "Dominatus" for the Awesome Hosting , and a Big Welcome Aboard from the Team!!

I'll try to keep a list of currently done and currently being done zones here.

Done- West Freeport , Northern Felwithe , Southern Felwithe , East Freeport , North Qeynos , Surefall Glade , Halas , Old Sebilis , Karnor's Castle , Blackburrow , South Kaladim , North Kaladim , Qeynos Hill , South Qeynos , Rathe Mountains , Eastern Plains of Karana , Nagafen's Lair , Highpass Hold , Northern Plains of Karana , High Keep , Rivervale , Estate of Unrest , North Freeport


For a little fun , Sleepers Tomb has been populated and has a few "movers" , big thanks to "booa" for sleepers.


Partial- Field of Bone , Crushbone , Greater Faydark , Plane of Nightmare

* I Want to extend a big WELCOME to new Team Members "booa" and "Hooke" , I know Thier efforts will be appreciated by ALL. *

* Another big WELCOME to new member "Krayz". *

* Everyone give a big WELCOME to "memener" , the newest member of the Team. *

* Stop into irc chat and Give a Big Hello to "Kirzan" our irc Channel-Op , Thanks for a Great job on the channel * (irc.eqemulator.net channel #npcmovDB)

In progress Team zones- Western Plains of Karana , Southern Plains of Karana , Gorge of King Xorbb , Oasis of Marr , East Commons , West Commons , Nektulos Forest , Northern Desert of Ro , Southern Desert of Ro , Lesser Faydark , Steamfont Mountains , Neriak Foreign Quarter , Neriak Commons , Neriak 3rd Gate

Release will include a basic Quests folder with working Newbie turn-ins , Soulbinders , Nexus Scions , and Priests of Discord.
Ferry in Halas is functional
ALL 4 Ships working , 2 in OOT , 1 in BB , 1 in East Freeport .

[bpogue99]

Which or who's database are you using as the base for the spawn ID's? I know that Drawde has populated most of luclin and lots of velious now so I suspect in the next release that the spawn ID's may change. I'm not sure why they change, but in each db release I've noticed that they do. So if it's based on Drawde's db we'll need to figure out a way to move the grids and paths to the right spawn ID's (perhaps an X, Y, Z and Zone match search?).

bill

[tcsmyworld]

I'm using drawdes 1.1 final and hoping the ID's don't change again for already populated zones.
Using x.y.z matches won't work because I've changed quite a few of the coords. to fix the starting coords. of alot of the npc's.
If they change again , I guess I'll just start from scratch again :)
Will be worth it to have more expansions , but very time consuming.

[tcsmyworld]

DB is coming along , taking longer than I thought but looking good so far :)
I'm going to go thru each expansion in order, so 1st release will be either a partial or complete DB of the classic , then each release after that will be as I get the next expansion done.

[danipunk]

I want to help, but I dontknow how you do it. I downloaded Openzone 2.2

[tcsmyworld]

I don't use openzone for this work , I'm basically doing all of this ingame with a GM character.
I go into the zone and reset each npc's Z coord and facing direction , then the npc's that are to move are set on thier own grid with waypoints.
The grid type depends on the terrain, if it's flat terrain then I can use random waypoint configuration, if it's hilly terrain then it needs to be set to a circular grid and the waypoints need to be set so as to not elevate the npc before it gets to an uphill grade, otherwise we wind up with floating npc's like in my initial DB release.
It's very time consuming and confusing at times :)

[bpogue99]

Hope things are ok for you tcsmyworld, I know there were some distractions a bit ago, and I know a lot of us anxiously await the next release of both your stuff and Drawde's. I bet Drawde has most of all the zones done by now. Last I read he was up on Luclin cranking out zones there.

bill

[tcsmyworld]

Things going much better now , wifes last surgery is end of August.
They have claasified her as a "cancer surviver" now :)
I too anxiously await Drawdes next release, kinda waiting on that before I can do any expansions work , so can see what changes are done.
Hoping the next Emu release won't affect the DB too much, have several zones looking fairly good now :)
Real time consuming , but should be a blast to play in when it's done :)

[Trumpcard]

Since you are rapidly becoming the premier 'movement' man, how about letting us know what additions/changes/etc we can make to make it easier to create moving mobs?

I'm sure there are some enhancements you'd like to see!

[dcl]

Well, even though you didn't ask me, I figured I'd respond anyway :)

I'd love to see a command added (similar to the #spawnfix command) for adding waypoints. Where you would stand were you want the way point to be and enter the command #addwp xxxx (where xxxx is the gridID) and the command would automatically determine which wp# it would be (ie. there are already 3 wps for grid 10, so the next one is wp 4)

It would just be so much easier to run around and keep hitting a hotkey than it is to have to keep typing #wp add xxxxx y, #wp add xxxxx y+1....


But maybe that's just me :)

[Bigpull]

there is a #wpadd
#wpadd [circular|random|patrol] (pausetime)

[dcl]

There is? Cool, I didn't know that.

Given the format that you posted, how does it get assigned to a specific grid? Also, why would the wp need to know if it's circular|random|patrol... I would think only the entire grid needs that info, not the individual wps.

[tcsmyworld]

Thats how I've been adding them , here's an example of a flat terrain grid and waypoint addition -

#grid add 100 2 2 (creates grid 100 with random waypoint, random pause time)
#wp add 100 45 1 (adds waypoint 1 , with 45 sec. delay to grid 100)
#wp add 100 45 2 (adds waypoint 2 , with 45 sec delay to grid 100)
etc...

you do need to add the waypoints in individually, I use the admin tool and refresh alot to keep track of waypoints and grids :)

Hope this helps a bit.

[tcsmyworld]

If it would auto assign grids and waypoints incrementally it would save time , but if anyone decided to remove a grid it might throw everything out of whack, unless they just emptied the fields and left the grid intact with blank waypoints.

I have noticed that when trying to use patrol , the npc will go to end of grid, and disappear and start at beginning again.
I thought they were supposed to go to end then retrace backwards along grid , that would be much better.
That is why I've been using circular grids instead of patrols for hilly terrain.

[dcl]

Hmmm... that's odd. Patrol has worked for me... the mobs follow the path to the end, then turn around and follow the path in reverse to the beginning. (I've only done one zone so far, however)

[tcsmyworld]

Anyone who would like to help , please contact me thru PM and we'll coordinate the work so that we're not all working on the same zones.
I have a way to pull the info for each zone and re-add it back into the DB, so people could do all the fixes , add grids and waypoints, and then I could pull that info from the DB and add it into the "main" release for moving npc DB.
Would be a quicker way of doing it than just me trying to go from zone to zone , not that I wouldn't :)

[tcsmyworld]

Just thought of one other problem I came across.
Occasionally , not real often , I come across a zone that will only allow 1 or 2 grids to function , the rest just go to 1st waypoint and stop there and don't ever continue ( example East Freeport have ship and several npcs in tavern set on grids , only the bartender moves).
there was 1 or 2 more zones that this happened can't remember which ones at the moment , but I'll check into it and post which ones , seemed very odd since most work very well.

[tcsmyworld]

dcl which exe's are you using?

[dcl]

I'm using one of first 4.4 CVS to include #spawnfix (not sure of the exact one)

The zone I've worked on is Blackburrow. I encountered the problem you mentioned... I made one grid that worked fine. I added a second grid and both mobs would stop at the first way point. However, after I added several other grids, that problem went away, and all mobs move as planned. (although the Razorgils are kind of jerky)

The thing I've been trying to figure out now, is how to get the portal to Jaggedpine working.

[dcl]

The other thing that's odd about the mob stopping at the first wp problem:

When I first got the problem with only 2 grids.... after starting up the emu... the first time I logged into the zone, the 2 mobs moved perfectly. If I killed them and let them respawn, or repoped the zone, or zoned out and came back... then they would only go to the first wp, and nothing I did, short of restarting the emu, would make them go back to moving correctly.

[tcsmyworld]

Just for my curiosity , could you try another version of exe's to see if your zones crash when using #spawnfix?
I compiled 2 more versions , newer than the 6/17 updates and they seem to crash zones when using #spawnfix , just want to know if it's me or the exe's.
You can get them here -

http://forums.eqemu.net/viewtopic.php?t=8962

would appreciate your help with this , the other 2 versions have the AA fixes and random # fixes.

[booa]

tcsmyworld

I to get crashes using #spawnfix . Doesnt matter if the Mob is moving or not . I can use it 5 times in a row no problem . Sometimes I can never use till I reboot the server .

I am at work so please forgive me when I get the dates wrong on the CVS .

One was compiled on or between 6-16 and 6 -17 ( the ones that you say are best for world building ) .

The other is compiled after that .. I think 6-23 .

Also the same results with the offical 4.4 release .

I haved tried this on your beta DB as well as Drawde 1.1 , 1 beta 5 .

All to the same results .

Its not just you :)

[dcl]

Sure, I'll give it a try sometime this week and let you know.

[Bigpull]

There is? Cool, I didn't know that.

Given the format that you posted, how does it get assigned to a specific grid? Also, why would the wp need to know if it's circular|random|patrol... I would think only the entire grid needs that info, not the individual wps.

It uses the grid assigned to the npc you have targeted, i think it'll add the next available if they don't have one set already.

A waypoint is part of a grid, shrug

[cannonalldex]

i actually set up a grid in the eqadmin program to an npc. (not real sure how i did it , cause i couldnt do it again) but i went into the game and the mob was walking from point a to point b back and forth hehe.

[cannonalldex]

in reference to the mobs following waypoints and stopping after the first waypoint with multiple grids. i have setup 6 grids in a zone. i noticed after the third grid that my npcs were stopping at the first point, i then made three more grids. seems to me that all of the 6 npcs are moving, but i think they are moving in a random cycle of one mob at a time. one moves, i go to the next and see it move one or two wp then stops then another is moving a wp or two and stops. not sure if this is a cycle of random movements. just thought i would mention it. seems like the more mobs you place on grids the less each one will move.


has anyone tried using persistant zone state 1, and does this cause a wondering mob to freeze at the point of zone out and hamper the ability for this mob to continue with waypoints?

[tcsmyworld]

Could I get this stickied ??
Please :)

[tcsmyworld]

Another member , work progressing nicely , I'm hoping for another release in the next week with more of what we all like "Movers" :)

I'll also try to remember to add the quests folder in again :)

Website has a few screen shots from 050 test server.
Working on getting the moving DB converted over , stay tuned for further developments on that.

[Botts92280]

I was wondering, you said not to apply this DB over any other databases. So in mysql I just source this file in? Does this database contain items and books ect?

Also what version of eqemu are you useing? 4.4dr1?

basically what it comes down to is this, I have msysql setup but I am getting confused on which eqemu to download because alot of the howtoo have an older version of eqemu in them.

So I so far downloaded you database and binarys and mysql aswell. What other files do I need? The one from the main page?

eqemu I downloaded
http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/eqemu/EQEMu-0.4.4-Win32.zip?download

minilogin I downloaded.

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/eqemu/MiniLogin.exe?download

Or if anyone could make a link of which files I need to download
Are these the files I need? or? Any help would be great.

[tcsmyworld]

The DB is complete , just add account information.
The Binaries and MiniLogin from Our website, along with the DB are all you actually need to set up a local server.
Just create a Mysql DB , source in the .sql file from the D/L , add account info and run it.
Just be sure all your .ini files are correct , should run fine.

[Note: this is for the dec. 2002 client , NOT 050 compatible]