There've been many attempts at this (such as OpenEQ). To what I've seen there's (A) too many arguments or disagreements of design (B) lack of interest. It would just take so much time to do so that they get bored of the project (such as OpenEQ again).

I think catching Live periodically would be awesome, but I think that them perfecting the current code will make it much easier in the future to catch Live--- that's something worth waiting for, in my opinion.

The independent EQ client would be great, but it would need to be open source and, here's the kicker, I almost guarantee you'll need to program it in Direct3D and OpenGL. This, in my opinion, would be the hard part. However, once the client was done, it would be better then the one we're currently using since I almost guarantee someone would get the freakin' collision detection working with the boats!

As for me, while I wait for them to get back to Live, I've been working on a little BSP Renderer in OpenGL. It's not difficult stuff, but it's given me a taste of why programming games takes so long. It took me two hours to hunt down a problem that my compiler wasn't catching and that was corrupting several of my pointers necessary to render and load the BSP. In fact, when I finally got it fixed, I had no idea how I fixed it, just that my pointers were suddenly showing values.

All-in-all, I should be thanking the devs on several accounts: for continuing to develop on the project, for catching up to Live periodically, and for not catching up to Live and giving me time to get back into programming.

You guys suck (thank you!). =)

Titanium Verion
 

I think it would be nice that they make a version that works with the unpatched CD install so that everyone that wants to play can play. Chasing EQ patches is a bad idea

As FNW said its hard to maintain live compatability, its also because we used to have over 10 coders on the project which would be able to update, there are only a few if that now.

Twice A Year?
 

Maybe just catching up to live two times a year would be worth it. Like when they release new expansions or whatever... we all know how sony is with their expansions of EQ. So this thought might just be from the lack of sleep... but its just an opinion.

Let me offer some information, as well.

The other thing to consider is that donating money for a specific feature might redirect some of our work in that direction, but it would probably not increase the amount of work being done as a whole. We are putting in the time that we can. So, -IF- (and it's a big if) anything like this materialized, you would be choosing Live Compatibility over increased stability and new (or more complete) features.

This poll ( http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/showthread.php?t=20106 ) does seem to illustrate the choices you'd have to make. It appears most people are choosing a fresh CD install version or just continuing to fix bugs.

I'll not speak for FNW (but I think he feel similarly), my full-time day job would not and could not be replaced by the magnitude of donations being offered here. Plus, I have a wife and three kids.

And we understand that Doodman ... hehe, a full time development for EqEmu wouldn't be a task that I would personally want to take on. We do appreciate all you guys have done so far, and maybe these guys are just looking for a reason to donate?? :p

The only good reason for donate is when devs need funds for project ? :p :p :p