Current EQemu VS. EQlive
 

I was having a talk with a group of my friends today about EQemu and it being a brilliant community. Also about it not being Live compat after 9/13/05?. As we were talking about it we threw in the topic of donating to the EQemu devs to maybe take a look at the current EQlive and make it playable as of 2/05/06?. I know that I would donate $300+ and also about 4 other of my friends too. We made a bet that we could raise $2000.00 for the project to make it compatable.

Also I believe that people would donate for this cause as well. Although, I dont know if thats possible?. with all the different changes being made to the current EQ1 game. Dont get me wrong though, the donations wouldnt be a form of payment for the work nor motivation . I looked too and didnt see anything in the Forums rules about being agianst donating to further the project. It would also bring some positive things towards the EQemu project as well. Like, more players, with fresh and new ideas?. Maybe some more devs towards the project?. A new server? and further supporting this community and website?

Excellent idea, matter of fact, the rules say

"This is a large community built around supporting the EQ Emulator the Developers spend so much time coding, and the world builders spend so much time populating. We are here for support and advancment of this project not as a place for everyone to flame and bash each other. This forum will be a more professional place and your posts will reflect this."

I would certianly donate $400 for the cause to make it compatible. Thats $2400.00 right there. Though, right now I believe that they are trying to perfect the current version. I dont see why the devs wouldnt want to update it to EQlive and then perfect it to strenghten the community and bring more players. I know this takes time and is not a simple task. Maybe the devs could shed more light on the topic?

Theres lots of problems associated with donating more than whats needed for funds associated with running the project (like vBulletin licensing). Too much drama and scandal seems to me would come out of it. If the emulator right now is imperfect its alright, but if someone were to donate $5 (or even if they don't, but they are aware of the fact that people do donate) for some reason they'll feel like they'll have the right to cuss out the developers if its imperfect in any way or hard to set up.

Im not going to take a stance on this thread right now, just wanted to add information.

I agree with cisyouc that some issues can come up with people's expectations, theres never any garuntees around here, I would also tend to think that donating for specific work may be a bad idea legally. Any such donations would need to be made without being "for live compat".

With that said, catching live one time is not a big deal, we could do it whenever we want... the problem for me is... it never lasts, they just patch again, and we have to redo it all... especially recently, they change all the opcodes and structs every patch.

FNW and the EQEMU TEAM. I got to give credit where credit is due. As a complex online game EQ is to be able to figure out what they did to make it compat. live that takes a lot of credit to you and the rest who are able to do this.

Maybe a compromise would be to say ahead of time "Every 6 months we will catch live", so that it only happens twice a year? Then people will at least know when to come back to the community if they find out about us during a non-compatible period.

I just patched to live a few days ago to play my last few days of live before
my account goes dormant. I have had a stuck cursor problem and advanced lighting feature causes total loss of world rendering. And the ui is totally different and stupid!
I think I will be sticking with our current patch for a long while.

I dont know if its just me, but developing a client for the emu would probably be the best bet, I read in a thread a while back it was an idea that was being tossed around. Once you have a client of your own you can freely distribute and never have to chase live again. Developing a client would be a huge undertaking, but once completed would be well worth it.

-Ahh interesting views. I would have to agree ( not that I would ever do this ) but donating and then feeling some sort of ownership to it and then try using the fact that yea donated agianst the community. I can also see how it would put some stress on the devs. Either way I would donate to further the cause of this grand project.
-Another thing Is that I strongly understand the devs being tied up and not having alot of time to do things. That there are no ETA's and no garuntees.
-Personally I like Mystic414 idea. with the compremise. I know that there is no ETAs but atleast maybe keep it in mind..
-I also see fathernitwit's arguement though about updating. With It constantly being patched, especially now with new and different content being added. -Maybe the devs could update once agian and let everyone know that if they wanna play to no longer patch it. That way things are more current, more content would be available, it would bring a bigger crowd for such things as future devs maybe? and more players for the servers. ( also people currently waiting ). Then people who missed out, would see that it was recently updated ( That updating to live isnt abandonded completely and can check back later), that the devs still update, but not constantly due to issues.
- My last thing is that the reason why I strongly believe in EQemu and stick with it is for that they are good with legal issues. Wouldnt creating a client break rules or laws similiar to that?.

I don't believe to the money's power. But the mystic414 idea is the best i think, if devs catch live each month, eqmu don't many progress. Since devs aren't chase live compatibility, eqemu is better :) Thanks for that. But better compatibility become more people... just keep the two on the balance :)
I and we can think all we want, the last word is for devs ! don't forget about the real workers !

Thats true Belfedia. I give 100% credit to the devs and this community. Their work always amazes me. Personally Im not sure what it takes to cetch EQemu up with livecompat. Im sure if by updating and then donating would help better the project somewhat?. It would also be towards the project rather than a specific goal or making expectations.. Plus It has alot of positive advantages.

Regarding the Donations
 

I tried the whole EQ EMU thing a long time ago, mainly to mess with the spawning and pathing, but i lost my login name and password some time ago, and i stopped playing eq for a bit... i'm back now, and the first thing i decided to do was to make a server with EQ Emu and maybe open it to public, and i was well on my way, when lo and behold... i checked the forums, and saw those big red letters. needless to say i was a bit dissapointed.

I know how much time is put into the updating processes, so i will give it time, but in the meantime, i think donations to help would be much appreciated. I personally wouldnt pressure them into patching this up, i would simply donate to the cause. People are arguing about the legality of donating to further the updating and making the EQ Emu functional again, but i say we should donate to the cause anyways... i would donate even if there was a 90 percent chance of this never functioning again, as long as the team is still making public what they do and such. I would donate because their cause is interesting, and i am astonished by what they do each and every day for us. It wouldn't be too much to donate to the cause and not worry specifically about this, would it? im personally here to learn about their status and development. The server making and such is a public treat, but if they simply worked on it themselves, maybe they could find a way to fix the need to update frequently in the future. until then, i can live with the limitations of eqlive.

I just sort of started writing, sorry to drag a bit there

(first post on my new account woot)

1. Developing a client would not be illegal, as long as none of Sony's names, models, etc were used at all.. which is in effect creating a completely new game, and therefore has nothing to do with EQ...

2. The devs COULD catch up with live right now and yes that would open the doors to several new people... HOWEVER... if they decided to catch up with live every 6 months, 5 months from now, there'd be people complaining that it's been 5 months, etc. Unless they match up to live every single patch, on the night of the patch, then there will ALWAYS be some people left out. FNW and company are doing their best right now to balance the maintaining of a live compatible version with fixing all the bugs that exist in the current version. They chased live for a very long time, and have now entered into a phase during which they hope to fix a lot of the bugs... once the bugs are to a point that they are comfortable, I hope and believe they will start chasing live agian.

i'm a worker and currently changing apartments so money's tight, but i will still donate when i can

id love to come back to eqemu, i keep checking from time to time to see how its going here,
i lost my system a while ago and with it all my eqemu related files, went back to live for a bit but its just not the same as it used to be for me,
when i was here before i ran a server for a while but it was really a way for me
to experiment with the database end of the project and thats where i had my fun
tho the databases came from PEQ i loved playing around making changes and adding to them
if eqemu went current to live twice a year or even once a year i would forsure comeback and also donate what i could towards the project