So what's the deal with zones + player capacity?
 

I'm playing on one of the preferred servers on the pref. server list and im pretty new to the Emulated Everquest server scene, one thing I am noticing is this never ending message of "this zone is unavailable"

100-150 people are maxing zones out much too easily, I know EQ works differently as it has to have a server or a cluster (multiple) server for all the zones, however I am also being told by GMs/Players that its the EQ Emu code that is limiting as well, however im too confused.

Can a developer give me the word on what affects a server? I really enjoyed playing the servers but its becoming a chore to play now, CR's turn into nightmares because zones are down or you can't even log into a character because a zone is down coupled with disconnects and lag outs, I really wanted to advertise this to all my friends I play with a few years ago, but it's turning my less patient friends away from a amazing concept and amazing community, but the community can't grow beyond a few hundred right now because the zones limit a ever-expanding growth.

PS. I'm not attacking the devs or anything like that, I just want to know if there is anything I can do as a player to help alleviate the zone problem, be it with some $$ donated on the side to help a server strengthen itself or if its a core code problem.

What you are experiancing is dynamic zone shutdown/startup delays by trying to go into zones that aren't usually trafficed areas. Dynamic zones automatically shutdown when no one is in them. So, if you are the only person in the zone, you die, and then have to run thru 4 other zones that don't have anyone in them, you will be doing a lot of waiting for zones to load. Dynamic zones allow a Emu server to have "access" to all zones without having to have them all booted up 24/7 so it saves on memory, cpu, and network bandwidth, thus allowing someone to run the Emu server on a fairly weak machine instead of a massive cluster.

If you play on The Grand Creation, they have a command they developed to allow people to go directly to zones they want (as long as it doesn't require a key, flag, or other entry requirement such as Hate). The command is #peqzone (zonename)

Ex: #peqzone nexus

PEQ is one of the few or only servers that actually uses multiple PCs to share the load of the zone servers. It is probably also the highest (at least english speaking) population server in the eqemu community. I am guessing that since you are having issues, it is probably on one of the other servers that tries to run everything from 1 PC or dedicated host. In this case, the hardware of the host and the bandwidth available to it are the most important factors.

I do think that if the zone server code was fixed to allow multiple PCs on the same network to all share the load that many servers could handle considerably more players. Other than that, it seems like 150-200 players is the highest you can get on a single PC and even then I imagine there will be connection issues and lag.

My server currently gets about 125ish on it at peak times and it has been plagued with said issues when it gets that high. I have been working on many tweaks to help it perform better, but it is an ongoing project. Tonight I just moved the server to a new Linux build instead of running the server on Windows. I am hoping that will show some nice improvements, but only time will tell for sure.

I think the main limiting factor for a server is available upload bandwidth. It takes at least 1Mbit upload speed to handle 100 or so. I imagine 2Mbit would be able to handle 200ish and so on. There are still many memory leaks and other issues that will cause a server to have issues if it isn't regularly maintained (daily). This project is always evolving and people are always learning new things, so I would recommend noting your issues on the website devoted to the server you have been having problems on. Maybe they can shed some light on the cause and possible solutions or ways you can help out.