Wanting to setup my own server. Have some questions.

[Draugr]

Ok, I have been following this project since the beginning and have tinkered with running my own server for a while. I finally got the server running and allowing me to log in a few months back, but I haven't done anything with it since because I had some issues with gameplay. Note that it had nothing to do with the server code, but with my visions of what I watned to do and not knowing how to do it. Anyohw, I now want to try again and thought that maybe I could enter my questions here and get some answers from the experts. I'm sorry for soo many questions, but I'm a sort of EQ Addict and haven't been online in a year so its been killing me to return.

Questions

1. How complete is the server code now? If I wanted to run a mini server. Lets say Qeynos, Qeynos Catacombs, Qeynos Hills, BB, Surefall Glade, West Karana and North Karana. Will I be able to have my friends log in and play as fighters, rogues and casters with full abilities or is the server not yet 100% completed when it comes to skills and spells for such classes?

2. Has anyone come up with a formula to convert mob stats, and player stats to accomodate a small server? One thing that will be a problem for small servers is the bigger mobs like Dragons and such. On a EQ server with hundreds of people it may be possible to get enough together to slay Lady Vox, but on a server with 6-10 people on at random times, it would be impossible. I'd love to find a way (formula) to create challenging creatures for solo players or small parties of 2 or 3 people. Perhaps a dragon would still require 6 people, but not 30 or more. If anyone has any formulas to convert standard EQ mob stats to stats that can be used in small servers please let me know. One idea I had a long while back, but wouldn't even know where to begin, is to mirror the stats of most monsters to that of their D&D 3rd edition counterparts. Obviously though with the EQ rulebase it would not be ballanced much. :(

3. Ok, again I'm interested in creating custom mob stats and perhaps even custom items. How difficult is it for a new user to create their own spells, items, loot tables, merchant inventories, etc.. I really want to make a watered down version of EQ for my own group of friends. I wouldn't need all the items in EQ for the small amount of people that will be playing on it. Hmmm let me ask this. What if I wa to take the Everquest Pen & Paper rulebook which uses the generic D20 ruleset and perhaps alter the mob stats to mirror that books stats and then create my own items that would mirror the item stats from those pen and paper EQ books. Would this work at making a better ballanced small sized server?

4. I know there is a EQAdmin tool, I guess I'll look into using it. Not sure how simple it is. I don't know SQL besides the basics to get my server up. I have used various editing programs like the ones for the UO emulators and the Neverwinter Nights toolset. Is EQAdmin like those programs? If so how reliable/easy is EQAdmin or the current EQ admin program with regards to building all of the above in #2 and #3?

5. If I want to start a custom server with all of the above, is it better if I just start with a blank database or is there a bare bones database that I will need to use?

6. Finally, what is everyones thoughts on the status of the server. Is it worth putting the time into creating ones own custom world yet, or are there anticipations that future updates might make current work obsolete thus wasting lots of hours building a database? I wouldn't want to spend weeks or months populating my server to find out that its all for nothing as a new version requires a total restart. I know when projects are not final releases there is always the possibility of future versions not being compatible with prior versions. I'd just like to get the thoughts of some of the experts on this question I have.

Well, sorry for the long message. I really hope to get started on this as I can't wait to play EQ again.

Thanks
John

[muhi]

Hi

Well I use drawe's database which is good (look for world1.zip drawes post with update44dr1), the only wierd thing about it is that the NPC's buff you, but that's about it. The faction is there (i.e. slaying gnolls in blackburrow) and qeynos and around that area is certainly working. He also has some add on quests to get the soulbinders and guildmasters working. (see quest section, drawe and water's post).

As for dragon slaying, you can create your own spawns and give it a race/class i.e. dragon, and alter loot in FQAdmin. I have created my own GM items for other gms on the server using Kaiydo item creater.

I don't know what the situation was back when you started a server, but none the less I guess it has moved on quite a bit as the database doesn't seem to be too bad. I think its only some velious zones that doesn't have mobs and POP that don't seem to be working.

From the look of drawe's database, I *think* he tends to add to it, i don't think you have to wipe the databse and start all over again if you modify it, i guess aslong as you stick to the same person. The only thing is when i created my own spawns i set it to a big number incase another add on came out and it overwrote those mob ID's. I guess the same is for items etc, so a bit of forward planning/thinking maybe required if you add stuff, leave a big gap.

Oh and as for some loot, some databases has cobalt, jaundiced, carmine etc for sale on merchants. the prices seem pretty cheap so you may want to make them more expensive. i had some people ask me how could they get trak loot if obviously the server was small and didnt have a raid force. drawe's database that i used (1.1) had this on some merchants, as they soon told me when they found out.

the only thing i have found is that you may have to manually set people the meditate skill as it doesn't save it when they train. if you set it to 252 on a lower lvl character there regen is insane which is something you may or may not want to happen, and at the moment the HP regen is insane on a PC, which i guess is why people are levelling really fast on my server atm. I have implemented an NPC until a new fix comes out that sets the med skill to 1 to get people started. ~(its just not med, it can be some rogue skills too you may have to manually set).

You may have to do some tweaking on the corpses and add a variable in as when I died after lvl 12, and returned to bind point with all my stuff, my corpse had dissapeared hence no rez.

You would have alot of work to do if you were starting from a blank database completely.

[loudent2]

1. How complete is the server code now? If I wanted to run a mini server. Lets say Qeynos, Qeynos Catacombs, Qeynos Hills, BB, Surefall Glade, West Karana and North Karana. Will I be able to have my friends log in and play as fighters, rogues and casters with full abilities or is the server not yet 100% completed when it comes to skills and spells for such classes?

Those areas are pretty complete. You might want to add some mobs to west Karana because there's lots of open space there(In EQlive it is similarly sparse). There are some places like blackburrow where there are multiple mobs spawning at a single point. You might want to edit that also mobs can aggro through walls so when you zone into a place like that you get jumped by like 10 mobs..one of which is the splitpaw commander You might want to edit aggro radius in some places too.

2. Has anyone come up with a formula to convert mob stats, and player stats to accomodate a small server? One thing that will be a problem for small servers is the bigger mobs like Dragons and such. On a EQ server with hundreds of people it may be possible to get enough together to slay Lady Vox, but on a server with 6-10 people on at random times, it would be impossible. I'd love to find a way (formula) to create challenging creatures for solo players or small parties of 2 or 3 people. Perhaps a dragon would still require 6 people, but not 30 or more. If anyone has any formulas to convert standard EQ mob stats to stats that can be used in small servers please let me know. One idea I had a long while back, but wouldn't even know where to begin, is to mirror the stats of most monsters to that of their D&D 3rd edition counterparts. Obviously though with the EQ rulebase it would not be ballanced much. :(

There is no hard and fast formula but all the higher end mobs seem a bit watered down at the moment. You can pretty much create any creature with any graphic available in the zone. If you want to create a level 10 dragon then you can.

3. Ok, again I'm interested in creating custom mob stats and perhaps even custom items. How difficult is it for a new user to create their own spells, items, loot tables, merchant inventories, etc..

Some things, such as items, are relatively easy to make. The hardest parts of this is a) Figuring out how the databases work toegether and b) what the hell all those flags mean. Nothing that an hour looking how things are done can't solve. For instance, making an item is easy but then you have to add it to a loot drop, or add it into it's own loot drop which then gets added to the loot table and loot tables are associated with npcs.

I really want to make a watered down version of EQ for my own group of friends. I wouldn't need all the items in EQ for the small amount of people that will be playing on it. Hmmm let me ask this. What if I wa to take the Everquest Pen & Paper rulebook which uses the generic D20 ruleset and perhaps alter the mob stats to mirror that books stats and then create my own items that would mirror the item stats from those pen and paper EQ books. Would this work at making a better ballanced small sized server?

Probably more work than it's worth. The low level zones of the database are poplulated nicely. The only 2 things that are remotely unbalancing in the database right now are the high level items for sale at many merchants, but considering that there are no PC's selling item most of us like this and thesecond thing is the merchant purchase bug where you only end up paying 1/10-1/5 of the price for an item although this will probably be fixed soon

4. I know there is a EQAdmin tool, I guess I'll look into using it. Not sure how simple it is. I don't know SQL besides the basics to get my server up. I have used various editing programs like the ones for the UO emulators and the Neverwinter Nights toolset. Is EQAdmin like those programs? If so how reliable/easy is EQAdmin or the current EQ admin program with regards to building all of the above in #2 and #3?

If you're expecting a NwN-like editing tool you're in for a big disappointment. The FQAdmin tool is simply a collection of dialogs used to view and edit database entries. For instance let's say you want to create a new mob and have him spawn in a North Qeynos building.

a) You would go to the NPC tab and click add record
b) you would fill out all the entries in the database, some things like race can be pulled down from a drop-down list. But you have to manually type in name, level hps damage mins and maxes as well as selected a spell lists and loot from a drop down list if you have already created such lists in other database entries

b) You would go to the spawn tab and create a new spawn and selected the newly created NPC from a drop down list

c) switch to the other spawn table and select North Qeynos and add the newly created spawn from the spawn table you have to manually add-in the zone coordinates so go to the place you want him to spawn in EQ and type /loc note that the xy are reversed in the loc command so the first number is y and the second is X

And there you go. Not so difficult but nothing like just dragging and dropping.

5. If I want to start a custom server with all of the above, is it better if I just start with a blank database or is there a bare bones database that I will need to use?

Starting with a blank database is a very ambitious thing. I would strongly suggest using Drawdes to start and editing it from there. Deleting some NPC's is a lot easier then adding all the underlying things from scratch

6. Finally, what is everyones thoughts on the status of the server. Is it worth putting the time into creating ones own custom world yet, or are there anticipations that future updates might make current work obsolete thus wasting lots of hours building a database? I wouldn't want to spend weeks or months populating my server to find out that its all for nothing as a new version requires a total restart. I know when projects are not final releases there is always the possibility of future versions not being compatible with prior versions. I'd just like to get the thoughts of some of the experts on this question I have.

Server code change isn't really going to effect you except as to require a database update. That's what's going to kill you. Unless you have some rudimentry knowledge of SQL and how the databases work you're going to lose all your modifications every time you update the database. However, if youi aren't interested in getting the most up-to-date database this might not be a concern for you.

A bigger question is not whether or not you CAN do it so much as SHOULD you do it. What are you going to add that you can't get from existing servers? Some servers out there have really interesting storylines and there's legit, non-legit and semi-legit servers for anyone's tastes.