Starting work on Seeds of Destruction

[trevius]

Ok, well I have decided to attempt to get the SoD expansion compatible with EQEmu. This decision is largely thanks to the discovery by Boo on the PEQ forums that SoD is now available on Steam for $2.50 here (thanks Boo):

http://store.steampowered.com/app/24130/

I purchased it from steam and downloaded it last night and briefly checked a few things to see where we would stand if this was taken on. So far, it is looking like it may definitely be worth the time to try to get this client functional with EQEmu.

Here is a list of some pros and cons:


Cons:
1. The show-stopper right now is that the new clients (including the SoD one from Steam) are unable to log into the Login Server yet. This issue is top priority if we are going to move into expansions past SoF. I will note more info/thoughts on this in the next post.

2. Since the SoD download from Steam is listed as the starter pack, I assume that once the next EQ expansion after Underfoot is released, then Underfoot will replace SoD as the new starter pack. This means that everyone who would want to use SoD from Steam would have to purchase it from Steam before the next expansion comes out toward the end of 2010. After that point, there will likely be no way to legally attain this client version. I think we can cross that road when we get there. Maybe the decision will be to take the next step and work on Underfoot at that point so there will always be a new client available legally for cheap.

3. The current price of $2.50 is marked down from $19.99 currently. I have no idea if they plan to increase the price again, but it is something that should be considered. If purchases increase on Steam, they may decide to up the cost some, so I would recommend that anyone who thinks they might want to try out SoD on EQEmu to buy it sooner rather than later. Even if we are never able to get it working with EQEmu, it is only $2.50, which I think should be within anyone's gaming budget.

4. There may be some unforeseen bugs with the client, but we won't know that until development for it is further along. At this point, I am thinking there is a good chance that it may not only have less bugs than any other client we currently have, but it may even be better than any other client we have currently due to some major fixes that deal with multiple core CPUs and others.


Pros:

1. The price of $2.50 and the fact that this is available via download makes it extremely easy to attain at this point. Anyone should be able to afford it and can get it nearly instantly. That is a hard deal to beat. One suggestion I will make is that anyone who does download it should make sure to make a backup of the complete Everquest folder as soon as the download completes and save it somewhere so they always have a backup if it is ever needed, since the disks won't be readily available like they have been in the past.

2. SoD was publicly released on Oct 21 2008, and here are the patch notes:
http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/ga...ate=10/21/2008
The actual client on Steam is from Dec 21 2008, and I assume the patch notes for that client version is here:
http://eqplayers.station.sony.com/ga...ate=12/23/2008

The reason this is good is because it means that SoD was released and patched for at least 2 months before the version on Steam was put up. This means that chances are good that the client version will be very complete (as apposed to some things missing from SoF due to how the retail releases work), and already have most major client issues worked out. Many nice updates and fixes were added in even between Oct to Dec of 2008, so it may be a very nice client to work with. I also don't see any patches shortly after the Steam version came out that show any client issues being fixed, so the client should be pretty solid.

3. Another huge reason for me to start working on this is because while I was working on SoF, I was using SoD packet collects. This means that I have most of the packet collects that should be needed to make the client as functional as possible. Almost all packet structures in SoF match what they should be in SoD, so work on structures should be pretty limited. Offhand, I think only the Player Profile, New Spawn and Position Update packet structs will need to be adjusted. To get the needed changes for those structs, I should be able to reference what the ShowEQ project was using at that time. So, structures should take very little time to work out for SoD. That leaves only opcodes to do, and I believe that have all of them as well and should be able to get every single opcode for SoD in order in very little time/work. So, the amount of work to get SoD working with EQEmu should be pretty small for pretty-much full functionality. I won't know for sure until it can get past the Login Server, though. But, once the LS is working for SoD, I wouldn't be surprised if we could have people playing on the SoD client within 1 week!

4. Of course the new content is always a good thing. There are 20 new zones, 40 new races, and I am sure some nice new weapon models and such as well. There are also some new features like Mercenaries, which we should be able to use Bots in their place and work on using the new control features built into the client for Mercs. Another cool feature is the voice chat that was added, but I don't see that being added to EQEmu as it would require a voice server to be built from scratch most likely and I don't think that would be an easy task at all.


Summary:

I think it is pretty clear that the benefits of starting work on SoD out-weigh not doing it at this point. The main hang-up at this time is the Login Server, and that is a huge hang-up, but it may not be too bad to get it functional with SoD.