Future of EQ2 Emulator

[John Adams]

All,

Working on the EQ2Emulator Project has been an amazing journey the last 3 years. When LethalEncounter started EQ2Emulator back in 2005, I don't think even he predicted how far along it would come in such a short time. Everquest II (Live) is an enormous game that took dozens of people years to build. Seeing how much effort goes into designing content, making quests and adventures that are fun for all - we have come to respect the efforts made by SOE and appreciate what an amazing game they have put together.

Our small team has done an amazing job getting this emulator to where it is today, with the herculean efforts of LethalEncounter and Scatman, for the tireless C++ code and content you have enjoyed on our test servers.

The EQ2Emulator Project has always had once Achilles Heel, however... Our team has always been so small, we could never stay current with the SOE machine, with their re-designs, content changes, and expansion packs. We started out (officially) during Rise of Kunark, and have been running to "catch up" ever since. What we have always needed are more C++ developers willing to contribute to the coding effort. We need Content Designers willing to setup our zones, build LUA scripts and data in our database to emulate Live. We need people active in the community, helping others get setup, and writing Wiki pages/documentation so new community members do not have to ask the same questions over and over. The one area we've been very fortunate in is Testers. Our community of players have done an outstanding job of reporting issues and helping us find bugs. For that, we are eternally grateful.


Soon, we will be releasing our last Alpha 0.7.0 version, which provides support for ROK/TSO clients ONLY (will not support Sentinel's Fate client) and our current Content data and scripts.

After this release, the official project will cease any further development efforts going forward. We have come to a point where we realize we cannot continue without help any longer. Consider this our last cry for help. We've done our part, now it's time the Community steps up and gets involved. If we still receive no interest, we'll be forced to shut down our project here. When we do, all public code/tools will be released and available to anyone else to pick up the project and make it their own.


It is with a heavy heart that I make this announcement, and I hold high hopes our Community will come together and offer to help us out. Hopefully this project will not slip into obscurity, when all we're asking for is a helping hand.

Please let us know if you're interested in helping with C++ development - our deadline is Jun 1st, 2010.

[stevetcollins]

I do not want to see this project go to waste. We need the support of the people from EQEmu.org. We need this community to be active. I have tried my best but with limited knowledge of C++ / Lua my help is testing and database related.

So many projects go to waste because people rather not help and just assume for them to be completed. What they do not realize is that projects like this can not simply thrive of three people with out any, if at all help.

I would personally hate to see this project shutdown. I would love to help out, but the best I can do is database related. And be a tester.

[Astal]

well that sucks, i completely understand where you guys are coming from. Its really sad other devs arent willing to help esp guys from EQ 1. Eq 1 emu is basically fully working. It really doesnt need to progress any more to be fun. Personally id like to see an all stop on eq 1 and have them move to eq 2 but i really doubt it will happen. We need to find someone who hit the powerball and likes EQ 2 to hire like 10 devs to move it forward lol.


If i knew enough C++ to help i would work on it constantly since i cant work at this point in my life, sadly i dont and ive tried to learn its just tooo advanced for me. Sorry guys

[Kerbox]

I have been following this project for a long time and also would hate to see all the hard work go to waste. I totally understand the situation though and know that it's hard to keep up with so few C++ Developers. I think there are quite a few of us who would like to help but don't have the skills necessary to do so. All I can do is hope that someone with coding knowledge steps up to lend a hand.

[bolly]

I think most people have a keen eye on this project for some time but are waiting for the community to increase before they commit to it. The problem is it needs community to build up community. For example players are not going to play on a server alone and will probably go elswhere after logging into tess to find only a player or two on it (if that). Unfortunately some of those players will no doubt include some C++ developers who may not stick around on the servers/forums long enough to want to commit themselves.

To me the best thing to focus on would be to get more players playing on the servers and keeping them playing on it. Talk to the players on Tess and see what would keep them around. Work with the other server admins and see what is preventing them from keeping players. If you can get to the point where you'd have something similar to a PEQ or eqemu green server where that are actively around 80-150 players regularly then your community will build and one in say 80 of those may end up being a developer, script writer, content developer etc.

Either way I hope it works out, I certainly want to revive parallax at some point when I can arrange hosting. (Which may be another reason there are fewer servers around)

I'd also like to say how wonderful the dev team is and how this project has hit the nail on the head with community server support. Big thanks would obviously go to to john, scat and LE and that side of the service is certainly exceptional, the problem must be elsewhere (and i think that may be content or complexity (spell writing etc).

A very easy always up to date server pack, that gets you running in 5 minutes, right in your face when you read the welcome message might not go amiss (but it would have to be so easy to use that my granddad could do it.

Finally I just want to add that IRC really is dead in comparison to EQEmu and that may be something that would help keep people, particularly for newer server devs. There is no link at the top of the site and a web mibbit chat window or anything like that and it wouldn't do any harm if it was added and the devs hung around in there.

[bolly]

Just to add

* Server Hiroshi - 1 player online, could not connect
Logged back in and made a new char
* Server Cookies - 0 players online, could not connect
Logged back in - Trying login server #1...
Closed client
* Server Banshee Realm - 0 Players online - Zone rejected entry request because it failed to fetch character from DB
Logged back in, made a new char
* Server TessEQ2 - 0 players online - Connecting to zone server... booted me back to login screen
Logged back in made a new char
* Server LethalEncounter - 0 players online - Logged in fine

[bolly]

And a idea for how it will go for those wanting to run a server:

1) Grabbed the latest version of the ServerPack but already had MySQL running on standard port - Ideas: use a none standard port

2) The Account Management website doesnt work as it will give you a BAD PASSWORD error even after you check, double check and even change it to make sure - Ideas: fix this bug

3) No option to use the server pack with an existing mysql configuration, had to take out the SQL files and manually import which didn't work out of the box because it needed set-variable = max_allowed_packet=64M - Ideas: include an option to use an existing mysql server or have the install use a non-standard mysql port

4) Once the server was up (i worked around it by using an old server account/password combo) I was able to login fine with the public server but once I created my level 1 toon and proceeded to kill some level 1 mobs the Spell bar got stuck at 95% and it wouldn't allow me to do anything after that - Ideas: have some check somewhere that fixes this for all spells (maybe see if a player has been casting for longer than a minute or something)

Now i have used eq2emu a bit so I knew how to work around these issues but someone thinking about getting into running an eq2emu server probably wouldn't or would get frustrated and log out before then.

Some food for thought!

[Eradani]

I both understand your pain as a too small dev team and really hope you don't give up on this project. Maybe keeping up with the Joneses isn't the way to go. Maybe stopping before SF compatibility would be a good thing. Draw the line and just work on features and bug fixes to this point.

I haven't been able to log onto Tess yet because the only other EQ2 install I have besides SF, is EoF. I did see a post somewhere about unpatching and I had planned to get a EQ2Emu compatible version going after my official sub, and therefore data collecting, runs out.

I have lots of time on my hands and would help out this project in any ways I could. I have a degree in CS and am (was) a very competent C programmer. Due to very odd reasons, I was isolated from CS development (and the internet) from the time when C++ was first coming into general usage till reawakening to JavaScript (omg i love that). My knowledge of network programming is Nil. My knowledge of Windows Programming is Nil. My knowledge of SQL has been unused to many years, but I was employed and using Clipper for quite some time so I have a good understanding of databases in general.

I will offer my services in any way they can be used:
- data collecting for the rest of this month (if only I can get the data collector working)
- writing tutorials for people and organizing information
- zone construction
- scripts for NPCs, quests, etc
- any programming outside of network functions

Again, maybe a redefinition of scope would be appropriate, but I sure hope you don't totally give up on this project.

[Astal]

imma try to go on C++ message boards and recruit coders if thats ok with u guys.

[drgnsly]

Man this is so depressing

I regret not knowing any type of c++ or any coding, but I want to help any where I can. I'm not sure how much time I would have on my hands to be able to contribute, but I don't want to see this project die!

I know your goal was to emulate the entire game as close as possible, but maybe there is a slightly different solution, if we were to get more people in here to keep the project alive maybe we can all work on a classic server! All we would have to do is collect content up to level 50 or so (not sure) and try and cap off and forget about the rest of the game kinda like it was when the game first came out. Shattered lands content! I don't know how many people want just that but why don't we see what others say?

[Astal]

I would be absolutely happy with just a classic server. (we could always customize 50+) I dont think they wanna do that though, i dunno. All i can do is some lua scripting, testing, making items, i know a little about spells, and i know how to create spawns and stuff. I wish i knew C++ also.

[Kerbox]

Maybe keeping up with the Joneses isn't the way to go. Maybe stopping before SF compatibility would be a good thing. Draw the line and just work on features and bug fixes to this point.

I have to say that I agree with what Eradani said, that really wouldn't be a bad idea. EQ II was a fun game even before all the expansions came.

[ZexisStryfe]

Maybe keeping up with the Joneses isn't the way to go. Maybe stopping before SF compatibility would be a good thing. Draw the line and just work on features and bug fixes to this point.

I have to say that I agree with what Eradani said, that really wouldn't be a bad idea. EQ II was a fun game even before all the expansions came.

Unfortunately, without "keeping up with the Joneses" we would no longer be able to collect data to populate the world. In addition to this, SoE no longer sells the old expansion boxes once a new one is released, severely limiting the ability of new people to get started if we don't keep up with the expansions.

[Astal]

I didnt know that about collecting world data. You guys couldnt just pick and choose what to include from world data collected or do you have to add everything in?


Im sure an eq 2 enthusiast somewhere would find a way around people not having access to the right version. That could even be a short term thing. I dunno i know we all appreciate what you guys have done.


Btw US dollar supposed to collapse in winter 2011 so it may not matter either way

[ZexisStryfe]

I didnt know that about collecting world data. You guys couldnt just pick and choose what to include from world data collected or do you have to add everything in?

Well, in truth, although we have alot of stuff collected from sub-level 20, our collections are very sparse above that. If we didn't keep up to a certain extent, we would never be able to get the info we don't have (this is the same reason we don't support clients older than RoK).