EQ2Emu DB Project needs you!

[John Adams]

We have come to a point in Database Development where we need to get organized and ask for help from the community. It is our primary goal to start releasing completed zone data to server admins in the form of "Live Updates" after the emulator reaches it's Beta phase of v0.8. A primitive schedule of data updates is as follows:

In preparation for Beta, we want to have at least Isle of Refuge (good and evil) + Qeynos/Freeport villages and hoods with their newbie zones. This is the minimal amount of data I think we should test with, as it will allow testing of nearly all aspects of the server. We have only a few months to achieve this goal.

After Beta starts, the Content Designers will begin working on filling in the data for all the Shattered Lands zones, one zone at a time, radiating outwards from the Beta test zones. Meaning, Antonica, Commonlands, and any zones linked to those. Start work on Instancing and Raid encounters (providing there is sufficient data).

Expansions:
Once Shattered Lands is complete, the team should have a firm understanding of how to hammer out content, so we will begin on DoF. Depending on how many dedicated Content Designers we have, we could run parallel projects to get other expansions going as well. But for now, the goal is one expansion at a time - chronologically.

Release 1.0 of EQ2Emu:
The plan is to get as much content completed through ROK before the 1.0 Release of the Everquest 2 Emulator.

In order to achieve this lofty goal, we're going to need help; lots of it. Below is a generic outline of the 4 "Teams" we are looking to fill, and what will be expected of each team member. Sorry that this reads like a job description, but it really is. Our team members need to be extremely active in the development process as well as the community, have an uncanny attention to detail, work good as a team, and be well educated on the Everquest 2 game in general. Specific "requirements" are listed below.

• All the duties listed below are estimates. It is very likely more tasks will be added as time goes on. Keep this in mind when asking to join a particular team.

Database Designer (Closed)

Description:
The goal of the Database Designer is to provide a robust, logical, and efficient data source for the Everquest 2 Emulator server.

Responsibilities:
- Design data tables for server + auxillary tools
- Convert collected logs to game data for the Content Designers
- Actively assist the Content Designers in their task of data validation/creation
- Review community-requested features/enhancements regarding data
- Final approval of Content Teams data for posting as a Live Update
- "Forward thinking" on design ideas for upcoming features

Requirements:
- Previous emulator database development experience
- Proven expertise with MySQL DBMS
- Active in forum community, responsive to community feedback

Note: DB Design team is currently closed, since Lethalencounter, alfa and myself tend to work together at a moderate pace to fulfill structural needs.

Content Designer

Description:
The Content Designer will build the entire world you experience. Due to the magnitude of this effort, the Content Design Team will be broken into sub-tasks to lessen the load. Without the work of the Content Team, there is no data for our emulator.

Responsibilities:
- Zone validation
== Spawn placement, dupe removal, appearance settings
== Interactive Quest/Movement scripting (LUA)
== Build loot tables
== Recommend alternatives for missing data
- General game data
== Validate Items data (appearance, stats, effects)
== Spell/Ability scripting (LUA)
- Plus more as server features are added

Requirements:
- Intimate knowledge of EQ2 as a game
- Expert familiarity with EQ2Emu and current feature set
- Ability to make sound judgements
- Access to accurate resources of game content

Beta Testers

Description:
Beta Testers are an elite group of hard-core, dedicated gamers who wish to see the EQ2 Emulator project be the best it can be. They demonstrate a high attention to detail, and know what they are looking for when testing functionality or content.

Responsibilities:
- Test server core functionality (game mechanics)
- Test server core features (interfaces, utilities)
- Test all game content that requires interaction (NPCs, objects, doors, etc)
- Test spells and abilities
- Test all types of Scripting (Quest, Spell, NPC Movement)
- Validate item data and functionality
- Participate in scheduled group/load test events

Requirements:
- Working ROK+ installation of Everquest 2
- Eagerness to "break stuff"
- Availability to actively test features and content
- Familiarity with the Bug Tracking system (/bug)

Note: All members of all teams will be testing in one capacity or another. This team is our "Strike Team" that goes to test specific areas of the game as tasked by Developers or the Content Designers.

New forums have been created to support the Content Designers and Beta Testers teams. More detailed information will be found there soon.

Community Manager(s):

Description:
The Community Manager will be the interface between the development and testing teams and the general community, both via the forums and the WIKI. The best answer to most questions is "check the wiki", but not if it's blank! We need a dedicated person (or two) to keep up on that activity as well as keep the community informed of server development progress.

Responsibilities:
- Become the focal point for update information
- Post regular development status on the forums
- Drive data to the Wiki
- Moderate and manage the website, forum, and Wiki

Requirements:
- Knowledge of forum moderation
- Demonstrated maturity, and unbiased opinion
- WIKI formatting knowledge
- phpBB administration skills a plus

If you find yourself interested in any of these tasks, please PM me (John Adams) with what you feel are your strongest skills pertaining to the task, and we'll have a chat.

For anyone not interested in being "strapped" with a duty, we can only hope that you still feel compelled to report issues or suggestions for improvements to our Teams. We are seriously in need of more interested parties, but for now we're in good shape. During the next 6 mos tho, we'll need to step this up a lot more to ensure this game server is the best it can be.

Thanks for reading (if you did) and thank you for your consideration.

[John Adams]

I have cleaned up the format of this post since it got kinda jumbled during our forum conversion. Also moving it to our Announcements forum in case it has been overlooked. We have not had an overwhelming response in my asking for help here, which of course must be because it was not posted in the best place.

One update to this request;
As of Jan '09, if you volunteer to be on a team but end up doing nothing to help, you will be removed from your team to make room for another volunteer.

Please do not offer to help if you do not have at least 10+ hours a week to devote to this project.

We also need open communication between all team members on their appropriate forum, and active participation in the growth of our database and content.

The fact is, I've received dozens of PMs from folks offering their assistance, but only 3-4 people have regularly contributed to our progress during the last 6 months. If all those original offers had actually done anything, we'd be a whole lot further along with our development. At the current rate, we might have the Shattered Lands (original game) completed by the end of 2009(!!!) I realize this sounds harsh, but I can no longer place the success of the entire DB Project on the shoulders of those 3-4 people. We need help, seriously.

Any (new) volunteers? Send me that PM!

[John Adams]

At the current rate, we might have the Shattered Lands (original game) completed by the end of 2009(!!!)

Well that sure was optimistic, wasn't it? It is now 2013, and we still have but 1 zone partially done But, it is done with expert precision

Still looking for Content volunteers. You do not have to know C++, you do not even have to know LUA (scripting). You just have to know EQ2 enough to put stuff in a zone to make it look cool. Our tools make that a snap.

What are you waiting for?

[Cylex]

I've been a long time lurker, keeping track of what's going on with the emu. I have recently come back from a very extended vacation to find the emu landscape has changed.

I was a private server lead dev for content on WoW on one server, and dev on several others. I currently help run and dev an EQ 1 server, some custom content with solo capabilities.

I don't have much of a working knowledge of EQ2 yet, but I would like to help. I have a lot of experience in db management and content development. If there is anything I could help with, please let me know.

[John Adams]

I don't have much of a working knowledge of EQ2 yet, but I would like to help. I have a lot of experience in db management and content development. If there is anything I could help with, please let me know.

As a matter of fact, building zones is a primary goal for 2013. No C++ knowledge needed, and our content is captured right from SOE so all you have to do is add it to the zone and make sure it looks right. There's many other tasks to building a complete zone as well, but getting the spawns in place would be a great help. If you did that, you could pick up on the other content tasks and build zones completely yourself eventually.

Up to you. If you want to give it a try, I recommend getting an EQ2 client and jumping on our test center (EQ2Emulator) server and looking around at what has been done this year so far.

Let us know if it sparks your interest enough to join the team and start learning.

[Flunklesnarkin]

I'm in the process of trying to compile the server code but I'd like to learn how to make quests.

I've gotten a few errors on compile which seem related to casting int to pointers and I'll post tomorrow after I've banged my head against this problem a bit more.

[Jabantiz]

...I'd like to learn how to make quests.

Custom quests or recreating quests from live? If you want to recreate from live I posted a tool that will help the process by grabbing quest info from census.daybreakgames.com and build a basic script from user input. For custom there are a few tutorials in the tutorial forum, Scatman's Simple Quest Script should get you started.

I've gotten a few errors on compile which seem related to casting int to pointers and I'll post tomorrow after I've banged my head against this problem a bit more.

Feel free to post in the support forums and we will help as soon as we can.

[Flunklesnarkin]

I'd mostly like to do live content because I want to help flesh out some of the starter area content. I don't plan on hosting a server myself but it'd be nice if others could host servers that have playable content.

Thanks for the quest tool link, I'll give that tool a try tomorrow. I'm a bit burnt out today but I'll post some build logs. I haven't even tried to debug it yet so I feel a bit guilty asking for help at this point but if you want to see.

This is all done with Visual Studio 2015 community edition.

edit.. and I made two different source folders.. one to compiler 32 bit and one to compile 64 bit so they won't mess with each other.

32 bit build (I'm on windows 8.1 64bit)

Code: Select all

1>------ Rebuild All started: Project: EQ2World, Configuration: Debug Win32 ------
1>  DatabaseNew.cpp
1>  DatabaseResult.cpp
1>  Achievements.cpp
1>  AchievementsDB.cpp
1>  AltAdvancement.cpp
1>  AltAdvancementDB.cpp
1>  Chat.cpp
1>  ChatChannel.cpp
1>  ChatDB.cpp
1>  classes.cpp
1>  client.cpp
1>  ClientPacketFunctions.cpp
1>  Collections.cpp
1>  CollectionsDB.cpp
1>  Combat.cpp
1>  CommandsDB.cpp
1>  Entity.cpp
1>  Factions.cpp
1>  GroundSpawn.cpp
1>  Guild.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  GuildDB.cpp
1>  HeroicOp.cpp
1>  HeroicOpDB.cpp
1>  HeroicOpPackets.cpp
1>  HousingDB.cpp
1>  HousingPackets.cpp
1>  IRC.cpp
1>  IRCChannel.cpp
1>  IRCMessage.cpp
1>  IRCServer.cpp
1>  Items.cpp
1>  ItemsDB.cpp
1>  Loot.cpp
1>  LootDB.cpp
1>  Languages.cpp
1>  LoginServer.cpp
1>  LuaFunctions.cpp
1>  LuaInterface.cpp
1>  net.cpp
1>  NPC.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  NPC_AI.cpp
1>  Object.cpp
1>  Player.cpp
1>  Quests.cpp
1>  races.cpp
1>  RaceTypes.cpp
1>  RaceTypesDB.cpp
1>  Recipe.cpp
1>  RecipeDB.cpp
1>  Rules.cpp
1>  RulesDB.cpp
1>  Sign.cpp
1>  Skills.cpp
1>  Spawn.cpp
1>  SpellProcess.cpp
1>  Spells.cpp
1>  Titles.cpp
1>  TradeskillsDB.cpp
1>  TradeskillsPackets.cpp
1>  Traits.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  Widget.cpp
1>  World.cpp
1>  WorldDatabase.cpp
1>  zoneserver.cpp
1>  Tradeskills.cpp
1>  Commands.cpp
1>  ConsoleCommands.cpp
1>  Condition.cpp
1>  ConfigReader.cpp
1>  CRC16.cpp
1>  Crypto.cpp
1>  database.cpp
1>  dbcore.cpp
1>  debug.cpp
1>  emu_opcodes.cpp
1>  EQEMuError.cpp
1>  EQPacket.cpp
1>  EQStream.cpp
1>  EQStreamFactory.cpp
1>  Log.cpp
1>..\..\source\common\Log.cpp(169): error C3688: invalid literal suffix 'EXE_NAME'; literal operator or literal operator template 'operator ""EXE_NAME' not found
1>..\..\source\common\Log.cpp(169): error C2664: 'int _snprintf(char *const ,const size_t,const char *const ,...)': cannot convert argument 3 from 'int' to 'const char *const '
1>  ..\..\source\common\Log.cpp(169): note: Conversion from integral type to pointer type requires reinterpret_cast, C-style cast or function-style cast
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  md5.cpp
1>  misc.cpp
1>  MiscFunctions.cpp
1>  Mutex.cpp
1>  opcodemgr.cpp
1>  packet_dump.cpp
1>  packet_functions.cpp
1>  PacketStruct.cpp
1>  RC4.cpp
1>  TCPConnection.cpp
1>  timer.cpp
1>  xmlParser.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
========== Rebuild All: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

64bit build with /bigobj compiler setting on (I tried without but compiler said needed /bigobj setting)

Code: Select all

1>------ Rebuild All started: Project: EQ2World, Configuration: Debug x64 ------
1>  xmlParser.cpp
1>  timer.cpp
1>  TCPConnection.cpp
1>  RC4.cpp
1>  PacketStruct.cpp
1>  packet_functions.cpp
1>  packet_dump.cpp
1>  opcodemgr.cpp
1>  Mutex.cpp
1>  MiscFunctions.cpp
1>..\..\source\common\MiscFunctions.cpp(741): warning C4477: 'fprintf' : format string '%lu' requires an argument of type 'unsigned long', but variadic argument 3 has type 'size_t'
1>  ..\..\source\common\MiscFunctions.cpp(741): note: consider using '%zu' in the format string
1>  misc.cpp
1>  md5.cpp
1>  Log.cpp
1>..\..\source\common\Log.cpp(169): error C3688: invalid literal suffix 'EXE_NAME'; literal operator or literal operator template 'operator ""EXE_NAME' not found
1>..\..\source\common\Log.cpp(169): error C2664: 'int _snprintf(char *const ,const size_t,const char *const ,...)': cannot convert argument 3 from 'int' to 'const char *const '
1>  ..\..\source\common\Log.cpp(169): note: Conversion from integral type to pointer type requires reinterpret_cast, C-style cast or function-style cast
1>  EQStreamFactory.cpp
1>  EQStream.cpp
1>  EQPacket.cpp
1>  EQEMuError.cpp
1>  emu_opcodes.cpp
1>  debug.cpp
1>  dbcore.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  database.cpp
1>  Crypto.cpp
1>  CRC16.cpp
1>  ConfigReader.cpp
1>  Condition.cpp
1>  ConsoleCommands.cpp
1>  Commands.cpp
1>  Tradeskills.cpp
1>  zoneserver.cpp
1>  WorldDatabase.cpp
1>  World.cpp
1>  Widget.cpp
1>  Traits.cpp
1>  TradeskillsPackets.cpp
1>  TradeskillsDB.cpp
1>  Titles.cpp
1>  Spells.cpp
1>  SpellProcess.cpp
1>  Spawn.cpp
1>  Skills.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  Sign.cpp
1>  RulesDB.cpp
1>  Rules.cpp
1>  RecipeDB.cpp
1>  Recipe.cpp
1>  RaceTypesDB.cpp
1>  RaceTypes.cpp
1>  races.cpp
1>  Quests.cpp
1>  Player.cpp
1>  Object.cpp
1>  NPC_AI.cpp
1>  NPC.cpp
1>  net.cpp
1>  LuaInterface.cpp
1>  LuaFunctions.cpp
1>..\..\source\WorldServer\LuaFunctions.cpp(4688): warning C4312: 'type cast': conversion from 'unsigned int' to 'Entity *' of greater size
1>..\..\source\WorldServer\LuaFunctions.cpp(4720): warning C4312: 'type cast': conversion from 'unsigned int' to 'Entity *' of greater size
1>  LoginServer.cpp
1>  Languages.cpp
1>  LootDB.cpp
1>  Loot.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  ItemsDB.cpp
1>  Items.cpp
1>  IRCServer.cpp
1>  IRCMessage.cpp
1>  IRCChannel.cpp
1>  IRC.cpp
1>  HousingPackets.cpp
1>  HousingDB.cpp
1>  HeroicOpPackets.cpp
1>  HeroicOpDB.cpp
1>  HeroicOp.cpp
1>  GuildDB.cpp
1>  Guild.cpp
1>  GroundSpawn.cpp
1>  Factions.cpp
1>  Entity.cpp
1>  CommandsDB.cpp
1>  Combat.cpp
1>  CollectionsDB.cpp
1>  Collections.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
1>  Compiling...
1>  ClientPacketFunctions.cpp
1>  client.cpp
1>  classes.cpp
1>  ChatDB.cpp
1>  ChatChannel.cpp
1>  Chat.cpp
1>  AltAdvancementDB.cpp
1>  AltAdvancement.cpp
1>  AchievementsDB.cpp
1>  Achievements.cpp
1>  DatabaseResult.cpp
1>  DatabaseNew.cpp
1>  Generating Code...
========== Rebuild All: 0 succeeded, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

[Jabantiz]

This is all done with Visual Studio 2015 community edition.

This is the problem, something changed in 2015 that I was never able to trace down as soon as 1 thing was fixed something else complained. As of right now the best solution is to use 2013 community if that is not an option some one will have to figure out specifically what 2015 changed to cause so many problems.

[Flunklesnarkin]

Ok, I'll look for the 2013 edition tomorrow.

Thanks for the feedback.


Edit..

I was able to successfully compile the server code using the 2013 edition. I was required to uninstall the 2015 edition first though. I tried running the 2013 version along side 2015 version and they kept interfering with each other.

It was much simpler to uninstall both and reinstall the 2013 edition.

Now I'm gonna poke around with this some before I try to figure out how to make quests.

[Flunklesnarkin]

I was searching for the quest tool you were talking about but I wasn't able to find it Jabantiz.

I'm familiarizing myself with the code a little bit in the mean time. I'm mostly looking to just add some quests at this point but I'd like to be able to compile and test them out before I submit them.

So at this point I'm trying to figure out how to set up a server on my end. I downloaded the minilogin but I think I need to install MySQL to make adjustments and be able to logon to my private server locally?

On the other hand, If your quest tool is robust enough I could just make the quest scripts, submit them, then test them out when they are added to the eq2emu server. It would save me a lot of hassle.

[Cynnar]

Welcome to the emulator Flunklesnarkin.

I was searching for the quest tool you were talking about but I wasn't able to find it Jabantiz.

Jabantiz quest parser tool is located on the SVN. Here is the file QuestParser.exe. The username is anonymous and no password required.

So at this point I'm trying to figure out how to set up a server on my end. I downloaded the minilogin but I think I need to install MySQL to make adjustments and be able to logon to my private server locally?

You will need to install MySQL yes. Here is a tutorial for setting up your own server. This has both Windows and Linux. If you are on Windows and want you can use John's ServerPack. I have a slightly updated version at the bottom of that post. This has everything you need to run a server.

On the other hand, If you're quest tool is robust enough I could just make the quest scripts, submit them, then test them out when they are added to the eq2emu server. It would save me a lot of hassle.

This tool is absolutely great. There is just a few things that need to be edited after parsing a quest. One is the ID's. Those have to be looked up in the db. Two is the accepted function. Everything else is created and works great unless you answer a question wrong when parsing. Makes a functioning quest in a fraction of the time it takes to manually write one.