0.7 Priorities / Wish Lists

[John Adams]

btw I would like to help to quests team!!

That's good to hear. I will be posting a "here's what we need" list soon to fix up this data we've collected. Then we can organize people into teams, specializing in certain areas. In short, it will be zone content, loot, quests, spells/abilities, and beta testers. Just to name a few.
I hope to get that done this weekend. Stay tuned.

[Magoth78]

Hello everyone, I'm Magoth78 from Eqemulator. Some names sounds familar to me, especially LE, John Adams and others like Alfa (an eq2 guildmate)
Guys, I've got a question about quests. How're you planning to deal with the quests datas ? I mean where the npc text, player choices, rewards, quest description and stuffs will be stored ?
Why I'm asking that is because I've played a bit with the xmlparser and thought that XML might be a fair solution (like many others...) to this task.
One quest per xml file with all the datas in it.
It could look like: http://magoth78.free.fr/xmlTestDatas.xml
Then, the function to load the file and all the datas in the quest's object :
http://rafb.net/p/4c2fOS96.html (code)
http://rafb.net/p/4XbaHD51.html (header)
/* Sorry by advance for the crappy code */
It's an example but we can see that, with this system, a quest could be quickly done.
Of course, quests could be processed by clients to see wich quest can obtain a client from a npc, at what step is the client at, is her actual location can "ding" a quest step, etc... wich is a lot of work
It's just my 2cp,
have fun,
Mag

[John Adams]

Hey Mag! Very cool to see you here.
To answer quickly, our quest system is still in development - but from what I understand it will be either all LUA scripting, or a combo of LUA + DB. XML is a good idea, since the data does not change normally (static). Not sure it matters much, since there are about 200 ways today to do 1 single thing.
To be honest, an editor can be built much easier for database/xml than for lua scripting, but I am just going with the flow. It's all dev preference.

[John Adams]

OK, could you paste the error message that it prints out in the latest revision?

Finally getting back to this... Using the latest dev SVN code and exe (7.21.2008 Rev 376) here's the error from the client:
Error submitting bug.
And from the server console:

Code: Select all

   0: 07 00 D9 00 43 61 6E 6E - 6F 74 20 73 65 65 6D 20  | ....Cannot seem
  16: 74 6F 20 63 61 6E 63 65 - 6C 20 73 70 72 69 6E 74  | to cancel sprint
  32: 20 6F 6E 63 65 20 49 20 - 63 61 73 74 20 69 74 2E  |  once I cast it.
  48: 20 53 68 6F 75 6C 64 20 - 77 65 20 6E 6F 74 20 62  |  Should we not b
  64: 65 20 61 62 6C 65 20 74 - 6F 20 63 6C 69 63 6B 20  | e able to click
  80: 74 68 65 20 73 70 65 6C - 6C 20 62 75 74 74 6F 6E  | the spell button
  96: 20 6F 6E 20 74 68 65 20 - 68 6F 74 62 61 72 20 61  |  on the hotbar a
 112: 6E 64 20 63 61 6E 63 65 - 6C 20 74 68 65 20 73 70  | nd cancel the sp
 128: 72 69 6E 74 69 6E 67 3F - 20 52 69 67 68 74 2D 63  | rinting? Right-c
 144: 6C 69 63 6B 20 63 61 6E - 63 65 6C 20 64 6F 65 73  | lick cancel does
 160: 6E 27 74 20 77 6F 72 6B - 20 79 65 74 20 64 75 65  | n't work yet due
 176: 20 74 6F 20 74 68 69 73 - 20 62 65 69 6E 67 20 61  |  to this being a
 192: 20 4D 61 69 6E 74 61 69 - 6E 65 64 20 53 70 65 6C  |  Maintained Spel
 208: 6C 2C 20 49 20 73 75 70 - 70 6F 73 65 2E           | l, I suppose.
OP_ChatFiltersMsg Received 0x013a
   0: 0D 00 FF FF FF FF FF FF - FF FF FF FF FF FF 03 01  | ................
   0: 4B 00 87 01 4D 65 63 68 - 61 6E 69 63 73 07 53 6B  | K...Mechanics.Sk
  16: 69 6C 6C 73 07 41 66 66 - 65 63 74 73 20 67 61 6D  | ills.Affects gam
  32: 65 70 6C 61 79 07 41 6C - 77 61 79 73 20 48 61 70  | eplay.Always Hap
  48: 70 65 6E 73 07 43 61 6E - 63 65 6C 25 32 30 53 70  | pens.Cancel%20Sp
  64: 72 69 6E 74 25 33 46 07 - 43 61 6E 6E 6F 74 25 32  | rint%3F.Cannot%2
  80: 30 73 65 65 6D 25 32 30 - 74 6F 25 32 30 63 61 6E  | 0seem%20to%20can
  96: 63 65 6C 25 32 30 73 70 - 72 69 6E 74 25 32 30 6F  | cel%20sprint%20o
 112: 6E 63 65 25 32 30 49 25 - 32 30 63 61 73 74 25 32  | nce%20I%20cast%2
 128: 30 69 74 25 32 45 25 32 - 30 53 68 6F 75 6C 64 25  | 0it%2E%20Should%
 144: 32 30 77 65 25 32 30 6E - 6F 74 25 32 30 62 65 25  | 20we%20not%20be%
 160: 32 30 61 62 6C 65 25 32 - 30 74 6F 25 32 30 63 6C  | 20able%20to%20cl
 176: 69 63 6B 25 32 30 74 68 - 65 25 32 30 73 70 65 6C  | ick%20the%20spel
 192: 6C 25 32 30 62 75 74 74 - 6F 6E 25 32 30 6F 6E 25  | l%20button%20on%
 208: 32 30 74 68 65 25 32 30 - 68 6F 74 62 61 72 25 32  | 20the%20hotbar%2
 224: 30 61 6E 64 25 32 30 63 - 61 6E 63 65 6C 25 32 30  | 0and%20cancel%20
 240: 74 68 65 25 32 30 73 70 - 72 69 6E 74 69 6E 67 25  | the%20sprinting%
 256: 33 46 25 32 30 52 69 67 - 68 74 25 32 44 63 6C 69  | 3F%20Right%2Dcli
 272: 63 6B 25 32 30 63 61 6E - 63 65 6C 25 32 30 64 6F  | ck%20cancel%20do
 288: 65 73 6E 25 32 37 74 25 - 32 30 77 6F 72 6B 25 32  | esn%27t%20work%2
 304: 30 79 65 74 25 32 30 64 - 75 65 25 32 30 74 6F 25  | 0yet%20due%20to%
 320: 32 30 74 68 69 73 25 32 - 30 62 65 69 6E 67 25 32  | 20this%20being%2
 336: 30 61 25 32 30 4D 61 69 - 6E 74 61 69 6E 65 64 25  | 0a%20Maintained%
 352: 32 30 53 70 65 6C 6C 25 - 32 43 25 32 30 49 25 32  | 20Spell%2C%20I%2
 368: 30 73 75 70 70 6F 73 65 - 25 32 45 07 53 4F 45 42  | 0suppose%2E.SOEB
 384: 75 69 6C 64 3D 34 38 31 - 32 4C 07                 | uild=4812L.
   0: 3A 01 00 00                                        | :...

not sure if that's what you were after. My client is still 4812L.
Note that the above console dump is from a previous EXE (not sure of the version). When I replaced it with the SVN EXE, I got less data.
Ahh well. Just let me know if you are not getting my damn bug reports.

[LethalEncounter]

Yah they must have changed how they handle it in the past few versions. I'll update it when I get a chance.

[LethalEncounter]

Just a warning about quests for when they are released - you might have to tweak any quests that you didn't create yourself to match the NPC IDs in your database. For instance I am making an example quest that will trigger a quest update anytime a user kills any of the crabs on newbie island. Since we don't currently have a standard database, the NPCs in my database won't match anyone else's database and you will need to change the IDs for it to work properly.
I thought about using NPC names instead of IDs, but decided against it to prevent exploits with NPCs have the same name but different level ranges.

[John Adams]

Since we don't currently have a standard database, the NPCs in my database won't match anyone else's database and you will need to change the IDs for it to work properly.

Thanks for the heads up. I am not sure how many databases are being "privately" built out there, but what I am considering the official DB will have definite spawn IDs as previously discussed.
I'd hate to think we'll end up with too many different DBs schemas, but who knows... worse things can happen.

[LethalEncounter]

I think I will be putting the NPC conversations that end up giving the quests into the database instead of in the LUA script files. The reasons are that I can make commands to edit them easily on the fly but more importantly not all conversations end with a quest so it would become a pain to make "quest" scripts for nonquest related content.

[John Adams]

That sounds good. Will you also be putting params for given quest/non-quest entries to guide the quest process along? Maybe pass the params to a single LUA script to process all conversations that way?
Naturally, I like stuff in the DB because it's easier on remote admins. But either way I know it'll work!

[bobbydole]

btw I would like to help to quests team!!

That's good to hear. I will be posting a "here's what we need" list soon to fix up this data we've collected. Then we can organize people into teams, specializing in certain areas. In short, it will be zone content, loot, quests, spells/abilities, and beta testers. Just to name a few.
I hope to get that done this weekend. Stay tuned.

Did you get this posted? I was poking around a bit and didn't see it around. I would like to help with zone content, loot quests, and maybe even some spells, (I play a monk).

[John Adams]

The basics, yes. I posted a pretty windy Wanted ad for help with the database coming soon. Soon as in, once Beta is released. The DB team still has to get our ducks in a row before we start asking for too much help cleaning up stuff.

[LethalEncounter]

That sounds good. Will you also be putting params for given quest/non-quest entries to guide the quest process along? Maybe pass the params to a single LUA script to process all conversations that way?
Naturally, I like stuff in the DB because it's easier on remote admins. But either way I know it'll work!

All the conversations with options I envision to be in the database. Other than that the quest script will be called on certain events such as quest accept, decline, task complete, quest complete. I don't have the quest system finalized yet but I am almost done with most of it. If you have any other ideas please let me know. I know that there will be some things that will need to be added later on that I haven't thought about yet. So far it works pretty good, I just have a few issues that I am working with.

[John Adams]

No worries. You know I'll wait til you are done, then make a ton of suggestions.

[John Adams]

Ooh, I just thought of something that either I do not know how to use, or we could use eventually (soon lol)...
A log system.
I know we're logging stuff to the console, but does this baby write to server log files yet? I'd like to see different log levels as well as the [cat][log_type] config we see in the EQEmu and others.
~duck the flying banana~

[Aaden]

John Adams stop making life complicated! im sure implimenting log levels would be simple just need to prioritize