I am interested in starting a development project to create a Eq2 emulator World Editor. I know the eq2 emulator is still a work in progress, but i believe it would be benficial to start a project like this early. My proposed language would be C# since that is where mine and my teams expertise is, and we already have TFS, visual studio etc etc. We already have a software architect by trade that would head up this project so believe we can get something going that will be a complement to eq2 emu. I would like to know if Lethal would be willing to support us on a project like this. I would also like to know if there are any good developers out there that would like to contribute to this project. Of course the end result would be an open source and free World Editor that i think would help people in the future enjoy eq2 emulator and promote alot more diversity in each server. Please email me at sirmuzz@gmail.com if you are interested or just leave me a reply here.
Thanks
Muzzii

I think this is a great idea. Tools like this are inevitable. I myself have been writing a complete DB editor in C# "in my spare time" (read: no spare time) while trying to learn C# for work. I've gotten as far as parent/child forms for the different screens and ODBC DB connections to the EQ2 db... needless to say, it's nothing I care to show off since it's 1st grade coding compared to actual professional developers.
I like this idea better. Let someone else do it. Always my motto! =)
FWIW, the current database is not changing (at least not for a while). Additional tables are being added slowly, but serve no purpose just yet. It'll likely be months before "character_housing" (for example) ever gets figured in. I'd start with whatever database structure you get when you setup your server. Zones, spawns, NPCs, and Character editors would be a nice start.

While this is pretty garbagy looking, I thought I'd at least show you my "concept" of a DB editor. I haven't gotten too far due to RL constraints, but if you do anything, I ask that it is fully self-contained and not 20 little mini-apps that are all managed separately.
Check this screen from my character editor:

This is of course just the beginning of some ideas, thrown together in a few hours, which gives me cause to say, C#/VS2005 really kicks some serious ass - I know NOTHING about it, and could still build stuff quickly.

John that looks FANTASTIC!
Im going to get VS 2005 see if I can have a play with it and work it out, id love to help you with that!
That is just what I'm looking for, I did just send you a message

John,
Good to see other people getting on the .Net bandwagon. It really is a nice rapid application development platform. What we are writing is single application that we hope will do everything when the app and the emulator are all done.
I have already started a db editor that is a little more complicated (visually) than this and our other programmer is working on a LUA/C# interface that will essentailly allow users to "drag and drop" items onto a canvas to create LUA scripts in the background for spells, quests, etc etc. Obviously we can only go so far without the actuall scripting being completed on the emulator so it is still a work in progress.
We are currently trying to enumrate all the types of the tables i.e chest_type, soga_hair_type, etc etc. If anyone has any of the information we are looking for please let us know.
The UI we are working on will have these types with friendly names you can just select via combobox or other controls rather than having to supply an index value. We are going through great lengths to make it as easy and user friendly as possible. We have created self populating controls for zones, spawn groups, etc etc. We are using a custom data provider based on DBLinq with allows us to use LINQ to MySQL. For anyone not familiar with LINQ, it allows us to use TSQL type statements directly in our code and populate objects from the results. No more data adapters or datasets etc. Its all done using generics and it makes from clean fast code. If anyone would like to help with the project. It is still in its early on but anyone interested with some .Net experience is welcome.
- Muzzii

I personally would like to see a GUI to the Emulator mixed with a Database editor that shows some values such as this..

Im great at making the interface but I have absolutely NO idea what so ever how to make the buttons do anything, could you guys point me in the direction where I should start, i'd love to learn .net I clearly have an eye for design?

Your idea makes no sense, what does a Database editor have anything to do with the actual server?
I prefer John's vanilla idea, please let him change or improve it.

I can certainly see the usefulness of having some server stats or the ability to config the xml/ini in the GUI. While it's not necessarily database, it is still "all in one place" which is a nice idea.
Maybe calling it a DB editor is too compartmentalizing. Maybe just the EQ2 World Editor or something.
Salryn, I definitely like the look you have applied. I am great at tearing apart a UI that someone else built and making it better - but from the ground-up, I pretty much suck as a designer. Wrong kind of art for me
I like the project Muzzii is laying out, too. Sounds very advanced and organized. I hope to see how it turns out. There is no such thing as "too many tools", and building tools like this for these projects is a great way for someone to learn a language. I myself have no time to learn, with a busy work and life schedule... all I was doing initially is trying to give myself an interface I can overview the data quickly and make minor adjustments. I'll still build something, if nothing more than to get into C#. I like it so far.

Thanks for you CONSTRUCTIVE reply John, I appreciate that, I did work from you're design.
As for link.

I am currently working with sirmuzz on the c# application to edit the db. It will definitely be an all-in one application and not multiple executables. We will post a screenshot of it in operation soon. I think you will like how it looks and behaves.

I can't wait to see these products. I get all excited when the community gets involved like this.
Soon we'll be ready to hammer down some znoe content and get that part out of the way so we can start hounding LE for another collector.

Salryn wrote:Thanks for you CONSTRUCTIVE reply John, I appreciate that, I did work from you're design.
As for link.

Sorry about that, I was on my period and put a tampon on it.
As for the app, I like the design and the concept, one thing I would like to see is a Status Bar

link2009 wrote:Sorry about that, I was on my period and put a tampon on it.

OMFG HAHAHA!

it would add to the productivity of others adding to the database project. Lots of things we could pull from databases like Allahkazam's most of the creature informations like spawn cord and level range are there also pretty held for items..
I believe with emu such as Ascent for wow they gather all the information that way and put it in database. It seems accurate from a live server.

Since I've got some experience with custom UI's, does the idea of a UI window database editor sound of any use?