Welcome to the EQ2Emulator.net project! The project has been restarted as of July 2007, and remained in closed alpha until November 2007 when v0.4 was released as an Open Alpha. Log into IRC for additional information as it develops.
If you are new to this site, we are building an Everquest 2 (EQ2) emulator that will eventually allow people to host their own worlds and fully customize them.
PROJECT STATUS: OPEN ALPHA
Current Supported Client: 5709L (Jun 17, 2009)
Do not patch beyond this date, or you will not be able to play on an EQ2Emulator server!
A lot of things have been happening around here. An insane amount of progress has been made since the last announcement but I am not gonna take the fun away from the Dev team just yet. We just finished collaborating on a new way to welcome all new members. When you register and login you get a friendly private message that welcomes you and gives you More than enough links and information from where to go, and how to get started. If you have been unregistered and viewing the forums, now the best time to jump in, also a good time to invite your friends too. Just a little announcement this time... until next time I have time to announce anything. So long! (and thanks for all the fish)
Ok, no missing the post or forgetting the big warning!
BACK UP YOUR EQ2EMULATOR CLIENT DIR!!!
That's as BIG as I can get it.
After today's GU52 patch (June 16, 2009), this might be the last live client update for a while. Last time was April, and this is June, so you get the idea.
Back up, or don't complain about not being able to connect!
Until we move beyond this version, support posts about clients > 5709L will be locked, and accounts warned if I am feeling extra moody at the time.
While I can appreciate all the new interest in EQ2Emulator and our little project, the new people coming along need to spend a little more time reading, and a lot less time clicking the New Topic button. These forums, and our Wiki, are over-loaded with useful information if you spend 10 minutes doing a little searching, or reading specific STICKIED threads. We cannot possibly make this information any easier to get to than that.
I am making this an Announcement so it'll show up first thing on the Portal, and thus any excuse you cannot find said info is null and void. (since this post about the database status was not obvious enough, that is...)
THERE IS NO SPAWNED DATABASE AT THIS TIME!
What you get when you install the software and download the database from EQ2Emulator.net is the CORE data required to run your server. CORE data is that data required to run the server, log in, see things, and be able to function and create spawns and such of your own.
THERE WILL BE AN OFFICIAL DATABASE!
...just not now. We are in ALPHA with the Server Code, and that means the DB is changing way too often to release one. It would make no sense to do so at this time.
TESSEQ2 IS THE PROJECT DATABASE SERVER!
Until I am kicked, removed, or usurped from this project, my server (TessEQ2) is the only place to find true Official EQ2Emulator Project Data. Other servers are run by non-project admins, and any content they are developing is of their own design and NOT official data. Many admins wish to have a custom, non SOE-Like experience; or they are simply using the tools we have provided to build a world for their own enjoyment.
If you like their data, contact the server admin for a copy. I am sure they are eager to share their hard work. Ok, maybe not.
WHEN WILL THE DATABASE BE RELEASED???//111
Never, if every day the Content Team needs to spend countless hours on these forums re-iterating these facts that are posted in nearly every forum and searchable using the Search tools.
Sarcasm aside, data will be released once EQ2Emulator server reaches a BETA phase, or shortly thereafter. Once the server is stable enough where data is not constantly changing, the Project Leaders will release an Official Database for everyone's use and enjoyment.
Not a moment sooner.
I will leave this thread open for discussion until someone posts something insulting or retarded while still not offering to help the 3 people doing this entire database ourselves, in our limited spare time.
Remember one thing; we're doing this because we enjoy it, not because we have to.
If it is taking too long, then volunteer to help AND ACTUALLY HELP.
/rant off
To those who do understand what a major task this is, building not only an EQ2 Server but all the content that goes along with it, I can speak for the entire team that your gratitude and compliments mean a lot to us.
To those player/testers who are reporting numerous bugs, you have our endless thanks - because if it were not for you very few who care, we would not be able to get this done.
Code is on TessEQ2 for testing. Summary, paulgh (our newest c++ developer) has added support for displaying various things in the /who list, including AFK, LFG, LFW and various other things. Follow the thread above for details.
Report bugs in-game using the /bug tool.
Remember: These are Display-Only enhancements right now, so please do not bug stuff that isn't supported yet.
Anyone developing a custom database, make sure you read this thoroughly!
There is a major database change coming from the DB Update server coming in the next week(ish) that will change some of the structures of our spawn tables.
Who should care about this change?
Anyone currently building a custom world or adding spawns of any kind to their database manually or via the packet parser.
What is being changed?
Specifically, the zonespawngroup, zonespawnentry and zonespawns tables are being renamed to the following:
Uhh, why?
When we started designing how NPC "groups" would work, we discovered that our previous naming of the 'zonepspawngroup' table actually got us into trouble. A "Spawn Group" was previously known as the grouping of individual spawn points at a particular location in a zone. When NPC "groups" came along, we realized this table naming scheme would only lead to confusion down the road, so we opted to change it now.
After these changes are in place, we'll be adding the 4th table to this design: spawn_location_groups and all will be well with the World.
How is change being deployed?
After you download the newest development code from SVN (likely in the next few days) and start EQ2World.exe, like usual, World will ask for updates from Login, and these new tables will be inserted into your database. The next part of the script will then attempt to copy all the data that is in the obsolete tables to your new tables automatically.
In a few weeks we will push out DROP TABLE queries to clean out those old tables that are no longer needed. This should happen without any intervention on your part, aside from restarting World with the new code to get the changes.
So spawning NPCs has changed, how?
If you use in-game commands to create and save new spawns, nothing will change for you. However, if you're Database monkies like me, you will build your spawns normally (spawn, spawn_npcs, npc_appearance*) but when you place the NPC in a location, you will enter data into the spawn_location_name, entry and position tables instead of the old tables.
If you put spawn location data in the zonespawns tables, it will not be recognized by the World after this weekend.
How should I prepare for this update?
Let's see...
YOU ARE ADVISED TO BACKUP YOUR ENTIRE DB IMMEDIATELY!
YOU ARE ADVISED TO BACKUP YOUR ENTIRE DB IMMEDIATELY!
YOU ARE ADVISED TO BACKUP YOUR ENTIRE DB IMMEDIATELY!
Nothing should go wrong in this update, but I am trying to emphasize that if something CAN go wrong, it will... so backup your data. it will be a lot easier to recover lost spawn point data with a backup than to rebuild your worlds.
Self maintenance for Server's and your accounts and currently in Beta, so please go out there, give them a good old thrashing and give us some feedback! Let us know if they work, or if they go all "Alt+Ctrl+Del" on you.
Groups have just hit public TessEq2 so get out there and give them all you got! Everything isn't working just yet, but right-click and more group options are next on the list! Get all of your friends together and break stuff, in a group! A lot of the core group area works, things like inviting and joining groups (obviously), leaving a group, and group chat. a great feature that works if you crash something client side and your leader of your party! Your connection goes link dead, it will go to the next person invited, then when you rejoin you won't have to be re-invited and hassle your way back to the top. Once your connection is re-established, your good to go! A large part of the right-click menu works for group members, I guess windows' takes the cake again!
Hope to see you guys out there in Tess-Breaking-Groups.
Just wanted to fill you guys in on whats happening around here. As you might have seen from the title we have managed to split the project into phases! Here's the best part; We are up to Phase 4! We have a lot of items (over 100,000!) and plenty of them are working as intended! Preparations for expansions are down pat, plenty of new zones are being polished just for you guys, not to mention the spell and database editor. These guys will hit Open Beta in no time!
That's it for now guys, check back here in a few weeks!
TessEQ2 was originally created as an open, open-source project. As the development team steam rolled through the gigantic amount of content, pumping out scripts, quests, and items faster than a wood chipper, you got your hands on it the moment that happened. Kind of like in Subway, they make the Sub in front of your eyes. This allowed the Development team to get feedback straight away from bugs, glitches, floating corpses that followed you around trying to attack you... etc, and you guys got to play around with stuff the split second it was completed. After a year of "more Jalapenos, less capsicum" they have decided its time to put things under wraps, and keep on tanking their way through. This means you guys don't get the new stuff straight away, but that means less crashes as well! Here is why the moved over into a more closed open-source project;
- Eq2Emu is well under way, and all of the big nooks and crannies have been filled with the core of the Emu.
- If TessEq2 kept up like this, you guys would have a great risk of losing data when it comes to the more important things, Fabled Items and the like
John Adams wrote:Also, crashes. No one likes crashes.
- This "Undercover" approach allows the team to focus on development, and I thought these guys couldn't go any faster!
- This way, we can develop way of releasing content before people start losing Fabled gear!
On a final note; TessEQ2 isn't going anywhere for you guys, its still up, running, fully functional and maintained to you guys can *crash* *bang* and *wallop* all you like. The Dev Team won't keep everything to themselves, whenever a zone is very near completion, its going straight up on public TessEQ2.
