Classic Everquest Project

[quido]

http://eqnexus.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Everquest.jpg (http://classiceverquest.org)

I am resurrecting the Classic Everquest Project (CEP) at http://classiceverquest.org. CEP is an open-source community dedicated to providing a flexible classic Everquest server implementation for people looking to host their own box. CEP is not a server project at this point and only hosts a test server.

Why?
Somebody needs to do it. EQEmu has too many new things to worry about to put the amount of work into classic that we'd all like to see. A stock EQEmu box is a nightmare for the most part in classic zones. Project1999 - no disrespect because I love the p99 and still play here - is a proprietary endeavor. They're not sharing their source or their database anytime soon. While blue and red are great, I'd love to see a community where people are willing to take a stab at hosting a box. I'd really like to see a teams server, and I'm really curious to see what pops up involving different rulesets and degrees of itemloot.

Lots of different projects and people have put in good work towards a classic Everquest implementation over the years, but almost no one has shared their work. This project seeks to establish a complete and polished classic Everquest implementation with various ease-of-administration tools that will make hosting a server more reasonable.

What can you do?
First, come sign up for our forums at http://classiceverquest.org/phpBB3/. Poke around and see what we are about and what we've done. We need all different sorts of help including:

- People to answer questions about how things should be - see our Good Intentions (http://classiceverquest.org/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=5) forum.

- People to write quests, create pathing, eliminate non-classic loot and spawns, and complete other various such content development.

- People to just poke around the world and see what needs work


Project1999 is leagues ahead of us, but I think with some conscientious effort, we could have an implementation that is pretty damn awesome and superior to what else is out there in some regards. As is stated in our Classic Everquest Roadmap (http://classiceverquest.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1477) thread, we have a number of high priorities we are looking to knock out quickly.

PvP Resists - I intend to put considerable effort into a balanced and enjoyable system. I need input from classic PvPers so please share your thoughts and concerns here (http://classiceverquest.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=7).

AC and Melee Damage - By default in eqemu, melee damage is too high for the classic era, and mitigation isn't tuned for the gear found in classic. These entire systems will be evaluated and likely overhauled.

PvE Raid Resists - PvE raid resists will be evaluated and changed to create challenging progression encounters.

Easy On/Off Switches for all era-related content - This system is already partially implemented as described here (http://classiceverquest.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=17). This is an ease-of-administration implementation meant to make things easier for someone trying to host a server.

100% Polished Zones - I don't have the same zeal for absolute classic that other people do. If it's as right as is reasonably possible at the time, that's good enough for me; we can get super nitpicky over time. What I do care about is having zones that operate smoothly. Not only will we correct spawns and loot to their classic versions, but all roamer waypoints will be intelligently and conscientiously implemented. Furthermore, pathing grids will be continually reviewed and tested and the pathing implementation will be adjusted as is necessary.

Anti-Cheats, MQ/SEQ detection - We will figure something out. I'm looking to brainstorm some ideas on this topic and would love to hear your input. Please come share your ideas with us here (http://classiceverquest.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1478).


There is tons of work to be done, but I'm just going to keep trucking through it. If you want to get on board and donate some time and effort to the project - whether or not you have EQ development experience - please, contact me. If enough people pitch in, we could have a badass implementation in a very short amount of time.

Thanks for reading - I hope you come check us out!

[Zadrian]

Not sure if serious, but why not just go help with EQClassic?

[Bardalicious]

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/347/135/985.jpg

[Swish]

why not just go help with EQClassic?

Heard that was vaporware and a dead duck :(

Is there access to some kind of library to help with coding and such? I've always wanted to toy around with various aspects of EQ and never really had the opportunity, so it sounds interesting ;)

[Haynar]

Either way you go, its a lot of work. Good luck. You need some dedicated ppl to succeed. Even then its still tough. You better give up on playing too now. Just will never work out and run a project too.

H

[quido]

There's no reason we couldn't integrate support for the Trilogy client if EQClassic wants to share their work in that right. The only stuff I've looked at on their site is the patch notes. I've been hearing about EQClassic for close to 5 years now and have seen next to nothing as far as results.

Is there access to some kind of library to help with coding and such?

You don't have to be a real coder to be able to help with a lot of what such a project needs. If you want to anyways, though, EQEmu is written in C++ primarily and uses Perl (or sometimes Lua now) for quests. However, other such disciplines can prove useful for other utilities and such. The script I made here (http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131929) was written in PHP.

Either way you go, its a lot of work. Good luck. You need some dedicated ppl to succeed. Even then its still tough. You better give up on playing too now. Just will never work out and run a project too.

H

I will sacrifice the souls of my twenty level 60 characters for success in CEP - thanks for the well wishes!

[Tongpow]

I've been hearing about EQClassic for close to 5 years now and have seen next to nothing as far as results.


i was in the Alpha back in the day it was "real" like you could connect to a server with the client afaik it was never stress tested with more than like 10-15 people online at the same time and all kinds of random crashes n shit and like 20 devs that came and went over the years

http://i.imgur.com/e6HRrbV.jpg

[Secrets]

Not sure if serious, but why not just go help with EQClassic?

They're closed source and probably won't allow anyone from P99 to help with their project.

On topic, you're more than welcome to use PEQMac as a base.
You will only have to make a patch_Trilogy for the client. Everything else is handled already.

https://github.com/cavedude00/Server/commits/master

You can use the piratebay link for EQ Trilogy or PM me about it; i'll get you hooked up.

[Grimjaw]

my first attempt at running a server I had it fully up and running in about 12 hours and that was with outdated guides, databases, utilities, etc. it was a nightmare but none the less I had a PvP server up with 8 level range and 1 item loot - Rallon Zek PvP within a day.

first thing I did was add a charge count column to the merchant temp item table, in order to track charges and disable recharging.

it was fun. but a ton of work to fix everything.

[heartbrand]

Good luck. I offered several thousand dollars to people to code even the most basic of things but people were too lazy. Either way id be willing to financially support this project.

[quido]

http://www.msu.edu/~oconne53/erarules.jpg

Making progress, ever so slowly!

Come join in the fun: http://classiceverquest.org

[Grimjaw]

quido try heidisql

[Rust1d?]

Why did EQclassic fail? The guy Yeahlight seemed to be a fucking retard though.

I did like the idea of a true classic EQ with classic UI music etc etc. Obviously, I think it would need a bump in exp, but would put everybody on even ground when it came to UI configs.

[averad]

moooooooo?

[quido]

quido try heidisql

I use it sometimes, depending what I'm doing.

[blondeattk]

what a waste of time.

Go and make something more original!

[loramin]

what a waste of time.

Go and make something more original!

Well, it's really just about math. You see:

# of people who want to play Luclin or Planes of Power = at least half this server's population
# of people who want to play Jeremy's CustomQuest = Blondeattk

:p

[Ele]

Why did EQclassic fail? The guy Yeahlight seemed to be a fucking retard though.

His story is that he would only release it if Sony hosted the servers for EQClassic and they laughed at him.

Most likely, he couldn't get things finalized or realized he couldn't deliver, so he closed up shop.

[quido]

Making good strides!

After adding various era-based content items, I started classicizing Veeshan's Peak last night. VP presents some interesting issues that I wanted to get a grasp on.

Thank god we have p99 as a reference for some of the more terse issues like this.

While setting up racnars I noticed they didn't assist one another, so after some research I found that assists on the primary VP faction were disabled. Good to know. I poked around and deciphered the faction system in eqemu, I think!

Next is the issue of wurms. Wurms in VP present a number of variables. Some wurms are supposed to see invis, some wurms are supposed to have 1 of 4 different spell effects (fear, coldnuke/dispell, fire DD, AE frontal cone thing?), and wurms hit for 300, 700, or 1500.

One solution to this is to create 24 different versions of the wurm npc, each having a different combination of the effects and then setup a spawn group with the requisite probabilities. This sounds like a fucking nightmare, so I decided to stick with a single NPC type and just attach a quest to it that causes these attributes to be (somewhat) randomly selected.

Dragons present some challenges too. It appears that by default dragons with a lingering debuff (like Hoshkar, Nexona) won't recast their AE if the debuff remains on their target. I can get Hoshkar to cast his AE every 12 seconds using a quest script, but I figure there's an easier fix for this issue.

We are inching forward! Come visit us at http://classiceverquest.org if you'd like to join our dream team.

[Erasong]

this is pretty cool.

[mtb tripper]

i'd like to see you do it man. good luck

[quido]

I created an implementation today to change an NPC's list of spells on the fly via the quest manager. This was used to generate random effects on VP wurms. Also the problem with dragon AEs that have a DoT or debuff effect not being recast before the effect wears off the target has been solved.

With regards to people wanting to play/develop Luclin and PoP, especially after years of P99: I am attempting to bear in mind the possibility of this project continuing to expansions beyond Velious some day. We are slowly disabling code relating to out-of-era mechanics (like AAs, Adventures, etc), but nothing is being permanently removed. We are leaving the means to once again use all this code that has no place in Vanilla to Velious. I would have to assume that up until a certain point, the later expansions are better implemented in peq than this nonsense I'm seeing in classic.

A little fun at the end of a long day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDzURpr7vwY

[mtb tripper]

nice haha. ultimate train