Classic Everquest Project

[quido]

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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 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 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.

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. 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.


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]

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[Swish]

Originally Posted by Zadrian [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

why not just go help with EQClassic?

Heard that was vaporware and a dead duck [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

[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.

Originally Posted by Swish [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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 was written in PHP.

Originally Posted by Haynar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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]

Originally Posted by quido [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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

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[Secrets]

Originally Posted by Zadrian [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

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.