Based on what I've learned in the last 24 hours, I can see how it would be easier to craft your own quests, drops and such. I had assumed that the emulator was backward engineered in a way that all that stuff was there.

So, am I to understand that it's a "blank" world and that I need to place all the NPCs, spawn times, pathing, program the quests, control drops, tweak for balance all on my own?

If so, are there sites/people out there who supply files/code with some of this already done allowing me to tweak it and customize it, or am I back to being on my own with it?

I do not know C++ and neither does my husband, though he's much farther along than I am. He's a game designer already with a pretty sweet job. I could consult with him of course, but C++ is not his forte.

Its not completly a blank world, you can download a decent DB (Check PEQ website), a few quests (Check forum "quest" on eqemu boards) to start, but lets say it, its only a small part of a server, this will need still a lot of work, A LOT to have a decent and playable server.
Having a "blank world" is one of the power of EQEmu, yes, this involve more work, but on the other side, this involve you can customize all the aspects of your server.

Mostly, yes, you will be on your own, but nothing prevent you from recruiting a staff of peoples that will work with you on your project (Look like you will need C++ coders~), but like always, finding "good" peoples is the hardest part in making a project (Well, its only my opinion).

Without a C++ coder, your server will be completely dependent on the rare official updates from the devteam.

You don't want that, trust me.

I know. I do not intend to do it unless I can do it well. I'm just here asking questions & looking for solutions, if any, to any short commings. In order to make any future decisions on this, I need to have all the information I can get.

By the way, LDoNs dont work (You can #zone into them, but you cant spawn like an adventure recruiter).

However with some knowledge of perl and utilizing the quest globals one could write a script for LDoN Recruiters.

The one question you want to ask yourself before doing this type of a large scale project, is why are you doing it?

I understand that you want to make an eqclone with a better GM program, more events, and such, but you have to really ask yourself deep down, why you want to do this.

Is it for friends?
For yourself?
For Money? (Mind you if its to make some extra cash your looking in the wrong place)
Or perhaps you just want to have the power that the Gms at SoE do?

Reguardless of the reason, you need to figure out what it is.

You will notice that most if not all of the quests you find on these boards will be slightly customized to the person who wrote it, what i mean is, you will find that standarizing your quest system will be difficult unless you write them all yourself, otherwise you will find that debuging them will be difficult, and as is much the same with the server code, as melwin said you dont' want to depend on just the genearl stock release, these are put together with working bug fixes, which you then can merge into your own code, without custom code you will find your server is difficult to keep alive without you constantly there to check on things.

If you really are trying to create a true eqlive clone, you will have to develop alot of systems that haven't ever been touched by the emu before, or atleast i haven't seen any servers with them, such things are the PoP flag system, there are alot of things that go into this system, namly you need to keep track of who has what flags, you could use perl to keep track, but you would find your qglobal table to be quite a mess if you did so, you would probably want to code in your own system right into the server, that has a way to communicate with you sql database and its own table just for pop flags, you then have to be able and have the world around your characters change depending on these flags, things like the wood figurine, you would have to devlop your own code so that this item would react to the amount of pop flags a person has, you would have to set keys into the zone points on the PoT and each time someone clicks it has to check if they have the flag, somthing that also is missing from the code right now, physical keys work (i.e. an old bone key opens door A, this works but i don't believe that invisible flag type keys work, could be wrong but not sure), you would have to have the seer react to the flags, in which case you would need to develop a new perl command that reads this seperate pop table, if you choose to do it that way. plus you would need to develop a new command so that the planar projections would be able to set the variables in this said table.

So you see there is a TON of work to go in to making the simple flag system work like live, LDoN system would be even more difficult becuase of the way the recruitment system works, and the GoD even more, you would have to develop the code to cause the GoD adventure window to react to the number of ppl in the adventure. etc...

Now, don't let this dicourage you, i can tell by the way you talk about it that you more than have the mind to do this, its just that you have to realize how much work is needed. I do not doubt that you could do it, i mean if the idoits at sony can make it work, then i am sure you can, its just that somthing this large scale would take months to get working, unless you were a C++ guru, which you might be, you haven't said whether you were or not, but even so, it would take quite a while to work it all in, plus you would have to keep up with the updates SoE makes, unless you wanted to say stop it at GoD and keep your server without OoW.

So in the end, you would have an amazing server. but there are people out ther who don't like to beta test things, they like the finished product, these kind of people are annoying, they get mad when stuff doesn't work even though tyou say your still Testing =P. and as such they will not be ones to help you with yoru cause until they see some results, in other words you will have people who will want to help, or maybe donate, to the work in progress, but others probably will want to see a finished product before investing anything into it. which means you will be running off your own wallet for a while until you get the server in a decent working condition.

depends on what you mean by this, your own as in your own version of an eqlive quest? or your own as in new quests? you will find that new quests will be mroe fun becuase you get to make it up as you go, however like i said eariler writting your own eqlive clone type quests will be easier that using those already made, becuase you will understand how they are suppopse to work.

A few quests i would love to see on an eqclone would be the old PoM libarary card quest, i mentioned earlier, i used to spend days collecting cards and getting the flowers of functionallity, i loved those, and they sold well on FV =P until the revamp. quests like these you might be good to recreate, however quests like the plactery quest, <shutter> which take FOREVER to complete, you might want to change, or revamp. or just create your own quests which is the best bet, its more fun, and easier becuse you don't have to keep to the rules of eqlive.

Most of the databases out there include the drop tables, i beleive. correct me if i am wrong someone, we don't use the pre assembled ones on EQA. but i think they do, as for pathing, i also think that is int he databases, however again i am not sure. tweaking for balance is very possible, but you msut remember the databases are HUGE, tweaking one mob at a time would take you a very long time, however repoping all of eq would take even longer, so that would be up to you.

I know i have talked for a long time so i will finish up and say, this would be aswome to see a true eq clone, lots of people have said they are doing it and never actually do, becuase they don't have the people, skills, or time to do it. based on the way you sound in your writting i believe you have more than enough skill and ability to do it, so i would lvoe to see this work out for you, however you are looking at a ton of work, and you will need some good staff.


Best of Luck to you.

Re: More Newbie Questions
 

Um
#1 yeah as long as it aint an old 486 or a P1, P1 may work but I think P2 minimum.
#2 You can edit it, its all open source so yeah u can change it... and yep thats the odd thing, there are more than one servers in the list.
#3 Well you can customize it, your the server administrator, do whatever the hell your want, your god in your server.
#4 If you want to you can charge I guess, SOE wouldnt be that happy... but you dont need to constantally upgrade hardware, this isnt a blazing fast GUI with graphics and stuff, its an advanced console program, thats all to it, run it on your home PC if you use COX or Comcast, I do not recommend using something like roadrunner. If your really gonna spend that much money just go to www.managed.com and get a server.
#5 Yep
#6 Yeah, but I dont know about splash screen.. other than that, yeah I think so
#7 Stats, yeah, status, i dont understand.

Sure you can Macroquest has it when you are running it before you login to eq. it replaces the eq screen with one that says Macroquest across it.