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Solo Server Package 2021

Hi all,

I hope this will be of use to someone out there! I was looking for a means to play EQ offline over LAN with a reduced grind, but still some challenge.

I happened upon djeryv's thread where they had put together a solo server package that included some extensive updates making it easier to roll a solo eq server that included new NPCs in the bazaar selling various equipment, as well as sets of NPCs that reside in and around the major cities providing quests, items for sale and the ability to up your skills.

The sql scripts appeared to be out of date, and had various errors when sourcing them into the current DB format. I have adjusted the files to accommodate the new columns in the npc_types table of the current PEQ db so that these no longer have errors.

Thank you djeryv for putting in all of the hard work, this is an awesome addition!

You can download this update here.

As always, back up your current DB first. I had some issues running this over my current DB and had to roll a fresh one using Akkadius' installer before NPC dialogue would work.

See below quote for djeryv's description of the modifications.

Quote:

This entire package changes an Everquest server to be more solo-friendly. It is meant for servers with very low populations, or servers you play in
single player mode.

This does quite a few different things. It will scale monsters back to a level where you can fight them alone, meaning the ones where a group is meant
to combat them. Due to this, you should not need any bots to play here. This should then allow you to play a race and class unique to its abilities and
not have the cookie-cutter group doing the same tactics. Monsters should not readily help their comrades, and they will have a smaller radius of noticing
you. This lets you fight monsters one at a time and avoid getting ganged up on. The spawn times have been increased for those that spawned quickly. This
lets you clear out dungeons easier since you will be in the area alone. NOTE: These affect creatures level 20 or over, as this is where the balance shifts
toward more group oriented battles.

The Bazaar will also be filled with merchants with tons of wares and unique items. It gives you a place to spend your mountains of gold later on. This is to
help you acquire items that better aid playing alone, and also give the Bazaar some life. There will also be spell merchants there that sell unusual spells
that are really hard to get. This should exclude things like research spells and spells you get from monsters.

If you use all of the included features, then the starting cities will not have any Plane of Knowledge books. This is to bring back the classic mode of play
where you had to begin in your starting city, and travel far across the land to get to other locations. The other books will remain, but in places where you
would get to them at a much higher level.

Within the Plane of Knowledge are 2 unique NPCs. One is a barbarian that will freely cast Spirit of Wolf on folks. The other is a witch that will teleport you
to almost any zone you want to go. This is another reason that the Plane of Knowledge should not be discovered until a character has adventured for awhile.

The Priests of Discord are replaced with teachers that will help you spend your skill points on skills you may have learned from your
guildmaster. This was added to fix a flaw in the skill distribution system, so although that may be fixed, these teachers are here just in case.

Each city will have a sorceress that you can ask for spells you may buy for your level. They will try and tell you who in the world sells that spell and
where they are located. Each of the search results will have a link so you can better inspect the items searched. She can also tell you what class gets
what spells at certain levels. While viewing this list, you can also see the details of it and where you can go buy it. You may ask about what spells you
get for a certain level. Tell her the level you are wondering about and she will tell you all of the spells you can get and where you can buy them from.

There are some rule settings for item and experience loss on death, along with drop and lore flags being removed. Many items have their prices set or set to a
lower amount. This is because of the quests added to the system and because the Bazaar sells some of these items and there was no price set for them originally.
Quest rewards would make a character rich very quickly, so these prices were greatly lowered at times. Mounts have had their prices reduced, so one can
purchase them without needing a small fortune. The mana and health regenerate faster while resting, so you can get back into the action.

Brother Dremel is in the Bazaar, and he will trade rare items used in crafting, for various items that the witches give for quest rewards. So if you need a
rare ingredient, Dremel may have it. He would tell you the exact item he wants in trade and which of the witches gives that item as a reward. This is to help
solo characters actually craft items, without needing a high population of players to make the ingredients for you. There is a new table loaded for this NPC
called _item_search, which is included in the SQL file.

There is also artisans in all of the cities. They have the same items as Brother Dremel, except he will accept payment for such items. There is a new
table loaded for this NPC called _craft_merchant, which is included in the SQL file.

There is also arcanum merchants in all of the cities. They have a bunch of expensive adventuring gear and items but they will only show you items that your
class, race, and level can use. They don't use the standard merchant system because they can have over 1,000 items to show you.

The included global_npc.pl script will have your monsters potentially drop a random item(s) based on their level.

The last part, and probably the biggest part, is the quest system included with this. There are about 447 tasks that are available. Each starting city will have
a Witch of the Velvet Order nearby. They will give quests to adventurers, and these quests have some purpose/goal in the area the witch is in. So each witch will have
unique tasks for each starting city area. They are far enough away from guards, so hostile races can get quests from them as well without having the local
guards kill them. The Plane of Knowledge has such a witch as well, and she will give higher level quests that can be anywhere in the world. These quests give no
experience points, but they do have various rewards that could help an adventurer. The witch will be clear on the task you need to do, along with the choice of
items you can get if you finish the task. Since it uses the newer task system, your progress will be tracked for you. The witches give you plenty to do and you
can do these tasks as many times as you want. Each one indicates a recommended level as well.

When you have a server successfully running, then shut down the EQ server and then follow the directions below. When you are done, start it up and enjoy!

1. Only do this if you want to make the Plane of Knowledge only accessible to those that travel far from cities.
Copy the below files into your quests\tutorialb directory, overwriting the files in it.
The books will vanish from starting cities if you use the included SQL file, but the ones further away will remain
so you can enter the Plane of Knowledge later on. This is meant to give that classic feel when you started your
adventure in your homeland. These 2 files will cause those that leave Gloomingdeep to go to their starting city instead of the Plane of Knowledge.
See the solo_knowledge.sql file for more details.
#Arias.pl
player.pl

2. Copy the other *.pl files (not including the 2 noted above in #1) into your quests\global directory.

3. Source the following SQL file into your database.
solo_server.sql

3. Source the following SQL file into your database, but only if you want all of your guards and townsfolk updated to the newer graphics and have randomized
appearances so your settlements have a more diversified look and feel. This particular update also give the guards and townsfolk the wider reaction radius they
had before the solo_server.sql file reduced them all for better solo play. The lowering of the reaction radius was really meant for dangerous areas so your
character doesn't get grouped on by monsters so easily.
visual_update.sql

not working in 2022

Thank you for the update! I am having some issues with the witches and their quests. I noticed that in the quests lines like this one

"NSERT INTO `tasks` VALUES (7003, 2, 0, 0, 'Troublesome Iksar [ Level 6 ]', 'The Iksar usually leave us be, but there is a group in the Field of Bone that are giving us some grief. Go there and slay some Iksar Footpads. They will then begin to fear us. You will get one of the following... Kerran Tribal Headband Johanius Stake of Slaying Kejekan Tribal Headband Jedah\'s Brass Choker Luclinite Mallet Kilt of the Northmen Magician Belt Lost Adventurer\'s Trinket If you want a different one from the list, then give this back to the Sister who gave it to you and she will give you a different reward.', 'Kerran Tribal Headband', 1063, 538, 12500, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, '');"

no longer worked as the new db has 5 more columns at the end. I was able to get these working by adding extra zeroes at the end to fields that are not used.

However on the part with statements like this one
"INSERT INTO `task_activities` VALUES (7681, 0, 0, 1, 'Sister Ruskal', 'Algae Covered Flesh', '-1', '0', '', 1736, 0, 1, 800009, '2', 0);"

I noticed we are many columns short of what task_activities has. task_activities now has 28 columns and I am having trouble matching up these fields.

Has anyone gotten this to work with the new DB? If you can you post in your updated SQL?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Quote:

Originally Posted by argybargy (Post 268385)

Has anyone gotten this to work with the new DB? If you can you post in your updated SQL?

Thanks in advance for any help!

I found an older, clean database of mine, vs 9178, which seem to take that sql query for the solo server no problem. Then I updated the whole thing to db version 9200.
You DON'T NEED TO source that sql file in from the solo package here, but you will need the rest of the script files.

You can download that database here:

https://tinyurl.com/solo-server9200

Thank you so much!

So just to clarify, I do a fresh install with the installer suite on this site and then add your DB?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huppy (Post 268387)

You can download that database here:

https://tinyurl.com/solo-server9200

Quote:

Originally Posted by argybargy (Post 268388)

So just to clarify, I do a fresh install with the installer suite on this site and then add your DB?

The zip file I put together, has a readme included.

I saw the readme file. I must be missing something as I ended up with a server that had no NPCs on it.

I don't know how to update DB versions. Is that something we do in Heidi?

I am a bit new at this so I would appreciate a step buy step help guide. We have a fully working server and all the solo package is in except the part starting with the section quoted above which won't work as the fields have changed in the database. We just need that updated to work with our DB. Or get an of idea of where in the new tables the values go.

Thanks again for all your help.

Quote:

Originally Posted by argybargy (Post 268405)

That zip file is a completely clean whole database, with the solo stuff added in. It's not something you update your own current database with.

You have to create a new database in your mysql, then source that database in. (This means you won't be using your database at all)

Adding in all those tables to that original solo query, would be a very tedious and long journey, which I wasn't willing to do, so the only help I could give was using that older clean (vanilla) database.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huppy (Post 268387)

Hello so im new to this whole server thing. I was browsing the forums when I came upon this thread. The sound of a solo friendly server just seems awesome. However I am unsure about where to start.

Atm I am able to install, setup basic settings and play on my server. But that is the limit of my knowledge. Would you be able to guide me threw that process of getting this to work? If not I fully understand. If you can id be willing to use discord to make it easier.

Thanks

Quote:

Originally Posted by /dev/pie (Post 268460)

Sorry, I got too much of my own stuff to work on, I just don't have the time needed, as you will need to learn all about working with databases, structured query language, etc. In a nutshell, you need to create a new database in your mysql, then source in the database included with the download I posted. Then your server config files will need to be edited to point at the new database. (eqemu_config.json and login.json)

The wiki docs - https://docs.eqemu.io/ are a big help when starting out, if one reads right through them. They are not perfect, but it helps.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huppy (Post 268461)

Thank you very much.

Spent a few hours today trying to get this solo package to work. For the life of me the instructions just don't work. Huppy's files say he has a complete DB with solo preinstalled, but then he also says you "need all the other SQL scripts from solo server" - which is mystifying to me because the two DB seem totally incompatible with one another. I tried for a while to try and apply one over the other but there are tons and tons of errors with column differences & whatnot. And it doesn't work on its own either.
Getting into the server, I found regardless of whether I used Huppy's DB alone or with the other one partially applied, all NPCs in the world were absent. That and it was telling me I didn't have expansions for human race... somehow. I'm sure there would be many more issues if I tested further, but no NPCs is kind of a deal breaker anyway, lol.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huppy

In a nutshell, you need to create a new database in your mysql, then source in the database included with the download I posted. Then your server config files will need to be edited to point at the new database. (eqemu_config.json and login.json)

I made a totally new eqemu server install, put the quests from solo package in, sourced in your DB & loginaccounts... and yeah, it doesn't work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vire70 (Post 268497)

I made a totally new eqemu server install, put the quests from solo package in, sourced in your DB & loginaccounts... and yeah, it doesn't work.

I have that solo package installed on mine, has been since I put it together, before I posted the download. Mine is working fine.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Huppy (Post 268387)

Just to clarify, (In that quote above) where I said "you will need the rest of the script files", it's referring to QUEST SCRIPTS, not sql queries. The quest scripts, you just add to your server quests folder.

BUT, if you are using newer code than when I posted that, then it all needs to be updated. (using the update script). Otherwise, you will get a lot of errors. The current (as of today) version for peq is 9212. That db I put together was updated to 9200.

I always advise people not to rely on that update script too much when trying to update an older version database. Best thing you can do is go into the db_version table and knock the version back (for example) 9178 or something, THEN run the update script eqemu_server.pl I have cases where I had to do it a few times, because I have dealt with a lot of older databases, when monkeying around with projects. Afterwards, login to the game, to whatever zone, then look at the server zone logs and it may show you what tables/fields are still missing.

The OP that put that original server package together, never came back to keep it up to date. Myself, I run version 9200 code right now and I'm not updating that at all. I only did this as a one time update and have no plans on continuing to do that, but in the mean time, the db/binary versions from Emu devs will keep upgrading way past this database.

Huppy, I'm almost embarrassed to admit this but I just ran that check_database_updates in the server .pl, fired the server up and it appears to have fixed everything. All the NPCs are there including the custom added merchants and whatnot. So, thanks for your help. I didn't think it would be that simple, and to be honest I didn't understand what you meant before about the "update script" because I'd never used that particular thing before, but mentioning the actual file name reminded me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vire70 (Post 268499)

Hey that's awesome, you got it all working. That update script, it can work good, but sometimes not so much with older databases. It should't be problem with the 9200 version db I posted, but try and go way back to something several years old, is a total pita, haha

Well... on first glance it all seemed to be working. Now that I try to buy from the custom merchants I realize they won't actually let me purchase an item, though they do list them correctly. Anyone got any idea how I would go about fixing that? Talking about the Arcanum merchants. I'll have to zip over to the bazaar and check those ones later.
Seems this is the code that doesn't fire in the arcanum quest .pl files (they're all dupliacates):

Code:

if ( $client->GetCarriedMoney() >= $item_row[2] )

                        {

                                quest::say("Thank you, $name. Here is your $item_name.");

                                quest::summonitem($text);

                                $client->TakeMoneyFromPP( $item_row[2], 1 );

                        }

                        else

                        {

                                quest::say("Sorry, $name. You do not have enough coins for that $item_name.");

                        }

I can't see any visible problems with the code itself & I suppose it must have worked for others in the past, so the problem must be elsewhere.