One groupable server compared to raid server
 

just a little curious to see what people think of this, i am kinda in mind to create a one groupable server and i am curious about the current databases out there. peq and ax classic, i understand that most would prefer to stick to two databases and i am not really interested in creating custom stuff to the database itself. except for mobs hp and dmg output to make it into a server that is one groupable, 6 man team. instead of the 24-36 man raid, a hard one groupable but not so hard you cannot kill a boss. the reason i am leaning towards this is because it would make epic 2.0 available as well as the experience to get to end game content without having to be in a raid, i do not want to take the lockout timers away on such things as dragon raids, when things become available. i guess what i am asking has anyone attempted this type of server and if so what kind of drawbacks or issues have you faced when attempting this kind of server

key issues:

1) you'll want to remove death touch (aka Cazic Touch) from various boss mobs.

2) remove banish from various bosses (trakanon, nagafen, lady vox, etc.)

3) depending on era, you'll need to tune damage and hp's for bosses. case in point, nagafen with merely 32k hp and maxdmg around 400, should be easily 1 groupable, whereas, most velious dragons have well over 100k hp which would easily exhaust healer mana on a single group encounter.

4) reduce/remove triggered pets (terris thule's butterfly stage, precursor waves for Behemoth in PoI, etc.)

5) re-tune respawn timers. having giants respawn after only 2 hours while trying to single group lady vox would be highly difficult.

== sfisque

This is interesting to me because of a recent idea I decided to undertake.

I always wanted to strip the DB down to the bare minimum so I could do a completely custom server. I want to leave only the essential stuff to make the server run, but leave out mobs, items etc. This is because I like to make a small custom 3-5 zone 'game' for my guildies to play over teh weekend or something. Then, maybe next week, I want to revert back to my peq classic-like DB.

Has anyone ever done this, or is there some obscure link for a 'bare bones' DB somewhere ? I don't think simply emptying the items and spawns tables is a good idea, but I haven't looked into it yet, but I plan to this weekend.

Anyway, this might help people who want to make a completely custom DB. It also might make it easier for people to trade their DB's back and forth.

i see what your thinking with your idea but i was not really thinking of going that extreme, just updating the database so that the high level mobs are one groupable, of coarse i know i could simply just up the gear to more hp's instead of changing the boss mobs drastically but also have the instanced and the trigered spawns more doable for one group, i am not really interested in taking the entire content away from the game like your idea suggested or changing the regular mobs for progression reasons, but possibly make key progressions a little easier but keep the content there, and that would be all accross the board, of coarse i think it would be simply adjusting the db through mysql. i was also thinking about creating a thread that i would post those updates as i go so people could mimic what i do if they like it. it would give people the ability to share thier efforts with others to create a good one groupable server so they can have fun in a raid enviroment but a one groupable raid enviroment, not a huge raid everytime you want to go do something. low populated servers could run into this problem. but if you have a group base and friends that want to get together and plan raids as free time permits, which i would like to do for my brother and i because we box 6 computers usually when we play (3 computers each) it eliminates the need for a bot army to raid. and it could also open up indepent guild enviroments but instead of guilds it is more like a 6+ team under a banner. don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with the big guild enviroment but with all the boss's and thier timer lockouts in place it is still first come first serve but people can take the game at thier own pace and not feel the need to rush at a fast eq pace to keep up with everyone else. i always found that grind with live an annoying problem, the grind being time constraints and not being able to raid every night. the problem with soloable servers i see is that the challenge is not there and with god servers(gm abilities) are.... you rush through all the content but get bored easily and then go play another game.

with groupable end content that is still challenging people have the ability to still experience it with a team of friends. i know i am new but i hope nobody thinks i am critical.... i just see the pluses with a groupable enviroment, everbody is different with thier needs.

but i do think that making custom addons as far as zones/spells/mobs and content are also the way to go to create a better game or enhance. not everything needs to be from Live, i have high hopes that is the direction eqemu and the databases will take once things are close to or like Live standards. i know some are customizing zones now. i am just wondering if it is better to create new zones and have a download section for people to update thier servers.

lol see i also have been thinking about this for awhile

My server is setup much like you are asking about. The "crowd" on it ranges from 1 person for a couple hours to 5 or 6 of us for an evening a couple times per week. The database is a mix of both angelox & peq. The grabnpc utility works very well but you'll get a couple cluttered areas that you will need to manually clean up afterwards. Well worth the time for me as both are very nice databases with their own flavor. Aside from getting rid of things like banish and death touch, the server has no "economy" with it only being available to a few friends. There is no large guild to pitch in for things like key quests, "raid" mobs or helping farm "no drop" quest items. Respawn rates in some of the zones will keep a small team stuck on entrance mobs for hours at a time if not tuned. I'm still in the process of making things like the dragons have enough HP, AC and specials to make them very difficult but possible for 4-6 people. So far I have not found that magic "%", either making them too easy, or not possible.

Things I have changed:

1. Doors - no more locked doors/key quests.
2. Increased respawn time for normal mobs. We can progress through a dungeon. Still tweaking this a bit.
3. Removed "no drop/no trade". I'm playing for an hour after work and find a buddy's quest item, no problem, I'll hand it to him later.
4. Increased drop rates across the board. We still have to camp, just not for weeks at a time.
5. Removed "death touch". Still hunting for "banish" (low priority).
6. Still debating removing copper and silver from the loot tables of all mobs over level 40. No economy on the server... who needs the added weight.

As I found out the hard way, make frequent use of the mysql back-up utility before mass changing db values. I work on the db for 1-2 hours, make a backup, log in and test changes. If happy, work on the next set, if not, rethink while I restore. I doubt my server work well as a public server. If there were 50 people, the economy would quickly flood, but for a few friends playing a couple times a week, it seems to work.

Fet