EQEmulator Forums - PEQ Merchant List Revised

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PEQ Merchant List Revised

Well, here it is, the revised PEQ merchantlist I promised. Most all trash is cleaned out, I did my best not to remove anything needed. There still is tweaking that needs to be done, but this is a good start.
I noticed a lot of stuff like sow potions, gate potions 'hidden' on vendors ( I'm sure they didn't come with the packets :) ), so I'll show you all how I did this so you can keep watch on your lists (only takes one person with power to edit the list and add a hidden sow or what ever item in there).
I had three windows up;

1-PEQ php editor, ONLY so I could get a good 'visual' of what the vendor had.
2-MySQL Query Browser (any will do , GeorgeS Browser, NavCat, etc.) again ONLY for getting a view of the querys on items and what they were.
3-MySql Shell, here is where I ran my 'mass-delete' querys.

The first querys were easy, for example 'rusty' stuff

Code:

SELECT * FROM items where name regexp 'rusty';

Shows where all the rustys are, and I see most between 5000 and 7000, so

Code:

SELECT * FROM items where id >=5000 and id <=7000;

now i have my first list of weapons, and only need to know what the vendors might have, we know rustys need to go so in my shell;

Code:

DELETE FROM merchantlist where item >=5013 and item<=5040;

That will clean out around 700 unwanted items from all the merchants in the merchantlist.
After the initial stuff I knew by memory didn't belong, I went to my PEQ Editor and started with Gfay merchants, went down the list one by one, pegging things that were unwanted, since most items from a given zone fall in the same area in items table, I would query around the item I saw. for example I saw an orc hachet with item id 12108;

Code:

SELECT * FROM items where id >=12100 and id <=12200;

and I can see a lot of stuff that can go- for one;

Code:

DELETE FROM merchantlist where item>=12105 and item <=12110;

gets rid of a few other items (fairy dust) and the orc hatchet on ALL the merchants.
This went on for a few days, really, once you clear Gfay and PoK, you're pretty much done. The beauty of it is, when you delete an item from merchantlist table, ALL the items go at once. PoK has Items from all zones, by the time you get to another zone, there's little left to do.
Things like tradeskill items; Sow potions, gate or any other skilled potions, runes, words, all that stuff is part of the game and really needs to be dropped off mobs ( if you ever want to see this aspect of EqEmu to flourish). having them permanently on vendors kills the fun and 'sport' of it. BTW, if you decide to use this list, you will not find any of the above 'dropped' tradeskill items available anymore just as it is on live (all these things were very neatly arranged in order, in the items list, very easy to remove from the merchant list).
merchantlist_temp ; I really can't figure this one out, I said it worked because I only tried it at a few vendors in Gfay. but going around to other zones and other vendors , in PoK, I couldn't find a vendor there where it would work, I did find vendors in both Qeynos zones, Kithicore, Akanon. It's wierd. I spent most of yesterday looking for a pattern, and couldn't find anything ( I know it's something simple). it seems the lower zone/vendors have a better chance of all that working right.
ALL vendors place their newly bought items in the merchantlist_temp table, just some ( a lot) don't show them back. You can sell an arrow to a bugged vendor, and he'll take it and place it for sale, then drop window, bring him up again if you look good, you'll see the arrow you sold him 'poof'. now sell him another of the same arrows, he'll think he's showing it to you so he'll add it to the what he has- there'll be two arrows in the merchantlist_temp list and he never displayed the second one.

I so just wasted an entire day..... damnit....

Items in list which have >=100 or more on list

Code:

select item,COUNT(item) as numbers_of_replicates from merchantlist group by item

Code:

  itemid , replicates

16598,297

13006,295

13009,247

13008,245

13005,211

13007,202

16580,195

13002,193

13032,168

10028,166

17005,166

13003,165

7001,161

13087,146

13018,138

13004,137

13040,134

13039,133

5019,130

13100,128

10024,126

13101,123

5013,123

16599,122

10019,119

6011,119

10020,118

6018,117

13068,117

10029,114

17908,114

13031,114

10026,113

5021,111

5020,111

13033,110

17001,110

13085,109

13030,106

13034,104

13015,104

10022,103

13014,102

1001,102

6012,102

5016,102

10015,101

GeorgeS

I started cleaning up merchants a couple of days ago as well. Basically, my method is to use the PEQ Editor and only show the merchants in PoK. Then, I compare their lists to EQTraders/my own knowledge and find any item that don't belong on that list. I then use Allah to identify any item on that list that doesn't belong on ANY vendor. Finally, I add those ids to a growing .sql query to remove them. Since PEQ is still down, I haven't been cleaning up individual lists (I'd rather do that directly to the Live database) but after I am done, each merchant won't have any item that shouldn't be vendor sold, which imho is a HUGE improvement. Many will still have extra items, but the benefit is no legit item will be removed and the extra items are vendor sold anyway.

I already have PoK cleaned out on my system.

I still have that list of all allowed vendor item id's I compiled from allakhazam and eqtraders on my harddisk. If someone is interested give me a call.
Of course it can not check of an old world merchant has Velious merchant stuff in his inventory but applied with a small script it wipes all excess items from the merchant table.

Just to let you guys know, I hate all of you. I haaaaaate farming things (spider silk) for that one elusive skill-up. Oh well. I guess it'll help jump-start that economy...

/ooc WTB tradeskill garbage...

And not to sound like a mean person, but how're we gonna reconcile the merchant table wipes with daily reboots on PEQ? Might wanna have a rule (da evil word) to set a number of days minimum to retain the temp stuff before the next reboot wipes the table. Or even an option to just turn it completely off. Or perhaps an option that counts down days to the next wipe so a server admin could randomize the wipes (to mimic how Live rebooted sporadically)... something along those lines. Point being it's not really an issue of customization or mimicing Live (cause reboots were sporadic on Live) but rather an issue of retaining the Live-likeness of seeing a merchant full of random junk.

I'd just hate to have a merchant wipe each time a server, ANY server, reboots.

Quote:

Originally Posted by janusd (Post 156983)

From the old thread I linked above:

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Adams (Post 130024)

While I can agree that making things harder for people might cause them to lose interest, at the same time, we're talking about the base, core Emulator data here - not custom, low-pop servers. I personally believe it should be as live-like as possible - at the core - then each server op can add bots or merchants that provide anything lacking (like buff bots, or spell vendors).

Why even bother with Researching skill, then? Just put the Researchable spells on a vendor...

Quote:

Originally Posted by janusd (Post 156983)

And not to sound like a mean person, but how're we gonna reconcile the merchant table wipes with daily reboots on PEQ?

Soon I will remove the code that cleans the temp tables during a reboot. I'll add a script to cron that will clean the temp stuff up every 30 days. Except for the stuff on the 3 buffbots near MB, I believe I am going to make them permanent until Bazaar is in, that is (now that they actually work)

eq4me: I am very interested in that list! That will save me a ton of time to finish this off.

COOL! Checking the merchants a couple days after a wipe is like opening a magic box... never know what'll be inside.