[Trumpcard]

Wiz's new loot system is in the code, but currently you have to recompile to enable it. I'm going to see about making a database variable switch to cut it on or off. The bulk of the problem is that the addon database isnt really set up with multiple lists in mind, it's collected based on frequency of drops all on a single list, rather than several different lists that you roll on. The new code is the way to do things, but it's going to require a new loot database to go along with it.

This is what I propose. At this point, I say we drop collecting spawn/loot data from other sources and actually form a database team as suggested above. Me and Bob have been discussing tools we need to integrate into eqemu to allow for better spawn management ingame. I'd like to see a developer come onboard who could just work on management tools/editor functions to allow for better content creation.

We should take the database that we have, clean it properly, then zone by zone start cleaning it by hand / updating loot tables, and put it under version control. I know this was discussed before , but nothing ever came out of it. The 1st cleaned database would form version 1, then all updates would be made to it from that point forward, the trick is to find a common starting place. The addon database converted from HQ is just too dirty in my opinion, but a stripped down version of it would make a great starting place. The items can still be gathered from them (assuming they release any more).

It would require someone to head it up (my votes with Drawde, Lurker or Bob) , and several people interested in keeping a database up to date.

1st, start an irc room for #eqemudatabase, get a few people interested in working on it together, then lay out zone assignments. Start with a few cities, flesh out the newbie areas around them, trying to balance along the way. Guild trainers are working now btw, so #setallskills shouldnt be necessary for long.
If someone takes the time to pick a newbie zone and starting city, make the quests for it, and balance out the area, I'm betting you could level normally and naturally, especially with the work thats been done. With all of the changes with eqemu recently, I think now's a good time to start focusing on actually creating some good game worlds, and developing the tools necessary to design them. Leaps and bounds have been made in the last month, I really think now's the right time to pull in the troops and start really making some cool servers.

In my mind, there should be 3 coexisting teams that work together and pass ideas around.

Coding Team
Database Design team
Testing Team

The coding team is primarily responsible for implementing new features, fixing bugs, and keeping the emulator working. ie, the existing dev team.

The Database design team would develop the content and communicate improvement ideas to the coding team (or work on them themselves) for better tools, architecture, etc. needed to support content creation.

The testing team would test new functionality, and help regression test releases to ensure nothing has been broken. Jaw is currently heading this up, but I dont know that he's gotten anyone else on board yet.


To really make big gains at this point, someone needs to step forward and take charge of getting the folks together to start building the worlds. Let me know what I can do to help, and I'll be happy to be involved as much as possible and help massage the code to assist in the efforts.

Let me know what everyone's thoughts are, and if anyone is willing to start working on it. I agree though, there does need to be a clearly laid out set of documents for how to create the content, or we need better tools to handle it.