The server is intelligently designed the way it is. My SQL is used because it is way easier to use a fully functioned DB system which is simple to set up and maintain than to write your own method f reading and writing info to files to store it which may or may not be extensible enoguh to store what you want a few months later. The zone servers are set up that way because thats how Sony has written EQ to connect to. The world server takes care of all the broad worldwide stuff and then forwards you to a zone server which is always on a different computer with a different IP and port. Most servers people run here run all the zone servers on the same computer ebcause they can't afford a bunch of computers, but I know guild wars adn scorpious2k and a few others use several computers to be able to handle more people.
Theres no way to reduce the number of programs that need to run, but its entirely possible to make a tool that helps you run and set them up easier. Like a tool that you run that lets you input your IP and how many zone servers you want and what ports they should be on and it automatically updates all the fiels that have those in them. Would be very simple to write, but I think its simple enough already I'm not going to waste my time on it. Then you could also create a program to automatically start up the server by like starting mysql, delaying 20 seconds to let it load up, starting up the world server, delaying again to let it load, and then starting all the zones up. This tool would be even faster to write and might be useful enough.
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