Nah, you're not asking for much
I'm hoping to release OpenZone 8.4 tonight, though I can't guarantee it. I've just been doing some cleanup on how to handle mesh objects that you choose to put into SQL rather than in the exported zone itself. When you load existing zones, any DoorRef references will be changed to SQLRef. The SQLRef parameter will have a drop-down that lets you choose between "None", "Doors", or "Objects". In this way there's some expandability built into the program and a single solution for everything.
I've also added an object_parms script that will show up in the SQL tab. It works like the door_parms script, where it sets the database parameters for all objects at its level and below where SQLParm is set to "Objects". In the practical sense, you need to group it with objects to be useful. You can use it to set parameters for things like forge objects, brew barrel objects, etc. I still need to do a little more work with it to make it a bit more user-friendly (mostly around the hints that go with its parameters). A really easy way to use it, just as a single example, would be to place all your forges in your zone (assuming there is more than one), place an object_parms object that sets the parameters for forges in general, and group the lot together. I intend to do this with my Lelembeth zone, for instance.
When you export your zone, instead of creating a single <zonename>.sql file, it will create a <zonename>_doors.sql and a <zonename>_objects.sql. The idea here is that you can choose to load only the doors or objects SQL in case you don't want to use OpenZone to build both. A lot of people have already built zones using other DB tools and I don't want to force people to have to redo their work in OpenZone.
Looking forward, I'd like to have OpenZone be able to load information from the database. Door and object references would be the obvious starting points, though I eventually want to get to NPC and pathing information. Right now there is no connection between OpenZone and the database, as has always been the case. It's not hard to add that, but there are some questions I have to answer first: how to handle differing database versions, how to handle cases where OpenZone doesn't have the necessary creature model (e.g. your server is using the live client)? I have no intention of adding code to OpenZone to read live client content because that's just a huge Pandora's box, but that's not the only potential solution anyway. I can put anything in as a placeholder, even one of the creature models that come with OpenZone.
WC