Zone Instancing

[trevius]

Just to make a note about it, since it was mentioned; the reason that people had to wait to get the kind of adventure type they wanted was because SOE set a minimum time between how often you could request adventures. This is so people would either have to do the random adventure they gave them, or they would be forced to wait until they were lucky enough to get the one that they wanted. Otherwise, people would all just be doing the same ones over and over again. Having a minimum time to wait meant that each type they had created would be used instead of just the favorite or easiest/quickest ones.

Those are the only times I ever remember waiting at all for LDoNs. Of course, for the emulator, I think that we could potentially set it up to be done without any instancing and not have to worry much about running out of room for players. If we did that, then all we would need to do is get the adventure system working and set it to chose the first available zone in the zone list for that particular theme. We wouldn't need to worry about spawn timers or anything, because everything would still work like normal zones.

I think the progress towards getting the task system done could probably have most of it applied towards getting LDoN adventures working.

[Rocker8956]

Well I think I have a starting point for the code portion
Zone\zone.cpp
Zone\zonedb.cpp

and maybe

Zone\zoning.cpp

I am still trying to understand alot of the code in here but it is late so I am headed to bed.
Just thought I would post the code location incase someone else was looking for it.

If I am off on where the code needs editing please let me know.

[Rocker8956]

Well after looking through the code this is definitely out of my league. Though here is what I think needs to occur for zone instancing to work.

Add a UniqueID to field to the zone table that increments for every zone, including ones that are added.

Add a InstanceZoneType field to the zone table.
0 = Not a instance capable of being instanced
1 = A zone capable of being instanced that is for only one player
2 = A zone capable of being instanced that is for a group
3 = A zone capable of being instanced that is for a raid

Add a InstanceZoneFlag field to the character_ table

When the players InstanceZoneFlag field is set the server will need to create a new entry in the Zone table by copying all of the information from the zone’s entry that matches the short_name.

When a zone is started the server checks to see if that zone’s InstanceZoneType is greater then zero
If not the server goes about the zone loading as normal
If it is the server gets the zoning players character_.InstanceZoneFlag
The server then checks to see if a Zone.UniqueID matches that player’s InstanceZoneFlag
If it does then the zone is loaded and the player is sent to that zone based on the Zone.UniqueID

Sorry, if this post makes no sense. I was up all night looking through the source code trying to figure it out.

[Rocker8956]

Forgot to mention the new zone entry would need to be given a unique zoneidnumber. Since the source code seems to track most things through the zoneidnumber.

It is possible the instanced zone could then be loaded based on that ZoneIdNumber instead of the Zone.UniqueID.

[Kagatob]

I don't know if this is the correct thread to post this in, but the question I've been asking myself as of late, is do you really want to add any kind of instancing to EQ EMU at all? Even the largest servers only have around 150 people on them at peak times, and their communities, while thriving now, are certainly fragile with such a small (when compared to live) player base.
Instancing is certainly not good for those types of communities as not being in normal zones helping and interacting with each other you would start to get the WoW effect on the community.
If you've never played WoW ask someone who does, this question.
"Besides in the auction hall, when was the last time you've talked to someone outside of your guild?"

Just my 2 cp.

[ChaosSlayer]

even on 50 men server instancign has its uses.
for exmaple i like to have Time B to be only doable once a week. (to enforce item rarity), but this means that only 1 raid total can ever do it. and if server has say 5 guilds - you not gona see your turn in in less than a month.

if i increse Time repop rate by once a day - which ever guild plays at earlier hours- can do Time EVERY DAY, and then you never gona get a chance to raid it, until every single twink and their dog in their guild has every single drop

thats where instancing comes in friendly. each guild can have their own once a week run

WHile i myself prefer to keep loot zones contested, when it comes to doign quest/progression raids -repop timers suck when you have to wait a week to do a progression flagging

[Kagatob]

Originally Posted by ChaosSlayer

even on 50 men server instancign has its uses.
for exmaple i like to have Time B to be only doable once a week. (to enforce item rarity), but this means that only 1 raid total can ever do it. and if server has say 5 guilds - you not gona see your turn in in less than a month.

if i increse Time repop rate by once a day - which ever guild plays at earlier hours- can do Time EVERY DAY, and then you never gona get a chance to raid it, until every single twink and their dog in their guild has every single drop

thats where instancing comes in friendly. each guild can have their own once a week run

WHile i myself prefer to keep loot zones contested, when it comes to doign quest/progression raids -repop timers suck when you have to wait a week to do a progression flagging

I can understand that for progression and big events like PoTime, I was talking more about people grinding their AAs, Leveling and spending 90% of their time in said instances to do such things. When LDoN released on live, the decrease in community was palpable.
Besides, who says you can't simply inforce that everyone who is able to go to Time gets a chance just by saying, ok you had your shot, next guild please.