Crazy idea for spells...

[ChaosSlayerZ]

Originally Posted by trevius

Everyone has the option to compile their own source. It is only a matter of taking the time to figure out how to do it the first time :P

well as you could see number of downloads of ready binaries is well over 200 =P so as you see people far from comfortable of compiling their own source =P

[pfyon]

Once you learn how to compile your own source, it's pretty much just as easy as downloading a pre-build binary, but gives you the option of making changes to the code.

[trevius]

This page has all the info you should need for learning how to compile it on Windows:

http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=VS2008

Or, you could setup a Linux server and make compiling as easy as typing "make" :P

IMO, if your main concern is having options, then you should take the time to figure out how to compile your own source. If you are not worried about options, then just use the Binaries and you will still have plenty of options but not as many as compiling yourself. Your main concern has been options for so long, you should have learned how to do this long ago! There is only so much we can do to give options with Binaries, but with compiling yourself, the options are practically limitless :P

[ChaosSlayerZ]

well i will do my best to swith over to my own compiling, but just want to tell you to give other people advance warning that their custom spell file may stop working soon and then they will be all over the forum going "WTH?" =P

So i urge you to release CURENT last Rev in spell from txt format, and swith to Db spells AFTER that, and put a warning into changelog

[trevius]

There will definitely be a warning about it in the changelog. The change is simple enough that Cavedude could change it to the file loading before compiling the next Binaries if needed. But really, if you want to stay current with the EQEmu updates, there is always going to be 1 thing or another that needs to be adjusted whether that be database changes or whatever. We can't support all legacy options indefinitely or it would be very hard to make good progression with it. I think the change from the spell file to the database is a very good one. Sometime soon I would like to get some new features added that will really make use of the benefit of having spells in a table vs in the spell file.

[ChaosSlayerZ]

Trev, my cusdom spell file is designed under Titanium.
the Spell table in DB is deisgned under SoF

are there mututaly exclusive properties between the two?
Can I source the T-spells into Db wihout problem, or does the spell structure layout different for SoF spells?

[cavedude]

Trev, would you mind zipping up and posting your spells_new file? I've never been able to get spell loading from the DB to work and it looks like the problem still exists. I want to rule out the DB first and go from there.

On a side note, once this is resolved I agree 100% with the change. Editing spells in the DB is far far easier and faster than that stupid flatfile.

[trevius]

Actually, this is one of the reasons why the spells table is so great. The scripts can work to import any type of spell file from any client even up to EQLive if you wanted. Even though the older clients lack the newer fields, the scripts and table are setup to work with any number of fields and just fill in default values for fields that are missing in the spell file that is imported. The good part is that spell files are backwards compatible. This means that if you then export your spells table back into a new spells_us.txt file, it will then work with any client version. The spell files are not forward compatible, so a Titanium spell file will not work for SoF. But, if you do the import/export, you can essentially convert a Titanium spell file to be compatible with the SoF client so all clients can use a matching spell file and also match the server.