import new database without nuking existing chars?

[Kroeg]

or, if you dont want to dump tables, this is what I do:

for each new db / code i use, i thusly name my db to something similar: (if using 5.3DR1) I create a db named 'eq53dr1'

so, if you had your current db (we'll just call it 'currentdb') and you wanted to upgrade... just create a new db (we'll call it 'newdb') and source in the new db.

then type

REPLACE INTO newdb.account SELECT * FROM currentdb.account;

the next would be

REPLACE INTO newdb.character_ SELECT * FROM currentdb.character_;

do this for account, character_, and inventory (and 'guilds' if you created any) and it will merge the current data into the new db. As a safe practice you should always have the last previous working db somewhere in a mysql db , so you can use the above method to just 'pull a table over' if you ever mess anything up. This minimizes downtime.

Hope this helped!