Updated Solo Server Package

[loglos]

Hi. I'm using your solo package too. I started working on my own scripts and then saw a post from you. You did about 90% of what I was thinking of and some I hadn't thought of. The extra quests are great. Thanks for that. I know it's a lot of work.

I tweaked a few things of my own just for my preference in playing. But to your comment about the existing quests, I agree. So I have edited many of those to increase the rewards (plat, exp or item, depending on the quest). I am also working on some code to offer XP for everyday actions. Tailored up a glove, little bit of xp. Caught a fish, little bit of xp. Made some batwing crunchies, little bit of xp. etc. Most of that is still under construction (a lot of work and even some source changes) but I think in the long run worth it. At the end, I want someone to be able to level up doing nothing but quests and tradeskills.

Thanks for sharing your solo code. It's really good stuff.

Loglos

[dagulus2]

Just a follow up to say I have been testing the item search NPc for some time now. I have had no problems and I think its really useful. Thumbs up.

[GlassDeviant]

Can someone direct me to some quick instructions on how to get up to speed on this emulator, like an "EQ Emulator for Dummies", preferably using this soloing configuration?

I'd like to get a local server set up fairly quickly to muck around on before I start doing anything fancy/complicated.

[loglos]

Originally Posted by GlassDeviant

Can someone direct me to some quick instructions on how to get up to speed on this emulator, like an "EQ Emulator for Dummies", preferably using this soloing configuration?

I'd like to get a local server set up fairly quickly to muck around on before I start doing anything fancy/complicated.

https://github.com/EQEmu/Server#-windows is your starting place. That's for a windows server and right below that is linux. It is a super easy process to get up and running.

[GlassDeviant]

Thanks. Is there a particular distro the Linux version is best used with? I have a machine ready to go but it's bare metal right now so I can go with anything.

[loglos]

I'd say best is whatever you are most familiar with. I went with Ubuntu for no really good reason. I can't imagine any reason pretty much any distro wouldn't work as well as any other.

I actually put mine in a virtualbox so I can move it around as needed.

[GlassDeviant]

That makes sense, though I have this dedicated physical box that I variously use for minecraft, Empyrion and other game servers. It's only bare metal now because I upgraded my gaming rig so I had some spare parts to move to it, including much bigger HDDs. Perhaps it's the perfect time for me to go virtual on it.

Cheers,

[GlassDeviant]

Aaaand...everything is completely screwed up now.

[djeryv]

You should probably move your posts to a support part of the forum as this is just a thread about a custom set of scripts that allow someone to change the normal EQ install into something that can be played with low population and/or solo servers.

[GlassDeviant]

Yeah I was a bit tired at the time. Going to post there once I figure out where the install log is.

[GlassDeviant]

Ok, I wasn't sure whether that was something that could be spun off to a thread or not. These tables would only need to be dropped and rebuilt once each time a new merchant (or several) was added though, right? So just once after restarting the server post-add, it wouldn't even need an interactive command. That part was just my overactive imagination at odd, early morning hours after little sleep.

Edit: OK, when I go to back up my PEQ server before messing with it (i.e.: installing your solo server files, or just messing with things on my own), I am using HeidiSQL and doing "Export to SQL". Should I tick the Drop (and Create) boxes for databases and tables, so that if I need to restore after I inevitably mess up, it will drop all the tables (and the bad data) and restore it to completely pristine condition, or just the Create boxes?

[djeryv]

To slightly digress, I backup my server every time I shut it down. I run a local VM and play single player so I only fire up the VM Linux server when I want to play and then my shutdown routine backs up the database first. So you should always make constant backups of your database.

Now, onto your question. Yes! Backup your stuff first because my queries will change things in your existing tables so you only want to run this entire package once. After you back it up, IMPORT my queries and then fire up your server. Then if you see a witch outside of the town you are in, then it loaded fine. To be more precise, see if they offer quests because that means the database was truly loaded.

Now, the queries that create the extra tables can be ran more than once because the query drops the current one and recreates them. So if you add vendors and items, you can rerun the query and get an updated list of sale items. This normally isn't an issue because most people run a server straight out of the box...meaning they aren't adding things to it because it is quite difficult and the "out of the box" setup has everything you need to play. People generally want their servers to be unique so they add custom content and such. Casual server admins don't really do this.

Now, my queries add extra vendors in the Bazaar...so you could argue that I add custom stuff. But I was quite thorough of combing the database for items before putting them on Bazaar merchants of having them be Witch rewards. It was alot of work. Trust me. I tried to avoid touching items that you can get by killing monsters, as I think those should remain exactly that...items you get from monsters.

[GlassDeviant]

I'm totally casual as a server admin.

Right up until I see how I could do something ... interesting.

I'll probably scan through your code a few times before I invoke it, for instance I definitely want to reinstate the PoK books as I want to recreate the feeling of being a wholly new EQ player in the time of RoF, not my experience of having to learn a game in its unfinished state (I played in beta, some time around late 97 or early 98 but that was 20 years ago) with zero documentation.

Do you know of any way to get Sunrise Hills up and running? I can't get to it on my default server.

[l0stmancd]

A follow up from the problem user "Element D" had with the solo server not responding to queries. I am having a similar problem but have traced it to a failure in line "my $connect = plugin::LoadMysql();".

For whatever reason, any of the solo server scripts quietly fail (no logged errors) when it hits this line. Surrounding it with try/catch wasn't able to catch an error either. I can say, though, no lines are executed after this LoadMysql() command is hit (added debug output to validate). This affects not just searching but also "leaving" the tutorial (you get prompted that it will send you to your location and then nothing happens).

I wish I could say that I resolved this issue but I have not. I did find, perhaps, an oddity - using Akkadius "Windows server" script I found a plugins directory in both /quests/ as well as in the main server directory containing what looks like exactly the same files. I removed the plugins from /quests/ per http://wiki.eqemulator.org/p?Perl_Pl...ster_Reference line "Perl plugins are ALWAYS installed to ServerDirectory\plugins\ NOT ServerDirectory\quests\plugins\ and restarted the server but no change in behavior.

Anytime any of the new solo perl scripts its the request for the mysql connection it quietly fails and does not go past this. My setup is a new installation using Akaddius's script. Any ideas folks?

[GlassDeviant]

Is perl actually getting installed?

I forgot to run Akkadius' windows install script as admin, which prevented perl from installing at all, thus breaking every perl script. The second time I did it right and everything went smoothly.