Don't understand Zones vs. Expansions

[ckempke]

The documentation lists this as "coming soon."

All of my users have Rof2-era clients, but moving around the world it keeps trying to put us in (sometimes non-existent) old zones: east commonlands instead of common lands, tox instead of toxxulia, etc.

If I just set the "currentExpansion" rule in ruleset 1 to "19", will that make it use only the modern maps, or do I have to edit every zone point table manually? (Or something else).

There are all of like three players on the server, so I shouldn't need to support older client builds at all.

(TL;DR: What steps do I need to do to set up "just use the world as it existed for RoF, nothing older.")

[Huppy]

Originally Posted by ckempke

The documentation lists this as "coming soon."

All of my users have Rof2-era clients, but moving around the world it keeps trying to put us in (sometimes non-existent) old zones: east commonlands instead of common lands, tox instead of toxxulia, etc.

If I just set the "currentExpansion" rule in ruleset 1 to "19", will that make it use only the modern maps, or do I have to edit every zone point table manually? (Or something else).

There are all of like three players on the server, so I shouldn't need to support older client builds at all.

(TL;DR: What steps do I need to do to set up "just use the world as it existed for RoF, nothing older.")

If you want to utilize all the available revamps of older zones, you will have some work to do. I'm working on a side project which is doing that, but content in those zones is not totally fullfilling, haha

Various tables you have to edit, including the zone_points, doors, char_creation, etc., just to get the newer zones up and running, but you also have some player scripts in some zones that will send you to the older version as soon as you enter the old zone. Just look in the quests/zone-name folder for either player.pl or player.lua (In some cases, for myself, I just rename the player script to disable it).

For my own needs, I don't care for scripts running the zone points or doors, so I get it all fixed in the database, except for the guild hall.

[ckempke]

In retrospect, this probably is not a specifically Windows problem, and likely this is the wrong category. Ah, well.

In any case, I see basically three kinds of issues here:

1) zone_points being set to old maps even when new ones (like the combined common lands) are available. There's a "client" bitmask there that would solve this problem (I think), but they appear to be universally set to either all-bits-set or all-bits clear, instead of the correct masks for "clients before" and "clients after." These are more of an annoyance than a real problem, but it seems like the "fix" would be relatively easy to make globally (and people could still decide if they wanted old or new by setting the "current" expansion, no?). Some of the "Status 80" ones fall in here, too - blight fire moors just tosses you back to the Crescent Reach safe point if you try to zone/teleport there with a non-GM char.

2) zone_points and doors that are just missing or wrong, like the PoK ones for Erudin/Paineel. Those aren't a big deal, either, and I suspect that they're just symptoms of:

3) zone_points/doors that send you to maps that THE CLIENT DOES NOT HAVE. This does seem like a big deal, and it's the one that's annoying me most. The client crashes and cannot log in again (because they're in a non-existent map zone) until I go and move them and/or fix the zone manually. "tox" and "misty" are the two that I've found so far. One char was a halfling who basically couldn't leave home after Gloomingdeep because misty thicket would crash him, and that's where the PoK book is for Riverdale.

Those category 3 ones have apparently been around for ever, but it seems like as time goes on and the Titanium/SoF clients become harder and harder to purchase, they're going to affect more and more people. Getting the client bitmasks right for these seems like it would be a relatively easy fix, if there were a definitive list of them somewhere. (And assuming the code honors the client bitmask).

Not having all the content up to date, or NPCs missing or whatever seems like a reasonable consequence of emulation vs. live. But these issues that cause a BASELINE INSTALL to crash in ways that require a fair amount of domain/database knowledge to fix seem like maybe they should get some attention at some point. Failing that, I'm just trying to be able to fix them proactively, rather than wait for my players to crash (always at inconvenient times for me ) and fix on a case-by-case basis.

[Huppy]

I have most of the revamped zones/zone_points functioning, except for a few that don't exist (anywhere).

commonlands
feerrott2
freeporteast
freeportwest
hateplaneb
highpasshold
lavastorm
mistythicket
nektulos
neriakd (Neriak Palace)
oceanoftears
northro
southro
steamfontmts
toxxulia

EQ Live is currently still using any other old zones, including befallen, highkeep and kithicor. So in regards to the OP, it's all doable, just have to put more effort into it than you may anticipate.

[Jahosphat]

Any of you guys want to share the old zone files?
I have a clean rof2 client I'd just like the old zone files to zone into them... Ty

[ckempke]

That's exactly the problem, Jahosphat. Nobody with the newer clients _has_ those files, but the game keeps trying to zone us into them, anyway.

Huppy: Any chance you've got an SQL file that makes those specific changes? I'd rather not reinvent the wheel.

But...if I have to, here's the plan. It looks like the zone_points tables that would need to be changed all have references to BOTH zone files, but with the client_version_mask set to 42.... for the OLD one and 0 for the new ones. (except for new zones that zone into other new zones). So basically:

Look up the old target_zone_id and the new one, then:

update 'peq.zone_points' set 'client_version_mask'=<all bits set> where target_zone_id=<new>
update 'peq.zone_points' set 'client_version_mask'=0 where target_zone_id=<old>

repeat for all the zones on your list (maybe not "hateplaneb" twice, though). And get rid of any offending script files? That pretty much the plan?

[Huppy]

Originally Posted by ckempke

Huppy: Any chance you've got an SQL file that makes those specific changes?

If you can hang on for about 24-36 hours, I can post what you need for the changes, to use the modern versions, that the current peq is not using by default. (I'm still testing out some of the editing I have done).

I'll have to include some instructional text, (besides the sql queries), involving the zoning and door clicks (in PoK) being used by zone/player scripts.

Also, if your RoF2 client is missing any newer zone files, you can find them in your "EQ Live" client.

Jahosphat :

Originally Posted by Jahosphat

Any of you guys want to share the old zone files?
I have a clean rof2 client I'd just like the old zone files to zone into them... Ty

If you go to my PoPower site, the server/client download there, has all the old zone versions included with it.

[Huppy]

Originally Posted by ckempke

Look up the old target_zone_id and the new one, then:

update 'peq.zone_points' set 'client_version_mask'=<all bits set> where target_zone_id=<new>
update 'peq.zone_points' set 'client_version_mask'=0 where target_zone_id=<old>

get rid of any offending script files? That pretty much the plan?

Forgot to mention something. client_version_mask can be set to 4294967295 for all zone_points and doors. That is the bitmask that allows all client versions.

UPDATE zone_points SET client_version_mask = 4294967295;
UPDATE doors SET client_version_mask = 4294967295;

Also, some of the scripts in the newer versions of zones (in server quests folder), in the zone/player.pl (or player.lua) there is an enter_zone event that will kick you out to the older version.
Example: in quests/commonlands/player.lua as soon as one zones in the script sends you to ecommons. You can edit/delete/disable that crap if you don't want it.

function event_enter_zone(e)
  local client = eq.get_entity_list():GetClientByID(e.self:GetID());
  client:MovePC(22, -144, -1543, 2, 244); -- Zone: ecommons
end

Many things were put in place to somewhat cater to both older clients, like Titanium and newer clients, like Rof2. This is why you will see 2 different entries with the same zone name (like nektulos). One is for the older clients and one for the newer.

In another scenario, the Guild Lobby and Guild Hall. If a Titanium client and RoF2 client were to zone in at the same time, they would both be in a different version of the zone and wouldn't see each other. The newer version of the Lobby is instanced. Some things, the Emu/PEQ teams can't do anything about, because things are hard coded into the client. So if everyone was using the same client, it would make things a lot easier.

There are many zones in further/newer expansions (like HoT), that are in the database, and if your client has the zone files, you can #zone into them. But content is not completed, because the project hasn't got that far to work on it. (They are working on DoN right now.)

[ckempke]

Ah....so for some reason I thought emulation was "complete" through SoF, and particularly past the zone changes that took place in TSS. Since neither of those things is true, I should maybe soul-search about whether I want my players zoning into incomplete zones at all; I thought I was helping them, but maybe not.

I've been out of the EQ world for about half a lifetime, so I'm not entirely cogent about exactly when various changes occurred. Still, that work will have to be completed eventually, and frankly my urgency level for this (past the "stop people from crashing on zoning" part) is "before the sun burns out is a good goal."

Is there a page in the wiki tracking specific progress?

[ckempke]

Originally Posted by Huppy

Forgot to mention something. client_version_mask can be set to 4294967295 for all zone_points and doors. That is the bitmask that allows all client versions.

So how does that work for zones like Paineel and Erudin that have both the old and new maps in their zone points files, eg. they list both "tox" and "toxxulia" for the same zone points? I effectively got it to switch from the former to the latter by reversing the client_version_mask (made the new one 429...95 and the old one 0, which was the opposite of the old way). If they're both set to "all clients can use this," how does it know which map to load? (Or are you deleting the old map zone points before you set them all?)

Thanks for all your help, by the way. I didn't realize the can of worms was filled with anacondas when I first asked!

[Huppy]

I actually got this done a lot quicker than I anticipated. I have things all zipped up, it's much easier that way with a quick (95 KB) download.

Please MAKE SURE to read through the readme file and most importantly, BACKUP YOUR database before using the sql query.

You can grab it here: https://tinyurl.com/UsePeqNewZones

After you set that up and start your server back up, you won't have to change anything. All players will need to have an RoF2 client without missing zone files, or they may have problems. Myself, I got missing files from an EQ Live client that I installed.

The readme file will give you some insight on the PEQ zone tables.

P.S. I have a no return policy. Please visit the customer service desk at Walmart. hahaha

[Vexyl]

Maybe it's just me, but I can't download that, only view it.

[Huppy]

Originally Posted by Vexyl

Maybe it's just me, but I can't download that, only view it.

Whoa, sorry about that, forgot to check the download box on the share options. It's all good to go now

[Jahosphat]

This is great thanks a ton.. Going to have a look at this.. on Karana we have #zone enabled for all... and like your readme says we've used higher level zones for custom content.. or unpopulated zones.. either way. These files might make it a bit better for us.. as in we have a custom befallen and if you turn the wrong way bang you got to "go home" via char screen.

Appreciate it!
Ish- Karana svr

[ckempke]

Thank you so much! An evil boss mob wants me to work right now, but I'll run it this evening.