creating user defined spells

[hawkhunter]

I was browsing some new games to check out and ran across this one, https://codespells.org/ . It never really made it out of development stage and now there is a community that is looking to develop an open-source project based on CodeSpells. I am wondering how well the idea of user-created spells would work with the eqemu system. My two best guesses would be to use a quest based system to define spell characteristics. the second thing that comes to mind is to have the user create the spell then add them to the spell file and/or us macro programmed spells. I had done some research into custom spells years ago but have long since forgotten what I had figured out. Your feedback would be very helpful on the subject.

[Uleat]

The problem with dynamically created spells is that Everquest doesn't support them.

Whenever a spell is added/changed, not only must the server be updated..but, all connecting clients must update their spells file as well.
(That also means rebooting the server, downloading the new spell file and restarting the clients every time.)

Steam has a working video - at least I couldn't get the one on their page to play.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/324190/CodeSpells/


EDIT:

At a minimum, you'd be looking at trying to manipulate this many individual fields through the quest system:

3^Summon Corpse^PLAYER_1^^^^^^^10000^0^0^0^5000^1500^12000^0^0^0^700^70^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^2512^2106^17355^-1^-1^-1^1^1^1^1^-1^-1^-1^-1^100^100^100^100^100^100^100^100^100^100^100^100^0^-1^0^0^91^254^254^254^254^254^254^254^254^254^254^254^6^20^14^-1^0^0^255^255^255^255^35^255^255^255^255^255^35^255^255^255^255^255^43^0^0^4^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^100^0^0^98^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^3^125^64^^-1^0^0^0^100^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^5^100^49^52^0^0^0^-1^0^0^0^50^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^0^-1^0^0^0^1^0^0^0^1^1^0^-1^0^0^0^1^39^-1^0^1^0^0^1^0^1^0^0^0^0^0^0

..with each field being delimited by ^

[hawkhunter]

assuming that an automated spell file update is in place(which is easy enough). and a reset system is in place. The more important question is it possible to prevent a player created spell from getting carried away and crashing the server.

[hawkhunter]

let me rephrase that question are there mechanisms built is to eq to limit custom spells from crashing the server or for that matter other connected computers. Or are player generated spells just totally a bad idea for eq?

[Maze_EQ]

It's just how the Everquest client works.

Spells are in shared memory, so you can dynamically load them server side, but the spells_us.txt is NOT reloaded until the client is restarted.

It's 100% unsupported.

[prestanneth]

Whilst i think what your asking is somewhat achievable, it may not be worth the effort it would take to implement correctly.
you could use the quest interface but it sounds dangerous, As your letting someone essentially run rampant in your servers database,
you'd want more control over it. (app or website to generate spells that inserted them would be safer / more controllable)
There is limitations on how many spells you can add to the database.
( If players were adding them adhoc you'll run out of valid id's for client and spell graphics will stop working. Common issue with eq.)
Needs ability for user to request a new spell file be generated/deployed.
Timed server restarts maybe?

The main issue i think you'd have is what graphics to use, how would players know what icons/particles etc to use.
You'd also be limted to what eq has to offer without getting into a world of pain trying to ask a player who generated awesome_spell00
to go and make a particle effect for distribution..

I would think overall if the graphics/ icons/ particles themselves arent going to change it almost becomes pointless as familiarity is important to players.
Imagine 10 different players all creating different spells , but they all have the same icon and 3 off them have the same annoying particles cause everyone loves the bard regen song.

The codespells looks interesting, but it was built knowing the above. I only saw sandbox demos.( server op creates spell for self )

[Shodai82]

Make a plugin with every type of condition you want to have happen.
Create a custom spell quest.
Create a dummy spell to wire it up.
Assign globals/buckets to the casting player as they choose conditions you defined in the plugin.
Assign entity vars to player on enter zone that hold global values.
Fire associated conditions when spell is cast based on assigned entity vars and whatever logic you want in the spell quest.