New To This, Any Guides?

Talio · #1 11-10-2008, 06:18 AM

Well I've managed to get a server up and running... toyed with some variables in the database... Etc, and find myself wondering if there are any guides out there or any FAQs regarding common questions.

I tried searching for EQemu guide but everything went to dead links, so if anyone has any good ones please let me know!

Mainly I'm curious about how to set what zone players are forced to start in, among many other minor alterations like that.

I apologize if I have simply overlooked such a guide in my searches, thanks in advance!

**trevius** · #2 11-10-2008, 08:52 PM

There is a FAQ in my sig, and an entire Wiki of information here:

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

To set players to start in a certain zone, you just need to update your variables table and add startzone to it in the varname field. Here is an example to have them start in nexus:

Code:

varname		value		information
startzone 	nexus 		Sets the Starting Zone for all new characters

Talio · #3 11-11-2008, 05:21 AM

Alright, thanks a bunch for this plethora of info =)

Much appreciated.

Talio · #4 11-11-2008, 10:40 AM

Well I have been searching the net for a clear explanation on how to add rows to a present table and haven't come up with anything. Something about querying the database? None of the code I have found seems to process properly through Navicat.

Does anyone have any links to any straightforward guides on mysql? I've tried searching for some but none seem to give decent explanations on inserting rows and queries.

Talio · #5 11-11-2008, 10:58 AM

Alright i spent literally 2-3 hours combing the internet for tips concerning this and then I am humbled by my own stupidity as i click "insert record" under navicat...

I feel like such a newbie. Somehow, I know an orc pawn is to blame.

Talio · #6 11-12-2008, 07:45 AM

So, i've managed to add that row to my variables table and yet it doesn't make new players start in the nexus. They all still attempt to zone in to tutorialb.

I am running the most recent version of EQemu and am using the most recent version of PEQ database files. I use Navicat to alter the database, and am really stumped as to why my new players don't spawn in the nexus (i've also tried spawning them all to tutoriala as a test, to no success).

If anyone's willing to help me out I'd appreciate it!

**Derision** · #7 11-12-2008, 07:53 AM

Browse your rule_values table. If you have a row with a rule_name of World:EnableTutorialButton and it's rule_value is true, set it to false.

Talio · #8 11-12-2008, 08:25 AM

I decided to source a fresh peq database since i've toyed around with the old one a LOT learning about all of this, once i'm done sourcing i'll be certain to try that area of the database. Thank you very much.

I also had a great deal of difficulty with placing NPCs... I used the tutorial found here http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka...egoryCreateNPC and it didn't work at all. No new NPC... no nothing. Is there something new that isn't included in that guide?

Talio · #9 11-12-2008, 12:04 PM

Well maybe I'm just too stupid to understand how to make any of this work. I'm really hating how every tutorial and guide I read through is out of date and I end up having to pull from 3 or 4 different sources just to get ANYthing running at all. Now my database is all messed up, zone's wont load past "loading loot tables" and on top of all of that? When I source peq I hit stuff about error 121 and spawn2.frm can't be written... Then I read that the spawn2 table could not be written.. So nothing that goes into spawn2 could be written.

Trying to create spawn2 directly doesn't work either... so wonderful. All this to a fresh database. Oh yes and I deleted the mysql directory and the perl directory when I uninstalled the two of them.

This is all after a fresh install of the entire setup. Oh yea and the newest revision of EQemu doesn't seem to have all of the same files as the previous... and has SQL files of it's own to source maybe? I'm at a loss. If anyone has any UP TO DATE guides, or sources of information regarding this issue then it would be a great help. I've spent a few days really trying to get this running and today was one huge step backward.

I understand that a lot of these things change over time, and that it's difficult to keep guides up to date. But at the same time, why keep them up if they are so out of date? I apologize if this sounds like a rant, I just want to have a little EQ server that I can toy with and maybe learn from and apparently that's impossible.

unknownhost · #10 11-12-2008, 05:21 PM

it can be very frustrating, believe me i know! but dont give up! keep at it and it all becomes more and more clear over time.

a suggestion if you havent tried it, try the
peq serverpack installer.

http://www.projecteq.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4346

and the self-installing updates are here(just need the most recent i believe?)
http://www.projecteq.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=4612

they will make the server setup unbelievably easier.

for your edits aside from the mysql tool you are already using (which is ideal for many things but clunky for others) try using GeorgeS tools are they are nothing short of badass in every regard.

http://www.eqemulator.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=674

**trevius** · #11 11-12-2008, 05:52 PM

For spawning NPCs, GeorgeS has a very nice tutorial on his website here:

http://wizardportal.dyndns.org/eqemu...tut/index.html

Also, at the top of that page, there is a link to another good tutorial for making NPC pathing.

And, if you haven't tried them yet, try installing and setting up GeorgeS editing tools. His tools are pretty amazing and make database editing much easier and quicker.

Keep in mind that everyone around here gives information when possible. There is so much info out there that it would be near impossible to have it all up to date. But even though a large amount of it might have some outdated information, it is still WAY better than not having any info at all. Almost all of it is still extremely useful, and mostly only just needs a small change here and there.

Talio · #12 11-13-2008, 07:39 AM

Alright well with a combination of information I managed to set a different starting point for new players (woot). I am going to delve into setting NPCs and such now... You're sure right there's a lot of information out there.

I was steamed last night when NOTHING I did was fixing the database to at least work the way it had before toying with it. I even did a fresh clean download and install with winCVS of fresh database files which caused zone.exe to error on tables that were sourced and existed in the database (npc factions).

I ended up sourcing a dump of my old database from when I transfered this lil project from a different computer over to a dedicated always-online machine. This dump seemed to have fixed the problem and the database now runs again (thank god my father taught me to always back stuff up from the time I was 3 to 21).

Now.. zone.exe seems to take longer loading the loot tables.. but eventually gets through it and I'm not going to complain.. an extra minute or so on loading up the server shouldn't be a problem especially if i end up loading a lot more into it later on =)

Thank you for all your patience folks, I appreciate it and will look through these links for any info that might help me in my endeavor to not screw up another database! lol.