packet collector that saves to .dfn

[Teppen]

My hobby for awhile now has been collecting emulated mmorpgs. While I'm not much of a coder, I do try to help out what ever emu community whenever I can. I have helped out EQEmu in the past in collecting data for their item, monster, npc, and quest databases. This was/is done by the user starting a packet collecting program and logging into the p2p server. If a person has the collector running and is just standing in the world it collects all the x,y,z coordinates and data of the surrounding npc's and monsters and write's them to a packet file. Can also collect by the user running around to different places, as he moves to a new area it collects and stores the data. The packet collector collects all item data he is currently holding or any items that are traded and writes them to file. I know every mmorpg emulator is different in their own way, some use sql db and some use txt db. But I truely think a packet collecter running in the background while logged into the p2p server collecting npc's, monsters, items, objects, etc would be not only quicker for the UOX3 community to get a complete db of each expansion, but to get accurate spawn positions. If a program like this was coded, I would help run the collecter on origins server. I can't code well but I may have some older versions of Eqemu's packet collecter before it went closed source, which i could email to a dev, but i would have to locate it.. its on an archived cd somewhere. Just an idea.

[Xuri]

Woah. *Flashback to the past*

Ashran (from hackersquest.org fame) actually wrote a program like that for UO back in the days when he had interest in that direction. I used it to copy a lot of Europa into UOX3 worldfiles for fun. It only copied items though, including player houses.

But even if we had one which copied NPCs as well, I don't think it wouldn't make it any easier to get accurate spawn positions, as you wouldn't copy actual "spawns", only individual NPCs. Might as well create the spawn-regions manually at the same time as you run around the map, since that's what you'd have to do with the offline files you create anyway.

[Teppen]

I've used the everquest emu from hackerquest.org which was called ethreal quest maybe once. It didnt do much and was in my opinion a lousy emulater, never had any bells or whistles and the spawns just stood around with no movement. No surprise it died. I was actually referring to Eqemulator.net the second emu developed for EQ that has the bells and whistles and a movable mob db, and is still alive.

But anyways, the collector I've used for it all I have to do is just sit my character in a zone and it collects all the npc's, monsters, etc in that zone, if I wanted to collect a different zone i would have to move to that zone, however , I know UO is one big map without individual zone loads so thats what I thought you would have to run around. I mean for the average joe that just wants to create their own UO shard nonlegit just manually plotting things here and there works fine. I've noticed your Emu has been around for quite some time however you have yet to have a legit collected db for UO and its expansions. Thats why I thought a tool like this would be useful for possibly a db project.

I mean the dfn data's sound like "oh Ill put a gazer here, and a skeleton here, and it looks close to how UO was a few years ago from what I can remember..." Thats what I was referring to when I said have the packet collector collect and store the info while your running around on a live server. Yes, it puts all information in a packet which you have to decode and retype in other files but it does seem faster and more accurate than guessing what goes where at what coordinates. The collector also records the coordinates the npc or monster walks "pathing". The first coordinates would be where he spawns then the rest is the path he walks. I don't see where a pc would make thinks difficult, you guys have to decode packets anyway when a new patch happens on live to get the emu working with it don't you? Might just be an everquest thing dunno.

[Grimson]

You asume that most ppl want a complete mirror image of the official shards. From what I've seen on other free shards, and from my opinion, that's not the matter, at least not when it comes to NPCs, Items, Spawns and even the whole Map.

It's much more important to get the basic things like the skills, default items and other features running, and to get UOX as stable as possible. Once those basic things work and won't change much in the way they work, especially when it comes to the scripts, then you can start to seriously build different worlds.

[Xuri]

The encryption changes with new client updates are thankfully handled automatically by UOGateway, and any new/unknown packets in the client are basically ignored by UOX3 until support has been implemented for them.

As for the packet collector stuff... just sitting in a zone collecting data wouldn't really work, since UO doesn't send any information to you except what's in your immediate vincinity. So you'd basically have to track the spawning/movement of each individual NPC, or a small group of NPCs at the most - before moving to a new area to do the same. And I'm still not convinced it'd make things easier But if you want to try it, go ahead

[Teppen]

I collect emulated mmorpgs. I've helped in completing some databases.

I have complete:

Ragnarok Online Emulated Server - eAthena (helped with scripting and db)

I have almost complete:

World of Warcraft - 3120 out of 4000 quests, all current items, all spawns.
(I help with quests and spawns) WoW was released in 2004 btw. Emulator is missing a few abilities and one tradeskill. (btw, quests are added daily to the emu so 3120 is what is complete as of today)

I have far from complete:

Everquest 1 - 1st 3 expansions spawned out of 9 or so expansions, and moving, with some quests. Some abilities missing. (I help with quests and spawns)

All the listed mmorpgs above are legit mirrored images of the live servers. So yeah, some of us collect such databases For me its so when their servers actually do go down for good I can fire up a server and play. NonLegit just doesn't hold my attention because its not how it was, more of a goof off spoof of a server imo.

Anyways, I take it if I want a legit db for UOX3 it will be a task I have to undertake myself as the community here is into NonLegit? WoW is getting very close to complete, hopefully it will get complete before Blizzard releases an expansion heh. Ill probably read up on the documention here and see how far I can take the db.. havent been on OSI's servers since second age. Might see me around in a few months. Later.

[giwo]

Well, the hitch with UO (and thus UOX3 is this).

You say non-legit doesn't hold your interest because it's not how it was. Well the way I remember UO is NOTHING like what it is today. I played UO in the early release days when there was one world, massive wars between "Great Lords" and "Dread Lords", fireballs could kill you in one shot, and everyone wore plate armor.

Needless to say, times have changed, as has UO. I have nothing against emulating the most current UO servers, I just don't have the time myself to implement all the features for it into UOX3. Moreover, I have NO idea how pretty much any feature implemented after the second age actually functions on OSI servers. Despite that fact, I trudge on slowly but surely adding the capability to properly support it.

Ultimately my goal is to have a server versatile enough to mimic any time period in UO's history, but that is a long ways off....