I'm intrigued to hear from the Dev's / staff point of view on the target audience / server reach expected? I only wonder this due to the extreme difficulty I had to go to obtain the files necessary to be able to play the game on my PC. This then bought me to look at number of registered forum accounts vs date the boards sort of kicked off - 206 registered forum members in the past 3mths. I cannot help but think that limiting the player base to such an "obsolete" and hard to source client may be a determining factor. Comments? Opinions?
I would argue that if you want to play then you can find the files. I know that there are multiple people that are interested but have no desire to be a part of testing. To each their own, I think. I doubt files will keep people from playing if the server reaches it's aim to be a better clone of AK/a PoP server. But, I'll allow the devs to weigh in..
I'll invite any dev to weigh in on my summary here but this is how I understand and have seen things from purely a code standpoint. To code in additional clients takes a huge amount of work. Much more than one would expect. Many clients actually behave quite differently under the hood. Forcing us to add in/change code to support this. I wanted the UF client initially for devs and GMs due to maps, mouse zoom, and the ability to use MQ2 for some GM purposes. But that idea was scrapped as having that codebase in the server along side the codebase for clients that this server is designed for causes far too many issues. It was not very productive when fixing one client interaction broke 5 things of the others. Things like netcode, opcodes, and sending the right information to the right client without causing stability and performance issues was counter productive to getting this off the ground. As you notice even with the clients that this server is made for we have an over abundance of issues to sort through. Limiting the spaghetti code while we work the kinks out is the most effective means to have a viable working server in the least amount of time. We do however plan to offer more client choices in the future as the code stabilizes and matures. But to allow clients that are way beyond our era is just not in the cards for other reasons as well. This era of EQ only saw a limited client base on SOE live release. 1 for the PC side and 1 for the OSX side. We do intend to offer a bit more than this. But to be true to the era, limits have to be established here. If I brainstorm more I'll add to this, but I have not had my coffee yet. I am sure others that understand the codebase more than I do can weigh in with more reasons or refine mine here.
I think the OP was referring more to how people get the client you are coding for. I thought I was up a creek then I remembered my old POS laptop had the files I needed. from the limited searching I did at the time I couldn't find the files needed. namely the once SOE took down after sunset. example. If I wanted to play DAOC emu server (or other EQ emu servers), they link right to EA for downloading the game files, then you put in a few custom files they give you and your on your way. For now not sure there is much the devs can do on this site and avoid getting in trouble. long term from what speedz is saying they will be able to say. go get this client and add our files and enjoy!
Right, there is no legally available advice or links we can give to get the clients since SOE no longer hosts the OSX client. But you can buy the Titanium client for the PC. The idea is to be compatible with the Evolution and maybe the Gold edition as well. I think there is another but the name escapes me. So essentially PC users have options they can prepare for at least. I am unsure where the legal standpoint is for us to offer up a link to the patch needed for Titanium tho. Safest bet is to not poke the beast so to speak.
I guess my point was that is where the community is vital. Ask a friend for some help. I don't disagree the files are difficult to obtain.
Project 99 provides a significant amount of files for the user to download and install. http://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2651 They don't provide any links to the client though. PEQ:TGC provides a the spell.us.txt file. So it is apparent that some files are ok to be provided, as long as the whole client isn't provided? For testing/alpha purposes, not providing files and in depth resources are not as critical. But for an open server you want to be able as many resources to people that you can, legally. I think that following P99s lead on providing as many files as possible will help with ease of access, and the resulting long term population health of the server. I fully understand and agree that trying to make this server compatible with a lot of different clients is a nightmare, and agree that focusing on the current Mac/PC clients is important. -edit for clarity
Thanks Speedz that is great to hear. And yes you guys are right, I reached out to the community and was able to gain access to the files I needed, however if a complete unknown person wanted to join I just dont think they would have as much luck.
The best option in this case is to reach out in the forums to get to know people and let people get to know them. My hope is that this forum stays active and alive just as OOC/Alliance would in game so that we continue to have a healthy and helpful community in general.
Speedz, are we allowed to distribute similar files as P99 does? They provide a whole bunch of stuff, pretty much everything you need except a titanium client. If we could do that for Mac/PC versions I think it would help people out a lot.
