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Everquest Server Emulator In Beta
Zummi writes: "The people at HackersQuest have released a beta of their Everquest server emulator. " Verant's reaction should be interesting to watch -- EthernalQuest looks cool, and will hopefully look better than the 1992 graphics of Everquest.
But what if there were free servers? Do you think more people would play, or would they simply want to be where everyone else was playing.?
--
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
UO has seen many custom servers built for it... in the end, setting up a game server depends largely on how redundant your backend is and how much of a pipe you can afford.
If UO is any precedent, Verant has nothing to worry about.
Do not spread "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0" over the internet, thank you.
When the Ultima Online server emulators came out, Origin threatened to cancel your subscription with the official service. This was explicitly written into the license agreement for the game. If you check the license agreement for EverQuest, I bet it's the same thing.
Origin also released several client-side patches which required additional reverse-engineering on the part of the emulator authors. Officially it was encryption to reduce "cheating". When I left the UO scene, it was bad enough that only certain patch levels of the client worked with the emulators, but were too old to work with the offical servers. Again, I'd bet the EQ folks will do something similar.
Even though they shouldn't. One day I am going to see a suit on here about a patent that is worthwhile. Or someone actually suing to protect their rights that are worth a damn. But with the patent suits 100 out of 100 I have seen the patent was a waste. I don't even need to mention my feelings on MP3s, DeCSS etc. OH well I sure am glad I'm spending my 40%, or however much, on income tax. At least Im not funding the creation of more lawyers. Oh wait state supported schools. Shit I'm paying taxes so that more lawyers can come out and crush little people like me for the big corporations until I pay their classmates 100s of thousands of dollars to protect me. God this is ridiculous. Oh well what a waste. Sorry
I am 31337 or something.
But HackersQuest is probably in for a major lawsuit. It's one thing to make a mod for Diablo II, which won't work on the Realms servers, but it's another thing entirely to make your own server for someone else's game like this.
And yes, before it gets brought up, it's because Everquest is a pay-to-play game. If it was a free multi-player game (as in no cost to play multi-player) then the point would be moot. But the whole point of Everquest is to play online, and give X dollars a month to Sony.
Sorry to say it, but they are cruising for a lawsuit....
Kierthos
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
you're being extremely unfair... the graphics are a lot better than Quake (which was released in 96) and at least on par with Quake2's graphics... of course since you've OBVIOUSLY played the game and thus can make a fair comment about it, you must already know this
Is this under Your Rights Online instead of Games? We've seen plenty of emulators get sued, but plenty of emulators go on with no interference. If no use of copyrighted or NDAed [sp] materials were involved, then there's not much of a case...
Before they started sucking ass, FSGS used to be the premiere alternative Battle.net. They still are because they never released their source code and drove all the other bnet servers into oblivion. They'll have Diablo II support 'soon.' Blizzard initially sued people making stuff outta starcraft (anyone remember the starhack flap?) but eventually stopped. (actually it was the spa representing someone or other, i forget)
The big question is (i'm on a sloooooooooow ass modem): is it open source? If so, Verant's gonna have a field day taking down EVERYone who's working on it.
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Peace,
Lord Omlette
ICQ# 77863057
[o]_O
They're trying to emulate Everquest, not improve upon it. It will look the same, but you will be able to do fun stuff like park 5 dragons outside the gates of Qeynos.
...steve
You'd have to Ask Milo how to improve upon the graphics.
There's probably a lot more to be said about this, but I don't think Verant is going to freak out. There's not much they can do, and I don't think it's going to really affect their business anyway.
"Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
I haven't read it in awhile... I'm sure it will change to disallow using the client with non-sanctioned servers.
I wonder if the US will start making emulators iilegal to even have. You can not import from another country let hope this does not happen.
As of today, after the latest patch...
l .htm or other similar sites providing information on such protections.
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Why are you all being so negative about what Verant is going to do? Everone just assumes that they will sue the authors of this software! What if they don't and instead spend the money they would have spent on lawyers improving their protocol & game so that it is worth paying for, as opposed to using the presumably free service.
I agree that recently corporations have been quick to sue, but until they sue, I don't think that we should become negative about a company. Let's give them a chance to react first!
Dan
Doh!
IMHO, this is going to get litigated hard and fast. How effective that will be remains to be seen. Verant has been unwilling or unable to go after other indiviudals, such as the E-Bay Farmers, or Uber You planes-raid people. (for those not in the know, Uber you is a bunch of players who are charging people for the privledge of going on a raid to the one of the various Planes in EQ. There's a little more to it than that, natch, but not much.) Of course, the E-Bay practices haven't actually threatened Verant's cash-flow.
Now, on a related note, I'd love to see this go to court. Verant has admitted that many of their coders were avid MUDers from back in the day, and a lot of the inspiration for EQ came from one particular MUD Brad used to play (sorry, can't remember the name). Most of the MUD's fall under various froms of an "open License", and EQ itself has a lot of throwbacks to those text-based MUDs. More so than UO or AC appear to have, for instance. I'd be very interested to see the source for some of the code from EQ, and from whence it sprang.
Just a thought...
--sugarman--
EthernalQuest is trying to censor me! Help, help, I'm being repressed!
"He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."
"Ok, let me get this straight. I buy this game for $40, install it, and then I have to pay an additional thirty bucks a month so I can play it? No thank you..."
I really don't think that in this era of so called "informational freedom" we should have to pay a monthly fee to play some goofy game online when we are already shelling out $20-$60 (depending on what ISP) for internet access. I mean come on, we already bought the damn game, just let us play it! Screw Everquest, if I want to play a game online, I'll give my money to Blizzard (i.e. Diablo 2). But I do applaud the efforts of these individuals to try to emulate an EQ server.
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"The only difference between me and a madman is that I'm not mad." - Salvador Dali (1904-1989)
Are you stupid?
When EQ came out it looked better than any other FPRPG (First Person RPG) out there, and rivaled many of the FPS. Christ, did you play Daggerfall?
Sigs are awesome huh?
One thing a lot of you may not realize is that Hackersquest is in China. This makes litigation a lot more of a problem, I wonder if Verant could even get the logs from the ISP to see who is actually doing this.
Sigs are awesome huh?
Anyone with access to changing a web site, get this thing onto it.
I just changed my company's web site (with authorization of the president of the company) to be the DeCSS source code.
http://www.superiorlabs.com
If the MPAA needs help finding us, there is a link to e-mail us on the site.
If enough sites do this, the absurdity will be shown, and the point will be made!
TAG - This time, you really are IT!
I might be wrong, but it seems that the HackersQuest guys are actually european. If that's the case, good luck suing them ... since you should know that the European Union explicitly allows reverse engineering for interoperability purposes ... which is precisely what this emulator is about. And not only do they allow it, but they also are very likely to sue a company who would try to prevent it for anticompetitive behavior.
It's also interesting to notice that to play Everquest, you have to buy the package AND pay a monthly fee ... this might fall under forced bundling rules if they don't allow people to buy the product without paying the subscription....
Sony did'nt make the game. Verant made the game, and got bought by Sony.
t
Also because people were leveling too fast Verant made a stupid decision to put hell levels in, basically they are levels that take 2x the xp to get to the next level as the game would normally have you do when the better solution would have been to have the experience curve increase over all the levels instead of just 30, 35, 40, 45, etc.
There are problems and other bugs, like enemies attacking you through a stonewall, that Verant doesn't admit is a bug. Maybe if some REAL role-players ran things there would be more fun then sitting and waiting for an enemy to spawn so you can get one step closer to maxing your level which is all there is to do besides chatting with people. Really, chatting and killing the infrequent enemy is all it is. So it might not be the same experiance but I feel it couldn't be too much worse.
Molog
So Linus, what are we doing tonight?
So Linus, what are we going to do tonight?
The same thing we do every night Tux. Try to take over the world!
Sounds like KROQ
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Besides, they're underhanding Sony and Verant's entire profit system. (Also, note to poster, the graphics in EQ have nothing to do with the server. They're rendered entirely in the client, with only very vague instructions to general placement of things. An emulated server won't improve graphics.)
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Copy protected? I'm using a copy of the cd as my primary cd so I don't have to worry about hosing it when carrying it around with me ...
James
You'd still be violating the license, and you'd still be hurting Sony because you'd be undermining a deal they would have been paid for.
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Its Verant...not veriant or variant and they did write they game...Verant has been bought by Sony.
If you play on the emulator you will notice they are a loonng way from actually making it playable. Right now you can only be one race/class out of a few dozen possibilites. There is no npcs (computer control good guys) or even anything to fight. If it was fully opertaional there isn't much point in playing on a server with even a few dozen people (which the server probably won't be able to handle anyway). There's a reason why EQ is $10.00 (many actually) and a large portion of that goes to the backend, computers, high speed lines, etc. How could this emulator be good then? How about using it with a kick ass mod. Imagine turning EQ into Springfield and being your favortie Simpsons characters, etc. :)
I don't think the emu will really be for the people, but rather its a challenge for the developers.
Lastly the graphics in EQ are supperior to any game of its class at the moment and the game has been out for over a year and I'm still impressed with em. Apparently whomever wrote the initial post to Slashdot has never played EQ (which is supperior in graphics to Asheron's Call which even came out after EQ).
Just stimulating conversation -- I wouldn't still be playing Tribes if I had to pay for it.
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Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
Primalchrome
1. Slashdot used to be like that cool radio station. (yup.)
2. They got bought by a big multi-website media company. (andover.net) 3. They've gotten lame. (rampant linux gnomes bashing every pro-Microsoft post/story) 4. Now, they're giving away a car. (that fugly P/T cruiser) Besides that, the car is fscking fugly. I mean REAL fugly. I mean oh-my-lord-aren't-you-embarrassed-to-be-seen-in-t"Ancillary does not mean you get to rule the world." --U.S. Circuit Judge Harry Edwards, speaking to the FCC's lawyer
I still hold, though, that the software should be free if the service is going to cost so much monthly.
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Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
First of all I'd like to qualify these comments with the statement that I'm part of the WorldForge community so my opinions are probably worth what you paid for them...
In concept something like this is a wonderful thing however reading the FAQ fills me with trepidation. Let me elaborate...
In order to run the emulator you have to own the game so the emulator can rip all the artwork and music out of the game. I'm sorry but this is just plain illegal and unethical. The /. crowd runs around foaming at the mouth for any perceived, slight derivation from the GPL but not a whimper about anyone else's property rights. This is just plain ridiculous. You cannot use someone else's artwork, music what have you without the author's consent. The developers claim that the emulator is legal because "it's 100% reverse engineered" is just plain wrong minded and and illegal really. If they used their own music, artwork I would be cheering them on and even looking into cooperation between our two projects but this just is just disturbing..
How do you expect anyone to respect the (rights of the) GPL or the FSF when you trample on everyone else's rights?
-Jason
G. Washington on Government "it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master."
Yes, Everquest graphics are a bit behind, but this is Massive Multiplayer game, they perhaps don't want to limit themselves to a small group? Kunark uses higher end graphics, guess what, most people still play on the original Island becuase, since it uses older style graphics, it runs much faster on lower end machines.
EverQuest is fun. It isn't the best graphics, but it has a lot of people, it's good graphics, and it runs smooth on a 24000 baud connection. (I have 2 machines running EQ behind 48000 baud connections with no lag). Most people don't realize why certain games takeoff, I think people are angry that EQ is popular even though, in their very tiny minds, it has everything wrong with it. Dated graphics, per month charges, etc.
It's FUN, and Verant constantly adjusts play balance. It's as simple as that. EQ is a graphical LPMud, and to that end, they are still #1, and untouched.
To do a game like EQ, you can't do the best graphics, because you are going to cut out a chunk of society that doesn't have the latest wiz-bang hardware, and for a TRUE massive multiplayer game (not Unreal/Doom style Multiplayer) the more people you get, with a wider range of personalities, the better.
I don't play EQ just for the graphics, I play because there are constantly people from all over the world that I have actually gotten to know over time, just like the original MUD/MUSH/MUCK servers.
When I have a problem with the game, I have a GM assist me, or I can work with them on bugs. I have to pay per-month, but I also haven't purchased another $50 game in the past 15 months. I used to buy a game every two weeks, beat it, buy another. EQ has many levels of fun, and I doubt it's going anywhere soon. To get a server up and running, and keep it running costs money. If you spend 6 months building a character, I would find it a bit annoying to find that Oh, sorry, I didn't feel like supporting this server anymore, so I disconnected it, good luck, which is bound to happen with free servers. This is a persistent world, not a short one. It's not the same as Doom/Unreal, etc. Look at MUD/MUSH/MUCKs, and how many come and go.
-- Keith Moore
This sig is the express property of someone.
A couple of weeks ago we had a discussion why all opensource games were clones of existing games. The simple answer is that all game programmers have to start more or less from scratch. They spend their time trying to get the game working instead of thinking of great plots. The programmers of this server have probably done a good job, but we really an engine that can be used to create a lot of different games. Therefore it seems to me that worldforge is one of the the most promising open source massive multiplayer projects on the market right now.
Ok, UO sucked. EverQuest has issues. The ONE person I know who plays Asheron's Call is about to give up. What's a gamer to do?
/. ID is lower than the real Bruce Perens'.
Join WorldForge! www.worldforge.org
With an Open Source player in the MMORPG niche there will be some real competition in the area of game-play. Don't like the rules? Change 'em! Want your own world? Download a server. Computer's too slow to handle the 3D client? It works with a 2D client as well as a text client.
The real Threed's
--Threed
From the EULA: (my emphasis)
"7. Subject to the terms of this Agreement, we hereby grant to you a non-exclusive license to use the Software solely in connection with playing the Game via an authorized and fully-paid Account. You may not copy (except to make one necessary back-up copy), distribute, rent, lease, loan, modify or create derivative works, adapt, translate, perform, display, sublicense or transfer the Software..."
I was hoping to get ABBA to write the songs too..
First person? Isn't Evercrack third person, and if so, how does comparing it to first person games?
Frankly, I think X-Com and other games of that ilk are more visually appealing than EQ. This is probably because of the artists and/or art style involved with that game. X-Com is from the days of the 486SX.
Just because it's better than its competitors doesn't mean it doesn't suck.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
okay, so someone who's bought the eq software wants to connect to a free server. the writing and running of a different eq server is not against any law that i know of.
how does the current eq client that the user has know to connect to the non-verant server instead of the ones off in cali? i'm assuming one of two things need to happen:
a) an eqclient.exe wrapper is going to be created so that the server connections can be rerouted
b) a couple of hexs are changed in eqclient.exe before runtime to enable a change of login server addy.
in the first case, no harm is done, and all seems cheery and happy. altering the eqclient.exe file, on the other hand, is a direct breach of contract, and the purchaser of eq can be terminated from further service. from what the hackersquest page has said in the faq, seems as if it might just be up to the user to change how they connect, thus not making the programmers liable for anything.
Verant made the game. Sony bought Verant and made Everquest (and other Verant games to come) part of Sony Station. The same login/password I use to log into Everquest I can use to log into Sony Station on the web.
Since IANAL, I don't know whether they can get away with the emulated server. It certainly seems like a cool idea to "play" around with and see and do parts of the game that you haven't been able to accomplish before.
BUT, Verant/Sony provides more than just a server for you to connect. They provide GM's to help with bug/problems that arise (albeit slow sometimes). They provide a full development team to update/expand the game. Basically they have a whole lot of people that are paid to admin the game. Any public servers will be lacking here.
I'm also curious on how they will emulate quests/items/etc. that have yet to be discovered or only discovered by a few.
Although it will be very likely that I "play" around with the emulator Sony/Verant will still get my $9.99 a month.
All of the previous posts that I have read dealt with moral ramifications, possible action on Sony and Verant's part, and the quality of EQ's graphics.
/.er's usually are by nature, I decided to try out the Hacker's Quest server. Hacker's quest has already gained notoriety for an app that they created called ShowEQ, which sniffs the packets and logs them allowing you to find out specifics of the game that Verant doesn't want you to know. It's pretty nifty, although it does kind of cheapen the experience, IMHO.
I play EQ regularly and can safely say that while I don't enjoy paying around $10 a month, plus $40 for the game alone, It's something that I've come to terms with; they don't call it EverCrack for nothing. It would be nice sometimes, to try something a little different, ie, different NPC's, different item's, and locations.
Curious, as most
Once, I logged on to the Hackersquest server (affectionatly titled) Nine Inch Gnomes ^_^, I made up a new character, as one would expect to do when joining a new server. Once I actually got into the game, I noticed that everyone else started as the same race and level, in the same area.... it's a beta ok... I can cope.
I looked around some more to find that there were no NPC's, enemies, spells, or anything vaguly resembling gameplay.... underwhelming again. What did redeem this server is that they added some extra commands, that allow you to take the form of any NPC in the game; to spawn any item in the game. This was pretty nifty, I could take the form of giant hands or spectres, or try out the most expensive equipment in the game.
Verdict: Hacker's Quest has a long way to go... without any gameplay, well it is boring as Bill Gates' wardrobe color scheme. It does have a little novelty value, but a game without anything to do is not worth noticing.
Sidenote: Sony/Verant will take legal action, it's just their style. ^_^
bitpusher
Wanted: A Bauhaus reformation of society.
The guy who invented tetris was a genius. The thousands of people who coded up clones know how to program C.
Why not produce something original?
Sony et al made a game that lots of people enjoy and lots of people feel is worth the money.
The right way to step up to the plate (whether a free software developer or a commercial developer) is to have a creative, novel idea of your own and implement it.
It's so much easier to just copy someone else idea (I realize the work required to implement, but still) that I don't see this as the ideal that open source advocates should be striving for.
This sort of "the same but free" bullshit is all too common.
you just don't know
.oO0Oo.
try a decent computer
you should play it in 3d like i do
try that on a 386
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
The servers on EQ have to have phone lines that can handle something like several gigs a second to run EQ, and even then lag can become a problem if a certain area gets too crowded (i.e. large events, where your client has to keep track of the location of 50 or more people). I imagine each server is made up of at least several computers, keeping track of players in different areas. These are all probably connected with some humongous LAN configuration.
All in all, I don't think a small group of hackers in Europe (as is my understanding, I could be wrong) could match the awesome power that Verant needs to run the game at its current pace.
Look, running these servers are going to cause Variant to loose money, it?s a simple as that. So? Who ever said that Variant had a god given right to make money the way they planned? They might be pissed, but if they are, they have no legal leg to stand on (no-reverse engineering clauses are not legally binding in any way). So what? Should we ban anything that might cause someone to loose money? Why?
Civil Disobedience is breaking the law for a higher purpose, breaking unjust laws. And the whole point is to get caught. What your describing is, well it isn't anything. We are free to do whatever we want, and if it causes a company with a bad business model to go out of business, then, that?s just to bad.
Amber Yuan 2k A.D
"and dear god does this website suck now." -- CmdrTaco
They are stealing eyeballs, they are stealing users!. And all of us know that users are property. Everything belongs to the intermediary corporations that distribute stuff, duh.
Amber Yuan 2k A.D
"and dear god does this website suck now." -- CmdrTaco
This kind of crap is exactly why i dont read the Offical EQ boards, its all just a bunch of "My class sucks" and "verant sucks" posts.
Heh, what a thoughtless comment. First of all, this is a _server_ emulator which uses the standard EverQuest client, models graphics, zones, sounds, etc. It will look and sound the same. Duh. Secondly, Everquest has very nice Graphics, all things considered -- models need to be low poly because you often have 15-30 models in view, sometimes in large outdoor areas. Textures can't be high res because a large number of global textures need to be loaded in memory at all times (all types of player armor, pets, illusions, some monsters) along with diverse per zone monster and world textures. You simply can't compare a game like this to Q3 or UT -- or UO2, a next generation game.
They got bought by a big multi-website media company.
Not to nit-pick here, but andover wasn't really a 'big media company', they were small time when slashdot got baught. Slashdot probably accounted for 80% of their webhits or something.
Of course, andover got purchaced by a huge computer company.... but anyway
Why does slashdot suck now? beacuse its gotten big, and the comments have gotten lame, most of the people who post on this thing are morons now, it sucks.
Amber Yuan 2k A.D
"and dear god does this website suck now." -- CmdrTaco
Sure, some free servers will allow everyone to run rampant; on the other hand, I'd prefer a dedicated GM who _chooses_ who's allowed to play on his server, over the apathetic Verant GM being paid $8 a hour.
Sometimes the best things in life are free...
Not that i play that awfull game, but i but i generally don't accept that kind of "agreement" and agreement is something where i sign on the dotted line.
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If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
By reading this message you agree that you owe me 1 million dollars, and that you will deliver them to me where and when i choose.
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If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
*sigh* Do you even know how to read? What part of my message was even remotely unclear? Is it hard to type with paws?
The only thing thats on servers are essentially savegames. Who cares about that. What they can do, what they should do is build NEW worlds. Start by letting fans creating new cities, islands, continents.. perhaps one has a spaceport and people can fly to other planets - ooh, the creative mind boggles :)
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If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
Well, perhaps in this case, "encourage" is a better word than "facilitate".
Without emulators, people don't warez EQ. Why? Because each CD that is sold has a key, and only one instance of each key is allowed on the Verant servers. Additionally, Verant knows who you are if you play on their servers (since you are paying them). So warezing doesn't make sense.
With an EQ emulator to play on, it becomes much more attractive to make a copy of a friend's CD, rather than paying for your own.
And MUDs copied Adventure and added another level: multiplayer. Verant took MUDs, and added another level: 3D graphics. This means adding a lot -- compensation for distance, speed, height, and a LOT of other things 3D graphics introduce. EverQuest isn't just a MUD with 3D graphics. If that's all you think, then you're severely opinionated.
I originally bought EQ, and took it back when I realized it was PFP. Yeah, I'm a dummy... but I'm not the only dummy to be duped into the cycle. At least I got out in time!
PFP games make 60$ (CAN) per copy, and on top of that, 20 bucks a month for server fees. How much of the server fees goes to profit, and how much is really used to improve the game?
When it's in the can, the game is done. Sure they add models and contests and stuff via PFP server downloads, but you are never really getting a refined game. The game tends to become congested, not better.
The online community loves EQ. I hear nothing but rave reviews of EQ. Asheron's Call also has a good following. These games are immersive, fun and very cool, indeed. PFP is not a method to improve gameplay; PFP is a cash grab.
With the current free Quake 3 servers available, it's about time that immersive online games followed suit.
Instead of paying for servers, now I can put some cash toward better hardware. :)
Damn fools... if I'm playing on a free server, do I really care if you smoke my EQ account?
You pay for the box more than you have to pay for other games. It buys you one month of play. I'd say ripping graphics and sounds for PERSONAL USE would fall under the category FAIR USE. Just as with music CDs and videos. I think that's why Verant charges so much for the boxes in the first place.
The EULA shouldn't be legally binding. They have changed it over and over again, and if you disagree, suddenly you have paid for nothing? That's blackmailing, not agreement.
What is "wrong", is distributing the game CD to people not owning the game. However, I said "wrong", because nothing is absolute in this world.
- Steeltoe
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
The "Server Emulator" (although that's a poor choice of name) doesn't change the front end. Remember; this is a bunch of guys who are too lazy to write their own MMRPOG and are instead simply re-using the EQ engine and protocols for some bizzare reason.
And to anyone who is about to step in to say 'You don't know how much work that would involve!', well, actually yes I do, and I point out that Verant have already done that.
-- A change is as good as a reboot.
They are spoofing the server, not the client. IMHO these guys should stop at this point, gather together a development team of like-minded people, and write their own client and server and protocol.
And all of that aside... They have agreed to the following:
16. This Agreement is governed in all respects by the laws of the State of California as such laws are applied to agreements entered into and to be performed entirely within California between California residents. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods is expressly disclaimed. Both parties submit to personal jurisdiction in California and further agree that any cause of action relating to this Agreement shall be brought in a court in San Mateo County, California. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck and the remaining provisions shall be enforced. Our failure to act with respect to a breach by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches. You may not assign or transfer this Agreement or your rights hereunder, and any attempt to the contrary is void. This Agreement sets forth the entire understanding and agreement between us and you with respect to the subject matter hereof. Except as provided above, this Agreement may not be amended except in a writing signed by both parties.
Oliver
-- A change is as good as a reboot.
Hmm...well perhaps we ought to base it on DikuMUD like the original everquest servers :P
http://www.dikumud.com/diku/everquest.asp
of course now that there is a settlement both side deny anything happened at all
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Crudely Drawn Games
I've never played EQ, but from the screenshots I've seen it looks like the trees are mostly sprites... this allows for far greater performance as you don't have to render a complex 3d shape anymore, rather just draw a bitmap on the screen to show the tree.
This technique should also be possible in Quake, although it may require a minor modification to the code. And Quake1 is open-sourced now, isn't it?
Nethack has better graphics (and I'm not talking about X11 tile-mode either).
I greatly prefer seeing an '@' and envisioning my elven ranger standing at the entrance to the Dungeons of Doom, then walking into a cavern and seeing sky through the far wall because the clipping plane is halfway through the tunnel.
In post-9/11 America, the CIA interrogates YOU!