Database

The EQ2Emulator Database

The EQ2Emulator Database is a constantly changing entity during the Alpha development phase. What this means is that not all the data for the entire game has been realized yet, and as development continues, additional tables or fields will be discovered and the schema will change. Below is a chart of the main Sub-Systems and the data that supports them. Click on a sub-system for detailed schema documentation.

Definitions

First, a few definitions:

"Static Tables" - Data that, once set up by a server admin, will usually not change during the life of their server.

Example: Appearance, Visual States, and Spell Effects References. These cannot be changed, as the data inside these tables is required by the emulator in order to fundtion properly. Changing this data, the world will send unknown information to the player/client, and the client will ignore it as unknown. Not all "Static" data falls into this strict category however. Another form of data that is generally Static are the factions, emotes, or commands the server uses to process various functions. Factions can be changed by the admin, adding a new one for instance. Emotes are not mandatory, but are fun. Commands can be set up to allow customized interactions with objects, etc. They are deemed "static" because they rarely change, if at all, once a server is running.

"Dynamic Tables" - Data that gets updated by regular use of the server.

Example: Character data, primarily. Players will log in, create new characters, and enter your world. Every few minutes of their visit, the World will save their current player data to the database. This is the extreme case of Dynamic Data - and thus all Character-related tables should be the most important tables to backup regularly.

The Customize column below shows that the data can be altered from what is provided in the (default) EQ2Emulator Database Package.

Basic Schema

Sub-System	Customize	Description
Static Tables
Core	No	Core data is the absolute minimum required to run an emulator. Data cannot be changed.
Misc	Yes/No	Miscellaneous data that is static, but not mandatory.
Items	Yes	The Items System
Quests	Yes	The Questing and supporting LUA Systems
Spawns	Yes	The Spawn and Spawn Point Systems
Spells	Yes	The Abilities/Combat Arts/Spells+ Systems
Starting Data	Yes	Data related to how New Players are configured at first login
Zones	Yes	The Zones System
Dynamic Tables
Characters	No	All Character-related tables which are unique to every server.
Instances	No	Zone "instance" data is very dynamic, and on a per-player, per-group, per-raid level.

Conclusion

As you can see by this overview, the EQ2Emulator is extremely customizable. Very little data is mandatory, and none of it should effect the way you customize your server. Consider it like building a car engine; the parts you put in make it as powerful as you desire, but it still needs fuel and oil to run properly!