Due to the amount of interest and number of successful participants in the program already, this program is now closed. All those who have spoken with me or expressed their interest in the program may continue getting setup and/or working on the tasks.

The entire program will be closed when five (5) new developers are added to the team; one (1) spot remains to be filled.

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I have decided to reopen the trial developer program. I am not completely satisfied with our current rate of development, so I am hoping to find at least one qualified, dedicated individual to boost progress.

Interested community members must have all of the following software to participate:

+ Windows XP x86 (32-bit)
+ Retail Trilogy (2001 Distribution Only) Client
+ Visual C++ 2008 Express (Free)
+ MySQL Server 4.1 (Free)
+ Navicat Lite (Free)

Absolutely none of the above software--in part or in whole--will be distributed. It is your responsibility to purchase and obtain all of the commercial software.

We have an awful lot of work that we wish to protect, so in order to graduate from the trial developer program and start working the real EQC source, participants in the program must satisfy the following requirements:

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EASY (Complete both of the following tasks)

Runtime debugging
Find and comment out the line responsible for crashing the zone server following the death of an NPC

Packet hacking
Fill out the DropCoins_Struct to include the exact byte locations and data types for the 'x,' 'y,' 'z,' 'coin type' and 'texture file name' attributes.

MODERATE (Complete two of the following tasks)

Unknown opcode handling
Completely implement the missing mend skill

Feature implementation
Implement working spell casting interruptions due to PC movement

Utility implementation
Finish the custom #scribespells command to fill a character's spell book with all their class spells from level 1 to X organized by level in ascending order

DIFFICULT (Complete two of the following tasks)

Feature implementation
Implement PC on NPC "mob push" where the occasional attack from a PC will slightly nudge the NPC in a direction with respect to the PC's cardinal heading.

Packet hacking
Make the lifts in gfaydark functional

Client management
Fix the issue with clients no longer being able to hear or target an NPC via F8 roughly six seconds after the NPC spawns

EXTREMELY DIFFICULT (Optional: May be completed to satisfy all previous requirements)

Opcode hunting
Find the one-way opcode that spawns a projectile object, create a struct for the spawn and identify which bytes are responsible for the X, Y and Z locations of the projectile. Your brute force algorithm must remain in the source and be fully documented to count.

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All of the above tasks are very possible and have been completed by yours truly. If it sounds discouraging, just keep in mind that I picked up C++ last March and I am still learning. It is not hard, it just takes times. If you try to rush this process, you will end up frustrated and you will most likely fall short.

Instructions for getting set up will be available by request (PM me) no sooner than Thursday (July 30th, 2009) afternoon.

I love the idea, some tasks are challenging

Good luck !

Fun!

Good luck to those who give this a whirl!

While i think this is a great idea to test the reversing engineering skills of a developer, i have to say this is quite a long list to be done just to start on something new that has not been fixed/implemented yet.

I know that the reason for the long requirement may be to test the patience/endurance of a developer, however it would have been more useful for the project advancement to either reduce this list or give them to work on something that hasnt been implemented yet. The code required is probably very small, but the opcode hunting and package analyzing is that though one, c++ is the easy part.

The remaining tasks in the project require the work that was completed after the date of the trial developer source code. For instance, if you wanted to work on swimming skill-ups, then you would need our line of sight code; if you wanted to try your luck with the bind sight spell line, you would need our spells handler work; etc. I honestly cannot think of a single task that we are currently lacking that could be completed with the trial source code.

The tasks are designed to build a potential developer's skills and get them ready for the more difficult jobs left in the project. Nearly every task remaining either involves an opcode hunt and/or hacking a large packet.

In the last trial developer program, we have a large number of phising attempts on my AI work. If this process is not difficult, then an admin from an EQEMU server could easily port EQEMU 7.X code into the trial source, copy our more complex systems into their source code and then bail.

A qualified person familiar with the source code and client can complete the 'extremely difficult' task in about ninety minutes.

I, for one, am very happy to see that this project is adhering to such high standards. Without naming names, many similar projects have failed because they let any bored kid with a keyboard join in. I would rather wait another year for EQC than have the finished product be chock full of minor issues due to subpar coding. The present solicitation calls for a great deal of skill and some objective proof that one's willing to invest a lot of time into this. This will ultimately lead to more accountability and a better product.

Thanks Yeahlight and everyone else for refusing to compromise!

The information is ready, please PM me to receive it. Thanks!

Edit: Also, please keep in mind that, although there is no set expiration time on this program, it may be closed if more than a few qualified individuals are discovered. Even though more help is better, too many chefs in the kitchen are counterproductive.

In essence, this is a competition and you are encouraged to speak up if you are interested, but the chances of acquiring five or six qualified people in the short run are not realistic. I would not worry if you only have a few hours to commit to this program at this time, as I believe it will be open for a while.

To many chefs is bad, sure. But a good Chief always can use more Indians.

Due to the amount of interest and number of successful participants in the program already, this program is now closed. All those who have spoken with me or expressed their interest in the program may continue getting setup and/or working on the tasks.

The entire program will be closed when five (5) new developers are added to the team; four (4) spots remain to be filled.

Two (2) spots remain to be filled.

One (1) spot remains to be filled