February Waypoints

Confront Anashti Sul on Anashti Sul

What better antidote for chilly winter weather than a two-week trip to the sun scorched desert! Grab your turban and join the Desert of Flames expansion Beta that begins January 27 on the Origins server. Check out the official announcement (which includes a link to the O.G. trailer video!)

If you're interested in jumping into Beta with DarqUI, here are some quick notes for getting set up. You can install the DoF Beta into any EverQuest II game folder, Live or Origins. But...

If you have twin game folders (one for Live, one for Origins) I recommend opening your Origins LaunchPad and downloading the DoF Beta from there.

If you only have a single EverQuest II game folder, no problem. Open the LaunchPad and install the Origins Beta in the same way that you would install a Live Beta.

Either way, log in to the Beta server on or after January 27th and create a character, or use the /beta command in-game to copy your existing Anashti Sul characters. (Remember to use the command from an overland zone, not in an instance or house!) Visit the Character Select screen at least once before installing DarqUI. This will make your Beta characters visible to Quick Setup.

Log all the way out of the game and drop a copy of the DarqUI utility into \BetaServer\UI\ and install the UI from there.

The general setup video for DarqUI goes into a bit more detail if you need it -- find it here.

On the DarqUI setup window you have two things to do: 1) Choose Origins server type (even though this is a Beta), and 2) Click the small gray Patreon logo and add your premium key:

The rest is easy -- choose your UI size, theme and map options and let the utility install the UI. If you have already created your character(s) in Beta and visited Character Select, Quick Setup will add some spells, cures and other bits depending on class and level the next time you log in.

Now the only question left unanswered is: Truth, Blades or Coin? We'll see you in the Peacock Club, barrashar!

Blown Zone

And speaking of Maj'Dul, a few days ago one of our founding Darq Side members, Ktyak, discovered an obscure bug that has a rare chance to affect any player who uses the DarqUI utility. If you log out in one of these zone/server combinations:

• Maj'Dul on the Maj'Dul server

• Thurgadin, City of the Coldain on the Thurgadin server

• Kael Drakkel on the Kael Drakkel server

you'll probably get an error message the next time you open the DarqUI utility. Yep, you guessed it. Because those three zones are also server names the utility gets confused when listing your characters. The bug has been fixed for the next version, and you're always welcome to message me in Discord if you want an early copy.

Until v3.1.4.0 is published, remember not to log out in any of those three zone/server combinations if you're going to be using the utility.

Drawing a Blank

Here's an interesting experimental tweak for the Knowledge book. There are game commands for sorting spells, swapping whole pages of the book around, and inserting blank icon slots and pages. If you've ever spent way too much time manually reorganizing your spells/tradeskill reactions/Ascensions because none of the standard sort settings are suitable, you may find these extra controls to be useful.

Like a lot of features in DarqUI, this proposed extension to the Knowledge Sort window simply puts arcane game commands into a friendly form. It's still in early stages, but so far things are looking good. If everything works out, you should see it during February.

Every Bit Helps

One aspect of the UI that always seems to get less attention than it deserves is Help. Even though video tutorials are more digestible than text on a page, the Help system is actually a much deeper and more detailed resource than the videos.

We've added a bunch of features and improvements to the premium UI over the last few months that haven't yet been addressed in Help, so I've been plugging in missing instructions and advice here and there. You should see a bunch of Help files getting updated this month -- always feel free to let me know if you notice any topics that still need info.

Thank You

We're pleased to welcome quite a few new players to the Darq Side this month, and I'm honored that you've chosen to join this community-driven project along with our valued long-time patrons. Because of your support we are able to make continued improvements and explore new ideas, almost all of which come directly from members.

If you are new to the UI, I hope you'll browse through some of the tutorial videos and the growing list of exclusive premium features. There are dozens of innovative ways that DarqUI makes the most of your game time no matter what your playstyle is, or what screen resolution you use. For new and seasoned members alike, our goal for you is always the same: first-class everything for just a few pennies per day. Thank you!