June Waypoints

A rabbi, a priest and a duck walk into a bar. The bartender looks up and says, "What is this, a joke?"

To all of our dads with their groan-worthy jokes and puns, Happy Father's Day!

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Off-Color

Last month we made several nice tweaks to Target and Implied Target windows, which included matching up the size of tier arrows with their respective component sizes. They're looking good, and I'm glad to finally have all the parts and pieces in those windows correctly sized. Darq Side member Maergoth discovered an intermittent issue with mismatched con colors. To wit:

Guard MacMurris appreciates the fix, but if you happen to notice any other instances of this bug, you know where to find me.

POI-sed to Go Live

Maergoth also developed a very nice script package that fixes the no-maps-in-Beta situation, and the hope was that we could use it to put together something easily downloadable with the DarqUI and ProfitUI CE utilities. I know players who are participating in the Origins Beta test have been wondering what's up with the maps over there. So far, every solution I come up with, including Maergoth's fix, also risks the utility changing your DarqUI folders in a way that may be incompatible with the Origins server when it gets released.

The backstory is somewhat convoluted, but basically we are not sure that the mapping system on Anashti Sul will work the same as it currently works on Beta with the same folder structure, etc. I have messaged the Darkpaw design team in hopes of getting some insight, but have not received a reply. So instead of potentially making a mess, it looks like we need to wait a little longer to get those answers before we do anything.

But rest assured, EQ2MAP developer jnils is getting everything in order, and the worst case for DarqUI and ProfitUI CE is that we'll publish new utilities with updated code to properly access the official EQ2MAP database if necessary.

Sha-ZAM!

And speaking of Anashti Sul, we spent some time restoring a bunch of URL buttons across the UI for good ol' ZAM, which for several years was the gold standard fan site for all things EverQuest II. The site has gone through some changes since then, but the databases are still intact including O.G. drop rates and helpful commentary from players back in the day.

I think old schoolers will appreciate the ZAM links for items, recipes, mobs and NPCs, spell effects, quests and collections from the early era.

Cause for Alarm

Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the early stages of the new Alarms feature. Alarms are real-time in-game reminders similar to the ones on your phone. There is also a single default alarm with limited customization in-game.

At this point there are three configurable alarms for each character, and three more that will be shared between all of your characters. There are configurable sounds, and the custom gold onscreen message will appear briefly with the subject of the alarm.

To Your Health

If you haven't seen the Health and Power Monitors available in Group and Raid windows, they are a handy way to keep track of your allies' two most basic vitals. If you're a Priest, Dirge, Coercer, or any other class on rez duty or otherwise responding to low HP or mana, this little system can be a big stress saver.

New Darq Sider Tesh noticed that the utility wasn't saving these settings properly between sessions, so after some investigation and a little bit of math you can once again use the utility or the in-game window manager to configure the monitors accurately. Thanks to Tesh for his help tracking down this elusive little bug, and for additional testing and feedback.

Mail Call

If your Patreon settings are configured to receive Darq Side posts in email, you may have noticed that we've significantly pared down the rate at which they are distributed. Patreon has finally given us a choice of whether or not to broadcast posts in email, and so lately we've been giving our members a break from the barrage of messages, most of which end up in spam or junk folders.

I encourage you to check out the Darq Side website often. We are busier than ever, and there's always something new in the works thanks to our creative members who never seem to run out of great ideas. It's my honor to turn your brainstorms into amazing new features that improve EverQuest II for premium Darq Side members, and for thousands of other players around the world.