March Waypoints

I asked ChatGPT for Tom Hanks' password. To my surprise it answered: 1forrest1

Promises, Promises

In February we had a feature request that started out as a quick side item, but turned into an almost two-week project. (Time estimates are impossible with this UI, but that never stops me from trying.) Bag Sorting Presets turned out to be a nifty new premium feature, but getting it done pushed back three fairly large items mentioned in last month's newsletter.

On the Map

As you most likely noticed, we recently added some controls for DarqUI and EQ2MAP variations of the Map window. Choosing an alternate with the updater has not exactly been intuitive, and several members have had some trouble getting the right file.

It was probably not my sharpest decision to publish the Map options without first giving you a new DarqUI Utility, but I did it partly in preparation for offering 2K and 4K enlargements of the mapping package. That's right, if you use EQ2MAP and also prefer one of the larger UI sizes, you'll soon be able to see all those POIs and search results without squinting!

The Map window itself is not forgotten, and in fact you can see from the screenshots above that it's finished. But since the initial Map rollout was more troublesome than anticipated, it makes the most sense to get the next DarqUI utility into your hands first, which will ease the process of choosing map styles and sizes.

Swap Notes

Another interesting project, it's called "Preset Combo" at the moment, is nearing completion. As described in February's Waypoints, it is a leveraging of several mechanics that have already been built into DarqUI, to produce a macro-of-macros that sequentially loads adventure gear, appearance gear, mount, familiar, a gear buff macro, a spell or ability, a custom command, and an AA spec. You can combine some or all of the options to create a one-button buff list to swap out for a raid or solo build, a harvesting or tradeskilling build, or any other purpose you can think of.

Here's what it looks like right now:

It's functioning well and pretty close to being publishable, but if you look closely you'll notice that I foolishly put the AA spec at the bottom. Naturally that's not going to work, since changing your AA spec clears all the other buffs from the previous steps. /headdesk

Aside from that fix, and hopefully improving the cosmetics a bit, I'd like to come up with a better name for the feature. Preset Combo might be descriptive, but it's not as snazzy perhaps as it should be. A better name might be Loadouts (borrowing from other games where a loadout is usually a simple gear/weapon swap.) Ours is much more comprehensive than that. Maybe Super Loadouts? How about Laser-eyed Shark Loadouts...

Achieve More

Just this week Darq Side member Valdstein asked about linking the Achievements page in the Quest Journal to Wikia, and also to EQ2U if possible. Some wiki articles offer information about how to complete the various achievements, as well as additional links to rewards. Given the hundreds of achievements available in dozens of categories, and the completionist tendencies of many of our players, it's a small but definitely useful improvement.

Share Your Voice

A decision was made long ago that duplicating Chat settings with the utility would only involve Chat windows, tabs and text channels, but not voice channels. If you were to ask me why voice channels are included on the setup page but not when sharing between characters, I'd be hard-pressed to remember. Darq Side member chief spoke up and pointed this out, and voiced his opinion on making this an option. We'll be talking it over in March.

More to Come

"The List" as it's affectionately called is long and getting longer, but I'm going to stop here since we got a bit backed up this past month. The groovy stat add-on requested by Naviaz in February is still a front-burner project, so I'm looking forward to digging in to that more. And an updated utility will bring some much needed and wanted improvements. As always, if your recent feature request or suggestion is not listed here, that doesn't mean it's forgotten.

Thank You

We welcomed a number of brand new members in February, and I want to express my sincere thanks to our established members for your continued patronage. It's because of you that we can do more, bringing your player-designed features to hundreds of patrons and thousands of other EverQuest II players literally around the world. And a big thank you to those who have mentioned their premium UI experience to guildmates and fellow players.