October Waypoints

The first step in winning is the willingness to try.

                ― Frank Sonnenberg

Here at DarqUI Headquarters we are always quick to point out that our members are part of the project, and it's true! We are fortunate to have an imaginative community of players with lots of creative ideas for improving the UI. Literally dozens of new features have been incorporated into the premium utility, notifier and UI since the Darq Side began in August of 2020. And nearly all of those ideas have come diectly from you.

When a new idea is presented, it generally goes into one of three columns:

• Can Do It

• Can't Do It

• Not Sure

Lately we've accumulated a bit of a backlog in the third group, and so we're going to use October as an opportunity, hopefully, to shorten that list.

Health to the Max

This is one of the most requested improvements, most recently from Darq Side member Myrdryc: A Broker search filter for Max Health items. As I nerd-splained to Myrdryc, each filter (Strength, Health, etc.) has a specific ID number associated with it, but those numbers can range into the billions. So it's a little like mining for bitcoin to find the right value for a stat that's not currently listed. Guessing the correct number is a slow process, but if I hit the jackpot you'll definitely hear about it.

Comma's a B***h

On a similar note, I'm going to take another crack at adding comma delimiters to large numerical displays (another frequently requested item: Lucutious, chief, SolarFaire, Dockter, Deaddon et al.) I had another idea that has a very slight chance to work, but it's going to take some experimentation. It'll be just my luck that the developers will finally publish the coding for this at the exact same time I figure it out. Actually I think we all agree, that would be just fine.

Paying the Price, the Easy Way

An interesting new mechanic found its way into the game this spring in the form of a charm called The Price Paid. If you're on a non-TLE server you've already gotten one or at least seen them being auctioned. Lately there have even been high-end players giving them away from Den 2 in chat. With this item you get a nice buff that has a duration equivalent to how much platinum you choose to feed it -- 10 platinum per second!

Always on the lookout for cool timesavers, Darq Side member Naviaz suggested a means of payment that's more convenient than typing in a value each time. We tried a couple of ideas back and forth and came up with a fairly elegant solution: a coin icon that adds 36Kpp per click up to the maximum of four hours. So you can decide on-the-fly how much time you need in one-hour increments. Look for this improvement in early October.

U Mad?

And while he had my ear, Naviaz also suggested a Threat bar on the Target and Implied Target windows. This is an idea that can probably be done, technically, but the larger problem is where to put such a thing. Target and Implied are already stuffed to the gills with widgets. If a Threat bar can be tucked in neatly without disrupting anything else, I think it will be a useful option.

Embiggened Window Manager

The in-game Window Manager is the most crucial component in DarqUI since there is so much going on with it and it touches all the other windows. All of the configuration code and data, much of which is picked up by the utility, makes the Window Manager about double the file size of the next-largest game component. The idea of building and supporting N, L and XL versions... well, it makes me queasy just thinking about it.

But at the same time, using the Window Manager to configure and tweak settings happens frequently for all of us, including member alakazzam who asked about this issue in Discord recently. For 4K players especially, squinting at those tiny default-size buttons and checkboxes is, in nerdly terms, not optimal. I think a possible middle ground might be to rebuild the premium Window Manager in the Large (130%) size, which fits nicely into even a sub-2K resolution like 1680x1050, yet would be an improvement for 2K and 4K players. So I'll be experimenting with that.

Guild Roster Dump

Laughingowl requested in Discord recently that we take a look at logging the membership roster from the Guild window, and possibly add some management functions with the utility. I'll be interested to see how much info can be pulled out of the Guild window tabs.

Heart In the Right Place

Lhaffinatu had an interesting proposal for Conjurors and Necromancers to be more proactive in delivering hearts and shards to their group and raid members rather than waiting for them to request health and power candy. To be honest I don't yet have a good concept of what he has in mind, but he's a very good idea generator so you never know what might come from this.

Ax + By = Dw

And finally, Darq Side member Levaquin suggested a distance-to-target display for waypoints in the compass. Why didn't I think of that?! This is another one of those places where I have no idea if it's possible, and if so it's probably going to take a bit of cartography, 'rithmetic and beard-scratching. But if it can be done I think it would be a great enhancement to the compass/waypoints system.

DarqUI 2K/4K

The 2K/4K Project keeps chugging out Large and X-Large UI pieces, and we now have well over 100 top surface components in both sizes (and another 200 or so L and XL support files, templates, etc!) The 2K/4K to-do list is starting to remind me of that hallway in the nightmare that keeps getting longer and longer... which reminds me, Nights of the Dead is upon us this month! And in that spirit I'll hint that I'm dying to tell you what the next upscaled window will be.

Thank You

The above list is not even half of our Column 3 to-do list, but it's a good start. At least by November we should know which of these untested ideas can and cannot be implemented into the premium UI. As always, you are what keeps the wheels turning here at the Darq Side, not just for your fellow members but for EverQuest II players all over the world. Together we're making the gaming experience more convenient, informative and entertaining for quite a few gamers. My sincere thanks to you: our new, returning, and long-time supporters.