General overlooked gametips

[Jaraman]

Don't recall anyone else mentioning these general tips many of us veterans probably take for granted. Please feel free to add your own tips.

LOGGING IN

A. Bypass the redundant initial downloads.

I used to be so into logging into this neato gameworld that I didnt' mind too much the long waits just to get into Norrath. Time is moving faster now, and waiting for splash, login, and rezone screens is not an option. If you're still clicking that game-installed icon to log-in, there is a shortcut that bypasses the "looking for new downloads" process. It's the eqgame.exe, and can save you minutes of waiting to get in-game.

1) Go to your EQ directory (C:\Program Files\Sony\EverQuest Trilogy for most of us)
2) Copy and paste a shortcut to Eqgame.exe onto your desktop.
3) Right-click this icon and go to Properties
4) Look for the "Target:" field.
5) Being careful not to erase the info in there, add " patchme" at the end of that field, without the quotes.

From now on, if it's not a patch day, just click on that icon instead of the other original EQ icon, and you will get to the log-in screens much faster.

B. Skip the corporate splash logo wait

After the EULA "accept" button (TAB ENTER), you are presented with the oh-so-wonderful SoE splash screen, which forces you to wait for tens of seconds until the log-in screen appears. No way. Hit ENTER, and you go directly to login. I suggest using the ENTER button by the NumPad keys... allows easier access while undressing/stuffing your mouth.

C. Mouses are for gimps.
Are you still moving the mouse icon to click on the LOGIN button? No more, my friend, you are now an enlightened EQ Renaissance Person. Just hit ENTER again to get to the good stuff of logging your station ID and password.

Summary: Double-click the new improved EQ icon, wait 4-8 seconds for EULA, hit TAB, then (numpad)ENTER x 3, enter password, TAB, TAB, then ENTER again, and walk away to get that snack or use the bathroom or take your shoes and work-clothes off. Come back to character screen and select your main of several years of blood/sweat/tears and commence feeding your addiction.

Bam. Minutes become seconds become firsts become habit become more pleasure/less pain.

[Wolfy]

[Scowls]

[Shammy 101]

Never overlook the advantages of upgrading/customising your UI

Modifying your UI can improve your skills and capabilities by a large amount - especially in terms of being able to access clickies quickly.

For example, I have a "hot-swap" window on my UI that puts bag slots from my inventory right next to worn-slots where items can be clicked. E.g. the slot in my bag where I store my Pendant of Malosi is possitions right next to my worn neck slot, so I can use the Malosi clicky any time I click simply by doing a rapid click-click-click and only having to move my mouse a couple of milli-metres between clicks. I have the same set up for my FD ring, Root ring, Instant Buff Clickies, etc


Saved Spell Sets

If you clear your whole spell-bar and then mem just a few spells in particular slots (e.g. all empty except for Gate in slot 9) and then save it as a spell set. Then you can use that spell set to only affect the spell slots you filled (e.g. with a full spell-bar and load the Gate spell set mentioned earlier - it will *only* clear spell slot 9 and load Gate there - all your other spell slots will be left untouched.

In Game Command You Never Knew Existed

Almost no-one I speak to knows about this command, but after I tell them about it they wonder how they ever managed without it.

The command is:

/outputfile inventory (filename).txt

It will create a plain-text file in your main EQ directory that contains a complete listing of all the gear you are (a) Wearing, (b) Carrying, (c) Have Stored in the Bank.

It is invaluable for:
(a) Being able to check if you have a particular drop or item in your bank from ANYWHERE in the game (you can use this command at any time in any zone)
(b) Finding that item you know you have somehwere but cannot find (simply open teh file in any text-editor and do a find/search for a partial string that matches the item you are trying to find - Hey Presto, you can see it is in Slot 4 of Bank-Container 3.
(c) Distinguishing between items with the same name (the file contains the unique item ID numbers, so you can instantly distinguish between all those VT Shards taht look identical)
(d) many, many, more things

[runeshaman]

... wow... That last one actually will help me. I have all but 1 VT shard rotting away in the bank. A guild I was in way back decided they wanted to do VT and so set us all off to shard farming. After long hours of pain in the butt nonsense farming I had all but 1 shard when the guild leader announces that because only 3 members, out of an active 30-40, farmed shards we would not be doing VT. I have left those shards in my bank for near 2 years now and the only reason I never finished it myself is because I forgot which one I was missing. Being too lazy to track down a int caster to identify them for me, and too broke to waste money on an identify clicky, they have just been sitting there. Lol, maybe now I can finish it out just to clear up bank space.

[Galelor]

[Jaraman]

I suppose most should already know the more common ways of reducing lag --

1) going to log-in Options and unchecking as many of the newer models as you can stand. The newer models are more memory intensive.

2) inside the game, going to Options, Display, Advanced button, and clicking off shadows. Also use a simple sky, no particle effects. Turn down your clip plane, look at the ground, use overhead camera angle (F9 x 2). Etc etc.

3) use /hidecorpse allbutgroup often, perhaps making a hotkey. Clean up any corpse litter, like if no one is main looting. Scattered corpses are heavy on video cards and don't help with lag.

4) Turn off your log ( /log off). If you want to use it, at least filter out as much unnecessary text as possible: open up in-game Options (alt O), click FILTERS tab, and hide as much as you can stand.

5) The text over character heads -- Title, tradeskill honorary, Name, surname, "of the (server)", guild, blah blah -- also contribute to sluggishness. Use /showname off (or even /show off to get rid of all the "show-offs", lol) to completely get rid of that text. Use /show 1 for only first names. /show 2, etc gives varying degrees of that text clutter.

[Jaraman]

Of course we all know that reducing the screen resolution helps a ton. 1024 x 768 is much easier on the video card than 1280 x 1024, for example. However, if you want the better resolution but are still lagging, there is a compromise -- /viewport. This command leaves your screen in its current resolution, but "squeezes" or reduces the amount drawn onscreen which makes it easier on your video card. I use it to give a widescreen DVD-like view, with the chat boxes all in the black area. It will take some time to customize to exact needs, and if you mess up while experimenting, you can always simply type "/viewport reset" to get back to the original "square" fullscreen.

The viewport command format is /viewport a b x y (no commas) where x y is the size of the picture you see. My x y part is 1280 x 880. This means I see the same width as in fullscreen (1280), but that I've chopped off some of the height (1024-880 = 144) .... this leaves a black area 144 pixels high of no EQ video, and this is where I moved my chat windows.

The "a b" part is a bit trickier to understand. What the viewport command does is make a smaller rectangle in which to show the EQ game. This smaller rectangle's dimensions are given in the "x y" part as stated in the last paragraph. However, EQ needs to know where on your computer screen you want to put that smaller EQ rectangle.

Pretend you made a tiny EQ window for laughs, a sort of picture-in-picture size window.... now where do you want to put that little EQ box? In the lower right corner of your computer screen, upper left, or maybe smack in the center? In order to tell EQ where to put that smaller viewport you've made, you give it 2 coordinates to say where you want it put. This is what the "a b" part is. Depending on what you put for the "a b" part, it will pick up that little EQ box by the "ear" (upper left corner of the EQ window) and put it at the a b spot you tell it.

The "a" part is the left-right or horizontal component; zero means all the way to the left of the screen, and higher numbers move it close and closer to the right side. The "b" part is the up-down or vertical component, with zero being the top of the screen, and larger values moving it closer to the bottom of the screen. This was tricky for me to get right, and I had to write down the combos I was trying to get the placement just right. I didn't want my EQ window/viewport to move left or right, so the "a" part stayed at zero for me. I wanted the black area to be the same size as my chat windows, and it turned out that was 144 pixels high, hence the 880 size for the "y" part.

So, /viewport 0 144 1280 880 did the trick for me (my chat windows are at the top of my screen).

As a final note, using /viewport doesn't actually "chop off" or reduce the amount of EQ world you see, since it makes a smaller box but then "squeezes" the EQ view onto it. Actually, with my pseudo-widescreen size, I see more of the EQ world on the left and right sides, as this is extra video information that a more square view doesn't afford. And if you really wanted to see more, being a shaman, you can always use the buffs Vision or Assiduous Vision on yourself, and you get a fish-eye lens effect, which means you see even more of the EQ world.

[Ungkor]

On viewport: is there a way to make the black portion show up on the bottom?

edit: nevermind duh. If your screen is current 1280x1024, and you do 0 0 1280 980 then the bottom 300 pixels are the black area.

[Samanna]

Sure, there would have to be. Just use 0 for your 'b' value.

[Ungkor]

That'll teach me to play with new commands before I drink coffee:)

I used to use that command but had forgotten about it. 0 0 1280 810 was perfect, since the bottom half of my screen is all boxes anyways.

[Jaraman]

[Bigsnack For'Mobs]

[Samanna]

[Galelor]

[Bigsnack For'Mobs]

[Brohg]

[ThraallFV]

[Jaraman]

[Jaraman]

[runeshaman]

[Scowls]

[Shammy 101]

[Jaraman]

[ThraallFV]

[Shammy 101]

[Bigcat Daddy-o]

[Scowls]

as far as ui goes, i have my chat windows at the top of the screen, mostly because theres not much going on there and it makes it easier to click corpese and wjhat not. lef side of my screen has my spell bar (vertical) and group window next to it (has my info window combined) under that is hotkeys and quick access to clickies built in. across teh bottom tehres very litlt, pet windoow, the EQ button. right side of the screen is vertical bufff window with names, and under that is short duration buff windows, set the same as regular buffs. it leaves the middle of the screen very open, without the "dashboard" look. in raids i use an extra chat window that is noramlly minimized
found an older ss. we were tired and it was late so we all popped jesters when redfang was inc

[harpinche]

So the benefit of these tips is really just so you can login easier? I mean even turning my laptop on I get up and do something else after I put in my password so it loads and appears seemless and quick.