EverquestYou are about to enter a world ripe with adventure and intrigue. Choose from a variety of races and classes, customize your character, and begin your quest in any number of cities or villages throughout multiple continents. Equip yourself for adventure, seek allies and knowledge, and experience a rich world of dungeons, towers, crypts, evil abbeys-anything is possible-even planes and realities beyond your imagination.
5 The EverQuest Interface
The EverQuest interface engine is designed to be easy to use and adjust for every player. With a few clicks of the mouse any player can customize the interface to meet their needs. But it also offers some very powerful customization ability for those that have some experience using XML. This manual only covers the options available within the interface. Those wishing to delve into the XML and 'skin' the interface for themselves should read the AboutSIDL.doc located in the EverQuest directory.
Tool Tip: Many items in the interface have tool tips attached to them. Where appropriate we'll let you know what these tool tips will show in game with a little note like this one.
5.1 Working with Windows
The EverQuest interface is, basically, a selection of windows that provide information and tools that you'll need to play the game. Many of these windows have special purposes and special features. But there are some properties that most of these windows have in common. So the first thing we'll cover here are the very basic features of the windows themselves. We'll move on to describe individual windows later.
For all of the descriptions that follow, we'll be assuming that you are using the default windows settings. If a window isn't where we describe it, it has either been moved or turned off. You'll have to look around to find it.
What is a Window?
A window is a container that holds a group of items. For example, on the left hand side of the EverQuest game screen you will see a tall narrow box with eight hexagonal items in a column and a tiny book at the bottom. This is the Spells Window. Those eight little hexagons and the spell book icon are held within that window. They go where the window goes.
But each window is independent of every other window. You can't move one of those hexagonal spell gems away from the other seven, but you can move the Spells Window around the screen without affecting the other windows directly.
5.2 Resizing Windows (Working with Windows)
You can change the size of some windows with a simple click and drag of the mouse. Other windows can't be resized at all.
Look at the borders around the windows. If the border is a simple, solid line, that window can't be resized. If the border has a bit of flare around the corners it can be resized.
To resize a window, simply point your mouse at the edge of the window that you want to change. Your mouse cursor will change into a two-headed arrow (if it turns into a four-headed arrow, that window can't be resized, only moved). Simply click and hold the left mouse button, then drag the mouse left and right or up and down to change the size of the window.
Notice the directions that the arrows point. You can only drag the window in the directions of the arrow. If you want to make the window taller or shorter, you need to drag it from the top or the bottom. If you want to make it wider or thinner, drag it from one of the sides. If you point at the corners of the window, the arrows will be diagonal to the window. This allows you to drag the window in both directions at once.
5.3 Moving Windows (Working with Windows)
Every window in the EverQuest interface can be moved and placed wherever you want it on the screen.
To move a window, point your mouse at the title bar (at the top of the window - contains the name of the window, such as Main Chat) or at the border of the window. When the mouse cursor changes into the four-headed arrow, just click and hold down the left mouse button. Then drag the window to wherever you want it to be and release the mouse button.
As noted above, pointing your mouse cursor at the borders of windows that can be resized will cause the pointer to turn into the two-headed resizing cursor. To move these windows you need to grab them by the title bar, not the border.
5.4 Opening and Closing Windows (Working with Windows)
All windows in the interface can be closed, with the exception of the Window Selector which is always open.
There are several ways to close windows. Most windows can be toggled on and off by clicking the corresponding button on the Window Selector. Any window that is not represented on the Window Selector can be closed by clicking the X on the right side of the title bar. Also, most windows can be closed using the right-click menus, which we'll explain later.
The Escape key will also close most windows (will close the window that is active).
A few windows, such as the Target Window, can only be turned on and off using keystrokes. Here is a list of the keystrokes for all windows.
ALT - B: Buff/Spell Effects Window
ALT - P: Party (Group) Window
ALT - S: Spells Window
ALT - H: Hotbox Window
ALT - T: Target Window
ALT - Y: Self-Status Window
ALT - M: Menu (Actions) Window
5.5 Scrolling through windows (Working with Windows)
A few windows, such as chat windows, have scroll bars on the right side that allow you to scroll through text or options. You can click the down or up arrows at the top and bottom of the scroll bar to scroll the text up or down incrementally. You can also click on the bar itself to scroll in larger increments. Or you can click and drag the scroll bar up or down.
Players with a wheel mouse can use the mouse wheel to scroll up and down in these windows as well.
5.6 Window Settings
Each window has a settings menu that can be accessed by right-clicking on the title bar or on an 'inactive' part of the window (for example, you won't be able to open the menu if you click on one of the spell gems in the spells window, but you can click on the space between the gems).
Some windows have unique options on their setting menus. We'll discuss those under the description of those windows. But there are four options that you will always see when you open the settings menu for a window: Background, Alpha, Minimize and Close. Some of these options may be disabled for certain windows (for example, you can't close or minimize the Window Selector), and they will be 'grayed out'. Options that you can select will be displayed using white text.
5.7 Background (Window Settings)
The Background option allows you to easily customize the background of the window you are working with. There are two options that you can change in regarding the background.
Texture: This option toggles on and off the background texture of the window.
Tinting: This option allows you to tint the background of the window. In a window with no texture, the tinting color becomes the background color for that window. You can either choose one of the preset color options or set the red, blue and green color values using the sliders or the text boxes.
Note: Choosing white as a tint color is the same as having no tinting selected. So if you want to return the texture to its untinted color, choose to tint it white.
5.8 Alpha (Window Settings)
The 'alpha' value determines the transparency of the window. An alpha value of 50 would make the window 50% transparent. There are two alpha settings for windows:
Normal Level: The Normal Level is used when the window has focus, meaning that your cursor is over the window or you are actively using the window.
Faded Level: The window uses the Faded Level when it is not the active window. The alpha level designated for the Faded window is a percentage of the Normal Level. This means that if the window is Normally at alpha 50 (50% transparent) and the Faded alpha is set to 50 as well, then when the window fades it will fade to 50% of the normal level (or alpha 25).
5.9 Minimize (Window Settings)
Not all windows can be minimized. Minimizing a window shrinks it down to only display its title bar. The window can me restored to its normal size by right-clicking on the title bar and choosing 'minimize' again.
Note: Minimize is not the same as resize. If you drag the window borders to make the window smaller, minimize will not restore it to its normal size. You will need to drag the borders back out to return the window to its original size.
5.10 Close (Window Settings)
Not all windows can be closed. Closing a window removes it from your view. See Opening and Closing Windows for more information about opening a window once it's closed.
5.11 Player Window
The Player Window is in the upper right of your screen. It has the name of your character at the top, and two or three colored bars below it. Each bar is a gauge that represents a resource for your character. As the resource is depleted the bar will shrink.
Red Gauge - Health - shows your character's level of health. If your character controls a pet, the red health bar will be split - the top part remaining red while the bottom part turns yellow. The red portion still represents the character's health, while the yellow portion shows the health of the pet.
Blue Gauge - Mana - shows your character's mana amount. This bar will not be visible if your character is of a class that does not have mana (such as a warrior).
Yellow Gauge - Stamina - shows your character's stamina.
Tool Tip: The tool tip for these gauges will show you the percentage of the resource that remains.
5.12 Target Window
The Target Window is located just below the Group Window on the right side of the screen. The word Target shows up in the title bar for this window. The Target Window shows the relative health of the character that you currently have targeted.
5.13 Group Window
This window appears just below your Player Window and has the word Group in the title bar. If you are not in a group, the only thing visible in this window will be the Invite and Disband buttons. When you join a group this window will display the health bars of your party members. If those party members have pets, the health of the pets will be shown in the same way they are displayed in the player window.
Invite - this button is unavailable (visible, but grayed out) unless you have a player character targeted and can invite them to your group. You can only invite players to your group if you are the group leader (or not in a group at all - making you the leader by default), and your group must have room for one more member.
Disband - this button is unavailable unless you are a member of a group. Disband removes you from your group. If you were the leader of the group, someone else will be randomly assigned leadership when you disband. But you can also use the /makeleader command to assign a new leader before you disband.
Follow - The Invite button will become a Follow button if someone invites you to join a group. Clicking Follow puts you into that group.
Decline - The Disband becomes the Decline button if someone invites you to join a group. Clicking Decline turns down the invitation.
Tool Tip: The tool tip for these health gauges will show you the percentage of the health remaining for your group members or their pets.
5.14 Main Chat Window
The Chat Window is located in the bottom and center of your screen and has a title bar labeled Main Chat.
The chat bar has two basic parts. The larger section at the top of the window is where all incoming text for that chat window will be displayed. The smaller section at the bottom is the chat bar, and that is where you type in any text that you want to send to other players in the game.
All conversation, informational messages and other text will be displayed here. Though you have a lot of options to customize this feature.
Right-click options - along with the standard window options, there are several options unique to the Chat Window.
New Chat Window - this option creates an additional chat window in the default location (this means that if you have not moved your Main Chat Window the new chat window will appear on top of the Main Chat window). New chat windows have all the options available to the Main Chat Window. But new chat windows start out with all filters on by default. This means that no chat will appear in new chat windows unless you turn at least one of the filters off.
Filters - Selecting Filters will display a list of the types of text messages that you can filter (say, tell, group, guild, OOC, auction, shout, emotes, chat channel, melee, spells, skills and other: other is everything not listed previously). Selecting an item from the list toggles the text type on or off. Remember, by default your Main Chat Window shows all text and New Chat Windows show no text.
Channel - the Channel selection sets the default channel that your character speaks to (say, tell, group, guild, OOC, auction and chat channel). By default this is set to Say. So if you just type into the chat bar you will be speaking in /say. If you change the channel to OOC, then your default chat will be sent to the /ooc channel.
Language - the Language selection sets the default language for the chat window. The option will list all languages that your character can speak. Choosing a language from the list sets it as your default chat language. Common is set as the default all chat windows.
Usage Tip: One really handy use of multiple chat windows is to keep track of guild (or group) chat independent of other chat. This is easy to do. Just right-click the Main Chat Window and select New Chat Window. Position the new window where you want it, then right-click in that window and choose Filters then Guild. The new window will now only show you messages from your Guild. At this point you may also want to switch the filter for Guild in you main chat window so that it will not show up there.
Using Shift-Page Up and Shift-Page Down will allow you to scroll through chat windows in much the same way that the mouse wheel does.
5.15 Window Selector
The Window Selector is located at the top of your screen in the middle. It is a simple tool that allows you to quickly open and close the most frequently used windows. Each window is represented by an icon. From left to right they are: Actions, Inventory, Options, Friends, Hot Buttons, Spells, Pet, Effects and Help. Clicking an icon/button will toggle the window open or closed. The Window Selector cannot be closed.
Tool Tip: Pointing your mouse at any of the icons will tell you the name of the window that the icon represents.
5.16 Actions Window
The Actions Window is at the lower right of your screen. This window has four tabs across the top (under the title bar). Clicking on each of these tabs (indicated by little icons - silhouette, hand, crossed swords and a chat bubble) will bring up a different group of actions.
Main Tab (silhouette) - This tab holds buttons for six of the most common actions (who, invite, disband, camp, sit and run). Clicking on these buttons will cause the action. The Who button activates the /who function with no other parameters.
Skills Tab (hand) - This tab allows you to set up buttons for your character's skills (such as fishing or sense heading). To do so, just right-click on one of the buttons and pick a skill off of the list. That skill will be assigned to the button, and clicking the button will now activate that skill. The skills listed here will include all skills, even combat skills. It is probably best not to assign combat skills to these buttons, though, as the Combat Skills Tab has buttons designated exclusively for combat skills.
Combat Skills Tab (crossed swords) - This tab works just like the Skills Tab. Right-click on a button and pick a combat skill from the list to assign it to that button. Unlike the Skills Tab, the list of skills displayed here will only include combat skills (bind wounds, bash, kick and others).
Socials Tab (chat bubble) - This tab gives you buttons to which you can assign nearly any function. There are ten banks of twelve buttons available. Clicking the left and right arrows cycles through the available button banks. The first bank contains twelve preset social macros. You can right click on those buttons to see how they are created and alter them if you wish.
To Create Socials:
(1) Right-click on a button
(2) This will bring up the social creation window
(3) Click on the Name area and type in a name for the social
(4) If you wish, choose a color for the name (the name will appear on the button)
(5) Type in the text for the social (often referred to as a macro) - a social macro can contain any of the / commands available in the game.
For example, you might want to create a social that waves at your target, says hello to them, and then invites them to join your group.
(1) Name the social Invite.
(2) Click on the green A to turn the text of the name green (color coding your socials can be useful).
(3) In the text boxes below the name and the text color choices, type the following, each on its own line:
/wave
/say Hello %t, how are you this fine day?
/invite
As long as you have a valid target (and you're close enough), clicking on this Invite social button will cause all of those actions to take place.
Tool Tip: Pointing at many of the buttons in this window will tell you what the keyboard shortcuts are for the various actions.
5.17 Hot Buttons Window
The Hot Buttons Window is located at the bottom left of your screen. Hot Buttons can be created from any other button in the interface. This allows you to keep the buttons that you use frequently in one easy to find location. The Hot Buttons window has ten banks of buttons, each bank with ten buttons, so there should be plenty of room.
Creating a Hot Button
* Make sure your Hot Button window is open and the spot for the Hot Button that you want to create is visible.
* Locate the button you want to copy. This can be just about any button you find on the screen, as well as spell gems and inventory slots. If clicking it causes something to happen, then it can probably be made into a Hot Button.
* Left-click and hold on the button. After a second or two a copy of the button with pop onto your mouse pointer.
* Point your mouse pointer at the Hot Button spot and left-click. This should create a new Hot Button.
Deleting a Hot Button
* Find the Hot Button that you want to remove.
* Left-click and hold on the Hot Button. After a second or two the Hot Button will pop onto your mouse pointer.
* Aim your mouse pointer at a place on the screen that has no windows and left-click. This should remove the Hot Button from your cursor.
* Deleting a Hot Button does not affect the source button, so don't worry about deleting one you need. You can always make a new Hot Button.
5.18 Effects Window
The Effects Window is located in the upper right of your screen, just inside the Player Window. The window title bar says Effects. This window displays the spells, poisons, diseases and other things that are currently affecting your character.
Tool Tip: Pointing at one of the icons in your Effects Window will tell you the name of the effect. Holding down the Alt key while your mouse pointer is in the Effects Window will show all the tool tips.
5.19 Spells Window
The Spells Window is located in the middle of the left side of the screen. If your character is of a class that can never cast spells you will not see this window (nor will you be able to open it using the Window Selector). This window holds your eight spell gems (your memorized spells) and a small spell book icon. Clicking the spell book icon will open your spell book.
Spell Book
One of a spell caster's main pursuits is the acquisition of spells. In order to put a spell into the spell book, a caster needs to have the appropriate spell scroll. Once you have a spell scroll it is relatively simple to scribe the spell into your spell book.
Scribing a Spell
* Open up your spell book and your inventory
* Turn the spell book to the page where you want to place the spell (each of the boxes in the spell book is a spot for scribing a spell - called a spell slot)
* Locate the spell scroll in your inventory and pick it up (left-click)
* Point the mouse at the empty spell slot in your spell book and left-click
* The timer gauge in the spell book indicates the amount of time left until your completed scribing the scroll. Most actions at this point will interrupt the scribing process, so it's best to wait for the gauge to empty.
* A spell icon will appear in the spell book, with the name of the spell under it.
Moving Spells within the Spell Book
* Locate the spell icon you want to move.
* Right-click on the spell icon.
* Find the spell slot that you want to place the spell icon in (you can click on the left and right arrows to flip pages of the spell book without concern).
* Right-click on the spell slot that you want to move the spell icon to. The icon should appear in the new slot.
Note: You can't delete spells from your spell book.
Memorizing Spells
Scribing a spell into your spell book does not allow you to cast that spell. The spells in your book are like money in the bank. You can't spend them (cast them) unless you've got them in your pocket. Your character needs to memorize spells from the spell book in before he can cast them. A character can only memorize up to eight spells (one in each of the spell gems in the Spells Window), so at higher levels a character must choose spells wisely.
Memorizing a Spell
* Open the spell book.
* Choose the spell that you wish to memorize.
* Left-click on the spell icon in the book. A spell icon should appear on your mouse pointer.
* Aim your mouse pointer at one of the eight spell gems on the Spells Window.
* Left-click on the appropriate spell gem.
* The gauge in the spell book will fill and begin to empty. This is the timer for memorizing the spell. Most actions at this point will interrupt the memorization, so it is best to wait for the gauge to empty.
* The spell icon should appear in the spells gem. It will appear grayed-out initially, and come to full color slowly. When a spell gem is grayed-out that spell can't be cast.
Forgetting a Spell
In order to replace the spell on a spell gem, you must first forget that spell. Once the spell is forgotten another can be remembered in its place.
* Aim your mouse pointer at the spell gem in question.
* Right-click on the spell gem. The spell icon will disappear.
Casting a Spell
To cast a spell, simply left-click on one of the eight spell gems.
Tool Tip: Pointing at one of the spell gems will tell you the name of the spell.
Note: You can right-click and hold (it is important to hold) on any spell icon (in your spell book or in your spell gems) to learn more about that spell.
Also Note: Holding down the Alt key will display all of the Tool Tips for your Spells Window.
5.20 Inventory Window
The Inventory Window is not open by default. You can click on the second icon from the left (the human figure icon) to open your inventory, or you can press "i" on your keyboard. We'll describe this window in four parts. The left side, where your character's statistics are displayed, the center where your character's worn inventory is shown, the right side where your character's general inventory is displayed, and the bottom where coins and action buttons are displayed.
a) The left side of the window shows your character's statistic: name, level, class, deity, hit points, armor class (ac), attack, experience bar, attributes, resistance, weight carried/allowance and Alternate Advancement experience.
b) The middle of the window displays your characters inventory worn. The larger box in the middle shows how your character looks. The smaller boxes surrounding it are the individual body locations. Each body location is represented by a picture a body part. For example, the top-most center box has a picture of a helmet in it, and that is where items worn on the head would be placed. Pointing at the locations will display a tool tip telling you what they represent.
c) The right side of the inventory window displays an animated logo that represents your character's chosen class. Below that are your character's general inventory slots. These are inventory locations not tied to a specific body part. Just about any item can be placed into a general inventory slot.
d) Across the bottom of the inventory window are the coins your character is carrying (Platinum, Gold, Silver and Copper, in that order).
e) At the very bottom of are four buttons:
Skills Button - this button will open a window that shows you all of your characters skills. It lists the skill name as well as your character's rank and numeric value with that skill.
Alt. Advance Button - this button will open a window that displays the Alternate Advancement window. This window gives you access to descriptions of and the ability to purchase Alternate Advancement abilities (restricted to Luclin owners with characters over 50th level). It also give the character the option to send some of their experience points to their Alternate Experience pool. See Appendix D for more details on Alternate Experience.
Destroy Button - use this button to destroy items. If you are holding an item on your cursor and you click this button, the item will be destroyed.
Done Button - Closes the Inventory Window.
To inspect any item in your inventory, just right-click on the item and hold the mouse button down. When you release the mouse button the inspection window will close. If you wish the inspection window to remain open, right-click the item and hold the mouse button down. Then move the mouse pointer off the item and release the mouse button.
Tool Tip: Pointing your mouse at items in your inventory will tell you the name of the item.
5.21 Options Window
The Options Window is not open by default. You can open it by clicking on the nut icon on the Window Selector, or by hitting Alt-O. The Options Window has four tabs; General, Display, Mouse and Keyboard. Each of these tabs allows you to change some of the basic settings of the game. Where an option is set by a button, the option is ON if the button is depressed, OFF if the button is out.
Note: There is no 'done' or 'accept' button for the Options Window. Changes made to the options take affect as you make them.
5.22 General Options (Options Window)
Fast Item Destroy: When on turns off the confirmation box that displays when you destroy an item.
Receive Guild Invites: When on others can send you invitations to join a guild (turn this off if you already belong to a guild and don't want to receive other invites).
Autosplit: When on automatically splits cash loot from corpses with party members. It is important to note that this feature will not make change. Any cash that can't be split evenly among the party members is given to the person doing the looting.
Anonymous: When on anyone using the "/who" command will only see your character's name.
Roleplaying: When on works as Anonymous and changes the color of the name over your character's head.
Trade (everyone/party members only/no one): Restricts trading to the selected group. Sound Realism (Slider bar): Adjusts the number of sound effects heard during gameplay (fewer/more).
Music Level: Adjusts music volume (softer/louder).
Fast Drop (with confirmation/without confirmation/never): Sets the restrictions for your character dropping items. Never will prevent your character from dropping items at all.
5.23 Display Options (Options Window)
Show PC Names: When on you will be able to see the names of Player Characters over their heads.
Show NPC Names: When on you will be able to see the names of Non-Player Characters over their heads.
Level of Detail: When on the detail levels for distant NPCs and PCs are reduced. This may improve performance on slower computers.
Video Modes: This button will bring up another window. In this window you will be able to select your game resolution, refresh rate and video depth. It is important to note that these options are determined by your hardware and the drivers that run them. If you are seeing fewer options than you were expecting (such as higher resolutions), the first step to correcting this is to see if you can find newer drivers for your video card.
Sky (3D Sky Off/Single Layer/Double Layer): Toggles the level of sky detail. In some cases you may want to alter this to improve performance.
Fade Delay: Sets the amount of time, in seconds, that all windows wait after they have lost focus before they start to fade out.
Fade Duration: Sets the amount of time, in seconds, that all windows take to fade in or out once it starts.
Gamma Correction: Adjust screen brightness during gameplay.
Clip Plane: The clipping plane determines how far you can see. In some cases reducing the clip plane can improve performance.
Particle Density (Off/Low/Medium/High): Adjust number of particles displayed during spell effects. In some cases a lower setting may improve performance.
Window Transparency: This sets the default transparency (alpha) level for all windows when they are active (see Window Settings for more information on alpha settings). Changing this setting will alter the setting for all windows, even if you have set the window transparency values on specific windows.
Fade to Transparency: This sets the default transparency (alpha) level for all window when they are faded active (see Window Settings for more information on alpha settings). Changing this setting will alter the setting for all windows, even if you have set the fade to transparency values on specific windows.
5.24 Mouse Options (Options Window)
Invert Y Axis: When on this reverses the mouse look in the up and down directions. Moving the mouse forward pans the view down instead of up.
Look Spring: When on this automatically resets your view back to the center position once you release the right mouse button when using mouse look (or quit panning with the Page Up and Page Down keys).
Mouse Look: When on this enables mouse look. Mouse look allows you to you're your character by click and dragging the right mouse button.
Mouse Sensitivity: Adjusts the mouse (cursor) speed.
5.25 Keyboard Options (Options Window)
Select Category (Movement/Commands/Spell Casting/Target/Camera/Chat/UI/Macros/All): This allows you to find keyboard commands by specific category, or you can just choose All to see all the commands at once.
Changing an Option: To change the keystroke(s) that activate a command, just click on the item in the Keypress column that you wish to change. Text will appear asking you to press a key. The keystroke (or combination) that you press will appear in the column.
Reload Defaults: This resets all keyboard options to their default.
Example: One of the most common Keyboard changes is to 'remap' the attack key. The attack key is assigned to the 'a' key by default, making it easy to remember. But 'a' is a commonly typed letter, and putting your character into attack mode at the wrong time can be a bad thing. So to make it so that a different key makes your character attack:
* Open the Options Window (Alt-O)
* Select the Keyboard tab
* Select the Commands category
* Find the Autoattack listing
* Click on the 'A' under the Keypress column (you should see the 'press a key' text)
* Press the key that you want to assign the autoattack function to (perhaps Caps Lock, since that key has no function in game)
* Close the Options Window
Then just remember that you've changed that key.
5.26 Chat Options (Options Window)
The Chat Options are for filtering out chat messages altogether (to have them not show up in a particular window, use the Chat Windows options). Any Chat Option that you choose to filter will not show up in any of your Chat Windows. Additionally, these messages will not be sent to your computer from the server. This has the advantage of reducing the information sent over the Internet, and can improve your performance in some cases. Listed below are the types of messages that you can filter out, and any options available on the particular filter.
Guild Chat
Socials
Group Chat
Shouts
Auctions
Out of Character
My Misses
Others Misses
Others Hits
Attackers Missing Me
Damage Shields
NPC Spells
PC Spells [All/Group/Off]
Bard Songs [All/Me/Group/Off]
Critical Spells [All/Me/Off]
Critical Melee [All/Me/Off]
Note: Keep in mind that you are choosing which messages you see. So choosing All means that you will see all such messages. Choosing None will mean that you see none of the messages. If a button is depressed (selected) then you will see messages of that type.
The bottom section of the Chat Options Window is for changing the color of your chat text. The long list of items shown are all of the chat text types that you can change. To change the color of a type of text, just click on the button. That will pop up a color chooser window. Pick the new color and click Accept. You will be able to see the color change on the button for that text.
If you need to reset the colors to their default, simply click on the Reset Colors button.
5.27 Friends Window
The Friends Window is not open be default. It is designed to help you manage your Friends List. The Friends List is useful for keeping track of people that you meet in game.
Adding a friend to the list is easy. Just type their character name (you need to be accurate) into the text bar near the bottom of the window (to the left of the Add button). Then click on Add. The friend's name should appear in the window.
To remove someone from the list, simply select the name and click on the delete button at the bottom of the screen.
The Contact and Who buttons are shortcuts to make it a little easier to use your friends list.
Contact: Starts a /tell to the friend that you have selected from the list.
Who: You can use this to find out if your friends are on line. It can be used two way. You can select a friend from the list and click who and it will give you the /who information on that character only. Or you can click on Who with no names selected and it will give you the /who information for the entire list.
5.28 Pet Info Window
The Pet Info Window is not open by default. It is designed to help characters with pets by providing a single window for pet information and commands.
At the top of the window will be the name of the pet (or No Pet if you have no pet). Below that is a gauge that represents the pet's health. Below that are buttons that activate the most common pet commands. For more information about pet commands, see Appendix A.
5.29 Help Window
The Help Window is not open by default. This window provides a copy of the EverQuest manual for your use in game as you need it.
5.30 Merchant Window
Right-clicking on a merchant will open the Merchant Window (if you are close enough - otherwise right-clicking the merchant is the same as using /consider) and your Inventory Window.
The merchant's name appears at the top of the window, with a display of the items he has for sale below that. If you click on a item in the merchant's inventory, a picture of the item will appear in the Item Being Considered window at the bottom of the merchant window, and the merchant will tell you how much that item costs (text will appear in your Chat Window). Below that are the Buy and Done buttons.
To purchase something from a merchant, simply left-click the item you wish to purchase from his inventory then click the Buy button. If the button is grayed-out then you can't purchase the item, usually because you do not have enough cash.
To sell something to a merchant, simply left-click the item you wish to sell from your inventory then click the Sell button (the Buy button becomes the Sell button when you have an item in your inventory selected).
The Done button on the Merchant Window closes the Merchant Window and your Inventory.
Tool Tip: Pointing at an item in the merchant's inventory will tell you the name of that item.
Note: Holding down Alt key will display all of the merchant tool tips.
5.31 Bank Window
Right-clicking on a banker will open the Bank Window (if you are close enough - otherwise right-clicking the banker is the same as using /consider) and your Inventory Window.
The word Bank appears in the title bar of the window. Below that are eight bank slots. These bank slots can hold any items or containers that your character can carry. Use these spaces for storing items.
To place an item into the bank:
* Left-click on the item in your inventory that you want to store in the bank. The item should appear on your mouse pointer.
* Aim at the open bank slot and left-click. This should place the item in the bank.
Below the bank slots are four coin symbols, and next to them a number. Those are your bank coin storage locations. The coins, from top down, are Platinum, Gold, Silver and Copper.
To place coins into the bank:
* Left-click on one of the coin types in your inventory. This will pop up the coin selection window.
* Select the amount of coin that you wish to move to your bank, either by typing in the amount or by moving the slider.
* Click Accept. This should place the desired number of coins on your mouse pointer.
* Click on the appropriate coin section in the Bank Window. This should drop the coins into your bank.
Note: The banker will change currency for you. If you want to turn one silver piece into ten copper pieces, drop the silver piece into the section of the bank window for copper coins. The banker will place ten copper pieces into that slot. If you have ten copper pieces that you wish to make into one silver piece, simply drop the ten copper pieces into the bank slot for silver and the banker will convert them to silver.
5.32 Trade Window
To open a Trade Window pick up an item and left-click on another player character. The trade window can only be opened between player characters, NPCs use the Give Window.
It is important to know that no transaction is final until both players agree to it by hitting the Trade button.
The Trade Window consists mostly of two sets of boxes. The left-hand set of boxes will be where you will see items that you are trading to gain, along with any coins offered. The name of the character you are trading with appears above the left-hand set of boxes. The right-hand side will be where you place items that you wish to trade out.
You may add or remove items from the Trade Window at any time up until both characters have clicked the Trade button. Any time either participant changes the contents of the Trade Window, the Trade button pops back up. Any change in the items in the Trade Window will require that both parties click Trade again before the trade can be completed.
Note: It is important that you are certain all items in the Trade Window are as you want them to be. Right-click any items in the window to inspect them before clicking Trade. Once you click Trade you are accepting the deal as it is.
Also Note: Make sure that you have enough room in your inventory for the incoming items! If you're taking more items than your inventory can hold, extra items fall to the ground. You'll need to drop other items to pick them up, or obtain a container (such as a backpack). NPCs and other characters might pick up items that fall to the ground, so it is important to make sure your items have a place in your inventory after any trade.
5.33 Give Window
To open the Give Window pick up an item and left-click on a Non-Player Character. The Give Window says Give in the title bar, and looks a lot like the Banker Window, and it works much the same way. There are four slots into which you can place items that you wish to give to the NPC, along with four coin slots. To complete or cancel the transaction, use the Give or Cancel buttons on the bottom of the window.
Important Note: Never stack items when giving them to an NPC to complete a quest. The NPC see the items in the stack as a single item.
5.34 Connection Status Bar
In the upper left-hand corner of your display is a green bar with four numbers over it. This is your Connection Status Bar. It gives you information about your connection to our servers through the Internet. This isn't really a good place to try to explain the intricacies of the Internet, so we're just going to tell you what the numbers are.
Left number - shows the round-trip ping
Second number - shows the packet loss incoming to your machine
Third number - shows the packet loss going to the server
Fourth number - shows the throughput
The main thing to know about the Connection Status Bar is that it changes colors. If the bar is green then your connection is generally good. If it turns yellow or red then your connection is generally not so good.
5.35 Modifying the User Interface
The EverQuest interface is designed to be very customizable. Doing so will probably require some knowledge of XML, and unfortunately we can't teach XML to you through this manual. But we do have a few tips for you.
First, read the AboutSIDL.doc in your EverQuest directory. It has information that is very helpful when modifying the EverQuest UI.
Also, as new looks to the interface are created by players, you will certainly be tempted to use them yourself. By all means, use them! The whole point is to allow you to customize the interface. BUT! You need to make certain that any files you download do not contain a virus or any other unpleasant things. The security of your computer is your responsibility. We can't check every player created file for problems with the XML, viruses or things like that. So exercise every precaution when downloading anything off the Internet.
Modified versions of the UI need to be kept in their own folders in the UIFiles folder in your EverQuest directory. If you modify the files in the 'default' folder those files will be replaced by our patcher the next time you log in.
In order to use a modification, simply type /loadskin FOLDERNAME in the chat bar in game. Don't do this in a dangerous situation; loading a new skin can cause a long delay in the refresh of your screen. If you're fighting at the time your character could be the subject of a sound beating while you're refreshing your interface.
Interface Related Commands
/viewport [distance from left, distance from top, width, height] - the viewport command allows you to change the size of the gameplay area on your screen. The 'gameplay area' is the area in which Norrath is displayed.
/clearchat - clears the Chat Window's scrollback buffer.
/loadskin [foldername] [1/0] - the 'foldername' is the name of the folder where the skin you want to load is (that folder MUST be in the UIFiles folder). The last argument should be 1 if you want to use your current INI settings for the new skin, or 0 if you want to load the positions/sizes from the XML (and then appropriately modify them for your resolution).
Labels:
The interface also provides Labels for some of the information that is sent to the interface. This allows you to put that information wherever you need it.
Put simply, a # tag in any label will cause the text of that label to be ignored, and the # will determine what value is placed in that label when drawn. Note that certain labels determine their coloring dependent on the data (such as STR, which is either green, gray, or red depending on buffs/debuffs), while others will retain the label coloring from the XML. Hopefully the label names are self-explanatory.
Name = 1
Level = 2
Class = 3
Deity = 4
Strength = 5
Stamina = 6
Dexterity = 7
Agility = 8
Wisdom = 9
Intelligence = 10
Charisma = 11
Save vs Poison = 12
Save vs Disease = 13
Save vs Fire = 14
Save vs Cold = 15
Save vs Magic = 16
Current Hit Points = 17
Maximum Hit Points = 18
Hit Point Percentage =19
Mana Percentage = 20
Stamina Percentage = 21
Armor Class = 22
Attack = 23
Weight = 24
Maximum Weight = 25
Experience Percentage = 26
Alternate Experience Percentage = 27
Target Name = 28
Target Hit Point Percentage = 29
Group Member 1 Name = 30
Group Member 2 Name = 31
Group Member 3 Name = 32
Group Member 4 Name = 33
Group Member 5 Name = 34
Group Member 1 Health Percentage = 35
Group Member 2 Health Percentage = 36
Group Member 3 Health Percentage = 37
Group Member 4 Health Percentage = 38
Group Member 5 Health Percentage = 39
Group Pet 1 Health Percentage = 40
Group Pet 2 Health Percentage = 41
Group Pet 3 Health Percentage = 42
Group Pet 4 Health Percentage = 43
Group Pet 5 Health Percentage = 44
Buff 1 = 45
Buff 2 = 46
Buff 3 = 47
Buff 4 = 48
Buff 5 = 49
Buff 6 = 50
Buff 7 = 51
Buff 8 = 52
Buff 9 = 53
Buff 10 = 54
Buff 11 = 55
Buff 12 = 56
Buff 13 = 57
Buff 14 = 58
Buff 15 = 59
Spell 1 = 60
Spell 2 = 61
Spell 3 = 62
Spell 4 = 63
Spell 5 = 64
Spell 6 = 65
Spell 7 = 66
Spell 8 = 67
Your Pet's Health Percentage = 68
Your Pet's Name = 69
UI_character_##.ini
For each character there is a file named UI_charactername_##.ini, where the number corresponds to the server where character exist. These files are located in your EverQuest directory, and they contain information about the settings of your interface for that character on that server. For the most part you should not need to open this file. Most of the data here can be altered by choices made in game. But there are a few lines in these files that experienced players may wish to change.
Petbars = [True/False] - Under the settings for the [PlayerWindow] and the [GroupWindow] is a line for Petbars. Setting this line to False will turn off the display of pet health bars in these windows.
Everquest - the Interface
Linear Mode
