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THINGS I WISH I'D KNOWN EARLIER - Addendum

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What follows are a few particularly useful messages from the forum thread, which post-date the last update of the TIWIKE message itself....

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Posted by "TreeMos" (03/25/2005):

Some more UI/Chat window tips I've found....

You can copy and paste text into your chat window from outside EQ2 by using the conventional Ctrl-C (to copy) and Ctrl-V (to paste) key combinations. Just make sure you click on the chat window text entry area or hit Enter first to activate the cursor there. This is useful for say, copying a URL out of your browser and pasting it into your chat box to tell someone in the game about a cool website. I haven't tried it but I imagine the reverse works as well - copying text from EQ2 to an outside application. Though someone else might want to verify that for us.

Also, if you try to send a simple emoticon msg like ":)" or are trying to start your msg with a slash but you don't actually want it to be treated as a "slash command", start the line with an extra space. This keeps the game from thinking what you are typing is some kind of command and it treats everything on the line as just text. Plus the extra space is usualy left out of the sent msg. If you start every chat msg with /t or /gsay or some other /-specifier this may not be relevant. But if you are like me and constantly change the default chat mode button in the bottom left corner this may be helpful.

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Posted by "Phoxtrot" (04/26/2005):

A way to reduce money weight when you don't want to run to a banker is to buy something costly from a merchant and sell it back (without closing the window of course). This should allow you to convert most of your small coins to bigger ones.

A few items cannot be sold back at full price, I don't have a complete list of these but they all seem to be stackable items. So when you buy something just to resell it immediatly, pick something that hasn't a number in its lower right corner. At low levels, torchs are handy for just that purpose.

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Posted by "Grymmstone" (07/25/2005):

In addition to Alt W if you type /waypoint (map coordinates ie 153,5,145) your alt w will give you directions to that waypoint. Very helpful when looking for something elusive in a heavy aggro zone.

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Posted by "Rhykin" (08/05/2005):

Something I'd wish I'd known earlier: Dynamic Adventure Camps (http://eq2players.station.sony.com/news_archive.vm?section=Development&month=032005&id=353&direction=back)

I didn't find out about this mechanism until L23. It very much changes how I would have played Antonica and Commonlands before I mostly grayed them out. The pick-up groups I usually formed didn't seem to know about them either. 

The only reason I found about them now is because understanding them is an important part of doing Armor Quests, since right off the bat AQ1 requires you to kill some gnolls that only show up as part of a DAC. The official write-up on DACs was archived before I started playing EQ2 so I missed it. The "distressed merchant" scenario should have given me a clue, but I didn't make the mental connection between that, and Sabertooth tents or moat rat nests.

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Posted by "EbanAcka" (08/15/2005):

A few things that I don't think have been mentioned yet:

1) We know that guards can "find NPCs" right? Well, some NPCs are conveniently named. For example, "Mender" or "Trainer" or "Scribe" This makes it really easy to find key NPCs

2) HOs. I have unlocked the HO window (just start it up, right-click on it and unlock the window) and moved it to the center left of my screen. This way, it is very clear when an HO is occuring.

3) You can double-click on the current quest (in the upper left corner) to open the quest log to that quest (if you forgot the location or some other detail).

4) If you have multiple hotbars out, you can set one to the F keys in the key-bindings (under options). This is useful for people that have trouble with Alt or Ctrl keystrokes. Remember, though, that you then lose the functionality of selecting party members with Function keys. I always just click their names at the top of the screen, so it works for me.

5) You can collect ? from quite a distance away. I can get a ? from the middle of aggressive Mobs from a safe distance (especially useful on the Island of Refuge getting shells from the beach by the waterfall!)

6) If you duo often with someone (friend, spouse, etc) make sure you both have a follow macro:

   /follow name

   but, be careful if the person you are following is a scout that likes to practice safe-fall ;)

7) Buy the strategy guide! The maps are incredibly useful. In-character, these are the maps passed down from a line of adventuring family members.

8) If you are stealthed, most aggressive creatures will become non-aggressive (lose the red border). If a creature still has a red border around her name, she will attack if you get close. I believe (correct me if I am wrong) that boss mobs can see through stealth.

9) Use /e to design your own emote. When you use it, remember to stay in present text. For example:

   "/e pours himself another drink." would say in the emote channel, "EbanAcka pours himself another drink."

Well, that is all I have for now. Have fun out there!

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Posted by "Aslan's Friend" (08/19/2005):

   EbanAcka wrote:
   3) You can double-click on the current quest....

Another thing along this line that was added several updates ago: when you get a quest update for something other than your current quest and the quest helper changes to that quest for a few seconds, if you double click the quest helper during that time, the quest journal will open to that quest. I generally have a full quest journal and this helps me find "in progress" quests more easily.

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Posted by "Rhumor" (08/29/2005):

I wrote this in response to an earlier thread, and people coming to me in-game and asking for help on this subject. I have the same thread (heavily moderated) on our guild forum that lists the dev's responses, and a place for ShadowHaven members to vent if they've fallen prey to those trying to take advantage of the system.

This isn't the forum to defend player rights from either side; SoE has already stated they will not regulate what is sold via merchant or broker. It is up to us as a community to educate each other on what to look for, and who to avoid.
 
How to save money and avoid fraud in EverQuest II:

Brokers: Save 20% or more by buying directly from the player and not over the broker whenever you can. The player price and broker commission are listed at the bottom of the broker window when you click on an item. If the seller shows a location along with their name, you can go to their house and buy from them like an NPC merchant. 

Rare Metal: Buy CLUSTERS, not ingots. Clusters are used to make armor and weapons; ingots are a byproduct of the refining process and used to make arrows.

Crafting recipe books: DO NOT BUY any recipe books until you check your NPC tradeskill merchants in both your general and specialized society. Secondary skill books (weaving geomancy timbercraft apothecary) and both regular and advanced Hex Dolls, Imbuing, and Ancient K'lorn Magic recipes are at the merchants! Other than that, most advanced tomes (including the advanced secondary skills) are looted items. Be careful before you buy one you DO need from the broker; be absolutely sure it says ADVANCED in front of the name of the item you have highlighted before you click. (Some of the pre-20 books have some weird names other than advanced; just doublecheck your merchant first.)

Caveat Emptor.

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Posted by "Dwergux" (01/02/2006):

When sprinting away from a battle you are losing, press the "Call for Help" icon (it looks like an exclaimation point). This will do two things. First, it will unlock the encounter so people nearby can pull the mob off you if they are feeling nice. Second, it will cause you to start regenerating at the rate you normally do when not engaged in combat, and thus prolong your chances of survival.

You can also use "/yell". The big advantage of breaking the encounter is that you can then turn off auto-attack, put your weapon back in it's scabbard, and run away *faster*.

When you have engaeged more than one group of mobs,make sure you target yourself (use F1) before yelling. That way you yell all the mobs you have engaged, otherwise you only yell the group of mobs which has your current target in it, making you still be "in combat" and thus have a lower health- and power regeneration and a reduced runspeed.

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Posted by "Nilgiris" (01/14/2006):

- You can access anyone's house to get your offline selling profits. As soon as you enter a "house instance" your own selling log and your newly-acquired coin is displayed and given to you even if you're not in your own home.
 
- Always try and consume food/drink that is just a bit higher level than you. i.e. if you're lvl 11 use lvl 20 food, Lvl 25 then use Lvl 30 food, 34 use Lvl 40 etc... if someone nice gives you some higher lvl food, or if your guild has provisioners that make food/drink for the guild, you can still use food that is a lot higher level than you are, but you'll only see the benefits of the food as if it were food/drink for your current level. i.e. if you are lvl 42 and are consuming lvl 60 food/drink, it will only be as effective as lvl 50 food/drink.  And definitely never use the auto-consume features unless you remember to turn them off again.
 
- You can use /hide_illusion to hide any shapechange spell effects. i.e. if you are a fury and don't wan to look like a lion any more, or a mystic who doesn't want bear-form, but you still want the benefits of the spell itself, then use /hide_illusion. Although it didn't used to work, if you're using the /hide_illusion you can now ride griffons etc without having to cancel the spell that is causing the shapechange first.
 
- /invite, the command that invites someone to a group works across-zones. So you can invite someone to group with you even if they are somewhere else in the Shattered Lands. Note that if the person you want to invite is currently zoning they may not get the invite request. In this case you'd just have to invite them again.
 
- Lastly, to *add* to the Calling for Help, by using that it will also re-activate any runspeed enhancement spells such as Spirit of the Wolf, allowing you to run away faster too. Normally these runspeed spells are disabled during combat.
 
Just some additional things I've learnt in my time.... :)

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Posted by "Champgne" (01/14/2006):

Not sure if this was posted already, but this macro has saved me soooo much on armor repair costs    So here is an unequip macro that I wish I knew the first 45 levels - LOL 

1) You must have enough room in your bags for the equipment (yes, this *should* be a given, but you don't know how many times I've been griped at for giving out a broken macro because it "didn't take everything off" )

2) You must yell off an encounter or not have engaged for it to unequip completely - otherwise it's the in combat rule of removing something every 5 seconds -

Open a new macro and insert the following on the 3 lines in the macro :

: ;unequip neck ;unequip ears ;unequip chest ;unequip legs ;unequip feet ;unequip primary

: ;unequip shoulders ;unequip forearms ;unequip hands ;unequip head ;unequip secondary

: ;unequip left_ring ;unequip right_ring ;unequip left_wrist ;unequip right_wrist ;unequip waist

Troubleshooting:

1) Make sure there is room in your bag for all equipment

2) Make sure each line starts with : at the beginning

3) Make sure there is a space before the ;unequip command

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