EQ2Interface - Hacking your hotkey files for fun and profit!

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Hacking your hotkey files for fun and profit!

Or at least, some fun. :p

I was looking into the hotkey files as a way to grab icons for macros that you might not otherwise be able to use and here's what I found.

Save a hotkey file with the command:
/savehotkeys hotkeys.txt

and load them with:
/loadhotkeys hotkeys.txt

The file name can be anything but it's going to be in txt format. This will create the hotkeys.txt file in your EverQuest II folder.

Open the file with your favorite text editor.

The first line should say:

Code:

HOTKEYS 2

unless you made this file a while back it would say:

Code:

HOTKEYS 1

Those older files don't seem to be compatible anymore so I'd stay away from them.

Next you have a bunch of lines that look something like:

Code:

0 0 spell 3972280100 20775428 2817723036

0 1 spell 1168997002 20644351 286394793

0 2 spell 4257751881 20644073 2978363936

0 3 spell 3252301068 20644209 926130519

0 4 spell 1579077278 20709523 1830454406

0 5 spell 197890867 20709526 2741453651

0 6 spell 177910159 20709524 3947483197

0 7 spell 1711396203 20709525 2373778986

0 8 spell 1790945610 20709534 3158197706

0 9 spell 3150960155 20709567 3725109982

0 10 spell 2796412562 20709534 292432170

0 11 spell 880694377 20709844 738348626

1 0 command attack

1 1 spell 817383112 -65384 1362867163

1 2 spell 1828867650 20644148 4192575752

1 3 spell 2061037839 20644006 4099084925

1 4 spell 4123409629 20644081 885156777

1 5 spell 3442480681 20644311 1958302229

1 6 inventory_hotkey 111645115

1 7 spell 3822430871 20709532 323374037

1 8 spell 2169778560 20709532 3075105932

1 9 spell 2544409968 20578493 1096105693

1 10 spell 874599824 20578597 4072721918

1 11 spell 1615517329 20709563 871621883

2 0 spell 533018687 20709587 2445197857

2 1 spell 3706115619 20709702 3382785886

2 2 spell 1549013162 20709564 3074417129

2 3 spell 4278308521 20578449 680054060

2 4 equipped primary

The first number is the hotkey bank number with 0-9 corresponding to banks 1-10.

The second number is the slot number with 0-11 corresponding to slots 1,2,3 ... 9,0,-,=.

Your normal spells are shown with the three numbers.

Some abilities are written out like autoattack:

Code:

1 0 command attack

My Manastone clicky is:

Code:

1 6 inventory_hotkey 111645115

and 111645115 happens to be the item ID for the Manastone in the item database.

The clicky for my primary weapon slot is:

Code:

2 4 equipped primary

The interesting lines come when you see your macros like:

Code:

6 8 macro 20512925 1 4 EMERGENCY!

: ; pet backoff ; autoattack 0 ; target_self ; yell

/useability 554779222

: ; target_previous

/useability 1571882540

6 9 macro -65524 2 2 Call For Help

: ; pet backoff ; autoattack 0

: ; target_self ; yell ; target_previous

6 10 macro -65536 2 1 browser

/browser

6 11 macro -64899 0 1 Gratz!

/gu Rrawr! Gratz!

For a macro the code is:
(bank number) (slot number) macro (icon number) (icon type) (number of macro lines) (macro title)
[macro line 1]
[macro line 2]
etc.

The icon types I have seen are 0, 1, and 2.

0 is an item icon-- any icon that you could drag from an item
1 is a spell icon-- any icon that you could drag from a spell
2 is an old style macro icon-- the ones you get from clicking the arrows in the macro window

The first macro line that has a command like:

Code:

/useability 554779222

gives you the spell that will determine the shading of the macro for the recast timer, out of range, etc.

The fun part comes where you can grab icons from spells and items that you wouldn't have otherwise. Just make sure to grab the (icon number) and the (icon type) right after it.

Using the Cure icons for cure potion macros

So now the practical example would be making macros that have the cure icons with cure potions like Ashley asked here.

First it's easiest to make some placeholder macros.

1. Open up your macro window (press O)
2. Create four macros and call them "Cure Trauma", "Cure Arcane", "Cure Noxious", and "Cure Elemental"
3. Give each macro one step by dragging a spell from your knowledge book (press K).
4. Now put those four macros on four open slots on a hotbar. It's easiest if the four slots are next to each other.

Then we're going to save the hotbars and edit them outside the game.

5. Type /savehotkeys hotkeys.txt
6. Go to your EverQuest II folder and open up hotkeys.txt in any text editor. Notepad is fine for this.
7. Scroll down until you find the four slots with the placeholder macros. For me it looks like:

Code:

6 6 macro -65536 2 1 Cure Trauma

/useability 3302654429

6 7 macro -65536 2 1 Cure Arcane

/useability 3951064844

6 8 macro -65536 2 1 Cure Noxious

/useability 1812025739

6 9 macro -65536 2 1 Cure Elemental

/useability 2970789278

This is hotbar 7, starting from slot 7, because computers like to start counting from 0.

8. Now on each line that has the word "macro" paste these text lines over the rest of the line, starting from -65536:

Code:

20709523 1 1 Trauma

20709526 1 1 Arcane

20709524 1 1 Noxious

20709525 1 1 Elemental

I grabbed these icon numbers from my fury.

9. After that your macro lines will look something like:

Code:

6 6 macro 20709523 1 1 Trauma

/useability 3302654429

6 7 macro 20709526 1 1 Arcane

/useability 3951064844

6 8 macro 20709524 1 1 Noxious

/useability 1812025739

6 9 macro 20709525 1 1 Elemental

/useability 2970789278

10. Save this file and close your text editor. (It's important that the macro names have changed here. You don't want them to be the same as they were before.)

Now we're ready to bring those icons back into EQ2.

11. In EQ2 type /loadhotkeys hotkeys.txt
12. Those new icons should have popped up on your hotbar
13. Enable icon dragging from your hotbar by rightclicking the edge of the hotbar, choose "Hotbar Settings", and then click "Allow Draggable Icons"
14. Edit each macro and drag the corresponding icon from your hotbar to the macro edit window, overwriting the old macro icon in the upper right corner of that window.
15. Turn off icon dragging for that hotbar, if that's how you normally play.

We're just about done!
15. Drag each macro back to your hotbar.
16. Test them out to make sure they work.
17. Now, finally go back and edit each macro, delete the old step with a spell and drag the corresponding cure potion into the macro edit window.

That's it! You're done. The only drawback it that there's no shading to tell you when you can use the potion again and you can't see how many potions you have left. But alas, that's how all item macros work. So you probably already knew this.

Very interesting....

I'll have to do some playing around and see if I can't whip up some out of game macro editor app.

Just have to figure out the logic they used for icon numbers. Logic would suggest they would use a weighted system. /sigh time to create every class and create some macros.. To many projects so little time..