First Time User Questions

[FloridaFringe]

Hello. I'm new to FetishClassic and there's a lot of information to sort through so please excuse any repeated concerns and questions that I might post.

1. Is it possible to remove the zoning alterations and go back to the default? Every time I see odd UI objects on the screen while zoning it tends to get me nervous.

2. GU30 made some stealth changes to the Quest Journal in regards to how it acts between zoning, logging and switching between the two sort options. Are there any plans to update the Fetish Quest Journal to accommodate for these changes?

EDIT: Now I'm not so sure about the supposed changes. What I did notice with the Fetish Quest Journal is that it doesn't remember my select quest at many times and the slider bar doesn't stay where I put it. I'm going to have to do some more indepth testing with both the custom and the default windows.

3. I've noticed that the drop-down menus at the bottom of the normal map don't always work the first time around. I'm not sure what causes this or why it suddenly starts working as expected but more often than not I can't click on them at any given moment. Is there anything that I can do to change this?

EDIT: 4. I always find myself hitting a performance profile button when attempting to open the Start Menu. Is there an option to resize this window so that only the Start Button is visable?

Any insight would be highly appreciated. Thank you.

[Zonx]

1) I assume you are refering to the chat while zoning feature that reduces the zone loading window and art to provide access to the chat windows. Restoring the default isn't simple but is doable if you're comfortable with UIBuilder.

Duplicate your Fetish directory.
Open the eq2ui.xml file from that duplicate with UIBuilder.
Select the "HUD" tab then expand the "HUD" object in the left side tree.
Select "Zoning" object in the left side tree.
In the properties area below, set the location to "0,0"
Set the size to "1080,1024"
Save and close UIBuilder.
Now copy eq2ui_hud_zoning.xml from the duplicate directory to your Fetish directory.

2) Any hard-coded default behavior changes should apply to Fetish. Nothing I've seen indicates any changes to the XML that would cause behavior differences.

Fetish includes slider and reset button custom controls in the Quest Helper. When the mouse enters the QH window, the reset button is set to whatever the helper is currently showing. You can use the slider to quickly scroll through quests in your journal, but when the mouse leaves the QH window, the active quest is atuomatically reset to whatever was active when the mouse first entered the window. This auto-reset feature can produce some seamingly odd behavior if for instance your mouse leaves the QH area while dragging the slider.

3) A saftey mechanism was applied to the menus long ago to guard against menu activation prior to the map window being fully loaded. In some cases you'll need to toggle the map twice to enable the menus.

[FloridaFringe]

Thank you for the information Zonx. It's highly appreciated. I'm going to post a follow-up but I need to run out the door and just wanted to say thanks.

BTW, is this a good enough thread to continue posting questions, concerns or suggestions for FetishClassic v8.1 or would there be a more appropriate location?

[Namremmizk]

I still cant get the Fetish Night Fall to load even after downloading the 8.1 patch. HEEEEEllllllllllllpppppppppppp i love this ui and would love to have it work again :-(

[Zonx]

Yep, FetishClassic stuff here is fine

Namre I'm gonna need more info on what seams to be the prob.

[Namremmizk]

It will not load at all it keeps running eq2 default instead of running fetishnightfall ....... It will say im running fetishnightfall but it comes up with the eq default

[Zonx]

I suggest you download and install 8.2 from scratch. Follow the install instructions carefully.

[Namremmizk]

Zonx,
I have done what you suggested but unfortunatly it is still loading with eq2 default. For some reason it is not seeing Fetishnightfall i must be an idiot please help me if at all possible

[Zonx]

If you extracted the zip to the Everquest II directory, it should have created a file named "eq2.ini". Open that file with Notepad and confirm the last line reads...

cl_ui_skinname FetishNightfall

You should also have the following directory
Everquest II/UI/FetishNightfall

which should also have subdirectories of

eq2maps
images
infocenter
layouts

When you launch the eq2maps updater, it should list "FetishNightfall" as your UI.

[Namremmizk]

Its all the way its suppose to be but wont load for some reason i am retrying it now

[Namremmizk]

zonx it isnt working for me :-(

[Zonx]

You'll need to provide more info. Post a screen shot of your directory tree (folders view) with Everquest II/UI/FetishNightfall expanded.

Also post the contents of your eq2.ini file.

[FloridaFringe]

I think that he resolved his issue by getting everything installed into the proper location.

[FloridaFringe]

Originally Posted by Zonx

1) I assume you are refering to the chat while zoning feature that reduces the zone loading window and art to provide access to the chat windows. Restoring the default isn't simple but is doable if you're comfortable with UIBuilder.

Duplicate your Fetish directory.
Open the eq2ui.xml file from that duplicate with UIBuilder.
Select the "HUD" tab then expand the "HUD" object in the left side tree.
Select "Zoning" object in the left side tree.
In the properties area below, set the location to "0,0"
Set the size to "1080,1024"
Save and close UIBuilder.
Now copy eq2ui_hud_zoning.xml from the duplicate directory to your Fetish directory.

2) Any hard-coded default behavior changes should apply to Fetish. Nothing I've seen indicates any changes to the XML that would cause behavior differences.

Fetish includes slider and reset button custom controls in the Quest Helper. When the mouse enters the QH window, the reset button is set to whatever the helper is currently showing. You can use the slider to quickly scroll through quests in your journal, but when the mouse leaves the QH window, the active quest is atuomatically reset to whatever was active when the mouse first entered the window. This auto-reset feature can produce some seamingly odd behavior if for instance your mouse leaves the QH area while dragging the slider.

3) A saftey mechanism was applied to the menus long ago to guard against menu activation prior to the map window being fully loaded. In some cases you'll need to toggle the map twice to enable the menus.

Thank you for the detailed instructions. My UIBuilder experience has been mixed in regards to figuring things out for my self but I haven’t had any problems following someone else’s instructions.

Sorry for the long list of items but I’ve been using FetishClassic v8.1 for the past 4-5 days and these are just some of the things that I’ve come across in that period of time. Any insight to any of the below would be highly appreciated. Thanks again for your hard work and effort.

1. Zoning: Is it just me or does it slightly reduce zoning time? Either way, it’s starting to grow on me so I’m keeping it as is for the time being.

2. Quest Journal: Thanks for the heads up on the QH behavior. I’ve tested a bit further and haven’t noticed any difference between the default and your custom Quest Journal so I’m thinking that my initial observations were incorrect. The only problem that I’m having now is that the Slider position doesn’t save between play sessions. Is there a way to get around this?

3. Map: Thanks for the info about the drop-down menus. a) Regarding the eq2_mainhud_map.xml file, is it safe to overwrite? I’ve read various reports from various locations so I was hoping for a direct confirmation if possible. b) I've noticed that the "?" help button on the Map doesn't do anything at all. Is there a way that we could enable this to trigger the InfoCenter? c) Noticed weird behavior when the map is closed in the reduced size. Next time it’s opened it opens as the actual map but crammed into a tiny space and not in the original map location. Is it possible to have the map remember which version was last closed and to open that version or to have it not screw up the map size and location when it’s closed in the smaller size? Also, can the reduced size version be moved with stay put or will it always default to the same location?

4. MiniMap: a) I’ve noticed that whenever I mouse over the map it changes back to the Current Zone map. Is this the correct behavior or am I doing something wrong? b) Same as the Map requests above, would it be possible to trigger the InfoCenter with the MiniMap “?” help button?

5. Start Button: I reverted back to the FC v7.5 Start Button since I didn’t need nor want the volume controls but it still has the graphic options included. Is there a prior version with just the Start Button (as shown in the screenshots) or can v7.5 be edited to not include or in the least not show the added features? For now I’ve changed back to the default since I was continually hitting the wrong part and changing my graphics left and right. Not a big deal but I just want to keep it simple if at all possible.

6. Start Menu: If I remove certain custom mods, such as ClickStrike, is it easy enough to edit the eq2_mainhud_startmenu.xml file to not show the button? Is it just a matter of resizing the window and adjusting locations?

7. Market: a) Take All Coin doesn’t seem to do anything for me even with coin in multiple boxes. b) Any chance of getting a window that will spread out the content once it’s past the point where it’s all shown? I currently have problems using it since everything is so tight together. I understand why it’s like that but I’m getting old and a little space between buttons tends to help c) Any chance of getting the Favorite files converted to a TXT file for easy editing, or any other easier than now structure? I glanced at the XML files but I was too afraid to mess something up. Also, is there a max limit of the number of items listed in each favorite file? Meaning, can I condense all 3 into 1 in order to open up the other 2 or will it only show so much content on the drop-down menu?

8. Guild: any chance of getting the "?" help button to open up InfoCenter? I know that I’ve already asked the same thing previously but I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask. It’s a nice feature and getting it to work in other windows that can be tied into using the IC could be for the better.

9. InfoCenter: Just to be clear, is it safe to update everything from the actual mod updates including XML files but excluding \miscellany\displayprofiles & \socials?

10. Just Press Enter: I usually only prefer the main choice (eq2ui_hud_choice.xml) & the loot window to include this feature. Are there any other windows off the top of your head that might includes this and if so is there a way to edit them to disable this feature?

11. Miscellaneous:

a) Does the Skills window shown in the screenshots still exist?

b) Is it safe to remove eq2ui_mainhud_society.xml & eq2ui_hud_slider.xml or do they actually still do something?

c) Character Creation and Character Select screens are missing the word Next in the bottom right corner. You can still click on the graphic to proceed though so I’m not sure if this was intended or simply missed.

Sorry again for such a long list and thanks so much for everything.

[Zonx]

1) Faster zoning is probably more a function of general UI optimization, which isn't present while zoning if you use the default file. Most folks prefer to see incoming chat while zoning and the option to send chat once they've gotten used to the window

2) I'll double-check but the slider should be adjusting to the current quest on QH mouse over. Remembering what quest is active is a SOE issue.

3) It is currently safe to overwrite MainHUD.Map. The long standing issue with EQ2maps plugin support was recently resolved. I'll see what I can do about the "?" button in a future release, the scripting for this window is a bit convoluted. I'll look into the cropped map issue, it should be reverting to full size when closed. Both the Inventory and Map windows use an external "Dock" window to control main window placement when shrunk. You'll need to open and reposition the dock if you want these windows to dock in a different location.

4) Yes mousing over the center of the minimap is intended to resink it to the main map. You should be able to replace the Help button for this window with one copied from a window that already activates IC.

5) I'll have to dig up an old version without the performance buttons. Untill then, you can remove the includes from that file and adjust the window size.

6) Yes removing custom items from the start menu should only require deleting those items and adjusting the window size and object positions.

7) The "Take all coin" button was removed from 8.2, SOE never enabled it. In general, lists that include an icon use one row mockup for all rows, so dynamically adjusting rows in game isn't really an option. You should be able to adjust the mockups if you prefer something different. The fav files are no more complicated than any of the other xml files. Use Notepad and you'll be fine. Each is basically 1 menu and its datasource. Each Data object is a row in the menu with all its filter settings. There is no limit to the number of items in a menu far as I know.

8) see #4. I'm hesitant to replace every "?" button with IC and loose access to the standard help.

9) Correct. I renamed the main file to ensure it won't be replaced by the standard IC files. Socials and display profiles are the only other things I had to directly tweak.

10) Enter and esc functionality has been added to a buncha stuff, but those 2 are the only windows likely to affect how you play in any significant way. Tradeskills use it for the combine screens, so you'll want to avoid starting chat with Enter while crafting. If you do find a window you'd like to remove this from, open it in Notepad and deleted isdefault="true" and/or iscancle="true".

11) The old skills and society windows are currently unused and I don't think are included in any other files. Should be safe to delete them. Hud slider might be used for something else in the future. I did look at the character select "Next" button and so far haven't figured out what the problem is. I'm gonna run some tests with default to try and figure out what the deal is with that. I'm not convinced its any different in default. Could be the custom UI size I use is resulting in the text being shoved off screen.

[Namremmizk]

Hey Zonx I ended up getting it to work........ thanks to another step that a player told me about undoubtly my extraction wizard wasnt extracting everything......... thanks again for a great ui and a great gaming experience.... by the way Florida im female LOL



Namremmizk