Serious Thukking Business

A downside of running a really customized UI setup is needing to copy it across to different characters. Trying to re-do it by hand in-game would suck so hard, so I poked around in the EVE settings files and figured out a way to safely copy what I needed. The process still has a bunch of required steps to do it right, especially if you are dealing with more than just one account and different character. Might be feasible to script most of the process, but I’m not much of a coder. The steps will be written for the Windows 7/Vista file hierarchy, but it should be simple enough to figure out where your settings are stored on either XP or Mac. Everything else should be the same besides directory locations.

Note: Before beginning this BACKUP YOUR SETTINGS FOLDER(S)! – I’m not responsible for people messing up their settings folders and they should be easy enough to restore if something gets royally fucked.

Your settings files for EVE are usually saved under C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\CCP\EVE\<driveletter>_<foldername>_tranquility. Be sure you have already backed up this directory (including both settings and cache) before you do anything else. Looking inside it you should see two folders, cache and settings. Open up the settings folder. There should be a bunch of .dat files with either core_char_somenumber.dat or core_user_somenumber.dat located inside. These are the files we will be renaming in a moment. But first we need to determine which account and character(s) we want to be copying settings from.

Assuming you know which account you want to copy from you need to look-up your API User ID value. That number will correspond with the core_user_<userid>.dat file that has the relevant settings. The two simplest ways to do this are either to login to the EVE site (not linked here due to :security:) and go to the API page or you can grab the info from an app like EVEMon (under Manage Accounts) which has the API info saved into it. That’s piece one. Next pick which character you are trying to copy the settings from and either, a) capture their portrait in-game or b) go to Eve-gate and search them. For the capture go to Libraries>Documents>EVE>Capture>Portraits (this is the default location in W7) and find the right one. The filename (or number as it were) of that picture is the number that corresponds to the core_char_somenumber.dat file of your character. If you are using eve-gate, just search or go to the profile of your character and click on the little zoom icon on the portrait. The bolded part of this resulting URL is your character ID (well, mine in this case) https://image.eveonline.com/Character/706857960_512.jpg. If for whatever reason you don’t see a corresponding file for a given character that means you need to log them in once before a settings file gets generated. Note: Copying character settings also copies the current open channels. Spais you have been warned. — Though it won’t let you into channels which you do not have access to.

Now we have the two major pieces of info we need to copy the right settings. For this next stage there are probably a few good ways to do it, but I will just outline the method I use. Note: When doing the following it is best to change the files in-order they are listed, in order to avoid confusion.

• (For speed) open up both the main settings directory in one window and have the settings sub-directory open in another one.
• Copy the core_user_userid.dat and core_character_characterid.dat files that you identified earlier into the main directory (so you should have two folders and two files in there now).
• This is the part that sucks – look back into the settings folder and copy the ID value on a different core_user_userid.dat file (be sure you don’t change this actual file).
• Rename the file by pasting that number into the core_user_userid.dat file you have in the main directory (so file name core_user_111111.dat would become core_user_22222.dat for example).
• Copy that file and paste it back into the settings directory, when prompted to overwrite say yes (or copy and replace as W7 likes to ask).
• Repeat for each core_user_userid.dat file you have in the folder.
• Repeat the same three steps now for each core_character_characterid.dat file you have in the settings directory as well.

This of course can be done with multiple setups and also replicated across different EVE settings folders if you wish. The basic steps are the same, just copy the renamed files into a different settings directory (e.g. your originals were saved in …\c_eve_tranquility\settings and you copy the new ones into …\d_eve_tranquility\settings instead).

tl;dr version of what I’m doing is just renaming one data file over and over and copying it into the appropriate directory to create a uniform group of settings across all my accounts. The account settings saves all UI window positions, hotkeys, overview setups, and even the default selected character on the login screen. The character settings import largely just preserves channel settings, which is useful if you want to mirror those. Only thing else it might copy that I can tell is drone folders, but I haven’t tested that.

I’ve spent a decent amount of time flying around now with the hotkey setup I made in this post. The setup itself works, but I have found myself rarely using the navigation hotkeys. Admittedly this is partly due to habit. However, there are a couple of major things that bother me about using the navigation hotkeys instead of the selected items window (or right click). For one they don’t feel as responsive as they should be. Usually I found myself spamming the same key 4-5 times to make sure it actually registered the command. In a similar vein the WDA text area below the HUD is overwritten when holding down any of these keys, which can make it difficult to tell when you’ve actually entered warp/jumped. The real kicker for me is that the hotkeys don’t consistently work while holding down a push-to-talk key for comms (this applies to weapon hotkeys too). So, in the end I’ve unbound all but jump/dock and retasked those keys for use with modules. The new setup looks like this:

Ignoring slots 7/8 is intentional

Naturally overheat is still shift+hotkey. I’ve left E and D out for now as those are typically my movement keys and I haven’t thought up a good replacement use for them. Maybe approach and align? S and F still remain as next/last target. I could technically have dedicated 1-5 to the bottom rack, but opted not to. The only mods I want on the bottom rack are one click use or rarely used ones (DCU, probes, etc). Exception is the cloak which I’ve set to 6 to keep it hotkeyed, but put it far enough away that it would be difficult to double tap the key. Keys 1-3 are now for drone control, instead of the more finger-jutsu intensive Ctrl-1-3.

Now for the UI:

Click me for full-size

I’ve kept most things where they were. The major changes are the relocated drone windows and watch list. I never actually use all the keys in any given rack, so I opted to squish the drone window in between the modules and selected items. Awesome place for it now, as it’s much easier to keep an eye on drone health and launch different flights since it is right next to the selected items window. I moved the watchlist down next to the fleet/scanner window. Now it should be easier as a Logi pilot to keep an eye on broadcasts and the watchlist at the same time. I had to swap the target orientation to horizontal again to fit the watchlist in, but it appears to be better as the middle of the screen now feels less cluttered.

Not directly related, but I moved a bunch of chat channels to a dedicated tab that stays minimized during fleet. Now the desire to click on blinky buttons can actually be productive (e.g. checking intel channels, not OOC) for once…

I’ve seen a lot of guides and discussion about how to setup your overview for combat. What I haven’t seen much of is discussion about the UI as a whole, and especially not how to make a good, efficient, layout. While the EVE UI cannot be customized as much as the UI in other MMOs (WoW and WAR in particular), CCP does provide us with a number of options to tweak the look and functionality of the interface. Having a well configured interface can contribute to better performance in combat. This post will look at my own UI configuration and the reasoning behind the setup of the windows. It is unlikely that many will find my exact setup useful, either due to screen resolution or their own preferences and habits. I hope that outlining the thought process and reasoning behind my layout will help you improve upon your own setup.

I suppose actually showing the setup may be helpful (click the image for full-size):

To begin, the primary goal of setting up the UI in this way was to minimize the amount of mouse movement necessary between the more important UI elements. Some secondary objectives were to also minimize eye movement necessary during combat and to provide as much information as possible without excessive clutter. Keeping all of the UI elements essential to combat close together was the most important part of the setup. In my view the main elements that should take priority over all others are: Selected Items, Overview, Targets, the HUD circle, and Drones. These five elements  will be in use no matter what kind combat (or mining, I suppose) you are participating in. Yes, drones are a slight exception, but having the window close to the rest will prove beneficial should you need to use them (more likely than not).

I find the position of Selected Items (SI for short) relative to the Overview and Targets to be critical. My placement of SI above the overview and near the targets means I don’t have to move my mouse far to select a new target (from either the overview or locked targets) and then use the approach, orbit, or lock buttons. Especially useful when dealing with invulnerability timers, as it’s easier to spam the SI lock button than to continuously Ctrl+click to lock. Targets placed vertically next to the overview makes it easy to cross-reference who you have locked vs. the targets on field. It also speeds up unlocking old targets and selecting new ones (great for drones).

A quick note on the overview. It is helpful to have it as tall as you can make it (within reason) and wide enough to include the columns you need to see. In my case I couldn’t expand the overview enough to include a corp ticker column, but the information isn’t as important so tweaking the UI further would have been a waste. For reference I have IC, Name, Distance, Velocity, Type, Angular velocity, and Alliance Ticker included on the overview. Angular fits easier than transversal when you are short on space. They provide the same type of information so choosing one or the other is a matter of preference.

Keeping the HUD circle and modules display right next to the locked targets is hugely beneficial. For the clickers out there it speeds up target switching. If you primarily use hotkeys it keeps your eyes close to your own ships health while you gleefully watch your enemies defenses fail them, wouldn’t want to find yourself in hull all of a sudden and not notice because you were too focused on the enemy now would you? The proximity of the drones window to the HUD was partly chosen because I had no other place to put it. Though it turned out to be a good spot. You can watch the status of your drones without distancing yourself too much from your ship and module status. It may be a bit further from locked targets than some may like, but in my case I run drones almost entirely through hotkeys (aside from deploy) so it’s less of an issue personally.

Now for the less prominently featured windows. First, the scanner: it is positioned as close to the overview as possible without blocking important parts of the screen or compromising it’s information value. The fleet window is stacked with the scanner. In most situations you will either need to see the fleet window (for broadcasts) or the scanner (scouting and smaller gang work) so you don’t lose much functionality by grouping them together. The watch list is placed as close to the targets and modules as it could be without looking ugly and out of place. Because the names on the watch list will start to blink red when taking fire, it is easier to monitor it passively (changes in color and movement attract the eye) even though it isn’t as close to the other windows. The local window is kept thin and has some room to be expanded vertically for those really busy systems. Nothing much to say about the main chat window, it’s in a unobtrusive spot that can be kept open so you can keep an eye on fleet chat and intel channels.

Just a few more closing comments on the overall setup. You may have noticed that none of the windows actually touch the edge of the screen. Keeping about 10-15px of space between the window and the border leaves room for you to see the brackets at the edge of the screen when panning the camera around. I have to thank Bacchanalian for pointing this out, an immensely helpful tip. When moving the targets around, it’s really useful to be able to lock more than six targets. The 7^th target is displayed on a second column or row, sometimes these can show up under existing windows if you aren’t careful. Test this out before using a setup in combat, at least for the sake of future expansion (e.g. you start flying logistics). Just locking a bunch of things on a station or logging on to Sisi before committing to the changes would be a good idea.

As with any change of this sort there may be a short adjustment period as you familiarize yourself with the new setup and adapt your habits and muscle memory. Once you get past that the new (improved) UI setup should feel completely natural and hopefully more efficient.

Post up your own setups or thoughts on mine in the comments section.

Update:  I’ve had several people ask me about how I got my UI setup this way. There are only two less obvious settings which you need to know to move it into these positions. Moving the HUD circle and moving or modifying the alignment of the target list. The HUD circle is pretty quick, just click the arrow below the circle and there will be an option to ‘Align Top’ (example here). For moving the targets around you may need to minimize the surrounding windows first to see the anchor. Just right click it and the option should be there. Everything else is a matter of moving windows around. It’s helpful to turn the snap distance of the windows to a minimum (under Esc > General Settings > Windows) of 3px to keep windows from gluing together unless you want them to.