Synchronize Character Settings Over Multiple Computers

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by minimind, Apr 23, 2020.

  1. minimind The Village Idiot

    85% of my EQ playtime is at my desk on my desktop. Nearly 15% of my time, I'm on my laptop due to travel or something else. Once in a while, when the servers go down, I try to log on from another computer just to put my trader back up.

    But as my character progresses and new stuff gets added to my trader, my character settings (UI, hot buttons, spell lists, trader prices) get unsynchronized and I have to copy all my character data to a thumb drive and drop the data on other computers.

    Is there a feature that I've missed over these years to make playing the same characters on multiple computers easier? Is there a non-EQ solution?

    Is this as much an inconvenience to others as it is to me to potentially request a solution from the Devs?
    PCSS likes this.
  2. andromeda New Member


    It's an inconvenience, but most older games store their configuration files locally.

    There are several ways to handle it. Here are two suggestions.
    1. Copy your .ini files to cloud storage, like Dropbox or Onedrive. They both have free plans. If unsure then use Dropbox. Remember to do it before you travel, then on your other computer you can just copy the .ini files into the appropriate folder.
    2. A more automated method also involves cloud storage, but combines it with something called symbolic links (symlinks). You can find out how to create them here. What you would do is:
      1. Close EQ.
      2. Delete the .ini files that you want to have synced (obviously back them up first).
      3. Copy them into a folder in your cloud storage.
      4. Create a symbolic link in the appropriate Everquest folder to point to the file in cloud storage.
      5. Be sure to do this on both computers.
      6. This way, the actual .ini files are stored in your cloud storage account, and any changes will be synced. Also, Everquest will not recreate the files. As far as it is concerned, the files are already there. It doesn't know that the .ini file is symbolically linked to a different location.
    The second option is the best since it's "fix it and forget it." If you're not tech savvy then it might seem overwhelming, but I promise it's easy. Just follow the tutorial I linked and you'll be fine. The main thing to make sure of is that you want the symbolic link to be in the Everquest folder and the actual file to be in your cloud storage. If you did it the other way around then it would work, but you could have unexpected results.
  3. andromeda New Member

    Actually, now that I think about it, either way should work. If your Everquest installation is in the same path on both computer (I.e., "C:\Users\Public\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\Everquest") then you can just create a symlink in Dropbox (or Onedrive or whatever) to the .ini file in your Everquest folder. That would be easiest since you just have to do it once.

    However, if your Everquest installations are in different locations then do it the way I first suggested.
    PCSS likes this.
  4. Corash New Member

    Go to C:\Users\Public\Daybreak Game Company\Installed Games\Everquest and type your characters name in the search box. Everything that comes up, copy and paste to a flash drive. Plug the flash drive into another computer and then paste it back to the game folder on that pc.

    This is how I copy all the UI's etc for 20+ characters over multiple pc's.

    Hope this helps :)
    PCSS, Gyurika Godofwar and Elyssanda like this.
  5. Zvenn Just an old monk

    honestly i run my entire EQ installation directory and all its goodies from google drive...for this very reason...no matter which computer i log into all i have to do is sign into google drive, let it sync the files, log into EQ and voila...everything is the same no matter which computer i use.

    things to note on running it this way:

    * there is a sync delay while google drive verifies all your files everytime you sign into a computer with google drive logged in...if patience isnt a virtue of yours this method is not for you

    * just like the above there is also a sync delay when you log out and shutting down for the night as google drive is now syncing your log files and all that jazz...just wait for it to complete before shutting down the computer completely to ensure all the info is there when you log into another computer the next day or whatever

    that being said i have been running EQ this way since google drive was a thing and never had a problem running it on various computers...just takes a little patience on start up and shut down but other than that runs like a dream with no configuration tweaks cross computer
    PCSS, Gyurika Godofwar and Elyssanda like this.
  6. Metanis Bad Company

    Forgive my ignorance, I've never really played around with G drive.

    Does it keep a copy of everything on your local hard drive so you're not dependent on a high-speed, low-latency Internet connection?

    Does it use a drive letter mapping?

    Does the patcher point to a local instance or the cloud instance?

    Does it allow multiboxing from the same drive instance?

    My solution to keep 5 computers sync'd is the free Microsoft SyncToy Tool. I have all my computers networked with 1Gb Ethernet though so the sync process is very quick but it IS a manual process so I have to remember to do it before switching computers.

    Each computer maintains the exact same directory structure (C:\Everquest) for ease of maintaining files/folders. I'm actually still running from my original 1999 EQ install because I just keep copying the entire folder between machines over time.
    PCSS and minimind like this.
  7. Zvenn Just an old monk

    correct, basically you point it to a directory on your local SSD and it syncs everything there then everything runs off your local drive...just syncs files to/from the cloud as they are changed.

    yes you map it like anything else for instance mine is D:\Users\Zvenn\Google Drive\Gaming\Everquest

    the patcher along with all things EQ related are located in D:\Users\Zvenn\Google Drive\Gaming\Everquest and runs from there

    you can indeed multibox from it, i run myself and Milady (when i need to steal her toon for foraging)

    for all intents and purposes its no different than installing it locally on a SSD...just with the added benefit of it auto backs up and syncs everything in there and when you log into another computer and log into google drive, it downloads and syncs everything locally to that new computer for you (part of the patience is a virtue thing i was talking about)
  8. minimind The Village Idiot

    This is a very interesting option. How much of a delay? Seconds? Minutes? Only synchronizes on patch days? :p
    PCSS likes this.
  9. Zvenn Just an old monk

    first time setting it up syncing to the cloud can take hours (files are still usable locally on your machine) but they wouldnt be ready or available to sync to another machine for a bit since its a lot of files to sync.
    same for the download syncing on the new machine, first download/sync can take a couple hours.

    once everything is fully sync'd from first install then you are only syncing files that were changed from game play (log files, character files, UI files, maps, etc) or on patch day and those only take a couple of minutes...longest part is just the first time setup, after that its really nothing
  10. minimind The Village Idiot

    Looks like I'm trying this tonight for upload overnight.
  11. Zvenn Just an old monk

    sounds good :)
  12. Metanis Bad Company

    I'm probably not going to try this. I've only got about 768Kb upload on my dsl. My EQ folder is 14GB. Looks like it would take about 40 hours to seed the cloud.
    Elyssanda likes this.
  13. Zvenn Just an old monk

    yeah that doesnt sound ideal for a cloud option for sure
  14. minimind The Village Idiot

    By the way, I gave this shot. That's a lot of stuff to upload. =\

    It would be a lot easier if DpG were to create a single directory (.../Everquest/Settings) that served as the repository for the character files (and all other *.ini files) so that it wouldn't need to sync the entire root Everquest directory.
  15. Angahran Augur

    It would be great if DBG would have all character specific files in one location, but that's like saying it would be nice to win the lottery :p

    You just need the .ini files from the eq root folder, character files from the userdata folder and your custom UI if you have one.
    PCSS and Gyurika Godofwar like this.
  16. Zvenn Just an old monk

    yeah its a lot to upload and sync for the first go around, but thinking of any other computer you get and sign into drive now has the full eq install right there, just sync to the new PC and done...no need to figure out what to move, what needs updates, what UI pieces,etc...its all just there :)

    i wont tell you how to live your life or anything just stating i have been running it this way for years and wont go back lol makes gaming at work, on personal laptop, on home desktop, on the girlfriends laptop, etc...all super easy. first time sync sucks...but so does first time install of EQ and patching as is so those are about a wash...the rest is just time saved after that
  17. Bemvaras New Member

    ..


    Dude...Zvenn...holy crap..
    Elyssanda likes this.
  18. Zanarnar Augur

    I wonder how many people would trust me to store their EQ settings if I wrote a cloud sync tool specifically for those files. MMM Not that it would benefit me really, but I do like coding useful tools. Maybe I can just write something that uses another service as storage (like g.drive or dropbox) instead of storing them on my servers.

    The important ini files and bazaar prices aren't exactly large and text compresses well. It might be fun, and I've been looking for an excuse to learn RUST.
    PCSS and Metanis like this.
  19. minimind The Village Idiot

    I could foresee a simple interface where the user's EQ directory would be scanned and then display a file free of the characters and the related files (or user-friendly files names, like "Bazaar prices"). Select what you want to sync and hit the "Replace cloud files" button. Before you log on to EQ on your 2nd computer, you run the program, select the characters/files you want to sync, and hit the select "Sync from cloud" button. Start EQ, continue gaming.
    PCSS likes this.
  20. OldRodKS Elder

    I like this idea! Thanks!

    I also have a couple other games that this might help with as well :)
    PCSS likes this.