How to use the Ultimate Quest(TM) checklist

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, and New Player Questions' started by ARCHIVED-Ishnar, May 10, 2005.

  1. ARCHIVED-Ishnar Guest

    Hello,

    I'm writing this mostly for those new to Excel who would not know how to take best advantage of the checklist or those that don't have MS Excel, so it starts pretty basic though there may be some insights at the end for others.

    First - It is best to not print the Ulitmate Quest Checklist out but use it directly from your computer. If you are one of those people who do not have Excel you can try OpenOffice (openoffice.org) which is freeware. Openoffice is made by SUN Microsystems, a reputable company, so it is not a half-bad program. I tested the spreadsheet on it and it worked just fine after saving it in openoffice format.

    Second - Save the file to disk. If your using openoffice open it then Go to file/save as.. Name it and save it as an .xsc file wherever you think is most convienent. Go ahead and close the open window to make sure your not editing the temporary file.

    Third - Now open the file from wherever you saved it to. Depending on the resolution of your monitor you should see "THE ULTIMATE EVERQUEST II QUEST CHECKLIST / QUESTS" in Bold red on a Black background and below it 4 grey boxes with arrows or triangles pointing down. Just above this is a small grey bar with A , lots of space, B, lots of space, C, etc.. Each grey box corresponds to one of these letters. So the "C" box is the third box. If you look on the bottom right of the window there should be as side-scroll bar. Scrolling right you will see more information and at the end, column G, room for personal notes. At the bottom left of the window, just to the left of the side-scroll bar should be some tabs which might be hidden depending on your screen resolution. You can use the arrows to the left of the tabs to see the other tabs. Right now there are 3 tabs: Quests, collections, and city tasks.

    Fourth - Now we start doing useful things. The A drop-down box sorts by zone and is quite useful. It defaults to "all" but you can change it to different zones to filter out much of the clutter. "B" drop-down isn't nearly as useful but it and "E" can be used to quickly sort a pre-filtered list alphabetically. So sort with the others first, then use one of these to view an alphabetized list. Unfortunatly, OpenOffice autoselects the entire window everytime you use the dropdown window, which is a pain, but the program is free and works so-- oh, well.

    Fifth - Time to get really useful. As the top of the Window instructs, put an "x" or "X" in the "C" column, the grey column, then press enter or the down arrow. You will see the Yellow number in the top right auto update every time you enter an "x."


    Sixth - Ok, here is the meat of this entire post. All the rest was just preparation. You are not limited to these options. For example, Lets say there is a quest you are working on right now. Instead of an "x" put a "0" (or whatever, just no (mathmatical or logical signs: /*-+!@#$%^&* etc.) in the box. Now make sure all the drop-down boxes are set to "all" and then go to the "C" drop-down box and select whatever letter/number you used. Now you have a way to quickly view the quests you are working on without thumbing through your quest journal. At the bottom, immediatly after selecting your filter, it will say how many are shown which is pretty handy.

    Seventh - Other sorting options to make this list even more useful. I have been using a period "." in the grey column for all quests that my previous gaming decisions have made unavailable, be it by level, alignment, or class. Thus, at 9th level, with a couple clicks of the mouse, I can quickly determine that after completing 80 quests, I've negated over 225 quests if I include all of my "b," for betrayal, quests. I also put a 1 in all the quests that I intend to do. So I can quickly choose "C" drop-down and select "1" and I have an instant to-do list, which is currently 133 quests long and does not include my 45 quests in progress.

    With all that said, the best way to label everything is from the beginning. Go to the "D" drop-down and select "lvl 01" after making sure all the other drop-downs are set to "all." Then go down the list, selecting "lvl 02" when your done and so on.., If you have no immediate plans to do a quest, leave it blank for everything else put in a specific letter. Completed quests get an "x," of course, but be sure to label the in-progress quests, the will-do-soon quests, and the will-never-do quests too, to best utilize this spreadsheet. Make separate copies of this file for separate characters and your pretty much set.

    One more thing, Dont forget the "Personal Notes" section which is off the screen. You can put important information here such as what zone the quest is FOR, what zones the mobs are in, what is the real best level to accept this quest, or any other helpful information that will help to complete the quest.

    Hope people found this helpful. The bottom half isn't so obvious so I thought it should be said.

    Ishnar


    edit - Added this post from Grymmstone on updating the list. Thanks :) deleted many edited messages :)
    grymmstone wrote:
    Message Edited by Ishnar on 07-09-2005 10:22 PM
  2. ARCHIVED-aommi27 Guest

    Informative, Concise, and best of all, correct, nice job!
  3. ARCHIVED-Arcanya Guest

    /applause!

    Wonderful work, I'll make sure to put a link to this thread on the opening post of the checklist and also on the main download page!
  4. ARCHIVED-Crestus Guest

    Now if there was an easy way to take the 913 quest I have finished and put them into the spreadsheet I would be set. I do hope they add some kind of a dump to text option to the quest UI component.
  5. ARCHIVED-mellowknees72 Guest

    This checklist sounds awesome. I'm an Excel nerd, so it sounds fun! :p

    Where can it be downloaded?

    Thanks!
  6. ARCHIVED-Crestus Guest

  7. ARCHIVED-mellowknees72 Guest

    Awesome!! Thank you! :)
  8. ARCHIVED-Rinweth Guest

    Is there a way to implement the list that you have edited into newer versions of the file, so you don't have to go through the whole thing and check which ones you have completed?
    Message Edited by Rinweth on 05-15-2005 12:03 AM
  9. ARCHIVED-Ishnar Guest

    going off the top of my head, I don't have one in front of me to work with, but this should work.

    1. Open up both the new and the old spreadsheets.
    2. Make sure all the columns are set to "all" then select the entire grey column of the old sheet by clicking at the topmost one and dragging to the last grey box.
    3. Select copy.
    4. Click on the date dropdown list on the new spreadsheet. Use custom list to set the list to only show dates that are equal or less than the newest date on your old sheet.
    5. Click on the top grey box and select paste.
    6. Save the new file.

    This is untested, but should work. After someone, either me or someone else verifies it works, I'll add it to my OP. It won't work of Arcanya changes the dates of existing quests to show updated info, but it will work great if he only uses the date to designate new quests added.

    So if that isn't the case already. He might want to consider it.

    Ishnar
    Message Edited by Ishnar on 05-14-2005 11:01 PM
  10. ARCHIVED-Rinweth Guest

    By grey column, are you referring to the one to the left with all the numbers, or the C column?
  11. ARCHIVED-Ishnar Guest

    Good point. I mean the C column.
    Ishnar
  12. ARCHIVED-Syndic Guest

    Thanks for the guide, this should come in handy.

    Question: noticed there is updates and additions in the guide (as there will always be I guess). Any chance of writing a guide on how best to keep upto date? I can see its not going to be a simple copy and paste, and there must be a better way than marking down all the quests everytime the spreadsheet gets updated.
  13. ARCHIVED-Ishnar Guest

    Unfortunatly, because lines will be moved, and otherwise modified, there is no real option without writing a macro each time there is an update.

    The best solution would be for Arcanya to never move or delete a row item. Only add new ones at the bottom. This will make the list look disorganized, but will still be sortable and retain its functionality.

    Ishnar
  14. ARCHIVED-Rinweth Guest

    ^ Makes perfect sense, since we can always sort by ascending/descending in the first column.
  15. ARCHIVED-NiteFever Guest

    I would have liked to have seen a "Quest origin" and "Quest destination" column, so that if I found myself in West Freeport, say, I could simply click on my "x" quests that could be resolved there. The destination NPC's name in a column would be even better.

    My .02
  16. ARCHIVED-Inygo Guest

    What happens when a new list comes out. How do you easily get your data from the old excell sheet to the new one? if you cut/paste the gray column, things wont line up.
  17. ARCHIVED-ShashLigai Guest

    just a suggestion to ease the update issues; publish two files, the complete revised workbook, and a second file containing only the changes. I could then DL just the changed file and import the changes (cut n past, whatever) into MY version of your file.
  18. ARCHIVED-grymmstone Guest

    With Excell 2003, Name the updated list the same as the old list when you open old spreadsheet, then new spreadsheet the program will ask if you want to merge data from both files.
    That's what excel does at my work should do it for quest journal also.
  19. ARCHIVED-Ishnar Guest

    Thanks man, I added that to the OP.
    Ishnar
  20. ARCHIVED-Aresthanas Guest

    I feel like an idiot, but how, exactly do you get Excel 2003 to merge the two files?