Let me see if Iām understanding you correctly. You want a minimalist UI and want to eliminate as many UI elements as you can so that you enjoy EQās graphics?
If Iām understanding correctly, then thereās a systematic approach we can take to getting closer to that goal. My first recommendation is a custom minimalist UI skin. Iād start by talking to
@kaen01 about using his beautiful, functional, and minimal UI.
The next solution may be less practical for you, but it is a solution. All those hot buttons can be eliminated by taking those hot button texts and setting them up in
MQ2CustomBinds. There are advantages and disadvantages of this. The disadvantages are that setting it up could be confusing and also requires you to remember what previous hot button goes to which keybind. The advantages are that you can get rid of all of you hotbars and create lots of room. Additionally, keybinds always work, unlike the client hotbottons (ie during casting). Plus itās worth mentioning that you set it up once and it works on all clients right away. Additionally, you donāt need to wreck your hot buttons, you can open your EQ keybinds, map all hot button barsā visibility to the same key and toggle them on/off as needed (I use Shift+H). If this sounds interesting to you and need help setting it up after reading instructions, message me and Iād be glad to.
As for chat boxes, many solutions come to mind, some already answered above. Iād use @alynelās most excellent
MQ2Discord and turn all filters on. That is a lot of verbose spew, but it would probably work. He has an excellent write up on how to get it working. There are also older solutions that would be a bit less effective without some set up, like
MQ2Telnet and
MQ2IRC.
Group window and possibly target window can be eliminated, if one chose to, with @jimbobās EQBCi Windows program. I personally have very negative feelings toward EQBC itself and have entirely removed it from my arsenal, but Jimbob did very good work on the UI and function of EQBCi. The app is included in very vanilla.
Iām typing this on my phone right after waking up with a massive hangover and still half asleep and drunk so Iām probably forgetting something. But between all these options, Iād say you can have a 70-80% decrease in visible UI so that you can better enjoy the beautiful sights of Norrarh.