The general idea is that you create a master account for YOU (not for your guild) and you use that account to login. So pick one of your toons (doesn't matter which one) to create a master account with. Once you've done that you can login using that one account and create all your other toons that you may have and track them all seperately underneath one login. Easy to manage that way. So to start off, create your account with anyone of your in game characters. If your guild does not exist in the system, you will have to create it. Here's the HOW TO's.

• How do I get started!

So your new to EQ2HQ. No problem. Here's the run down. First off you need to create an account, so on the login page you will need to click the Create New Login link. You will then need to see if your guild is already in the system (someone in your guild already set your guild up). You can check this in the drop down box on the first page of character creation. Be sure to validate your guild name with the servername in paranthesis (). If your guild is listed, select it and move on. If not you will need to select the top option of NOT LISTED!. This will take you to the guild creation screen. More on that if you click right here. The second screen is where you create your login. IMPORTANT PART The system tracks your primary account and uses it for you to login. Any secondary or "ALT" characters you have can be setup once you login with your main account. PLEASE pick one of your characters and accurately spell your characters name. You will use this character to login to EQ2HQ. You can add other secondary characters later. Fill in your character name (do not abbreviate, use the real in-game name) Verify your guild and server are selected in the drop down box already Enter the GUILD password your guild uses. You will need to get this from a guild leader Verify your correct server is selected in the drop down box Enter your EQ2 Player ID # from http://www.eq2players.com (this is optional and NOT required) Enter your real email address. This is important for us to reply to any emails you send us from inside EQ2HQ. We keep all email addresses private and do not share them with anyone. If you put in a fake email, we can not contact you when you send us Support emails or bug/feature requests. Select a password that only YOU will use to login with. This password is encrypted in the database, so not even we can see it. However a good suggestion is not to use your SOE login password, use something different Enter a password hint that can be used as a reminder to you if you forget your password The next two checkboxes are to determine if you want us to email you when we release new features (rare emails) and/or if there is a major outage we can email you updates about it Click the ADD > button If there are no errors you will be returned to the maing Login page. Go ahead and login with your new account!

• How do I create my guild if its not listed?

So your guild isn't listed, eh? Well time for you to create it and get things started! On the new guild screen fill in your guild's name Fill in your guilds EQ2players tracker # from www.eq2players.com (this is not required!) Enter a guild password. Remember this is a DIFFERENT password then the one you use for your account, this is a password, that you will need to share with your entire guild. Its what prevents people who aren't in your guild from adding themselves to your guild. Select the server your guild plays on from the drop down list. The last option is whether or not you want to share your guild HQ status with the public. By saying yes, people can view your guilds character HQ status without logging in to EQ2HQ. They can not edit anything or see any personal information, just view what step your players are on. You can turn this ability on or off at anytime. If there are no errors, once you click the Add >> button you will be returned to the Character creation screen to create your first character.

• How do I add all my characters to one login

One of the features of EQ2HQ is the ability to manage all your characters from one login. To do this after you have created your inital account, click on the Add a Toon menu option. This will allow you to create more characters in the application. When you select the View Guild option your new character will show up. You can then click on any of your characters to edit their quest statuses.

• What does the COMPARE checkbox do

The compare column in the View Guild screen allows you to select specific characters out of your guild to compare side by side. This is particularly useful when your guild has a large number of characters in it. Select the checkbox next to all the names you want to display, then at the top of the column click the X button. This will reload the page only displaying the characters you checked. To return to normal view and show all characters, simply click on the menu option View Guild

• What is the Change Guild drop down selection box for

This box is available for to allow you to switch guild views, should you have characters in your account that are in different guilds who are using the tracking application. You can select your guild from the drop down box and click the view button. This will reload the screen with the guild you chose and making links to the characters you have in those other guilds. If you do not have characters in more then one guild, this drop down box will only show the one guild you belong to.

• Why can't I edit my Guild's settings

Guild settings are only editable by what the application considers Guild Owners. If you were the person who added your guild to the system for the first time you are by default the first guild owner. There can be as many guild owners as you choose. To be able to edit guild settings, a current guild owner will need to add you as a guild owner. This can be done by them in the Edit Guild menu option. If the only user in control of guild settings is no longer available and you need to regain control of your guild information, please select the Submit Bug/Email option and send me a note to fix it.

• How do I hide my guild from public viewing

Someone who is a Guild Owner has the option to select the ability to Hide the guild. This is the Publicly Viewable option in the Edit Guild page. This was also available when the guild was created. By setting your guild as Publicly Viewable you are allowing people to select your guild from the main login page or via direct link. The public can only view everyones guild status, they do not have to be logged into the application. If you select to Hide your guild from public viewing, the direct page link you see at the top of the View Guild screen will not actually work and your guild will not appear in the drop down box on the login page.

• Why do you need my email address

The reason we ask for your email is so that when you forget or loose your password, you have the ability to click the Forgot password link on the login page. This will allow you to have the system email you your password hint and a link you can click to reset your password. We will never provide this information to anyone for any reason. We also do not have newsletters or emailings that we will subscribe you to. We may however in the event of a major outage or application problem email you and let you know, but this would be rare, and if that happens you will have the option to never be emailed again. A future User Setting will allow you to turn that ability on and off.

• Some of the quest steps are missing or are confusing

If you find a mis-configured quest option, where a step is missing or the options available seem confusing, feel free to drop us an email via the Submit Bug/Email menu option. We will correct this problem or add the missing step. There was a lot of steps and quests to put in, so its quite possible there will be a few mistakes. Also if you discover a new Heritage Quest not yet in our system, be sure to let us know!

• How do I create logins for my Guild Mates

The application is really designed around a single user managing their own alternate characters However if you feel that the other guild members aren't capable of managing their own login you can certainly manage the character for them under your login, however unless you share your password with them (not recommeneded) only you can manage their account. If you wish to preset up all your guild members logins and then provide them their passwords, you can do so by creating a new login for each user from the main Login Screen by clicking Create an Account option. NOTE: You can not do this from the Add a Toon option in the main menu. That will only create an alternate character linked to your login. It will not create a new login for another user. This must be done at the main login screen.

• How do I delete characters from the system

You have the ability (starting in version 1.6) to delete your ALT characters from the system. By selecting the User Settings menu option and selecting the character you wish to remove you can then delete the character with the big red button at the bottom. This immediately deletes this character completely from the system and it is gone forever. NOTE: You can NOT delete your primary login character. Only secondary ALT characters you have added to the system. The reason for this is that your ALT characters are all tied to your single login by design. So if you delete your main character you leave orphaned data in the database and you no longer have a login. If you wish to remove all your characters including your login, please contact us and we will be happy to do this for you.

• What is the EQ2Player ID # field in the character & guild add screens

This is not a required field to create a character or guild or use the EQ2HQ tracker application. This is simply the system ID# for your character/guild at Sony's EQ2Players.Com web site and is only used to allow others to link to your character for informational purposes. To find your character ID# go to the http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/players_index.vm web site and search for your character. Once you've brought up your characters stats/configuration screen look at the URL in the URL bar. You will see characterId=XXXXXX (where XXXXX is a series of numbers). That series of numbers is what you need to copy into the EQ2Player ID # field for your character. This also works for guild creation/editing. The URL to get your guild ID # is: http://eq2players.station.sony.com/en/guild_index.vm. In the URL bar you will see guildId=XXXXX.

• Can I let other users edit my settings / Is this secure?

As of release 1.60 you now have the ability to let other people edit your characters quest steps. This is done by logging in and selecting the User Settings menu option. At the bottom you can specify who else has the ability to edit your characters quest steps. Some important notes about this and its security: You can only grant people in your guild this type of access. Users that you grant this access to do NOT have the ability to modify your login settings or password. They can only edit your quest steps. When you grant this permission to somebody, it currently applies to ALL of your toons, not just your main login.

• Whats up with the Paypal Donation Button?

Well, believe it or not it does cost money to keep the server hosted and running. Now granted I would be doing this anyway, but the increased amount of traffic for the application will cost more. Don't feel obligated, I realize we all of EQ2 monthly bills to pay! However if you like the app and fill like chipping in, go for it. I added the button at the request of a few people who wanted to help out. I would like EQ2HQ to stay up and be free for all to use, thats why i wrote it. So hence its a donation, not a required fee.

• How do I export my guild info into Excel or an external file?

As of release 1.63 you can now export all of your guilds characters information into an external file for easy manipulation. The file format is export to .CSV (comman seperated value). This will allow you to easily import it into your favorite application. If you have Microsoft Excel, Excel will open this file and automatically format it into columns and rows for you.

For Excel users once you've opened the exported file, to quickly format it into a very readable document, go to the Excel menu and select FORMAT, then select the option AUTO FORMAT... Pick one of the auto-formats that you like the look of and select OKAY. The document will be ready to go.

To export your information to a .CSV file, from the main VIEW GUILD page, near the top, you can select the guild to view out of the drop down box, then click on the EXPORT TO FILE button on the right. Note this export can take a minute or so, so please be patient. Your browser will pop up a box asking you to download or open the file.