The game client can be coerced to run in a borderless windowed mode. Window resizing must be disabled first, otherwise the mouse will be offset incorrectly. You can find this setting in game under:

Options > Display > Allow window resizing

Or in eqclient.ini:

AllowResize=0

Now the window borders can be properly removed by a third party utility such as this autohotkey script. Just make sure to perform the resize after logging into the character. If the resize occurs on the character selection screen, the renderer won't realize and you'll need to reset the resolution to fix screen stretching.

    ^!h::
    IfWinExist EverQuest
    {
       WinSet, Style, -0xC00000 ; hide title bar
       WinSet, Style, -0x40000 ; hide thickframe/sizebox
       WinMove, , , 0, 0, 1920, 1080
    }
    return

Graphics

I like to tweak the default FPS settings to 60/60. Other higher quality graphics settings can be enabled in game. Parameters are stored in eqclient.ini.

MaxFPS=60
MaxBGFPS=60

The windowed gamma feature should be off by default now, but just in case:

WindowedGamma=0

Controls

Mouselook sensitivity can be adjusted under mouse options. The camera mode can be toggled with F9. Roll the mousewheel while in the default first person camera mode to freely adjust it into a reasonably comfortable third-person mode.

Definitely enable "Click Through Self" in General Options. Otherwise you'll have a hard time clicking anything remotely near your character. The target selection isn't quite so advanced.

Hotkeys

Custom keyboard configuration is in eqclient.ini [KeyMaps] section. Note that on a fresh install, [KeyMaps] won't be there.

User Interface

Minimal UI available in this repo. I like to set the fade transparency level for most windows to 0%. The exceptions are the hotbars, spellbars and chat windows. I tweak the xml files to get those to behave minimally. The goal of a minimal interface is improved immersion. Use the UI options to load a window layout for your resolution as a good starting point. Copy UI_Player_server.ini into the game directory and you can try loading the window layout from it under General settings.

Keyboard hotkey binds are saved in eqclient.ini in the KeyMaps section. I tend to unbind keys for uncommonly used features that are accessible through the in-game menu.

Minimal User Interface Changes

My minimal UI is available in this repo as a patch set. Maintaining my custom UI changes as a patch set makes integrating official updates very simple. I like to set the fade transparency level for most windows to 0%. The exceptions are the hotbars, spellbars and chat windows. I tweak the xml files to get those to behave minimally. The goal of my minimal interface is improved immersion.

Assuming you're using bash on Windows 10 with bash installed, you could install the UI with the following commands:

git clone https://github.com/brianbaligad/eqclient-conf
cd eqclient-conf/ui
./install

Use the UI options to load a window layout for your resolution as a good starting point. Copy UI_Player_server.ini into the game directory and you can try loading the window layout from it under General settings. My ini files are copied in this repo as a backup/reference. Make sure to go through the chat window filters and set them as desired.

Text colors

Chat colors are stored as separate RGB values in eqclient.ini [TextColors] section. The default color scheme is a relatively dark palette. I've implemented the ir_black theme and included it seperately so you can just copy and replace it in eqclient.ini. This is an ideal light text on dark background scheme, so it'll only make sense if you have dark chat windows like I do. I have experimented with gradient backgrounds for chat windows, but the result wasn't great because I could only get 10 levels of transparency from a tga texture ingame.

Reorganize config files (optional)

There's over 4.3 thousand files sitting in the root game directory. If that triggers your OCD (or you hate having to look for the same file over and over again), you can reorganize a bit with symlinks. This made a little more sense back when I wasn't using bash or raid 0 ssd.

Extras

Useful information can be found at various third party websites:

Gambosoft has a log parser
Brewall has detailed maps
Lucy is a spell database
Allakhazam records items and quests info
Magelo has player profiles
Beimeith is a guild leaderboard

Fixing Allakhazam

Ala is an ad-supported website with useful free content. I think they have a subscription membership that goes with Wowhead, seems like a great idea if you use it alot. Their advertisements even seem to get through uBlock Origin. Here are some UBO filters that you should totally never use.

everquest.allakhazam.com##div#logo:style(background-image:none)
everquest.allakhazam.com###row-top
everquest.allakhazam.com###col-right
everquest.allakhazam.com##a.pw-button
everquest.allakhazam.com###gdpr-dashboard
everquest.allakhazam.com###gdpr-toggle
everquest.allakhazam.com###zul-bar
everquest.allakhazam.com###horizontal-bg
everquest.allakhazam.com##footer

Lore

There is plenty of lore in Norrath created by the developers. But the real story is about the players within the game, and the communities they created.