DIY Guide - How to display all buffs (and increase buff size)

[Kourose]

Many people, especially PvPers, say that you need to get yourself a modified UI for one reason: To see all buffs that your enemy currently has. This includes buffs that, by default, are invisible to you. Excellent Balance, Guardian Tactics, Evasive Action and Avatar of Death to name a few. This is something very important when making fast decisions in a PvP environment - however, is it worth getting a modified UI for? Most are no longer updated, many are made specifically for the user making them and are too big, too small, too clunky or too plain.

This guide is intended to show everyone how to modify their own Default UI to show all buffs, without the hassle of a new UI.

This will not change any settings in your UI. You do not need to redo your hotkeys or worry about having to deal with anything new - other than displaying all buffs on your target.

...

Skill Level: Beginner
What you will need: Notepad or similar editing software.
What you need to know: Where your AoC directory is and how to navigate your file system.

1. Let's begin by finding your Age of Conan directory. Typically: C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\

2. Once there, find your way to C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Default\Views\HUD

3. In this folder is a file called CharPortraitRight.xml. Open this file in notepad.

4. There is alot here that may not make sense to you. Don't worry about it for now. What you need to do is Save as... a copy of the file in C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized\Views\HUD. You will need to make the appropriate folders here, as your Customized folder should be empty.

5. Once the file is saved in the appropriate folder, either look for the following code or use F3 to bring up the Find function. The code is not very far in:

<View view_layout="stacked" h_alignment="LEFT" v_alignment="BOTTOM">
    <View view_layout="vertical" h_alignment="LEFT">
      <BuffListView name              = "BuffListView"
                    h_local_alignment = "LEFT"
                    layout_borders    = "Rect(15,0,0,0)"
                    icon_size         = "Point(31,31)"
                    icon_spacing      = "Point(3,3)"
                    full_size_limit   = "6"
                    max_columns       = "10"
                    filter            = "hostile"

6. See where it says 'filter = "hostile"'? You'll need to change that line to:

filter            = "friendly | hostile"

7. Save the file and close notepad! That's it! You're done. If you did this with AoC running, type /reloadui. Otherwise, run AoC and enjoy!

...


Extra!
This extra will teach you to modify buff icon sizes. It's in the same file, but this time we're after the line that looks like icon_size = "Point(31,31)" . (31,31) indicates the overall size. In this, I'll change the size to that of the Action Bars. However, feel free to experiment as you wish to see what sizes suit you!

Change the line to:

icon_size         = "Point(47,47)"

More Extras!
Now, another parameter you can play with is full_size_limit. You'll notice when you have a number of buffs/debuffs on your target's screen, the size will shrink to be significantly smaller. And because the above tweaks make more (de)buffs appear, you'll see the shrinkage alot more. All you need to do is set the following line, using the same methods as before:

 full_size_limit   = "6"

This is the number of buffs you can see, before they shrink. How far you should increase this number totally depends on the size of your resolution. Larger resolutions can deal with more unshrunk (de)buffs. (Thanks to BudgieDeathSquad for this!)

Finale! Save the file and you're done! If you want to experiment with different sizes, you can do it while in game. I would recommend running in windowed mode for it (press Alt + Enter). Once you change the sizes, type /reloadui. This will delete all lines in your chat and refresh your UI with the changes you've just made.

Once you're done, enjoy!

...

This will also increase the size of buffs, when they shrink due to large numbers. However, this is a more subtle change and not readily apparent.

[Kourose]

Updating your custom UI!

I've gotten several people asking why the modified UI no longer works after a patch. The reason is that you need to actually edit a number in your custom file after every patch. There are several programs that will do this for you (MeatHooks, AoC Quick Start, to name two). However, this guide is intended to teach! So, I'll go into how this is done.

1. Open any file under:

C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Default

You should see the following at the top:

<!--  $Change: XXXXX $ (must be within the first 200 characters of the file) 
  -->

Where 'XXXXX' is a number. Write this number down!

2. Now, go to your own customized UI file(s):

C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized\Views\HUD

Open up the file and look for the same line:

<!--  $Change: XXXXX $ (must be within the first 200 characters of the file) 
  -->

3. Now, all you need to do is make sure that the number in this Customized file has the same number as the file under Default.

...

Why is this important?
AoC updates this number after every patch and to ensure there are no accidental conflicts on your computer, it disallows any custom files from working until they are updated. Unless they remove the ability for this mod to work (which I havn't seen in any patch notes yet!) the only thing to update your file is to change the revision number.

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If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask. I hope I made this ask clear as possible for everyone to understand. And if you're having any trouble, you can get ahold of me via PM and I'll see if I can do anything for you!

[Kourose]

This is taken from the "old forums" (before it goes to /dev/null)
Thanks to Annalea-Taylor aka Annarea dated february 2009.

[ViolentLeonidas]

New hard drive been playing aoc just fine ....but i cant seem to get this working any more has something changed?

i done all the steps... i have the changed CharPortraitRight.xml inside my customized folder

i checked that the numbers match (Where 'XXXXX' is a number. Write this number down!)

Something a bit odd is.... the part
What you need to do is Save as... a copy of the file in C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized\Views\HUD

when i try navigate a save to C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized\Views\HUD
i cant get passed Customized

C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized is as far as it goes

not very good at pc stuff but i did have this working befor new HD
also inside my Customized folder there is
1)CharPortraitRight.xml (changed version ofc)
2) a read me? saying something about cd_image/Gui/Default/" and customized gui's

[Skant]

New hard drive been playing aoc just fine ....but i cant seem to get this working any more has something changed?

i done all the steps... i have the changed CharPortraitRight.xml inside my customized folder

i checked that the numbers match (Where 'XXXXX' is a number. Write this number down!)

Something a bit odd is.... the part
What you need to do is Save as... a copy of the file in C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized\Views\HUD

when i try navigate a save to C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized\Views\HUD
i cant get passed Customized

C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized is as far as it goes

not very good at pc stuff but i did have this working befor new HD
also inside my Customized folder there is
1)CharPortraitRight.xml (changed version ofc)
2) a read me? saying something about cd_image/Gui/Default/" and customized gui's

use windows explorer go to C:\Program Files\Funcom\Age of Conan\data\Gui\Customized\

Click create folder name it Views.
Open it.
Click create folder name it HUD.
Save your file.

Customized folder is empty by default you need to create the paths yourself.

[GeneralFear]

Now, another parameter you can play with is full_size_limit. You'll notice when you have a number of buffs/debuffs on your target's screen, the size will shrink to be significantly smaller. And because the above tweaks make more (de)buffs appear, you'll see the shrinkage alot more. All you need to do is set the following line, using the same methods as before:

Code:
full_size_limit = "6"

This is the number of buffs you can see, before they shrink. How far you should increase this number totally depends on the size of your resolution. Larger resolutions can deal with more unshrunk (de)buffs. (Thanks to BudgieDeathSquad for this!)

Wow... this is great to know. I always wondered what that line meant. I updated it to 24 so that when I'm in 6-mans, the buffs don't shrink (since I'm a rogue, always looking for the healing buffs for tainted weapons), but when I'm in a raid and there are so many buffs they would normally fill my screen, they will shrink after four lines. Now I don't need to go back and forth to the interface options to select or de-select that option.

I tried it last night in a T3 raid, and it worked wonderfully.

[Lurvi]

But do you know any way to keep the timers on the buffs when you decrease their size?

Cause as soon as I make them smaller than default (31) the timers disappear.

[GeneralFear]

But do you know any way to keep the timers on the buffs when you decrease their size?

Cause as soon as I make them smaller than default (31) the timers disappear.

31 is the smallest size you can have and still get the timers, as far as I know.

[kinlock]

this should have a sticky

[xiulo88]

Is there a way to see only my buffs?