Program: DPS Decal Plugin
Latest Version: 3.0.3.0
Date: 10/22/2004
Copyright: (c) 1999-2004 by Todd D. Perlmutter, all rights reserved

3.0.3.0 (10/22/2004)

- Assign Icon for Bindstones

- For purposes of ties, Bindstones are now seen as Lifestones. This means you can stand next to a bindstone, select it and add it as a tie.

- Recognize new WCoD atlas category of "Portal Hub" as Dungeons for purposes of routing.

- Recognize new WCoD atlas category of "Settlement Portal" as Portals for purposes of routing.

3.0.2.0 (02/08/2004)

- Information regarding Ties/Recall points is saved on an as changed basis now, instead of only when the plugin/client shuts down. This way people won’t loose ties they add if another plugin decides to crash the client while shutting down, before DPS gets a chance to save its info.

- Tracking window can now be repositioned using a button that has been added to the Info->Options tab.

3.0.1.4 (11/23/2003)

- Fix for crash bug tied to the corpse list and dying.

3.0.1.3 (10/16/2003)

- Tweak for a fix for some OSes with the registry backup.

3.0.1.2 (10/15/2003)

- Reworked the registry save on uninstall so it writes file to current temp directory.

- Extended command line "route" so that it can take a destination parameter and an optional -c to tell it to set the source to the current location before routing.

3.0.1.1 (10/15/2003)

- Registry settings should now be able to be maintained during an upgrade.

3.0.1.0 (10/13/2003)

- Fixed a crash bug when database files are not found.

- Checked for other potential places where similar crashes might occur and plugged them.

- Added some new command line commands to tie to the basic functionality.

- New commands for setting the source and destination allow user to specify a coordinate format rougly approximating coordinates as they tend to be posted on fansites and fourms.

3.0.0.0 (10/07/2003)

- Integration with new WCoD atlas XML script

- Integration with ACMaps Dungeon listing

- Letters removed and replaced with full names to be less confusing.

- Got rid of the "too many windows" syndrome. Now there will be exactly the main window (created when Decal starts), the Info window (created once DPS initializes), and the tracking window (created as needed by the user).

- Setting source/dest for routing can be done just about anywhere in the GUI -- either by green "Source" or red "Dest" buttons OR via the green "S" and red "D" icons listed next to each location as presented in the GUI.

- Much of the GUI updating has been moved to the windows message loop.

- Instead of using Mnem icon to flag selected item between corpses and marks list, the item that is in the tracking window will have its text colored green.

- Ties and options are saved on a per-Character name basis.

- Handles an unlimited number of recall/tie points. Except for special ties (e.g., Recall the Sanctuary) ties can by completely customized as needed (note: Ulgrim's Recall can have its coords changed).

- "Add Tie" button in the main window takes the current coords and will use them unless in a dungeon, whereby it will use the dungeon info for the tie instead.

- "Add Tie" on the tracking window will attempt to use the "place" in the shown in the window, otherwise it will resolve the coordinates as above.

- "Add Tie" in the main window behaves the same as in the main window UNLESS a lifestone or portal is selected (portal is a portal, a dungeon, or a hall) and then it will look up the item of that type that is closest to the user and it will use that.

- Added ties are off by default and must be turned on.

- All Underground Portals are checked and "in use" by default. These are key portals that a user may not want to use when routing.

- Routing is as simple as selecting a source and a destination and clicking the "Route" button in any of the three windows. Want to reverse your route? Hit swap to swap source and dest and then hit route again.

- Cost savings for routing is calcluated at the bottom of the "DPS" tab in the main window.

- In the main window and info window, "Alpha" will display all items in alphabetical order with their distance from the current location of the avatar. In the tracking window distance is from the "place" in the tracking window.

- "Dist" is similar to "Alpha" but will list all items in order by distance.

- The checkboxes (e.g., Town, Lifestones, Outposts, etc.) in the main and tracking windows are used to filter the results of "Dist" and "Alpha". If you want to use a simple text filter check off Search and type in the text (e.g., "Tusker") into the edit box to the right of it. Once your filter options are set choose "Dist" or "Alpha".

- Dismissing a corpse tracking window no longer removes the corpse from the corpse list, you must use the "Delete" button on the "Corpse" tab in the main window to do that.

- Marks is not yet complete, only two marks you will see right now is "Last Known Coords" if the option is turned on and/or the name of the last place in the tracking window that was not a corpse or the "Last Known Coordinates".

- The "WCoD Atlas" and "ACMaps Dungeons IDs" (both under the "Data" tab) can be synced independently of each other with their online counterparts, however doing so will cause a database recalibration (which also happens each time DPS is started by Decal).

- "Options" (under "Info") has gotten a complete overhaul. For the options "ODB" means "On Decal Bar" and "HUD" means "Heads Up Display". And "
" means "line break".

- To move the HUD around just hold down the Alt-key on your keyboard, and left click/drag the HUD to where you want it to be.

- If the Info view gets off the screen it can be restored by hitting the "Reset Info View Size/Pos" button.

- If the HUD gets lost you can reset its position with "Reset HUD Pos"

- If the main window gets lost you can issue the command line "/dps rpos" and it will go back to its default position.

- Issue "/dps" at the command line to see other DPS command line options.

- In the info view, clicking an item will bring up a tracking view for it. Very handy when a route is up and you want to be directed to the next location.

2.5.1 (1/6/2002)

- Fixes some bugs revolving around properly identifying certain items (e.g., portals) in the CoD locations database.

- Gives identities to some of the newer types in the database, and thus they get icons too. This includes shops and communities.

- Now ships with the latest dungeons.csv (dungeon ID listing) and locations.csv (CoD locations database).

2.5 (10/1/2001)

- Corpses are now written to storage as soon as DPS knows about them. This helps prevent DPS from loosing track of corpses in the advent of a crash, lag-out, or other uncontrolled exit from the Asheron's Call client.

- Updated for recent protocol changes. Only affected correct reporting of the characters level in the Info->Char tab when the character leveled during play.

- Command line. Type /dps help or @dps help for more info (should be case insensitive).

- Fixed problems with Corpse/Tracking views not being the proper size.

- The Info View, which I got a lot of complaints about the size of, is now resizable. Go to the Info->Options tab. T = Top, L = Left, W = Width, and H = Height. Fill in the desired values (in pixels), and hit the blue Set button. The blue Reset button will return the Info View to its default size and position. These settings are persistent across runs. At 1024x768 I recommend T = 100, L = 100, W = 516, and H = 450.

- Dungeon Identification. Now in addition to synchronizing with the CoD locations database, I am hosting a list of dungeons and dungeon IDs which DPS is capable of synchronizing with. Using this list, DPS can now identify the dungeon you are currently in. The Info->Data screen will tell you how many dungeon IDs DPS knows about and of those how many have been named. If you are in a dungeon, but don't know which one (if you're like my wife and I and jump though portals as fast as you can say "Roiga Thiloi" then this happens a lot) you can type /dps and see where you are. By default the dungeon name is not shown on the toolbar, however there is an option to turn this on on the Info->Options tab, "Show Dungeon On Bar". If an ID known, but is not named "Dungeon" will show on the toolbar. If you have the name for an ID that is displayed as "Dungeon" or a new Dungeon ID and name, please submit them to me at

-- just send me the results of /loc or /dps loc or /dps lb, along with the name of the dungeon you were in at the time.

- Height in meters (a.k.a. mASL or meters above sea level), can now be shown on the toolbar as well. This option is off by default, but can be turned on via the "Show Height On Bar" checkbox on the Info->Options tab. Height in meters will always show up are part of the /dps command.

- Coords on the toolbar are now optional. I figured this only made sense since Turbine has now added "Show Coordinates Below The Radar" to the AC client. This option can be turned on and off via the Info->Options tab, "Show Coords On Bar".

- Another option is the ability to have corpse tracking windows popup automatically when upon death. This option can be disabled on the Info->Options tab, "Popup New Corpses".

- General bugfixing and cleanup.

- I have a workaround for a crash that to date has affected exactly two people that I know of. Generally speaking if you determine that Decal is crashing your AC client upon startup, please contact me at

and I will provide you with the workaround.

2.0 (8/15/2001)

- Integration with the location database found at Crossroads of Dereth. On the "Info" tab of the main view, there is a sub-tab called "Data" which contains the buttons used to Download, Cancel [download], Revert, and load the Original file. This tab will also break out the locations by the "Type" that CoD has assigned to the locations -- I only use a subset of these types. There are 3 additional types that will list "All", "Unknown" (meaning not assigned a type), and "Deadend Portal" (meaning a portal that lets out at 0,0). If you want to get an alphabetical listing of of any of these categories just click on it and it will appear in the DPS Info window (see below).

- Upgraded messages who's HEX value had changed to be using the proper message. This only affected display of the proper level on the "Char" tab, level is used to calculate the corpse timer (this hasn't changed, but it might have been off before).

- Added additional DPS Info window that appears underneath the main Decal toolbar. This window is basically the output window for in-game DPS functions. Any location that appears in here from the CoD database can be clicked on to display a Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking view for that location.

- Removed on-the-fly landblock info. There is now a landblock button labeled "LB" on the main window. Landblock displays in the DPS Info window. This is the landblock for the current location.

- Added "loc" button which issues @loc command, shows landblock in game interface.

- Added a blue "I" button to the main DPS window that brings up the DPS Info view with its last known information set.

- Similarly these 3 buttons now exist in the Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking view (can you tell I haven't settled on a name there yet?). Only difference is "LB" brings up the landblock for the corpse if this is a corpse. It brings up a zero'd out landblock for CoD locations since they don't have landblock info associated with them.

- The big "Found" button on the Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking view has been changed to to a red "F" button, for space reasons.

- In the middle portion of the DPS view and the Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking view there is now a section that can be used to get listings from the CoD database. For the checkboxes T = Towns, O = Outposts, H = Meeting Halls, L = Lifestones, P = Portals, D = Dungeons, R = Rest (as in everything that is not in one of the previous categories), and S = Search. The "Dist" button lists locations in order from closest to farthest from you (hope my QuickSort is fast enough for folks), and the "Alpha" button lists things alphabetically. Search is not checked by default. Once checked, the text typed into the edit box below the checkboxes will be used against all locations an only those containing the phrase in question (case-insensitive search) in either the name, type, or description of the location will be all that is shown. Remember to turn search off if you don't want it.

- The Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking view has had its description moved to the top of the window (made more sense to me).

- By request relative coordinates are now shown in the Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking view in addition to everything else that was already shown.

- On the Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking view there is now an "Info" tab which contains the Restrictions, Description, and More Info if the location is a CoD place rather than a Corpse or your Last Known Locations.

- Corpse/Bookmark/Tracking views can be used to guide your character around.

- General GUI cleanup.

1.4 (7/11/2001)

- Due to plugin re-ordering functionality that I added into the Decal Agent, this plugin no longer asserts itself to the front of the plugin list.

- Due to some bugs with Decal's "windows taskbar" toolbar functionality that was added into Decal v1.0.0.5 and later, some workarounds were made in this plugin to avoid crashing that seemed to occur with about 1% of the user base.

- Since toolbar icon's can't really be updated dynamically anymore in Decal (at least for now) rather than showing the red/green/white skull on the corpse view only the white skull is shown, but the countdown timer for a corpse has been added to the text.

- Similarly the DPS View icon no longer changes to match the larger location icon shown inside the view. Instead it just always displays the Frore Transcript icon.

1.3.x (6/17/2001)

- Addition of the concept of bookmarking has been added. Bookmarks appear on a "Marks" tab.

- The first bookmark is the "Last coords known" bookmark. This is the only one at this time.

- The "Char" tab has been placed under a new tab called "Info".

- A new "Options" tab has been added under the "Info" tab.

- The single option of "Track Last Coords" was added. This feature will toggle the visibilty of the "Last coords known".

- A "Clear List" button for corpses was added. This will remove all corpse currently being tracked.