Ak, try this.
Go to Line 51, you will see:
51: <ScreenID>PetHP</ScreenID>
Now do this:
51: <ScreenID>PetHP
x</ScreenID>
You're right in the sense that this child element is "linked"... but it's not linked in the XML files, it's in the .exe itself. I did a search for the string "PetHP", and it came up with
eqgame.exe
testeqgame.exe
UIErrors.txt
EQUI_PetInfoWindow.xml
EQUI_PlayerWindow.xml
You see 2 *.xml files there, but the string "PetHP" in the EQUI_PetInfoWindow.xml file is actually part of three strings:
236: <Gauge item = "PIW_PetHPGauge">
237: <ScreenID>PetHPGauge</ScreenID>
and
313: <Pieces>PIW_PetHPGauge</Pieces>
So that really leaves "PetHP" in EQUI_PlayerWindow.xml, and that specific string is used to reference the gauge by ScreenID, and not directly. By making the change in line 51 as described above, you aren't even removing the gauge from loading. It's still defined, and it's still listed in the Screen item "PlayerWindow".
Okay, so since "PetHP" is really just listed once in all of the .xml files in that directory, and there are no other hidden text files in that directory or even in the uifiles directory tree that have that string "PetHP", I am pretty sure that "PetHP" isn't referred to via a file used specifically by the new UI.
So checking the files above, you can exclude UIErrors.txt, because "PetHP" was generated as part of an error return string that gets written to UIErrors.txt when something in your interface either crashes the game or prevents the UI from otherwise loading. This leaves the two .exe files, eqgame.exe, and testeqgame.exe, both of which are the actual game clients.
Now, like I've been saying before and I will say it again and again, there are some things which you cannot change... wait, let me reiterate, you
*CAN* *NOT* *CHANGE*. You can't change this, no matter how much you believe that the answer lies in the XML files. It doesn't. This is not a web application we're messing around with, this is a game that has two parts, the game itself that propagates the actions that are intended by the player, and the interface which relays the player's intention to the game.
Think of it this way, You have a person who speaks English, and a person who speaks Spanish. The spanish person says "hola", now the English person can say "Hello", "Hi", "Hello means Hi", "Greetings", "Hello means Hi, and means Greetings as well"... you can rename the english word over and over, call it "Smith", "Barney", and *define* these words as meaning "Hello", you can reiterate yourself as many times as you wish, but *EVENTUALLY* you have to use the word "hola" to make the spanish person understand that you are doing the action of greeting the person....
I have no idea how else I can demonstrate this. So there it is. If you can't understand that we CANNOT simply name everything whatever we want and expect the eqgame.exe and testeqgame.exe to understand our changes... then I have no idea what else to tell you except wait for VI to say what I've already said here. It's called a standard, and in this case the standard has not been communicated clearly as of yet to the community of EQUI modders by VI.
Sorry to tear you down, but this is what needs to be done because you insist that the answer lies solely within the XML files.
-TJ