Unofficial Guide to Bind 2.0 - Prelim. Discussion
By
babyscid,
Posted on: 2005-12-20 06:50 in Player Guides
There hasn't been an update for so long because, honestly, the original was, and still is, very current. For the basics, I'd just use what's in the original version. The following stuff might be good to add in, however:
A section about the underscore, and how it isn't needed in commands unless you want them easier to read.
A complete run down on how to use the targetcustom* commands.
Teamselect and petselect commands, and other methods to select team members and pets.
How to use petsay and petcom commands.
How to use the new chat channels, and how to create binds that work with the global channels.
A consolidated list of all the /bind tricks discovered to date
A section about how using + $$ can be cleaner than using say +down$$-down$$
A fully updated list of keys available (one that's missing from all lists I've seen is the mousechord key, which is essentially lbutton+rbutton)
A fully updated list of emotes (I know, not really a bind issue... but when you're creating a bind, you might wanna have easy access to this. Maybe a link to an updated list?)
I'm sure there's more stuff I'm not considering.
BTW, thanks for creating the original guide to /bind, without which CityBinder would've never been started. 
Anything you feel like posting, I'll be saving.
I really appreciate the hard work community members like you guys put into making these /bind guides and assistance offered to n00bs like myself.
makes it a whole different game.
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A section about how using + $$ can be cleaner than using say +down$$-down$$
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Just going to show that I don't know everything about binds... what the heck is this one?
Scrapper Jack (SJ/WP Brute), Sky Commando (WP/SJ Tanker), Curveball (Rad/DP Defender), and a bunch more.
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A section about how using + $$ can be cleaner than using say +down$$-down$$
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Just going to show that I don't know everything about binds... what the heck is this one?
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In toggle binds where a single keypress toggles two powers, say, Acrobatics on the keydown and Integration on the Keyrelease, you can make two different binds for it. One is "clean", the other is "dirty". By dirty I mean it isn't obvious why it works, or it uses obscure tricks when a "cleaner" method exists. The bind I just described could be written:
BindA.txt
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>CTRL+T "+ $$powexecname Acrobatics$$bindloadfile c:\BindB.txt"</pre><hr />
BindB.txt
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>CTRL+T " $$pwexecname Integration$$bindloadfile c:\BindA.txt"</pre><hr />
or:
BindA.txt
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>CTRL+T "+down$$-down$$powexecname Acrobatics$$bindloadfile c:\BindB.txt"</pre><hr />
BindB.txt
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>CTRL+T "+down$$-down$$pwexecname Integration$$bindloadfile c:\BindA.txt"</pre><hr />
In the second example, it is unclear why +down was used, and -down is also confusing. The bind is about toggling a couple powers, right? Not moving down... so why the down? It works perfectly, it's just "dirty"
Of course, toggles like that one are likely to only be used to turn those two powers on. So instead of doing a bindloadfile based toggle, you could "clean" it up like so:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>CTRL+T "+ $$powexectoggleon Integration$$powexectoggleon Acrobatics"</pre><hr />
No bindloadfile command needed. This is the cleanest way to make such a bind, since it requires no extra files to be written and stored in a specific location. Notice that the order of powers is switched. In a single bind, the last power written is the first power to be turned on. Why does this bind work on keydown and on keyup? Because of the + $$. By the way, there is a space between + and $$, and yes, that space is highly important. Without it, the bind will fail.
Hah. Yes, that kind of stuff really needs to be in the version!
Scrapper Jack (SJ/WP Brute), Sky Commando (WP/SJ Tanker), Curveball (Rad/DP Defender), and a bunch more.
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So instead of doing a bindloadfile based toggle, you could "clean" it up like so:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>CTRL+T "+ $$powexectoggleon Integration$$powexectoggleon Acrobatics"</pre><hr />
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This type of bind also works like this:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>CTRL+T "powexectoggleoff Sprint$$powexectoggleon Chilling Embrace$$powexectoggleon Frozen Armor$$powexectoggleon Wet Ice"</pre><hr />
This is a much more reliable way to turn on powers, but it is one per press of the key and the order of the power activations is much more reliable.
I tried it the other way and if you hit the key too quickly, you can change the order of the activation and even have the key do nothing at all for that keypress.
SA
@Griffyn
"40 characters is my limit... okay, 50... 50 is my limit... okay, 60... 60 is my limit... okay, 70..."
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There hasn't been an update for so long because, honestly, the original was, and still is, very current. For the basics, I'd just use what's in the original version.
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I absolutely agree. Your guide ROCKS, Curveball!
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The following stuff might be good to add in, however:
A complete run down on how to use the targetcustom* commands.
Teamselect and petselect commands, and other methods to select team members and pets.
How to use petsay and petcom commands.
How to use the new chat channels, and how to create binds that work with the global channels.
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All these would be good additions to your guide.
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A consolidated list of all the /bind tricks discovered to date
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A tall order. I thought of doing something like this, but cringed at the magnitude of the task. Heck! Even a consolidted list of the best bind examples illustrating various tricks would be a herculean job! That said, wish there was such a guide! 
Frankly, if Curveball really does want to revise his bind guide a bit, I'd recommend keeping it simple and for the beginner. An overview of the target_custom commands would be good, as would the new Mastermind pet commands, etc.
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A fully updated list of keys available (one that's missing from all lists I've seen is the mousechord key, which is essentially lbutton+rbutton)
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Now THIS would be a good reference! Although, honestly, the list that Curveball included with his Guide is mostly complete. There are only a couple pretty important omissions such as the number pad keys, Decimal and Numpadenter... and of course the mouse chord key above (that I hadn't thought about before). If there are any other key names that were missing, it would be nice to know about them...
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I'm sure there's more stuff I'm not considering.
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GREAT suggestions! Love it when people help out like this!
Right now, I'm more interested in WHY certain binds work when they shouldn't, or why they don't work when they should (and how to fix them so they do work). I've dealt with this in my own Bind Guide , but I've only scratched the surface. There's a lot going on behind the scenes with binds, and perhaps LAG, that I still don't yet understand. I don't know if I ever will understand really, as I suspect that I would need the input from a game programmer to weed out all the details. Oh well.
If anyone knows any important bind tricks that I didn't put in my guide above, please let me know...
Level 50s:
BlackSpectre, Dark Defender (Guardian)
Thorin, Invul/Axe Tank (Justice)
Volcano Juice, Fire/Stone Tank
Professor ?, Mind/FF Controller
Stone Forge, Stone/Fire Tank
I see some great suggestions in here already. I am really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
The only suggestion I can come up with is that you provide a lot of examples of a bind for people to look at / copy.
For me I also recommend making a directory off of the root directory to make your command line shorter
that way you can have longer binds in your rotating binds.
Example: (Bindloadfile C:/1/Ace01.txt instead of Bindloadfile C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\binds\Ace01.txt)
It makes it easier to spot mistakes too (and prevent you from making a few also)
*waits patently*
*twiddles thumbs*
You done yet?
[color=gold][b][size=5]♪ Sometimes you feel like a Tank, Sometimes you don't! ♪[/size][/color][/b]
[url=http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=114726][color=black][b][size=5]Moon [color=red]Hazard [color=black]Zone![/size][/color][/color][/color][/b][/url]
Actually, to load up the bindfile C:\Program Files\City of Heroes\binds\Ace01.txt, the command would look like "bindloadfile .\binds\Ace.txt", which isn't very long (only 1 character more than putting it in C:\1\Ace.txt).
see now that's the stuff we needed in the first one. all that pain I could have avoided. *sigh*
[color=gold][b][size=5]♪ Sometimes you feel like a Tank, Sometimes you don't! ♪[/size][/color][/b]
[url=http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=114726][color=black][b][size=5]Moon [color=red]Hazard [color=black]Zone![/size][/color][/color][/color][/b][/url]
Curveball,
Some other good things to put in a bind guide would be the perameters not only for color (color, bgcolor, border), but also for scale, duration, etc.
There's a command "speedturn 70" that I ran across, but haven't had time to test.
A bit about adding in non-standard characters or symbols into chat binds.
Maybe something on the AFK message, how we can change it, and how we can get it to stay on most of the time underneath our names.
Maybe something about using a bind to switch power trays.
How to send a chat message to yourself using $name, or any other way
Maybe something about mouseview, and changing the screen of the game with a bind (I understand a lot of people do this for teleporting)
That's about all the tricks I know of, and is all that's coming to mind at the moment. Sorry it took so long to get even these suggestions, but nothing came to mind until just now. 
Level 50s:
BlackSpectre, Dark Defender (Guardian)
Thorin, Invul/Axe Tank (Justice)
Volcano Juice, Fire/Stone Tank
Professor ?, Mind/FF Controller
Stone Forge, Stone/Fire Tank
Hm. Well, that's quite a lot. Guess I have my work cut out for me.
Scrapper Jack (SJ/WP Brute), Sky Commando (WP/SJ Tanker), Curveball (Rad/DP Defender), and a bunch more.
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Hm. Well, that's quite a lot. Guess I have my work cut out for me.
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The thing is we think your the best man for it. Sorry.
[color=gold][b][size=5]♪ Sometimes you feel like a Tank, Sometimes you don't! ♪[/size][/color][/b]
[url=http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=114726][color=black][b][size=5]Moon [color=red]Hazard [color=black]Zone![/size][/color][/color][/color][/b][/url]
If you put any information about keybind file generators/editors, I would suggest not explaining anything about them except maybe a sentence about what they are and possibly where one can find each one. You don't want to take on supporting other people's programming.
And philosophically, I think your guide to binds should stick to the game itself, not third-party applications, as much as possible.
If you want some help in making a really pretty version with nice formatting, like something in a PDF file that people wouldn't mind printing out and reading, let me know. And at some point, I'd also like to add (or even better, get someone else to volunteer to add... ) this valuable information to the Paragon Wiki. You okay with that, as long as I make sure your name is on there for credit?
We've been saving Paragon City for eight and a half years. It's time to do it one more time.
(If you love this game as much as I do, please read that post.)
No specific suggestions from me (there are many excellent ones here already) but wanted to throw my support behind you, Curveball. Your original guide is one of the few I consider a must-read. Good luck with the update.
Perhaos this is the appropriate place for this question so here goes..
Hello,
I am very new to binds/macros etc. but I was wondering if there is such a bind to have a specific emote combined with a costume change?or even just a bind for a costume change would appreciate any help if there is such a thing...thanks guys and gals
/bind "m" "cc 0$$em dance"
This would set the "m" button to switch your costume to the first slot, and have you do a Dance emote. Obviously, you can switch the key to whatever you want, the emote to whatever you want, and use values 0 (for costume slot 1), 1, 2, or 3 (for the last costume slot).
thank you very much..thats exactly what I wanted
I use a folder C:\program files\city of heroes\kb like this
/bindloadfile .\kb\file.txt
Short but still down inside coh so I don't make such a muck of my drive.
The question I can't seem to answer is how to use " 's inside binds. IE:
/bind ] "beginchat /send 'The Channel With Spaces In It', "
haven't been able to make that work at all.
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The question I can't seem to answer is how to use " 's inside binds. IE:
/bind ] "beginchat /send 'The Channel With Spaces In It', "
haven't been able to make that work at all.
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here is what i have in my binds file and it works fine for all channels with spaces
I "beginchat /send Infinity hamidon "
Infinity
Co-Leader, Paragon City Defense Fleet
Co-Leader, Scions of Arachnos
Captain Cure, Emp/Rad Def
Captain Corruption, Robot/Traps MM
and many many more alts
Altoholics Anon.
That works as a "work around", but has a tendency to muck up /bindsavefile.
The work around I currently use doesn't muckup the bind save file, but is a bit cumbersome in that it forces a channel change:
] "tabselect chat$$chatset Infinity Hamidon$$beginchat [$name]: $$afk Infinity Hamidon ..."
But neither solve the prolbem of what to do when you would "normally" need to use a quote in a bind. That probably means it's "a bug" that is so low priority it will not likely be fixed before 3007 at the earliest. But it never hurts to ask.
The Unofficial Guide to Bind was released and updated right when City of Heroes was released. This makes it a rather old guide, and while I still think it's generally useful it's not particularly up to date. I sort of faded back from playing for a while (I actually quit in disgust for a few months when Statesman foisted this Enhancement Diversification BS on us combined with the crippling of the Tanker Archetype, but CoV pulled me back in) but after looking around it doesn't look like there's a "new and improved" guide to bind out there.
There *is* some really cool stuff, though. The fly/hover bind combo is freaking brilliant. The bind generator program(s) (I've seen a few of them) that create your binds for you are pretty brilliant as well. And the game now gives you greater control over what actions can be mapped to what keys.
So I think the bind guide needs a new version.
What I'm wondering is, for those of you who are familiar with the original: what would you like to see in version 2.0?
Scrapper Jack (SJ/WP Brute), Sky Commando (WP/SJ Tanker), Curveball (Rad/DP Defender), and a bunch more.