Using Binds And Macros

I've never attempted at writing a guide before and i decided there was no time like the present. This is a simple guide aimed at people with little experience of using binds and macros, and the aim by the end of this read is to be able to use many binds of charactors effectively.
Please note that my spelling isn't exactly the best, but i am sure everyone will be able to work out what each word is

Okay so where to start? From the beginning of coarse.

A bind is basically a command that tells the game what each key should be doing. Many are set up automatically, for example you can press W to run foward and S to run backwards, but you can also choose to set up your own keybinds to access some more advanced ways of playing. You can set up a bind by using a / (slash) command which is /bind.

The general layout of setting up a bind is /bind [key] "whatever you want the bind to do".
[key] is any key on your keyboard, a,b,c etc.

[u] Basic Chat Bind [u]
The most basic bind is probably a chat bind. This is basically where pressing one key will allow you to say a pre-set sentence or paragraph. Extremely useful if you need to say the same thing over and over again during your carear as a hero.
An example of this could be; you are a low level hero and you find that you need to rest alot to regain your endurence. Instead of typing "I need to rest" everytime in team chat, wouldn't it be easier to just press 1 key to say it for you? This is where a bind comes in. For the spercific bind i mentioned, typing... /bind p "team I need to rest" will make it so that everytime you press the letter p your hero will say "I need to rest" in team chat. This works because (/bind p) binds the letter you wish, ("team) tells the letter what channel you wish to say your text on and (I need to rest") tells the letter what your text is.
Please not that in text binds, the channel you wish to say your text on comes directly after the first speak mark.
You can bind in many different channels
/bind p "yell i need to rest" will say the text broadcast
/bind p "local i need to rest" will say the text in local
/bind p "request i need to rest" will say the text in the request channel
/bind p "sg i need to rest" will say the text in super group channel
The list goes on....
But there is a much easier way to say your text in whatever channel you want, without using seperate binds if you come accross times to say it in Team, Local, Supergroup chat etc.
The command is; /bind p "say I need to rest"... This will now say the required text in whatever channel you are on. If your on team chat and press p it'll say it in team, if your on local chat and press p it'll say it on local, etc etc.

Q: Why is the basic chat bind important?
A: Because it saves alot of time in typing the same thing over and over again.

Q: What examples can you think of that make the chat bind effective?
A: Aswell as the example i gave above, if you are recrutiing for an SG, if you are looking for a team, if you have a slogan you like to say alot and many more.

[u] Binding Emotes [u]

Another bind people tend to use is an emote bind. This saves the time of typing /em whateveremote or clicking on the little speach bubble and finding the emote they want to do. In the chat bind, the channel follows the speach marks, but when binding emotes instead of "say, or "team... the word emotes follows the speach marks. Using the letter P as an example again, a basic emote bind would look something like this
/bind p "emote dance"
/bind p "emote backflip"
/bind p "emote alakazamreact".

Without going into too much detail about emote binding, you can bind pretty much any emote using this. Its useful if you are one of those heroes who use the same emote over and over again.

[u] Basic Use Of The Dollar Sign [u]

"$" can do many things in the world of binds. Putting 2 of those signs together in a bind is basically acting as an "and then do this" command. Extremely useful for linking 2 or more things into the same bind. I'll now go over some very basic uses requiring $$.
Say you wanted to say a bit of text and do an emote at the same time, the 2 dollar sign command makes this very simple to do.
An example of this would be; saying "Everybody Dance Now" and your hero dancing at the same time. All you will need to do for this (using p as my example again, and i probably will always use P as an example i just can't be bothered to type that everytime from now " /bind p "say Everybody Dance Now $$ emote dance"
Really easy isn't it? You can bind any emote with any text you want. Useful for taunting the bad guys, having a laugh in atlas park, or even impressing the ladies (not that any ladies play city of heroes, its ALWAYS men dressed as women )



All of these binds are extremely basic, but they can be useful for some team situations or just having a bit of fun when you get bored of "arresting" people.
I will continue to add more to the basic section and then do the more advanced uses of binds throughout the week aimed to be fully completed by this weekend. I will add more daily by editing the first post and eventually get rid of this little bit of text
This has been posted at a very early stage to allow people any suggestions they think should be included in the guide whilst it is still in the early writing stage.

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It's now Issue 21 and I am back!
My new Global is @Zyhar
Currently enjoying the Exalted Server!

Needs a pause funtion. I've been writing some macros recently. One in particular has a local speech command plus emoted costume change plus ability activation plus badge title change. This works well because there is a small natural pause in the macro when the ability is invoked.

Doing a 'change back' emote suffers due to no pause function so the ability that is now on turns off right at the start of the macro (despite the fact that it's last in the command list) when I'm wanting it to turn off in the middle.

Obviously this will be rectified when I get the appropriate aura at lvl 30, but a pause command will be useful in other ways too.

Also the /setsgmode 0/1 command works insofar as it turns off the mode as intended but in a long macro the SG costume colours (or in my case the sg emblem) persists, requiring me to turn on sg mode and off again.

Plus, what is up with specifying the SG colours for each costume but the hide SG emblem is linked through all costumes?

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@Heyman

Not bad guide, now I see why you were asking about the startchat command in Defiant Events.

One point of note, the $ (string) is used to chain commands together it doesn't specifically mean 'and then do this'. For instance when used in mutually exclusive ways:

/bind <key> "powexec_name hover$$powexec_name fly"

It allows to to toggle one on and the other off. While if used to toggle powers on it allows you to have a chain of powers in a single bind, eg:

/bind <key> "powexec_toggle_on super speed$$powexec_toggle_on sprint"

This will toggle on sprint on the first press and super speed on the 2nd. In fact I think they only time $$ directly means 'and' is when its used like this:

/bind <key> "powexec_toggle_off super speed$$powexec_toggle_off sprint"

Which toggles both powers off with one press.

And the reasoning for the above is essentially, any command that takes time stops the macro/bind at that point. So the first example activates fly, unless fly is active then it activates hover (which deactivates fly. 2nd example it toggles on sprint on first press and on 2nd press cannot toggle it on as its on so toggles super speed. And third because all powers (that I know of) deactivate instantly you can toggle off as many powers as you want in a single press.

$ can also be used with a variety of names, so you can reuse predefined text like your name or your tagets name with $name or $target. Indeed some of these (and others) can be used in MA text.

@Croesis
I doubt they'll ever add pauses to the macro/bind system due to the potential to exploit things with it in place. As for the change back, as mentioned above macros wwork in reverse to what you write. eg:

/bind <key> "powexec_toggle_on super speed$$powexec_toggle_on sprint"

Sprint is activated before Super Speed. Alot of the more complex things you can do are a bit trial and error though.

I don't do guides mainly as I'm not that sort of writer. But I have a fairly easy to read list of i13* slash commands linked in my sig.

*Yes i13, I'm in the process of updating them to i14 but in general the difference is one of omission and the commands in there now work (mainly). Oh and I'll probably skip straight to i15.

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[ QUOTE ]
@Heyman

Not bad guide, now I see why you were asking about the startchat command in Defiant Events.

One point of note, the $ (string) is used to chain commands together it doesn't specifically mean 'and then do this'. For instance when used in mutually exclusive ways:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/bind &lt;key&gt; "powexec_name hover$$powexec_name fly"</pre><hr />


[/ QUOTE ]

Oh i know mate, but at this stage of the guide, it was mainly to cover those for people who haven't really used binds, and i didn't want to over complicate things for people in this stage.
However when covering the more advanced binds later in the guide the features of the $$ will be explained in more detail.

[ QUOTE ]

$ can also be used with a variety of names, so you can reuse predefined text like your name or your tagets name with $name or $target. Indeed some of these (and others) can be used in MA text.


[/ QUOTE ]

This will be included soon (when updating the first part) however for ease as their is so much to be written about binds, i was just going to quote a list of $ features from a different place as this isn't just used in Binds as you have also said.

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It's now Issue 21 and I am back!
My new Global is @Zyhar
Currently enjoying the Exalted Server!

Okay i've just realised you cannot edit your first post after a certain period of time, so will write the whole thing and then post in a different Topic when the guide is completed. I will still welcome any suggestions as to what people think should be included, however as this is no longer really a guide it may need to be moved.

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It's now Issue 21 and I am back!
My new Global is @Zyhar
Currently enjoying the Exalted Server!

[ QUOTE ]
@Croesis
I doubt they'll ever add pauses to the macro/bind system due to the potential to exploit things with it in place. As for the change back, as mentioned above macros wwork in reverse to what you write. eg:
<font class="small">Code:[/color]<hr /><pre>/bind &lt;key&gt; "powexec_toggle_on super speed$$powexec_toggle_on sprint"</pre><hr />
Sprint is activated before Super Speed. Alot of the more complex things you can do are a bit trial and error though.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I've been using the trial and error method mainly! Let me give you an example of what I mean though.

For my Fire/Fire Scrapper I've made a macro which has the spinchange costume emote, Fire Shield activation (using the powertray command) and badge title change, in that order (had the character say a cheesy line too but for some reason the actual change of the outfit lagged behind the animations with the /local line in the macro). This gives me a spin title change is instant and after the spin costume change the fire shield animation plays. This is all good.

The reason behind my wanting a pause function was for the reverse:
I have another macro for the change back which goes Spinchange, badge title change then deactivate fire shield in that order. Problem is the entire macro animation has the Fire Shield de-activating right at the start of the macro animation whereas I'd prefer it to go during the spin animation or just after.

It's not a major issue, when I eventually reach 30 with that character (it'll be a while) I'll have an aura that should automatically provide the desired effect, but thats why I ask.

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I'm new-ish. Again.
@Kahzi. Pinnacle, mostly.