We'd need to know how you currently have it set up before we can offer you ways to stramline it.
For me, I usually put my powers into four trays. The first three are in the lower right, with the first tray holding "active" powers (attacks, holds, active debuffs). The second tray holds my armors/toggle powers, as well as any long-recharge active powers. The third tray is my utility tray, filled with powers that I use on occasion, but not often (rest, reveal, pet summons, etc.). The fourth tray is in the upper left-hand corner (I move the target box lower than it normally is to fit it in the corner), and I fill that with my various Teleport Powers, and the various Vet buff powers (the fortune telling one and Secondary Mutation).
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
My favorite thing is coopertiative play, teams, TF, dfbs, door missions etc.. I solo a little bit but not that much. Everytime I get a new power or ability I test it and learn it with some quick streetsweeping. I just feel like there is so much to each character that I have to pay more attention to it all than actually playing.
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Just ignore the numbers, then. See what powers work for you and your teams, and don't worry about perfect optimization. The Devs (after years of us asking) have given us a lot more information about the various powers than we've ever had before, and it can be overwhelming. But that doesn't mean that we need to have all of it up at the same time.|
Originally Posted by Ridia
My favorite thing is coopertiative play, teams, TF, dfbs, door missions etc.. I solo a little bit but not that much. Everytime I get a new power or ability I test it and learn it with some quick streetsweeping. I just feel like there is so much to each character that I have to pay more attention to it all than actually playing.
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For me, I used Mid's Hero Builder to build my characters so that once I enter the game, I can focus on just playing them. I do all of the number-crunching and planning and information-seeking outside of the game. That way I can know in general what powers I want to take on a given character, but don't have to worry so much about the numbers when I'm playing.
Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson
"I was just the one with the most unsolicited sombrero." - Traegus
You dont have to pay attention to any extra info. Just learn what a power does, and use it along. My girlfriend, after 4 years playing lotro, still doesnt know the names of her minstrels heals, she calls them "The quick heal, the big heal, the aoe heal". And that works. And that will also work here. Do not worry about numbers and stuff if you dont want to 
Is there something in particular that you want to streamline?
I tend to put similar powers in the same slot. 4 is "heal" since my first toon, a Fire/Dark Corruptor, ended up with Twilight Grasp as her fourth power pick five years ago. 5 is Taunt because Taunt was my fifth power pick on my first tanker.
Main attacks tend to go 1-2-3. Details vary, but that's the layout. 0 tends to be a long recharge attack or panic power (Unstoppable). My Shield Tankers initial attack sequence is 9 0 6 4 because that's where Build Up and the big AoE ended up, and 1-2-3 are reserved faster recharging attacks that I mash more often. (5 is Taunt, 7 and 8 longer recharge attacks.)
Like others, first tray tends to be attacks, second tray is armors and toggles and movement, third tray are less used, important temp powers, and incarnate powers. Trays 4 and 5 are the seldom used vet reward powers and additional temp powers.
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What i do is expand the hotbar by clicking the little arrow. which gives 3 hotbars stacked. They all show hotbar 1. |
Originally Posted by Ridia
Do not take this the wrong way, I love this game, an official addict. I have spent real world money and lots of time but I have a serious gripe that I think can be fixed with help, so here it is-
As my toons get higher in level and they gain more and more powers and attributes etc.. I feel like I have to pay more attention to a crazy amount of menus and trays and pages and info and numbers etc. I feel like having to keep track of all this stuff is taking a front seat to actually playing the game and enjoying it. The lower levels when there was not so much to keep track of for each character seemed to give me more ability to pay attention to the game itself and not all the aspects of my toons. Is there a way to streamline my toons/playing experience so I can focus on simply enjoying the game and not having the screen full of so much info? I could easily just make new toons but that would defeat all the time spent in my current ones. |
Then i leave the bottom hotbar as 1, the next one on top i change to hotbar 2, and the top one i change to hotbar 3!
From there i put all the powers i need to use in battle on each hotbars "slots" 1 thru 4 !!!
Now hotbar 1 is keyboard keys 1, 2, 3, 4
hotbar 2 is keyboard keys ALT + 1, 2, 3, 4
hotbar 3 is keyboard keys CTRL + 1, 2, 3, 4
(all other powers and toggles on rest of slots)
This makes it streamlined for me so during a battle i can use toggle mouselook (so i dont have to hold down right mouse button to pan camera) and with my left hand i can activate all my powers i need to during battle!
i can then focus on the battle without having to use mouse cursor to activate powers, and constantly having to watch it instead of the action!
Oh! forgot to mention, on toons that have a team heal- i just CTRL +click it in hotbar to make it auto activate!
Power bloat is an issue. It gets worse the more powers you collect from temps, purchased or leveling. Adding macros for MM and it gets hard to manage.
Forget the numbers, and enjoy the powers you use is good advice.
Binds can help a lot.
e.g. I have /bind shift+N "powexecname ninja run" by default on on my characters. When I want ninja run, I press shift & n to turn it on or off. That's one less thing on my power trays. If the character doesnt want to use ninja run, I change the bind to beast run, super speed etc.
Similarily, all my build ups are numpadenter. Aim is shift+numpadenter, saved again as default for all characters. I changed the build up one for embrace of fire for my /fire dom but I still know: Numpadenter for damage increase.
I normally have 5 trays out. main powers & useful temps in the 3 trays I use keyboard to move, so 1-2-3, are normally single target, alt1-alt2-al3 normally aoe attacks, with less used like rest ending somewhere in tray 2/3 at the back.
I have one tray vertical up the side of the screen near my main power trays with stuff I like to monitor, eg Aim. I fire it off with keyboard bind, but like to know when its recharged.
And a final tray near the inspiration dock where travel click powers like Market TP, O Portal, base TP, pocket D plus vet stuff like the self rez and buff pet.
Normally trap 9 has temps and little used powers. Yu can use the + and - on keybard to change the bottom tray, so I can change to it quickly if need be. (pressing - once). Normally pet summons for my non MMs.
You also dont need every power out on a tray. Right click and remove. Or use /cleartray and sort them from the start again.
HTH
I don't suffer from altitis, I enjoy every minute of it.
Thank you Devs & Community people for a great game.
So sad to be ending ):
I'd like to echo what others have been saying about using all three hotbars plus additional floating bars and also keeping similar things in same places for every character - both these help a lot.
I have a mouse with two programmable thumb buttons. One is set to ALT and the other to CTRL. This makes using powers on the second and third hotbars so much easier.
In Paragon City since June 2005.
I put my attacks on the 1st bar, toggles on the 3rd and heals and buff/debuffs on the 2nd bar. Movement powers are hot keyed.
Father Xmas - Level 50 Ice/Ice Tanker - Victory
$725 and $1350 parts lists --- My guide to computer components
Tempus unum hominem manet
I use 4 power trays and 5 for my lone MM. And for khelds, I have binds to swap trays around when I switch forms -- absolutely essential to be able to play one well, I think.
This is probably one reason why I like playing melee so much though. You have so many powers that are inherent or toggles that you set and forget -- it makes it much easier to concentrate on just the powers that you actually have to press buttons to use.
my lil RWZ Challenge vid
I don't recall seeing it or where I got mine from, but have you looked into the Number-Pad bind set for MM's? That'll keep you from using up a tray.
Sandolfan's keypad binds. These are from the Mastermind forums, where they're stickied at the top of the page under Guides and FAQs.
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=117256
Do not take this the wrong way, I love this game, an official addict. I have spent real world money and lots of time but I have a serious gripe that I think can be fixed with help, so here it is-
As my toons get higher in level and they gain more and more powers and attributes etc.. I feel like I have to pay more attention to a crazy amount of menus and trays and pages and info and numbers etc. I feel like having to keep track of all this stuff is taking a front seat to actually playing the game and enjoying it. The lower levels when there was not so much to keep track of for each character seemed to give me more ability to pay attention to the game itself and not all the aspects of my toons.
Is there a way to streamline my toons/playing experience so I can focus on simply enjoying the game and not having the screen full of so much info?
I could easily just make new toons but that would defeat all the time spent in my current ones.