BlackSpectre

Many commands are depreciated or obsolete, and others can be used in a way that taxes or even breaks the game. All of this can cause trouble. Having been testing commands for over year now, I have 3 bits of advice for any would-be tester... 1. Create a new account and use it only for testing. 2. Check the Windows registry after every use of a command. 3. Use the Beta server. A new, separate account is a good idea because some commands appear to impact files residing on the Homecoming server (or alter character files that we have no access to). Specifically, email commands. I didn't realize this might happen when I did some testing and ended up breaking the ability for one of my characters to send global emails. I tested things using a level 50 character, with incarnates and all... and now I need to delete him, and I'm not sure even that will fix the problem, but it's the only thing I have left to do. Don't bother petitioning the GMs or devs, they can't do anything regarding very technical and odd problems. The general gist is "Once you start messing around with things under the hood, you're doing so at your own risk." If I had created an account just for testing, I could have just deleted that account when problems arose. No harm, no foul. But using one of your actual characters in your real account is a recipe for disaster! None of this is a complaint, merely a warning to future testers. COH is now a portable application. This means it no longer uses the Windows registry to save settings or configure the game. The vast majority of commands were created when the game still used the Windows registry, and many of these old commands work by changing registry entries. That also means they no longer work for the current, modern game. Worse, adding registry entries for a game that doesn't use them might cause conflicts and a lot of trouble. Typically, in these cases the game just crashes, but some changes can be less obvious. An alteration to the Windows registry is something that happens behind the scenes. In fact, since the Windows registry is the central nervous system of Windows, it's generally advised that the average user avoid messing with it. The bottom line is, any Windows registry entries that a command might make need to be deleted. So far, it appears that commands that alter the registry do so under a specific key and name... Cryptic. So it's just a simple matter of searching the registry after using each command and deleting the Cryptic entry. This is kind of a pain. I researched and wrote up a quick batch file script to help with this. Using Notepad, copy and paste the following text and then save the text file as a .bat file. :: This checks the Windows registry for "cryptic" @echo off setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion reg query "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cryptic" if not errorlevel 1 ( Msg * "CRYPTIC exists in the registry" ) else ( Msg * "Registry is clean" ) endlocal When you double-click the batch file it will check the Windows Registry for the Cryptic entry. So this will tell you if the command changed anything in the registry. I'm a little skittish about deleting stuff in the registry, so I didn't write that capability into the batch script. You'll have to delete any Cryptic entries manually by using the Regedit command. Using the Beta server is not absolutely necessary, but it can make testing a specific command a little easier. In the Beta server you can instantly set the level of the character, add or remove badges, accolades, salvage, and pretty much everything else. No need to play a character to level them up or acquire a specific item. Faster and easier. And that's it. Hope this helps someone...

Awesome. So if we created a new profile, say "Bob", the game would load that profile on startup instead, but there's not much there because I had just created it and haven't changed and saved settings yet? When the launcher "communicates" with the game through -profile, is it writing or re-writing parts of the "live" profile each time it launches? Is that how it works? Also, if I understand correctly, the game will not overwrite the "live" profile (or any profile) except to add changes for settings and such? The basic information on file and package loading will remain unless changed by the launcher (and that would require a patch or update for the launcher)?

Thanks guys. I have one last question I think... it's about -profile. I made a new post about it here.

What does the -profile launch parameter do? So... I'm a bit confused which makes writing up a wiki page about it difficult. It appears that the command will create a sub-folder in Settings and also Logs for whatever name you use for the profile. For example, -profile Bob. It also creates a client.json file and a gfx.json file and places them in the "Bob" directory (or whatever you named the profile). There is very little information in either of these files. According to /Logs/Launcher/launcher.log, the Homecoming launcher uses this command line to launch the game: cityofheroes.exe -profile live -auth 51.161.76.201 -assetpath assets/issue24;assets/live Notice the use of "-profile live" in the above string. Is the command re-creating a new "live" profile each time the game is launched? Or does it just point the client toward the correct profile for it to read? If we run the game without the launcher, do we need to use the "-profile live" command, or will that end up messing up the "live" profile the launcher previously created? Also, I read that the -profile parameter is meant to be used with the launcher, but if so, why does it seem to work for cityofheroes.exe? If anyone could shed some light on this for me, I'd greatly appreciate it... P.S. This is probably the last question I have about launch parameters. After this one, all I have left is a bunch of graphics commands to test.

Thanks, @Michiyo . Everything you said was very helpful! And you too, @Tock

Sorry man.

OK, but why don't -assetpath piggs -assetpath homecoming work? Shouldn't they? In the patch notes it says: Further, in a discussion later in this post the Homecoming dev @CURATOR says: So you know what I'm doing... I'm trying to figure out and learn how to use the various command line parameters in the game, specifically in this case -profile, -legacylayout, and -assetpath. I really have no intention of playing COH using a Windows shortcut, but asking how to use the commands in a windows shortcut would basically tell me how to use the commands and also what their purpose is. I figured it was an easy way to answer the question without putting too much effort into an answer. But if anyone would like to give me the full and wordy explanation, that would be wonderful too. I'm just trying to be considerate. I am puzzled about why -assetpath piggs -assetpath homecoming doesn't work? Are they broken? Were the directions bad to begin with? Did something change?

Hi, What is the correct or preferred command line parameters for running City of Heroes with a Windows shortcut? After reading patch notes, I followed the directions and tried this: C:\Games\Homecoming\bin\win64\live\cityofheroes.exe -auth 51.161.76.201 -legacylayout -assetpath piggs -assetpath homecoming But it returns with an error popup stating: "Unable to locate bin/clientmessages-en.bin" I then poked around in the game files and came up with this, and it appears to work: C:\Games\Homecoming\bin\win64\live\cityofheroes.exe -auth 51.161.76.201 -legacylayout -assetpath assets/issue24 -assetpath assets/live Which is the right way to do it? Is there a better or easier way to do this? Thanks!

Not only that but the addition of Issue 24 and 25 stuff that’s never been documented before. Some parts of the Homecoming Wiki are heads and shoulders above the old paragon wiki. On other other hand there are still many, many parts that need updating or completing. The Homecoming wiki is a fork of Paragonwiki, and there is a TON of stuff there! There is so much that it would need tens of people, a small army, to update it in a couple months. I think there’s only a handful of volunteers working on the Homecoming wiki at the moment. They could definitely use more. You pretty much get to choose what you want to work on… within reason. 🙂

Those are all good points. Yeah, probably not a good idea. Oh well. It was a thought. What brought this on was, I was attempting to make a “toggle text macro” bind. These are binds with looping sets of commands all preceded by a “+”. The “+” allows one bind string to be executed on key press, and a second bind string to be executed on key release. I ran into a problem… although mouse events do have a mouseDOWN and mouseUP event (click and release), it doesn’t look like the game looks for mouse button releases; only clicks, double clicks, press and holds, and drags.. at least We definitely can’t bind anything to a mouseUP event. The problem was when I attempted to load in the second bind string, it instantly executed and ended up simply adding onto the previous bind string, making one long string. This prevented me from executing 2 commands that would normally cancel each other out. With keyboard keys, you have the option to continue to hold down a key, giving the first command string time to execute before you activate the second string by releasing the key. Most of the time you don’t really need to do that, just don’t press and release too quickly. Anyway, what I needed for this to work was some sort of delay or stop so that the second macro string would not instantly execute. Adding a second /macroslot command forces another click for the second string to execute. Anyway, looks like “toggle text macros” aren’t possible. Maybe. The weird thing is we have mouse buttons bound to toggle commands using the + prefix. MOUSECHORD for example is bound to the +forward command. On mouse press you move, and on mouse release you stop. So the game has got to be noticing MouseUP events. And the + prefix seems to work. Oh I know what it is! You can’t press and hold on macro buttons. When you do that, the game thinks you want to move the macro to a different power slot. Now that I think about it, I bet I could make a “toggle text bind” on a mouse button, like button4 or Mbutton. But that would be a key bind, not a macro. Anyway, I’m just poking around trying to see how much of what we know about binds can be applied to macros. So far only “toggle text binds” have not been possible. 🙂

I’ve been thinking about about updating my Advanced Bind Guide, so binds and the binding system has been on my mind. Going over in my mind how the whole binding system works, it occurred to me that one of the biggest problems is the tendency for commands to interrupt the next command in the bind string. I think the biggest impact a small change to binds could have would be the Introduction of a configurable /PAUSE slash command. The /pause command would stop the processing a bind command string in the middle of the string (wherever the /pause command was placed,, and then wait for the specified amount of time. This would open up a HUGE amount of possibilities that have never before been possible in the game. I haven’t thought this through thoroughly, and haven’t considered any ways this command could be exploited, but initially it sees like a great idea. Whiteout knowing exactly how the binding system buffers commands and how it would handle a separate command issued right after a pause command in a different string, it’s hard to recommend a large pause. If it was no big deal, the a pause command could even act like a timer. However, if there are cueing problems, then limiting the amount of time that could be pause might be a good idea. I’d propose 0.2 to 3.0 seconds… enough time to let animations process through. Anyway, thought I’d share…

To add a little to what @Michiyo said, you can also manually edit the playerslot.txt file with the Notepad app... rearrange your characters how you want in there, and save it. Then when the game starts it will load the file. Just follow the same pattern in the text file. This also means, if you log into the game from a different computer, it won't have that same playerslot.txt file that you just edited in your game directory. So when you log in they will be out of order a bit. You can, of course, copy that file over to the other computer is you like.

Try lowering or turning off bloom effects. Might help a little with brightness. 2 slash commands that might be useful: /bloomscale and /bloomweight To turn off particles, you can use /noparticles To make a macro, just type the following into chat and press enter (and replace "noparticles" with whatever command you want). The above command names are also links to the wiki for more info... /macro "SFX" "noparticles 1" P.S. If you want to create a single button to toggle the command on or off, use text macros (or text binds).

Probably 2.5. Put it on par with Lockdown and Holds. But it depends on whether or not the base mag for most stun powers is raised by 1. If not, then go higher... maybe 3.5 (unless it's a purple IO, then 4.5). Oh, wow! The power, Stun, in Energy Manipulation is a mag 2-3 stun. Look at that! An actual good stun power! Single target, though... and it's a tier 6 power. Let's say we increase the stun mag for all stun powers. This power would be mag 3+1. That makes it able to stun bosses, which is completely reasonable since it's a single target, tier 6 power for a blaster and also does very little damage. Further, the stun mag is split into 2 separate effects... a mag 2 that lasts for 6.25 secs, and a mag 1 that lasts for 3.125 secs. That means that bosses, if effected, would only be affected for 3.125 secs. These are base values, of course. We can increase the duration with other IOs to approximately double the duration. Still, a stunned boss for 6 secs max is not really that long. And on top, the power's recharge is long 1.5 min. It would be able to be used about once every battle. There are already a lot of limitations put on this power to ensure that it doesn't become over-powered. Other than that, it looks like all the other secondary effect stuns in Energy Manipulator are mag 2... and this is for secondary effects. I'm not suggesting changing those. Only the mag for primary stun powers. But consider that... secondary effects are often the same magnitude as many primary stun powers. Stunning shot in Archery is mag 3. Disorienting Short in Assault Rifle is mag 3. Oppressive Gloom in Dark Armor is only mag 2. Wow. I'm suddenly struck with how much work this would be to change all of the stun powers in the game. You might have to look at each individual power and evaluate it, then change each one. That's a lot of powers, and a lot of work. Just making a single proc IO is a lot less work. OK. Nevermind. I retract my suggestion to raise the base mag of all stun powers. I think fixing the problems with stun would have higher priority, but that doesn't seem like any less work. The problems reported at the wiki are: A critter that's Disoriented while moving from Point A to Point B will continue moving to B at its original direction and speed. Only then will it begin moving slowly and randomly. Furthermore, Disorienting apparently applies no penalties to flight speed, jump speed, or jump height, so enemies that have automatic, unsuppressible travel powers can move at unexpectedly high speeds. ******************************************************************************* So... let's go back to my original suggestion, the addition of a +2 mag stun proc. 3.0 ppm. I think that's doable, and it would make a big difference.

Hi Michiyo, When you have a chance, can you delete these pages please? auth (Slash Command) console (Slash Command) CoV (Slash Command) demoplay (Slash Command) gfxreset (Slash Command) mtu (Slash Command) no_nv_clip (Slash Command) norenderthread (Slash Command) noversioncheck (Slash Command) project (Slash Command) renderthread (Slash Command) texwordeditor (Slash Command) uiskin (Slash Command) usefp (Slash Command) useTexEnvCombine (Slash Command) I've already redirected all of these to their own command line parameter page, so there's no rush. Thanks a bunch!

What are the preferred steps? Join a voice chat? Use live chat? Or post on the forum?

I see most people are looking at the Help window as an aid to new players. Should anything go in it to help out veteran players? Back on the live forums a player modded the help menu, and the categories he settled on were: Task Forces City Zones Contacts By Level Story Arcs by Level Tips by Type Badges by Category SG Badges by Category Temp Powers by Category Souvenirs by Name Colors by Name Badges By Name Badges in Game Order Contacts By Name Temp Powers by Name Badges Recent Adds

I completely agree! It's an aspect of the power I didn't mention... The typical strategy for defeating lots of mobs at once is using the old herding method. Group up as many as possible in a small area, hit them with AOE holds and immobilizes, and then hit them with blast AOEs. Bam! Dead. It can be a beautiful thing when it's done right. Stun is actually not preferred for this strategy for the exact reason you mention... they wander when disoriented. That means the nice, tight group of baddies spread out, and your AOE blasts end up missing a lot of them. My point is that stun is already weaker or not as effective as other mez powers... You might think that raising their magnitude by 1, and adding a +2 mag proc IO, would bring stun up to par with hold and confuse, but the nature of the power itself would still make it the weaker choice. But at least it would be useful enough to take as a power.

I still like the idea of a +mag proc enhancement for disorient. In addition, I think it would be worthwhile to raise the base magnitude of all disorient powers from 2 to 3. That would put disorients on par with holds and confuses.

It's just placed in a bad location, buried in the Menu list. It really should be more prominent such as on top of the Status window right between Nav and Menu. Or on the bottom of the Target window (there's a lot of space there!). It's very forgettable where it is, and too easy for new players to overlook. Some of the things obvious things to fix in the Help window would be all the lists and info that is incomplete, obsolete, or out of date. Lots of typos in there too. But what I wanted to know is what would YOU put in the window if you were going to re-create it? What would you take out?

If we were to do a modding project where we tried to improve the help window... what information or tools would you put in the help window? How could we make it more useful? I mean, what would be useful for both new players and veteran players? Or should the help window only focus on new players? /helpwindow What the window has right now is: Combat Bases Contacts Nav Powers Rewards Social User Arena PvP Invention System Flashback System Day Jobs Merit Rewards Architect - Creating Stories Architect - Playing Stories Architect - Mission Goals Architect - Custom Characters Architect - Tips Badges

Didn't there used to be a link for the new MacOS version of the Homecoming Launcher somewhere?

UPDATE: The -console command line parameter reports a TON of errors in these modded help files. Almost all of the errors seem to be simple text errors that don't have much impact on the game, or even on the functionality of these help files. These modded help files seem to work fine. That said, the huge number of errors took up almost my entire console screen and pushed all the graphics loading info off the screen. Since I'm currently testing graphics commands, I ended up removing these help files today so I could see what's going on with the graphics commands. Easy enough. Since these files aren't destructive in any way, just deleting them from my data folder is all that was necessary, and the game is back to the way it was. Having had these installed for 8 months, I can't say I've used them a whole lot... I mean, hardly at all. I'm not sure if this is because I'm a veteran COH player and really don't need any of the help information, or if the information in these helps files isn't really that useful? And that begs the question, what would be useful in a help file? I think I'll create a new post for this over in general...

It's pretty easy unless you like to go with very complicated binds. Check this out https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/The_Incomplete_and_Unofficial_Guide_to_/bind If you still have trouble, just ask here or PM me and I can help. 🙂

Hey Michiyo, did you add a link to this on the front page of the Homecoming wiki? If not, it would be a great idea.