BlackSpectre

I thought someone might like the macros I use to lead BAFs, so I've attacked the text file to this post. Just load them onto your character as detailed above. BAFmacros.txt

Nice binds! 🙂

Is there or when will there be a Homecoming Wiki that players can contribute to?

Redlynne’s answer is excellent. It should work great. As an aside, I had trouble with a similar bind. Although old binds using the various “select” commands seem to work, old binds using the “target_custom_* commands don’t. The problem appears to be the lack of a delay between the two commands in the bind. My workaround for this was to turn the bind into a toggle key by adding a “+” to the beginning of the bind. This makes the commands execute on key PRESS and again on key RELEASE. On key press the teammate is targeted and on key release the power is activated. For example: /bind NUMPAD1 "+$$targetcustomnext Thorin$$powexecname Heal Other" I thought it would be a good idea for me to post this solution in case anyone else has trouble with a similar bind.

Hello everyone! Wow, it's great to be back in City of Heroes! Way back on Live, I got into key binding in a big way. I loved researching and testing out the mechanics of the bind commands, and of course creating awesome binds. It was just fun figuring out ways to make the game do what I want it to do... all about customization, ya know? I even wrote a big guide (http://barbariankeep.com/bs/bindguide.html). That said, I was never really into Macros... I was all about pressing keys not mouse clicks. Macros are things that are like key binds but use buttons loaded into the power tray to click on. They use all the same slash commands and bind formatting as normal binds, with the addition of the /Macro command and the title of the button. For example: /Macro Name1 emote wave Anyway, I recently started leading BAF trials (Behavioral Adjustment Facility), and decided to try out Macros to communicate with the team instead of key binds (thank you Tyranax!). I made a whole tray filled with chat macros... and then I changed toons. Ugh. I needed those macros to continue leading BAFs with the new toon, and I was not looking forward to re-creating them. So of course, I started looking into the possibility of using bind commands to make things easier. A bind command already existed to save key binds in a text file and then load those onto any toon, called /bind_load_file, and I've been using it for years and years to create really cool, complex binds. So I got to thinking... maybe there's a way to use that to save macros and load them onto toons too? After a little testing, I figured out a way to do it! HOW TO SAVE MACROS IN A TEXT FILE There is no way that I know of to have the game save macros to a text file, so you'll have to do it manually. Open a text editor (Notepad on Windows or TextEdit on Mac) and type in your macros. You're going to write one, long command line, and string the different macros together. The command string must always start with double dollar signs ($$). This tells the game there are other commands to execute. The double dollar signs ($$) also separate one macro from another. After that just type in your macro commands as you normally would in game and save the file. For example, let's say I have these 3 macros I want saved: /macro Hi emote wave /macro Yes emote thumbsup /macro Dance emote dance In the text file, string the commands together like this in one, long command line: $$macro Hi emote wave$$macro Yes emote thumbsup$$macro Dance emote dance Make sure the string starts with "$$", and each command is separated by "$$". Save the text file in your binds directory/folder. Mine are in the COH game folder z:\Applications\COH\binds\ HOW TO LOAD SAVED MACROS ONTO YOUR TOON Super simple. Just use the /bind_load_file command to tell the game to import all of your macros. In the chat window, type: /bind_load_file z:\Applications\COH\binds\Macros.txt (or whatever the name and path of your text file is) Your macros will instantly be added to the first available slots in your power trays! Yes, it's that fast! Now you can transfer macros from one toon to another with ease. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. NOTES: There appears to be about a 254 character limit to how much text (including spaces) a single macro may contain. Also, the last macro in the batch of macros I imported was truncated even though it was less than 254 characters, so just make sure you check your macros after you import them. I run the game on a Mac, so my directory/folder paths will be different from anyone running on Windows, but it's basically the same process. Also this was tested on the Homecoming servers. UPDATE: If you find that some of your commands/macros are being truncated, try enclosing the command(s) for that macro in quotation marks. It appears to prevent the problem, and might be a good practice to do anyway. For example, macro Hi "league Everyone Attack!" POST CREDITS: Although I independently figured out how to store macros in text files, I recently discovered this method was already documented by @Grumble in this 2009 post from the Old COH Forums. Man, if I had known about this it could have saved me a lot of time!

Hey my favorite devs, Would it be possible to add a new auto-invite slash command to the game? I have always lamented its absence from COH, and continuously wished the game had this function. It is literally invaluable for making teams. Basically, it AutoReplies (just like the Backspace key in game) to the person from the last tell sent but instead of sending a tell, it invites that person to the team. It's nearly impossible to invite someone to the team while in the heat of combat using the mouse, nor can you really type people's character names in the chat to invite them while battling. There's just no time, and if you try it often results in your death. Let's say you wait until the battle is finished to reply and try to invite them between battles... most of the time that person will have moved on and either joined another team or logged out. With this bind, I can send out an invitation via LFG chat and then instantly invite people who reply with the press of a single button/key. It's not only necessary for inviting people during combat or while traveling, but it's outright convenient. Easy. Efficient. Just a pleasure to use. Just FYI, I have already hacked together this bind using Logitech G-key keyboard/mouse software. It is amazing. It sure would be nice to have it as a standard slash command that can be used in binds/macros. Not only could I then put it on any key, but everyone would have access to this great feature without the need to buy expensive gaming hardware and software. In all my binding experience (I'm the author of The Advanced Bind Guide, back in the day), it's the only addition to the bind system that I feel would really be beneficial to everyone. Or more precisely, out of all the various tweaks, additions, and improvements that could be made to the bind system, it's by far the most useful. It should also be very easy to code. Simply duplicate the AutoReply code, and remove the comma from the end of the character name, replace /T with /I at the beginning, and then execute enter/send. The name of the command doesn't matter too much to me, but you could use something as straight forward as Auto_Invite_Reply or Reply_With_Invite, or just Invite_Reply, etc. Thanks for your consideration, and if you have any questions feel free to contact me. All the best, BlackSpectre

Addressing the desire to maintain characters online... how about first, just being able to save a copy of your character to your own computer... just in case? The idea being that if a server goes under, that you have all your hard work saved and can at a later time import it into the game when the server comes back up or import it into a different server. There would need to be generous documentation on how the saved character files were organized, and how they plugged into the game, so that a developer could write a conversion app to import the file into their version of the game. A RESPEC might be needed, but if the conversion app does a good job on matching the details in the file with equivalent details in their game, it should work fairly well... sans details that are in the file that don't exist in the game. Additionally, some sort of open source viewing app would be really awesome, to be able to view the character offline, separately from the game. ************************************* And thinking along these lines... is it possible now to save a file with your character's stats, powers, photo of the character, etc.? I was lucky enough to have had a bunch of Mid's Hero Planner and COH Planner files saved, which were very helpful in rebuilding here at Homecoming what I had lost on live. But to tell you the truth, it would have been so much better to be able to save you character's build, origin story, binds, costume (or at least a jpeg of the toon), etc. directly from the game.

There is one change to COH that has always been a lament for me... the aggro cap. I’d like it removed, severely increased, or otherwise altered to make herding a worthwhile skill again. It was always hard to keep the aggro on you as a tank, and it took skill and frantic adjusting to do so. I really miss it. One of the the things I loved about COH were HUGE battles with mobs just piling on you. It was so chaotic, so frantic, and the conglomerate of super powers being discharged equaled any big special effects movie. It was awesome. After the aggro cap we were limited to about 10-17 mobs... on a team of 8, that’s only 2 mobs per hero. Pffft! Pitiful... boring... and not fun. I understand the potential for an unlimited aggro cap to be used for evil, but there are other safeguards that could be put in place to avoid griefing other than a cap. A cap was just the easiest way to prevent abuse. I admit to herding Ing the entire zone of Perez Park back in the day, but I did that not to grief others but because it was a challenge! It was not easy to keep all that aggro on you. And it was an amazing feat when accomplished. I only did it once. Why? Because it was just to see if I could. It was nothing short of a rousing triumph when I accomplished it. That aside, I do really miss the huge battles inside missions with a multitude of bad guys just piling on me. It was awesome. Please bring that experience back. ********************** Along the same lines... kinda... updating the combat system to be a little more modern would be a mind blowing change for the better. After playing modern games like Warframe or Destiny, combat and movement in COH seems to me to be very slow. In order to compete with those other games, I think a mechanics overhaul would make COH a contender against any other. **************** And just saying, even if no changes were made, I’m just very grateful to be able to play COH again. :)