Shenanigunner

Great for missions that go tits-up when it's an AV (such as an ex) at the end.

Hmm. Thinking spreadsheet - not real automated or anything, but a template could be created.

Next up: discussion of Year Zero. 😛

Ah. Subtle difference, kemosabe. Thx.

No sh*t... this ONE facet is not stored client-side? No wonder no one's ever developed a manager.

In another discussion, the notion of managing macros came up. It occurred to me I'd never searched for the files that have to be somewhere in the client folder structure. Nothing obvious found. Where the hell ARE macros stored?

That is the one huge drawback of macros — that they can't be saved, loaded or managed very easily. I don't know if there's any hook at all for getting them in and out of the UI except by entering one text string at a time; the in-tray editing is as crude as the rest of the game's text entry. For thing like BadgeDRADIS, the best I could do was write a temporary bind file that, when loaded, will create each of the seven macros, with cool icons, with seven keys (Shift-F1 through Shift-F7). and then reload any original keys. Pretty clumsy. The only solution I've found is to keep a few files open in Notepad++; it's fairly easy to keep macro strings organized and ready for edit, cut and paste from there. Still pretty clumsy and wonkoid. I've never looked to see where macros are stored in the client folders, but that would be the place to start, if it's accessible/decodable. ETA: just searched. I can't figure where the file/s might be! ETA: Ah, according to experts, macros are stored in the character, server side. How bizarre. Makes any kind of management system almost impossible... sigh.

My hardcore moment, back on Live, was dancing in Portal Court with a level 0. No cheats, no teleporters, foot to tram to foot to ferry and all the way up PI without a single XP point. I left him there and he's probably still dancing in some alternate universe. I also played a few alts "Die For Real" back on Live. Got a few into the 20s, even soloing.

This topic is no longer brief.

Yes, it's a game. Yes, it's based on a simplistic form of literature not (traditionally) known for its deep thoughts. But "decrying" is maybe too strong a word here. My observation was that a hero/villain zone should maybe be a little less... simplistic. Where are the crummy apartments of the broke heroes who spend all day fighting crime with Inf turned off? (We see those in movies and TV shoes fairly often.) Where are the villains' mansions? (Ditto.) I don't think it even serves the game/lore to make the distinction so... childish.

Agree on both points. However, I do think anyone who watches it through and "engages" with the stories being told will come away with a better sense that crime is a very complex phenomena, not what most self-righteous tropes (and tropers) make it, and is simply not — if I may — black and white. RIP Michael K Williams... too soon and for all the wrong reasons.

Okay, thanks for all the pointers and info, especially @Yomo Kimyata. So simple testing proved it out: You can't set team size back to zero if you've ever changed it; You can't set _level, _boss or _av outside of their ranges; You can set _teamsize from 1 to any number. Setting it to 9 or higher forces the foe level up by one, to an "overlimit" of +5. ...all of which some subset of players already knew, I know. What baffles me is how even the existence of these commands (which predate HC) escaped me for so long, and how little discussion there has been, and how searching the forum didn't turn up some of the conversations that have been quoted and noted. But it's all in the Guide now, so I can go back to other things. 🙂 (Just a side comment... as an old forum junkie I wish this platform was as capable as many of the others. It has weird holes in functionality and seems to have been chosen a bit more for Pretty than Useful.)

Since binds and macros are identical except for the initial bits, it seems like the tool could make either. The only real headache would be if you wanted to include the entire database of icon images (which would be cool; I sometimes get lost for far too long finding Just The Right Icon, especially for sets). But a basic make this a bind/make this a macro option should be a pretty easy step. You don't even have to keep track of macros the way you do of keybinds. 🙂

Thanks to posts by @Hedgefund and @SuperPlyx, I have become aware of the the four /setdifficulty... slash commands only about three years after they were implemented, during the hiatus, in Issue 25. Oh, well. In documenting them, I've run into two anomalies that I can't resolve since I am not a regular teamer or power player. First, am I missing anything in that the Boss/Elite Boss setting has no Mission window indicator? You just have to know? Second, I discover that the team size setting can be set from 1 to... something very high. I got up to 24, with the number reflected in the Mission window, before not bothering to explore further. I suspect this is just a bug in the command and that when I log back in the alt's setting will be reflected as 8, and that if I were to dive into a mission I'd find it at x8 level. But... if anyone who teams and runs at high mission levels wants to mess around, try: /setdifficultyteamsize [n] with values from 9 to whatever, and report back what you find. (If you are crushed by +20 mob sizes, don't blame me, it's all in the name of science.)

I just hit Rrrrrrrr. (Actually, 9/19 was for a long time a family holiday and conflicted with TLAPD. I be freeee, nowwww, mateys.

So close and yet so far.

Thanks! Wow, these went completely past me, and I do know that popmenus are of necessity built on slash commands. Dopey me. Not the most super-duper-useful commands, since they're implemented right there in the UI, but I agree that the teeny-tiny button and fussy nature of those small menus makes the option nice to have. Off to update the Guide... ETA: Ah, they aren't in any of the actual patch notes, only the wiki listing. Probably why I missed them.

Interesting. When were these slash commands implemented? I can't find any note of them in Patch Notes and don't see anyone but you who's mentioned them.

*applause* However, the body of work in sociology in general confirms that most crime, especially when measured in value amounts, is from greed, not need. You don't have to get into questionable niche fields to deeply undermine the idea that poverty breeds a criminal mindset, and (especially, as here) vice versa. But this is a game, and games are meant to be fun.

How is remapping a few keys different from"the base game"? All games since about 2010 allow key changes, just usually with a very clumsy and crude interface. CoH has offered this magnificently flexible approach since 2004 and players are still convinced it's some horrid game-breaking hack. And macros are not any of this, because...? Once more, with feeling, exit stage left: Sigh.

Well, not to drag this any further sideways, but the standard keys, a few changes to standard keys, macros and custom binds all have their place in optimizing the UI to player preference and AT advantages. If I have any one specific eyeroll to make here, it's at players who write a macro for absolutely everything, even actions that aren't really suited to them, and then complain that it doesn't work (and decide to delete them all as a result 🙂 )... and then say binds are too complicated, when they are not only the exact same thing in terms of command structure, but can be easily managed and maintained as a set. But moving along now. Didn't mean to hijack.

Ah. Good thing there's nothing else to the game! (I think you missed my point.) I don't give an Arachnobot's ass if anyone uses them. Except when, as above, the arguments are made that (1) they're way too complex for this farming/Arcane build/IO-crafting/proc-tutoring player dude, or (2) somehow are cheats, nerfs, or (my fave) Just Not How The Game Was Made. I reserve the right to Sigh at anyone who loudly and at length and in multiple posts whines about some "problem" with the game or their play preferences that could be solved in about forty seconds flat with... yes... a bind. 🙂

Well, just in case I didn't beat the horse quite to death, I remain boggled at this. This is not a simple game. To play requires mastery of a pretty good set of complex information. Many players dive to absurd depths on things like IOs and the advanced power options, not to mention PIGG hacking to change sounds and stuff. On top of that, many players are huge on macros, to the point where they want 100 trays to manage them all. But those bind things... are horribly complex nonsense for the geeky set and aren't the way the game was meant to be played anyhow. Even while they complain about things that can easily be fixed with a few key reassignments (including, for added hilarity, problems related to having dozens of macros). While remaining oblivious to the fact that the [sacred] default controls are just 100-odd... binds... So, Sigh.

Which promotes utterly false ideas about the nature of crime and motivation, but never mind.

Gamer sites are like movie-fan sites: "Well, y'know, dude, if I'D made this $300M movie, I'da put Dua Lipa in the lead, cuz she's just so hot!"...