Shenanigunner

/bind lalt+lbutton powexecname Teleport Target /bind lcontrol+lbutton powexecname Fold Space Just a note... I really, really, really advise against using Shift keys as tap keys. I know some players use/like them but I've seen too many problems with both predictable function and then using shift+key binds. There are many better options. That is all.

Per discussion in general topics: The redside "Doublecross Baron Zukor" mission has a near fatal flaw, IMVHO. You enter the warehouse and the objective is "Go to the meeting room." Clicking on every (blue) NPC and the podium produces no response. The one clue about what to do is an NPC chat line from Martial Gloom to "Go to the back room." It's easy to miss this line of blah-blah and there is no indication as to where the "back room" is. You just have to click around randomly until you find that the door all the way at the back of the warehouse is enterable. This needs fixing so that AT LEAST clicking on Gloom repeats the directive. "Go to the gathering room" as the first objective, changing to "Enter the meeting room" would be better. Maybe a specific objective marker is too simplistic, but as the mission is written, it's confused both me and several teammates with combined decades of experience...

Yep. End reduction in CTP, Range in TP, with a second slot for End reduction when you can spare it, and move on.

IMVVHO, the only correct bind for teleport is to the left double-click. Point, clickclick, go. I did, however, have trouble adjusting to two TP powers with different characteristics; CTP needs to be fast-fast access, but remembering to use Ctrl-LDC proved impossible, so my traveling was often... short-range fail. 😛 So I adapted my binds with two macros to swap modes: /macro TP "bind LeftDoubleClick powexecname Teleport$$bind CTRL+LeftDoubleClick powexecname Combat Teleport" /macro CTP "bind LeftDoubleClick powexecname Combat Teleport$$bind CTRL+LeftDoubleClick powexecname Teleport" Both powers immediately available from the most logical button, swappable for travel and mission needs. You could add a SHIFT+ bind for CTP to target as well.

Thanks, will try again. Both my teammate and I repeatedly clicked on every figure in the room and got no response. This is at least the second time this ihas occurred on this mission. It perhaps needs editing to amplify the "go to the meeting room" objective. UPDATE: Tried again and yes, there's an NPC chat line from Baron Gloom who says "go to the back room." Easy to overlook and clicking on him produces no further response. Bad, bad, bad mission design when the objective (the door at the far end of the room) isn't pointed out as an objective and only this one 'missable' hint is given. Even with the clue, you have to figure out where "the back room" is.

Hmm. Hmmmmmmm.

CT is fun. I have found it just a tad... quirky if you are trying to do anything but flashy-bang around a clear, level surface. It doesn't like obstacles or elevation changes much. But yep, it's fun, especially that you can use it repeatedly .

This is sort of dull but I've found a quirk in the command structure that may have confused others, so let me document it here. There are six slash commands that make power trays appear and disappear, and three sets of four commands that switch the default tray numbers around. Most work just as you'd expect, other than the almost meaningless "traysticky" power names. All of these commands affect ONLY the default trays (primary, secondary, tertiary) — in fact, if there are any commands that affect tear-off or floating trays, I can't find them. First, the commands that switch the VIRTUAL (numbered) tray in each physical (primary, secondary, tertiary) tray: NEXT: advance the virtual tray number by one, looping around from 9 to 1: /next_tray [primary] /next_tray_alt [secondary] /next_tray_alt2 [tertiary] /next_trays_tray {1-3} [designated tray] PREV: decrement the virtual tray number by one, looping around from 1 to 9: /prev_tray [primary] /prev_tray_alt [secondary] /prev_tray_alt2 [tertiary] /prev_trays_tray {1-3} [designated tray] GOTO: specify which virtual tray to show in the physical tray: /goto_tray {1-9} [primary] /goto_tray_alt {1-9} [secondary] /goto_tray_alt2 {1-9} [tertiary] /goto_trays_tray {1-3} {1-9} [designated tray] Easy and trivial, right? The base commands for macro/trayswappers. Now the commands that make floating trays appear, just like clicking the + icon: Open new floating tray: /shownewtray Trays are opened in an order that only matters for window control purposes, 4-9 (e.g. /windowscale tray4 1.5 will scale the first tear-off tray opened). There don't appear to be any other tray commands that can be used to control these trays; you have to set configuration and virtual tray with clicks. You can only dismiss these trays with a right-click command, or /windowclose trayn command. (Nor is there any way to identify the tray-window number, other than by memory and experimentation. Arrgh.) Now the commands that make the default trays come and go: Cycle the open tray set just like clicking the arrow icon (primary, primary+secondary, primary+secondary+tertiary, back to primary): /alttraysticky Cycle the tertiary tray open and shut: /traystickyalt2 This will open and close the third tray even if the second tray is not displayed. There appears to have once been a corresponding command for the secondary tray (/traystickyalt) but it no longer functions. And cycle a designated tray open and shut: /traysticky {1|2| {0|1} Other values are accepted for the tray number (including 0) but do nothing. The secondary and tertiary trays can be opened and closed independently. Note that this command, unlike the others, is apparently zero-based; the secondary tray is tray 1 and tertiary tray 2, unlike the _trays_tray commands, which are 1-3. Go figure. And now we come to the SOB that confused me for some time and has probably frustrated a number of players who experiment with it: /alttray {0|1} /alt2tray {0|1} These commands open and close the secondary and tertiary trays, just like some of the commands above... but then lock the tray open as well. Other commands will no longer cycle or hide that tray. There is no warning or notice. if for some reason, you opened the tertiary tray with /alt2tray 1, you will be unable to close it even though the secondary tray can be cycled in and out of visibility. My suggestion is to not use these two commands at all; I can't think of a reason you'd want to lock either tray open and immune to other control when there are other commands that don't have this quirk. And if you've got a secondary or tertiary tray that won't go away, hit it with a 0 command to unlock it.

So I think I have gone to run the "Baron Zukor" mission (redside, level 20) a couple of times in the last year and like last night, always find that it seems to be bugged. You go into a warehouse and the objective is "go to the meeting room." The back large room is filled with (blue) hero NPCs, all chatting. There's two NPCs up on the raised level with a podium. Going to the room does nothing. Clicking on all the NPCs and the podium does nothing. A teammate got a message from the podium that "only the team leader can blah blah blah" but even switching the star didn't enable any kind of action. So again, we gave up and left Baron Zukor in peace. Does anyone have any info on this mission, or how to "go to the meeting room" or how to trip the next round of action?

But what if the toon has Verizon?

Hey, I'm flattered. 🙂 I have several areas of interest-to-expertise, and in most, when I try to search for new information, it's half annoyance, half pleasure that most of what comes up on the list are my pages and posts. I've even been pleasantly surprised by trying to locate some fussy process and finding a post from years ago in which I solved the problem and detailed the steps. A sort of bicameral mind thing, I guess. Yup, got it. /releasepets leaves bodies laying around, the Dismiss commands makes them vanish. I missed the psuttle difference. Well, darn it, there should be. Posted over in Suggestions. Thanks for the details.

#4: /releasepets vs. menu Dismiss or /petcom dismiss. Supposedly /releasepets always makes them fall dead, while the dismiss commands make them leave (fade out or run away). I haz zombies; they fall dead no matter which command I use. Any other pet runners want to check in with how yours respond to each command? #5: Do any of the many "sidekick/unsidekick" and related slash commands remain functional? That is, were the too-many synonyms reduced to one each or has the whole structure been removed?

There is presently a slash command, /release, that will send you to the hospital when you're defeated. I'd really like to see a parallel command (/releasetobase ?) added so that a bind or macro can be used to execute that option as well. (I really like commands that let you avoid finding and clicking a small, randomly-place screen button, like these two or "Exit Mission" with /requestexitmission.)

New one, #3. Does anyone see any differences between /autoreply, /reply and /r? All direct a tell to the last player who sent you a tell. (The opposite is /telllast or /tl, which sends a tell to the last player you sent a tell to. Very useful difference.) No reference I can find even describes these functions clearly ("...start a reply to the client...") but I seem to remember autoreply doing something else, way back when. All updates and corrections welcome. UPDATE: identical function but only /r and /reply accept a message string for sending; if used with no string, or if /autoreply is used, it just starts a tell and waits for the message and send. Which, frankly, seems backwards. Autoreply should be what sends back a canned message, right?

This may be of use to only some players, but I thought it was worth posting. CoX has some nifty screen and resolution slash commands that work from within the game, not requiring restart. You can change your physical screen resolution on the fly, and within that, the rendering scale... and independently on X and Y axes, to boot. Since playing with these commands can leave your screen unreadable, it's essential that you first create a couple of binds - NOT MACROS - to reset things: /bind SHIFT+F8 "screen YOURX YOURY" /bind ALT+F8 "renderscale 1" In that first, set YOURX and YOURY to your current, working screen resolution (1600 1200, 1920 1080, etc.) These keys should fix things if you get a messed-up screen. You may also want to save your current window layout with /wdwsave so that you can restore it with /wdwload. These changes will make a mess of your UI layout. Now... use /screen to reset your physical resolution as desired: /screen 1024 768 ...or whatever. It's NOT RECOMMENDED to enter values not supported by your video card/monitor. And Shift-F8 will fix things if you screw up. More useful is the /renderscale set of commands. These let you change the actual graphics scaling within your current physical resolution. The argument range is from >0 (any value greater than zero, including absurd settings like 0.005) to 1.0, or full physical resolution. /renderscale 0.5 ...will switch the rendering to 50% of full screen resolution. I don't know if they're very useful, but /renderscalex and /renderscaley can be used to set horizontal and vertical scaling independently. You may find, for example, that the game looks fine with 100% horizontal scaling but 50% vertical scaling. Experiment. (And with the safety of Alt+F8, mess around with very low settings, 0.1 to 0.001, just for the hoot.) So what's the use? Probably mostly for players on systems with older or marginal video subsystems. If you're running at a lower physical resolution than you like because the game bogs down in busy settings, you can now run at full res most of the time, and step down for busy public areas or mission battles. So once you're done messing around and making your alt's world a smeary mess, consider the following bind set, substituting the values you've found optimal: /bind F8 "screensize YOURX YOURY" /bind CTRL+F8 "renderscale 1" /bind ALT+F8 "renderscale 0.5" ----or--- /bind ALT+F8 "renderscalex 0.5$$renderscaley 0.75" /bind SHIFT+F8 "screensize 1280 1024" ... so F8 and Ctrl-F8 will fix/restore things, and Alt-F8 and Shift-F8 will set lower, higher-performance settings. Adapt bind keys as preferred. But again, using macros for these is NOT recommended... you may not be able to see the screen well enough to click them!

Got it, thanks. And no, none of the existing commands activate "go to base" in the defeated window. Funny that there's no corresponding command to /release.

You can stack toggle powers in a single bind... just tap it multiple times. Group similar powers like shields/armor, buffs, etc. I use a bind like this for all alts that have Leadership powers: U "powexectoggleon Tactics$$powexectoggleon Assault$$powexectoggleon Maneuvers" Three taps of U and they're all up. Or shields: P "powexectoggleon Blazing Aura$$powexectoggleon Plasma Shield$$powexectoggleon Fire Shield" This should simplify high-toggle builds. 🙂

#2: Does anyone know what the window named cvg is for? (closeable/scalable only).

First question: the /release command mimics clicking "Go to hospital" when you're defeated. Useful to create a quick bind that's easier to hit than the screen button, or a macro telling teammates you're off to see the wizard. Is there a parallel command for "Go to base" when defeated? Does /enterbasefrompasscode work in this instance? (Haven't thought to test it yet.)

I am currently reviewing and proofing all the slash commands, as listed in the Guide and from other resources such as the wikis. Lots of these commands have one cryptic line of explanation that might mean something to a very experienced bind/macro wrangler, but sometimes not even that. So rather than create one topic per command, I'm starting this omni thread to ask a question or two about each command I find puzzling. Anyone with the chops to answer this stuff is invited to tag the thread and keep up with the questions... and thanks!

Not at all. Any snark in my reply is my mild exasperation at the "but it's always been that way!" arguments... which are not always wrong. Certainly, if you're an experienced player of this and other games that use similar mappings, these would be less... good. I would hope some of the ideas (such as the rolling-bind chat entries) are useful. Absolutely. I consider a fully remappable keyboard (and mouse, and controller) a sine qua non for modern games, and CoX was one of the first to offer such vast customizing. My hope/thought is that this updated interface is a better choice for new or returning (and not vastly indoctrinated/experienced) users to start with. If a player has to learn everything but the most basic WASD commands, better to start with an updated. clearly though out set and modify than the original set, which is just 'orrible in some ways.

Okay. My h'expert conclusion is that it boosts graphics performance... in 2008. 🙂

Right, I know what the wikis and other lists say... just that one cryptic line that (like many other such "who effing knows" functions) doesn't really give any useful info. It does nothing on my (fairly powerful) system; I guess I'd like to hear from anyone running it on, say, a marginal laptop. Default is 0; set /autoperf 1 and see if it changes rendering, frame rate, etc.

Does the autoperf {0|1} slash command have any function? It's still accepted as a valid command but doesn't seem to do anything.

All fair comments. Or, maybe, all fair comments if (in all good humor, here): You were required to use this bind file; You were unable to make your own mods to the binds; You regard the historical key assignments as something that Must Not Be Changed (even if they have no good justification); and you have hours of memory storage for the esoteric details of IOs, crafting, accolades, Incarnate choices etc. but have run out of storage for a different (far more organized and intuitive) key set. 🙂 You can modify this setup any way you like. If you can't conceive of T meaning Target [Next] and anything but TAB for that is heresy, by all means reassign Target to TAB. G-for-Grapple is even simpler: Target Nearest + Follow; in the heat of melee battle it makes 'grappling' with the next foe a blink of an eye operation, with no need to try and click-click-click through a maelstrom of particles. The mnemonic binds make far more sense, from a viewpoint outside MMORG-land and for less... indoctrinated players. Many keys are left for custom binds... Y, U, I, O, P, H, J, K, L and B for a quick start. Are these possibly different from your standard combat or other binds? Yup. So modify. I find it very convenient to use P to bring up all 'protections' - shields, etc. on every alt, adapting actual powers as needed - and CTRL+P to cancel them when it's useful. I for Invisibility, Hide, Stealth etc. on all alts, and CTRL+I to cancel it. H to fire self-heal, whatever the power. All of these are outside the basic bindset and available for any savvy player to use. But that's all really aside. What the GABB does above all else is take all the bizarre, non-intuitive, "only key we had handy" binds like slash, semicolon, apostrophe and a dozen others and reassign them to more reasonable, intuitive keys, or combine things like chat-entry into one or two sensible combinations. Anyone who's howling and rolling on the floor because I nerfed semicolon and apostrophe here might benefit from ten minutes of reading the actual GABB manual. And about half of the default binds are next to useless because of evolution in the game itself and gameplay style... better to nuke/NOP them and keep random keyhits from bringing up menus or modes that get in the way. And remember... GABB is worth every penny you paid for it, and comes with a full refund policy. 😄