Advanced Binds - Map Zoom Level Toggle - Shortcut

[Avernal]

Another one I use as part of my Default.txt and Keybinds.txt files for all my new alts. This pair of bind files lets me press Shift+M to toggle between two window scales (zoom levels) for the ingame Map and is great for things like finding badges if you're using the Vidiotmaps pack or the upcoming thumbtack commands on the beta server, or just seeing things with a bit more detail and precision quickly before toggling back to normal zoom.
 

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First up - the basics, and some things you'll benefit from knowing, in plain English:
 

• Binds have a hard limit of around 255 characters, so for more complex ones you need to split them in to chunks (files) that fit those restrictions. That's why binds like this use multiple text files.
   
• The 'bindloadfile' command will default to the 'root' game directory if you use relative paths ("bindloadfile file1.txt" would look for file1.txt in the root directory), this means you're cutting out however many characters you would waste on typing out the full HDD path, so you don't need to use "C:/Binds/whatever.txt" as a sloppy workaround for that - "binds/whatever.txt" is MUCH shorter than even that and lets you keep your binds subfolder in the game's directory. Win-win. Now this will differ from launcher to launcher - but essentially Tequila will look in the 'Tequila' directory if you don't use a full path, whereas Homecoming's launcher would look in "settings/live" (for the live servers). You may need to fiddle with this if you're using other launchers to find out where the game is looking by default, generally it'll be in the same location as the City of Heroes executable file, Homecoming have just sorted their versions to their own subfolders.
   
• Removing the underscores from slash commands makes them shorter and the game still understands them - you don't need "bind_load_file", because "bindloadfile" works too and is two characters shorter. I like "bindloadfilesilent" because whilst it's a little longer, it means my chat window isn't getting spammed with bind files loading in, and I can still split most of my long bind loops in to 2 or 4 files to avoid the hard limit of text characters.
   
• If you add "+ $$- $$" (note the spaces) to the beginning of your multiple file bind, it will actually execute two steps - once when you press the key down, and again when you release it. In a bind that uses multiple files - this means one keypress will run *two* bind files on a single push and release, speeding things up (this is the shortest possible number of characters and is thanks to JAMMan0000's suggestion on my 'Lazy Kin' bind topic). You could easily use this here if you don't want to use Shift+M, add + $$- $$ infront of both bind files commands below and this zoom will behave as a toggle while you hold the button down instead - when you let go of the key it will return to normal zoom.

 

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Now that's out of the way, the binds...

I use two files for this and call them 'map1.txt' and 'map2.txt', both are saved in a 'Binds' sub-folder of my 'CoH/Settings/Live' (Homecoming launcher's 'default' folder for the ./ shortcut in paths).

To load them in to the game initially you would use: /bindloadfile "binds/map1.txt" - I've actually edited my 'Default.txt' and 'Keybinds.txt' files in the game's folder so that the Shift+M uses the bind from 'map1.txt' below, that way when I run /bindload on my new alts, this map zoom shortcut is always present on them from level 1.


File 1 'map1.txt' - located in a '/binds' sub-folder of my Homecoming installation ('/settings/live/')
This file makes the map 75% larger then loads in map2.txt.

 

SHIFT+M "windowscale map 1.75$$bindloadfilesilent binds/map2.txt"

File 2 'map2.txt' - located in a '/binds' sub-folder of my Homecoming installation ('/settings/live/')
This file returns the map to it's normal scale then loads in map1.txt.
 

SHIFT+M "windowscale map 1.00$$bindloadfilesilent binds/map1.txt"

 

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Dead simple - easy to edit these to use your preferred keys instead of Shift+M, just set both files to whatever key you want.

Same goes for the scales - maybe you run the game with an 80% scale map window by default instead of 100% - just change map2.txt so it reads windowscale map 0.80 instead of 1.00. Maybe 1.75 is too big for you? Change map1.txt to read 1.50 or whatever scale works best for you.

Want this to work like a press-to-zoom? Add +down$$-down$$ to the front of both files so it reads "+ $$- $$windowscale map"... that way it will zoom your map in while you hold the bind button/combo in, and return to normal zoom when you release.

Enjoy. 🙂

Edited May 28, 2021 by Avernal
Shorter toggle code from JAMMan0000 & shorter paths