Longer Battlecry

[krj12]

I'm not asking to be able to write a novel, but maybe something just a bit longer than the 32 characters allowed now.

Maybe 50 or 60 characters would be about right...

 

[TombTyrant]

For Athe's sake yes please!

[Greycat]

Eh... I mean, you can always just set up a macro or bind to throw something in local...

[TombTyrant]

I don't want to learn to code I just want to have a longer chain of words when I push F10.

[Shenanigunner]

Writing a chat bind is hardly "coding." If you can find the ID panel to type in a string, you can add /bind B "s to the beginning of it.

 

/bind B "s Make way for LAZYMAN!"

 

/bind F10 "l And his mighty sidekick KANT-B-ARSED!"

 

😄

Edited August 16, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[TombTyrant]

Okay assuming that I, as a person not well versed in these things, can retain that and want to do it for every single character I make, I still don't see that as a good reason that the game's battlecry function can't support longer phrases.

[Shenanigunner]

Maybe because like email signatures, there's a reasonable length to something you're going to shout out five times a mission.

 

If you can't say it in four or five words, it's not a battle cry, it's a monologue. 😄

Edited August 16, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[GraspingVileTerror]

Alright, let's pivot the suggestion then:
Change Battlecrys to Monologues!

Give Redside some love!

 

To the point; I'm not sure why the original Battlecry had the limitation it does.  If there's a reason, it would be interesting to learn what it is, and then see if there's a way to overcome it now that the backend of the game is so much improved.  And if there is no point, then yeah.  Let's just pop it up to the normal message character limit of 255.

[TombTyrant]

I do appreciate the knowledge bump though. I'm pretty close to totally ignorant on how to do binds, so that actually was helpful.

 

But aside from helping me personally, I think it's worth mentioning that there is no in game tutorial on binds and that character limit is a little low.

[Shenanigunner]

5 hours ago, TombTyrant said:

I do appreciate the knowledge bump though. I'm pretty close to totally ignorant on how to do binds, so that actually was helpful.

 

But aside from helping me personally, I think it's worth mentioning that there is no in game tutorial on binds and that character limit is a little low.

 

Okay. Four different answers here.

 

ONE The battlecry thing is an awkwardly implemented feature. It's not really an integral game feature, it's a game variable (the only one you can define) that can be called in a bind or macro. F10 is just the default bind for it. Nothing more, nothing less. I've always thought there was some better way to use that variable, but haven't come up with any killer ideas yet.

 

TWO The $battlecry variable is short because battle cries are supposed to be short. I suspect it was arbitrarily set at 35 characters or whatever because that's about as long a "battle cry" any of the original devs wanted to hear. I don't disagree; I am glad on a very minor scale that noobs can't go full Grabthar's Hammer every eight seconds. I am thumbs-down on changing the length. However, I wouldn't mind seeing a few more user-defined variables added to the mix. Not sure of uses, but.

 

THREE No, there's no in-game tutorial for binds and macros. Nor is there for fifty other gameplay elements. Those who use this as an excuse not to bother are just handicapping themselves. Those who use this as an argument that custom binds and macros aren't needed are just... well, expending pointless effort.

 

THREE POINT FIVE The number of people who won't learn a little basic customization, especially those who insist it's somehow unnecessary or wonky or just foo-foo, make me think of people who buy a car, won't adjust the seat, steering wheel, mirrors, temperature, radio station or volume "because that's the way it came," complain about all these things, and then when it's suggested they move the seat forward, snarl, "Don't tell me how to drive my car!"  *sigh*

(ETA: I wonder how much this category overlaps with the one of players who spend four hours in the costume creator for each alt?)

 

FOUR If you understand that the magical, sacred, perfect game UI is nothing more than the set of binds the devs decided to ship out as default, then it's a short leap to understanding you can rewrite the whole thing if you like, but you can also make little itty-bitty tiny itsy tweak to the aspects you don't find optimal. Like the battlecry. You want a huge, long battle cry? It's ten seconds of writing a different bind for F10, not something that needs to be rejiggered in the game code. You're not breaking the game. You're not "coding." You're not committing a religious offense. You're just adjusting the rear-view mirror.

 

And as for how, you can either ask, and any of about ten regulars here will write the bind string for you, or you can grab a copy of the tech manual I've spent over ten years writing and updating, and if a raw noob can't figure out how to write a simple bind in about ten minutes, I've completely failed not just that effort but about 40 years of writing this stuff professionally (and winning awards for it). And if said noob does the deep dive and wants to completely remod the UI and gameplay, breaking all the sacred rules about How The Gods Handed It Down... well, complete instructions for heresy are included in its 140 pages.

 

ZERO Or just plead to the overworked devs to change some pointless feature because you want it that way. That works, I guess. 😜

 

Edited August 16, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[GraspingVileTerror]

"Overworked Devs."

 

If any of the volunteers feel overworked, then there's a problem.  But that problem is not giving suggestions on how to improve the game.

[Shenanigunner]

19 minutes ago, GraspingVileTerror said:

"Overworked Devs."

 

If any of the volunteers feel overworked, then there's a problem.  But that problem is not giving suggestions on how to improve the game.

 

I think you know exactly what I meant - that the list of changes, both needed and QoL/requested, is nearly endless, and even the most dedicated volunteer only has so much time.

 

This is just not a request that "sticks to the wall" for me, not when there is a literally trivial alternative... not even a "workaround," but simply implementing the game feature from a slightly different angle.

 

I am all for every suggestion anyone has to make. But the answer options are not binary; there is often a way to achieve what's asked, or even something mo' bettah, without using up Dev time.

 

[Shenanigunner]

And hey, I just thought of a great use for $battlecry.

 

Put your fave "transport hub" passcode info in it, so you can instantly pass it along when someone asks!

[TheZag]

Cutscene skip enabled: Press Esc

 

32 characters,  apparently the devs had me in mind when they set the limit.

[Shenanigunner]

Ah, yes, the intermittent forum attention span. Love it.

 

Twenty text exchanges with confusion and topic drift, or "shaddap, dude, no one wants to read your novel!"

 

😄 :D: 😄

[ZacKing]

6 hours ago, Shenanigunner said:

The $battlecry variable is short because battle cries are supposed to be short.

 

Don't read many Green Lantern comics do you?  lol

[TombTyrant]

I don't really want it to be even a couple of sentences long. Just like maybe 50-60 characters would be plenty.  You don't have to be hostile to suggestions just because you personally know a work around. And not that it's any concern of yours but I am dyslexic, and entering in a chain of text that long in a field I cannot easily double check for errors is time consuming and frustrating for me. So yes this could be more user friendly. Thank you for the information, I will try to adapt as well as I can, but kindly shove off the presumption and entire judgey attitude.

Edited August 16, 2021 by TombTyrant

[Shenanigunner]

8 minutes ago, TombTyrant said:

I don't really want it to be even a couple of sentences long. Just like maybe 50-60 characters would be plenty.  You don't have to be hostile to suggestions just because you personally know a work around. And not that it's any concern of yours but I am dyslexic, and entering in a chain of text that long in a field I cannot easily double check for errors is time consuming and frustrating for me. So yes this could be more user friendly. Thank you for the information, I will try to adapt as well as I can, but kindly shove off the presumption and entire judgey attitude.

 

Other than not agreeing it's a change worth dev time, I haven't been in any way judgey. Your visual issue is the same whether the field is 32 characters or 500, or whether you're entering it in a pre-cooked game field or a chat line.

 

I do get a little tired of players who want their fix, their way, and soon, and absolutely every other solution is rejected for an encyclopedia of really stupid, selfish reasons, including the one where anyone who doesn't agree is some kind of control monster.

 

What was whined demanded insisted asked for was a way to hit F10 and have a much longer battle cry without having to adapt any iota of gameplay or UI recollection. I answered with a process that not only does that, but is 99% congruent with the way the game itself does it. And that's not good enough, and to say it is becomes "judgey."

 

Jesus H. on a pogo stick.

Edited August 16, 2021 by Shenanigunner

[TombTyrant]

This forum is for suggestions. I was providing feedback on a suggestion. If you see the suggestion forum as a list of demands or complaints that sounds like a you thing, not a me thing. I have my own issues to work on, don't pile yours on as well. While I am at it, don't tell me what my issues are like, unless you're wired into my optic nerve you have no idea, so just keep all that under your hat. You used words like "lazy" "kant be arsed" "excuse" "handicapping" myself, super judgey condescending stuff like that. Not to mention your reducto ad absurdem car analogy. You are judgier than Judy and I am telling you to stop.

[Doc_Scorpion]

6 hours ago, TombTyrant said:

entering in a chain of text that long in a field I cannot easily double check for errors is time consuming and frustrating for me.

You can enter it into Notepad and then used CTRL-C and CTRL-V to cut 'n paste it from Notepad to City Of Heroes.

[TombTyrant]

Thanks for that. That is a helpful workaround too. 

[Shenanigunner]

20 hours ago, TombTyrant said:

This forum is for suggestions. I was providing feedback on a suggestion. If you see the suggestion forum as a list of demands or complaints that sounds like a you thing, not a me thing. I have my own issues to work on, don't pile yours on as well. While I am at it, don't tell me what my issues are like, unless you're wired into my optic nerve you have no idea, so just keep all that under your hat. You used words like "lazy" "kant be arsed" "excuse" "handicapping" myself, super judgey condescending stuff like that. Not to mention your reducto ad absurdem car analogy. You are judgier than Judy and I am telling you to stop.

 

(Adds TT to list of participants with whom to avoid all attempts at humor.)

 

I'll just add to the last posts that anyone who is frustrated by the crappy text-entry fields of the game and hasn't learned to do all the actual writing over in a more capable tool (I again heartily recommend Notepad++, an asset any time you need to edit ASCII without the limitation of Notepad or the complications of WordPad) — perhaps especially if you are one of those who notes visual or language impairments — then you should adopt this practice posthaste. Even with good vision, patience and a wish to keep some things efficient, the text entry on CoX is up there with those little rubber-stamp letter toys some of us had back in the old days.

 

If your objection to binds in any way lies with how hard it is to write, examine and edit them in-game... triple the above. You can bang out to a NotePad++ window, type like mad, and either save/load or cut and paste in a fraction of the time with a fraction of the error rate of typing in a string longer than "Good one, dude!"

 

[Replacement]

On 8/16/2021 at 6:03 PM, Shenanigunner said:

 

Other than not agreeing it's a change worth dev time, I haven't been in any way judgey

Pretty sure you insinuated:

 

A) people who want a thing that can be achieved through keybinds are inherently lazy or stupid (reference: car rant)

 

B) That people who spend 4 hours in the costume creator are the aforementioned people.

 

You also threw in, for good measure, a moral argument against making suggestions in a suggestion forum.

 

The rest of your post I only started to quote is full of venom that fails a very simple test: you assumed poor intent.

 

They did not whine.

They did not demand.

They did not insist.

They did not say this change needs to happen soon.

 

You decided all of this, in your own brain.

 

No wonder you're so tired of everyone else, when you've worked so hard to believe we must all be so awful.

 

[Shenanigunner]

Well, then.

 

My sins seem to boil down to (1) forgetting that there's a sizable faction here for whom humor is a struggle, and (2) over a decade of experience with the things I expressed "venom" about. My thought is that a little humor makes what is basically the intersection of accounting and code review a little more digestible, and that I am hardly the only one who, having spent many years trying to be of more than average help to the community, gets a little tired of players who object to some facet of the game and then resist — in repeated and increasingly strident posts, to the point of being nasty or downright rude sometimes — every single suggestion that isn't the one that occurred to them. It is far too common and gets pretty wearing.

 

Other than that, I didn't "venom" anyone but a few player/poster classes we all know exist... and hey, if your irritation is because that Vanguard boot is rubbing a sore spot, consider listening the next time someone with a lot of experience makes a polite, helpful suggestion that is not what you first asked.

 

Because any "venom" — which I usually see as entirely justified exasperation — comes out long after a few posts from knowledgeable players (not just me) that are  not just rejected but the poster, in attempting to adapt the answer to objections, is basically told to quit bothering them.

 

Or we can all just stop trying to answer such posts, and leave players who don't understand the first thing about UI customization to confuse each other.

[UltraAlt]

On 8/15/2021 at 10:36 PM, TombTyrant said:

I don't want to learn to code I just want to have a longer chain of words when I push F10.

 

/macro BCry "local Today you will learn to fear the wrath of the TombTyrant!"

 

Could even go with

 

/macro BCry "local Today you will learn to fear the wrath of the TombTyrant!$$emote point"

 

copy and paste into the chat window and hit enter

it will put a button into your tray called BCry

 

Setting up a Macro isn't that complicated. if you shouted out on /help someone would probably help you.

You could just ask for for exactly what you want and someone will probably get around to writing it for you.

 

would be easier just to hit F10 though I guess.

I usually have a couple canned reactions set-up in macros.

 

I like one to point out a boss.

 

/macro Boss "local Be careful! That's $target . He is the leader of this rabble!"

 

Or just

 

/macro MTgt "local Attack $target first!"

 

/macro Howl "local Arrrorooooh!$$emote howl"