City of Heroes "lifehacks"

[Flashtoo]

I like /bind shift+lbutton powexecname teleport. Get where you're going in one click.

[MunkiLord]

I like /bind shift+lbutton powexecname teleport. Get where you're going in one click.

 

This is how I use Lightning Rod, and it's amazing.

[PhroX]

If we're doing binds, I'm a big fan of changing my F keys to inspiration types e.g.:

 

/bind F1 "inspexecname resurgence$$inspexecname dramatic_improvement$$inspexecname respite"

 

That way I can easily pop a green pill regardless of how my inspiration bar is laid out.

[GamerKate]

Does Anyone know of a keybind that would instantly grow the map to giant size and when pressed again shrink it back to tiny size?

 

MCM

[Healix]

socalexile, when you move a macro from the tray to the custom.window it automatically turns into a bar.

 

MrCaptainMan, is this what you are looking for?

 

Then there's this... MAP hard to view? No problem flipp in and out of an enlarged map with ease:

 

/BIND CTRL+F12 "window_hide chat$$windowscale map 2.0"

/BIND ALT+F12 "show chat$$windowscale map 1.0"

[Marshal_General]

Oh and since someone brought up BINDS... you know you can use multiple costume slots for all sorts of special effects right?

 

I mean, you can change into and out of your secret identity with ease (or even to the SuperSayin... ain't even my final form shtick if you want).

 

/bind [key] "cce [slot] [effect]"

 

If you want to throw some confetti and change into your first costume slot:

/bind j "cce 0 ccConfettiThrow"

 

If you want to cast a mystic spell to turn into your second slot:

/bind k "cce 1 ccCast"

 

There are a bunch of them, some quite crazy and extreme... test them all for fun!

 

ccBackFlip Do a backflip and land in your new costume.

ccCast Make a Dr. Strange/Constantine spell cast to change.

ccConfettiThrow Throw a giant burst of confetti from your pocket and change.

ccDimensionShift Spread into multiple dimensions and reassemble changed.

ccDrinkFormula Drink a flask of formula to effect the change.

ccEnergyMorph Crouch and fire off an energy burst to change.

ccEvilLaugh Evil laugh and burst into flame to change.

ccFeatherBurst Change in a spray of feathers.

ccFireworks Change in a burst of fireworks.

ccFurBurst Change in a spray of fur.

ccGiftBurst Gift falls on you and explodes open to reveal change.

ccHowl Howl and change.

ccIceBlock Disappear into an ice block and emerge in your new costume.

ccInnerWill Focused energy in your chest triggers the change.

ccLightMagic Glowing ground sigil and vertical effects make the change.

ccLightning Change in a furious burst of lightning.

ccMurderOfCrows Change by bird … sort of an evil Cinderella thing.

ccNinjaLeap Leap high into the air and land changed.

ccNuke Impressive nuclear blast changes your looks.

ccOilStrike Giant gusher of oil changes you.

ccPressureRelease Stomp ground to release geyser that changes you.

ccPrestoChango Change with a dramatic magical gesture.

ccPureEnergy Change in an energy burst.

ccRainbow Change in a magical haze at the end of a rainbow.

ccRapidBoil Go to a bubbling boil of green sewer ick and emerge changed.

ccSalute Give a full salute and change to your new costume.

ccSmokeBomb Throw down a smoke bomb and emerge changed.

ccSpin Spin rapidly and stop in your new costume.

ccStoneBlock Disappear into a stone block and emerge in your new costume.

ccSuperSerum Inject super serum, beat chest and emerge changed.

ccVanguardSigil Vanguard ground sigil and green haze leave you changed.

 

Or you can search the old forums for the popmenu that you can make a macro button that will allow you to open a menu to do all of them.

[GamerKate]

socalexile, when you move a macro from the tray to the custom.window it automatically turns into a bar.

 

MrCaptainMan, is this what you are looking for?

 

Then there's this... MAP hard to view? No problem flipp in and out of an enlarged map with ease:

 

/BIND CTRL+F12 "window_hide chat$$windowscale map 2.0"

/BIND ALT+F12 "show chat$$windowscale map 1.0"

That looks perfect, thank you!

 

EDIT: I should be able to tweak this so that it’s a toggle on one key, too, I think?

 

MCM

[Daksinakali]

/ah access auction house from anywhere.

Level 1 go to p2w vendor get the Ninja or animal run. Stack that with Sprint and you move really well.

 

Not quite anywhere. You can't use that slash command in a mission.

 

Can't use it in the base either, unfortunately.

 

[Healix]

I use this macro for targeting pretty much everything

 

/Macro TAR "targetcustomnext notmypet"

 

I changed this, and now use it as a keybind.

 

/bind Esc "target_custom_next notmypet"

[Sakai]

Thank you so much. Was just looking for this.

[PanchaMaestro]

Oh and since someone brought up BINDS... you know you can use multiple costume slots for all sorts of special effects right?

 

I mean, you can change into and out of your secret identity with ease (or even to the SuperSayin... ain't even my final form shtick if you want).

 

 

Are the binds by acct or by character? Seems I did this back in the day but can't remember

 

[MunkiLord]

They are by character, but you can save your bind file using this command: /bind_save and /bind_load will load it.

 

For anyone interested here is a good guide on the subject:  https://cityofheroes.fandom.com/wiki/The_Incomplete_and_Unofficial_Guide_to_/bind

[Sanguinesun]

Confusion

 

"Confusion steals XP" is the opposite of the truth: YOU are stealing XP when a confused enemy attacks. When you're beating down +4 bosses you can either get 100% of their xp and have it take 60 seconds to kill them or you can get 80% of the xp and have it take 30 seconds to kill them. This adds up to a non-trivial increase in the rate at which you can gain XP and gather resources.

 

If paired with powers that do significant slow(ie the mob doesn't fire an attack as quickly and runs almost in place), the confuse instead just simply acts as a "no attacks" used power meaning little to no exp loss what so ever.

[Healix]

It's one of the reasons I love the ice 'Arctic Air' power.

[Harps]

Learn to make binds.

Team select, Target nearest, turn on Sprint AND SS or Ninja run, bodyguard mode on MMs. Homecoming also added some bind options that weren't in the original game,  like the ability to target a location-based power on a selected friend or foe. This can make placing a Tar Patch or Rain of Arrows way, WAY easier.

 

I'd love to know how to do this!

 

 

 

pow_exec_location <location> <power name>

 

Location can be "target", "me", or a direction:distance signifier. (To quote the notes: "Direction can be forward, back, left, right, up, down, -or- it can be a number. If it's a number, it is taken as an angle in degrees. 0 is straight in front of you, 90 is right, etc. It can also be camera, to indicate the direction the camera is facing, including elevation")

 

It works great for Rain of Arrows (especially after the buff to its animation).  I have a macro for powexeclocation target "Rain of Arrows", which centers the rain on my currently selected target (which doesn't necessarily have to be an enemy), letting me just tap a single button rather than having to place it.  (Though I can still place it manually if I want)

 

Amazing, thanks very much! This will hopefully stop me shooting so many already dead baddies with Rain of Arrows on my blaster! Or accidentally clicking the guy who just stood in front me of as I clicked to activate it!

[Generator]

I keep Sprint, [Travel Pool Entry], and [Travel Power] all handy at shift+r, shift+t, and shift+f, respectively.  (In this context , "Travel Pool Entry" would be Hover or CJ, and Travel Power would be any non-TP travel power.)

 

r is target_enemy_near, and autorun is now ctrl+r

 

The UI toggling (and help popup) associated with the c, n, t, and h keys are all ditched immediately, as is the tray popup associated with the ralt key.

[Adeon Hawkwood]

So this one is a little more limited than some of the others but it came up last night so I figured I'd share it.

 

If you're on a Task Force and a mission gets bugged it is possible to reset the mission without needing a GM. Have everyone on the TF exit the mission, log out and wait about 3 minutes before logging back in. This should cause the mission to reset at which point it hopefully won't be bugged.

[Roughtrade]

So this one is a little more limited than some of the others but it came up last night so I figured I'd share it.

 

If you're on a Task Force and a mission gets bugged it is possible to reset the mission without needing a GM. Have everyone on the TF exit the mission, log out and wait about 3 minutes before logging back in. This should cause the mission to reset at which point it hopefully won't be bugged.

Actually, this is more what I thought we'd be seeing in this thread.  I grant you one Inf.

 

There's like twenty threads on binds and macros.  I was hoping to see more tricks that are just from knowing the game for a long time.  Like the old Paragon Dance Party short cut, before Pocket D made it superfluous. 

[Robotech_Master]

There's like twenty threads on binds and macros.  I was hoping to see more tricks that are just from knowing the game for a long time.  Like the old Paragon Dance Party short cut, before Pocket D made it superfluous.

You do know Paragon Dance Party is back, right? :)

[justicebeliever]

There's like twenty threads on binds and macros.  I was hoping to see more tricks that are just from knowing the game for a long time.  Like the old Paragon Dance Party short cut, before Pocket D made it superfluous.

You do know Paragon Dance Party is back, right? :)

 

To be fair...Paragon Dance Party location is back...there is no party or dancing anymore :(

 

 

[Roughtrade]

Like the old Paragon Dance Party short cut, before Pocket D made it superfluous.

You do know Paragon Dance Party is back, right?

To be fair...Paragon Dance Party location is back...there is no party or dancing anymore

Not the point.  PDP was a hack because it used to be a short cut from Steel Canyon to KR to Talos.  A hack on the normal way to get around.  Pocket D performs the same function and does not require knowing the secret of how to find the door.

 

On the Gripping Hand.  No.  Didn’t know PDP was accessible again.  It is a nice quiet place for RP if someone wanted to use it for something.

 

Gah.  At work and totally drawing a blank on the door spots.  Steel Canyon was just north of the Natural Enhances store.  Talos is...  West of the Freedom Force store?   

 

Was Kings Row the other door? 

 

I remember you had to find the pink flyers

[justicebeliever]

Not the point.  PDP was a hack because it used to be a short cut from Steel Canyon to KR to Talos.  A hack on the normal way to get around.  Pocket D performs the same function and does not require knowing the secret of how to find the door.

 

On the Gripping Hand.  No.  Didn’t know PDP was accessible again.  It is a nice quiet place for RP if someone wanted to use it for something.

 

Gah.  At work and totally drawing a blank on the door spots.  Steel Canyon was just north of the Natural Enhances store.  Talos is...  West of the Freedom Force store?   

 

Was Kings Row the other door? 

 

I remember you had to find the pink flyers

 

Roughtrade, I used the "smiley" emoji...  :)

 

However, the entrances are now marked on the appropriate zone maps as well, no need to track down fliers anymore...Talos, Steel Canyon, and Ind Port.

[Roughtrade]

RT I used the "smiley" emoji... 

Technically you used the un-smiley emoji.  Anti-smiley?

 

I didn’t disparage your comment.  I said it did not address the point which was being discussed.  The Paragon Dance Party and Pocket D make great ‘hacks’ for getting around.  Short cuts that others may not know about and are different than using the trams or an SG teleporter.  People dancing or not dancing at them doesn’t matter. 

[justicebeliever]

RT I used the "smiley" emoji... 

Technically you used the un-smiley emoji.  Anti-smiley?

 

I didn’t disparage your comment.  I said it did not address the point which was being discussed.  The Paragon Dance Party and Pocket D make great ‘hacks’ for getting around.  Short cuts that others may not know about and are different than using the trams or an SG teleporter.  People dancing or not dancing at them doesn’t matter.

 

It's true I was off topic, and apparently, I my eyes are upside down, because I swore that frown was a smile...

[Vanden]

My bind for toggling between Hover and Fly on a single key press:

 

/bind F12 "powexectoggleon Hover$$powexectoggleon Fly"

 

I don't currently know where to find it, but back in the day I had a script that was in game that would automatically switch to fly when moving with wasd and automatically switch back to hover when not moving.  Was wonderful for playing a flying blaster, because it eliminated the accidental acc debuff from leaving fly on.

Fly only had an acc debuff for, like, a month as I remember it.

 

Scratch that, I remember now. Fly had an acc debuff from launch or so until travel suppression got implemented; it was Super Jump and Super Speed that only briefly had the acc debuff, before the devs settled on travel suppression.