The trouble with Word Bubbles

[caddok]

I would like to add colors to the following bind but I'm not sure how. I'm pretty good with the use of /bind commands and setting up the text files for characters but, the one thing I can't figure out is how to add colors to this line of the binds:

ENTER "show chat$$startchat"

 

My goal is to have it bound to SHIFT (/bind SHIFT+ENTER) and Control (/bind CTRL+ENTER) with each set with a different set of colors, one for each costume. I can do it with a line like this:

 

/bind NUMPAD7 "local <bgcolor Yellow><color black>Hello, I am $name. $$ emote wave"

 

But when you do it that way you need to arrow all the way to the right, past the code, and then type what you want to say. This slows down your response time in conversations and is just kind of annoying.
I'd like to be able to "start chat" with the colors already set so I can just type what I want my character to say and hit Enter again to say it.

Any advice or guidance would be GREAT. Thank you all in advance. 🙂 

Edited yesterday at 07:50 AM by caddok
Added a Tag

[Captain Fabulous]

Why not use the word balloon color function in options?

[caddok]

7 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Why not use the word balloon color function in options?

I do but, the character in question has three different costumes with very different color combos and I want the chat bubble to reflect those color themes. The goal is to not have to manually reset the chat bubble colors manually every.single.time.
It's kind of like having three characters in one. Each costume sort of has its own personality.

[biostem]

I use the function keys to change costumes - why not do something similar, only including the chat text color commands as well?

[caddok]

20 minutes ago, biostem said:

I use the function keys to change costumes - why not do something similar, only including the chat text color commands as well?

I re-bind the NUMPAD0 and have a costume triggered by each bind (NUMPAD0, SHIFT+NUMPAD0, CTRL+NUMPAD0, and, ALT+NUMPAD0). In this case I have three costumes and I want the word bubble to match each one. What I'm looking for is how to edit this command* (to two individual keybinds) to make it automatically set the colors of the chat bubble. I have the default manually set to Costume 1. Costumes 2 and 3 need their own keybinds.

 

*ENTER "show chat$$startchat"

 

[biostem]

10 minutes ago, caddok said:

NUMPAD0, SHIFT+NUMPAD0, CTRL+NUMPAD0, and, ALT+NUMPAD0

I know the WIKI shows you can bind shift, alt, and ctrl to be used in conjunction with other keys, but in my own testing, this doesn't seem to work properly.  I realize you've already put a lot of work into this, but try using binds to 3 different keys, directly, and not as a combination of keypresses.  I may be off the mark here, but I suspect trying to use those key combinations is messing things up... 

[caddok]

4 minutes ago, biostem said:

I know the WIKI shows you can bind shift, alt, and ctrl to be used in conjunction with other keys, but in my own testing, this doesn't seem to work properly.  I realize you've already put a lot of work into this, but try using binds to 3 different keys, directly, and not as a combination of keypresses.  I may be off the mark here, but I suspect trying to use those key combinations is messing things up... 

You are missing the mark by 1000%. Changing costumes isn't the issue. Getting this: "ENTER "show chat$$startchat"" to automatically assign the background and text color of the chat bubble is the issue. I can do the whole bind file thingie in my sleep, I've just never tried to do this particular thing before. Tricking out my NUMPAD for my mastermind got me comfortable with that. I just want hit SHIFT+ENTER and start a chat in a particular color.

P.S. Also, binding multiple commands to the same root key (Example: NUMPAD0, SHIFT+NUMPAD0, CTRL+NUMPAD0, and, ALT+NUMPAD0) doesn't cause problems unless you are making a mistake when setting it up. The following is the binds for my NUMPAD on my Mastermind.

NUMPAD0 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;Engage Primary Power Armor. $$ cce 5 ccpureenergy"
CTRL+NUMPAD0 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;Disguise program one. $$ cce 2 cclightmagic"
SHIFT+NUMPAD0 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;Engage Assault Armor. $$ cce 0 ccpureenergy"
ALT+NUMPAD0 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;Disguise program two. $$ cce 1 cclightmagic"
NUMPAD1 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;Hello, I'm $name. $$ Emote wave"
CTRL+NUMPAD1 "Emote smartphone"
SHIFT+NUMPAD1 "emote text"
ALT+NUMPAD1 "emote salute"
NUMPAD2 "emote flashlight"
NUMPAD3 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;You're welcome, Random Citizen. $$ emote yourewelcome"
CTRL+NUMPAD3 "emote listenpoliceband"
SHIFT+NUMPAD3 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;You're welcome, $target. $$ emote yourewelcome"
ALT+NUMPAD3 "Local &lt;color #00ff00&gt;&lt;bgcolor #006f00&gt;WHAT the F was THAT?! $$ emote frustrated"
NUMPAD4 "petcom_all aggressive"
CTRL+NUMPAD4 "powexec_name Battle Drones"
NUMPAD5 "petcom_all defensive"
CTRL+NUMPAD5 "powexec_name Protector Bots"
NUMPAD6 "petcom_all passive"
CTRL+NUMPAD6 "powexec_name Assault Bot"
NUMPAD7 "petcom_all attack"
CTRL+NUMPAD7 "powexec_name Deflection Shield"
ALT+NUMPAD7 "powexec_name Dispersion Bubble"
NUMPAD8 "petcom_all follow"
CTRL+NUMPAD8 "powexec_name Insulation Shield"
ALT+NUMPAD8 "powexec_name Detention Field"
NUMPAD9 "petcom_all goto"
CTRL+NUMPAD9 "powexec_name Equip Robot"
ALT+NUMPAD9 "powexec_name Repair"
 

It all works like a charm. You just need to know what does what and after entering all of that, you'll have it memorized. 

[biostem]

15 minutes ago, caddok said:

I just want hit SHIFT+ENTER and start a chat in a particular color.

Just to be clear - if you set the bind to use a single key, instead of a combination of keys, does it work or no?  The entire reason I brought that up is that I have tried using alt, shift, and ctrl in conjunction with other keys, and it never seemed to work correctly for me, yet shift+mousechord, alt+mousechord, shift+lbutton, etc, all DID work fine...

[caddok]

18 minutes ago, biostem said:

Just to be clear - if you set the bind to use a single key, instead of a combination of keys, does it work or no?  The entire reason I brought that up is that I have tried using alt, shift, and ctrl in conjunction with other keys, and it never seemed to work correctly for me, yet shift+mousechord, alt+mousechord, shift+lbutton, etc, all DID work fine...

<shrug> All I can say is that /bind SHIFT+NUMPAD0 and the like, work for me every time. I don't alter the mouse commands at all.

 

[caddok]

25 minutes ago, biostem said:

Just to be clear - if you set the bind to use a single key, instead of a combination of keys, does it work or no?  The entire reason I brought that up is that I have tried using alt, shift, and ctrl in conjunction with other keys, and it never seemed to work correctly for me, yet shift+mousechord, alt+mousechord, shift+lbutton, etc, all DID work fine...

Wait? I'm not binding a 'Single Key'. I'm binding key combinations. When I say "SHIFT+NUMPAD0" I mean that I hold down SHIFT and then press NUMPAD0. If you are using a single key you'd normally only assign one command to it. That being said, I do remember that there was a way to program single key Toggles..? I'm not sure if the Devs at Homecoming decided to keep that feature or not?

I'm not suggesting that I want ENTER "show chat$$startchat" to do two things. I just want it to automatically set the colors of the chat bubble without me having to change them manually. Once I know how to do that I can then create [what ever key]+ENTER "show chat$$startchat" to display different colors.
Does that clear it up?

Edited 18 hours ago by caddok

[biostem]

5 minutes ago, caddok said:

I'm not binding a 'Single Key'. I'm binding key combinations.

You are missing what I'm saying.  I believe there is an issue with trying to use certain key combinations as triggers for binds.  As a test, I created a brand new character, with 3 different costumes, and bound both a costume change and a chat color change to single keys, (in this case, F1, F2, & F3), and it works fine:

 

  

[Captain Fabulous]

3 hours ago, caddok said:

I do but, the character in question has three different costumes with very different color combos and I want the chat bubble to reflect those color themes. The goal is to not have to manually reset the chat bubble colors manually every.single.time.
It's kind of like having three characters in one. Each costume sort of has its own personality.

You can use the command line to change the word balloon colors. Add the command to your costume change bind and it will change the balloon colors when you change your costume.

Text: /OptionSet ChatBubbleColor1 <s2c color>

Balloon: /OptionSet ChatBubbleColor2 <s2c color>

 

The tricky part is figuring out the s2c color value for the color you want. But once you do that you should be golden.

[caddok]

2 hours ago, biostem said:

You are missing what I'm saying.  I believe there is an issue with trying to use certain key combinations as triggers for binds.  As a test, I created a brand new character, with 3 different costumes, and bound both a costume change and a chat color change to single keys, (in this case, F1, F2, & F3), and it works fine:

 

  

Can you show me the bind you used to do that?

[caddok]

15 minutes ago, Captain Fabulous said:

You can use the command line to change the word balloon colors. Add the command to your costume change bind and it will change the balloon colors when you change your costume.

Text: /OptionSet ChatBubbleColor1 <s2c color>

Balloon: /OptionSet ChatBubbleColor2 <s2c color>

 

The tricky part is figuring out the s2c color value for the color you want. But once you do that you should be golden.

Do you know where I can find a guide to these 's2c colors'? And maybe the full line of the /bind so I can see how it is formatted?

[Captain Fabulous]

2 minutes ago, caddok said:

Do you know where I can find a guide to these 's2c colors'? And maybe the full line of the /bind so I can see how it is formatted?

https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Signed_2's_Complement

And I gave you the full bind.

[biostem]

30 minutes ago, caddok said:

Can you show me the bind you used to do that?

I'll give you an example, but please keep in mind that I did this a very quick and dirty way.  For a more useful method, you'd probably want to do a bind_load_file_silent to separately bind enter to begin_chat with the desired colors, instead of the quick one I did that triggers the costume change every time.  

 

/bind f1 "cc0$$beginchat <color red> <bgcolor white> <border red> "

Edited 16 hours ago by biostem

[caddok]

10 minutes ago, biostem said:

I'll give you an example, but please keep in mind that I did this a very quick and dirty way.  For a more useful method, you'd probably want to do a bind_load_file_silent to separately bind enter to begin_chat with the desired colors, instead of the quick one I did that triggers the costume change every time.  

 

/bind f1 "cc0$$beginchat <color red> <bgcolor white> <border red> "

THANK YOU! That is an example I can work with. Just an FYI though, this changed the chat bubble but no the costume. But it's a starting point! Thanks again!

 

Update: I got it to work, even with the costume change animation, and it changet the word bubble. However, it may have also crushed my dreams. With this bind I still have to use the arrow key to move my cursor all the way to the right of the text to type my message, which is what I was trying to avoid. But, this gets me way closer to my goal! Thank you! 

Edited 16 hours ago by caddok

[BlackSpectre]

OK, so you want to change your costume and change the colors of messages you send when pressing ENTER to access chat (with the cursor already at the end of the line), correct?

 

Normally, the /beginchat command would be the goto command for this, but unfortunately the command doesn't appear to like the HTML tags < >. If those are anywhere in the message string, the cursor will not appear at the end of the string. It's obviously a bug. So the best workaround is to set the chat bubble colors using the /optionSet command as @Captain Fabulous brilliantly recommended.

 

/bind SHIFT+J "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 0$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 -1$$cc 0"
/bind SHIFT+K "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 -16777216$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 0$$cc 1"

 

When SHIFT+J is pressed the text color will be set to black, the background set to white, and costume 0 will be activated

When SHIFT+K is pressed the text color will be set to red, the background to black, and costume 1 will be activated. 

 

Personally, I'd turn these binds into macro buttons instead so it's easier to remember which costume is which, like so:

/Macro "CC0" "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 0$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 -1$$cc 0"
/macro "CC1" "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 -16777216$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 0$$cc 1"

 

I'm going to add this info to the chat bubble customization page and add sample s2c color codes as well (give me a day or so). https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Chat_Bubble_Customization

 

In the meantime, you can find your own Signed 2's Complement (s2c) color codes by using this web page https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-to-decimal.html?x=FFFFFFFF . When using this page, the alpha or transparency setting "FF" needs to be included at the end, so the hex code will be 8 characters instead of 6. For example the hex code for red would be FF0000FF.

 

 

 

 

Edited 10 hours ago by BlackSpectre

[caddok]

6 hours ago, BlackSpectre said:

OK, so you want to change your costume and change the colors of messages you send when pressing ENTER to access chat (with the cursor already at the end of the line), correct?

 

Normally, the /beginchat command would be the goto command for this, but unfortunately the command doesn't appear to like the HTML tags < >. If those are anywhere in the message string, the cursor will not appear at the end of the string. It's obviously a bug. So the best workaround is to set the chat bubble colors using the /optionSet command as @Captain Fabulous brilliantly recommended.

 

/bind SHIFT+J "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 0$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 -1$$cc 0"
/bind SHIFT+K "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 -16777216$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 0$$cc 1"

 

When SHIFT+J is pressed the text color will be set to black, the background set to white, and costume 0 will be activated

When SHIFT+K is pressed the text color will be set to red, the background to black, and costume 1 will be activated. 

 

Personally, I'd turn these binds into macro buttons instead so it's easier to remember which costume is which, like so:

/Macro "CC0" "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 0$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 -1$$cc 0"
/macro "CC1" "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 -16777216$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 0$$cc 1"

 

I'm going to add this info to the chat bubble customization page and add sample s2c color codes as well (give me a day or so). https://homecoming.wiki/wiki/Chat_Bubble_Customization

 

In the meantime, you can find your own Signed 2's Complement (s2c) color codes by using this web page https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/number/hex-to-decimal.html?x=FFFFFFFF . When using this page, the alpha or transparency setting "FF" needs to be included at the end, so the hex code will be 8 characters instead of 6. For example the hex code for red would be FF0000FF.

 

 

 

 

Thank You! This is a proper example and explanation.

Is there a way to slip costume change animations in there too?😄

Edited 4 hours ago by caddok
Added a question at the end.

[Captain Fabulous]

Change cc to cce and add the emote after the costume #

/Macro "CC0" "optionset ChatBubbleColor1 0$$optionset ChatBubbleColor2 -1$$cce 0 ccpureenergy"