So now that you get the basics of how a bind is put together, you might still be wondering why to use one. Well, adding text to a power is fun, but it gets a little dull saying the same thing over and over after a while right? Well, here's the next step; bind rotation.

One of the commands you can use in a bind string is to load another bind file. I experimented with a lot of different ways to describe what I'm about to show you, and nothing makes sense so I'll just show you. Hold on to your hat:

Gettin' r' done

1. Create a folder called "binds" in your C: drive
2. Create a subfolder for your character in the "binds" folder. Since my character is Screaming Gale (in this case), I'll use "gale". Keep your file names short! There's a limit to how long a bind can be.
3. Create two files, "gale_ls1.txt" and "gale_ls2.txt".

4. Put bind commands in each file as follows

   In gale_ls1.txt

   0 "l WHEE! LOK AT THE PERTY CLUOD!$$powexecname lightning storm$$bindloadfile c:\binds\gale\gale_ls2.txt"

   In gale_ls1.txt

   0 "l LOOK! I MADE A FLUFFY CLOD$$powexecname lightning storm$$bindloadfile c:\binds\gale\gale_ls1.txt"

5. In your chat window, type "/bindloadfile c:\binds\gale\gale_ls1.txt"

OMG!!! What did I make you do!!!?

Relax. I'll explain…

What that crap all means

Starting with #5, what you've done is executed a command that loads a bind file. Inside the bind file is a list of key and command pairs. You should have noticed by now that you don't put /bind in front of the binds in a bindfile because it's assumed.

SO now that you've loaded "gale_ls1.txt", the 0 key has automatically been bound to this command:

"l WHEE! LOK AT THE PERTY CLUOD!$$powexecname lightning storm$$bindloadfile c:\binds\gale\gale_ls2.txt"

Let's break it down…

• l WHEE! LOK AT THE PERTY CLUOD!

  A lowercase l followed by a space works exactly the same as typing the full word for "local". I do that only to save space due to the whole bind length limit, but you don't have to. In either case, this simply says something in local chat.

• $$

  Command separator. This has to be between all command combinations.

• powexecname lightning storm

  Activates the lightning storm power. You may have noticed that in the last page, I used "powexec_name" and now I'm using "powexecname" without the underscore. Here's another tip that will come in handy: the bind commands don't care if you use underscores or not. Getting rid of them saves space, keeping them makes them more readable. Use as desired.

• $$

  Command separator again.

• bindloadfile c:\binds\gale\gale_ls2.txt

  This is not complicated, but important so pay attention!

  What this does is simply load a new bind file. If you followed my instructions, the only bind command in that file will be this:

  0 "l LOOK! I MADE A FLUFFY CLOD$$powexecname lightning storm$$bindloadfile c:\binds\gale\gale_ls1.txt"

  So, NOW, the 0 key is bound to a different command string.

In English

6 binds for Placate

Ok, so when you used "bindloadfile" to load the "gale_ls1.txt" file, it bound a command to the 0 key that would do the following:

• Say some text in local chat
• Execute the lightning storm power
• Load a new bind for the number 0 (gale_ls2.txt)

Because the final command in each file is to load the other file, every time you hit 0, the commands will toggle back and forth, back and forth. If you really do understand all this, that you'll quickly realize that it would be easy to add a 3rd or 4th or 5th file in the mix by just having the last line of each command load the next bind file in order.

Using this technique, you can have the same power bound to the same button, but have the text rotate between however many bindfiles you care to create. For example, my stalker has the "P" key bound to a string of files that rotates through all of the Jedi Mind trick quotes from the Starwars movies before using the placate power.

Look at the rotation in the chat window

On the right, you can see her placating a Longbow over and over to demonstrated the bind rotation. In the chat window above, you can see it mention "Keybinds file loaded" and you can see it rotate up in numbers and back to 1.

Jeremy's Awesome CoH/V Binds Guide

1. How Binds Work
2. Bind Rotation
3. Mini Bind Reference
4. Jeremy's Bind Files Technique
5. Advanced Costuming

Binds are nothing more than a set of commands that are performed when you press a key on the keyboard. All your keymappings such as jump, movement, and any other shortcut keys you use in the game are also binds and can be changed, modified, or removed as you see fit.

At it's simplest a bind command looks like this:

You simply type your bind command into the chat box (remember the first /) and hit enter. Once you're done, the command will be bound to the key you entered. Simple right? Note that you can also do macros which allow you to bind commands to power buttons in your power tray instead of a key on your keyboard. There are advantages and disadvantages to each:

So the commands for each are:

The bind is stupidly simple in that when you press the corresponding keyboard key, the command is executed. Be careful not to bind commands to keys that you need for something else (like spacebar which is used to jump).

As far as macros go, once you hit ENTER to complete the macro, a new power will appear on your tray. It uses a generic grey background, but the button is labeled based on the [name] value you entered before (which is why it's good to keep the name very short and descriptive… probably 4 characters or less).

A macro called Grr

And what it does

Besides being easier for people who prefer to use the mouse rather than the keyboard, you have the advantage of being able to right-click a macro to edit it. Since with binds you either have to retype them from scratch or save all binds to disk, load the keybinds.txt file (found in your City or Heroes folder), fix it, and then cut and paste it back into CoH, that can be a huge time savings if you edit it frequently

You can see the macro by right-clicking and also select to edit it

Macros can be edited in-game.

Other than those differences, they function essentially the same so onto the commands!

Your First Bind

Gale is excited by her new power

Note that while I will almost always use binds as examples, you can easily make them macros instead if you feel like it.

Probably the first thing anyone does once they learn binds is to bind some character-specific text to a power. For example:

/bind 0 "local LOOK I MADE A FLUFFY CLOD!$$powexec_name lightning storm"

Ok, let's break this down:

• /bind 0

  This will bind the command that follows to the number key, 0. Note that there is no space between the first forward slash and the word "bind", but there is between bind and the key as well as between the key and the command. Also note that I have eclosed the command in quotes. This is very important so the entire command will be executed. Otherwise, if it hits a space, it will think the command is over and ignore the rest.

• local LOOK I MADE A FLUFFY CLOD!

  This is a command to say some text in local chat. The two most common options are team or local just remember that if you use team, it will make a noise which calls people's attention to the chat window. That can be highly annoying when all you are doing is launching a power. Say it in local and people will still be able to read it, but won't have to deal with the constant beeping.

• $$

  This is a hugely important command that you need to pay close attention to. It is a separator that you must put between separate commands on the same bind/macro. There are limits to how many commands and what type of commands you can combine, but two or three will generally work fine. In this case, we are combining a command to speak with one that launches a power.

• powexec_name lightning storm

  This is pretty easy; it just launches the lightning storm power. For these to work, you have to know the correct name of the power and not make the common mistake of typing powerexec_name. It's powexec.

After you've typed this command, you can press the 0 key (or your macro button) to make it happen. Note that in my picture, you'll also see some HTML color codes. You should see the chat bubble change color, but they either disabled the ability to change the color or it's a bug that's waiting to be fixed. In either case, I haven't updated my binds to take out the colors yet so they look a little awkward (which is also why I didn't include the detail of how to add the color codes here).

Anyway, those are the basics. Let's move on.

Jeremy's Awesome CoH/V Binds Guide

1. How Binds Work
2. Bind Rotation
3. Mini Bind Reference
4. Jeremy's Bind Files Technique
5. Advanced Costuming

City of Heroes includes a scripting language that lets you launch powers, change costumes, and do a variety of other tasks. Using "binds" (as they're called), you can improve your gameplay and have more fun with your character.

Read through this guide to get a good idea of how the language works and for several examples that you can just cut and paste.

Jeremy's Awesome CoH/V Binds Guide

1. How Binds Work
2. Bind Rotation
3. Mini Bind Reference
4. Jeremy's Bind Files Technique
5. Advanced Costuming

Jordan and pet sketch

I wanted this picture to get across how Jordan is both peaceful and dangerous at the same time. Her powers of darkness are very strong, but safe so long as you don't get on her bad side

In looking for a good screen capture to match the sketch, I came across this one from an Eden trial and liked it.