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

The core of CoH/V is your hero/villian. If you use the random character generator and arbitrarily pick some powers, do no customization of any kind, you just aren't going to have fun!

Not only will I give you extensive information on how to build an awesome character, but how to bring their powers, their story, and even the costumes themselves into the game in a way that makes the game experience completely different with each character you play.

Jordan's Character Generation Guide

1. Character Generation Intro
2. All About Origins
3. All About Archetypes
4. Picking a Great Name
5. Choosing an Archetype
6. Choosing Powers
7. Character Origin
8. Character Stories
9. Character Costumes
10. Character Creation - Wrap Up

Invention Origin Enhancements along with the market that runs them has definitely changed the way we play the game. It also allows for different style of play and more character customization (which is definitely a good thing).

However, it messes up the way CoH/V guides have been created since Issue 6. Read my guide to see how they affect the game and how they've affected this site.

Jordan's Guide to Invention Origin Enhancements

1. Invention Origin Enhancing
2. Why Generic IOs Kick Butt
3. Why Set IOs Kick Even More Butt
4. How IOs Affect CoH/V Guides

If you are part of a supergroup (or built your own solo like I did), and your base has many (or all Base Telepads), it can save you an immense amount of time to teleport to your base and then to your destination zone from there.

Also, many bases have crafting tables, salvage storage, and inspiration sales. Teleporting there lets you access all of those then go right back where you were (if you TP to your base then exit through the normal entrance, you'll reappear where you TP'ed from).

Generally, you activate the base teleportation power and are presentated with a screen that offers a choice of teleporting to your base or that of any group you are in coalition with.

There are three ways to teleport to a superbase directly and one way to do it indirectly.

Veteran Reward

Simple enough: Have an active account for a total of 2 years of time. Granted, that's not good for new players and it's sucky to not have a faster way to get it so I won't stress this one too much as there are other ways that you can use quite a bit sooner.

Day Jobs

This one takes a while, but not too much longer. You have to log out near a superbase portal and stay there for 21 days. As with any Day Jobs, you'll need to make sure that any character you're actively playing logs out at the end of each session near a portal until they get this. And then once they've earned the power, you'll need to continue to log them out there to charge it (up to 10 charges, one per day logged out there AFTER you earn the power).

Dying

Either dying on purpose or on accident will give you the option of transporting to your base so long as you have a medical transport somewhere in there (every self-respecting group does).

The clever way of doing this is to use the Self Destruction power from the Cyborg Super Booster to die without debt. In this way, it becomes a de-facto base teleporter!

Gale self destructs (video 7.5Mb)

Pocket D

The last way, the indirect way is to teleport to Pocket D with the Pocket D teleporter in the Good vs Evil Item Pack if you have it. Because it's a special zone with a base portal inside, it will almost take you right to a base.