EQ2 Macros and ACT [from the SOE Live Panel]

Discussion in 'Tips, Tricks, FAQs, and New Player Discussion' started by Katanallama, Aug 20, 2014.

  1. Ping New Member

    Sticky bump!
  2. Zaurel New Member

    This thread is unbelievably helpful! Thank you so much for taking the time! It absolutely needs to be stickied.
  3. Katanallama Well-Known Member

    I'm bored waiting for a work related call, let's add to this! :D

    The Hotbar Toggle!

    So I'm an end game raider, I have all 10 hotbars up.... But a lot of it *is* utility, I wanna make it so I can just show / hide these additional hotbars with the press of a button! One button, I want to close these optional / utility hotbars, and make them pop up again as needed. The good news is that this is all client-side, so it's almost zero lag to be messing with hotbar states or shortcut keys.

    So, the list!
    -> I want one shortcut key (NUM PAD ZERO) to toggle these additional hotbars, close or open
    -> I need to open a specific hotbar
    -> I need to close a specific hotbar.


    The hotbars open / close:

    So as per usual I break it into tasks, I first want to make sure the hotbars open and close right. I look online, search high and low, and come upon these two commands:
    /open_next_hotbar
    /close_hotbar

    This is great, although I didn't quite find any documentation (as usual) on these commands. However, through testing I find that they both accept # inputs:

    /open_next_hotbar 7
    /close_hotbar 7

    And the niftiest of all, when testing I find that when a hotbar is opened, it defaults to the keymap and keybinds of that hotbar - Hotbar 9, when opened, will load key map #9 from the options and the 9th bank of hotkeys. Basically, when you close the hotbar it's just telling itself 'Yea this is hotbar 7, just load #7 of everything else next time too' - not 'Oh this was hotbar 7, but with hotkey set #5 and the key maps of hotbar #2!'

    Painfully, the fastest fix is to just close and reopen every hotbar, and then reposition / resize / reapply shortcut keys to the correct, default setting hotbars. Once that's sorted we create our macros, one to open all of our desired hotbars and one to close them. One line per each hotbar close / open in each

    Open Hotbars Macro:.......................Close Hotbars Macro:
    /open_next_hotbar #........................./close_hotbar #

    Test it out, and ta-da! they work! Now to get this bad boy working.




    The Shortcut Key:

    So, I've done another system on this before using the /loadhotkeys command, and unfortunately I still use that very much for my AA swapper.... bunny nuggets, let's not over complicate that one further. Luckily, there is another system I have not abused yet, /load_keymaps!

    If you ever want to save or load your keymaps (which shortcut key goes to which hotbar spot), it's as easy as:

    /load_keymaps <name>
    /save_keymaps <name>

    This saves a file in your EQ2/Keyboards folder that when loaded will overwrite every keyboard shortcut. So! What I'm going to do is find 2 spots to put these bad boy macros, with a note of: the open macro HAS to be on a hotbar that will not be closed. The close macro can be on a closed hotbar. Basically shortcut keys to closed hotbars are ignored.

    Once the macros are placed, I want to make two keymaps, the general idea is that I ONLY want the <open hotbars> macro to work if the other hotbars are closed.

    So! I keybind NUM_PAD_0 to my 'open hotbars' macro slot - hotbar 4 key 10, and save my keymap as closed. This closed keymap will be the one I load as I close the other hotbars, it's keyed to the macro that'll open the other hotbars.

    Next, I remove the bind and instead place NUM_PAD_0 to my 'close hotbars' macro slot - hotbar 10 key 10, and save my keymap as opened.

    Basically, the keymaps are all about changing which hotkey NUM_PAD_0 is on - the slot with the open macro, or the slot with the close macro. When I close the hotbars, I need to load the keymap with it set to the open macro, and vice versa.

    Open Hotbars Macro:.......................Close Hotbars Macro:
    /open_next_hotbar #........................./close_hotbar #
    /open_next_hotbar #........................./close_hotbar #
    /load_keymaps opened..................../load_keymaps closed


    So! as long as I saved those two keymaps correctly and load them in the right macro, here's what happens:
    *All hotbars are open*
    Num Pad 0 will close the additional hotbars, and load the keymap where Num Pad 0 is set to the Open macro.
    *All hotbars are closed*
    Num Pad 0 will open the additional hotbars, and load the keymap where Num Pad 0 is set to the Close macro.


    [IMG]
    DoomDrake likes this.
  4. 8ladez Member

    typos smypos.. it make good look at - even tank like me wrk it out
    Katanallama likes this.
  5. Chillispike Active Member

    Really nice guide!
    I knew that there where "many" Slash commands and i was aware not all are listed on the "Slash Commands". Hopefully i find the time to update the slash commands list on wikia ;)
    On a quick overlook the player torch command seems to be missing as well :(
  6. Feldon Well-Known Member

    Prissetta likes this.
  7. Katanallama Well-Known Member


    Drat, video evidence of how nervous I was. Just hope nobody realizes 60% of the panel was Q&A / open forum conversation :3
  8. Elinea Well-Known Member

    I've been playing this game since the beta in 2004, and there's a lot of stuff in here that I had no idea existed. Great guide, I really hope they sticky this. Thanks for teaching this old dog some new tricks :)
    Prissetta and Moonpanther like this.
  9. Naramsin Well-Known Member

    Thank you for the guide. I would like to import some of my macros from one toon to another, is there a way to save macros to my computer for the purpose of loading it up on another toon?
  10. Alphonsus Well-Known Member


    Nope. They are stored on the server unfortunately.
  11. Naramsin Well-Known Member

    What a drag! Daybreak, in a future update, could you please add an button / option that will save a copy of ones macro sets on the individual's computer for them to load said macro(s) up on their other toons?

    Thank you in advance
    Naramsin

    P.S. And yes, I will also see fit to submit this request/suggestion in a /feedback post in-game.
  12. Gharyn Well-Known Member

    Great info here. Never knew about the alias command. Used it in last nights raid. As MA it's going to help cut down my macro bloat a lot. Kudos to the Kat!

    And we NEED this pinned before it gets TLEed off the page and gets lost to obscurity once again!
    Moonpanther likes this.
  13. Gharyn Well-Known Member

    I second this.
  14. Blug New Member

    You can execute all macros by /do_file_commands command. So in order to store macros locally you need to rebuild your macros as .txt files and make in-game macro that links to the file on each character.

    I find it a lot more useful to store macros in .txt as you also don't need to update spell names if you will get newer version (explanation: game client will always cast the highest available version of the spell as long as you will leave spell name without number in the .txt file - however you will need to relog after gaining new spell). What's more macro files are resistant to server errors which, although rarely can happen and spoil macros with random skills and item links.
  15. Nektar New Member

    I am trying to make an ALIAS command to launch a URL (so I can check my DKP). I can do it if I type the command in game... the following commands work fine:

    /browser http://www.amazon.com (not really my URL, but as an example)...that launches the URL in question.
    The following command also works:
    /shell_open www.amazon.com

    So... knowing that those work...I can do this IN GAME and it sets up my /dkp alias like this:

    /alias dkp:browser www.amazon.com (uses in-game browser)
    or
    /alias dkp:shell_open www.amazon.com (uses external default browser)

    Now, if I try to put the same lines in eq2.ini (I know to omit the first SLASH) so it looks like this:

    alias dkp:browser www.amazon.com
    or
    alias dkp:shell_open www.amazon.com

    If I do those in eq2.ini and type /dkp in the game, it says invalid command...

    I have a similar thing in eq2.ini for making my game go full screen with a windowless border... its in eq2.ini like so:

    alias fsw:show_window MainHUD.Browser.FSW

    alias fswoff:show_window MainHUD.Browser.RestoreFrame
    (it only works if you have darqui unified loaded I think) but those commands in eq2.ini allow me to type /fsw or /fswoff with no problem. It seems I just cannot get an ALIAS command in the eq2.ini if its trying to launch a URL. I only seem to be able to set that up from in-game. Anyone have any idea if this is possible, or if I am doing anything wrong?
    Thanks!
  16. Grumpy_Warrior It's a KILT, dang it!

    There is also a /browserexternal command, see if that works any better. The URL needs to start with www for some reason. It works with http:// or https:// from the chat window, but those break the command if you try to put them into eq2.ini. I'm assuming it's the slashes that cause the breakage.