Binds

This article is a stub. You can help the Wiki by expanding it.

Overview

A bind is a reference for the game to understand what a particular key does. Almost every command in the game is inputted through a Bind of some variety. The keys the game uses for basic controls are bound to commands, and through these, the game understands the commands you input. When you re-organise your keyboard through the options interface, the game interface is re-binding keys for you.

For example, by default:

• "W" is bound to the command +forward.
• "1" is bound to powexecslot 1.
• "F7" is bound to "say <color black><bgcolor #22aa22>Ready! $$ emote thumbsup".

In the above example, note that "F7" has the $$ marker in it. This tells the game that it is actually 2 commands, separated by "$$", and that it's to execute them in order. You can change a bind through using the /bind command, or through bindfiles.

For a more in-depth study on uses of Binds, consult The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to /bind.

Bind Files

Bind Files are simple, flat text files, which list a number of binds in a standardised format. This can allow you to load up multiple binds - or different sets of binds - for a character. You can even use load bind files as part of a bind, allowing you to have cycling commands, or even a rudimentary menu system through the use of binds.

The simplest way to make a Bind File is through using the /bindsave command. This will create a text file keybinds.txt in your City Of Heroes directory. Then, you can load that using /bindload. For the most part, this is all you need to transfer a standard key configuration from one character to another. However, for more specific binds - such as power-specific ones, or binds that include dialogue or emotes appropriate to the character - this might be inappropriate.

If you want to save a file specifically for a character, or create a file out of game to load multiple binds at once with ease, you can use the /bindsavefile and /bindloadfile commands. These work almost the same as /bindsave and /bindload, except you need to reference a particular file. If you execute /bindsavefile Charactername.txt, it will export the binds for that character to the file City Of Heroes\Data\Charactername.txt. /bindloadfile Charactername.txt, however, will not look in that directory, looking instead in City Of Heroes\Piggs for the file.