User:Wendy Black/Arcane Knowledge

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Arcane Knowledge

This is the place to learn about keybinding, game tips, and some general "behind the scenes" items to get the best game play. I won't be discussing hacks, exploits, and other prohibited activities. However the items I do discuss could be eliminated by Cryptic in the future. Many users don't seem to understand the game doesn't belong to us, we are borrowing it from Cryptic. I play the game as they intended so everything on this page is permitted in the game until Cryptic says otherwise. While this is not a page for discussion, feel free to contact me on my talk page, or leave comments in the discussion tab of this page.

Key Binds

• Call up the Socrates Crime Computer

/bind F5 genbuttonclick Hud_Minimap_Socratesbutton

• Call up the Zen/Questionite Exchange

/bind F6 CurrencyExchange

• Access the Tailor from anywhere

/bind F7 gensendmessage Tailor_Root Show

• Swap button to cycle 4 costumes

alias sc1 "setactivecostume 0 0 $$ bind F8 sc2"

alias sc2 "setactivecostume 0 1 $$ bind F8 sc3"

alias sc3 "setactivecostume 0 2 $$ bind F8 sc4"

alias sc4 "setactivecostume 0 3 $$ bind F8 sc1"

Note: You need to wait a few seconds between changes or you will get an error message.

• Use another costume to fly

/bind y "+PowerTrayExec 14$$ setactivecostume 0 0"

/bind t "+PowerTrayExec 14$$ setactivecostume 0 1"

• Same as above but using one key (F for example) as a toggle

/alias land "+PowerTrayExec 14 $$ setactivecostume 0 1 $$ bind f fly"

/alias fly "+PowerTrayExec 14 $$ setactivecostume 0 0 $$ bind f land"

/fly

• I made F12 a quick swap of characters jumping to the selection screen.

/bind F12 gotoCharacterSelect

Nonfunctional Commands

This is a list of commands that don't work 100% or have been rendered useless.

• Access the Exchange House from anywhere - Works for Neverwinter and Star Trek, but not here.

It seems to access the Champion's Auction you MUST be in the market at Millennium City.

This will make the window open but it has no search or posting ability.

/GenSendMessage Auction_Root Show

Combat Parser

Looking for how much damage per second (DPS) you are doing compared to others? A parser takes input data and builds structure, giving a clear representation of the input, checking for correct syntax in the process. Advanced Combat Tracker (ACT for short) is a generic game parser that requires a translation script for each game. You will need someone to either; A) help you make such a script, or B) hope that someone has already made the script.

Sourceforge has CombatLogParser specifically geared to operate for Cryptic's games. Since this program is written in Java, it is a cross platform tool for Windows, MAC, and Linux.

Both parsers mentioned above can analyze your combat log in real time (while you play) or after you are finished and have even logged out of the game. The data they provide allows one to track DPS among other aspects of all entities within gaming area. This gives the player a clear picture into what aspects of their character needs to be developed.

Using Chat to Search for Commands

Most key binds are self evident found in the Options of the game. How did I find the Socrates button? There are some /gen commands to search until you find what you need. I knew Socrates was a button but I started my search typing /gensendmessage soc at this point nothing was showing up. After typing the 3rd letter a prompt normally appears. Typing /gensendmessage hud gave me more than the screen could allow however /gensendmessage hud_soc revealed nothing I started using the alphabet hud_a, hud_b, hud_c, etc.. When I got to the letter m, I found hud_minimap_ next it revealed the rest for me.

You can open it using; /gensendmessage Hud_Minimap_Socratesbutton activate ... but /genbuttonclick is just shorter. Meanwhile I found; /gensendmessage MineSweeper_Root show Displays a Mine Sweeper game. Have fun searching!

Create New Commands with Alias

Alias is a command used to make one or more commands into something quick to type. Here are some examples;

• Use local chat to tell your friends goodnight.

/Alias bye "Say Later, I have to get some sleep now."

• Tell your team thank you.

/Alias ty "team Thanks a bunch!"

• Make a series of quick commands for rapid decisions in combat.

/Alias boss "team I am on the boss, keep the minions busy."

/Alias sout "team Spread out give them more targets."

/Alias grup "team Group up to my position."

/Alias flef "team Flank the enemy on the left."

etc...

In the end it is a lot quicker to type /bye or /ty after all is done.

How to Get Better Screenshots

Currently I play the game on my HP laptop. So my graphics are budgeted. Taking good screen shots are a real chore. But here is what I learned to do making better screen shots.

• Launch the game and get your character ready for their shots but use the lowest GPU settings.
• When you are ready type this command in chat;

/demorecord mydemo

• Run, jump, fly, and swim do all the emotes you like and don't worry about the camera angles or the current quality.
• Type in chat; /demorecordstop
• Exit the game.
• Don't run the launcher. Instead from the live folder run this;

GameClient.exe -demoplay Mydemo.demo

It will load up without asking for password or anything. You are looking at the playback of what you recorded. Pause it anywhere you like and using F2 you can unlock the camera. Fly it around using Right Mouse Button and WASD keys to position it. Now for the real magic...

Use "~" tilde key to bring up a console and type options then enter. Now from the options menu you can amp up the graphics and get some great shots. I get about 10 FPS while in the highest mode. But I am taking still pictures. The quality turns out really great. Here are the known keys for the demo player;

• "~" tilde - Open or Close Console (look up console commands for usage)
• F2 Toggle free camera mode
• F5 Debug Window - I don't know? Lots of buttons.
• F6 Game Budgets - I don't know? Seems to be just information only.
• F7 Simple graphics mode toggle? High - Medium - Low - etc.
• Enter - Start and Stop playback
• Leftarrow - Slow down playback
• Rightarrow - Speed up playback

Apparently, there was all sorts of neat tutorials on this a few years back, but none of them survived, or I would have posted some links. If you have a current link, please share it on the talk page. I looked at some of the more "advanced" features, you can do some kind of camera tracking where it follows a whole new path. Most of the information above was recovered from an archived forum post, "unofficial-guide-to-using-demo-record-for-machinimas" on the official forums. At present, I am still digging through the 8 pages.