Part 1: Different kinds of macros
Part 2: use of special characters to program macros.
Part 3: Tips on commonly used macro strings.
Part 4: Recommended Macros for Mages
Part 5: Insight in my macro-world, for all who keep asking me, how I do this.
by Magus Sodagayo, Leoni's Ambassador, Year 170
PART 1: DIFFERENT KINDS OF MACROS
One can use several keys to adjust macros for all different kinds of needs.
First of all, there are 3 macro layouts. 1) The INGAME macros (type macros and help macros to see), are placed on the numbers 0-9.
2) the hotkeys programmed in the wizard on alt and ctrl key-combinations.
3) the hotkeys programmed in the wizard on F-keys. You can program macros on F-Keys in combination with shift, Alt, Ctrl. Also you can set 10 different sets for the F-keys. Change the set by ALT-. Example: If F-key macros set 5 is called hunting in pass, hit ALT-5 once you start hunting in pass.
The type 1) macros are programmed ***IN GAME*** by submitting them to the engine.
The type 2) and 3) macros are defined in the wizard program on your own computer. In your wizard window look in configuration-macros.
Comments:
to 1) These macros are special, as once you entered 5 and hit enter, the game engine itself will look what macro you put there, then doing the complete thing itself. When you are lagged, these macros work better.
On the other hand the engine works thru these macros with a bit delay, as it processes these macros in 2 steps: First it is recognized as a macro and looked up, then it is applied. So you may end up messing your macros by squeezing new commands inbetween. Solution to this: Organize macros which have the whole string of action in one.
Example:
macro 5 pack right
macro 6 wield sword
You hit 5-enter. The engine looks up the macro, THEN applies it. If you hit 6-enter right away, the engine gets this between looking up macro 5 and doing it, starting to process macro 6, thus getting "confused" macro 5 p right;;wield sword
**Note: a double semicolon will add up several commands to be processed in a row. This will always work. You can use it when typing next commands (ie. gwave;;qq), use it in all the macros you set. Details later.
To 2)These two sets (Alt and Ctrl) will always be the same, so I recommend using them similar like the 0-9 macros for stuff you do all the time.
To 3) Use the F-keys for stuff you need QUICK. These are the only true hotkeys. program F1 aim;;charge&, and you will aim or charge by simply hitting F1. You will literally need only one finger. (The & is explained in chapter 2. It's a special macro key for the wizard.)
If you want, use the 10 possible F-key sets, for different situations. Like for hunt vs. pub vs. guild. or for different locations, so you always have the stunners macroed, that are in these areas.
PART TWO: USE OF SPECIAL CHARACTERS TO PROGRAM MACROS
1.) Semicolon. The most important characters are the double-semicolon ;;. This is the only special key which is recognized by the engine itself. Use it whereever you want, your added up commands are submitted as ONE string, and the engine will work it out.
**Caution: Do NOT enter another command until at least a second later. Else, the engine will squeeze the new command inbetween.
Example: I programmed two macros to walk me to the entrance to cats2. Its e, n, s, se, and whatever else directions lined up with ;; inbetween. As this is long, I needed to make it two macros. Depending on lag, the engine needs up to 3 seconds to process either one. (trust me, it's as fast as compassing). So if I enter both macros too quick after another, they will get messed up bringing me to 3 arms or whereever. Solution: Wait a moment, before submitting the next macros, if your macros are long. Also the Spam filter will require more breaks. Else yer macros get eaten up "spam filtered"
***NOTE: All following characters can ONLY be used in the wizard macros. Period.***
2.) The et-sign. The et-sign & is a key telling your wizard, to submit a macro right away, WITHOUT waiting for your approval by hitting enter.
Example: the macro F1 aim;;ch& will make your wizard submit aim;;ch to the engine, once you hit F1.
If you leave the & out, the programmed macro will appear in your command prompt. Very useful if you keep hunting with someone called rashingfrashinggrabbing. Make a macro like ALT-R rashingfrashinggrabbing and whenever he needs guard, type guard, then hit ALT-R then hit enter. If you want to message him, type message ALT-R .
3.) The Tilde The Tilde ~ tells your wizard to add a one second delay inbetween macros. You can add several ~ to add up to a longer delay.
Examples:
CTRL-H cast heal&~~~~~t& Assumed your heal spell delay is 5 seconds, this macro will heal yourself.
CTRL-P poison sodagayo&~~~~~~~~~~hide& this will poison sodagayo's blade and autohide after. Of course hiding first is more of a style for most rogues.
Think about following ones and their differences:
hide&poison sodagayo&
hide;;poison sodagayo&
hide&tell sodagayo
The first one will submit two commands, the second one will submit one command, and the last one will submit the hide and prompt you with "tell sodagayo" so you can start telling him things right away.
4.) The at-sign The at-sign @ will place your cursor someplace in a macro.
This is most useful for autotags:
F4 sh @
Whenever you hit F4 the sh command with the autotag will appear on your prompt, having the cursor right at the shout-message spot. I hit F4 and type what I want to shout right away, and tada, one enter without a second look, my shout appears the way you are used to it.
5.) The question mark The question mark ? will make the wizard use the same string several times.
Example: ALT-C hug ?;;cuddle ?;;snuggle ?;;tickle ?;;giggle&
When you hit ALT-C you will be prompted with a window. Enter sod in this window, and then you will hug, cuddle snuggle and tickle me and burst in giggle, all in one series of action.
PART THREE: TIPS ON COMMONLY USED MACRO STRINGS
There are a lot of tips for the advanced user. If chapter one and two were news to you, go out and try this. Learning by doing is the best for macros. And when you got different scenarios to work, then come back and read this. If chapter one and two was boring to you, you *might* find new hints in here.
Charging is defaulted to attack when advanced. You have a ch& hotkey, but when already advanced do better with aim? And you are tired of waiting to get to program the NUMPAD 5 from a (attack) to aim, whenever the wizard is updated for this feature?
Solution: make your hotkey aim;;ch& *if* you can live with the resulting scroll.
Working with delay (~~~) and messing your inputs? You use macros like: p right;;g chest;;cast 21&~~~~~~t chest& and end up with submitting smilet chest and getting "command not recognized"? Or with shouting: "You are right, Astert chest".
Solution: add another &: p right;;g chest;;cast 21&~~~~~~&t chest&. whatever you tried to do, while the wizard waits your delay time to unlock the chest, the & infront of the new commands, will make your wizard hit enter for you. So you might accidentally only shout half a message, but a) the target command will work, and b) the t chest wont appear in your shout.
changing the weapon ending up with 8 second delay? You use macros like p right;;wield ruby bladed sword because the ruby sword has a hold enchant and the cyclops is beating you up, hit the aim;;ch macro after, and actually aimed after packing your bastard sword, and before wielding the ruby sword, so you get a 8 second delay because bare hand is martial arts and you are a fighter? And you die in these 8 seconds?
Solution: Make macros like: p right;;wield ruby bladed sword;;aim;;ch. Relax, you will get the hold enchant out and get the cyclops held. Use the same way for switch back, so you wont waste your enchant.
You fight in cats2, and dont want to hold anything that is advanced on you, but the banrog?
Prepare a p right;;wield ruby bladed sword;;aim banrog demon;;ch banrog demon. This will scroll a bit, but also prevent you from holding a hob goblin, because your hunting mate already finished the rog.
Kill stunners. I find it most useful to enter stunners' names in the configuration-highlight strings-user defined names menu and make them all look purple (or whatever else than red). So you see when stunners enter the room in one glance. If you then happen to have a macro set like:
ch giant spider;;ch mouther;;ch stun jelly;;aim crocodile;;ch imp you are pretty much on the safe side. Especially after retreating to an adjacent room. (Note: It is aim/attack on the crocodile, so ye wont charge it by mistake, and get stunned, but only kill it when it ALREADY advanced you)
You also may think about adding another ch in the end: ch giant spider;;ch mouther;;ch stun jelly;;aim crocodile;;ch imp;;ch. In case you need to battle yourself free first, or your party already got all stunners, this way you wont waste time by reading the scroll telling you, "there are no hostile creatures in the room".
Use run and walk. If you have lure-macros, or run-to-locations-macros, put run in front, and walk near the end:
examples: CTRL-S run;;s;;n;;walk;;s;;n&
CTRL-F1 run;;w;;w;;w;;w;;w&~&w;;w;;w;;w;;w;;w&~&w;;w;;s;;s;;s;;walk*~&e&. This will bring you from recall to forgrims.
(The delay was added due to the Spam filter)
You can add group at the end of macros, that walk you to pass, to check, whether you have lost members of your party. You can add follow soda;;guard sodagayo in the end of a lure macro, and aim;;ch as well. ***Make sure that commands that cause delay (like charge) are the very last ones. If you want to auto-pick up gold, make it g gold;;ch not the other way round.
You macroed your way from forgrims into sewers and back and it isn't working? Using items (like the crowbar in this case) is supplying an answer to a quest, a so-called CHANT. CHANTs will only work if submitted as ONE command.
Solution:
ALT-F1 run;;w;;n;;n;;n;;n&~&n;;n;;n;;n;;hold crowbar&use crowbar&~&d;;e;;se;;walk;;se;;ch& Note: the "use crowbar" has a return (the &) in front and right behind. Hence it is submitted as ONE single command and will work.
Macros like the sewer one above still don't work. Of course. The engine was a tiny bit lagged, so your "use crowbar" was already applied before you ever reached the manhole.
Solution: ALT-F1 run;;w;;n;;n;;n;;n&~&n;;n;;n;;n;;hold crowbar&~&use crowbar&d;;e;;se;;walk;;se&. The delay-~ was added below the CHANT now, so the CHANT comes AFTER the engine processed the previous macro-string.
PART FOUR: RECOMMENDED MACROS FOR MAGES
Of course Mages is what I am expert in, so here goes:
Set hotkeys for your spells: Example:
F1 cast 1& (that's fireflames)
F2 cast 4& (that's chill)
F3 cast 7& (thats zap)
F4 cast 10& (that's ensnare)
F5 cast 31& (that's heal)
F7 retreat&
F8 rest&
**Note: The most important ones (ensnare/heal; retreat/rest) are put on the F-Keys next to a gap. Saves you reaction time.
Add rest in practiacally EVERY macro you do. Resting the most possible of times, will grant you the most chances to be resting when another pulse comes around.
Example:
F1 cast 1;;rest& (In case you already have a fireflames cast, you will rest instead)
CTRL-W w;;e;;w;;e;;t ogre;;rest& (you lure to west, having ensnare cast, and when you come back you snare any ogre that appeared and rest right away. The only time you don't rest here is during the time needed for the lure, without lag thats practically no time at all)
Add t;; in front of your spell macros. Example:
F1 t;;cast 1;;rest& etc.
This way, whenever you decide to cast a fireflames spell, you will *at least* put the spell you had readied before to use, if it's possible. Assume you had cast heal before, and are hurt yourself, you will heal yourself and cast fireflames without lost time in-between. Use this principle to hunt.
Scenario:
Cast ensnare by t;;cast 10;;rest&, then lure. An ogre enters. Hit t;;cast 1;;rest& thus ensnaring the ogre and casting fireflames. Hit the same key again, thus toasting first half of the ogre and casting a new fireflames. Now hit the ensnare macro, finishing the ogre and casting a new ensnare for the orc, who keeps firing at you. Now hit t;;cast 31;;rest& snaring the orc, casting a heal. proceed with the fireflames macro, healing yourself, and getting the fireballs ready to finish the orc, while he is snared.
Have a set with macros that include retreat.
use the same principle as above, adding re;; inside.
Example:
F1 t;;re;;cast 1;;rest& This is the best way to stay untouched. You will EITHER retreat, OR cast a fireflames spell, *if* you are NOT advanced.
You can figure out macros to change the runes in your staff (wield staff;;break;;activate rune&~~&swap;;mix&), to mix runes, rings and whatever else.
An Idiot proof draught/paste macro for the precious spell points (aye, spam proof as well) is:
t;;p left;;hold paste of the spirit;;eat paste;;hold draught of the gods;;drink potion&~~~&p left;;wield shield&
PART FIVE: INSIGHT IN SODAGAYO'S MACRO WORLD
Hehe. here goes. Figure out why I did those this way and what they do yourself and enjoy! A hint for the first two: they are bleeding-proof (for those using the older wizards)
F1: say ^V@^N
F2: em ^C@^N
F4: sh ^V@ ^W{^RRa^Vi^Yn^Gbo^Cw Sodagayo^N}
The secret's out: SHIFT-F4: sh ^w:: ^Wwaves his ^RW^YE^yL^gC^GO^CM^cE ^V? ^Wflag ^w::& ALT-G: guildsummon ?;;greet ?&
ALT-R: activate Mage's Guild ring&~~&n;;dr shield;;p rose;;buy 1;;wear ring;;wield rose;;g shield&
CTRL-A: sh ^W:: waves a ^CI am back ^RRealm ! ^Wflag :: {^RRa^Vi^Yn^Gbo^Cw Sodagayo^W}&~gsh ^V:: waves a ^RMages are GREAT! ^Vflag ::^N&
ems ^Cknees tremble as his heart ^Vskips ^Ca beat or two or three.^N&
yem do the ^RS^rE^RC^rR^RE^rT ^cMacros! ^wsign. ^NYe ponder what that might mean. ^CIt's all their fault! ^Nhe blurts.& g all scroll;;g all small aquamarine;;g all chest;;g stick;;g all strongbox;;clean&
gsh ^VBe sure tae check the ^CMages Message Boards^V, ^YGNOTICES ^Vand ^YGUILDVOTE^V regularly.&
P.S. On Spam Filter
The Spam filter will only allow 6 commands at a time. This means, using wizard macros you can add up up to 6 different commands in a row (combined with either ;; or & operators). It does not matter, how long the single commands are. Two commands added by ;; are however two commands, as the engine will split them apart again.
When you use the INGAME macros (0-9), you can only use 5 commands in a string. This is because the engine will decipher the number (0-9) as a macro, which is the first command, so only 5 commands are left, to be processed right away.
If you need to add more commands than these six together, you will have to add ~ in-between.
