As we know, /mapmove and /mapmenu are the two ways to get around Paragon Chat without hoofing it to a train or car tunnel or ferries and bridges (which all still work) and are the only way to get to areas under TUNNEL (those yellow portals that you couldn't tell were TUNNEL or just another portal until you clicked on them, especially in places like Talos Island or Cap Au Diable.)
Without those commands, villain zones would be weird to reach (march through a PvP zone to the opposite entrance), and Praetoria would be very difficult (see tunnel above). But macros make these commands much easier to use, and take advantage of all those empty power trays waiting for purpose.
Poor PulseFire. All those trays and no buttons to fill them. What's a Resistance leader to do?
Here's a tip:
Get To Know MacrosThe macro command works with mapmove and mapmenu. Even if you've never used macros before, they're pretty simple in this case:
DON'T TYPE THIS, IT WON'T WORK. EXAMPLE --
/macro XX command
The XX part is a 3-4 letter description you can set. You can go past that, but the macro has enough space as the width of a slot on your power tray with the text centered. If you type "HoldTorch" you'll likely see "dTo" on the macro button which would be confusing. (If you're cool with that, mousing over the macro gives the full name.) Try an acronym or abbreviation instead.
So, yes, Macros are useful for emotes as this is how most people would use them:
"/macro DS e ccdimensionshift" (I'll write commands you type into the chatbox in quotes: don't type those, just type what's inside of them.
)
When entering a command after the description, don't enter another slash ("e" works, "/e" gives an error). So this would equal "/e ccdimensionshift" or "/emote ccdimensionshift" if you like typing commands out fully.
Notice the grey button that blinked into existence next to your powers in Tray 1? This is your macro at work. This would make a nifty little "Power Rangers" kind of effect button that you can click. It runs that emote command for your toon whenever it's pressed.
Finally, macros persist from session to session. When you log out, they don't go anywhere. Come back to Paragon Chat, and they'll be sitting there waiting for you. You'll never have to remember an emote again if you like. (Those in RP can see the immediate value of this, but emotes aren't in the scope of this post.)
Instant TransportationMacros can hold any command, not just emotes. (Of course, understanding that Paragon Chat has a subset of slash commands that work, not the full complement that ran when City of Heroes was live.
Here's the list.)
Type the following into your chat box (without quotes):
"/macro PCTA mapmenu"
It's a button you can press to call up mapmenu wherever you want without typing it in. If you log off of your toon, the button will be waiting for you when you get back to them. (Macros aren't created across your account: making a button in one toon doesn't affect others.) We'll get back to this in a second.
If after you click the button it didn't work, or you got a "Unknown command" message don't panic: you can make corrections to it. Right click the button and choose "Edit." Macros can't be renamed once they're made, however. If you don't like the label, you'd need to right click it and "Remove from Tray" to start over.
Making Zones Closer With 1-Click AccessNow, you also have the other command, mapmove, where you enter a map number and instantly transport to it. We can combine these to make Teleport Buttons in your Power Tray that behave like a "Switchboard" of zones you frequent.
In fact, you can make these in-game without cracking open the Paragon Wiki: just click on the PCTA macro we made earlier, then write the following macro in your chatbox:
"/macro XX mapmove YY"
Where XX is a short 3-4 letter description button, and YY is the mapnumber (the little orange numbers in the PCTA menu of the zone you want to visit, see below). As long as you don't click on a zone in the PCTA Menu, you won't travel there, so it's a handy little reference guide to mapmove. The option to go to the prior menu is at the bottom of the list where it says "<< Back".
Where does this get handy? If there's a particular favorite map you would like to visit, a macro makes it a one-click operation instead of memorizing mapmove numbers. An obvious first step:
"/macro AP mapmove 1"
And you've got an Atlas Park button.
It doesn't seem that bad for hero and villain zones where it's 2 digits and you're probably thinking, "isn't 3-5 zones easy to remember?" But open the mapmenu and choose the "Other" category. This is a PLETHORA of maps from various encounter, newspaper/radio missions, and trial areas that players normally couldn't access without the correct mission in their list. Of particular note is #3 (Cimerora), because without that map, you would need to visit the Midnighter's Club to get there. But the rest of them... yeah.
Get a power tray full of these guys, and you have a Transportation Switchboard of your favorite zones in a single click:
Above, I've made buttons for Atlas Park, Steel Canyon, Talos Island, Peregrine Island, Founders Falls, Faultline, Croatoa, Ouroboros, PocketD and the PCTA Macro I just made (to cover any other zone I didn't make a macro for).
The downside to this approach: these macros are just for one character. If you use multiple characters, you'll need to repeat this for EACH of them. What I did? I use four mains in Paragon Chat: Tahquitz, Elara Kanashibari, Matoaka, and Costume Contest Man. They have the majority of the macros, and they are custom to each toon, with Tahq and CC Man having the most. Everyone else of my 12 character roster have the PCTA button and 2-3 macros of zones they'd frequent and that's it (PulseFire above is a praetorian, so Nova Praetoria, Imperial City and Neutropolis are among hers.) That way, you're not driving yourself nuts making the same 10+ macros for each toon.
I hope that users new to Paragon Chat find this tip helpful.
Going Further: Learn about how macros work in the
Macro page on Paragon Wiki.
The Incomplete and Unofficial Guide to Bind also covers details like multiple command use in a single button, which also applies to Macros. Macros live in your power tray, Binds are attached to a single ("f") or chord keystroke (Shift + "f"). The rules for both are interchangeable: whatever works as a keybind can be turned into a macro and vice versa.
