Thread: The ;target alias and you! (A Guide to Target Macros)

I've decided to make a post on how to setup the ;target alias to use as a macro for Mez, target focusing, healing, etc. Every group I've joined since the Bk10 patch has asked me how I made my Mez alias, and I'm tired of repeating the same explanation over and over again, so here it is:

I'll use my Mez macro as an example, since Turbine doesn't allow wait commands or any use of skills in alias' you can only create a text macro to let everyone in your fellowship/raid know what you are doing.

To create a new alias, type:
/alias add ;aliasname <alias commands>

Now for my mez alias, I want to let my group know what target I'm mezzing, so I type the following:
/alias add ;meztarget /f -=[ Mezzing ;target ]=-

So now I have the alias ;meztarget which when used will output -=[ Mezzing <name of what I have targetted> ]=- to the fellowship channel.

Obviously, typing ;meztarget everytime I want my fellowship to know what I'm mezzing is tedious, so we will want to bind this to a button on our quickslot bars.

There are 6 quickslot bars, numbered 1 - 72, 1 being the first slot on the first bar, 72 being the last slot on bar 4 (12 slots per bar). Now I have alot of skills on my quickslots already, so I'm going to want to put this Mez alias on the first slot of my 4th bar, which would be slot #37.

Using the shortcut command, we type:
/shortcut 37 ;meztarget

This will place the ;meztarget alias into the 37th quickslot. Now, be sure when you place your alias into the quickslot bar using the shortcut command, that you ARE NOT TARGETTING ANYTHING. Otherwise it will automatically take your targetted value and store that in the quickslot instead of the ;target alias.

Now when I run CD, or what have you, it's just 1 click and my fellowship knows that I'm -=[ Mezzing Gorthog Flayer ]=-


Hope this helps some of you out,
Good luck and happy adventuring,
Asche
LV50 Burglar, Firefoot

Very helpful info, thank you. I have used limited shortcuts before but never knew about using ;target. I appreciate your taking the time to post that info.

Reporting for sticky, a very handy guide/tips

Couldn't you accomplish the same thing by "/shortcut 37 /f Mezzing ;target"?

I am using one that I made for RP purposes that was simply "/shortcut 38 /em quickly nods in greeting to ;target", which, when pressed, actually emotes "Perth quickly nods in greeting to Nightravyn". I still get many question about a /nod command though .

Cheers.

Now if we could just change the icon of the shortcut

Wasn't there another guide out there about this too? A link would be appreciated..

Originally Posted by Arkinian

Now if we could just change the icon of the shortcut

QFE... that is the hardest thing about shortcuts. You have to memorize where each one is because so little shows in the icon button.

Great info, ill have to look into it, when I get home from work.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by Illbeyourhuckleberry

Great info, ill have to look into it, when I get home from work.

Thanks.

Ditto, awesome post.

Originally Posted by Nightravyn

Hope this helps some of you out,
Good luck and happy adventuring,
Asche
LV50 Burglar, Firefoot

Yeahhh, firefoot! Thanks man, this could be really useful!

excellent post, one thing though.. why limit yourself to 48? there are actually 72 quickslots....

I use qs 64->72 for emote alias' like /wave /bow etc....

ie /shortcut 72 /wave

Originally Posted by Madduck

excellent post, one thing though.. why limit yourself to 48? there are actually 72 quickslots....

I use qs 64->72 for emote alias' like /wave /bow etc....

ie /shortcut 72 /wave

Guess I've just never needed more than 4 thus far, but edited initial post to reflect this, thanks.

Marvelous post! Highly recommend a sticky!

Heh...so they finally reenabled the ;target...Thanks Turbine...(never fully understood why they disabled it)

;t /tell ;target
;i /invite ;target

;plt /f I'm getting ready to pull the Left ;target
;prt /f I'm getting ready to pull the Right ;target
;pct /f I'm getting ready to pull the Center ;target

;ht /f I'm healing ;target

Thanks for stickying this. and thank you guys for putting this in!!

If anyone doesn't mind me dredging up an older post..

Another thing that you can do is hide macros on bar 5 (if you aren't using it) and bind keys to it. IE, I have one of my left mouse buttons bound to a macro that does "/readycheck". This is useful if you are about to pull something or go into an instanced quest and you want to make sure everyone's there, ready. I also made Ctrl F bound to /follow so that I could have a command that I used so much in DAOC. =D Hope this helps!

I set up a meztarget alias the other day but now I have a funny looking icon that only states that I'm mezzing my selected target.

Is there a way to bind this message to my actual skill icon so when I click my skill it will simultaneously display the mez message? The way it works now I have to click the mez message icon and then click the mez skill.

Originally Posted by vegravolin

I set up a meztarget alias the other day but now I have a funny looking icon that only states that I'm mezzing my selected target.

Is there a way to bind this message to my actual skill icon so I when I click my skill it will simultaneously display the mez message? The way it works now I have to click the mez message icon and then click the mez skill.

I don't believe you can actually do anything useful like that ... sorry

Unfortunately, Turbine hasn't included any commands to connect alias' with the use of actual skills, and I doubt it will be coming anytime soon. Wish they would reconsider.

Thank you. Excellent stuff.
Your sticky posted on http://guildofventurers.com/

My kinship thanks you for this information, too.

I can place a keyboard key? Ex. G

Tks

I'll also concur that you don't need to use an alias if you're going to be binding it to a shortcut key later.

/shortcut 61 /f <--Mezzing ;target -->
/shortcut 62 /f <--Dawn of the Deep!! 1) Phil Blue 2) Tori Yellow 3) Joe Green 4) Mark Red 5) Susie Blue 6) Joe Yellow

Then go into your Keymapping options and bind slot 61 to R and slot 62 to F and you'll have those blurbs bound to your keys.

Originally Posted by Atreides

I'll also concur that you don't need to use an alias if you're going to be binding it to a shortcut key later.

/shortcut 61 /f <--Mezzing ;target -->
/shortcut 62 /f <--Dawn of the Deep!! 1) Phil Blue 2) Tori Yellow 3) Joe Green 4) Mark Red 5) Susie Blue 6) Joe Yellow

Then go into your Keymapping options and bind slot 61 to R and slot 62 to F and you'll have those blurbs bound to your keys.

Very nice...

Tks man!

I have only played a hunter (and just started a burglar)

Can you provide and example where a hunter would want to do this? All my skills fit on the default bars that show up when I open my sacks. But at L35 I am almost full.

Can someone think of a hunter macro that would work this way? Thanks

Is there a list of all of the shortcut/alias/macros somewhere?

Do the ;target work with g15 G keys?

Originally Posted by Atreides

I'll also concur that you don't need to use an alias if you're going to be binding it to a shortcut key later.

You are right, you don't have to, but it is helpful in that it allows you to choose what text is displayed in the shortcut slot, and make it more descriptive. For example, I use the following:

/alias ;map ;loc
/alias shortcut ;map 48

This creates an alias called "map" that illicits the ;loc command, then binds it to quickslot bar, position 48. The button says "map" in it, so I know what it is. With my screen resolution, you can only see about 3 1/2 characters - so it helps if you're good at abbreviating :-)

Originally Posted by Gaelivor

I have only played a hunter (and just started a burglar)

Can you provide and example where a hunter would want to do this?

Not sure about useful Hunter aliases, but for your Burglar, you might want to make one that informs your Fellowship of which target you want to Riddle.

NOTE: After you create the shortcut, you can drag the icon/button/whatever to any quickslot position that you'd like.

When you're not in the chat box and you type the numbers 1 - 0 on your keyboard, it executes that skill based on what you have slotted.

Is there any way to bind that to the keyboard?

For example, I have a Fear skill slotted to number 2 on my main quickslots bar

/alias ;fear 2

But if I were to type ;fear I would say the number 2, rather than execute skill 2, any way to change that?

I could have sworn I'd posted in here. I guess I'd been indulging in too much wine...

Anyways, thanks for stickying this, it's really helpful!

I have 2 questions: One - which is only semi-related to this - how do you access the last range of hotkeys? The ones after the Shift+, Ctl+ or Alt+ ranges?

Two: Emotes have two different actions, based on wether or not you have a target selected. Is there any way of getting similar behavior with an alias? For example, Melawil is from Lindon, and sings a great deal. I have some shortcuts set up that do things like "/me sings brightly in Sindarin", and some others that do things like "/me sings to ;target". I'd ideally like to be able to set up a single alias that does the first emote if no target is selected, and the second if there is a target selected.

Cheers,
- M

I'd like to use these on raids, but I have no idea if there's a text command to select the raid channel, like there is for fellowship, lff, trade, etc. Anyone know how to specify the raid channel from the keyboard?

The raid channel is accessed by /ra

For ;loc I was having trouble with the always being replaced by the location I created the macro at, and not updating as I moved about. What I did, was to create the macro in a house (any instance where ;loc doesn't work would be fine), and then assign it to a key.

I created:

/t <char name> ;loc

so that I wasn't broadcasting my loc in the say/fellow/kin/other channels by accident, which I used to do all the time.

Ty sooo much for this I kept looking for something called a Macro, but it was called an alias all along xD Now there needs to be a way to add the skill to the alias.

Originally Posted by Jesslynn

Ty sooo much for this I kept looking for something called a Macro, but it was called an alias all along xD Now there needs to be a way to add the skill to the alias.

Yes, I agree. I do not see what the problem would be, adding skills and making them true macros. I have played many MMOs with marcos in them, and everything worked fine, with no exploits or other unpleasantness.

Originally Posted by Nightravyn

...Every group I've joined since the Bk10 patch has asked me how I made my Mez alias, and I'm tired of repeating the same explanation over and over again...

Cant you just create a ;explainaliases To create a new alias... ?

On the real though, a very helpful guide.

This is great, thanks.

Someone asked if you can bind this to G15. The only way I have found is to first bind it to a key and then bind that key to G15

I asked about linking macros (wave, cower, etc.) to keys. I was referred back to this thread.

But I do not undertand the original post at all.

The example has some macro that apparently results in the character saying text, telling his fellowship in the chatbox that he is about to res some bad guy.

In the example the macro is linked to slot #37.

But what do you actually type and where do you type it to make that #37 slot go off? I do not have a #37 button on my PC. All my number keys are linked to my main toolbar and all my keyes seem set up to default macros, including most Cntrl+Key keys.

From his example it sounds like you end up typing as much to make the macro go off as it would take to say "/fellowship: Hey everybody! I am about to Mez that big hairry one on the left!"

Can someone, in plain Westron, explain how I would set up a key command so something like Alt+b would result in my character doing the Bow macro?

Or if it does not work that way, what I CAN do so that I just hit a key or two to make my character bow to someone else without my having to hit Enter and type /bow.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Gaelivor

I asked about linking macros (wave, cower, etc.) to keys. I was referred back to this thread.

But I do not undertand the original post at all.

The example has some macro that apparently results in the character saying text, telling his fellowship in the chatbox that he is about to res some bad guy.

In the example the macro is linked to slot #37.

But what do you actually type and where do you type it to make that #37 slot go off? I do not have a #37 button on my PC. All my number keys are linked to my main toolbar and all my keyes seem set up to default macros, including most Cntrl+Key keys.



Thanks!

i think what they are saying, is you set up the quickslot that the OP had said. you do that by using the chat window to set it up. then when it is set up, you click on the quickslot that you set it up on. for instance, if you used quickslot #1 to set up the emote "waves", then when you click on that quickslot you will wave. i haven't tried to use my quickslots this way yet (haven't taken the time to do it yet) but i can see this as very useful as a ministrel in healing a fellowship.

Originally Posted by Gaelivor

I asked about linking macros (wave, cower, etc.) to keys. I was referred back to this thread.

But I do not undertand the original post at all.

The example has some macro that apparently results in the character saying text, telling his fellowship in the chatbox that he is about to res some bad guy.

In the example the macro is linked to slot #37.

But what do you actually type and where do you type it to make that #37 slot go off? I do not have a #37 button on my PC. All my number keys are linked to my main toolbar and all my keyes seem set up to default macros, including most Cntrl+Key keys.

From his example it sounds like you end up typing as much to make the macro go off as it would take to say "/fellowship: Hey everybody! I am about to Mez that big hairry one on the left!"

Can someone, in plain Westron, explain how I would set up a key command so something like Alt+b would result in my character doing the Bow macro?

Or if it does not work that way, what I CAN do so that I just hit a key or two to make my character bow to someone else without my having to hit Enter and type /bow.

Thanks!

What the poster above me said. The slot #37 is a quickbar slot, the same place that you place all your skills, so you can just click on them to use them. This will place the macro of your choice into the quickslot bar specified. So you don't need to type anything, simply just click on the quickbar slot and it will perform your macro.

Originally Posted by Jesslynn

Ty sooo much for this I kept looking for something called a Macro, but it was called an alias all along xD Now there needs to be a way to add the skill to the alias.

Originally Posted by Davids_Sling

Yes, I agree. I do not see what the problem would be, adding skills and making them true macros. I have played many MMOs with marcos in them, and everything worked fine, with no exploits or other unpleasantness.

Actually the reason you cannot bind a skill to it to make it a true alias is to prevent exactly that. Using such functions is one of the easiest ways to create a bot. And this is something turbine has gone to lengths to prevent.

So please be careful in assigning things to your G15 (those that have them) and be content to just assign the alias.

(personally I would like the skill attached too, and being a programmer could certainly experiment in doing such, but I instead am restraining myself to hoping they get around to including such a function)