Emote your heart out!!

[Pen N Popper]

Tired of trying to type in battle? Tired of repeating your introduction to the umpteenth person? I have the solution right here!

Those of you that have travelled with my PCs were probably thinking to yourself, "That fellow can type up a storm!" While I can do that, I've added to my repetoire by taking advantage of this nifty software: AutoHotkey - Free Mouse and Keyboard Macro Program with Hotkeys and AutoText.

This free bit of software allows you to write rather complicated hotkeys and macros. The nice thing is that it can intercept the keystrokes before they reach your game.

Take my paladin of Vorax, Wanark. He had a dozen or more short blessings that he'd say (some in dwarven) when just prior to casting bless or equipping his waraxe. Then he had longer blessings that even included him kneeling. Finally, he had the entire Vorax paladin credo he'd use when he visited the temple. All of these I had assigned to hotkeys outside the game. Brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it? Beautiful.

I'll give an example from my current PC that you can use to build your own set. (Careful of line wrapping if you cut&paste into your own file.)

;; ------------------------------------------
;; A utility routine to say something
;;
Say(s)
{
global prefix

SendInput {Enter}
Sleep 250
IfInString, s, /tp
SendInput {Raw}%s%
else
SendInput {Raw}%prefix%%s%
SendInput {Enter}
}

;; ------------------------------------------
;; This will send yourself a tell with some help
;;
::/o help::
SendInput {Raw}/tp "Pen N Popper" name, description, wearing, ^f
Send {Enter}
return

;; -------------------------------------------
;; Give your name
;;
::/o name::
SendInput {Raw}rolan tennesen... *bows* sellsword in the employ of the freelancers
Send {Enter}
return


;; ------------------------------------------
;; A random color emote of walking along
;;
^g::
Random, num, 1, 5
if ( num == 1 )
Say("*hurries along at an uneven pace, pausing now and then to catch breath*")
else if ( num == 2 )
Say("*moves along at a steady pace*")
else if ( num == 3 )
Say("*hurries along, gaze taking in his surroundings*")
else if ( num == 4 )
Say("*marches along with quick strides, sounding a bit out of breath*")
else if ( num == 5 )
Say("*moves at a deliberate pace*")

Sleep 100
SendInput {LControl}
return

I save this to a file called "rolan.ahk" and then run it. Ingame, when I hit Ctrl-g a random description of walking will be sent. When I type in /o description the verbose description of Rolan is output.

You can see that this can have as much flavor as you can think of. It is especially handy during battle when all I have to do is type Ctrl-f for a fight emote. (I even have it setup to fill in which weapon he is using to the emotes are correct.)

Good luck!

[Tanman]

OK. PnP I don't know where you get this stuff from but this is brilliant.

[gilshem ironstone]

Not only do I not know where you get this stuff, but how do you know how to use it? Wait is that the development team laughing at me?

[Hellblazer]

Man thank you very much.

[Stephen_Zuckerman]

Originally Posted by gilshem ironstone

Not only do I not know where you get this stuff, but how do you know how to use it? Wait is that the development team laughing at me?

Actually, I'm hesitant about trying to use this, myself. I'm not sure about the actual application of this...

[Tanman]

Stephen, basically its an extension of the text macro in NWN, except that it is far more powerful. You can just run a macro, and all of a sudden, the program will randomly select certain phrases that you have preselected, or you can hotkey it.

So in essence you are not tired down to the quickslots in NWN to run your text macros.

[Hruby]

P N P,

You rock as always. Kurgin has all his slots filled with Cleric Spells. This will help tremendously.

[Falonthas]

so do we need to do anything special for this and can it be assigned for each character or only one

[Pen N Popper]

The way I have it set up, each of my PCs have their own ahk file. I then browse to the files and double-click on them to get them running. This will put a little green H in the Windows toolbar. Right-clicking on that allows you to suspend the ones you're not currently playing. Just keep one script active to match your current PC.

[gilshem ironstone]

Originally Posted by Stephen_Zuckerman

Actually, I'm hesitant about trying to use this, myself. I'm not sure about the actual application of this...

Yeah I have seen PnP use them many a time. Like when he did "The Book of Five Rings" series. Those were all done using this software.

[Hellblazer]

oy macros!!! runs and hide.

[bowfreak]

Do you write and save this file to your NWN folder? When do you run it...before or after you load NWN? This is sweet, the macros dont give enough room to -really- say or emote what you want without cutting it up to fit, or trying to squeeze it in multiple slots.

You used this with Aeron and Yzar at the Crimson Memorial, and this is exactly what I thought..."That fellow can type up a storm!"

[darkstorme]

It runs independently of NWN, so you install it, and then any .ahk file will execute on double-click. Generally speaking, you should activate it before you start NWN.

That being said, I've taken to editing my files on the fly, so I activate and deactivate it throughout a play session.

Edit: I'd forgotten the reason I originally was going to post! Props to PnP for such a useful program!

[Faldred]

Originally Posted by darkstorme

It runs independently of NWN, so you install it, and then any .ahk file will execute on double-click. Generally speaking, you should activate it before you start NWN.

Can it be launched form the command line? That would be sweet, as I can then just add it to the batch files I use for starting NWN for Layo...

[darkstorme]

There's a nifty little feature in AHK itself which allows you to compile an AHK file into an .exe. I would guess that if you did that, you could then launch it from the command line, though I don't have the program here to try right now.

Even so, I'd imagine it's possible.

[pejsaboy]

Once I got past the formatting, this thing is absolutely great! Thanks for the link

[Masterjack]

*bump for the new players*

My son set it up for me. He has it so all have to do is hit Crtl + L and NWN launches and loads right into layo. Don't ask me how to do it, I have no idea.