Advanced commands

Incoming! - efficient and valuable information in the middle of a match

When playing a FPS, time is of the essence. You have to be able to act and react in a matter of seconds...fractions of seconds even. Getting the right mindset for this is one thing, but you have to be able to move your fingers to the right buttons just as fast. Luckily, computer gamers have an entire keyboard at our disposal, from which all buttons can be bound to specific actions.
If there was one best key setup, then my job here would be easy: I would post this setup and tell everyone to get used to it. Unfortunately, things aren't that easy. Some of us can handle a separate button for each weapon and be able to draw exactly the right tool for the job whenever they want, others prefer to stick with a 'selectbestweapon' bind or even the "nextweapon/previous weapon" from the mousewheel. Some use WASD as their buttons for moving around, others swear by ESDF, RDFG or even use buttons that aren't shaped in cross-pattern. I even know a good player who claims he still plays with his arrow keys.

All in all, key setup is a matter of taste. Changing your binds takes time to get used to and a change is not always made for the better. Observe yourself while playing: if you're constantly fumbling to get the right weapon, you should add some binds. Or suppose you see an enemy run off with the flag. By the time you typed 'Hey, I just saw the enemy flag carrier passing by here. And 'here' is on the left side, at the flak cannon' that flag carrier will be gone... and you will probably be dead because someone couldn't resist type killing. You can bind these events to buttons as well, so you won't lose much time by explaining stuff.
And there are many more examples that could help you in some situations where it's either helpfull or at leastconvenient.

You shouldn't bind yourself a whole new key setup at once. Take it one step at a time, to allow yourself to properly remember which button gives which effect. Try to group similar buttons together for easier remembering. And finally: keep your most important keys (like weapon switching and -throwing) close by, and put the taunts and game setting-changing buttons further away.

There are 4 ways to edit your keys:

• The most common way is by going to 'Settings->Input->Configure controls' This provides only the most basic 'this action can be bound to this key'. It's fast, it's easy and it's completely useless for the more advanced keybinds.
• The second way is by going ingame, opening the console and typing 'preferences'. This pulls up a drop-down menu with all options that can be changed ingame. All buttons are listed alphabetically in 'Advanced->Raw key bindings'. You can add,change or delete the command for each key individually, and immediately check the results ingame
• You can also bind your keys from ingame with the command 'set input <key> <command>'. This is the best way to immediately test the setting, but not convenient to bind multiple keys
• The last way to set keys is to go to the \System subfolder of UT2004 and open up user.ini. There, under the [Engine.Input] part, is the list of keys and their commands. This method doesn't require UT2004 to be running, and is therefore a lot faster than the others. The downsize of this is that you must (re)start UT2004 to check the results of your changes. This method also makes it easier to accidentaly remove a part of the .ini file that's crucial for the game.

All methods store their data in \System\user.ini. This is also the reason why the first method of binding is explained here: if you don't know the name of a button, you can still use the first method to bind this key to a temporary action (like TurnLeft or turnRight). By opening user.ini after setting these binds, you can easily search for this action and replace it with the bind you had in mind for this one.

So...now you know how to bind stuff to keys, let's find out what possibilities you have in binding. I'll illustrate each possibility with an example from my own user.ini file. If you want, you can even download my entire user.ini file to examine my settings. But before we get started, take a look at the notes:

• it is not possible to bind dodge moves to buttons. I've seen a lot of sites about this subject, and they all agreed on this. And frankly: I'm glad for this. Proper dodging is hard, almost an art, and providing a quick fix would only give the newer players an excuse not to learn how to do this on a constant basis.
• square brackets ('<', '>') are used to serve as a spot that has to be replaced by one (and only one) character of the given type (<key> can be either A, or B, or shift, or...)
• The colors used in this page are as follows: green indicates a command that has to be added after the button. To give an example: Say <any text> can be translated to the third key binding method as "type the following in the command prompt: set input X say I am now pressing my X button", or 'copy the following into the line after "X=" in your user.ini file: say I am now pressing my X button'
  dark blue marks how to get to a certain point.
• all commands are case insensitive
• there are too many commands to list them all here. You can find out of a lot of them by binding them with the first method and then checking the syntax in the user.ini file. Others can be found on pages like this, or on forums like this one (that has also some good explanation, btw). Oh, and I've explained a lot of my binds in this thread...also usefull stuff.

Advanced buttons

Selecting the right weapon: there are 3 commands that lets you switch between weapons: switchweapon <weapon number>, getweapon <weapon class> and pipedswitchweapon <weapon number>. These methods differ as follows

• switchweapon <weapon number> is the main choice for selecting weapons (0 for superweapons,1 for shieldgun,..., 9 for sniper rifles, 10 for translocator). However: to keep the amount of buttons down, Epic gives some weapons the same number. If you push this button, you'll switch to the weapon with the highest weapon priority (provided that you have both weapons). Pushing the button repeatedly cycles through both weapons (or three weapons, in case of switchweapons 0).
• getweapon <weapon class> selects you a specific weapon, or doesn't change at all. The possible weapons are as follows: XWeapons.shieldgun, XWeapons.assaultRifle, XWeapons.BioRifle, Onslaught.ONSMineLayer, XWeapons.Shockrifle, XWeapons.LinkGun, XWeapons.minigun, XWeapons.FlakCannon, Onslaught.ONSGrenadeLauncher, XWeapons.RocketLauncher, Onslaught.ONSAVRiL, Xweapons.Sniperrifle (=Lightning gun), UTClassic.ClassicSniperRifle, XWeapons.painter (=ion painter), XWeapons.redeemer or OnslaughtFull.ONSPainter (=target painter)
• pipedswitchweapon <weapon number> is a special case of the switchweapon command. It works the same, if used by itself, but if you group these together with another pipedswitchweapon command, it cycles between these two. You can also group 3 or more pipedswitchweapons, but the computer will always try to cycle between the first two, and only change if a weapon isn't available or doesn't have enough ammo.

Multiple actions bound to one button: you achieve this by using the '|'-symbol to separate each command.
Example: Use | SwitchWeapon 10. This is a perfect combination: ONS, vCTF and AS are played without translocator, BR and CTF without vehicles. The only time this action can cause a problem is in assault, ir you want to exit a vehicle at the time an objective is completed; it'll also transport you straight to the new respawn spot (SwitchWeapon 10 | use prevents you from entering a vehicle at the same time the objective is completed).

Example: getweapon XWeapons.RocketLauncher | PipedSwitchWeapon 7. 7 is the combination flak cannon/grenade launcher, so what will happen with this bind if you have two or more of these weapons? This bind is set up to have the rocket launcher as a priority, so if you have it on you, you'll switch to that. Pressing the button again (or pressing it for the first time if you don't have the RL and ammo for it) activates the pipedswitch that will give you weapon nr. 7. Which weapon this is depends on whichever has the highest priority. Pressing the button again will try to select the RL again. If this fails (no RL or no ammo for it), the pipedswitch is activated again, thus giving you the lower priority weapon.
This is how the two commands interact with each other. For this example, I'll describe the possible weapon cycling scenario's:
-one weapon: bind switches to this weapon
-RL+flak: cycles RL, flak, RL, flak, ...
-RL+grenades: cycles RL, grenades, RL, grenades, ...
-flak+grenades: cycles <highest priority weapon>, <lowest prioriy weapon>, <highest priority weapon>, ...
-RL+grenades+flak: cycles RL, <highest priority weapon>, RL, <highest priority weapon>, ...

Example: getweapon Onslaught.ONSAVRiL | switchtolastweapon this continuously switches between the AVRiL and your last weapon.

Example: SwitchToBestWeapon | PipedSwitchWeapon 8 | PipedSwitchWeapon 7 | PipedSwitchWeapon 4 | PipedSwitchWeapon 9 | PipedSwitchWeapon 3 | PipedSwitchWeapon 6 | PipedSwitchWeapon 5. This is a long one, yet it's purpose is simple. The first command switches you to your highest priority weapon. Since the pipedswitch will only trigger once, you can see the entire rest of the command as 'select the best weapon that isn't the highest priority weapon'. So in short, this command lets you cycle between your best weapon and your second best weapon.
If you want to use this command, make sure you put the entire thing in one line or it will screw up. Oh, and change the numbers to fit your personal priority settings (you can leave out 'pipedswitchweapon 0'...you usually don't have enough superweapons to add it in)

Change name and character: you change your display name with the 'setname <name>' command (only the first 20 characters are used for a name). If you know the names of the characters, you can change these with the 'changecharacter <char.name>' command. Note that you won't change until your next respawn. These commands assume that the rest of the command line is the parameter, so don't put any other commands after them.
Example: setname [Ci-t]Golden_Dragon changes the current name to [Ci-t]Golden_Dragon.
Example: changecharacter Motig changes your skin to Motig, next time you respawn.

Actions bound to the release of a button: this is done by use of the 'onrelease' keyword
Example: getweapon xweapons.shieldgun | onrelease suicide. There are quite some occasions in which staying alive hurts your team more than committing suicide (eg. when you should hurry back to the base, or when you can save a couple seconds while falling in a ravine), so you really should have a key for this one.
This command allows for a suicide that doesn't give your opponents any weapons if you hold the button down for a second. However: most of the time, you'll simply push the button to suicide.
Example: SwitchWeapon 2 | OnRelease ThrowWeapon | OnRelease SwitchToLastWeapon. Many consider the assault rifle too useless to keep around. So if you don't throw it away straight from the start, you can do this on another occasion. Note that you'll have to keep the button pressed until the AR is actually selected.

FOV & behindview: Field Of View is the angle you see in front of you (between 1 and 170). Normally, this is set somewhere at 90-100, but you can set these on-the-fly as well (at least in off-line practice). Low FPS gives a 'zoom'-effect because your view becomes limited to what is directly in front of you. High FOV shows more terrain at once, which makes focussing somewhat harder.
Behindview is the ability to see yourself from behind (wow...who would have guessed that?). Though not very convenient, it allows for the following 'cheat':
Example: behindview 1 | fov 150 | onrelease behindview 0 | onrelease fov 100; wondering if an opponent is waiting for you around the corner? Just press this button to do a quick check.
Note that in online games, the FOV is fixed to a certain number, to prevent this kind of exploiting.

No need to hold your buttons: the command 'toggle' will allow you to set certain actions to keep going until the button is pressed again (even if you are shot inbetween).
Update: This command doesn't seem to work when entered at the command prompt, so you'll have to bind it to a key
Examples:
toggle brun: makes your character walk/run
toggle bduck: keeps your character in a crouched position
toggle bfire or toggle baltfire: starts a spamfest

Executing external commands: If you promise not to use this command to mindlessly spam the chat box with text, then I'll explain to you how the 'exec <file>' function works. You do? Well then...this command searches for a file in the \System subfolder of UT2004 and tries to evaluate all commands within that file.
Example: set input z exec graphic1.txt (contents of graphic1.txt). This will show a big 'LOL' on screen...it might be somewhat disfigured, but UT2004 chat wasn't designed for art, and my ASCII drawing skills are close to zero.

Changing any setting: practically any setting in the game that is stored in UT2004.ini or user.ini can be altered with a command. The syntax for this is 'set <class> <variable> <value>'.

• Classes are stored in .ini's between square brackets and usually consists of 2 parts, separated by a point (eg. "Engine.Input", found in user.ini). All lines below belong to this class...until the next class line is found (the following lines belong to this class, and so on).
• Variables are the left side of all the other lines, ended by the "=" line (eg. "bNeverSwitchOnPickup", under user.ini)
• The value is what's on the other side of the equals sign.

To properly use this option, you need to know the exact name of where the setting is stored, and what the possible valid values are.
Note: entering invalid settings withing .ini files can cause problems. Always keep a backup of the file, before changing stuff.

Example: there's a bug in the 'togglescreenshotmode' command (this command allows you to remove/bring back your HUD): once you bring back your HUD, your weapon hand is set to 'right hand'. You could whine against Epic to fix this, or you could do it yourself: by using a command that not only contains the togglescreenshot command, but also sets your weapon hand to 'hidden'.
The first step is to find out where this 'weapon hand' line is stored. After some search through user.ini and UT2004.ini, you will end up with 2 possibilities: Engine.PlayerController Handedness and Engine.Controller Handedness. To know which one affects the player hand, you should note both settings, enter the game and then change the weapon hand. Go back to user.ini and check which setting is changed: this is Engine.PlayerController Handedness.
Noting the settings also gives a better idea of the valid values of a setting. As you can find out from altering the setting ingame, this is done by a numbering system: -1 corresponds to 'weapon hand=left', 0 is 'weapon hand=center', 1 is 'weapon hand=right' and 2 is 'weapon hand=hidden'. All other settings are invalid, and can cause your computer to explode for all I know ;-)
In the end, this is the complete command for a 'fixed' togglescreenshot command: togglescreenshotmode | set Engine.PlayerController Handedness 2
UPDATE: ToggleScreenshotMode|OnRelease shot|OnRelease ToggleScreenshotMode|OnRelease showgun is a better way to take screenshots.

Speeches and taunts: in case you're blind and deaf: all characters have some ways to curse, order other people around, dance and play with different vehicle horns. If you haven't taken a look at the INA forums page, I suggest you do so now. A taunt list is also available here.
Examples:

• speech friendlyfire 0 | teamsay ff hurts | taunt gesture_cheer; makes it all the more clear that you're on the same team ;-)
• playvehiclehorn 0 | randomtaunt and playvehiclehorn 1 | taunt Idle_Character01. Another 'perfect match': you don't taunt while in a car, and you don't honk if you're not in a car. The Idle_Character01 action depends on your character; randomtaunt does a random taunt.
• teamsay à@@Status: àÀ@%a, %h, %s, %w: if you're playing a teamgame, this will bring up something like 'Status: 0 adrenaline, 100 health, 50 shield, assault rifle'. You can also add the '%l' parameter (it shows your location), but this is already given in the 'teamsay' command.
  Note: the 'à@@' part is a remains of a patch that allowed players to add color to their name (the '' character makes the next 3 characters parameters for the color). Because of some complaints from people who got confused about which player was on which team, Epic removed this feature in their next patch. The reason why it's still used in this bind is that some servers use UTComp, a mutator that still allows colored names and messages. Oh, and you can find a program that allows you to choose colors here.
• fire | onrelease taunt idle_character01: this example is one of the many ideas you can do to make your character appear more funny while playing (for others; you can't see any of these effects for yourself). The idle_character01 taunt is a weapons check for the Gen Mo'Kai, so everytime you stop firing, you'll check your weapon. Note that some taunts are halted as soon as you move (and unfortunately: the weapons check is one of those), so use behindview to check if a taunt + <regular action> actually does anything.

Cheats: most of the players find pleasure in the training ability of the game, like increasing their skills, improving their aim or predicting other players movements. No matter how great a game is, there are some times you don't feel like playing the game to win. Some start up ONS-Tricky and try to top their best daredevil score. Others find comfort in irritating other players, and (try to) use aimbots to ruin games, or accuse better players of using one. And since Epic understands this kind of behaviour as well, they added cheats that you can use to take revenge on those damn cheating Godlike bots!
Example: god | loaded | allammo | summon XWeapons.redeemer | set Engine.PlayerController bAimingHelp True: makes you invincible, gets you all weapons and ammo, spawns an extra redeemer and puts on aiming help (don't forget to set aiming help back off if you're going back to 'regular' bot matches).

Mod & mutator keys: mods and mutators often come with their own commands to change things. The best ones extend the Settings - Input - Configure controls menu, while others just claim whatever key is available (eg. Team Arena Master). It's not hard to use these commands in advanced commands, provided you know what they are (refer to the readme, or bind it to an unused key and then check the user.ini file to what command it's bound).
Example: MyMenu | menu3spn "MyMenu" is the menu from UTComp, and "menu3spn" is the Team Arena Master menu. These two mods/mutators aren't compatible with each other, so no server will have both of them running on the server. As a result, there's no reason to use two different keys to get either menu.

Aliasses

Aliasses are groups of actions that are granted a certain name. They are closely related to advanced buttons, but their name allows them to be used in more complex tasks. Keep in mind that aliasses are limited: there are only 40 aliasses available, and 32 are already used by default. It is strongly advised not to touch these.

Aliasses can be found in user.ini, in the Engine.Input-class. They have a certain syntax, and you should follow this one exactly, or your alias won't do anything:
Aliases[<number>]=(Command="<line of commands>",Alias="<name of alias>")

Note that the double quotation marks for are mandatory: they mark the beginning and ending of the name and the list of commands. Your alias simply won't work without it. To use an alias, you can simply bind a key to the name.
I'm just going to copy-paste my examples for my illustrations, to prevent the syntax of becoming too complex. Make sure you change the number and/or button references to use it properly.

Switching a command: suppose you have a setting you like to turn on or off, depending on a given situation. You could of course bind two buttons for this (one with the 'on' command, the other with the 'off' one), but why do this if you have aliasses? If you create 2 aliasses and include a command for each one to bind a button to change to the other one, you can use that button to cycle between these actions.
Examples:

• Aliases[32]=(Command="Set ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem MusicVolume 0.0 | set ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem AmbientVolume 0.0 | set input F6 MusicSFX",Alias="MusicOff")
  Aliases[33]=(Command="set ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem AmbientVolume 0.5 | set input F6 MusicOn",Alias="MusicSFX")
  Aliases[34]=(Command="Set ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem MusicVolume 0.20 | set input F6 MusicOff",Alias="MusicOn")
  F6=MusicSFX
  I almost never play with music on. It distracts and muffles other sounds like footsteps and even sounds of incoming rockets. Yet there are times I just want to play with a soft background music...like when I'm trick jumping through the level. In this case, I press F6. The music gets set (ALAudio.ALAudioSubsystem is the sound level, found in UT2004.ini), and the F6 button gets set to 'press me to turn off the music'.
  The ambient volume is somewhat a dilemma: sometimes you need it, most of the time it's better left off (more info here). Therefore, I included it in this bind. The result of the bind is a constant cycling between these 3 states:
  1) sound effects & music off
  2) only sound effects
  3) sound effects & music
  
• Aliases[35]=(Command="demorec | stat fps | set input F4 enddemo",Alias="begindemo")
  Aliases[36]=(Command="stopdemo | stat fps | set input F4 begindemo",Alias="enddemo")
  F4=begindemo
  You can record demo's of your game with the 'demorec' and 'stopdemo' commands. Unfortunately, UT2004 does not provide a 'demo recording now in session' mark, so it can be confusing to know if the button started or stopped the demo if you want to record many small demo's (like...a dozen tries to make one trick jump ;-) ). That's why I included 'stats fps' in the alias. This toggles an onscreen display how much FPS you're getting. The convenience here is that you know a demo is being recorded if this display is shown.
  Note: if a level is ended, the demo automatically stops, but the bind (and the FPS notification) stays the same. Keep this in mind, because when you start the next level, the first time you'll push F4, it does nothing but turn off the FPS indicator.
• Aliases[37]=(Command="set engine.playerinput mousesensitivity 0.3 | set input z normalsens",Alias="lowsens")
  Aliases[38]=(Command="set engine.playerinput mousesensitivity 3 | set input z lowsens",Alias="normalsens")
  z=lowsens
  Some time ago, someone asked me for a way to increase his mouse sensitivity when he's entering a turret. I warned him that he shouldn't do this, because it would be hard to adjust to two different mouse sensitivities. But as you can see, I provided him with a button to allow for instant sensitivity increase/decrease.
  Note: 3 and 0.3 are just illustrative figures. Everyone's mouse setting is dependant on a lot of variables like the OS and the brand of the mouse. 3 is my standard mouse setting, but make sure that if you use this alias (even though I warn against it), you replace this with your default mouse sensitivity.
• Aliases[37]=(Command="switchweapon 2 | set input M Changeseat2",Alias="Changeseat1")
  Aliases[38]=(Command="switchweapon 3 | set input M Changeseat3",Alias="Changeseat2")
  Aliases[39]=(Command="switchweapon 1 | set input M Changeseat1",Alias="Changeseat3")
  M=Changeseat1
  T=Use | SwitchWeapon 10 | set input M changeSeat1
  Switching seats in a vehicle is easy: just press the corresponding 'switchweapon' key. Unfortunately, some players (like yours truly) like to rearrange their entire setup from time to time. Before I made this bind, I had to press 3 keys in completely different parts of my N52 speedpad...Not really convenient if you're charging into battle with an empty hellbender.
  To make sure you always switch in the same order, you'll need a 'reset' function (the set input M changeSeat1 part), which is best appended at the 'Use' key.

That's about all there is to know about key binding as it applies in UT2004. If you wish to know more on editing your .ini files, I suggest you visit UT2004 binding/tweaking guide or check the wiki on this subject. Oh, and this INA thread also contains one helluvalotof information

I'd like to end this guide with a note: good keybinds just makes gaming more comfortable, they don't win you the game. There are more ideas that can be 'convenient' to have close by (eg: a bind that pulls up the shieldgun and sets up the shield, and switches back to the previous weapon once released), but I choose not to describe these for a good reason: simplicity. Binding a key is one thing, but learning to instinctively press it while you're under fire is something completely different. And it takes about the same time to learn how to press and hold that button as it would have taken you to switch to your shieldgun with one button, alt-fire with a second, and finish up with your weapon-of-choice key...But the second solution allows for a faster shield jumps as well.