Dancer Archive
Thread: 6 easy steps to using aliases for entertainers
A number of people have been asking about these so I hope this how to explains it in a concise manner.
1. Go to youSWG folder and create a text file, e.g. myaliases.txt
2. Add a line in the following format:
<aliasname>: <commands for what you wish to do>;
For example:hint: Hello!; :smiles warmly at %NT;
3. Save the file.
4. Go into game and type /load myaliases.txt
5. Type /alias to display all the aliases available to you in that file. You should see 'hint' listed.
6.To use an alias in game , e.g. to use'hint' type /hint (very useful as it now frees up those toolbars!). Using this example this would execute: Your char says 'Hello!' followed by Your char smiles warmly at whoever you have targeted.
I personally find it easiest to alt tab and make changes to my file rather than trying to do it from within game.
KEY POINTS:
- When you amend the file you MUST use a semi-colon (
between every command.
- Put one alias all on one continuous line, and give it a name you will remember followed by a colon (
. The name of the alias is the first string, in the example about it is 'hint'.
TRIGGERING ANOTHER ALIAS
There is a cutout when you run a long alias or macro. This is particularly annoying if you enjoy choreography and composition like I do. The way around it is to call on another alias during the execution. For example:
I have defined a greeting in my alias file for performances:
rbeu: /mood grateful; /pause 6; Thank you!; /mood exuberant; /pause 3; It is a pleasure to be performing here for Rebel Base EU today.; /pause 3; /promote; /pause 3;
Notice how it calls upon /promote. These are also aliases defined in the same file, e.g.
promote: /announce My name is K'vera Leann and I regularly perform in the city of Dearic on Talus. If you are ever in the area do stop by the cantina, hotel or theatre.; /pause 3; /smile;
The effect is that when I run /rbeu in game, the speech is made, a pause of 3 then before the /promote speech is automatically called.
The technique can be adapted for sampling and long routines if that is what you wish to do.
ADDITIONAL USEFUL VARIABLES (Theseautomatically insert words and names according to your target.)
If you have any questions please let me know and I shall endeavour to answer them.
WOW K'vera I had no idea about this! Thank you so much for posting such detailed instructions.
I have a question about the % variables -- are they case sensitive? i.e. would %tu work the same as %TU?
Yes, the variables are case-sensitive so use caps for them, e.g. %NT.
I only really realised how few knew about these a few days ago... it is a wonderful feature that allows for scoring of wonderful vocal songs, scores and choreography
I also find it particularly useful when teaching newbie entertainers to save me typing the same thing over and over. Here is a modified copy of my lessons.txt file in case you also find it useful.
new: Hi %NT, are you new to entertaining?; /smile;
entschool: If you would like I can teach you a little to get started in the entertainment business...; /pause 3; I am a qualified teacher of <enter skills here>.; /grin;
lesson1: ((1. Find an empty toolbar and drag it down to make it double height, i.e. 2 rows deep and 12 across)).;
lesson2: ((2. Press CTRL and A to open your action panel then select the 'other' tab.));
lesson3: ((3. Locate flourishes 1-8 in the listing and drag and drop these to toolbar slots on the top row 1-8.));
lesson4: ((4. Locate Stop and start music/dance and drag these to your toolbar, e.g. slots 9 and 10 top row));
lesson5: ((5. Notice how basic (dance) is listed, as is Starwars1 (music).)); /pause 3; ((Depending on whether you are a musician or dancer, drag the appropriate icon to the lower row slot 1 of the toolbar.)); /pause 3; ((You can use this to immediately start the particular style of dance/music.));
lessonchange: ((If you wish to change dance or music without stopping, you can enter /changedance or /changemusic, e.g. /changedance formal or /changemusic ballad.));
If like me you have different alias files, it is useful to create a LOAD macro using the macro section of the action panel. Mine reads a longer version ofthis...
/load ka.txt; /load kam.txt; /load kas.txt; /load phantom.txt;
You can then drag it to a toolbar, and as soon as you load up game, click the button and all your aliases from the different files are ready for use in one fell swoop
Aliases are a powerful way to easily customize your game play. A couple of points
- An alternate way to set aliases is the following syntax: /alias NameOfAlias Command_String_that_is invoked
- Be real careful what you name your aliases. Do not use names that are too similar to builtin commands as the alias will replace them. For example, I have an alias called "AFKSampling" to use when AFK sampling (duh ). But if I actually want to type the command AFK to mean away from keyboard, it will use the alias instead. I had the same problem for an alias called /DanceXP which was a preset series of favorite flourishes. Unforutnately that made it impossible to target another player and just type /dance to emote dancing with him
Anyway ... I highly recommend folks experiment with alias ... you can get some powerful effects
The game by default uses the file "aliases.txt" for aliases. So if you use this name, then you do not have to /load the file.
Also, the game has funky word matching built it.
I tried once to make3 aliases:
shortmacro: /flourish 1;/pause 20;/flourish 2;
Now, the game is neat, I could do type "/shortm", and it would automatically know that I was abbreviating /shortmacro and do it.
However, if I tried /longmacro, it would think I was abbreviating for /longmacro2. And with the above naming, it was impossible for me to do the /longmacro.
The fix of course was to rename /longmacro to /longmacro1, so I had to use:
longmacro1: /flourish 1;/pause 40;/flourish 2;
longmacro2: /flourish 1;/pause 60;/flourish 2;
However, now I'm a master dancer, and I never use these silly macros anymore 
Ok that post was missing 2 lines, not sure what happened...Here is the correct post:
The game by default uses the file "aliases.txt" for aliases. So if you use this name, then you do not have to /load the file.
Also, the game has funky word matching built it.
I tried once to make3 aliases:
shortmacro: /flourish 1;/pause 20;/flourish 2;
longmacro: /flourish 1;/pause 40;/flourish 2;
longmacro2: /flourish 1;/pause 60;/flourish 2;
Now, the game is neat, I could do type "/shortm", and it would automatically know that I was abbreviating /shortmacro and do it.
However, if I tried /longmacro, it would think I was abbreviating for /longmacro2. And with the above naming, it was impossible for me to do the /longmacro.
The fix of course was to rename /longmacro to /longmacro1, so I had to use:
longmacro1: /flourish 1;/pause 40;/flourish 2;
longmacro2: /flourish 1;/pause 60;/flourish 2;
However, now I'm a master dancer, and I never use these silly macros anymore
Do i have to put /pauses between alias to allow them to finish before thenext alias begins.
For example I have /danceset1; /danceset2 will these run together or does it wait for one alias to finish before starting the next.... does my question make sense... later
Yes, you'll need a pause there Yorke to get it to do what you want.
doboth: /dance1;/pause 600;/dance2;
dance1; /flourish;/pause 60;/flourish;/pause 60;/.....;(total time of about 600)
dance2; /flourish;/pause 60;/flourish;/pause 60;/.....;
One little hint that helped me back in the macro does, put the last action of the routine as "/tell <insert your name here> Done with macro!;" It gives you a nice beep to wake you up, and lets you hit the macro again. But shame on anyone who'd do something like this.
I think using aliases are as bad as macros. If you're not willing to type out your messages please get off the dance floor so that those of us who do type each message out get the respect we deserve. Pleasedon't lower our profession anymore.
(tongue firmly in cheek)