To start with, Keymaps are your best friend when boxing any game. If you have never used a keymap before then you should create 2 maps to start with.
Keymap- "Team1" - or whatever you have named your first team (character set), to keep it simple.
Keymap- "Team1 Toggle"- This map will be used to toggle on/off the team1 map to enable you to type normally. Especially when trying to enter passwords on startup/login.
Team1 setup:
I don't want to regurgitate the instruction for creating maps found
here. But I want to give some helpfull hints to utilize them. Common keys to start out your keymap should be '1' through '=' . You can set these up to be passed to all windows and place macros only on the keys you want your master and slaves to activate. Optionally you can add 'spacebar' to be passed to all windows so you can use jump to quickly clear obstructions.
NOTE: Because EQ2 drops new spells onto your action bars automatically when you level, you should move new spells off your action bars (or move them to macros) to prevent inadvertent casting by your characters.
Remember you can have the number 1 on your keymap press anykey you wish on any window. Pressing 1 can; press 1 on the tank, press numpad 1 on your dps, and press your dance macro key on your healers. Simply adding steps with the key to press and which window to press it in is all that needs to be set up. You can also have windows do nothing when you press certain keys. Lets say my healers have heal macros on 6 and 7. I can set my keymap to only pass 6 and 7 to the healers windows so the dps characters will never see that key press.
Invite group macro and keymap integration: One of the pet peeves of boxers is getting your group formed up quickly and the same order. Since EQ2 places group members in the order that they accept the invite, we want our group to look the same each time. Here is where we can use a round robin keymap to our advantage.
Using your master character's invite to group macro as a starter, send the first keypress to the master window to send out invites. This is the first step of the round robin. In the next step you should send a keypress to the first character you want in the group and tie this to your general 'accept macro' key (see below). Repeat these round robin steps until you have all your group members covered. This macro will cycle through each step on each keypress.
General accept macro-
Code:
/acceptinvite group
/accept_trade
By this time you have probably figured out that the sky is the limit when it comes to the keymaps.
Team 1 Toggle setup:
For those times when you need to suspend your normal keymap, you can toggle you keymaps on and off. Select a bind key here that isn't going to be used for anything else but this toggle. I suggest using the 'pause' key for a normal keyboard (use the scroll lock for mouse/keys toggle in repeater) and using one of the top row of Gkeys (G1,G2,G3) on a G15 keyboard. On the G15 you can set up a 'm' light to go on/off with your toggle.
What we do here is another round robin with the first step: turning 'on' the keymap/turning on a 'm' light (if G15)/flash an on screen message "Team 1 keymap ON" (you set the message duration and fade time).
The second step is to reverse the first step:turn 'off' the keymap/turn 'off' the 'm' light/flash an on screen message "Team 1 keymap OFF".
This round robin acts like a toggle but is very reliable in execution.
