Dynamic Spread-Out or Formations.

[Ualaa]

Most of us have a hotkey, for toons to spread out.
This is great against AoE damage, plus formations can look quite nice.

Up until now, I have had static spreading out.
-- Toon A - North
-- Toon B - South
-- Toon C - Stationary
-- Toon D - West
-- Toon E - East

This works great, while Toon C is the active character.
The others were on follow, and the spread out or formation key broke it.

But when I am driving with Toon A...
Toons A, B, D and E move as configured.
And Toon C continues to auto follow Toon A, unless follow was broken for all toons before using the spread out key.






So the goal was, the active character does not move.
While the other four do.

With more then a little help from Lax (superb support), this is what I've come up with:


1. Create four Spread-Out (Action Target Groups).
- Group A
- Group B
- Group C
- Group D


2. Create a Spread-Out (Mapped Key).
- Group A... moves NW (or Forward).
- Group B... moves NE (or Strafe's Left).
- Group C... moves SW (or Strafe's Right).
- Group D... moves SE (or moves Backwards).


3. Under Control Keymaps, create 5 mapped keys.
- Slot 1 is Leader
- Slot 2 is Leader
- Slot 3 is Leader
- Slot 4 is Leader
- Slot 5 is Leader

Each of these has one Step, which does:
a) Do Mapped Key Action - Follow/JambaMaster (My normal on switch activity occurs).
b) Have every Slot leave all my Spread Out - Action Target Groups (Group A, Group B, Group C and Group D).
c) Have the other Slots join their respective Spread Out - Action Target Group.

I use the "Target Group Action", to have a Slot join or leave an Action Target Group.


4. My groups will be assigned like this:

When I switch to Slot 1:
- Slot 2 joins Group A
- Slot 3 joins Group B
- Slot 4 joins Group C
- Slot 5 joins Group D

When I switch to Slot 2:
- Slot 1 joins Group A
- Slot 3 joins Group B
- Slot 4 joins Group C
- Slot 5 joins Group D

When I switch to Slot 3:
- Slot 1 joins Group A
- Slot 2 joins Group B
- Slot 4 joins Group C
- Slot 5 joins Group D

When I switch to Slot 4:
- Slot 1 joins Group A
- Slot 2 joins Group B
- Slot 3 joins Group C
- Slot 5 joins Group D

When I switch to Slot 5:
- Slot 1 joins Group A
- Slot 2 joins Group B
- Slot 3 joins Group C
- Slot 4 joins Group D

Which means:
The Slot 1 character is either in No Group or Group A.
The Slot 2 character is either in No Group, Group A or Group B.
The Slot 3 character is either in No Group, Group B or Group C.
The Slot 4 character is either in No Group, Group C or Group D.
The Slot 5 character is either in No Group, or Group D.

Therefore, in the (b) action of my five Control Mapped Keys, I remove:
- Slot 1 from Group A.
- Slot 2 from Group A and Group B.
- Slot 3 from Group B and Group C.
- Slot 4 from Group C and Group D.
- Slot 5 from Group D.

And in the (c) action of my five Control Mapped Keys, each Slot is assigned a group as displayed immediately above.


5. Finally, I navigate through each Character Set, and change the action.

From: When I switch to this character -- Do this Mapped Key: Control - Follow/JambaMaster
To: When I switch to this character -- Do this Mapped Key: Control - Slot X is Leader.
(Naturally substituting X for the Slot the character is in).

End Result:

I switch to a Toon, in Slot 2 for example.
I have assigned the "Slot 2 is Leader" Mapped Key to occur when this toon becomes leader.
This mapped key does the Control - Follow/JambaMaster mapped key.
It then removes:
- Slot 1 from Group A.
- Slot 2 from Group A.
- Slot 2 from Group B.
- Slot 3 from Group B.
- Slot 3 from Group C.
- Slot 4 from Group C.
- Slot 4 from Group D.
- Slot 5 from Group D.
It then adds:
- Slot 1 to Group A.
- Slot 3 to Group B.
- Slot 4 to Group C.
- Slot 5 to Group D.

Now when I press my Spread-Out mapped key...

Slot 2 is the active character, and thus not in Groups A, B, C or D.
Therefore the Slot 2 toon does not move.
And each of the other toons is in only one group.
Therefore each moves in a different direction, as configured by the Spread Out mapped key.

This could easily be adapted for other formations too.

[thmsn]

Nice post, I knew Dynamic formations based on the leader where possible

[pinotnoir]

ualaa I have everything setup but I have some confusion on section 2. I made a new keymap called Dynamic Formation. The mapped keys have the group a b c d movements like you said. What I did in addition to your section 2 guild because I didnt know where my formation hot key should be created was set the new mapped key hotkey to shift +f. Then I copied my character set to it. These two steps were not in the guide. I am a novice at this program. According to the guide I need a key to call the formations so I figured thats where it went. Let me know if this is correct. Right now it's not working. I am going to try and remove the character set out and see what that does.

[Ualaa]

I put the Slot X is leader, in the Control Keymaps.
And have the Spread Out - Mapped Key (which moves Groups as the target) in General Keymaps.

That way, it should apply to every toon on any team.

For your spread out mapped key, you will need to set the option (in the drop down box immediately below the Hotkey field), "Hold any Keystroke Actions while Hotkey is held" to "On".

The hotkey you use to initiate the movement should not matter, as long as it does not conflict with an existing IS Boxer or Warcraft mapped key.

[Bettysue]

Not to jack the thread but this got me thinking about how to do this in other software solutions, here's what I came up with for HKN, of course you will need to make the send labels and assign WoW window tiles, then assign the WASD keys in WoW on each toon. They all get the same setting for this to work. W=forward ASD= strafe left, back, strafe right respectively.

This makes the cross when pressing "Q":

<MovementHotkey Q>

   <If ActiveWinIs WoW1>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key W>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key S>

   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW2>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key W>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key S>

   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW3>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key W>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key S>

   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW4>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key W>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key S>

   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW5>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key W>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key S>

and this makes the line formation with the current leader/master slighty ahead of the followers when pressing "W" twice:

<MovementHotkey W>
<Toggle>
   <If ActiveWinIs WoW1>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW2>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW3>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW4>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW5>
      <SendLabel w1> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w2> <Key D>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key D>
<Toggle>
   <If ActiveWinIs WoW1>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW2>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW3>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW4>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w5> <Key D>
   <Else If ActiveWinIs WoW5>
      <SendLabel w3> <Key A>
      <SendLabel w4> <Key D>

Thanks for your work figuring it out in IS/ISB, I've been working on getting it done for a while.

[pinotnoir]

I thought I had everything setup correctly but I cannot get it to work. Do you drag each of your characters to all the action target groups? Right now my action target groups have no characters in them. I think I have everything else setup exactly how you listed.

[Ualaa]

Well.. tried to paste on the pastebin site, but every time I paste it, Firefox stops responding.
Have used pastebin in the past, for help troubleshooting my own configuration.



My movement ATG's do not have any toons in them, at start up.
As in, they are all empty in the IS Boxer Toolkit.
They are:
- Move NW
- Move NE
- Move SW
- Move SE

My Dynamic Spread-Out mapped key is bound to Shift Tilde; this is in the General Keymaps.
Holy Any Keystroke Actions while Hotkey is Held is set to On.
It is one step, sending:
- W + Q to my NW group.
- W + E to my NE group.
- S + E to my SE group.
- S + Q to my SW group.

My switch key is in the Control Keymaps.
I have a melee and a caster version, but that shouldn't make any difference as both use dynamic formations.
All casters who are in Slot 1, execute this mapped key on a switch (instead of Follow/JambaMaster).
Slot 1 is Leader (Caster)
Has no hotkey, and one Step only. All options on the hotkey screen are at default settings.
Step 1 does:
- Do Follow/JambaMaster in Control Key Map -> Self
- Leave Group 'Move NW' -> Character Slot: 1
- Leave Group 'Move NW' -> Character Slot: 2
- Leave Group 'Move NE' -> Character Slot: 2
- Leave Group 'Move NE' -> Character Slot: 3
- Leave Group 'Move SE' -> Character Slot: 3
- Leave Group 'Move SE' -> Character Slot: 4
- Leave Group 'Move SW' -> Character Slot: 4
- Leave Group 'Move SW' -> Character Slot: 5
- Join Group 'Move NW' -> Character Slot: 2
- Join Group 'Move NE' -> Character Slot: 3
- Join Group 'Move SW' -> Character: Slot 4
- Join Group 'Move SE' -> Character: Slot 5

The only difference between my Caster/Melee versions is...
- Caster does Follow/JambaMaster... which runs my 'CTM On' mapped key -> All Other and 'CTM Off' mapped key -> Self
- Melee does JambaMaster... which runs 'CTM On' mapped key -> All Windows.

[daanji]

I'm currently having issues setting this up as well.

I'm stuck on step #2 as the above poster.

I am creating a mapped key ( up arrow in my case) and I am doing 1 step. In that one step, I want it to send the correct keys to each target action group.

However, the groups do not appear in the drop down list. I tried typing them in manually, but it won't let me. If I add toons to the Group A, B, C, or D they will then appear. I shouldn't have to do this right? Perhaps it doesn't matter.

I'll try it with this and see what happens.

[daanji]

Ok, I got this to work.

Basically, I had to add all the toons for each action group for it to show up and accept the action target group for the up-arrow keybind.

Then for my keymapp SLot X is Leader, I just had all the members leave the group and join the correct ones as needed.

Thanks Ualaa, this method is far superior than the static method.


Is there a list of good group formations somewhere? Some for fun or otherwise?

[daanji]

Ok, so another issue.

I have the dynamic formations to work fine. However, as soon I stop pressing the formation button, the just follow the leader again.

So I jamba /follow strobe toggle. So before I do the formation, I turn off strobing. This worked fine...until I switched leaders.

Once I switch leaders and renabled strobing, it seems as though the group is confused on who the leader is.

For example, I'm on toon one. I want to spread out. So I disable strobing. I hit my formation key and the toon spread out and stay put like I want. I then switch to toon #3, at which point strobing should be reenable and everyone should follow #3.

But this doesn't seem to work.