How do you know if you are seeing a macro or not?

[Dweetybyrd]

:You don't know me, so don't make yourself sound like a fool by pretending you do. I play sandbox games because I like being a part of a real living breathing game community. I didn't come here to min/max or macro myself to glory. In addition, my opinion on this matter has nothing at all to do with my tribe. We don't have a tribe "macro maker". Interesting you should bring something like that up...

Ok, I read your first paragraph, that’s about all I can handle. Your awesome, you’re smart, your cool, etc...etc..etc... I don’t know you, nor do I care to.

"because I like being a part of a real living breathing game community" I would not consider a video game that but hey, it’s obviously very close to your heart.

Cheating angers me. Thats all I have to say.

[Brilliant]

So if I send you a whisper asking "hey, you there?" why wouldn't you reply?

How about because whispers do not visibly show up in a separate chat tab in case you miss them before they get scrolled off, which Global chat will do in about 2 seconds.

Don't be so paranoid.

Also, why can't games become more fun. I mean, I know some people enjoy just clicking their mouse over and over again, but practically every MMO that has ever come out uses click and wait crafting and harvesting. I think it's getting pretty old now.

Agreed.

In Wurm, instead of grinding out a million crappy shortswords that you were just going to end up throwing away, you could instead skill up by slowly improving on one sword, and you couldn't predict what you were going to need to do next. Maybe it needed to be heated and hammered, maybe tempered in water, or sharpened, etc. etc.

Such a system both makes more sense, and would be very difficult to effectively macro.

Even more, what would be really cool would be the ability to make each part of the sword separately, and put together a sword handle with your own custom design with a blade made to a weight, length, and shape that you choose.

[Dubanka]

of course, as everything does, this comes right back to the safe zone / combat discussion.

How do you tell if someone's macroing?

Attack them. If they don't fight back and just die...they were macroing.

Of course, you have to be able to attack people on their homestead for this player policing to occur.

on the /w thing...if i'm autorunning into a wall (is that even a macro? i'm not using anything third party, just tools the game gives me), and zoned out, or surfing in another window, you can /tell me all you want, but i'm not going to see it because the wonderful all in one chat window is going to spam it righ up and out of the chat box.

witch hunts are great btw.

[Armand]

My OP states ways Notorious could counter macroing. If you are expecting people not to macro out of the kindness of their heart, then you must be from some planet I have never visited before.

How can you misconstrue both written English and sarcasm so badly?

My post wasn't a stab at your op at all.

[mindtrigger]

:You don't know me, so don't make yourself sound like a fool by pretending you do. I play sandbox games because I like being a part of a real living breathing game community. I didn't come here to min/max or macro myself to glory. In addition, my opinion on this matter has nothing at all to do with my tribe. We don't have a tribe "macro maker". Interesting you should bring something like that up...

Ok, I read your first paragraph, that’s about all I can handle. Your awesome, you’re smart, your cool, etc...etc..etc... I don’t know you, nor do I care to.

"because I like being a part of a real living breathing game community" I would not consider a video game that but hey, it’s obviously very close to your heart.

Cheating angers me. Thats all I have to say.

Great, another genius who wants to start an argument, but can't be arsed to read follow-up posts or come up with a coherent reply. The 'TL;DR' generation at its best.

[billpaustin]

We should separate the two types of macroing:
1) creating a "shortcut" that typically collapses several keystrokes into one. This is acceptable and actually should be expected in games.
2) creating a routine where the game is being played without a human. I consider this an exploit, along with terrain exploits, etc.

For example, a simple terrain exploit is to find a place that you cannot be hit, and you can hit the enemy. Easier with a pet in the game, just stand on top of a big, inaccessible rock next to a spot you know a single creature spawns on, and park your pet there. Then when the creature spawns, your pet kills it, and you watch TV or go fishing.

A macro exploit in Xsyon might be for fishing. Your character patiently fishes using a looped macro, and when you come back tomorrow, you're full of fish and have levelled.

So, how could you tell if someone is running an automated looping macro? You probably can't. Not a good one, anyway.

I've seen two problematic results from looping macros: characters that leveled this way sometimes are very inept for the level they are at, and the economy can be ruined.

[orious13]

I really think that everyone grinding/macroing away on running/swimming/jumping/foraging/fishing right now is kind of burning themselves out. There's nothing in my mind that says those that have 100 in these skills will be leaps and bounds better off than most players. Maybe a little better, but since I can I fish fine with 30 fishing, run for a long long time with 20 run etc. I don't see a need to actually grind them except for raising my character's level. That being said, I'm not going to even use those skill points until they complete most of combat and add more weapon styles. That's just me, though. I feel like macroing a lot of things in this game won't be a game killer like other games, which is good development.

I do think that hide shouldn't level up unless you're around non-friends and/or gain xp per distance traveled or per step.

[mindtrigger]

How can you misconstrue both written English and sarcasm so badly?

My post wasn't a stab at your op at all.

The sarcasm I read in your post sounded like it was anti-macro. Unfortunately your tone does not come out well from what you wrote. If it wasn't anti-macro in nature, then I still don't know what it meant.

[Dweetybyrd]

Great, another genius who wants to start an argument, but can't be arsed to read follow-up posts or come up with a coherent reply. The 'TL;DR' generation at its best.

no argument hero....

Just dont feel like continually reading how cool you are in the virtual world.

Have a great day.

The sarcasm I read in your post sounded like it was anti-macro. Unfortunately your tone does not come out well from what you wrote. If it wasn't anti-macro in nature, then I still don't know what it meant.

Tone? from a text? get out and socialize with some real people, itll do a body good

[billpaustin]

Also, why can't games become more fun. I mean, I know some people enjoy just clicking their mouse over and over again, but practically every MMO that has ever come out uses click and wait crafting and harvesting. I think it's getting pretty old now.

The best harvesting and crafting is when it is a mini-game. For example, in Ryzom (a good sandbox game), you harvest by first prospecting for mats, and then harvesting them. Except, mats can explode when you harvest them, and you die. You have to watch the danger bar, and quickly react by using a placate skill before going back to digging. That could not be automated. Harvesting is essentially like fighting a mob for it's mats.

Vanguard had a good crafting mini-game system: as each action is performed, there is a chance of an error, and you have to quickly apply the correct counter-measure. Again, not easy to automate.