Quote Originally Posted by Derek View Post
We are talking about macroing relatively simple tasks not writing bots for combat and such. Anyway the kind of skill up systems I've eluded to, such as offline progression, are immune to macros.


You would rather have the majority of a GM's time spent investigating macro abuse reports instead of something like GM controlled NPC invasions?


You are being naive.


Again, tie up the majority of a GM's time for this sort of thing?


You are being naive again. In Darkfall, players found ways to glitch inside of walls and under the world to macro skills 24/7 without any risk. That is just one example.


Policing alone should not be the manner in which to combat macroing. History has proven this fails horribly.



The point is not moot. Players who macro will gain a huge competitive advantage.


Really? So you don't mind other players gaining a huge competitive advantage over you?


You're being naive again.

The only mechanism currently in the game which will help combat macros is the soft cap on skills. Some people argue stamina use will help but this is just an obstacle that can be overcome with a rest/eat script. There are also rumors that a macro detection system is in place that stops skill gain but I have not seen any evidence of it.

This is my last post on this subject because it has been beaten to death and keeps going in circles.
I think you and I have some differences in terminology.

When I say policing I don't mean just watching in a game client to see if someone is "acting weird." It means checking databases with scripts too. So the huge competitive advantage you are referring to would be noticeable statistically. Things like consecutive hours played, total hours played, total skill points and xp gained, should all be analyzed by a script and outliers should be investigated. One could not gain a huge competitive advantage without drawing scrutiny. Hiding in a rock wouldn't help at all. You know that GM's can tell where people are and move them right?

Games get ruined by cheaters and automation. I would definitely rather see GMs stay on top of that problem than spawn some mobs. Maintaining the integrity of the game is their job in my eyes, not running special events (which everyone will complain about afterward for some reason or another anyway).

You say you are only talking about simple macros when you respond to the beginning of my post and then in the end you talk about an eat/rest script (presumably being implemented alongside whatever skilling macro is going on) which is just the kind of complexity I was talking about. I am not talking about a full-fledged combat bot (let's wait till we get a real combat system to worry about that).

Clearly I mind people gaining a competitive advantage by cheating. That's what my whole post was about. When I said that I don't care if someone uses a macro in a way that is indistinguishable from normal gameplay it means that they are not gaining a competitive advantage. Someone who has gained a competitive advantage from macroing is distinguishable statistically. It's not technically macros that bother me, it's cheating and the accelerated pace of the game that comes from the automation arms race.

So your answer is to make the skill system a clone of Eve. The same thing gets suggested by every Eve fan in every game they go to, but yet still most games don't use that system. It's a completely different dynamic and most people who don't play Eve don't really want an offline progression system. That was one of the things I liked least about Eve when I tried it. Darkfall was "ruined" by macros according to many (I never played it I admit). The macroing essentially made it a game with offline progression... and people considered that "ruined." What does that tell you about how popular that idea would be?

The game releases in a few days, they aren't going to change the skill system to offline progression. Now who is being naive? You already said you are done with the conversation, which is fine since you aren't contributing anything constructive.