The Best way to handle macroers

[Armand]

Notorious is failing by not addressing this issue.

Would it kill the staff to invest 5 minutes in a clear statement?

[Sirius]

A clear statement about what?

[ifireallymust]

I got to agree.

It is not just 30min of casual clicking to get a skill in hide. It is solid spamming the skill for 30min.
If you indeed -do- have a life. That is not an acceptable skill up rate.
They have been made aware of this countless and countless of times now. Hench the reason a lot of people actually macro hide.

I agree that it obviously shouldn't be allowed, if they don't believe it is fair. Then I'd suggest they make an announcement first to all players that they are concerned etc and then ban. Perhaps clarify the ToS.
On the other hand.. Make it a bit more interesting levelling hide and various other skills. That'll benefit us all, no?

Well as for hide, I think a better solution might be to simply not allow using it to raise it. Let the only way to raise it be putting points in it from other skill gains (which is the only way I've gotten any points in hide). If we aren't supposed to hide because it's too OP, then give us the points we invested back and make hide go away, I guess. But making it impossible to skill without either carpal tunnel setting in or macroing does seem a bit off.

[niccoli00]

Well as for hide, I think a better solution might be to simply not allow using it to raise it. Let the only way to raise it be putting points in it from other skill gains (which is the only way I've gotten any points in hide). If we aren't supposed to hide because it's too OP, then give us the points we invested back and make hide go away, I guess. But making it impossible to skill without either carpal tunnel setting in or macroing does seem a bit off.

Yes, lets require the use of craft/gather skills to raise non craft/gather skills. Good idea.

Notorious is failing by not addressing this issue.

Would it kill the staff to invest 5 minutes in a clear statement?

As of now it's pretty clear. Using 3rd party programs to gain an advantage is bad. :P

[ifireallymust]

Yes, lets require the use of craft/gather skills to raise non craft/gather skills. Good idea.



As of now it's pretty clear. Using 3rd party programs to gain an advantage is bad. :P

They could add '...and will absolutely get your character wiped or will get you banned' to that and it would simple things up quite a bit.

[ryushidr]

Hell, why don't they give you an "i Win" button (sarcasm).

Funny, this would be an interaction designer's solution.

Temptation is just that, Temptation. No one is forcing anyone to macro. If you find it boring, you should not be playing it. Saying you have to "spam" something to level it is stupid. Clearly, the long leveling process is intentional. You were not meant to max it in a few days. Same with all other skills. No one is forcing you to "spam".

Now when I said basic game interactions I want to differentiate between two aspects of this game:

1. Basic Interactions
This would be the actual act of crafting, combat, gathering, hiding, or whatever else you actually tell the game to do. Often there is a little green wait bar that takes from 5-20 seconds depending on the action.

For crafting you have to open up your pack menu, then your bag, then open up the crafting menu, then select the item to craft, then select ALL of the items that go into the crafting. Click craft. Your green bar appears and you do it again if you need to. I'm not saying this is the worst interface for this. It's pretty on par with other games in fact. However, being able to queue up some crafting at the very least would be nice. But adding some sort of fun gameplay interaction for these activities would be _EXCELLENT_. Even combat suffers from being a click fest.

Of course, this is not the first time these critiques have been made.

2. "Macro" interactions

This is where this game really shines. There's huge potential for geographic resource system, growing/shrinking junk piles, deep player driven economies, animal populations, etc etc. This is what is fun about the game for me.

Saying that this or any other game begs to be macroed is a sorry excuse to say the least. Generally what happens, is that these people get bored when the macroing program has played their char to max level. They don't play, they macro. Big difference. Then when they can't come out and show off how good their macro program was (pretending it is their own skill), they freak out and come in here to complain about lack of content, etc.

I'd be curious to take samples of players from different games and see which ones have high populations of macroers and to which mechanics that correlates. I think there are games that beg to be macroed. If it's time-consuming to attain a goal, some tool makes it easier to attain your goals, and there's relatively low risk, then you will probably use that tool. Simple.

However, the point has been made that you don't need high ranks in skills to play the game and enjoy the macro mechanics. I agree with this. Yet the leveling system rewards macroing. In my opinion the skill system should only be developed in such a way that it allows and requires specialization. Being able to max out everything (at one time) is ridiculous in the first place.

[Sirius]

Well as for hide, I think a better solution might be to simply not allow using it to raise it.

this; effective hide will be OP if it is easy to get in addition to typical combat skills... and ineffective hide would just suck

[orious13]

....actually...
I might actually like the "only using level points" to level hide...
This would not make any real sense from an immersion standpoint, but only those dedicated to hide would use points on it.

[ifireallymust]

this; effective hide will be OP if it is easy to get in addition to typical combat skills... and ineffective hide would just suck

Tell me about it.

My hide is in the 50s, and it's just now starting to seem slightly effective for defensive purposes. If it's night. If I'm against the right background. If the potential enemies are a good ways off.

I don't mind putting all my points in it from other skill gains, though. I'm a defensive hider and more interested in the fortification side of combat than the actual hack and slash side (I'm old, okay? Reflexes not so good anymore!). I'm just glad I wasn't obsessed with the thought of raising it after launch, or I would have carpal tunnel by now!

[Dirt]

My hide is 5.