What next?

[Illbleed]

I know you guys are probably tired of me bitching.. unfortunately it's my opinion that SOE is taking this game in alot of bad directions. Case in point, the most reason decision. SOE had decided that recurisve macro's are not going to be allowed. Recurisve macro's allow you to repeat over and over again a macro. Guess what that means guys? Anyone remember macroing tailor? Remember how tedious it was? Wasn't it alot easier to just click on the resources once the schematic was loaded? Not anymore! Now you have to write god awful long macros and they CANT loop. WTF? This functionality is gone. As usual, the constant cycle of bitching has produced a fundamental change to the game dynamics that is going to hurt. Here is a exerpt from swgcenter.com:

[/i]The decision has been made on whether or not to remove Recursive Macros from the game. Recursive Macros are macros that will loop and continue to run itself over and over again. This has made it possible for people to advance their characters while they are away from their computers. The developers have finally decided to remove the feature of macros calling other macros. This will have a huge effect on the community, in some ways good and some ways bad. A number of people will be happy to see afk macroing gone from the game.


A macro is basically something that is a set of keystrokes and instructions that are recorded, saved, and assigned to a short key code/command. When the command is typed, the recorded keystrokes and instructions execute or "play back". In SWG, we can even attach those macros to handy toolbar buttons. (It may even be a third party program that executes macros, but that is a no-no that breaks EULA policy and gets players banned).


A recursive macro is a macro that executes the set of player commands and then starts over again in a never ending loop.



Star Wars Galaxies was designed with the idea that macros are ultimately inevitable. They are part of the game and there are many beneficial uses for in-game macros. The philosophical question is that do you both disallow macros and work against anyone who uses them or you make them available to everyone? If you choose the first choice, the inevitable outcome is that there are lots of players who will always figure out how to use macros. This puts extra strain on CS and creates a small group of players who have advantages over everyone else. If you choose to allow them for everyone, you create an environment where players can set up bots, AFK play for their main characters and other sorts of activities that are less than optimally conducive to playing in an online world.

The design to decision to remove them from the game has been made. They are coming out soon to clean up a lot of the AFK game. You will still be able to write fairly long macros, but you will no longer be able to loop them and use a macro to activate a macro from itself.



What effect will this have on your profession?

[Keer]

First of all, good expository post Illbleed. And it's relevant.

Personally, I have to say that I support the decision. I think that SWG's tempo could be decreased a few notches. And, as was written, the less AFK spam that I have to deal with lends that much more chance for immersion.

As much as I despise power grinding, power crafting, and damn near anything with a "power" pre-fix in this game, I did macro "power-grind" my way through the Spice line in Smuggler (gahh!). I'm sure it wasn't as bad as Tailor or many other heavy crafting profs, but if I wasn't allowed to do it, then I would have done it the "slower" way to get where I wanted to be. Bottom line.

Honestly, I entertained the thought of doing it the very slow way of "craft on demand", but I had so many friends and deals waiting for Keer to make Master Smuggler that I just caved in to it. /shrug

Overall, I'm hoping this move is an indicator of more and harder "gut checks" to come from SOE Development. There's still many things that need to be "tough loved" yet in SWG and banning recursive macros is lightweight in comparison.

Mi dos pesos.

[Gaaralow]

I agree. This will take down the majority of AFKers, and that's a very good thing. But it will only take out the AFKers, it won't take out the grinders. The crafting macro still stands, ya just need one more click per craft that starts the macro, no biggie.

[Seret Sajet]

So does this macro not only stop people from using /macro <macro name> to repeat macros but also prevent macros calling on themself in the toolbar? They'd have to cover both bases there.

If this works out to be so specific it only prevents looping macros then I won't complain. To me that was a luxury for an easier grind or a way to dance the night away while I played another character. If they remove that luxury oh well.

But if this "fairness fix" screws with the rest of the game then I will be pissed. If this fix stops me from putting a non-looping macro into my toolbar and using it from there then I will be very ticked off. They better get this right and now make everyone suffer with bugs galore.

[Dwilah]

I support this decision too. Call me crazy, but if I grind I grind crafting without macros. I think they're just trying to slow the pace a little, make the title "Master Dancer" or "Master _______" actually mean something.

In an environment where grinding is beneficial to the player to become a Jedi, we used to see so many grinders. And it meant nothing to be an entertainer, or really any sort of service provider, or even a combat profession.

There are those players who spend weeks and months working very hard on their chosen professions. Ultimately, it's more rewarding. More satisfying. Than grinding. SOE is not only making a more fair game, they're actually making a move to try and make their game more satisfying. Your Master Whatever title will mean so much more when it took you a month as opposed to three days, right?

[Ekade]

As an entertainer, I would LOVE to see the buffbots go away. The buffbots and AFK entertainers take away the value of my profession.

At the same time I do use looping macros to speedbuff. I am always ATK to do this. It would be nice if they could prevent macro's from looping if you were AFK. This way the ATK people can still use them.

My 2 credits.

[X'an Shin]

I can see why people would be pissed that it's gone, but I ground out my spice and slicing (once I got past the container/terminal phase) without macros, and in nearly the same amount of time I could have done it with Macros.

Granted, a macro would have made it a bit easier, but I felt like a couple of hours per night to get slicing III or IV wasn't really all that difficult. I'm sure Tailor and Chef are a lot harder, though.

[Ekade]

I can see why people would be pissed that it's gone, but I ground out my spice and slicing (once I got past the container/terminal phase) without macros, and in nearly the same amount of time I could have done it with Macros.

Granted, a macro would have made it a bit easier, but I felt like a couple of hours per night to get slicing III or IV wasn't really all that difficult. I'm sure Tailor and Chef are a lot harder, though.

Yes, the first time I did Dancer, it was all ATK with no looping macro. I did not know how to loop a macro back then. It takes longer, and more skill points, to master Dancer than it does to master a combat profession.

[Nyase]

It's not that big a deal for crafters even. You can still go by pretty fast. You just have to click next a few times. I got so good at it crafting meds on Intrepid. Got max in the med crafting line of CM in no time.

Only thing I don't like about it, is I can no longer have em afk sample and it forces me to break down and buy harvestors for a char I don't play that much. That, and I can't leave it there for 30 min loged in while i grab food and run back anymore.

And on another note, this will more than likely create more bugs. Would be nice if they fixed the millions of bugs in game rather than creat 5k more with each patch.