Artisan Archive
Thread: The AFK macroing debate is over.
They should bring in the Sandworms from Dune and have too much sampling attract them. You sample for 3 hours - boom - eaten by a sandworm. j/k
I think this is great even if it didn't have anything to do with AFK macroing. It makes sampling more involved rather than something to do while you go to the bathroom or nuke some Hot Pockets.
But you can't prevent it 100%. All they can hope to do is raise the difficulty of getting around their measures higher than the desire of most of the people to circumvent it. Mathematically speaking:
A = The difficulty level of the anti-AFK measures
B = The desire of someone to AFK sample
C = The ability of someone to get around the anti-AFK measures through whatever means.
All they care about is if A > B*C for MOST people. They can't do it for all people because someone out there is always crazy enough and able enough to do it.
I just have to believe that if Harvesters were not so buggy this would not be an issue. Surveying experience quickly tops out so that's not the motivation. And the amount of resources you can get via sample versus a correctly functioning harvester is not that significant in the long run.
If there was a way to tell when your installation has been turned off or its maintenance is coming due automagically (via e-mail perhaps?) then I think some of the management issues would also go away.
I don't mind the new enhancements but I really wish the Harvester fixes had come through first. To get people to change their behavior you need a carrot and a stick. Just weilding the stick only motivates people to find a better way to do it themselves. I'd much prefer if SOE provided a viable solution along with the anti-AFK mechanics. I think given human nature they would be more likely to get the results they want.
The carrots I would like see are:
1) Fix the harvester bugs.
2)Provide a way to tell when your installation has been turned off or maintenance is coming due automagically (via e-mail perhaps?). ThenI think some of the management issues would also go away.
"Not if a clause in the EULA that you agree to when you start the game allows the client to look for known macro programs."
Just an FYI. Iftheyput something like "I will give Sony my first born" into the EULA the contract would be null and void. Just because it is in the EULA doesNOT mean that what they're doingis legal. No one has taken a case like this to court (to my knowledge.)