Artisan Archive
Thread: Best Macro for Surveying!!!
I don't think sampling macros are going to be a significant problem unitl they increase server stability. With 2+ hours per day down time, and occaisonal crashes at odd hours (at least on Bloodfin), there is precious little time a macroing sampler can run for hours undisturbed. Once they do get servers to have days at a time of continuous uptime, then I think marco sampling may need be addressed.
Disregard last it does work.. but it works like this
F1=0 SHIFT+F1=12
F2=1 SHIFT+F2=13
F3=2 SHIFT+F3=14
F4=3 SHIFT+F4=15
F5=4 SHIFT+F5=16
F6=5 SHIFT+F6=17
F7=6 SHIFT+F7=18
F8=7 SHIFT+F8=19
F9=8 SHIFT+F9=20
F10=9 SHIFT+F10=21
F11=10 SHIFT+F11=22
F12=11 SHIFT+F12+23
For the f1 - f12 keys you need to put a 0 in front of the number.. ie.. you want to hit f4 you need to type /ui action toolbarSlot03 instead of /ui action toolbarSlot3
"I leave my computer running when I'm not there, it might start a fire--it has been known to shut itself down from time to time "
1) Unless there is some kind of massive powerspike that goes through your fuse box AND the surge protector you have your computer plugged into (hopefully) AND the internal fuse on the computers power supply unit, there is absolutley no way in hell your computer could actually start on fire.
Short of spontaneous combustion or the like.
2) Your computer restarting in most likely not due to heat. When vid cards get too hot they tend to artifact (leave graphical glitches on your screen under hardware intensive render modes IE: Direct3D games) If you don't notice INSANE levels of this artifacting then your GPU overheating (trust me they get hot - that big metal plate gets even hotter because it absorbs the heataway from the chip itself)is not causing your system to restart.
I'd check your CPU and make sure you have the latest firmware (aka BIOS) installed for all your hardware and that it's all tested to work together. Many newer video cards cause system restart on random occasions because they are not compatible with older MOBO chipsets.
Unless it causes you actual pain to hold your hand on the heatsink for a few moments then your not even near overheating. At least not at the level that would cause a major problem like restarting your system or hurting your hardware (or starting a fire).
BTW: Back on topic, AFK macroing is a HUGE problem, but the bigger problem is that game companies seem to thing that gaining 36,000 points of wilderness survival experience constitutes "gameplay".
Seriously, without AFK macroing there would be NO master scouts. Lemme put this in perspective for those of you who haven't had the CHORE of becoming a master scout. A camp gives 600 or 800XP after 50mins.It take 36,000 to master scout and a TON more than that to master ranger.
It takes 50 HOURS of AFK macroing to get to master scout... I pity the master rangers out there.
Granted if you actually SIT at your computer and use a few tricks (like running in and out of your camp a bazillion times, and disbanding when u get to max xp instead of waiting for auto-disband) you couldMABYE lower this number to 20-30 hours. That isSTILL over 1 day++ worth of doing nothing but making and dibanding camps.Keep in mind that this is just master scout, I won't even go into Master Ranger.
Just had to point out here that Eric's on crack...
I'm a master scout, and got all my xp without any afk macroing of any kind. All you have to do is go out in hunting parties. If you build a multiperson camp, with a hunting party of 8, you max out a camp in about 3 minutes, assuming people got wounded, which, if they're hunting, they did...sure, it involves breaking down and remaking the camp, but that has nothing to do with afk macroing.
Bushwa wrote:
RedelHawke wrote:
As for the bandwidth/cost arguement, well I pay the same rate as everone else and there is absolutely nothing in the EULA which limits the amount of hours I can "play" per month. This is an UNLIMITED usage by a monthly fee based system. As AOL, GEnie, Prodigy, Compuserve and the pay by the hour games have found out, the current user-base will not pay by the hour, but they will be online for extended periods of time. They pay by the hour ideas fell flat.
Nope, I'm not anybodys lawyer - I'm a programmer/DBA type. My original point was to make sure everyone understood the risk they are taking running these "never ending loop" macros - and that is the risk of losing your account.
As you can tell by the wording in the EULA, it doesn't matter how "you" or "I" interpret anything at all - the "interpretation" of the rules is completely up to SOE to decide if you are in violation (as it always has been for all these types of services).
EULAs are not really intended to educate the user about the proper way to use the software if they were, they wouldn't be written in a tiny font and in unintellible legalese - they would be written in simple easy to understand English.
EULAs are expressly written to cover SOE's backside if anyone ever contests thier decision to cancel thier account.
Bushwa
I agree with you in principle, for the most part, Bushwa. Except for who in the end get's to interpret it. Ultimately, it could fall to courts and lawyers, neither SOE execs nor players such as you and I. And as RedelHawke mentioned, AOL learned that the hard way when the went to monthly unlimited use. People couldn't log-in and AOL got sued, and settled roughly in favor of the users.
I agree about the interpretation of the EULA concerning macro use includes ingame macros. The key is UNATTENDED play. Doesn't matter if it's an in-game tool, or third party app; it matters whether or not you are near your computer. I do feel you should be able to be away for about an hour to 90 minutes, though. With the grind for low level characters in this game, I should be able to evacuate my bowel, or take a quick shower, do dishes, make dinner - whatever. I'm not gone long (like sleeping or at work,) and often am very nearby.
And macros in general, and sampling specifically, should be left alone. Again, the grind. I should be able to use a looping macro to sample, and read a book while sitting at the computer (or watch TV, since it's right nearby and I can turn it to face me.) Or just simply chat or whatever. The point is, there's nothing wrong with macroing, if not abused (and those people should be hunted down and banned... Or better, if they are AFK for over an hour [or my 90 minutes] they become vulnerable to attack by ANYBODY - regardless of faction or whatnot.) There is also nothing wrong with being in the game for 10+ hours a day, 28 days a month. I don't care what the EULA states, that won't hold up in court. Now, will someone sue SOE for banning they're $15 a month account and $50 software purchase? Probably not. But, if I had invested that much, for a year or two (along with my time investment,) it would be worth it to me to look into. AOL had to settle, SOE would too.
Just my bit - Cor
Can't we simply put a tag at the beginning of the macro and use the /goto tagname at end of macro?
My only question is, what character to use to assign a laber or tag line to macro?
There is a apparently a /repeat macro command. This is probably a better question for the maco forum as you will be attacked as a macroer by a bunch of people here. The macro language isn't designed for turning your character into a bot though so it lacks a number of structures you would see in a real programming language.
That having been said, I don't recommend that you macro survey as that is a fairly controvercial subject and not a good use of server resources.
Ivaso Agri
Bestine, Tattooine, Starsider
1) Unless there is some kind of massive powerspike that goes through your fuse box AND the surge protector you have your computer plugged into (hopefully) AND the internal fuse on the computers power supply unit, there is absolutley no way in hell your computer could actually start on fire.
Actually I saw an external scsi drive catch fire once. It was the drive used to house the alt.binaries heirarchy on the usenet server for the ISP that I worked for (yes I'm dating myself as this is back when the pr0n heirarchy could still fit on a single disk). You could cook on top of the drive housing because the drive actuator was constatly in use. Eventually one of the capacitors overheated and burst and the drive torched. I'm glad it happened when we were in the server room rather then at 3am when the gremlins really come out to play.
Null Tensor
As for the whole macroing debate I think the answer would be for them to greatly reduce the amount of materials collected at the higher levels of survey. Scale the return rate in the opposite direction, have the samples return higher amounts at lower surveying levels and lower amounts at higher levels. The guys starting out are the ones who need to be able to sample for larger amounts. I know that if I was only getting 1 unit of whatever I'm sampling per sample I wouldn't waste my time with it other than finding a spot for harvesters. Of course I wouldn't really care for a nerf like that unless there was some counterbalancing perk, like say...extended survey range or something.
Another possible solution would be to scale the sample amount received by the number of harvesters the person has going, where no harvesters would = highest sample rate and 10 harvesters would = lowest rate.
I'm sure many of you wouldn't care for these ideas, just trying to come up with solutions before they put the smack down.
Rickard Aren'sun
Valcyn