Bio Engineer Archive
Thread: Macroing
The "nownownow" attitude is encouraged by the design of the system, though mostly when a Galaxy is new. Competition encourages us to be among the first to get those tech levels, because we all know that people want the best weapons, and it's easiest to make a name for yourself early on, when you can be one of the only people capable of making them.
And later on, it becomes merely a desire to be able to sell weapons, as you won't be able to really compete until you hit Master (Or at the very least Tech4).
PadawanChong wrote:
or an open crafting tool?
By that, I mean an available crafting tool that isn't already creating something.
I've got 2 Master level crafters on another RPG and I started a Weaponsmith on Chilastra. . . but with the server downtime, I've switched servers. At any rate, I take it pretty casual. My crafter is also a dancer. I just reached Master Dancer status and I'll spend the next week plugging away at artisan and storing up resources. My second account is my main - a wanna-be Bounty Hunter. He funnels money and such to my crafter. He'll also be able to run harvesters if needed.
The way I've chosen to play my crafter is in support role. So, I'm not gonna be the first one and I'm not gonna get rich. But in time I'll get the best weapons without much headache, I'll be able to help my friends, and may make a few bucks as well. But. . .
The most effecient way to get exp is to at least grind it out until you get. . . say Firearms IV and Techniques IV. You can then craft good weapons and do the rest at your leisure.
DoppleX wrote:
The "nownownow" attitude is encouraged by the design of the system, though mostly when a Galaxy is new. Competition encourages us to be among the first to get those tech levels, because we all know that people want the best weapons, and it's easiest to make a name for yourself early on, when you can be one of the only people capable of making them.
And later on, it becomes merely a desire to be able to sell weapons, as you won't be able to really compete until you hit Master (Or at the very least Tech4).
See, that's a lot of bad speculation, put forth by bad economists. The player community can easily support multiple Weaponsmiths, Masters or otherwise. If you bring in 50K a night, you're doing VERY well. That's about the salary of a combat character at the higher levels. People just don't want to understand that. The Master Weaponsmiths are all millionaires by virtue of the fact that they were FIRST. Everyone else is going to get standard amounts of money, and you have to live with it. It's goign to take some skill and ingenuity to boost your money reserves because JUST being a Master Weaponsmith won't cut it.
I seriously feel sorry for the people who are out there now, grinding away, thinking that once they hit Master, everything's gonna fall on their lap with a silver platter. It won't. It's going to take work. Advertising, crafting, meeting demands, etc. etc. etc.
My server is a very good example...we had 1 Master Weaponsmith within the first couple of days. 2 more rose after 2 weeks. I hit Master about a week or so ago. There was a new Master within the last 2 days. We've YET to get into ANY sort of competition with each other. 2 of us are on Naboo, myself and another. I just chose to specialize in Melee weapons. 2 have galaxy-spanning corporations. 1 was an Apprentice to one of the other ones, and works in the same corporation.
We're STILL expanding, STILL growing...none of us 5 can ever hope to fulfill ALL of the demand. We don't even bother competing, because there's no need for it yet. We're all highly famous in our own areas, we're all highly profitable.
Heck, I'm not even counting the multitude of Tech. 4 Weaponsmiths on my server. All I'm saying is that the NOW NOW NOW attitude is just plain unfounded.
Here is a suggestion
F1=macro that opens the F5 slot+Schematic
F2=macro that opens the F6 slot+Schematic
etc.
The other way is to use a page-down funtion and put different crafting stations in the same spot on each toolbar. That macro would be something like:
/ui action toolbarPaneNext
or
/ui action toolbarPanePrev
I don't think it's bad speculation.. Granted, I was at least relatively close to the high end crafters, at least tech wise while leveling up. So I don't have personal experience with being a Novice in this environment. But I can't see a novice with say, tech1 and firearms1 having an easy time selling Scout Blasters in today's market. Their customers would be only the ones who really didn't know that much better guns were available.
And a combat class can have daily income FAR higher than 50k if they try. Hell, I've far surpassed that, using only my combat skills in perhaps an hour or so of work. Until they change mission payouts, combat classes are quite rich.
DoppleX wrote:
I don't think it's bad speculation.. Granted, I was at least relatively close to the high end crafters, at least tech wise while leveling up. So I don't have personal experience with being a Novice in this environment. But I can't see a novice with say, tech1 and firearms1 having an easy time selling Scout Blasters in today's market. Their customers would be only the ones who really didn't know that much better guns were available.
And a combat class can have daily income FAR higher than 50k if they try. Hell, I've far surpassed that, using only my combat skills in perhaps an hour or so of work. Until they change mission payouts, combat classes are quite rich.
Why's a guy with Firearms 1, Tech 1 bothering making guns? If he needs money, he's got all of Engineering 4 to fall back on. Make some Power Ups. Sell some Weapon Repair Kits. Go survey resources and sell them on the market. Heck, make Weapon Upgrade Kits. There are still plenty of things a Novice Weaponsmith can make that doesn't rely on directly competing with a Master.
Plus, what type of advancement is the Novice going for? You're going to Firearms 4/Tech 1? Well, don't plan on selling anything for a LOOOOOOOOOOONG time. Tech 4/Firearms 1? Hey, you'll be selling Scout Blasters like hot-cakes in NO time.
The problem lies in people wanting money AND XP at the same time. I think by now, everyone should have figured out that in role playing games, you seldom get both. You either get the money reward, or the big XP reward.
I don't think a Novice Weaponsmith is hopeless. With the amount of tells I get asking me, "Do you make Power-Ups", and I answer "No" to, I think at least 1 Novice Weaponsmith could fund his advancement in that market.
Well, that's why they need to grind. You won't be selling until you hit Firearms1/Tech4, so until then the only way to do it is grind. I don't necessarily see the reason to immediately rush to Master after that though. I only hit Master this weekend, but I was at tech4 quite some time ago. Though I must admit the Master perks are rather nice. I've never actually gotten tells asking for power ups though... I tend to make mostly for friends and guildmates though, and only put things on my vendor when I have surplus from that. So less exposure means less random tells. (Though I still get a lot of those)
That's not much different than any other class, though.
I'm starting up my Brawler and Marksman skills. I can't kill ANYTHING good...I make no real profit from the things I kill. Now I'm like at Expert at Rifles and Two Handed Weapons...I went out on a Hunting group for Kimogilas, and I was a total liability, simply because I wasn't skilled enough. Now, I didn't whine and complain...I just realize that I have go and kill a lot more easy stuff with little reward (i.e. falling back on my lower level skills). I do that for lots and lots of XP. Reminds me of what I had to do to hit Master Weaponsmith...
Hmmm....5,000 Ryyk Blades....5,000 Gnorts....same ol' **edit**.
"The problem lies in people wanting money AND XP at the same time. I think by now, everyone should have figured out that in role playing games, you seldom get both."
But the reason you cannot get both almost always lies in the game mechanics, not because it's not possible. If they fixed certs and a couple of other mechanics, it would be very possible to do both. When a profession is reduced to grinding for advancement, to me that signals broken mechanics.
OneButtonCombine#
That's the name of the macro I use when grinding. Bear in mind, I'm only at Engineering IV, but as soon as I reach my metal stockpile of 10314 (+ some extra for fails) I'll begin the run for Novice Weaponsmith. I'm currently doing Chemical Survey Devices at 55xp a pop (not practiced, doesn't work with macro). A Reinforced Combat Staff is 80xp, but requires two resources, which means I have to move my mouse a little each combine. Screw that. (Yes, this macro makes grinding THAT easy. No mouse movement.)
Chemical Survey Device uses 27 metal (any metal) in 4 slots, and yields 55xp, and has a 13 second hopper time. Loading the resources takes 8 click (4 double-clicks) on the same spot, then I push ONE button. That completes the combine, and opens the next kit. Now I need three kits to do CSDs, and as I finish with the third kit the first one empties its hopper a split second before I open it.
You heard me right, I'm doing 3 of them every 13 seconds. It takes 12 double clicks, and 3 keyboard presses for every 13 seconds. It yields 165 GCXP flat-out, and only uses general metal. Interested? That's 382 combines for 21000 GCXP, by the way... 382 / 3 = 127.3 13 sec groups, so 128 x 13 = 1664 sec / 60 = 27.73
In 28 minutes, I'll be done with 21,000 GCXP, using only one resource. I'll have to load the resources 385 times, and push a hotkey 385 times. Yeah, I know you're interested, wait for it.
"But you have to destroy the CSDs..." you say? Yup, you do. It will take roughly 382 seconds to destroy them, since I zap one in 0.5 seconds easily, by turning off delete confirmation while crafting. It that extra 6 minutes tunes you out to this idea, stop reading, because I'm getting into the method now.
Okay, the setup is abysmally simple. First, get the resources you need, and have them in your inventory. (Just making sure the slower folks keep up is all.) Then get out your crafting kits, and put them in Shift+F1, Shift+F2, etc. You are going to put a corresponding macro in the F1, F2, F3, etc above it, till have enough to exceed the hopper time. I do three combines of a 1-resource, 4-slot, 13 second hopper time item, without really trying that hard. Takes me a little longer to do RCSs, but not much, I just don't feel like getting wood and metal both. I'm lazy is all, you don't have to be.
Here's the actual code for the macro:
OneButtonMacro# (I use the # icons at the end of the list, because they make telling which macro is which easier.) You will need one macro per kit, but only one number changes for each one.
/nextCraftingStage;
/nextCraftingStage;
/createPrototype;
/createPrototype;
/pause 2;
/ui action toolbarPane##;
/selectDraftSchematic ##;
Now, the commands are case sensitive, so get it right. First thing to mention, if at any time while doing these, a kit hangs up (if you mess with the pause it might) then you will find all your kits will fail to open then.
/stopCrafting
Will fix that. Here's a rundown of the commands:
The first four lines just complete the combine after you put resources in. The first time you click the macro, there's nothing to combine, but that's okay, it just moves on.
The /pause you won't notice, it's only a 1 sec pause, to make sure the next kit opens AFTER the assembly finishes, instead of during. (That causes the hang.)
/ui action toolbarSlot##; pushes the corresponding hotkey. F1-F12 = 00-11. ShiftF1-ShiftF12 = 12-23 You should know this by now if you're playing with macros, but there it is. The first kit is in Slot12. The second is in Slot13, the third is in Slot14, etc. I only need three kits, but you could feasibly run twelve of them.
/selectDraftSchematic ##; is found through trial & error, and educated guesses. The list in your hopper is somewhat close, but can be off. 19 = CSD, and 42 = RCS. I'll find others as I get them.
WARNING --
Do not be near a public crafting station when doing this, or it will look like it worked, use the components, but not actually give xp or make an item.
So you're all set up, time to get started. This is really complicated, so I made an ordered list, for using 3 kits. If you use more, you'll have to figure it out on your own, till I feel like posting guide for more.
1. Push "F1"
2. Double-click resources into the schematic.
3. Push "F2"
4. Double-click resources into the schematic.
5. Push "F3"
6. Double-click resources into the schematic.
7. Return to step #1.
Enjoy.
Thanks for the help, one thing I did not pick up on is how to open your weapon crafting tools with macros? Any help?