Bio Engineer Archive

First off, I'll be straight with you--I'm a hologrinder (ducks to avoid the thrown objects ). I've actually taken my time to experience most of the profs I've done, but with the holocrons getting turned off next week I am out of time...so I fired up the macro from the FAQ this weekend to see if I couldn't speed up the DNA tree. Here are some observations, take them as you will.

The macro works pretty well, but is not entirely hands free. Because you end up following the critters you're sampling, I found I was frequently dragged away from the "trash" spawn zones, or turned to face in a direction where there were no targets. This leaves you standing with yourself selected, unmoving. You might also target a roaming npc (like a CorSec), and then you might end up way of course. The timed re-targetting also occasionally causes you to start following one creature while you sample another, leading to out-of-range failures.

I started at Coronet, once I ended up in a player city 2000ms away, and once I got whacked by meatlumps and came back to find I was looking at the cloner screen. I moved to Keren, where there are no npc who dislike me, and fared much better.

The xp rate can be very sporadic, depending on how long you remain facing the right direction. My first try netted me 3 samples between midnight and server shutdown (about 4 hours). Turning your draw distance up and maxing your field-of-view will help keep more critters in your sights. The macro also works more efficiently at higher levels. By the time I got to Sample 2, I had a stretch where I earned close to 10k in barely than 2 hours. I have kids and can't really play on the weekends, but I was able to peek in a couple of times an hour and re-point my toon and empty my inventory, and this got me from Sample 1 to Sample 3 in about 1 day.

By far the most effiecient use of this "afk macro" is to run it while you are at the keyboard, running a tissue crafting macro. You craft away, and help guide your toon when needed to stay looking at spawns, this also lets you craft your samples into templates as soon as you get close to a full inventory. It's also a good idea to put /follow and /stopfollow in your toolbar for quick access while you do this. Make sure to equip whatever weapon you are most proficient with in case the cirtter gets bent at you for that needle-poke. As a smuggler with pistols 4 I found my dl-44 more than sufficient for the mobs near Keren. I went with no armor, and popped some BE brandy to help with my stats.

Whether you are a last-minute hologrinder, or just want to knock this out quickly, I hope this helps. For convenience, here is a reprint of the macro. I changed the final line to make it call itself, this frees up a toolbar slot. Be sure to name it dna for the last line to work:

/ui action targetSelf;
/ui action cycleTargetOutwards;
/follow;
/pause 5;
/sampledna;
/pause 11;
/macro dna;

Enjoy!

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/ui action targetSelf;
/ui action cycleTargetOutwards;
/follow;
/pause 5;
/sampledna;
/pause 11;
/macro dna;

Enjoy!

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Oh woe is me - I cant play the game entirely AFK.

TBH I didnt want to include the macro in the FAQ because I vehemently disagree with AFK macroing, particularly in public areas where it can affect other people's gameplay.
However its not against the rules of the game and its better than having to aswer a post a day from hologrinders whinging how they cant afk their way to Jedi.
So all I can say is I'm glad it has problems, I'm glad you cant be afk all night and get your sampling XP.

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Akelan wrote:

I think SOE is missing a major cash opportunity here - they should simply allow subscriptions at a higher rate that start with a force sensitive slot. You pay $30 a month rather than $15, and you have a FCS from day one. Simple, holochron-free and no need for all that tedious mucking about with professions or gameplay, much less interaction with other players.

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NancyJ wrote:
Oh woe is me - I cant play the game entirely AFK.

So all I can say is I'm glad it has problems, I'm glad you cant be afk all night and get your sampling XP.

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Ah, but you misunderstand me, or perhaps I led you in that direction. This isn't a "woe is me, I can't play afk" post. I play as often as I can, because I enjoy it. I even like hologrinding, in some bizaare way, as I am trying out professions I never would have thought to. I'm finding the DNA samples immensely interesting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what I can make with them. I am also quite clear that I want to unlock a jedi slot, and so I am working towards that goal. Am I right or wrong, foolish or wise to do that? I couldn't say.

I know that I have submitted hundreds of thousands (millions?) of mouse clicks into the game over the past year in quest of that goal, wandering far and wide, doing quests, themeparks, visiting POIs, and once the holocrons appeared, mastering professions. I appreciate the knowledge provided to me by other players that helps me reduce those clicks, or to get more out of each one. This post was about giving a little bit of that back. I don't think I'm complaining that the macro doesn't work entirely afk, I'm just making the observation that is the case.

To those who do not understand, or are offended by this style of gameplay, I say, with utmost respect, "These aren't the macros you're looking for. Move along..."

To be completely honest, I finished the Sampling tree in a shorter time than the crafting trees. I just got 2 missions for creatures that were about my level, sample, move to the next lair, sample, go back to the first.

That out of the way, what would help you is to park a droid, and include at the end of your sampling macro /target droidname; /follow. It has some limitations, but you shouldnt end up 2km away from where you started.

Now, I understand that most dont like when someone comes along and posts something that makes AFKing easier, but from my perspective, it will easily take 10x longer to do it this way than if they would just grind it out the way we were supposed to.