Medic Archive
Thread: Medics, Resources & Macros, the how-to
BTW, Maulstrym, Macros actually were setup to be used for just this kind of thing. We used them for this purpose in Bet and a few folks thought that it might be considered an Exploit. We discussed the matter with the Devs on teh forums, who were already fully aware of using macros for that purpose (as well as for creating dancing and musician macros as well.) Their take was tht macro-sampling was quite viable and definitely not unbalancing in a game where you could have 10 harvesters of your own sampling 10 different resources all without you even needing to use up your power by having your computer turned on, since you didn't even need to be in the game to get those resources. Macro sampling was, presumably, simply a viable an dnot overburdening method of gaining resources.
Apparently they must have changed their minds, for some reason, since they just nerfed it a bit. Of course I think they may be a tad off-base in doing so right now because they must have decided to do this, I would guess, based on the metrics they are seeing for resource gathering and harvester usage. The problem is the serves and characters are still quite young, so harvesters are only now beginning to come into common enough usage to even begin thinking about outweighing the resource gain rate of macrosampling. So if they are seeing a huge macro-sample rate and think they needed to nerf becasue of it, they may have to change it again later once harvesters become commponplace enough that the macro-sample rate starts falling off the radar.
Not that it realy matters, if you ask me, since it just means I have to change the times in my macros and I may not be getting quite as many resources as before (I'm assuming these "critical" events are more Failed to Find type of messages?) it won't stop me from using it for now, just because... well, I'm a poor doctor. No way I can afford to put up harvesters and actually pay to keep them at full maintenance. So I have to go slow and macro-sample what little I can.
I'd not get too dependent on macros to gain all your resources because I don't think it was ever intended for people to gain large quantities. Sampling I think was meant to be used to gather the small amount of resources that lower level people use to make items with few resources like stim A's and even woundpacks A.
There's just no comparison.
Although this is something that the player-base still hasn't grasped, I'm sure that the dev's are well aware of it. I was amazed when they conceded to popular demand and adjusted sampling the last time, imho just because so many people "thought" it was a problem.
"But, harvesters cost SSSOOO much money and energy to run.", you say.
My response, I don't even bother worrying about it. I can sell a fraction of the proceeds from my harvester and pay for energy and maintenance requirements and still have a motherload of resources left over.
I'm quite certain that it will be harvesters that will be revisited in the future to see if they need adjusting. In time, when they are in more widespread use, don't be surprised to see the market value of resources to drop down to 2-3:1 MAX.
Yeah, harvesters. I got a windmill and minearal harvester. I kept them going at a high quality aluminum spot. Each day I'd pull out the resources and sell most of it on the market (made tons of money). Then I saved 500 or so Al to use in med packs which I use and sell the extras on the market (made more money). So much leftover money and power, I bought a moisture 'vaporator and a chemical harvester to go with. Once a day or two, I go add some money, move some power around, pull out the resources and go make more money/meds.
I love harvesters.
Ungh, old post, forgot I responded to it... should I dig it back up? Suuuuure, why not 
I think the information is worth it...
Looks like a few people didn't agree with me, so lets do the math a bit here... but first, the macro...
/sample; /pause 420; /healdamage;
See? My macro is shorter, no extra commands... just removed unecessary ones. Note: I use stim-Cs! You'll need to adjust the time for other stims, the cost to gain ratio I think works well with these meds, but you make up your own mind...
Now lets see, with 25 seconds between samplings, let's assume you sample for the entire 420 seconds and get 5 resources per try (I think that's a good average for a nice density resource, taking failures into consideration):
420 / 25 = 16.8 samples * 5 = 84 resources
Now again, I use experimental stim-Cs to heal, and instead of resting, I just fire a heal off, so I'll be sampling while your sitting down:
240 / 25 = 9.6 samples * 5 = 48 resources
You get 84 resources every 11 minutes ((420 sampling+ 240 resting) / 60) = 11 minutes), and I get 132. So in about an hour (11 minutes * 6 = 66 minutes) you get 504 resources, and I get 792... every hour.
But wait! I'm using stim-Cs! If I heal every 420 seconds, then in about one hour, I use9.4 shots (420 seconds/ 60 = 7 minutes... 66 minutes / 7 = 9.4),less than half a C pack. How many stim-Cs can I make with my extra 288 resources per hour? How much longer can I sample with my shorter macro?
Note: Yes, this is a simplified example, milage may vary... times may need adjusting... but even if an entire stimpack-C was used per hour, the benefits would still be seen.
Happy sampling!
My harvesters supported me up through master doctor, allowing me to pay for all of my trianing... with the exception of the training we split cost on that one time Vaccinate
That's why I never charged others for training, I didn't need the money.However, I can sample at a greater rate than any single, small harvester... and I do this often for resources I don't need a lot of, like tubers or seeds. I generally only place harvesters at decent locations, for better than average resources... like Tovvo, Epe, Ahe, Iduano and the like...