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-* Suggestion: Get Rid of Macros for Space Combat *-
repetitiveepic
Member Posts: 6,549 Arc User
There's been a lot of discussion lately about DPS and DPS related issues.
The dirty open secret of DPS in STO is that it is based on writing keyboard macros in the STO keybinds. It's not an exploit or anything, its just a thing people figured out how to do. People bind everything to space bar, maybe another key, and then press it over and over, and it automates everything: keeping your buffs up and optimal, auto targeting and firing at ships etc.
I think the game would benefit from shaking things up. If the devs disabled the ability to make these macros, a new layer of skill-based play would be added to the game. Instead of hitting space bar over and over, players would have to activate their buffs manually, which increases both immersion and engagement.
I really think it would be a shot in the arm for gameplay at the highest levels. It would upset complacency, it would give people something new to get good at, it would add dynamism to space combat.
Please lend your voices to this proposal, lets get heard!
The dirty open secret of DPS in STO is that it is based on writing keyboard macros in the STO keybinds. It's not an exploit or anything, its just a thing people figured out how to do. People bind everything to space bar, maybe another key, and then press it over and over, and it automates everything: keeping your buffs up and optimal, auto targeting and firing at ships etc.
I think the game would benefit from shaking things up. If the devs disabled the ability to make these macros, a new layer of skill-based play would be added to the game. Instead of hitting space bar over and over, players would have to activate their buffs manually, which increases both immersion and engagement.
I really think it would be a shot in the arm for gameplay at the highest levels. It would upset complacency, it would give people something new to get good at, it would add dynamism to space combat.
Please lend your voices to this proposal, lets get heard!
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Comments
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
Here is the problem with your logic: you think that YOUR preferred play style(no macros) should be FORCED on other people. That's not how it works. If YOU don't want to use a macro because you want things to be more "dynamic", that's completely fine. You have that choice. But there is absolutely nothing constructive about asking for someone else's choice to be removed.
PS: I don't use macros, but I support choice, as long as no rules are being broken.
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
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Took me years to finally accept that I had to use a macro for PvP, but I have to because the UI won't register a clock input on the power tray the 1st, 2nd, sometimes even 3rd time.
I know right, it's horrible! Even using conventional keyboard activation can result in spamming an ability such as RSP and getting no response after eight or more presses, most annoying though is when you die as a result and it still gives you the two minute sodding cooldown.
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It's an option people can use, or not. I use it, and like it. Learning how to use this has changed the game for me in a good way. The game gets "shaken up" enough with things like skill revamp, et cetera.
Now as to the suggestion, while I like and understand the concept behind it, I can't agree with it. Many games allow macros, the problem lies not in that.
As to UI lag, I agree its horrid, and there have been occasions it's cost me, but that's a separate issue for its own thread honestly.
Based on anecdotal observations, I think understanding how, why, and when you're activating your abilities matters more than whether or not you macro all your abilities to a key, but here's the point:
I don't spacebar mash. I either click abilities that I want activated, or have a hotkey that activates that specific ability (and no other abilities). It didn't exactly hold me back; it's not exploitative, and it's clearly intentionally designed as such (otherwise the bind would fail to work, given that the commonly passed around ones use in-game binds, not external programs), so what's the big deal?
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The other game I used to play. I used macros. But it was for fun stuff. Mostly making my character yell during combat to add to it. I only did it on boss fights. So it wouldn't cause issues.
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If they redid powers and went away from an alphabet soup of short duration buffs you need to individually click every ten seconds to a sane number of meaningful powers then they could think about getting rid of macros.
It won't. It'll probably lower the mid point but many of the really top end guys don't use keybinds.
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Your argument, as always, is flawed.
First off: Effective macros (they really aren't macros, but let's not dwell) aren't simply "bind everything to space", but rather a series of pre-setup choices. If you simply bind everything to space, you get a horrible mish-mash of low DPS output, because most of the time you burn your skills at a less useful point, than if you time them right.
Secondly: We've already been over this several times years ago: Cryptic put this function in for a reason... They want it in and they aren't going away.
Third: As usual, you think that your playstyle is the only way to go (basically, you keep losing because you don't want to put the effort into getting your own keybinds, and as such think everyone else should not either).
Fourth: Let's say that they actually remove them from the game... What will that accomplish? I have a Logitech G-Series keyboard, that lets me do pretty much the same with my shortcut keys. There are TONS of Scripts and apps out there that let you create your own keyboard shortcut-commands. They work by simply adding a series of keystrokes, and as such register as if I was pressing the keys myself with no option for Cryptic to see if it's actually me, or my keyboard doing the work.
So basically, we cut off people without these options (Buying a relatively expensive keyboard and lacking the understanding to set up apps) from this.
With the current in-game option, at least people can get help right where they need it.
You really need to get over your own "good" ideas and look at the bigger picture.
I've never understood the people who prefer to bind everything to the spacebar... to me you may as well be watching a youtube video.
But that's just me, and everybody has their own tastes, it would be a dull world if everybody was the same.
I remember the hilarious uproar when people requested that weapons have a 'automatic' function where you press space bar once and they will continuously fire (prior to this you had to periodically mash the space bar). When it got implemented there were various doom threads how it would destroy the game ect.
I'm pretty sure most of those people use autofire now
Anyhoo, it's just another choice of playstyle - it's no skin of my nose if people want to make macro's; it's not like PvP is viable any more, so all's they are doing is killing NPC's a bit faster.
You are not suggesting a "compromise". You are asking that your personal preference be *forced* on everyone. Calling that a "compromise" means you do not actually understand what the word means. That is like someone saying that if they don't like disco balls, they should be *removed* from the game. By your definition, that would be a "compromise".
The-Grand-Nagus
Join Date: Sep 2008
It happens quite often that the game simply won't respond to all your clickies. If you activate two or three powers and the second power takes a second to activate, it simply won't register and you'll end up activating powers 1 and 3.
With the huge shield drains, adding multiple shield heals has become quite important. The few abilities that enemies have, are often spammed so you need to spam yours to counter it. And that's simply not always possible if half the things you click don't activate, or require two or three clicks before they work.
And, as usual, agreed with @angrytarg . DPS needs to be adressed and balance and classes should be reworked. I know to little about macro's to determine if that would be a good starting point though. Let people use them, there are far more pressing issues.
not going to use them if they stay or go regardless, don't need them. but for bot makers, built in game macros are a heaven send...perhaps that's why cryptic keeps them around...bots count as users logged in too.
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/rofl frack no. If anything then this game needs a proper macro language. Lua (as industry standard) or Python or even a proprietary one. Anything really...
The best would be of course rewrite the whole UI in Scaleform thus killing 2 birds with 1 stone...