This game badly needs mods and macros.

Macros that I would love to have are, for instance, "I'm mezzing %target -- don't attack him" and uses my CC ability.

Yes to macros for gods sake and tons of addons!!!!

/reopen thread

For me, the casual MMO player, it is not a question of equal skill. I am in no way competing for the top world spot in progression and I have to imagine that those who are make up a very small minority of the player base. However, I understand that you need those "elite" players to maintain overall populations as they help generate interest in the game. As for PvP, the dumb, fall-through macro, as stated below, should not have anywhere near as large and effect as those would make it seem.

That said, the amount of button bloat I am experiencing in this game without having the option to use macros is frustrating, subscription ending even. I'm not asking for smart macros that make decisions for me. I am asking for the dumb* variety of fall through macros. If spell x is on cool down use spell y. The difference in skill for using a macro such as that is negligible and helps me reduce the amount of clutter on my bars. I despise the hunt and peck model where I have to memorize 20-30 different key bindings or otherwise scan my bars for that situational ability the few times I need it.

WoW was the same way, had I not been able to clean up my UI I would have never played the game. Same goes for this one.

*As apposed to smart macros that make decisions based on [Is my target casting?], [Is my target at full health?], etc... . The decision of [Is my spell x on cool down?] is so trivial I can not see it impacting play other than opening up a spot on my hot bar.

I am not throwing out anything to distract the discussion.

I simply pointed out that I would rather not deal with having a third party program installed on my computer for two very specific reasons.

1. I’d rather not open up my PC to a possible intrusions by needing to download additional third party programs to play a game that doesn’t require said programs to actually play. I think I’d made myself clear on my reasons why

2. Once the mod race starts there will be a growing number of players who will exclude those who chose not to have that additional programming or more to the point; the ones they want other players to use.


I don’t have any doubt that mods will eventually be included so the best I can hope for is finding a group of like minded players who share my position ( in one form or another). Perhaps Bioware could introduce a mod free server for players who feel the same as I do. That’s reaching a bit but who knows.

Mods are not a third party program, and they do not require a third-party program to install.

And, again, the exclusion factor is a very, very, very small portion of the community (i.e. hardcore, progression raiding guilds). And if you're a part of one of those, then you'll have a lot more stringent requirements to worry about than needing a few mods.

I'd argue that even there mods aren't required as long as you can prove yourself. Guilds like that are interested in end results and if you can perform without addons as well as everyone else then you'd be fine.

That's an excellent point, and I wholly agree with it. All that matters is that you can complete the content. If you don't need DBM to tell you to get out of the fire, then no one cares if you have it or not.

This is where you're wrong. Third party software has everything to do with MY gameplay. I've already been in a Huttball match with Superman.

I think you are misrepresenting addons. Addons have no executable code outside of what the game allows them to do. They can not do anything SWTOR does not want them to do and for all intents and purposes are inert. Think of them like HTML, which only tells your browser how to display things. HTML could contain javascript (aka executable code), however you browser has a choice of whether it loads it, aka security settings. In the case of SWTOR, the game wouldn't even recognize anything of the like.

As for stand alone executables/programs, sites like Curse wont even allow addons that contained them. They scan each upload before allowing it to be distributed. They stake their reputations on it.

If you are talking about the Addon Updater programs Curse and other sites provide, you don't have to use it. You can download addons old-fashioned style and aren't required to use their downloaders.

Any additions that alter how the game is played must also take into consideration a couple of very important things, namely what would these cost Bioware in revenue?

Creating an API isn't trivial, it means support costs go up, possibly more importantly it means they loose control of their creation, the direction of the game and it hasn't even been out a month...

Maybe when were on the forums and the date Jan 2013 we could revisit these discussions, but for now I for one am happy enough to play the game as is, which is wonderful and let Bioware gauge their income stream -- which from my view isn't tied to stealing players from older games, but drawing in the Star Wars fans and creating new gamers - who aren't dependent on macros or mods...