Why Macros belong in TOR.

The people who believe macros lead to botting couldn't be more ignorant to the truth if you slapped them in the face with it.

Let's take WoW. Macros there are very limited, and they run off the same API as AddOns though more restricted. An API is a big list of the functions you can and cannot use. If you try to do something not allowed by the API, your macro will fizzle.

Bots do not use macros. They do not use the API. They use DLL injection into the game client's process. These bots WILL arise with or without macros being allowed in SWTOR.

Seriously, wisen the frack up before commenting on stuff you have absolutely NO idea about.

Read my above post. Macros cannot do the things you are talking about. Please try to understand this.

You can't make a macro that bypasses the GDC. If you can the macro system is bugged.

You cannot use 2 attacks and a heal in a macro, because they will share GDC.

In-game macros can't push more than one key, they react when you push a key and do only one key action.

The kind of macros you are talking about - hit one key and push a sequence - already exists and are backed up by Bioware.

http://www.razerzone.com/swtor/keyboard

I repeat myself, you show a huge lack of understanding about what a macro is or not, and it's clear you never used macros. You should learn more about it before to judge the issue.

Sorry but to want macros is just ridiculous. No real pvper is going to want macros!

How is it fun to have 1 button perform everything for you? I quit RIFT because of the damn macros. There was literally no skill at all.

Macros can stay in RIFT. SWtOR does not need it and is better off without it.

You still don't seem to understand what I'm asking for.

Focus macro functionality to use with the focus frames that I believe are already within the game. Such a macro would look like this:

/cast [target=focus] "abilityname"

Here's a mouseover macro -

/cast [target=mouseover] "abilityname"

Devilishly complicated, right?

@Boba - I may have exaggerated to emphasize my point - effectively, I might add. There is no possible way to argue that you can recreate more quickly manually clicking than another player could with a focus macro.

I do not know if anyone has mentioned this to you but there is focus functionality already in the game. You have to go into your prefrences and enable it, but it is there. Secondly you can keybind both to set your focus target and a focus key modifier, so that when you push this modifier key, you use your ability on your focus instead of your target. No need for macros to do that. I am all for limited macro support but when you call for macros that allow you to do things already in the game, just not obviously apparent, I have to wonder if you ever actually looked through your ui settings, or just assumed since there was no macro's there is no focus support.

I think that you think that you know what you are talking about, but you think that everyone else that agrees with you thinks you are cool for trying to make everyone who disagrees with you ignorant and stupid.

tl;dr? you are an ignorant ****.

I'm going to ignore all the re-re's in here and go with the OP.

Ofcourse there will be macros in this game. If there aren't, I know I'm quick enough to get everything done, albeit a PAIN IN THE *** AND I ALREADY PLAY STARCRAFT I DON'T WANT ANOTHER 100+(I doubt over 100 is needed for an MMO, ever) APM GAME TYVM.

Don't worry about the trolls, OP. I'm sure BioWare has technical difficulties at the moment.

As in, Macros work, but either not as intended, or TOO STRONGLY like some imply here. It would in fact be bad if they can't limit their console commands and we can put in a cast sequence, priority list, or a short algorithm and LITERALLY press 1 button.

Or it may not have macros enabled at all.

But in the world of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), and with BioWare, not a bad company, I'm sure macros exist, but are just not available to the masses yet.

To all who say macros are skill-less, here's what some of my macros look like.

/target focus
/cast Hand of Sacrifice

/cast Divine Shield
/cancelaura Divine Shield (Tell me where I can find that on my abilities bar thank you very much. I have to double click/press it to work too, so it's still two button presses)

/cast Pain Suppression
/cast Power Word:Shield
(Pain Suppression is off GCD, making things SLIGHTLY faster)

/castsequence [reset=18] Charge, Intercept;
^ Unsure if that's the actual one, but if you don't know what that means, don't get excited by cast sequence or you're an e-diot. This basically allows me to map both my charges to 1 button.

Here's how some of my OH MY GOD gamebreaking macros would look like in SW:TOR. Tell me if it looks OP to you. Also tell me you know exactly what it does, and only if you do, will anyone care what you have to say about it.

/use [modifier=shift] relic1; [modifier=none] relic2;
Or however the format will be.

/use [modifier=none] Frenzy; [modifier=shift] Predation;

/target focus
/use Static Barrier
/targetlasttarget

I play Marauder, so my macros are not the most useful, but I'm sure on my higher level Operative and Sorcerer, they will become ESSENTIAL.

I don't know how bad you guys who don't want macros are doing, but I have easily 24 abilities mapped. I wish I can bind my companions abilities to my bars. OR AT LEAST MAKE A MACRO SO I CAN USE THEM DIRECTLY FROM MY BARS RATHER THAN HAVE TO PRESS CTRL+3/4 AND NOT HAVE ACCESS TO 5+, AND HAVE TO SACRIFICE 12 OF MY BUTTONS SO I CAN USE MY COMPANION'S DAMN HEAL ONCE IN A WHILE EFFECTIVELY.

[/rant]

So yeah, Macros will come OP. And if they don't, I guess us that are good anyway will dominate with our APM, but it'll be annoying.

However, those bots are much easier to track and erradicate if they are using a 3rd party programme to interface with the client, since the server will detect the anomaly when it scans the client files (how several bots were detected and banned at WAR's release)

If macros are supported and even enabled ingame, we would have seen bots from day 1 and they would be a ton harder to catch since they can use the ingame macro interface to bypass the client file check and thus it falls on the reliance of player reporting to ban bots.

The question is what would you prefer?

A system where bots can operate freely and are harder to ban? (macros supported and enabled)

A system where bots get caught quickly and banned frequently? (macros unsupported and disabled forcing the use of a 3rd party client modication and hacks)

Next time before spouting off that we are "dumb" go look at the plephora of issues Rift has had with hacks, gold farmers and the like simply because of there macro system.

I've never played RIFT. If its macro system allowed you to queue multiple skills from 1 keypress, then it was their broken implementation you should be angry at, not macros themselves.

The ONLY way you can activate more than 1 ability in a macro is if they are off the GCD. In other words if you have a Relic and CD off-GCD and let's say a Heal on-GCD, you can activate the Relic -> CD -> Heal all at the same time.

But guess what. You can do that anyway. Without macros. Macros are an improvement to QoL. You can never do something with macros that could already be done without. The idea is that macros make redundant keystrokes well, redundant.