I hope it remains no

 

The game is easy enough, no need to nerf it

Maybe I am being naive or just noobish. I only played WoW before (right from patch 1.6), but once they got rid of logic and scripts within macros, I don't really see how they could make the game any easier. I don't consider using macros to avoid having to twist my hand to reach impossible key combos nerfing the game.

Not a personal grudge on your comment here or anything, just asking. In all honesty I'd rather the challenge came from the game itself than from the how difficult/tedious it is to input your orders.

I will agree macros are definitely not the only (or even the best) way to deal with an "unfriendly" UI, but I do like their added value of doing that too.

If you're invoking the Guild Summit, let's be a bit more precise about what we've said:

 

A) Macros are a possibility in the future. We don't hate them.

 

B) I am opposed to macros that automate combat (shouldn't be a surprise). I'd rather take tedious things (such as sprint turning off after death) and modify the design than to rely on people to create macros to deal with these things - which creates unnecessary barriers of entry in my opinion.

 

C) We don't consider interface improvements and quality of life features (e.g. mouse over healing) to be macros (so 2 does not apply)

 

D) Macros for social behaviors, etc are definitely a possibility too.

Where would you place "modifier" macros, basically a macro that allows you to bind multiple abilities to one quickslot, and what ability fires when the quickslot or quickslot hotkey is used is determined if you are using a modifier key (shift, alt, ctrl) at the same time?

The game that shall not be mentioned allows this, and it makes it easier to have more abilities on less bar space, and holding the modifier will also show that ability on the bar. That and heads-up display of Cooldowns and Procs are the only two UI items I really miss.

That and heads-up display of Cooldowns and Procs are the only two UI items I really miss.

My Bounty Hunter would love a HUD for heat management.

Ive never used a macro in an MMO (or any game for that) but I do own a G19 so I could quite easily make my own macros using the software on that.

That being said I don't even know what id want a macro for... Its just as easy to press the keys than program the keyboard to play the game for me.

Only difference of course is the latter is far more boring...

Played warhammer online with no macros, was great, skill level required was much higher.

compared to when i played rift. By abuseing the macros i could automate all combat to about three keys (1-3) and a handfull of special circumstantial abilities.

Ive heard the game whose name must not be spoken has a highly abuseable macro system with advanced conditionallity statements to make automation even more extreme.

Happy that swtor has no macros for combat abilities, i feel it raises the bar.

however i wouldnt mind being able to tie an ability to a chat statement. for example

/cast gaurd <current target>

/say <current target> is being gaurded by <player name>

or

/cast debuf <current target>

/say <current target> armor debuffed

or

/cast stun <current target>

/say <current target> stunned do NOT attack <current target>

stuff like that just helps you communicate to your team what you are doing and how it helps relates to their actions.

Those who can afford to buy the peripherals which come with SWTOR branded on them, can set up macros. Why shouldn't we be allowed to set up similar macros if we're not using high-end hardware? There are already enough advantages to be gained from having a better computer, or having a better internet connection. This affects the fairness of the game, but nobody at Bioware's complaining about selling another keyboard or mouse with macro features and the SWTOR name all over it. If macros are not available in-game, then it should be across the board and should include the afformentioned harware.

I question Bioware fairness on a lot of issues, moreover, maybe the developers and the publisher are more than happy to hide behind a guise of "fairness" in order to promote sales. Pure speculation, but I'm always suspicious when the people who can afford to are permitted to buy themselves an advantage. Sounds too much like capitalism.

It was pretty much said that there will be no macros anytime soon if ever at the guild summit. It seems part of the Dev team hates macros and does not want them in game.

 

But, they did say there will be some things in game that will help healers and such. What that means who knows they did not explain it very well.

Which i think this is a good thing.

I think what they were saying was they don't want a macro system that can be exploited to play the game for you. That doesn't mean "no macro system" that means "if we do it, we're going to make sure we can control it"

Where would you place "modifier" macros, basically a macro that allows you to bind multiple abilities to one quickslot, and what ability fires when the quickslot or quickslot hotkey is used is determined if you are using a modifier key (shift, alt, ctrl) at the same time?

 

The game that shall not be mentioned allows this, and it makes it easier to have more abilities on less bar space, and holding the modifier will also show that ability on the bar. That and heads-up display of Cooldowns and Procs are the only two UI items I really miss.

This is what I want, too. But frankly they don't necessarily have to do a macro system for it. They could give each quickslot a little fly-out menu that lets you add other abilities and specify the accelerator keys or other conditions that would activate them.

The gist is this: There are way too many situational abilities for any given class and we would very much like SOME way reduce the number of hotkeys required to access them all.

I'd rather the challenge came from the game itself than from the how difficult/tedious it is to input your orders..

This is my view on macros as well. PVP'ing as a sith warrior makes my hands hurt like hell when I'm trying to be mobile and move around others. Generally, I use my bounty hunter in pvp because honestly I feel my ranged abilites give me the opportunity to be a little more stationary and I can use my skills more controllably. I honestly feel my bounty hunter gives me a bit of an unfair advantage against melee classes because I don't see them move around as well as they do in say...Rift. An advantage that macros would nullify. But I don't care, I'll take anybody on with my sith warrior.

This is what I want, too. But frankly they don't necessarily have to do a macro system for it. They could give each quickslot a little fly-out menu that lets you add other abilities and specify the accelerator keys or other conditions that would activate them.

 

The gist is this: There are way too many situational abilities for any given class and we would very much like SOME way reduce the number of hotkeys required to access them all.

you can set this up now, no special equipment required.

go to the keybinds preferences and select any quick slot you like, you can make it fire by any combination of multiple keys.

for example you can make the lower center set of quickslots activate by pressing alt+(1-0)

dont foreget to turn on the additional action bars, i recomend the extra lower one and the right one too.

you can set this up now, no special equipment required.

 

go to the keybinds preferences and select any quick slot you like, you can make it fire by any combination of multiple keys.

 

for example you can make the lower center set of quickslots activate by pressing alt+(1-0)

 

dont foreget to turn on the additional action bars, i recomend the extra lower one and the right one too.

Was I that unclear? I'm talking about letting each individual quickslot have multiple abilities bound to it based on modifier keys and other conditions such as being in or out of combat.

Was I that unclear? I'm talking about letting each individual quickslot have multiple abilities bound to it based on modifier keys and other conditions such as being in or out of combat.

that level of conditional statement programing is over the top imho

i could use it and would if it was in game but only to keep on par with the others who certainly would. however i dont need it.

that level of conditional statement programing is over the top imho

 

i could use it and would if it was in game but only to keep on par with the others who certainly would. however i dont need it.

How is it over the top? It doesn't automate anything, it just reduces the number of quickslots you have to wrangle. It makes it easier to access certain abilities based on context. As long as they contextual triggers provided don't give a combat advantage, I don't see what the issue is.

So what WOULD give combat advantage? For example, a conditional that switches abilities based on the class of the target or based on the range to the target or based on remaining health of the target. Those are things that should NOT be automated in any way.

A combat conditional would allow you to have common non-combat things easily accessible. For instance, you could have your out-of-combat recovery ability on an easy to reach hotkey when out of combat but an actual combat ability on that hotkey in combat. That's not a combat advantage.

Or perhaps you could have some social commands or abilities on easy to reach hotkeys when out of combat but automatically replaced with your combat abilities when combat begins.

I think this is quality-of-life stuff.

The simple reason they don't want to offer support, or even really talk about it, is they want everyone who wants to macro to spend nearly 400 bucks on their custom gear to do it ...

Well the minority that don't realise that the same thing can be done on a variety of legit third party peripherals at less than half the cost anyway ....

Personally I would favour in game support for "limited" combat macros .. say maximum of 4 commands per macro. For example binding : sundering assault, assault, vicious slash and retaliation, to one key based on rotation, for a juggernaut tank, would while simplifying your basic go-to's, still leave plenty of situational abilities to be used individually.

Played warhammer online with no macros, was great, skill level required was much higher.

 

Ive heard the game whose name must not be spoken has a highly abuseable macro system with advanced conditionallity statements to make automation even more extreme.

 

however i wouldnt mind being able to tie an ability to a chat statement.

 

integrating chat lines with spells is, by far, the most annoying use of the said macro system on that other game, and had it not been because of roleplayers, it would have been removed long ago.

Regardless of how useful, informative, even necessary you think your chat line is, in the end it becomes very annoying, cause just about everyone is typing a new line into chat every 5 seconds. No matter how reasonable you are in its use, never account for the reasonability of others.

I played the other game for very long and I would REALLY like some1 to please pinpoint a single example where that macro system let you make any sort of auto mode. All it did was not force you to move your hand to a different area of the keyboard just cause some condition changed.

I get the feeling that many people seem to consider that a matter of skill . As I said, I'd rather the game was difficult because it is difficult, not because the constraining bar/keybind system forces me to twist my wrist if I want to reach certain key combination just because something happened.

integrating chat lines with spells is, by far, the most annoying use of the said macro system, and had it not been for roleplayers, it would have been removed long ago.

 

Regardless of how useful, informative, even necessary you think your chat line is, in the end it becomes very annoying, cause just about everyone is typing a new line into chat every 5 seconds. No matter how reasonable you are in its use, never account for the reasonability of others.

 

I played the other game for very long and I would like some1 to please pinpoint a single example where that macro system let you make any sort of auto mode. All it did was not force you to move your hand to a different area of the keyboard just cause some condition changed.

 

I get the feeling that many people seem to consider that a matter of skill . As I said, I'd rather the game was difficult because it is difficult, not because the constraining bar/keybind system forces me to twist my wrist if I want to reach certain key combination just because something happened.

To be fair, the early implementation of macros in WoW did lead to such things as the Lazy Tank macro. That's why Blizzard revamped the system to greatly restrict what it could do.

And I'm all for such restrictions.

To be fair, the early implementation of macros in WoW did lead to such things as the Lazy Tank macro. That's why Blizzard revamped the system to greatly restrict what it could do.

 

And I'm all for such restrictions.

Agree 100%. NO LOGIC, NO SCRIPTS in macros. The ability to "do logic" in order to check for cooldowns and present buffs and select what went out was the origin of the "lazy tank" macro.

When I support Blizz's macro system, it is always the current one.

EDIT: Addons and macros are huge assets to something as dynamic as an MMO, and no matter how clever the guys at BW think they are, they will never be able to please the customer at the level the existence of addons does.

Every addon that you clear for duty in your game is a function that you added at pretty much ZERO COST for your company, not to speak of the amount of gratuitous feedback you get from keeping track of what people use, like and demand... Do no confuse big balls (As someone said) with hubris.

So in other words, Bioware is fine with people with a G15 or similar keyboard having an advantage over those that don't.

I'm completely OK with this.

Agree 100%. NO LOGIC, NO SCRIPTS in macros. The ability to "do logic" in order to check for cooldowns and present buffs and select what went out was the origin of the "lazy tank" macro.

 

When I support Blizz's macro system, it is always the current one.

I believe their rule is "one button press for one action". I agree with the BioWare devs in that that isn't a "macro" in the strictest sense of the term, but that's what Blizzard's "macro system" in WoW does and that's how it should work in SWTOR (and all MMOs imo)

Personally I would favour in game support for "limited" combat macros .. say maximum of 4 commands per macro.

Combat macros is the worst thing to come to MMOs ever.

 

It's crack for lazy players IMO.

You need to explain your opinion better.

Because for classes like the Operative, who deals with Cover/Stealth/Healing-only abilities, there are not enough fingers on the human hand to deal with all the Keybinds.

There's a difference between people who use Macros to be lazy, and use Macros to streamline their class for optimal damage/healing output.

Bioware hamstringed themselves with this. Classes like Sentinel/Marauder and Scoundrel/Operative could have really used them.

So in other words, Bioware is fine with people with a G15 or similar keyboard having an advantage over those that don't.

 

I'm completely OK with this.

Yeh this seems to be the way it is...

I can understand how its frustrating. A friend of mine was sitting next to me playing swtor on a standard kb and mouse, and he was not happy while watching me use my G19 and Naga lol.

I must have been pressing maybe 1/3 the buttons he had to