New Macro system still failry useless

[Jesdyr]

We either need a wait command .. or the macro needs to be smart enough to wait for you to finish step 1 before moving to step 2 .. I made a buff macro. It was 4 steps, each step was bascily casting a buff. In reality it starts casting Buff 1 and before it is done it attempts to cast buff 2.  what ends up happening is you only get 2 of the buffs cast. Aside from changing equiptment, there isnt much use for the macro system the way it is.

[Jerem]

Just don't put more than 2 spells in there... problem solved. It's also a whole lot easier to use than it was previously. I, for one like the new macro system. I make it a point to think of new things I can do with macro's now... very easy to use, and makes my character's easier to play in some cases. I like it.

[azekah]

I always felt putting spells into macros was like switching from shift to automatic... you tend to lose some control....

[valkyrja]

the system is great now.  they specifically said they are limiting it so people can't play on auto pilot.

[Catsy]

Fairly useless? Sure, if the sole metric by which you measure its usefulness is whether or not they've implemented a wait/delay command yet. Meanwhile, for the rest of us, it's a godsend, a job well done, and one of the best feature upgrades the game's had in quite some time.

[kellan123]

My future macro: /target self /cast buff 1 /cast buff 2 /target nearest mob /autoattack on /cast dmg 1 /cast dmg 2 /cast dmg 3 /cast heal 1 self /cast dmg 4 /autoattack off /cast heal 2 self That's one macro, the second macro will look like this: /usemacro 1 /wait 10 /repeat macro 1 Then I can sit back in my chair and watch as the game plays itself. (attended, of course) Don't get me wrong, I use macros to make life more simple, but the more freedom in automation we have, the less involved we become, naturally.

[Bramwe]

I like and dislike the new system.  I can set myself up in defensive vs offensive with one click now.  The one thing I wish it could do is allow use to have a three step macro that equips a weapon, casts a spell, then equips a different weapon.  This is the major thing I see people wishing they could do with the macro system.  I would like to be able to use 1 wait command in a macro.  It is done in EQ1 so they could do it here.  There are apparently 3rd party botting programs already so the people wanting to use automation are probably already doing it.  They will never allow macros to cast macros though, that would be too much.

[Bramwe]

The above can be accomplished with one macro but you have to click it twice, which is what I do.  Not a big deal but sometimes I forget.

[slashalot]

<p>try adding a /say command line inbetween the equipts.</p><p>i got thru that as a wiz with manaburn and freehand sorcery, had to unequipt secondary,cast freehand and then manaburn but the first 2 were simultaneously so the system would not cast freehand. i added a /say after the unequipt and it works now.</p>

[Jesdyr]

Honestly people who want to play on "auto pilot" can now with simple keyboard macros. All I want is to clean up the clutter of Icons I have on my screen. I figure putting all the buffs as one button would be great but I cant do that because of some silly delusion that having the macro wait for a spell to cast will cause everyone to script everything. The "usefullness" of the current macro system is really only to exploit the way the game works or to macro spaming chat (which can be usefull). Do the devs really want you swapping out items mid battle so you can use the various abilities on the items while limiting the downsides of those items? This is the only real change that has been made with the new system that would make it "great".

[azekah]

<cite>Bramwell wrote:</cite><blockquote>I like and dislike the new system.  I can set myself up in defensive vs offensive with one click now.  The one thing I wish it could do is allow use to have a three step macro that equips a weapon, casts a spell, then equips a different weapon.  This is the major thing I see people wishing they could do with the macro system.  I would like to be able to use 1 wait command in a macro.  It is done in EQ1 so they could do it here.  There are apparently 3rd party botting programs already so the people wanting to use automation are probably already doing it.  They will never allow macros to cast macros though, that would be too much. </blockquote>you: ha! Attack with sword mob: ha! attack with paw you: hold on, switching to staff mob: ok...cmon cmon... you: ah fudge, it's caught on my shirt mob: your so clumsy you: can, can you help me out with this? mob: sure...(walks around back) you: whhh...what was that? mob: licks lips and walks away... you: I can't fee...eee...eel...any...thin....gggg........(girgl e)......

[The Bu]

I wouldn't mind a wait or pause command either. Switching an item, using it and switching back with a macro doesn't work for me. Will try the /say thing, though. That might do the trick. Though I might direct the /say into some gibberish chat channel instead to avoid annoying people nearby. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Jesdyr]

The Burt wrote: <blockquote>I wouldn't mind a wait or pause command either. Switching an item, using it and switching back with a macro doesn't work for me. Will try the /say thing, though. That might do the trick. Though I might direct the /say into some gibberish chat channel instead to avoid annoying people nearby. <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </blockquote> This is exactly what they should attempt to prevent. Not prevent people from creating a chain of spells. Rightnow it is easy to press 1 then 2 .. wait for 1 to complete then press 3 .. wait for 2 to complete then press 4.  This can be done by the player with no real effort and there is no reason not to let them do it with a macro. Open inv - > Drag item to slot 1 - > press 1 - > drag other item to slot 1 - > press 1  ..  This isnt easy and should not be made easy. If you really way to do this, it should be made as hard as possible. This is the price you pay for wanting to use items that you dont actually want to have equipped. If they wanted you using items you didnt have equipped then there is no reason they should make you equip them in the first place.. Why not just make having the item in your inventory enough to let you use it ?

[Bramwe]

It isn't hard swapping equipment.  Previously you could make macros for each item it just required more hotbar space.  I have had a macro to equip 4 different shields for a long time.  The same is true for weapons.  You just used two hotbar slots instead of one, or if you prefer keep a bag open and double click the weapon or item you want to use.  An open bag is practically as good as a hotbar for swapping equipment.  If they care so much about us swapping weapons they would just increase the amount of time required between swaps, making combat equipment swaps require say a 15 or 20 second cool down would pretty much end it ever happening as you could swap items once but then not return to your previous item for pretty much the duration of the fight, other than long raid type encounters.

[SignumX]

The macro system is near worthless , who cares if people play on semi auto pilot, the better players wont and its not like its stopping bots any. All its doing is making it a pain in the [Removed for Content] and on the fingers, at the end of the day i know my fingers are aching from all the button mashing i have to do. Its like 20 - 30 button presses per solo fight and about 10-20 in a group situation adds up to alot .

[jrm99002]

OK..... instead of starting a new thread, I'm gonna post here. I assumed I knew how macros work, appearently I'm missing something, I'll explain if any sees me doing something wrong, please tell me!! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> First off, I asked many people and appearntly there is /command that allows to use a "%t" to name your target's target. For example, I'm targeting MobA who is attacking/targeting AllyB. I wish to say (while targeting MobA) "AllyB is under attack!" or something stupid like that. So far, there does not seem to be a command like this (is it that hard to make? I mean, we have a window that has the name of our target's target. Anywho.... I decided I'd try to go around this issue. Now, for a real-world (as real as EQ2 gets <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> ) example. I'm an Illusionist and wish to make a macro that uses my mem wipe (Phase). I have to tagret the Mob inorder to see when it changes target from the tank to the poor wizard that just manaburned and failed to kill the mob (yes, thats a joke to you wizzies out there!). What I want to happen is be able to say, "Saving wizard(ally)!" and "Mob has been Phased!" in any order. I'm not THAT picky. So I made this macro (again, assume that I'm targeting the Mob to begin with) My current target: Mob who is targeting my friend. Macro is as follows: 1) /assist 2) /say Saving %t 3) /target_previous 4) /%t has been Phased! 5) /useability Phase According to my thinking, what should happen is my target changes to my ally (step 1), I say "Saving ally" (step 2), then i REtarget the mob (step 3), then say "mob as been phased" (step 4) and finally, for step 5 to acually use the spell. I had to do it this way since after I use Phase, the Mob's target changes back to the tank, so I figured Phase should be the last thing used. This doesnt happen however.... What happens is I end up saying "Saving Mob" "Mob has been mem wiped". But I end up targeting my <u>ally</u> at the end of the macro. Phase is never used nor queued. Do macro's not work ni the order that they say? It seems to do step 2 and 4, then step 1, and totally forgets steps 3 and 5.

[The Bu]

<cite>JesDer wrote:</cite><blockquote>This is exactly what they should attempt to prevent. </blockquote> Oh hehe. Well, then it's working nicely. I know it isn't rocket science to switch items manually but I'm a lazy bugger.

[SteelPiston]

I find that about 50% of my attack combo macro's fail and therefore i'm not too impressed with them. However, the quick equip macro feature is great. One click and I can change out all my rings etc to increase my cold resistance or another click for a heat resistant outfit.

[Amocus]

I'm not finding a whole lot of use for the new macro system. Even as far a switching gear is concerned it's of minimal use.

[Maranatha]

The new macro system, without a /wait command of some type, is of limited use to most people (but of great use to a very small group.)  There is no reason to not put one in.  There are plenty of external macro systems to be found, that can run bots quite efficiently.  All the lack of a /wait command does is annoy the people that want to use the game's macro system to perform legal scripts (such as rebuffing after rez.)  The overall design of the new macro system looks pretty.  But, I'm sure the same could have been said for the Edsel, pet rocks, mood rings and such.  Very pretty...not much practical use.