The More I Read Less I Wanna Come Back

[dragburn]

it seems as if everyone is coming to hate this game that we all once loved and well I ask the obvious question "why?". why has the game turned to crud? who isn't doing a good job in your eyes? and how can we change it? almost everyone feels that the new implementations to catch macroers are to harsh on the average player. my opinion on this is that macroing is extremely difficult to discourage and end. I know macroing hurts the economy but these changes to hurt the macroers do as well. the thing about macroing is that as soon as a new implementation to catch and or make it more difficult to do so is made a macroer can just simply modify their program to suit those changes. I guess I am saying getting rid of macroing is impossible and trying only hurts those that play legally. I have only heard negativity towards these changes...mostly from average players. in my opinion the devs might as well drop this anti macroing charge since its costs outweigh its benefits. if it isn't dropped soon then I seriously doubt that anyone will have any halfway serious thoughts about going p2p. as far as I have heard p2p has very little difference from the free version. yes a whole new continent is cool and some members only clothes is neat but it isn't great enough to get 5 bucks (sheer speculation on price) a month out of me. especially since most of my friends wont go p2p and it is supposedly a different and separate server entirely. isn't that the point of mmorpgs? to play with your friends? as far as I have heard from the complaints so far eternal lands is becoming more like a chat server instead of a game. all of the new implementations make it almost impossible to do anything without a really negative effect. where is the balance? entropy believed in balance too. if harvesting only has negative consequences then why do it? same with all of the other things you can do. losing items is realistic but how about making less effective items if you fail instead of making absolutely nothing? that makes more sense for being realistic. maybe even harmful items upon failure like in potions - if you screw up you might have a poison instead of a health potion. any ways back to the topic of this thread. if it gets flamey or the mods feel it is flamey enough then move it to the appropriate place. I know I didn't list all of the p2p features but I do not know them all. If someone who does know them all would like to tell me it would be greatly appreciated. I apologize for my ignorance in that matter. However I would appreciate understanding and actually reading all I have said here before passing judgement upon me as a threat to your system. and if you wish to ban me for this action then I would appreciate a warning as if it were a first offence. Thank you for your time.

[freeone3000]

Yes, I have some ideas:

We should keep the vials when we fail potions.

We should get experience in everything but harvest when we fail, as people learn by trying, not just by suceeding.

 

Chat servers are fun!

[Selberhad]

The fundamental problem is, that as long as macroing is profitable, people will do it. No amount of macroer tests, banning of macroers, etc. will stop it.

 

Usually, the only things macroers can macro are long, repetitive, uncreative, tedious processes. I don't think automation of this is a bad thing, but it should be done on the server side. This makes it so that no one has to do the boring stuff, not just the people who know how to write programs to do it for them.

 

I think that the problem right now is that harvesting is easy but time-consuming, and therefore boring and prone to macroing. Harvesting needs to be made exciting and fast. Imagine if most of the mines were deep inside long tunnels that are infested with strong, aggressive monsters (who ignore monster magnetism). It would take the concerted effort of teams of players to get the ore. Now, if it only took say, 5 seconds per 100 emu of ore to fill up, players would fight their way in, quickly fill up before the monsters respawn in force, and fight their way out.

 

In general, making things difficult but exciting and fast will keep the macroing problem in check. Especially if it requires teamwork; unless someone is controlling an army of bots to help him, there will be no way to macro it. I've seen tons of games with out-of-control macroing problems, but it is always because the mechanics of the game encourage macroing.

 

I certainly haven't been here long enough to have many suggestions on how to change the mechanics, and it might just be too much work at this point. However, macroers will exist as long as macroing gets them something.

 

-S

[freeone3000]

I think that the problem right now is that harvesting is easy but time-consuming, and therefore boring and prone to macroing. Harvesting needs to be made exciting and fast. Imagine if most of the mines were deep inside long tunnels that are infested with strong, aggressive monsters (who ignore monster magnetism). It would take the concerted effort of teams of players to get the ore. Now, if it only took say, 5 seconds per 100 emu of ore to fill up, players would fight their way in, quickly fill up before the monsters respawn in force, and fight their way out.

 

In general, making things difficult but exciting and fast will keep the macroing problem in check. Especially if it requires teamwork; unless someone is controlling an army of bots to help him, there will be no way to macro it. I've seen tons of games with out-of-control macroing problems, but it is always because the mechanics of the game encourage macroing.

 

I certainly haven't been here long enough to have many suggestions on how to change the mechanics, and it might just be too much work at this point. However, macroers will exist as long as macroing gets them something.

Why would you macro a single click?

Edited November 26, 2004 by freeone3000

[Selberhad]

Why would you macro a single click?

Err, I wouldn't. Would you?

 

[Edit] I would macro walking between storage and the mine, re-clickling when I stop harvesting by getting damaged, and walking back when I get teleported. And if I'm at the computer the whole time, is this even cheating? Just saving on clicks.

Edited November 26, 2004 by Selberhad