What Macros Are Allowed?

There was a discussion on XGAME today about what @macros are allowed and aren't, and there was no consensus. The three macros we were discussing were:

1. Macros to open a door (push on door, open door, go door).

2. Macros to draw a weapon (open sling, get weapon from sling)

3. Automatic macros to draw a weapon (when triggering 'drop into a crouch' text received, open sling, get weapon from sling.)

Are any of these okay?

By Pavane at Jun 26, 2020 8:25 PM

The three macros listed above are all fine as described.

What is not fine are situations where you are automating your character in any way or relying on the lightning speed or your macros to save your bacon.

By Mobius at Jul 14, 2020 6:04 AM

So, I was told in an XHELP differently, Mobius. I was told there that an automatic macro to draw a weapon upon being attacked was NOT allowed. Which guidance should we be following?

By Pavane at Jul 14, 2020 9:51 AM

There was a previous discussion about using macros to get out of stalls while flying. At the time, those were considered acceptable.

To me, that seems like a 'save your bacon' scenario.

Can we get clarification on that? Are macros to recover from stalls acceptable?

By Hek at Jul 14, 2020 11:34 AM

Yes, I'd like clarification on this too.

The 'golden rule' on this for years has been that macros / triggers shouldn't be used to 'play the game for you', yet 99% of the macros people use MOO-side that are staff-approved do exactly that.

The 'appear' system basically can't be used practically, as instructed by staff, without macros MOO-side or client-side to handle all kinds of 'playing the game for you' things.

In a past thread, a player said a staff member literally told them to make a macro for when their aerocab stalled. That's 'playing the game for you'.

Then client-side triggers that send ZERO commands to the game and cause no actions but are used for things like recoloring for the sake of genuine playability / accessibility issues were labeled by staff as 'cheating'.

It feels very much like a very muddled, hypocritical message and one that hasn't been settled even after years of being raised.

By Jameson at Jul 14, 2020 11:48 PM

@Jameson,

I had a bunch of macros that played the game for me. I'll share what I was doing here because I checked with staff and was told that it was exactly the kind of "playing the game" macros that they did not want people using.

I setup auto triggers based on the crate systems to run crates for me. I could walk my character into ACME, and then not touch the keyboard for a ten plus minutes while they ran around Red turning crates into chyen.

I would have done Gold too, but the limit of 25 macros made it impossible.

On the other hand, I do have macros for 'appear' and as I understand it, that is okay. Same thing for getting dressed / changing outfits. Those are quality of life kind of things. It's easier to run a macro to change all of the appear elements than type what can amount to hundreds of keystrokes.

In my mind, appear macros are not playing the game for me. They are not giving me any advantage over any other players.

I original macros that @Pavane suggested, like setting up a trigger to draw a weapon upon 'drops into a crouch' seem like the kind of macros that are 'bad'. To me, that aligns with what @Mobius mentioned when they said "lightning reflexes" (or something to that effect, sorry I can't scroll back while composing a response).

An example of a borderling macro that is actually not acceptable is one that closes your apartment door behind you.

I had one macro to open my door, and then an auto-trigger that would detect when my character was in the apartment and close the door. I set it up explicitly because I was scared of someone sneaking into the apartment. I was told that is not okay. So now i just have one macro to open my door and walk through it (mostly so I don't have to type out the long door code every time). Once my character gets inside, I manually type 'close x' to close the door.

By Hek at Jul 15, 2020 12:43 PM

I don't know why draw triggers would not be allowed. They're deliberately used due to the limitation of @default-weapon with holsters, slings, etc. There's also a specific entry in a helpfile that was updated recently enough describing exactly how to set them up.

From 'help triggers':

Another example:

Create a macro in the @macros menu with the following commands:

get walther from 1st holster

posture kamikaze

Make it an automatic macro and make the "trigger string" as this:

(combat attacked you)

If you have the combat labels enabled in access, this macro will automatically take the Walther from

your first holster and set your combat posture to all-offensive when you are attacked. This has its

advantages and disadvantages: you can save precious keystroke times, but sometimes you DON'T want to

go all out or use a Walther for a specific combat situation. Macros aren't dynamic, they don't

discriminate any circumstances, they only execute the commands you order in a specific order: so use

them wisely.

By Quotient at Jul 15, 2020 10:03 PM

Quotient, the reason I put up my post is because it's very unclear if draw triggers are allowed. I've had senior staff tell me via XHELP they are not; on this thread, Mobius said that they are, and it seems like the answers here are all over the place.

I've watched draw triggers specifically give characters whose players are completely AFK a good shot in a fight. That's maybe staff's intent, or it's possible that they view that as a benefit to picking an unarmed style or carrying your weapon outside of a sling.

There's not neccessarily a right or wrong answer -- but there should be an answer that's consistent across staff.

By Pavane at Jul 16, 2020 8:34 AM

@Quotient

Thanks for sharing the help file. I haven't read it since it was updated with the text that you shared here.

/me goes to create draw macro.

Nothing sucks more than getting attacked, wanting a gun, and pulling out a @default butterfly knife.

By Hek at Jul 16, 2020 10:20 AM

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