Incoming Macro Changes
Rothgar is looking for your feedback on some planned changes for Macros to improve server performance.
Several weeks ago we made a round of changes to improve server performance. One of these changes was to throttle the amount of unnecessary command spam coming from the client as a result of the macro system. This had a few side-effects that were noticable to the average player enough that we decided to revert those changes until a better solution could be implemented.We think we have a better solution and will be making it available to the Test Server soon. I just wanted to give you a heads-up with a quick explanation of these changes.
Macros will now be pre-processed on the client before sending anything to the server. This extra “intelligence” will let us reduce the amount of spam and hopefully make them work better for you in the long run.
If you are currently casting, no more casting (useability) commands will be sent.
If you are not casting, the first spell or ability in the macro that is available will be sent to the server. All remaining spell or ability steps will be ignored. This means that in most cases each macro press will only send one useability command to the server. There is one exception to this rule. Instant-cast spells and abilities will not count towards your one ability that can be sent per macro.
For example, if you create a macro that contains Catalyst (0 casting time) followed by another spell, both abilities would be sent with one keypress if they are both available.
These changes should achieve our goal without significantly impacting the way you currently use macros.
As always, your feedback is welcome!
Rothgar has been very receptive to feedback so don’t miss this opportunity to submit your constructive criticism and suggestions on this topic.
Tags: macros
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Comments (7)
Scott Steinmetz
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So basically, one macro, one spell … unless you push the macro button before a different spell is done casting ? Then it would just not go off ?
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Loredena
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That sounds like it would break the one thing I most use a macro for — heroic opportunities. I have a macro that ‘casts’ the HO starter, followed by a fast-casting sword and a fast-casting taunt (I’m a guardian). I have comparable macros for my alts as well of course.
I think that might also break some of my pull macros, which tend to turn on ranged attack while casting a ranged combat art or spell, but that’s less clear. Meh. In general in fact, most of my macros are ‘stacks’ of related combat arts or spells that I typically want to cast in quick succession. Which means I’ll be spamming the macro key to get the same results now. /sigh
(On a side note, I think this will break my harvesting macros which simply do two pulls for one keystroke. That’s annoying because at my age anything I can do to reduce keyclicking is good, but not a gamechanger.)
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Loredena
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Ah, looks like he’s already changed it! everyone else had the same complaint 🙂
Several weeks ago we made a round of changes to improve server performance. One of these changes was to throttle the amount of unnecessary command spam coming from the client as a result of the macro system. This had a few side-effects that were noticable to the average player enough that we decided to revert those changes until a better solution could be implemented.
We think we have a better solution and will be making it available to the Test Server soon. I just wanted to give you a heads-up with a quick explanation of these changes.
Macros will now be pre-processed on the client before sending anything to the server. This extra “intelligence” will let us reduce the amount of spam and hopefully make them work better for you in the long run.
When you press a macro key, the first available ability will be sent to the server. The last ability in the list will then be queued. If the first first available spell has a zero casting time, the next available spell will also be sent.
If you are currently casting or no spells in the macro are available for casting, the last ability will still be queued. This mimics the existing behavior and still allows queuing to work.
These changes should achieve our goal without significantly impacting the way you currently use macros.
Reply
Grugg
| #
“I think this will break my harvesting macros which simply do two pulls for one keystroke”
Your harvesting macros will be nonfunctional anyway. The harvesting abilities will be consolidated into a single ability, as they should have been years ago.
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Loredena
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@Grugg That’s a change I love! It’s irritating to have half a hotbar dedicated to harvesting/collection macros. Changing it to a single macro of
/target_nearest
/use
/use
will be awesome-sauce! (I never had the macro that just piled every single possible harvesting type into one – for each harvesttyoe I had one macro with 2 instances of the ability).
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Slaw
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as long as I can still use a 1 keypress per CA instead of the previos change which limited the number of commands which btw was horrible! For the classes who need to be pressing keys all the time to dps/tank, watch adds, intercept dmg on other others etc – it is vital to make using our abilities easy – and not force us to buy equipment like g15 keyboards just to play. I would say as long as this does not affect gameplay nor use up more resources client/side – since eq2 memory leaks so bad already then I’d say worth a shot. permanent solution > temporary fix
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MaddBomber
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Will the client still send the second ability to Q?
Such as my pull command executes any number of abilities (that have a casting time) and the last ability in that list is the Heroic Opportunity Opener. To me it seems instant but in game with casting times of 0 – 4 seconds having that HO in the Q helps a lot.
I don’t care if my client or the server does it, but please don’t gimp macro’s by disabling their ability to add spells to Q.
The way I read his post implies much more.
Say I’m casting a 4 second ability and I hit a macro during that cast (that only has 1 ability in it); can I expect the game to Q that 1 ability or just ignore that I pressed the macro key to begin with?
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