Macro’s still in use in Skirmish? Appears so!
![[7TW] Manawar](https://us.v-cdn.net/6030345/uploads/defaultavatar/nL5515UJH9DYJ.jpg)
in The Bridge
I’m not creating this thread to take personal shots at any player. I’m not asking for bans. I’m asking for DB to step up and take responsibility in preventing the use of Macro’s in Events. I’m asking for a level playing ground. It would be so easy to do. Making the “Skirmish” button and the “Engage” button on the following page randomly change location would break the use of Macro’s. Those two screens have enough free space to allow this to happen.
I recently took over as Admiral of 7TW and the biggest challenge our officer core is having is keeping our player base playing the game. We’ve had some hardcore veteran’s get fed up and leave the game or have changed to a casual nature when playing. Those of us who play love Star Trek, we’ve put up with a huge learning curve here to continue to enjoy a game based on content that we love and is a part of our lives.
I would think that self-preservation would kick in here. This is not the first time this has come up. The thread at https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/comment/95218#Comment_95218 was quite detailed (to the point that Shan had to remove sensitive information) and animated.
Here are the details that make me think that Macro’s are still in use. I have a screen shot to note the VP levels just as Phase 2 started.
So I can clear a single skirmish battle in about 7 seconds of actual battle. Using the Borg Cube and Captain Killy in the first SEC spot. The battle starts, just before Killy finishes initialization I hit Borg Adaptation, 6 seconds in hit Killy who does 400% damage, the ship usually dies but if not a half second later hitting Laser Cutting Beam finishes the ship. It’s everything else with the animations and picking the reward that take up the time. So if I hit each button as it comes up, going as fast as possible I clear a complete Skirmish in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I’m in the Eastern Time Zone of the US so at the end of Phase 1 here, the leader of the event had 4,354,900 VP. Applying some math here, that is roughly 725 complete skirmishes, which at 2 minutes and 30 seconds to complete means that he/she has played at least 30 hours of the 48 possible hours. Now this is a perfect world of not running out of Intel which we know is not the case here if you’ve played a Skirmish before. So they are running space battle missions to farm Intel. They are also getting some VP and Intel from the event rewards here as well. The chance to get VP is 13.58% and the reward is between 75VP to 600VP, so on average let’s say 300VP which amounts to about 200K VP in those first two days. The chance to get Intel is 27.43% but the basic Intel reward is 30 Intel, a small number compared to what it takes to start a Skirmish at max Intel cost so it does not impact as much in my opinion. I know I don’t have all the details in my math, nor did I watch the leaderboard every hour. I’m not trying to be perfect with math, because there are too many variables, but as imperfect as the math is it seems quite clear that Macro’s are being used.
I invite an open discussion in regards to the math or anything else Macro related, I would just ask that this not be made personal and lets just implore DB to remove the capability. Thank you for reading my post!
I recently took over as Admiral of 7TW and the biggest challenge our officer core is having is keeping our player base playing the game. We’ve had some hardcore veteran’s get fed up and leave the game or have changed to a casual nature when playing. Those of us who play love Star Trek, we’ve put up with a huge learning curve here to continue to enjoy a game based on content that we love and is a part of our lives.
I would think that self-preservation would kick in here. This is not the first time this has come up. The thread at https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/comment/95218#Comment_95218 was quite detailed (to the point that Shan had to remove sensitive information) and animated.
Here are the details that make me think that Macro’s are still in use. I have a screen shot to note the VP levels just as Phase 2 started.
So I can clear a single skirmish battle in about 7 seconds of actual battle. Using the Borg Cube and Captain Killy in the first SEC spot. The battle starts, just before Killy finishes initialization I hit Borg Adaptation, 6 seconds in hit Killy who does 400% damage, the ship usually dies but if not a half second later hitting Laser Cutting Beam finishes the ship. It’s everything else with the animations and picking the reward that take up the time. So if I hit each button as it comes up, going as fast as possible I clear a complete Skirmish in 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I’m in the Eastern Time Zone of the US so at the end of Phase 1 here, the leader of the event had 4,354,900 VP. Applying some math here, that is roughly 725 complete skirmishes, which at 2 minutes and 30 seconds to complete means that he/she has played at least 30 hours of the 48 possible hours. Now this is a perfect world of not running out of Intel which we know is not the case here if you’ve played a Skirmish before. So they are running space battle missions to farm Intel. They are also getting some VP and Intel from the event rewards here as well. The chance to get VP is 13.58% and the reward is between 75VP to 600VP, so on average let’s say 300VP which amounts to about 200K VP in those first two days. The chance to get Intel is 27.43% but the basic Intel reward is 30 Intel, a small number compared to what it takes to start a Skirmish at max Intel cost so it does not impact as much in my opinion. I know I don’t have all the details in my math, nor did I watch the leaderboard every hour. I’m not trying to be perfect with math, because there are too many variables, but as imperfect as the math is it seems quite clear that Macro’s are being used.
I invite an open discussion in regards to the math or anything else Macro related, I would just ask that this not be made personal and lets just implore DB to remove the capability. Thank you for reading my post!
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Comments
GoT Chief Communications Officer
Someone else posted another thread about macro usage also.
Either DB effectively ends the use of macros or its increasing use by players will end the game.
(posted the same in the other thread because this point can't be emphasized enough)
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Heck, the way I play skirmishes, if I macro'd them, while earning points, my normal play would be more consistent than a macro I'd write to earn points for me.
Every 5-15 skirmishes, pop up a captcha that makes you click on a crew image. Anyone not playing for real would get stuck.
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Retired 12-14-20. So long, and thanks for all the cat pics!
This is NOT OK. They already place the buy rewards button so close to the OK button that you have to be careful clicking it. These things are so tedious that I don't read any of the confirmations or dialogues, I just click through as quickly as possible.
The crew captcha would be extremely annoying as a player, but possibly tolerable. Also, this isn't fool proof, but does raise the bar on macros or having two programs to macro the fight.
The best solution is to design a better game. Make something that's not a mindless unchanging clickfest.
Next to the spend dilithium without a confirmation button...
As a player it would be a bit annoying but I'd rather have a level playing field so if that is what it took I'm in 110%. DB really needs to Database admin who can do analysis on what happens on the back end and they could more easily identify the patterns of cheaters and those who violate the EULA.
They are so dull, all you need is insta kill crew and the NPC ships die. Same for the arena.
I've pretty much given up on skirmishes. I dont have hours to sit there clicking buttons.
Jim
1. At the start of a skirmish event, give each player eight "open skirmish event" tickets which last 7 hours each and absolutely no options for getting any more. Skirmishes could only be carried out whilst an "open skirmish event" ticket was still open. You can still require intel for individual rounds but limiting play to 56 hours of the four days would make it more feasible for dedicated legitimate players to keep up with any that might be sharing accounts or using macros. And anyone who somehow managed to play for more than 56 hours would clearly be cheating.
2. Randomly choose which ships you battle. I think there are 120 different orders that you can have 5 ships in. Have the programme randomly choose from the 120 different combinations so everyone is fighting the same ships but in a random order. Add in a very short but random delay after each battle before the next one starts.
Neither of these would completely end the scope for cheating but it would at least limit the impact - especially if combined with other controls.
Instead of trying to mess with the UX, the events themselves should be designed better. As many have said in this thread and the previous ones the root of the issue isn't that people are using macros but that the game is so boring and tedious that it's simply not fun to manually mash the same buttons over and over again.
Just give a modest reward if you succeed at it.
It still doesn't help the Skirmishes and Galaxies can be hellaciously tedious. People might not be as inclined if you removed some of the tedium.
They're not all macro users...
GoT Chief Communications Officer
Please refer to Barkley's chart found here:
https://forum.disruptorbeam.com/stt/discussion/11300/macro-use-is-alive-and-well#latest
Protecting the Galaxy's Future from Itself
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Since getting anything more than 1 copy of the 5* requires a top 15 finish and according to all the info if looks like everyone up that high is macroing I'd argue my comment is correct... you can put maximum effort in, but unless you're a cheater it doesn't matter
Not sure what you are looking at, most of the top 10 there looks pretty legit (borderline psychotic), but pretty legit. First place looks 99% certainly a bot.
come again?
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You could be right, I thought I looked at the screenshot and the top scores were all pretty similar but I think all of the image screenshots got removed by Shan anyway and I don't have my phone on me to look right now
Check the post linked by [GoT] Gabe above, you can see the actual points over time for each of the top 10.
Quite the mental gymnastics there... "Anyone who finishes above me when I've given maximum effort must be a cheater."... I'll make a leap and assume that that initial comment may have lessened in severity with closer examination of the plot chart.
GoT Chief Communications Officer
I've already confirmed and yielded in the comment above that I might have been mistaken and couldn't actively look at the leaderboad. You can relax now. I originally wanted to try for a top 25 finish in this event and was frustrated when I looked at the leaderboard and THOUGHT I remembered saying all those scores looked fishy... Again, I've already told GTMET that I was probably mistaken