An appeal to the community to help #STOPMACROS
![[GoT] Gabe](https://us.v-cdn.net/6030345/uploads/userpics/654/n3AGYMLAE4CKP.png)
[GoT] Gabe
✭✭✭✭
Hello STT community.
Yes, as you can tell from the title, this is yet another Macro thread but with a slightly different twist. However, before we get to that, let me take a minute to introduce myself since I don't regularly post on the forum.
My name is Gabe. I am the Admiral of the Guardians of Tomorrow and I have been playing Timelines practically since launch without pauses or interruptions because, well, I love this game and, despite it being far from perfect, I still get a lot of enjoyment from it, in particular the camaraderie I have with my Fleet mates.
As a veteran of Timelines, I've seen and experienced it all, both in terms of game features as well as DB's administration of this game.
There have been a lot of great enhancements to this game over the years and nice bonuses from time to time (the recent additions to collections and achievements for example) that definitely deserve applause.
However, one thing that hasn't really improved over all this time is DB's general management of this game. Lack of communication, not only with the community but even among DB employees, and slow response time to major game issues are probably the two most critical concerns players have had with DB since day one. No more evident than how they have been handling the macro issue in Skirmish Events since they first appeared months ago.
I'm certain many of the forum regulars are quite aware of the macro issue and have seen and read the different threads that have popped up but for those who may not be so informed, let me walk you through the major predicament we are facing.
What is a macro?
A macro in STT is a program/software/app or Bot that is pre-programed to do all the all the necessary button pushing in an Event like Skirmishes where the sequence of taps that a player has to perform are exactly the same over the course of the Event's entirety, thus allowing for continuous game play during said Event without the player actually having to play much, if at all.
These automated programs allow players to reap the rewards of placing in a particular rank with little or no effort.
How do you know macros are being used in STT?
Macros are easily detectable through simple observation because they will accumulate the same number of points over the same period of time without any variation. For example, accumulating exactly 100 000 vp points every hour continuously over the course of an extended period of time.
These programs are intentionally set up to run through the missions at a much slower rate than an actual human because, despite maintaining the exact same crew and ship and running the exact same mission against the exact same opponent's ship, missions will vary in length due to RNG, and so these macros need to be programmed with this unknown variable in mind.
Over the course of different Skirmish Events, members of the community began gathering this points per hour information from the top 50 players and inputting the results into charts and graphs thus allowing for a more effective analysis of the data. Thank you, by the way, to all those who have done this arduous data collection. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
The graph below is an example of some of the data accumulated from the last Skirmish Event: A Valdore Too Far.
Players names have intentionally been left off the graph since it goes against forum policy but since we will be referring several times throughout this thread to the player who used a macro to win the last Event (blue line in graph), we shall call him CaptainMacro (a completely fictional name invented by me) for the purpose of this exercise.
As you can clearly see, there are two types of lines: 1) straight lines, indicative of a macro being used, due to the constant and consistent accumulation of the same number of vp points over a large period of time, and 2) squiggly or bumpy lines indicative of a human playing the game because .... well .... humans are not machines and can not perform the same task and achieve exactly the same results over any amount of time.
Besides the basic human necessities of sleeping, eating, using the bathroom, etc., there are other real life factors, like fatigue, adrenaline, distraction, interference from people or pets, etc, that can affect a player's performance and, as a result, the number of vp points (s)he gets every hour.
So while a real life player can be faster and more efficient than a macro in terms of getting vp points per hour, reaching as high as let's say 150 000 to 175 000, these numbers will always vary from hour to hour due to the factors previously mentioned and so their lines in the graph will always look wavy.
A macro, however, is not affected by any human condition and thus will amass vp points steadily and consistently; hence the practically straight line with only small breaks resulting from the macro being turned off due to various factors like the player needing to run ship missions in order to farm intel or there being a power outage to name but a few.
I'm not a top 50 player, nor have aspirations to be one, so why should I care? This doesn't affect me.
The fact is that if even just one player uses a macro it can potentially affect every other player who participated in the Event and not just the top players. No-one can truly know what the consequences are and who was directly affected due to the uncertainty of where the player would have ranked if they hadn't used a macro.
Take for example CaptainMacro in the last Skirmish Event.
Obviously their winning the Event through the use of a macro would seem to impact the 2nd place player the most, in this case my Fleet member Foolio, but what about the player who finished 6th and 26th and got robbed of one less 5 star crew as a reward. Can we really say they were less impacted?
What if CaptainMacro hadn't had much time or patience to play in the Event and had placed outside the top 1000? In this scenario, the player who finished 1001st was robbed of a 5 star crew. Are they any less impacted?
Imagine CaptainMacro had had practically no time to play and had ranked 10 000th This would have affected players on the cusp of moving up a reward tier meaning they got less single pulls. What if one of those extra pulls they could have gotten had been a legendary behold?
Obviously we'll never know what the actual consequences were but one thing is for sure ... it wasn't just the top players who were affected.
Unfortunately, players in the top 50 are not the only ones who use macros. They are simply the most visual to all of the community making it easy to track their vp gains per hour. However, a smart player, or one with less ego, would know to stay out of the limelight and keep quiet about their macro use. Now imagine, if 1% of the player base participating in a Skirmish Event use macros, the ramifications of this would be incalculable.
Does macro use go against DB's Terms of Service?
It absolutely does.
This is the specific excerpt from the ToS that refers to this :
In furtherance of the foregoing, and by way of example and not as a limitation, you agree that you may not access or use the Disruptor Beam Sites or Services in order to:
- Use, develop or distribute "auto" software programs, "macro" software programs or other "cheat utility" software program or applications in violation of the applicable License Agreements.
Yes, as you can tell from the title, this is yet another Macro thread but with a slightly different twist. However, before we get to that, let me take a minute to introduce myself since I don't regularly post on the forum.
My name is Gabe. I am the Admiral of the Guardians of Tomorrow and I have been playing Timelines practically since launch without pauses or interruptions because, well, I love this game and, despite it being far from perfect, I still get a lot of enjoyment from it, in particular the camaraderie I have with my Fleet mates.
As a veteran of Timelines, I've seen and experienced it all, both in terms of game features as well as DB's administration of this game.
There have been a lot of great enhancements to this game over the years and nice bonuses from time to time (the recent additions to collections and achievements for example) that definitely deserve applause.
However, one thing that hasn't really improved over all this time is DB's general management of this game. Lack of communication, not only with the community but even among DB employees, and slow response time to major game issues are probably the two most critical concerns players have had with DB since day one. No more evident than how they have been handling the macro issue in Skirmish Events since they first appeared months ago.
I'm certain many of the forum regulars are quite aware of the macro issue and have seen and read the different threads that have popped up but for those who may not be so informed, let me walk you through the major predicament we are facing.
What is a macro?
A macro in STT is a program/software/app or Bot that is pre-programed to do all the all the necessary button pushing in an Event like Skirmishes where the sequence of taps that a player has to perform are exactly the same over the course of the Event's entirety, thus allowing for continuous game play during said Event without the player actually having to play much, if at all.
These automated programs allow players to reap the rewards of placing in a particular rank with little or no effort.
How do you know macros are being used in STT?
Macros are easily detectable through simple observation because they will accumulate the same number of points over the same period of time without any variation. For example, accumulating exactly 100 000 vp points every hour continuously over the course of an extended period of time.
These programs are intentionally set up to run through the missions at a much slower rate than an actual human because, despite maintaining the exact same crew and ship and running the exact same mission against the exact same opponent's ship, missions will vary in length due to RNG, and so these macros need to be programmed with this unknown variable in mind.
Over the course of different Skirmish Events, members of the community began gathering this points per hour information from the top 50 players and inputting the results into charts and graphs thus allowing for a more effective analysis of the data. Thank you, by the way, to all those who have done this arduous data collection. Your efforts are greatly appreciated.
The graph below is an example of some of the data accumulated from the last Skirmish Event: A Valdore Too Far.
Players names have intentionally been left off the graph since it goes against forum policy but since we will be referring several times throughout this thread to the player who used a macro to win the last Event (blue line in graph), we shall call him CaptainMacro (a completely fictional name invented by me) for the purpose of this exercise.
As you can clearly see, there are two types of lines: 1) straight lines, indicative of a macro being used, due to the constant and consistent accumulation of the same number of vp points over a large period of time, and 2) squiggly or bumpy lines indicative of a human playing the game because .... well .... humans are not machines and can not perform the same task and achieve exactly the same results over any amount of time.
Besides the basic human necessities of sleeping, eating, using the bathroom, etc., there are other real life factors, like fatigue, adrenaline, distraction, interference from people or pets, etc, that can affect a player's performance and, as a result, the number of vp points (s)he gets every hour.
So while a real life player can be faster and more efficient than a macro in terms of getting vp points per hour, reaching as high as let's say 150 000 to 175 000, these numbers will always vary from hour to hour due to the factors previously mentioned and so their lines in the graph will always look wavy.
A macro, however, is not affected by any human condition and thus will amass vp points steadily and consistently; hence the practically straight line with only small breaks resulting from the macro being turned off due to various factors like the player needing to run ship missions in order to farm intel or there being a power outage to name but a few.
I'm not a top 50 player, nor have aspirations to be one, so why should I care? This doesn't affect me.
The fact is that if even just one player uses a macro it can potentially affect every other player who participated in the Event and not just the top players. No-one can truly know what the consequences are and who was directly affected due to the uncertainty of where the player would have ranked if they hadn't used a macro.
Take for example CaptainMacro in the last Skirmish Event.
Obviously their winning the Event through the use of a macro would seem to impact the 2nd place player the most, in this case my Fleet member Foolio, but what about the player who finished 6th and 26th and got robbed of one less 5 star crew as a reward. Can we really say they were less impacted?
What if CaptainMacro hadn't had much time or patience to play in the Event and had placed outside the top 1000? In this scenario, the player who finished 1001st was robbed of a 5 star crew. Are they any less impacted?
Imagine CaptainMacro had had practically no time to play and had ranked 10 000th This would have affected players on the cusp of moving up a reward tier meaning they got less single pulls. What if one of those extra pulls they could have gotten had been a legendary behold?
Obviously we'll never know what the actual consequences were but one thing is for sure ... it wasn't just the top players who were affected.
Unfortunately, players in the top 50 are not the only ones who use macros. They are simply the most visual to all of the community making it easy to track their vp gains per hour. However, a smart player, or one with less ego, would know to stay out of the limelight and keep quiet about their macro use. Now imagine, if 1% of the player base participating in a Skirmish Event use macros, the ramifications of this would be incalculable.
Does macro use go against DB's Terms of Service?
It absolutely does.
This is the specific excerpt from the ToS that refers to this :
In furtherance of the foregoing, and by way of example and not as a limitation, you agree that you may not access or use the Disruptor Beam Sites or Services in order to:
- Use, develop or distribute "auto" software programs, "macro" software programs or other "cheat utility" software program or applications in violation of the applicable License Agreements.
The Guardians of Tomorrow
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Protecting the Galaxy's Future from Itself
Fleet Admiral
For more info on us, check our wiki page:
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Comments
Honestly, I don't believe DB is completely apathetic or indifferent to the situation. They can't be. Macro use hurts their bottom line. Players knowing that macros are being used in Skirmishes are less likely to fully participate in these Events and if their use continues to escalate then players are simply going to quit playing the game. This hurts DB both statistically and financially.
The real question is why is macro use apparently not a top priority for them? This is something I can not answer. Any possible explanation on my part would simply be speculation based on my own biased opinion. So rather than do that, let me simply state the facts I know about this macro situation and you can draw your own conclusions.
- Fact: Skirmishes are by far the easiest Events to macro since the sequence of button taps remains exactly the same throughout the Event. They are, however, not the only one that could be "macroed.";
- Fact: Skirmishes have been around for 5 months (Catching Fire - May31st to June 4th was the first);
- Fact: A player reportedly bragged about using a macro in the very first Skirmish resulting in data collection of the top 50 players beginning for the following Skirmish and continuing for all the others;
- Fact: The graphs and charts, resulting from this data collection, which indicated clear and blatant macro use by various players for different Skirmish Events were sent to DB;
- Fact: Skirmishes continue to be rolled out as part of the Event calendar and their format has remained unaltered in all this time despite DB having clear evidence that macros are being used;
- Fact: DB introduced a "macro buster", for lack of a better word, which is a simple message that would break the regular sequence of button taps during Events and thus disrupt the macro's program. In theory, this would help deter macro use if the messages popped up randomly and frequently but DB's macro buster, putting it nicely, has had no significant impact since the messages have been appearing sporadically at best. Players have reported going entire Events without ever seeing one while others mentioned seeing it only once or twice. DB's macro buster is supposedly not working as intended;
- Fact: Over the last 5 months, various players have publicly posted on the Timelines forum about macros being used in the Event that was in progress at the time. Shan acknowledged the player's concerns and said she would pass them on to the DB team;
- Fact: Over this same period of time, various players, including some of Timeline's most respected and influential, have sent tickets and privately communicated with DB employees about this macro issue;
- Fact: After the last Skirmish Event, A Valdore too Far, several GoT members, myself included, as well as other players from various Fleets, sent tickets to DB once again urging that they do something about this matter. These tickets were escalated to the appropriate DB personnel with back and forth communication happening over a period of weeks. Unfortunately, the players got exactly the same responses; word for word, including grammatical errors.
- Fact: Clear evidence of macro use by CaptainMacro in the last Skirmish Event was offered to DB and they assured the players in their tickets that they take this issue seriously and, although they couldn't share their results with the players due to privacy issues, they would investigate CaptainMacro. The current reality however is that it's been 4-5 weeks and the player in question still has an active Timelines account;
- Fact: Since the last Skirmish, there has been no public communication from DB on this subject.
- Fact: The only real public communication on this matter appeared almost 3 months ago from Admiral Prince on July 31st with him stating "We will monitor the game closely to make sure that our measures are working properly. We will also continue to take any action necessary to hinder these attempts to circumvent normal gameplay."
- Fact: Macros have been used in Events by various players over these last 5 months. If nothing is done to impede their continued use and/or punish the players using them, the use of macros will continue to escalate putting this game in serious jeopardy.
The use of macros in this game is deplorable. Thousands of players put in their time, effort and even finances, on a weekly basis, to achieve results from Events and to see a small minority of players dishonestly and shamelessly use these tactics to achieve the same, or better, results is appalling and infuriating to say the least.
DB's slow response to this issue is intolerable as well. Skirmishes have been in place for 5 months. Macros have apparently been around just as long. I don't comprehend why it's taking so long for them to introduce effective measures to resolve, or at the very least, mitigate its use.
I understand that there will always be people who try to circumvent the rules, be it in real life or in a game like this one. That is just a fact of life. However, it's DB's responsibility to ensure, as best as possible, an even playing field for all its participants in each of its Events. To ensure people aren't wasting their time and resources in a specific Event where they are destined to lose out because other folks are cheating their way to success by using automated programs. And to ensure that, when detected, these players infringing upon the ToS are punished accordingly. If none of these 3 concepts are taking place then what's the point of playing this game?
The actions I have taken as an individual player, or even as part of a small group with some of Timelines most influential players, have had discouraging results thus far. Continuing these same efforts is a pointless endeavour. We need to do more. We need the player base to do more. We need to stand together, as a community, as one unified group, and speak in one unequivocal voice against the use of macros.
It doesn't matter if you are a veteran or a new player, a "whale" or a VIP0, or anything and everything in between, your voice matters and together our unified voice has power. DB developed and owns this game but we, the players, are this game. Without us there is no game.
I am therefore appealing to everyone reading this post to add the tag #STOPMACROS to your nick, both in game and on this forum. It is but a small gesture but a very powerful one if we can get the vast majority of the player base to do it.
Since only a small percentage of the players visit this forum, I would also ask that you spread the word among your Fleet, on Discord, on Line, on Facebook or Twitter, in the game UC, or on any other chat App or social networking site where Timelines players can be found. The more players who join this campaign the more effective and compelling it will be.
If we stand together, speak together and act together, we can #STOPMACROS
If you choose to post in this thread please keep it civil, respectful and on topic. Too many threads are closed because people can not follow these 3 simple guidelines.
Thanks for reading.
Protecting the Galaxy's Future from Itself
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They need to make the battles interesting and interactive. Not a boring loop of the same 25 to 30 key presses for 96 hours straight.
But that's just one Trekkie's opinion, and as I said, I know many (and possibly most) of you will no doubt vehemently disagree.
Could you please continue the petty bickering? I find it most intriguing.
~ Data, ST:TNG "Haven"
I think you’re on to something there. Can’t they see how long a person is actually online? Cuz a macro doesn’t require actually being online does it? Kinda like how people that work from home have to check in somehow and show they are online?
Honestly the thought crossed my mind. Not just boycotting this Event but all others to follow as well as asking people to not spend money on the game until the issue was resolved but who am I to ask people, the majority of them strangers to me, to do this.
Most people wouldn't have gone along with this idea to begin with, even if it were for just one Event, and the few that did would have suffered the consequences since Events are now inter-connected by the 5* ranked reward.
The idea to keep it simple is so that everyone can easily join in the campaign and thus keep it going for an extended period of time. A boycott would have quickly ended and faded in people's memories.
I am a strong believer that actions speak louder than words but I also know that we live and breathe words and that they can light fires in the minds of people and move the greatest of obstacles.
In the words of writer Joseph Conrad, "my task, which I am trying to achieve is, by the power of the written word, to make you hear, to make you feel--it is, before all, to make you see."
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1. Ticket costs should continue to scale after 1200 probably stopping 4x higher than that at 4800, if ever. This does not diminish the assistance a player gets from their skill, crew, ships, or resources; it only decreases the time required to play for rank.
2. In addition to decreasing the incentive to macro, the mode is annoying enough simply getting through thresholds. As such, VP rewards for highest difficulty should be increased (possibly corresponding with a difficulty increase), or at least scale with tickets spent.
In any case, this IS an important topic, and anyone uses a macro, (let's call it what it is – cheating!) should be blocked from the game, as the game rules are very explicit in this subject from the time you start playing. Yes, DB should be taking higher measures to "fix" this problem, so I am definitely on board with your suggestions!
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That would certainly keep me from playing I think. Too many problems with capcha's in general for that to be a pleasant solution.
Thank you for your concern but as I mentioned in the thread, CaptainMacro is not the real player's in game name. I invented it in order to make referring to this player easier.
I will however edit the post to make it clearer that this name is completely fictional.
Thank you for the support.
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However, I am usually in favour of high profile campaigns that highlight issues and try to persuade those in charge to do something about them.
It really is up to DB to try and implement something more effective, and many players have thrown around lots of great ideas already to help them.
I am unsure why the 'macro killer' isn't working, it certainly popped up a lot when it was first introduced and so I don't see why it's vanished.
And I am pretty sure I have been potentially kicked off a ranking spot owing to macro use so yes the issue annoys the hell out of me.
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Like, maybe at a random interval a lone tribble just appears on screen between rounds in a random place, and players must swat it away before continuing. Something like that would probably work (I'm not an expert) and not be irritating since we all know what it is there to stop and I mean come on, it's a tribble!
That way people don't feel like they're getting screwed over twice by getting neither the rank achievements they're trying for now nor the rewards for the rank they would have gotten without the cheaters. I highly doubt that people who spent extra money or spent extra time trying to compete with macro cheaters will ever be made completely whole. We know DB have the individual ranks recorded all the way back to Unlikely Heroes (the 12th event), so grandfathering that achievement seems like a simple goodwill gesture to me.
Same.
In our real lives, it can be hard to stand up for what is right in opposition to our friends, family, co-workers, etc. It really isn't quite as hard to do so in a virtual world in which most of us have never met each other. I would challenge every fleet that knows it has a cheater in their midst to do something about it. Do not harbor the cheater and do not simply look the other way. Take action.
Macros wouldn't be much of a problem if you know...DB would change the event reward structures to a percentage instead of a rigid number like most of us have been asking for months upon months now, maybe even nigh on a year now.
The game has tens of thousands of players now, possibly even up to a hundred thousand, a top 1000 reward structure is just an ill fit at this stage of the game. Macros possibly keep people from just inching by in the rigid number rank as has been said, but if the rewards were given on a rank of percentage, then macros will do less to freeze hard-working players out of hard-earned rewards.
A top 1% wherein the scope of the players that encompasses changes according to how many players participate in the event, is worlds more suitable and potentially achievable than a single solitary #1 spot or a limited 1000 spots. Macro usage will find it hard-put to knock truly deserving players out of that type of percentage-based ranking system. So DB, if you can't combat macro-users feasibly, then change the effectiveness of the macros altogether.
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This by removing the upper limit for Intel cost per skirmish.
I can't be bothered explaining why.
It would certainly make it more expensive to macro (as well as making the event less rewarding, as a whole) but it does nothing to actively prevent people from macroing.
The number of event participants is about the same as it was more than a year ago.
I'm not sure how this does anything at all to address macros.
The only thing that it might do is make it so that the person at 801 (assuming a top 1% gets the gold type of reward structure, based on the number of participants in an event as collected by Roonis's alt account back in late spring/early summer 2018) gets gyped out of a gold instead of the person at 1001.
Or, let's say you want a top 2% reward structure. Great, now the person at 1601 gets cheated out of the gold.
I'm struggling to understand how that helps, is all.
PM for details.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Also for anyone calling for spending boycotts by whales, you can stop. We've done this in the past (event had some spending boycotts called for by whales) but within a week there's a new crew out and they just HAVE to have it which means they go back to the dil mines. I agree it would be effective but they can't stop their spending.