This game is very time consuming and complicated, and the iampicard app is one of the available tools to simplify the game and help make my choices quicker and reduce the huge time sink it can be. Between sending out shuttles, voyages, cadet missions with 2x bonus, arena, gauntlet, adwarps, using some chrons so they don't hit your max, this game can be very time consuming just to play all the basic components, without any thought to crew management, planning needed leveling equipment, and playing events.
It offends me that some people are actively contacting DB because they don't like other users making use of a tool to try and simplify a very complex and time consuming game, before you even consider time commitment for events. It's developed to a point where external tools and resources like this and the wiki are imperative to some people to help manage the monolith that is this game, without it totally taking over our lives.
I've never played a game in my life where I maintained 2 spreadsheets!! to help me manage it, in addition to this app!
Tbh , the tool cuts down on a lot of the tedium of the game. And as it currently stands, this game is becoming boring. The only thing keeping me playing is the fact that i put money into it.
This captures most of my feelings on the subject. The game's user interface has a lot of eye-candy that is interesting the first time or two, but then ultimately seems like a waste of time. If the native user interface had an option to skip animations I would.
While automation to gain a competitive advantage over other players is clearly cheating, the automation that iampicard offers I see as an enhancement to the user experience. I will conceded that it could be leveraged for a small advantage in gauntlet, but the impact is minimal and probably offset by the fact that the tool keeps some players, like myself, playing the gauntlet thus diluting the pool of competition.
Couple of small thoughts:
1) the tool, with the voyage calculator and very early framework of gauntlet functions is the version viewed & approved by DB earlier this year. The github source is open, as is the changelog, as is the 45 previous versions with detailed lists of additions and fixes for each iteration.
2) This year in Boston I spoke to *two* DB staff members who complemented the tool and lauded the creativity of the playerbase to come up with neat stuff. They introduced us to GoTA players who had done similar. They met Siguard, who is one of the stewards of the Wiki, and thanked him for continuing to serve the community. In fact, did you know when he was at DB, Nod himself would edit the wiki in his spare time, including official artwork no one had access to, as well as all the achievements and what the actual rewards were when the knowledge wasn't listed anywhere else. DB is very pro-player and pro-community development, as long as it is within TOS guidelines and doesn't harm the integrity of the game.
3) I doubt DB will actually comment in this thread. They don't normally comment in threads asking for their comment. Their silence, in addition to the remaining sticky post, will have to serve as such.
Which won't satisfy a part of the crowd here, which brings us to
4) Players in this thread, last week, sent a ticket into DB and PM'd Shan asking for the tool to be reviewed.
So, my .02, those who have made up their minds will continue to do so regardless of the outcome of anything. Jon Radoff himself could show up wearing an iampicard t-shirt and tell us how it cured his nasty cold he had for 2 weeks. Folks would still say it is cheating, naughty, violates things, etc etc. Those people will not have their viewpoints changed because they simply don't want them changed.
So, to those reading this, simply stop trying to change their viewpoint. Continue to enjoy the tool and the game how you see fit, because you are the only one playing your game. Don't worry about anyone else. Support the community as you always have and the community will continue to give back awesome stuff such as this.
(Disclaimer: I have not and would not use macro programs, not out of moral standard, but to intentionally remain "objective" in the discourse.)
I mean, it's all cheating or none of it's cheating.
Bug exploitation (Voyage Multi tap), Account Sharing, third part access to Disruptor Beam services, and automation are all explicitly banned in the Terms of Service. Yet folks are carrying pitch forks for one specific one because it's not the one they are doing.
Disruptor Beam is free to ok Iampicard and say they won't punish for it, however they are then excusing direct violations of their Terms of Service, weakening the overall enforcement of them as a whole. "You further agree not to create or provide any means other than through the Disruptor Beam Sites by which Disruptor Beam's on-line computer game may be played by others."
It's a great tool, and it simplifies a lot of mundane tasks. However at it's core, it automates the loading of voyages. With two button clicks it calculates the best 12 crew and ship for your voyage and sends it, how is it that not automation? it also does what some would consider worse than automating repetitive action, and automates decision making. It always places the highest success gauntlet matchup in the same place, so there is zero though required, and does the same with Voyage crew selection. Gauntlet is directly competitive against other players, more so than event scoring, how is this somehow not as bad as event macroing? because other people can do it too? how would that sound as a defense of macroing?
I personally don't think this makes it evil or cheating, but from a technical aspect, something that automates actions and completely circumvents the games user interface through third party API calls is inherently more of a "hack" then a program that runs over the stock ui repeating a users actions.
Macros became a problem because of poor event design with near zero player engagement beyond time investment. To allow other violations of the TOS and punish this one, which is prevalent due to poor design is just sad. How long did we go without Galaxy events while they fixed the prime directive? how long do we go without expedition events due to poor design now? To release Skirmishes so fundamentally flawed and punishing to the player base, and punish players for taking action to reduce the burn out, while continuing to trot out a flawed event format is really disheartening. Seeing players who previously did not care about their friends publicly admitting to macroing and suggesting it to others, who then became indignant once someone won an event with the method to the point of persecuting others is even more disheartening.
DB can't effectively design a new event with actual engagement, or police violation of their own Terms of Service that they selectively choose to enforce. Instead of holding them responsible for poor design and controls, and calling out massive investments in player recruiting without fixing the underlying game issues, the player base chooses to demonize each other and witch hunt folks for breaking different rules than what they break.
The whole thing has caused me to not actively play in over a month and not even care to login the last few days.
I would wholeheartedly support a move to full enforcement of the TOS. I would support a move to change design of events to make them more engaging and make macroing impossible.
I can't support selective witch hunting, and protection of things on technicalities and special permission to violate basic pieces of the TOS.
It gives anyone using an edge picking possibly a better choice for voyage (better chron rewards, 4-star cards, rep rations, etc.).
I didn't realize it also plays gauntlet rounds for you.
It doesn't automate anything. You have to tell it to do everything. One click = one tap. Anybody can use a Voyage calculation spreadsheet to find the best combo. Anybody can use Gauntlet calculators to find who best to use. You can't ban a spreadsheet.
I'm already riding the fence on quitting this game due to the ABSOLUTELY STUPID AND IDIOTIC change to the event reward structure. Ban or disallow this tool and I'm gone the exact same day. It's the only thing that takes away the tedium of crap like Gauntlet and SORTING THROUGH MY INVENTORY because the inventory management in this game looks like it was programmed by a six year old. It's absolute trash.
The only reason to ban it is out of sheer embarrassment that a fan tool has a better interface than the actual product. The game's interface seems like it was purposefully designed to annoy and anger the player.
tl;dr: The tool is just that. A tool. It doesn't do anything that you can't do with a spreadsheet and just the game. Nothing more. It's just a convenience with a much better interface than the game has.
EDIT: Ok, yes. One click isn't *technically* one tap, but it's one click to an action. One click will select your voyage crew, but the one *action* is starting the voyage. Same with gauntlet or anything else. That's just a quality of life convenience which goes back to the point that the tool simply makes the game less annoying.
it also does what some would consider worse than automating repetitive action, and automates decision making. It always places the highest success gauntlet matchup in the same place, so there is zero though required,
I do agree that the tool automates some tasks, but I have never considered decision making to be one of those tasks. It certainly simplifies decision making by putting the information in an easily accessible format with all of the math worked out, but the match with the highest percent chance of success is not always the best choice. Often I will chose a match with a considerably lower chance of success if the reward is more lucrative.
We should take a poll. Either you are Picard, or you will punch Q in the face and tell the world that you are NOT Picard.
I mean it's a complicated issue, even the OPs question. Yes, it is explicitly against the TOS, but it has received special status as oked by DB.
I think it's a great tool, and does things the default client should do itself, and I'm not against it myself, I just think its laughable there is such a double standard around the TOS and what is ok cheating and not ok cheating
Argument 1:
"let us macro or ban IamPicard; both are equivalent TOS violations"
Argument 2:
"IamPicard falls on the continuum of automation but doesn't rise to the level of macroing; the two are too dissimilar to compare"
Argument 3:
"DB knows about IamPicard and has blessed it so, since it's DB's game and rules to define and they're OK with it, there's by definition, no problem with the tool until and unless they choose to change their minds."
Comments
It offends me that some people are actively contacting DB because they don't like other users making use of a tool to try and simplify a very complex and time consuming game, before you even consider time commitment for events. It's developed to a point where external tools and resources like this and the wiki are imperative to some people to help manage the monolith that is this game, without it totally taking over our lives.
I've never played a game in my life where I maintained 2 spreadsheets!! to help me manage it, in addition to this app!
This captures most of my feelings on the subject. The game's user interface has a lot of eye-candy that is interesting the first time or two, but then ultimately seems like a waste of time. If the native user interface had an option to skip animations I would.
While automation to gain a competitive advantage over other players is clearly cheating, the automation that iampicard offers I see as an enhancement to the user experience. I will conceded that it could be leveraged for a small advantage in gauntlet, but the impact is minimal and probably offset by the fact that the tool keeps some players, like myself, playing the gauntlet thus diluting the pool of competition.
(Disclaimer: I have not and would not use macro programs, not out of moral standard, but to intentionally remain "objective" in the discourse.)
I mean, it's all cheating or none of it's cheating.
Bug exploitation (Voyage Multi tap), Account Sharing, third part access to Disruptor Beam services, and automation are all explicitly banned in the Terms of Service. Yet folks are carrying pitch forks for one specific one because it's not the one they are doing.
Disruptor Beam is free to ok Iampicard and say they won't punish for it, however they are then excusing direct violations of their Terms of Service, weakening the overall enforcement of them as a whole. "You further agree not to create or provide any means other than through the Disruptor Beam Sites by which Disruptor Beam's on-line computer game may be played by others."
It's a great tool, and it simplifies a lot of mundane tasks. However at it's core, it automates the loading of voyages. With two button clicks it calculates the best 12 crew and ship for your voyage and sends it, how is it that not automation? it also does what some would consider worse than automating repetitive action, and automates decision making. It always places the highest success gauntlet matchup in the same place, so there is zero though required, and does the same with Voyage crew selection. Gauntlet is directly competitive against other players, more so than event scoring, how is this somehow not as bad as event macroing? because other people can do it too? how would that sound as a defense of macroing?
I personally don't think this makes it evil or cheating, but from a technical aspect, something that automates actions and completely circumvents the games user interface through third party API calls is inherently more of a "hack" then a program that runs over the stock ui repeating a users actions.
Macros became a problem because of poor event design with near zero player engagement beyond time investment. To allow other violations of the TOS and punish this one, which is prevalent due to poor design is just sad. How long did we go without Galaxy events while they fixed the prime directive? how long do we go without expedition events due to poor design now? To release Skirmishes so fundamentally flawed and punishing to the player base, and punish players for taking action to reduce the burn out, while continuing to trot out a flawed event format is really disheartening. Seeing players who previously did not care about their friends publicly admitting to macroing and suggesting it to others, who then became indignant once someone won an event with the method to the point of persecuting others is even more disheartening.
DB can't effectively design a new event with actual engagement, or police violation of their own Terms of Service that they selectively choose to enforce. Instead of holding them responsible for poor design and controls, and calling out massive investments in player recruiting without fixing the underlying game issues, the player base chooses to demonize each other and witch hunt folks for breaking different rules than what they break.
The whole thing has caused me to not actively play in over a month and not even care to login the last few days.
I would wholeheartedly support a move to full enforcement of the TOS. I would support a move to change design of events to make them more engaging and make macroing impossible.
I can't support selective witch hunting, and protection of things on technicalities and special permission to violate basic pieces of the TOS.
It doesn't automate anything. You have to tell it to do everything. One click = one tap. Anybody can use a Voyage calculation spreadsheet to find the best combo. Anybody can use Gauntlet calculators to find who best to use. You can't ban a spreadsheet.
I'm already riding the fence on quitting this game due to the ABSOLUTELY STUPID AND IDIOTIC change to the event reward structure. Ban or disallow this tool and I'm gone the exact same day. It's the only thing that takes away the tedium of crap like Gauntlet and SORTING THROUGH MY INVENTORY because the inventory management in this game looks like it was programmed by a six year old. It's absolute trash.
The only reason to ban it is out of sheer embarrassment that a fan tool has a better interface than the actual product. The game's interface seems like it was purposefully designed to annoy and anger the player.
tl;dr: The tool is just that. A tool. It doesn't do anything that you can't do with a spreadsheet and just the game. Nothing more. It's just a convenience with a much better interface than the game has.
EDIT: Ok, yes. One click isn't *technically* one tap, but it's one click to an action. One click will select your voyage crew, but the one *action* is starting the voyage. Same with gauntlet or anything else. That's just a quality of life convenience which goes back to the point that the tool simply makes the game less annoying.
I do agree that the tool automates some tasks, but I have never considered decision making to be one of those tasks. It certainly simplifies decision making by putting the information in an easily accessible format with all of the math worked out, but the match with the highest percent chance of success is not always the best choice. Often I will chose a match with a considerably lower chance of success if the reward is more lucrative.
I mean it's a complicated issue, even the OPs question. Yes, it is explicitly against the TOS, but it has received special status as oked by DB.
I think it's a great tool, and does things the default client should do itself, and I'm not against it myself, I just think its laughable there is such a double standard around the TOS and what is ok cheating and not ok cheating
We will let you know but until then I am closing this thread.
Argument 1:
"let us macro or ban IamPicard; both are equivalent TOS violations"
Argument 2:
"IamPicard falls on the continuum of automation but doesn't rise to the level of macroing; the two are too dissimilar to compare"
Argument 3:
"DB knows about IamPicard and has blessed it so, since it's DB's game and rules to define and they're OK with it, there's by definition, no problem with the tool until and unless they choose to change their minds."
...did I miss anything?