I use Iampicard to select voyage crew and to see how many replicator rations I have remaining for that day.
I can see both sides of the argument for is-it-or-is-it-not-macros and as a not very techy person at all that has no clue how macros work (so correct me if I'm wrong) if a person is using a macros are they able to set it up and then bugger off and do the dishes (or sleep) while it's running? That to me is cheating.
While my use of iampicard is limited to 3 minutes per day (which saves me 20) and it cuts some of the pretty pictures I still have to physically be in front of the screen clicking buttons. I cannot leave it to play the game for me.
And while I'd be sad to lose the best voyage crew, I already keep spreadsheets of various parts of my gameplay, it's the replicator rations tally I'd really miss. Oh, and the unstick a sticky voyage, which I've never had to use as yet, but I did have a sticky voyage before I started using iampicard and when reporting it to CS they weren't terribly helpful and more or less said it was my own fault for extending
I tried the tool yesterday to see what it's all about. It's a nice interface and you can get into the statistics of your crew.
As far as I can see it offers no advantages for events, which what would be the unfair competition element that some people seem worried about. That should be the main focus.
No. They're fully aware of the fact that it offers no advantages for events. Yet they still want it banned for saving a couple of clicks on the gauntlet interface and not having useless animations. Ridiculous...
It has been so long since they announced that they would be looking into it that I have honestly forgot that it would be a thing. Nothing seemed to happen for apparently 4 months and then suddenly the whole thread that they themselves had on top of the page got totally purged. I can't know for sure but it is not a good sign and a ban of the tool is probably imminent. I guess my view can be summed up to: hope for the best but expect the worse.
The tool can't play the game for you and it doesn't offer advantages for events.
If you have all this desire to talk, talk about the top 100 of the latest skirmish event .
Regardless of what actions the tool actually does there is this section of the TOS that states the following:
"All Software is owned by Disruptor Beam and/or its licensors. You acknowledge and agree that you may not sublicense, assign or otherwise transfer this license. You may not modify, alter or create any derivative works of any Software. You may not reverse engineer, decompile or disassemble any Software, including any proprietary communications protocol used by such Software, except where and to the extent expressly permitted by applicable law"
The tool obviously is a derivative work of the game, and it had to be created by reverse engineering the game software. The fact that DB has chosen not to enforce the TOS yet, does not mean the tool does not violate it, simply by its mere existence and creation.
This is incorrect.
The Iampicard tool uses publicly available API endpoints - this requires no reverse engineering, only either monitoring of network traffic or DB providing metadata about the endpoints, like you'd get via a wsdl or swagger endpoint.
It does not modify or alter either the Timelines software or the API. From a legal perspective, nor does it create a derivative.
A derivative would involve the tool either extending the Timelines software or extending the API software, which is does none of.
So it breaches none of the Timelines TOS.
Now, if there is a TOS regarding use of the endpoints, that would be different and it's use would come under those. I've not seen any of those though.
I don't use the Iampicard tool myself, but mostly because I'm logged in via Google Play (different account to what I use on the forum) and I haven't the foggiest how to log in to the tool.
I also think with automation, there needs to be a bit of sensible separation between something that aids gameplay and something that replaces it.
To understand the distinction, it's like doing a job that uses math and turn up one morning to find either a calculator on your desk, or an android on your chair doing your job, along with a cardboard box of your items with a 'Sorry You're Leaving' card blu-tacked to its side next to it.
When it comes to gameplay, I don't see an issue with the former - it's just a productivity tool. The latter on the other hand is a replacement for the player.
From what I know of the Iampicard tool, the only part I see there as a replacement is the Gauntlet as that's the only PvPish part it automates. I see no issue with it selecting crew for the Gauntlet, but it shouldn't replace the user choosing who to attack and who with.
From what I know of the Iampicard tool, the only part I see there as a replacement is the Gauntlet as that's the only PvPish part it automates. I see no issue with it selecting crew for the Gauntlet, but it shouldn't replace the user choosing who to attack and who with.
It doesn't automate the gauntlet. It doesn't choose or proffer the best option. I choose who to attack and who with.
I do the gauntlet in three phases;
1) Phase 1 - Streaks.
I choose low trophy battles to keep my total trophy count low. There is a trade-off between no. of trophies and chance of success. E.g. 75% chance of winning 10 trophies and 90% chance of winning 100 trophies. I would normally choose the 75%
2) Phase 2 - Merit farming. I choose the best chance of success. But see below.
3) Phase 3 - Going for Gold.
I choose high battles to keep maximise trophy count and therefore gauntlet rank. Again there is a trade-off between no. of trophies and chance of success. E.g. 95% chance of winning 10 trophies and 85% chance of winning 100 trophies. I would normally choose the 85%
For all phases, in addition I ;
Choose the battle where there are equivalents favouring my crew member who has had the most battles already.
Choose the battle where there are equivalents favouring the my weaker crew.
Avoid choosing my alter ego.
The point is that it is my strategies that dictate my choice of battle during the gauntlet. The tool however calculates and orders the options so that I can find my choice.
The Gauntlet module, which is possibly the element most marginal in terms of encroaching on actual PvP competition (although second-order even at that), does not guarantee the most optimal outcomes. It has two user-adjustable parameters, neither of which are advertised as ensuring anything. There is a significant amount of game theory involved in anticipating the population of crews actually in play in any given gauntlet, and the overall success rate depends critically on that population - so there is no singular, closed point, optimal solution provided by the tool.
What it does do with the default parameters is provide a means to quickly populate a reasonably robust gauntlet crew and then grind through for merits or, after a couple of years and the Patience of Job, an eventual Locutus. That isn't PvP competition, and isn't anything that can't be done manually as well. No real advantage provided here unless we're getting down to obsessively counting scraps of game-seconds-invested as "competition", which even if technically correct is only impactful in the furthest possible margins.
Since using Iampicard, I’ve sent more voyages and competed in more gauntlets than I ever did before. I am not prepared to compile spreadsheets and perform tedious equations to maximise my chances. Not fun. I am still spending as much as I ever did. In short, I am a more engaged and active player because of this tool and also the Wiki. Surely that is in DB’s best interest?
I don't use the tool to choose my gauntlet crew. My strategy is better imho. I'm not going to say what my strategy is because it is my competitive advantage.
I don't use the tool to choose my gauntlet crew. My strategy is better imho. I'm not going to say what my strategy is because it is my competitive advantage.
I don’t either as I too have my own strategy. Whether it’s an advantage or not I can’t say. So I find iampcard very useful but don’t let it dictate my game play. It is a tool and players use it differently. I echo the point above that it allows us time for more engaged play and has previously been ruled as abiding by the TOS.
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The tool doesn't calculate anything that you couldn't do with a pen and paper.
It does speed up some (needlessly tedious) parts of the game, great for those who are often short for time - myself included. I am more engaged with the game now than I was before I used the tool. Less time grinding through a gauntlet means, for me at least, more time on other aspects of the game.
It definitely doesn't assist in any type of event.
The ability to fix a stuck voyage is hugely invaluable. I don't recall anyone saying CS have ever been able to do this quickly.
If there are parts of the tool that DB really don't like, then I hope they raise those with the developer, or remove access to only that component of the relevant API. Failing that, I hope DB can at least incorporate the good things from the tool into the game!
There are three things that dictate your success and progress in this game long term
Money spent
Time invested
Playing with correct strategy
Person A : Uses a Macro in a skirmish to complete the old thresholds without having to spend 90 minutes in game. The player would have received skrimish and threshold rewards that should have required 90 minutes of real life time to obtain without having to actually spend that time.
Person B : Uses IamPicard for a week in gauntlet. 7 days * 6 rounds a day or roughly 40 gauntlet rounds. Each round takes them 1minutes in IamPicard instead of 4 minutes in the application (just from eliminated clicks and animations). That is 3 minute saved per round or 120 minutes over the course of the week. In that week that person likely gets around 80 reward boxes from gauntlet (maybe 1.5 per round plus some at the gauntlet ends). I think the total average rewards for this would be ~5000 merits, some credits, probably close to 1000 chrons, plus some components.
Both Person A and Person B have bypassed the time invested portion of long term success in this game to get additional rewards.
There are three things that dictate your success and progress in this game long term
Money spent
Time invested
Playing with correct strategy
Person A : Uses a Macro in a skirmish to complete the old thresholds without having to spend 90 minutes in game. The player would have received skrimish and threshold rewards that should have required 90 minutes of real life time to obtain without having to actually spend that time.
Person B : Uses IamPicard for a week in gauntlet. 7 days * 6 rounds a day or roughly 40 gauntlet rounds. Each round takes them 1minutes in IamPicard instead of 4 minutes in the application. That is 3 minute saved per round or 120 minutes over the course of the week. In that week that person likely gets around 80 reward boxes from gauntlet (maybe 1.5 per round plus some at the gauntlet ends). I think the total average rewards for this would be ~5000 merits, some credits, probably close to 1000 chrons, plus some components.
Both Person A and Person B have bypassed the time invested portion of long term success in this game to get additional rewards.
In my understaning any tool that "shorten" the time used for something in game is against the TOS. I know that calculations and math can be done in Excel or with pen'n'paper but that takes time and does not make any faster than someone who just uses his/her gut feeling to chooes gauntlet or voyage crew.
I have steadfast refused to use this tool because ethically it has always felt like cheating to me. I am not judging other people negatively for using it, just that my own personal ethics forbids me from using it. I want my accomplishments to be free of the taint that comes from using a third-party crutch.
Regarding the future of this app, here is what I would suggest DB do: ban the app, but reach out to the creator and have the components of the app that are upgrades to the core game incorporated to the game so we can all benefit. That to me is the win-win here.
I am very happy IamPicard lets me start a 8h-Voyage in less than a minute.
Maybe if the game would give a time estimate of the voyage as you try out different crew, it would be fun to puzzle in-game.
To compare: Why do shuttle missions display the expected outcome of your combined skills, but why do Voyages only display the combined skills but not what they mean for your voyage runtime?
I can only speak from experience, but the iampicard tool totally revived my enthusiasm for this game after a long, serious phase of burnout. It got me spending money on the game for the first time in months. It's the reason I started playing the gauntlet again, and it got me over the 10h mark on voyages (which I had struggled with). I wish its features were available in the Star Trek Timelines app.
The Iampicard tool uses publicly available API endpoints - this requires no reverse engineering, only either monitoring of network traffic or DB providing metadata about the endpoints, like you'd get via a wsdl or swagger endpoint.
It does not modify or alter either the Timelines software or the API. From a legal perspective, nor does it create a derivative.
A derivative would involve the tool either extending the Timelines software or extending the API software, which is does none of.
So it breaches none of the Timelines TOS.
.
Was just about to come post this, but this is 100% accurate. the iampicard tool is a standalone application that uses rest API's. there is no leg to stand on by saying it violates the ToS, unless DB specifically states it does (which they are entitled to do)
From there, you only are left with an ethical debate of is it a macro or an automation tool? Nothing I've seen in the application, nor anything I've read here justifies that classification. it is 100% interactive and requires complete user inter-activeness in order to perform any function. there-in, does it negate any notion of being classified as automation or a macro-tool
I’d be against using an app like this and I wouldn’t use it. I consider my own cognitive process for selecting voyage crew etc as more than sufficient to succeed. I get that it makes everything easier and whatnot, isn’t that an unfair advantage? Advantage or otherwise, I’ll continue to play using my own judgement.
By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
I have steadfast refused to use this tool because ethically it has always felt like cheating to me. I am not judging other people negatively for using it, just that my own personal ethics forbids me from using it. I want my accomplishments to be free of the taint that comes from using a third-party crutch.
Regarding the future of this app, here is what I would suggest DB do: ban the app, but reach out to the creator and have the components of the app that are upgrades to the core game incorporated to the game so we can all benefit. That to me is the win-win here.
Well put. I agree. I don't care in the slightest that others use it, but I don't. If there are benefits, DB should incorporate them for all.
There are three things that dictate your success and progress in this game long term
Money spent
Time invested
Playing with correct strategy
Person A : Uses a Macro in a skirmish to complete the old thresholds without having to spend 90 minutes in game. The player would have received skrimish and threshold rewards that should have required 90 minutes of real life time to obtain without having to actually spend that time.
Person B : Uses IamPicard for a week in gauntlet. 7 days * 6 rounds a day or roughly 40 gauntlet rounds. Each round takes them 1minutes in IamPicard instead of 4 minutes in the application (just from eliminated clicks and animations). That is 3 minute saved per round or 120 minutes over the course of the week. In that week that person likely gets around 80 reward boxes from gauntlet (maybe 1.5 per round plus some at the gauntlet ends). I think the total average rewards for this would be ~5000 merits, some credits, probably close to 1000 chrons, plus some components.
Both Person A and Person B have bypassed the time invested portion of long term success in this game to get additional rewards.
You neglect to note that Person A can leave his/her macro on autopilot and sail to the top 5 earning enormously more valuable (in real monetized terms) ranked rewards (at the direct, not indirect, expense of other players) than someone clearing thresholds. Clearing thresholds harms no one; displacing rank does. For the top 1000, that's one person directly harmed and 3-4 hours, not 90 minutes; for the top 25, that's 3-5 people directly harmed and an ungodly number of hours. Huge false equivalence here, I think.
For gauntlet, I might give you the chrons, although 1000/week is far in excess of anything I've ever achieved. I'm lucky if I can get 50 or so per day. As for merits, they are the 2nd least most valuable currency in the game after credits, so I don't get particularly worked up over them. Everything else that drops is effectively value-less to me at this point in my gameplay.
Regarding the future of this app, here is what I would suggest DB do: ban the app, but reach out to the creator and have the components of the app that are upgrades to the core game incorporated to the game so we can all benefit. That to me is the win-win here.
Not so sure of "win-win", given the implementation rates of improved chat, better fleet management, disposition of the AND bug, ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
Regarding the future of this app, here is what I would suggest DB do: ban the app, but reach out to the creator and have the components of the app that are upgrades to the core game incorporated to the game so we can all benefit. That to me is the win-win here.
Not so sure of "win-win", given the implementation rates of improved chat, better fleet management, disposition of the AND bug, ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
I like the app. Yes, you could figure out the statistics on your own, but it saves you the time of doing that. Also, anyone can use it, so anyone can get that assistance. As for violating the TOS...DB linked and endorsed it. Also, as others have stated, it doesn’t provide an advantage for events.
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Man this is sad. My story is that I have a PC with two monitors. STT is open in one at all times during events and IAmPicard is in the other on and off along with multiple spreadsheets. It definitely does not replace my gameplay on the official app. I personally don't use it to choose gauntlet crew as I have felt my individual choices have been better. I do use it to pick voyage crew, but usually choose dilemmas in app. I keep lots of spreadsheets for helping me choose which shuttles I run and who I put where that I built and does the same kind of help that IAmPicard does. So with some of the logic used against it would mean that I shouldn't use them either. Nor should anyone use any of the others listed and shared in the Ready Room.
My only issue with the tool that I have felt from the beginning is that the source code is readily available to someone who could use it to actually code in changes that would automate gameplay. I would understand if DB asked for that to be removed and any revisions to the code be sent directly to them instead.
As far as time invested, and money spent, could we say that someone with a bigger wallet is cheating because they have an advantage that I don't?
I have steadfast refused to use this tool because ethically it has always felt like cheating to me. I am not judging other people negatively for using it, just that my own personal ethics forbids me from using it. I want my accomplishments to be free of the taint that comes from using a third-party crutch.
Regarding the future of this app, here is what I would suggest DB do: ban the app, but reach out to the creator and have the components of the app that are upgrades to the core game incorporated to the game so we can all benefit. That to me is the win-win here.
There are three things that dictate your success and progress in this game long term
Money spent
Time invested
Playing with correct strategy
Person A : Uses a Macro in a skirmish to complete the old thresholds without having to spend 90 minutes in game. The player would have received skrimish and threshold rewards that should have required 90 minutes of real life time to obtain without having to actually spend that time.
Person B : Uses IamPicard for a week in gauntlet. 7 days * 6 rounds a day or roughly 40 gauntlet rounds. Each round takes them 1minutes in IamPicard instead of 4 minutes in the application (just from eliminated clicks and animations). That is 3 minute saved per round or 120 minutes over the course of the week. In that week that person likely gets around 80 reward boxes from gauntlet (maybe 1.5 per round plus some at the gauntlet ends). I think the total average rewards for this would be ~5000 merits, some credits, probably close to 1000 chrons, plus some components.
Both Person A and Person B have bypassed the time invested portion of long term success in this game to get additional rewards.
You neglect to note that Person A can leave his/her macro on autopilot and sail to the top 5 earning enormously more valuable (in real monetized terms) ranked rewards (at the direct, not indirect, expense of other players) than someone clearing thresholds. Clearing thresholds harms no one; displacing rank does. For the top 1000, that's one person directly harmed and 3-4 hours, not 90 minutes; for the top 25, that's 3-5 people directly harmed and an ungodly number of hours. Huge false equivalence here, I think.
For gauntlet, I might give you the chrons, although 1000/week is far in excess of anything I've ever achieved. I'm lucky if I can get 50 or so per day. As for merits, they are the 2nd least most valuable currency in the game after credits, so I don't get particularly worked up over them. Everything else that drops is effectively value-less to me at this point in my gameplay.
Merite are useful a little bit. Now that 725 can potentially get you one {or more} 5* Crew you did not have.
Just saying and no offense meant.
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Comments
I can see both sides of the argument for is-it-or-is-it-not-macros and as a not very techy person at all that has no clue how macros work (so correct me if I'm wrong) if a person is using a macros are they able to set it up and then bugger off and do the dishes (or sleep) while it's running? That to me is cheating.
While my use of iampicard is limited to 3 minutes per day (which saves me 20) and it cuts some of the pretty pictures I still have to physically be in front of the screen clicking buttons. I cannot leave it to play the game for me.
And while I'd be sad to lose the best voyage crew, I already keep spreadsheets of various parts of my gameplay, it's the replicator rations tally I'd really miss. Oh, and the unstick a sticky voyage, which I've never had to use as yet, but I did have a sticky voyage before I started using iampicard and when reporting it to CS they weren't terribly helpful and more or less said it was my own fault for extending
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No. They're fully aware of the fact that it offers no advantages for events. Yet they still want it banned for saving a couple of clicks on the gauntlet interface and not having useless animations. Ridiculous...
If you have all this desire to talk, talk about the top 100 of the latest skirmish event .
This is incorrect.
The Iampicard tool uses publicly available API endpoints - this requires no reverse engineering, only either monitoring of network traffic or DB providing metadata about the endpoints, like you'd get via a wsdl or swagger endpoint.
It does not modify or alter either the Timelines software or the API. From a legal perspective, nor does it create a derivative.
A derivative would involve the tool either extending the Timelines software or extending the API software, which is does none of.
So it breaches none of the Timelines TOS.
Now, if there is a TOS regarding use of the endpoints, that would be different and it's use would come under those. I've not seen any of those though.
I don't use the Iampicard tool myself, but mostly because I'm logged in via Google Play (different account to what I use on the forum) and I haven't the foggiest how to log in to the tool.
To understand the distinction, it's like doing a job that uses math and turn up one morning to find either a calculator on your desk, or an android on your chair doing your job, along with a cardboard box of your items with a 'Sorry You're Leaving' card blu-tacked to its side next to it.
When it comes to gameplay, I don't see an issue with the former - it's just a productivity tool. The latter on the other hand is a replacement for the player.
From what I know of the Iampicard tool, the only part I see there as a replacement is the Gauntlet as that's the only PvPish part it automates. I see no issue with it selecting crew for the Gauntlet, but it shouldn't replace the user choosing who to attack and who with.
It doesn't automate the gauntlet. It doesn't choose or proffer the best option. I choose who to attack and who with.
I do the gauntlet in three phases;
1) Phase 1 - Streaks.
I choose low trophy battles to keep my total trophy count low. There is a trade-off between no. of trophies and chance of success. E.g. 75% chance of winning 10 trophies and 90% chance of winning 100 trophies. I would normally choose the 75%
2) Phase 2 - Merit farming. I choose the best chance of success. But see below.
3) Phase 3 - Going for Gold.
I choose high battles to keep maximise trophy count and therefore gauntlet rank. Again there is a trade-off between no. of trophies and chance of success. E.g. 95% chance of winning 10 trophies and 85% chance of winning 100 trophies. I would normally choose the 85%
For all phases, in addition I ;
The point is that it is my strategies that dictate my choice of battle during the gauntlet. The tool however calculates and orders the options so that I can find my choice.
The Gauntlet module, which is possibly the element most marginal in terms of encroaching on actual PvP competition (although second-order even at that), does not guarantee the most optimal outcomes. It has two user-adjustable parameters, neither of which are advertised as ensuring anything. There is a significant amount of game theory involved in anticipating the population of crews actually in play in any given gauntlet, and the overall success rate depends critically on that population - so there is no singular, closed point, optimal solution provided by the tool.
What it does do with the default parameters is provide a means to quickly populate a reasonably robust gauntlet crew and then grind through for merits or, after a couple of years and the Patience of Job, an eventual Locutus. That isn't PvP competition, and isn't anything that can't be done manually as well. No real advantage provided here unless we're getting down to obsessively counting scraps of game-seconds-invested as "competition", which even if technically correct is only impactful in the furthest possible margins.
I don’t either as I too have my own strategy. Whether it’s an advantage or not I can’t say. So I find iampcard very useful but don’t let it dictate my game play. It is a tool and players use it differently. I echo the point above that it allows us time for more engaged play and has previously been ruled as abiding by the TOS.
The tool doesn't calculate anything that you couldn't do with a pen and paper.
It does speed up some (needlessly tedious) parts of the game, great for those who are often short for time - myself included. I am more engaged with the game now than I was before I used the tool. Less time grinding through a gauntlet means, for me at least, more time on other aspects of the game.
It definitely doesn't assist in any type of event.
The ability to fix a stuck voyage is hugely invaluable. I don't recall anyone saying CS have ever been able to do this quickly.
If there are parts of the tool that DB really don't like, then I hope they raise those with the developer, or remove access to only that component of the relevant API. Failing that, I hope DB can at least incorporate the good things from the tool into the game!
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Person A : Uses a Macro in a skirmish to complete the old thresholds without having to spend 90 minutes in game. The player would have received skrimish and threshold rewards that should have required 90 minutes of real life time to obtain without having to actually spend that time.
Person B : Uses IamPicard for a week in gauntlet. 7 days * 6 rounds a day or roughly 40 gauntlet rounds. Each round takes them 1minutes in IamPicard instead of 4 minutes in the application (just from eliminated clicks and animations). That is 3 minute saved per round or 120 minutes over the course of the week. In that week that person likely gets around 80 reward boxes from gauntlet (maybe 1.5 per round plus some at the gauntlet ends). I think the total average rewards for this would be ~5000 merits, some credits, probably close to 1000 chrons, plus some components.
Both Person A and Person B have bypassed the time invested portion of long term success in this game to get additional rewards.
In my understaning any tool that "shorten" the time used for something in game is against the TOS. I know that calculations and math can be done in Excel or with pen'n'paper but that takes time and does not make any faster than someone who just uses his/her gut feeling to chooes gauntlet or voyage crew.
Regarding the future of this app, here is what I would suggest DB do: ban the app, but reach out to the creator and have the components of the app that are upgrades to the core game incorporated to the game so we can all benefit. That to me is the win-win here.
Maybe if the game would give a time estimate of the voyage as you try out different crew, it would be fun to puzzle in-game.
To compare: Why do shuttle missions display the expected outcome of your combined skills, but why do Voyages only display the combined skills but not what they mean for your voyage runtime?
I support iampicard.
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Was just about to come post this, but this is 100% accurate. the iampicard tool is a standalone application that uses rest API's. there is no leg to stand on by saying it violates the ToS, unless DB specifically states it does (which they are entitled to do)
From there, you only are left with an ethical debate of is it a macro or an automation tool? Nothing I've seen in the application, nor anything I've read here justifies that classification. it is 100% interactive and requires complete user inter-activeness in order to perform any function. there-in, does it negate any notion of being classified as automation or a macro-tool
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By this logic, anyone who uses a spreadsheet to help inform Voyage crew decisions or Gauntlet crew selection; timers to stay on top of event shuttles, gauntlet refreshes, and voyage dilemmas; and/or the wiki to identify the missions that have the best drop rates for equipment are also playing with an unfair advantage over those who use none of these aids. Are you prepared to suggest that DB have the wiki taken down and ask people to stop using spreadsheets and timers? If not, why not? If so, how does DB police the usage of timers and spreadsheets?
Well put. I agree. I don't care in the slightest that others use it, but I don't. If there are benefits, DB should incorporate them for all.
You neglect to note that Person A can leave his/her macro on autopilot and sail to the top 5 earning enormously more valuable (in real monetized terms) ranked rewards (at the direct, not indirect, expense of other players) than someone clearing thresholds. Clearing thresholds harms no one; displacing rank does. For the top 1000, that's one person directly harmed and 3-4 hours, not 90 minutes; for the top 25, that's 3-5 people directly harmed and an ungodly number of hours. Huge false equivalence here, I think.
For gauntlet, I might give you the chrons, although 1000/week is far in excess of anything I've ever achieved. I'm lucky if I can get 50 or so per day. As for merits, they are the 2nd least most valuable currency in the game after credits, so I don't get particularly worked up over them. Everything else that drops is effectively value-less to me at this point in my gameplay.
Not so sure of "win-win", given the implementation rates of improved chat, better fleet management, disposition of the AND bug, ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
You just proved my point.
My only issue with the tool that I have felt from the beginning is that the source code is readily available to someone who could use it to actually code in changes that would automate gameplay. I would understand if DB asked for that to be removed and any revisions to the code be sent directly to them instead.
As far as time invested, and money spent, could we say that someone with a bigger wallet is cheating because they have an advantage that I don't?
ByloBand, I agree totally.
Merite are useful a little bit. Now that 725 can potentially get you one {or more} 5* Crew you did not have.
Just saying and no offense meant.