SE... can you please make Macros queue up like normal abilities?

For instance...

If I cast Blizzard III, Thunder II, Fire III, each ability can be pressed as the previous GCD ends and the new ability queues and procs automatically. This gives the rotation a nice fluidity.

But, if I macro Thunder, Thunder II and Thunder III together so all my thundercloud procs use Thunder III and my hard casts use which ever I have enough MP for, I can no longer press and use Thunder as the Blizzard III GCD is ending. I have to just spam the macro button until I see that it's gone off. Which is always after the previous GCD completely ends and sometimes a split second or so longer.

Macros are very useful a lot of the time, but this makes them hard to rely on. Can you please figure out a way to make the appropriate ability in the macro queue up like standard abilities do?

Couldn't you queue them up using /wait commands such as /wait 2.5 ?

I understand what you are saying, and I know what you want is for the spell to proc exactly as the last GCD ends, but it is better than nothing at all.

The reason why macros cant queue up like abilities, is that it would be too easy to chain macros together in order to automate virtually any complex action in the game - effectively making botting even easier.

You can do that anyway with the wait command. But I'm not referring to the wait command, I'm just referring to ability queuing before the GCD ends.

I'm more concerned about the loss of fluidity when using macros. In my example about, using Blizz III, Thunder II, and Fire III back to back to back feels very fluid and the timing is perfect. But, insert a macro for Thunder III/II/I and now you end up having to hammer the macro instead of the rotation having any kind of flow to it. It turns a very useful macro into a headache a lot of the time.

I suspect the wait command over-rides the queueing that you'd get if you pressed the keys manually. When you think about it, when you queue abilities up, the game is effectively inserting a wait instruction anyway. The macro is simply emulating what the game already does, and it's probably similar if not identical code at the back-end.

So the answer really is that you have a choice. Do you want the efficiency of manually queueing up actions, or do you want the convenience of having the game do it for you?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Sparky

I suspect the wait command over-rides the queueing that you'd get if you pressed the keys manually. When you think about it, when you queue abilities up, the game is effectively inserting a wait instruction anyway. The macro is simply emulating what the game already does, and it's probably similar if not identical code at the back-end.

So the answer really is that you have a choice. Do you want the efficiency of manually queueing up actions, or do you want the convenience of having the game do it for you?

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Even if you use a wait command, each time the macro itself is pressed, you have to hammer it to get it to fire. So, the issue still exists regardless. Besides, I don't like wait commands for the most part. I just want to be able to macro things like Thunder/Thunder II/Thunder III together and have the button work like any other ability.

You have to hammer the macro every time, because that's the way macros have been designed. I don't think SE intend macros to be queued to repeat. I think you'll probably just have to accept that it probably will never happen.

Are. . .are you two even arguing about the same thing? Versiroth is asking for macros to work like any normal ability in the game, where if you press the button as the GCD is winding down it fires as soon as the GCD is done. Sparky. . .seems to be arguing against self-repeating macros, which no one else is talking about. >_>

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Viridiana

Are. . .are you two even arguing about the same thing? Versiroth is asking for macros to work like any normal ability in the game, where if you press the button as the GCD is winding down it fires as soon as the GCD is done. Sparky. . .seems to be arguing against self-repeating macros, which no one else is talking about. >_>

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Thank you. This is exactly what I'm asking for.

I'm all for this too, I've made a macro for easy-targeting my Aero like :
/ac Aero <t>
/ac Aero <tt>
This way, i can target tank for healing and quick throw an Aero on his target and still cast aero on the target I want when solo playing.

But due to the "non-queue-able" thing of macro , i revert to the full manual targeting... :/

PS : Also, give a way to remove the ever annoying red message and "bip" you hear for the "cannot use this ability on this target" thing.
I want something like this :
/ac Aero <t> <noerror>
/ac Aero <tt> <noerror>

or at least this (or both, like wait):
/noerror on
/ac Aero <t>
/ac Aero <tt>
/noerror off

I fully agree. Macros should function like normal skills and get the ~.25 second skill queuing that normal abilities get. I also agree that we need a /noerror command. Making mouseover macros is a pain in the ass currently, as you get spammed with on screen errors.

The answer would be for them to add another command for macros which would be a dynamic wait action.

<GCDL>
/ac Spell <t>

Where <GCDL> is the time left on the GCD.

***

Also thinking about an additional one like <WAD> or Wait Animation Duration for those stupid actions that take longer than the GCD but do not have a cast time to help.....

Yes please!

What I read is you want a macro to push so it will play you for?


sigh, and gg.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by spaace

What I read is you want a macro to push so it will play you for?


sigh, and gg.

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How. . .wha. . .no!

Holy crap, the reading comprehension issues in this thread. . .

When you push a non-macro ability, it queues. That is, the GCD can still be in effect when you push the button and as long as you push it close enough to the end of the GCD, the ability you want will still go off as soon as the GCD ends. Macros do not do this, leading to a completely unnecessary DPS loss. OP is asking for macros to behave just the same as any other ability.

I agree both the request to make macro's queue and also to cancel error messages.

For those unclear, do a skill / spell in game and just before the cast bar fills press your next skill / spell. The next will start casting the instant your previous one ends. This is handy because if the next spell didn't queue and just failed due to the pending cast, you would have to time each cast perfectly, wait a bit after each skill ends or mash the skill. That's what you have to do currently if you put the skill inside a macro. It doesn't add to gameplay in any way (not for me at least!), and if it did should be the same for non-macro skills.

Macro's won't play the game for you. There are so many varying situations that only simple macro's are effective in practice for any challenging content.

A macro can be used to replicate the convenience of auto target forwarding that already exists in many other MMO's, and will surely appear in this games own settings eventually (i hope).

These games shouldn't even have macros. It automates too much, and eventually developers end up balancing the game around macros (see: WoW, which has consistently streamlined the game by taking commonly macrod skills out of the game and turning them into one active skill or passives), which lowers the skill ceiling and ruins the game in the long run.

Plus it makes you a sub-optimal player. 90% of the time the macro is fine, the other 10% individual control is better, but most people who make macros don't care and just want one button spam anyway (and to that I say go play Dynasty Warriors). In the case of a tank w/ macros, sometimes you need threat instead of a CD pop, a lot of tank macros have certain attacks and instant-cast CDs on one button, so they need threat *now*, hit the macro, CD is up and gets popped instead of using a threat-generating attack. Sub-optimal and in the right/wrong situation causes big issues, whereas if the tank had no macros and did everything manually...

And holy crap, 1000 words/post 4 posts/day. No wonder these forums seem so dead.