Macro manipulation using 3rd party scripts, is it botting?

[Zarabeth]

Snip, character limit again.

I'm sorry you have pain too
I'm also a crafter (all crafting and gathering at 60 before SB, except cul.) and would love some tips on setting up crafting macros! I use a few for battle but they seem to add lag at times, so I keep them to a minimum but, crafting would be fine.

[Kethic]

Technically, it is against the terms of service, and is actionable.

In response to some of the replies in this thread, I ignore most players 99% of the time since it's all just emote and action spam, especially when I'm focusing on Crafting. It's not like I can actually emote back, or even click on anything, while actively crafting.

[Paladinleeds]

I can't imagine there being a way to do that. How could one prove they were real medical records? Also I'm sure people would find a way to forge them or otherwise copy them.

Yeah, that's true. Not sure what we can really do here though.

I'm fortunate in that I have a great group of friends on Leviathan, if you ever move to our server/data center look me up!

Leviathan and its datacentre is really a no-go for me unfortunately. Been too spoiled by being a European with 20ms ping on the Chaos datacentre! I do have friends here but they've been fragmented due to server moves etc.

[Atmora]

How the fuck is SE even going to detect you using Synapse? All it does is press your mouse buttons, I don't think people here know what they're talking about.

[Paladinleeds]

How the fuck is SE even going to detect you using Synapse? All it does is press your mouse buttons, I don't think people here know what they're talking about.

They can tell by the timing between button presses. Bear in mind that every click is sent to the server. Synapse macros that are set to repeatedly click will have a rhythym behind their button presses (even if random time between each click is used, since even the random time between each click has some rhythym behind it). SE can look at that rhythm of the clicks and determine that it is a bot and ban.

Another thing they can do (at least on Windows, where Synapse is a thing), is sniff out other programs on the PC. If it detects the Synapse signature, it can report back to SE HQ and ban you for it.

[Atmora]

Snip.

I mean yes, both those things are possible, but one would require them to install a program on your comp in the game files to look at what other programs you're using and honestly if they cared that much everyone using ACT would have be banned a long time ago; not to mention Synapse is the fucking driver software for most Razer hardware so you can't just ban people for having it on their computer. The other means they have to look at all of you're individual clicks and compare it across other synapse users then ban you which let's be honest, isn't going to happen.

[KisaiTenshi]

I mean yes, both those things are possible, but one would require them to install a program on your comp in the game files to look at what other programs you're using and honestly if they cared that much everyone using ACT would have be banned a long time ago; not to mention Synapse is the fucking driver software for most Razer hardware so you can't just ban people for having it on their computer. The other means they have to look at all of you're individual clicks and compare it across other synapse users then ban you which let's be honest, isn't going to happen.

They don't need to install anything, Macro's do not contain random timing information. When you activate a macro, it plays back everything at the speed it was told to. So if you see someone activating every skill 3 seconds apart (which is the speed you can pretty much use the internal macro at) they are using the internal macro's. If you see someone activating the same skills repeatedly, with the same timing, it's a bot.

The game client itself can check for macro software, it doesn't need a third party program. Likewise, purpose-built cheating software often intercepts the C runtime to hide itself from the game. EG, enumerate software running on the system into a hash list, send the hash list to the server, the server cross-checks the hashes against known bots, cheating tools, macro software, etc every time a zone changes or teleport happens and then if the player is ever reported for botting, instant-ban.

Right now it only does that when you run the launcher, and only looks at software installed, and software running at the time the launcher runs, not side-loaded (click config-system information.)

[Nixxe]

In this game, anytime someone talks to you or emotes at you, casts a random spell at you, you should be able to respond. If you just keep repeating whatever you were doing, then it's clear you're botting. A real player will at the very least stop what they're doing for a moment to see what/why they are being targeted.

This is not even remotely true.

[Atmora]

snip

I take it you've never used synapse or the other brand equivalents to any depth? You can make some incredibly long macros with super varied timings. Also using Synapse itself isn't even remotely ban worthy since most players with custom keys on their keyboards/mouse use it or another similar program. I mean unless I'm wrong and changing keys on my mouse to modifiers like shift and ctrl is a banable offense.

Edit: Lol I almost forgot to refute the stupidest part of this, Synapse doesn't send any packets to the game or interact with the game in any way whatsoever, the server won't be checking shit from it. Literally all it does is make your keys perform multiple or different actions.

[KisaiTenshi]

This is not even remotely true.

Next you're going to tell me that people are't randomly inviting people to FC's. The point of that comment was, "where are your eyes looking", if a GM starts talking to you, where are your eyes?

I take it you've never used synapse or the other brand equivalents to any depth? You can make some incredibly long macros with super varied timings. Also using Synapse itself isn't even remotely ban worthy since most players with custom keys on their keyboards/mouse use it or another similar program. I mean unless I'm wrong and changing keys on my mouse to modifiers like shift and ctrl is a banable offense.

When I worked for a certain company, the company built hundreds of macros in a program called Macro Express in order to speed up the delivery of everything from stock responses to ticking boxes in web-browser based CRM software. So yes, I've used macro software in a professional environment, and have written macros to customize the responses, or even read peoples email and generate responses based on context of what email path was followed.

That said, the average person is not a genius, and you're making it out like these macro programs can read someone's mind. No, the reality is that the average person downloads things they find on the internet and doesn't know what they are really doing, only that someone they found on the internet said they "use this", therefor it must be kosher.

If someone is handicapped, and the macro improves their QoL, and then one day they get banned because they decided to run their macro 3 ilms away from the marketboard, bell, or aethertyte (which is what the spamming bots do) and got reported a dozen times, then that is on them for being ridiculous. If you're going to go break the ToS, go break it somewhere where you're not seen by 20 people constantly.

90% of the amateur-hour bots out there use an easy to find open source macro program that is capable of triggering anything in the Windows API itself, this is what the spam bots use.