This is turning into a really big debate in th ER forums.  This was originally posted by djpostman1.

Once again i decided to flex my searching muscle and didnt see any threads or dev responses on an in game macro system, just a few references to previous games here and there.

So then what are you feelings on macros? for crafting, for combat, for healing, buffing, spamming (old cornet for those that remember) etc.

Personally im a big fan of them. In SWG I had a few pages of macros written for various things, like chaining healing items, chaining various types of grenades, the occasional dancing macro, and always had a good time writting them. It appeals to that side of me that always wanted to be a coder but hated taking the classes Grin I think they have a place in a lot of games, but as far as ER is concerned i would have to see more about the raw game itself from what we have to really form an opinion on it, since it does and can rob a little skill from gameplay.

/discuss

I don't know.  I can play a game either way.

In the end it doesnt matter if they aren't added officially.  There are plenty of aftermarket macro programs that people can use.  They just go after the key and mouse stroke actions.  EVE has combated this by having the UI change itself every so often.  To defeat it I imagine a memory sniffer mixed in a script macro program could bypass anything.

In other words this is kind of mute.  Especially when professional farmers begin to notice this game.  Whether macros are wanted or not.  People will be using them.

They are soo lame tho!  It really ruins it for me to see a bot running around.  Tho it would be kinda hard in this kinda game as you might just get killed.  It takes a little bit more player skill in this game.  I am really hoping for no macros allowed in this game.  Tho I am fine if they are used for communication reasons. 

Macros are not lame.  Whether you want to admit it or not you simply can't stop third party macro programs so you might as well have the game support them so the every day common player can utilize them.  Otherwise you end up limiting your "law abiding" players while everyone who would abuse them anyways will still be abusing them.

It's like gun control.  You keep guns out of the hands of people who respect the law while the people who aren't supposed to have them don't care about the law in the first place and will just have them anyways.

I don't want to see combat macros or anything like that but I do want to be able to equip entire outfits or armor suits in a single keypress or be able to switch between toolbars, execute a particular special/item, and then switch back.

There are a lot of great uses for macros, particularly complex RP operations which require many lines of input commands that need to be timed precisely and without the use of said macros would otherwise be impossible to do in a timely fashion that didn't look stupid.

I would personally let them be used as mentioned above there are many 3rd party programs to get around things (ask a Spammer).

But I do believe Macros can be abusive and need to be controlled.  But how to control Macros, if some can be used, there are 3rd Party programs, and scanning a client machine is not allowed?

Solution, behavioral patterns.  Set the behavioral pattern to check for repeating patterns that occur for a given amount of time, say 10 minutes.  Note it.  If the pattern keeps going for another 10 minutes, then execute an event to cause havoc to the macroing.  The event can be as simple as, opp's sorry your character accidently fell down by this passing NPC who happened to just appear.  Shucks... And it looks like that bot didn't put in a command to get up...

I think macros should be allowed but the game should be somewhat unpredictable to make successful AFK play difficult. Automate routine stuff, but require a bit of thinking.

Since someone mentioned EvE, I'll use it as example:

For that game, I'd let the occasional strong pirate NPC spawn appear in highsec. That would take the fun out of macromining, while other players could see the threat and warp out.