Macros in Elder scrolls online?

Roberthen

Hi all
The actual topic is marked by !!!!! at the beggining!!!! this one article is about my history with the game and therefore why I am asking questions that I ask. enjoy reading:

I am pretty new to this game. I bought it in late 2015 but didn't play the game much and returned to Warcraft. I came back to TESO around 4 months ago. Enjoyed the story, read every dialoque and just played it like singleplayer game, sometimes joining random dungeon queue just for fun of it. I am only champion 116 and planning to be 160 in around a month, I know I can do it during a night but I don't want to. I enjoy the game my way. So I am used to some things in Warcraft, that I am pretty sure are doable in TESO, I just don't know how, so here are questions:

!!!!!QUESTIONS!!!!!!

1. Macros In Warcraft are pretty standard in almost every situation. I use them for basics like chat messages I have to write in every dungeon every f*ckin time.

EX: Hi all, need to change my spec/gear to tank. Thank you for your patience.

Is something like this possible here? I wrote /s m3 in chat and message was sent to group chat. I even made a icon for my action bar, so just one click, then became so lazy that macroed it on my mouse and hade few messages for every button in alt/shift mode too.
Is it possible to create a macro in TESO that would post message like this in group chat?


2. Is it even legal in this game? Isn't it against the rules? If it is I don't mind and still be writting them in chat by hand, but it would be pretty time efficient.
3. Isn't there some addon for this?

thank you for your answers
Robert

Cpt_Teemo

Macro's are against the ToS, yet keeping exploiting currency or running bots now isn't for some reason

Roberthen

Thank you for your answer, yet it didn't please me much

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

tough you cant prove when someone is using macros...sometimes I feel that 80% of the people with insane dps are using macros...since I find it hard to believe everyone plays with no mistakes in fights...and im talking about the 50k+ people...single target...yes I know there are those no lifers obsessed hodor worshipers who can achieve that... in actual combat but I know there are those who use macros for a long time and nothing happened to them... proving that is hard if not impossible to prove the use of macros...

Roberthen

So it is doable, but forbiden.
...Interesting, I am pretty sure some GM will start to stalk me from now on

Dawnblade

This being a game designed (dumbed down) for consoles and assuming no one has a keyboard, macro functions are not built into the game, and any 'automation' (even something silly like setting up a text chat line to repeat as needed with basic information) is against the rules.

That said, there are add-ons that automate functions and there are people who use macros (everything from macro capable mice and keyboards to third party programs such as autohotkey), though do so at their own risk.

So no, unlike WoW or other PC based MMOs with a built in macro language, ESO does not offer anything of the sort (it doesn't even let people search by text without add-ons).

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO

Roberthen wrote: »

So it is doable, but forbiden.
...Interesting, I am pretty sure some GM will start to stalk me from now on

I guess it is forbidden only if you are caught... same thing regarding real life thievery...you are punished if ur caught

Roberthen

Dawnblade wrote: »

That said, there are add-ons that automate functions and there are people who use macros (everything from macro capable mice and keyboards to third party programs such as autohotkey), though do so at their own risk.

I don't use addons like this, just what authors gave me in the game. I don't trust addons like this

So I will work on my type-writting

vyndral13preub18_ESO

I wonder what they think about the addon that lets you craft quantities of items with 1 button push.

Cpt_Teemo

They said before it's safe to use automative crafting just for a short time, and not let it run over night or anything like that.

IE: Writs / Stacks of Food as long as its not over 15 mins or something

Publius_Scipio

I personally can’t confirm whether they exist. But a former high ranking dev team member specifically mentioned macros in a post during an AMA on Reddit. He wanted all the API closed because of the things players would have access to would/could make using macros easier in ESO.

Of course we know that certain unscrupulous players will use CE for whatever reason in ESO. I wouldn’t be surprised if some players have used macros. Such is the reality with modern online games.

Edit: The Reddit post was made right before official game launch when ZOS announced they would close access to all the API, and some players made a stink about it.

Roberthen

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

Of course we know that certain unscrupulous players will use CE for whatever reason in ESO. I wouldn’t be surprised if some players have used macros. Such is the reality with modern online games.

I really don't understand players like that. Why would I want to automate my actions in game, when that's what is fun about the game. I bought the game to play it, not to watch it play itself.
When I want to see something play with itself I use different part of internet

Cpt_Teemo

Roberthen wrote: »

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

Of course we know that certain unscrupulous players will use CE for whatever reason in ESO. I wouldn’t be surprised if some players have used macros. Such is the reality with modern online games.

I really don't understand players like that. Why would I want to automate my actions in game, when that's what is fun about the game. I bought the game to play it, not to watch it play itself.
When I want to see something play with itself I use different part of internet

You really want to manually do 14 characters of all 5-6 writs per day ?

Publius_Scipio

Roberthen wrote: »

Publius_Scipio wrote: »

Of course we know that certain unscrupulous players will use CE for whatever reason in ESO. I wouldn’t be surprised if some players have used macros. Such is the reality with modern online games.

I really don't understand players like that. Why would I want to automate my actions in game, when that's what is fun about the game. I bought the game to play it, not to watch it play itself.
When I want to see something play with itself I use different part of internet

Players looking to take shortcuts.

Buffler

There is a global cooldown on all skills of 1sec. Macro's dont work on ESO.

Roberthen

Cpt_Teemo wrote: »

You really want to manually do 14 characters of all 5-6 writs per day ?

Dude, I play one character for 4 months and am only champion 116, something people do in weekend, I do writs when I want to do them. When I want to do some quest story I don't care about writs or dungeons or anything.

For me TESO is like good old Second life, sandbox where I can do what I want. Fantasy Matrix

But I consider myself pretty good player in general, I don't die in dungeons, I dont pull like ***, I am patient.

I am Magicka Sorcerer, both bars light staff, front bar single target/debuff, back bar aoe/buffs-heals/wards (depends on the situation, I change my bars often according to situation and quests and stuff.

In WoW I used to tank in Dungeons, not much, bet everytime people were happy. If you understand mechanics of the game, it is pretty easy to use them in your advantage (not exploits, just getting better in game)

Only thing that still do me problems is animation canceling, I sometimes still do pretty horrible mistakes, No minor, just major, like life costing MAJOR

Cpt_Teemo

Buffler wrote: »

There is a global cooldown on all skills of 1sec. Macro's dont work on ESO.

That's why if macros were possible you would just add a /pause 2; or something of that manner like Swg

zaria

xenowarrior92eb17_ESO wrote: »

tough you cant prove when someone is using macros...sometimes I feel that 80% of the people with insane dps are using macros...since I find it hard to believe everyone plays with no mistakes in fights...and im talking about the 50k+ people...single target...yes I know there are those no lifers obsessed hodor worshipers who can achieve that... in actual combat but I know there are those who use macros for a long time and nothing happened to them... proving that is hard if not impossible to prove the use of macros...

Probably lots of players use them, but the good trial groups does not use them as you loose flexibility, in pvp flexibility is far more important and against bosses obviously.
The very high dps you see in vet trials is because all the buffs like war horn up all the time,

Tommy_The_Gun

Cpt_Teemo wrote: »

Macro's are against the ToS

Yep. It is in End-user license agreement (EULA)
https://account.elderscrollsonline.com/eula

use cheats, automation software (bots), hacks, mods or any other unauthorized third-party software designed to modify the Game or adversely impact any other persons playing of the Game or his/her experience of playing the Game;

So technically any macro can be interpreted as "automation software"...

zaria

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

I wonder what they think about the addon that lets you craft quantities of items with 1 button push.

Addon are legal, as they use the approved api.
Nobody would detect if you used macros for LA weaving, however after morrowind you also need heavy attacks in your rotation, you can script more complex stuff but again it make you non flexible, it work on dummy but not if you need to dodge or block.

vyndral13preub18_ESO

zaria wrote: »

vyndral13preub18_ESO wrote: »

I wonder what they think about the addon that lets you craft quantities of items with 1 button push.

Addon are legal, as they use the approved api.
Nobody would detect if you used macros for LA weaving, however after morrowind you also need heavy attacks in your rotation, you can script more complex stuff but again it make you non flexible, it work on dummy but not if you need to dodge or block.

Don’t let the people crying about Miats hear you say that. They will picket on your front lawn.

Elsonso

I specifically asked, a couple years ago, whether it was acceptable to use hardware keyboard macros (programmable keyboards) for the purpose of things like chat messages. Simple stuff not related to combat. I was told, explicitly, that it is NOT allowed.

However, my understanding of the use of ADD-ONS should make it possible for an add-on to interpret a brief key command ("/s1") as an instruction to send a canned message to the current channel. I am not aware of any add-on that does this and I can't testify to the legality of doing this.

ssewallb14_ESO

Only 3rd party automation violates the ToS, the addon API allows for quite a bit of automation. You can do things like automate gear changes, skill bar changes, UI funtions, the mail system, etc.

Roberthen

ssewallb14_ESO wrote: »

Only 3rd party automation violates the ToS, the addon API allows for quite a bit of automation. You can do things like automate gear changes, skill bar changes, UI funtions, the mail system, etc.

This, can you please name some of those addons, there so many of them simmilar functions, can you recomend some and state why?

Animus-ESO

You can't use advanced macros in this game.

For example: Say I want to use a macro to weapon swap>cast a heal> weapon swap back

Due to lag and other forces going on during combat, this would bug you out and you could accidentally weapon swap twice with no heal. Unless you make a macro that keeps track of your ping it simply wont work. The most you can do with macros is add a light attack before a skill and even that isn't 100% perfect due to ping.

I know many people who have tested this stuff extensively to try to push the limits of what you can do in the game. The more you understand something the easier it is to fight. Our conclusion is many players just have amazing muscle memory, they have been playing a class so long that they got their rotations down to a science. People need to accept that macros in a combat environment are glitchy and don't really work well.

WHAT you should really worry about is addons. There are many shady addons out there that can do things like auto break stuns.

zyk

jasonthorpeb14_ESO wrote: »

You can't use advanced macros in this game.

This simply isn't true. It's trivial, for example, to macro context specific break-free based on which CC has been applied and even consider other factors such as resource levels.

I know many people who have tested this stuff extensively to try to push the limits of what you can do in the game. The more you understand something the easier it is to fight. Our conclusion is many players just have amazing muscle memory, they have been playing a class so long that they got their rotations down to a science. People need to accept that macros in a combat environment are glitchy and don't really work well.

Amazing muscle memory works exactly the same way as macros do. Superior cancelling requires hand movement that is faster than the eye. Cancels and combos will fail because of lag when executed by a player the same way they will fail when executed by a macro.

Players who use macros aren't bound by them. They can choose to use them selectively when it makes sense to. It is likely that combo macros are common.

Further, as referenced above, there are automation tools that can function according to what is displayed on the screen. Automation tools can perform context specific actions faster than players can.

ssewallb14_ESO

Roberthen wrote: »

ssewallb14_ESO wrote: »

Only 3rd party automation violates the ToS, the addon API allows for quite a bit of automation. You can do things like automate gear changes, skill bar changes, UI funtions, the mail system, etc.

This, can you please name some of those addons, there so many of them simmilar functions, can you recomend some and state why?

Some automation addons I like:

• Alphagear - Create gear and skill bar presets, gear and skill swap can be bound to a key or done in the UI by clicking on the preset.
• Lazy Writ Crafter - Crafts items for available crafting writs when interacting with appropriate the station.
• Bank Manager Revived - Deposits or withdraws certain items to/from the bank when interacting with the banker. Great if you do writs on multiple characters, but store the resulting mats in the bank or on another character.
• MailLooter - Loots and Sorts "reward" mails (hirelings, rftw, etc), allowing you to manage them from a single UI.
• Assist Rapid Riding. - Automatically slots the AvA skill Rapid Maneuvers whenever you mount. Great if your horse is slow.
• Inventory Insight - Creates a global, searchable, inventory view, across all characters and the bank. Not technically automation, but saves more time for me than any other addon I can think of.

Princess_Ciri

macros are for weenies

Ydrisselle

lordrichter wrote: »

I specifically asked, a couple years ago, whether it was acceptable to use hardware keyboard macros (programmable keyboards) for the purpose of things like chat messages. Simple stuff not related to combat. I was told, explicitly, that it is NOT allowed.

However, my understanding of the use of ADD-ONS should make it possible for an add-on to interpret a brief key command ("/s1") as an instruction to send a canned message to the current channel. I am not aware of any add-on that does this and I can't testify to the legality of doing this.

I remember an addon which can send prerecorded messages to a channel if you press a key - maybe it was SwissArmyKnife... I'm not sure.

Nyghthowler

Buffler wrote: »

There is a global cooldown on all skills of 1sec. Macro's dont work on ESO.

Let me say this for the sake of argument; FFXIV has a base 2.5 second cool down on ALL skills. It also has a built in macro function. The way to avoid the cool down is to use the /wait command in the macro.

Buffler

Nyghthowler wrote: »

Buffler wrote: »

There is a global cooldown on all skills of 1sec. Macro's dont work on ESO.

Let me say this for the sake of argument; FFXIV has a base 2.5 second cool down on ALL skills. It also has a built in macro function. The way to avoid the cool down is to use the /wait command in the macro.

Let me clarify what i meant. Due to the gc, theres no point in using macros. Its pointless as you get no benefit from them, infact, if you are good at animation cancelling you are infact gimping yourself.