Curse

Roland of Gilead · Jan 15, 2008, 07:04 PM // 19:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rhedd

You can't send LOVE through PayPal. ^_^

See, just consider me as a developing country. Developing countries need LOVE as well, but they are probably better off if you give them money so they can BUY love from the lowest bidder

MagmaRed · Jan 15, 2008, 08:17 PM // 20:17

Not all botters are people making GW gold, and selling it on websites. Some people who bot do so for titles, self made/used GW gold, or to annoy other people. You may not allow for multiple key presses to be done as one, but who says someone won't modify your program to do that.

Most bot companies have people sitting near the computers to respond to certain situations. So when a character gets stuck from a game glitch, the person can restart the zone to keep the character running. Someone who just wants to make money to buy titles with can have 2-3 computers sitting at home, run 2-3 copies of the game, and sit at the computer pressing buttons occassionally to farm easier/faster. It would be a modified version of botting, but that is what I see people using something like this for.

Now, that doesn't even consider Hero Battles. I don't think the people playing normally would have any fair chance to beat someone with the ability to micro-manage the heroes with a program like this. If person A has to control their character, and mouse click each hero skill, while person B only has to control thier character and press a couple extra buttons, it is clear who does better. Person B will have an unfair advantage.

Bryant Again · Jan 15, 2008, 08:37 PM // 20:37

Sounds like it's about as grey as Texmod, if not moreso, from that e-mail.

If that's the case, then I'm pretty interested in this, Roland. It'd be awesome to see what you come up with!

Miska Bow · Jan 15, 2008, 09:24 PM // 21:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Isileth

True, but this would not be along the lines of.

Press A, char goes off and completes mission X.

It would be press A, hero uses skill X.
Or press B, hero uses skill Y and skill Z.

All of that can already be achieved by clicking 1 or 2 buttons. This would simply make it more effecient. No advantage would be gained because everything it would do is already completely possible.

This would just make it more effecient and user friendly.

Rather than having to target something and click a heroes skill every single time it recharges, you can just press a single button each time.
No advantage, just a quicker and more effecient way of achieving the same goal.

Hmmmm... No advantage BUT a quicker way and more efficient way..

What i see in your program is in no way an advantage or a more efficient way to play. Its mainly an alternative to the mouse/kboard combo everybody is already using.
I also believe that if your project goes trought it should be implimented as part of the client. This way the possibility of using the Kboard only option would be avalable to all, therefore no one could gain any ''advantages" in Heroe's battle or in going for titles with "better and improve" heroes.

Since im fine with the system already in place i dont think i'd be inclined to use it.(Im the mouse type). Good luck with your project, im sure lots of ppl would love to get rid of the little cheese eater.

bhavv · Jan 16, 2008, 12:54 AM // 00:54

Any chance of modding in using extra heroes as henchies? XD

Gaile Gray · Jan 16, 2008, 04:08 AM // 04:08

Hey, there,

I already posted on the Guild Wars Wiki, but I did want to reiterate here that this utility, tool, or customization helper is just fine. There's not inherent "advantage" in using this, it simply allows players to customize the game.

So, Roland, I'm not going to offer you any money (saw the earlier post

) but you came up with a good idea, and the dev team will be adding a customization option in the next game update. Your utility may offer different or additional options, so take a peek and see what you think. You're free to continue developing your utility, given the parameters you so clearly (thank you!) outlined.

Thanks for a good idea!

Celestial_Kitsune · Jan 16, 2008, 04:49 AM // 04:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

the dev team will be adding a customization option in the next game update.

Will this update enable us to use Shift for commands? In other words, would I be able to assign keys for player selection 1-8 and for skill activation Shift + 1-8?

bj91x · Jan 16, 2008, 05:26 AM // 05:26

I got a question (apologize for going off topic).

I use the numeric keys on the top of the keyboard for skills (the default setting where "1" is skill 1, "2" is skill 2, etc.). While I can easily reach keys 1~4, I can't reach 5~8 very well. This makes it very uncomfortable to play. For skills 5~8, I have to use my mouse to click the skills, which is annyoing.

Is it possible to create some kind of program that allows the player to press, for example, "right click (on the mouse)" and "1" to use skill 5? And just click "1" to use skill 1? Using skills 5~8 has been an ongoing problem for me since the beginning of GW. I've actually tried buying different mouses (or is it mice?) just for GW and they never worked out.

Isileth · Jan 16, 2008, 05:32 AM // 05:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

Hey, there,

I already posted on the Guild Wars Wiki, but I did want to reiterate here that this utility, tool, or customization helper is just fine. There's not inherent "advantage" in using this, it simply allows players to customize the game.

So, Roland, I'm not going to offer you any money (saw the earlier post

) but you came up with a good idea, and the dev team will be adding a customization option in the next game update. Your utility may offer different or additional options, so take a peek and see what you think. You're free to continue developing your utility, given the parameters you so clearly (thank you!) outlined.

Thanks for a good idea!

Thats excellent news, always nice to see Anet still interested in improving the game. Keep up the good work

Chthon · Jan 16, 2008, 07:05 AM // 07:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gaile Gray

Hey, there,

I already posted on the Guild Wars Wiki, but I did want to reiterate here that this utility, tool, or customization helper is just fine. There's not inherent "advantage" in using this, it simply allows players to customize the game.

So, Roland, I'm not going to offer you any money (saw the earlier post

) but you came up with a good idea, and the dev team will be adding a customization option in the next game update. Your utility may offer different or additional options, so take a peek and see what you think. You're free to continue developing your utility, given the parameters you so clearly (thank you!) outlined.

Thanks for a good idea!

That is indeed excellent news. Unless that update steals Roland's thunder, I'd be happy to try out this program.

Hyper.nl · Jan 16, 2008, 07:47 AM // 07:47

Not interested. I'll need my attention to play my own char, so I have no time to also play the heroes / henchies. Some better AI or AI setup would be nice tho. (Like scatter in case of AoEDoT attack.)

Isileth · Jan 16, 2008, 07:54 AM // 07:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roland of Gilead

Actually, Isileth and Draikin, binding 2 or more significant actions (e.g. skill activations) to a single key press would already count as botting from ANet's side, so I'm not going to implement that. As long as each action requires at least one click or key press, and as long as one key combination results in no more than one action, the tool is probably ok, otherwise not.

I have to say that I cant see this being a problem either. It wouldnt make both activate at once, it wouldnt allow them to be cast faster.

It would queue it up just the same as if you clicked them both. Again no advantage gained. The player is required to be there at all stages. It doesnt choose what and when to cast anything. Its simply a more effecient way of making your heroes use skills.

Roland of Gilead · Jan 16, 2008, 08:49 AM // 08:49

Wow I guess I should have brought up that idea when it occured to me, ca. on day 1 of the NPE. I always assumed this to be so bleedingly obvious an issue that somebody somewhere must already have suggested this and the lack of control was a conscious design decision. I figured being unable to combine hotkeys with the shift, alt key etc. was the biggest reason.

Words of praise: Despite what nay-sayers may believe (and I admit I had doubts of myself for a second), you continue to improve a game (beyond fixing bugs) which you will not directly make money off any more. You could easily have said "We'll put that into GW2, go get GW2, you NEED GW2 to make your life complete!" and be done with it, but you're actually doing the right thing! Your Blizzard heritage really shows, in the best possible sense. All hail ANet!

Roland of Gilead · Jan 16, 2008, 08:57 AM // 08:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by bj91x

I got a question (apologize for going off topic).

I use the numeric keys on the top of the keyboard for skills (the default setting where "1" is skill 1, "2" is skill 2, etc.). While I can easily reach keys 1~4, I can't reach 5~8 very well. This makes it very uncomfortable to play. For skills 5~8, I have to use my mouse to click the skills, which is annyoing.

Is it possible to create some kind of program that allows the player to press, for example, "right click (on the mouse)" and "1" to use skill 5? And just click "1" to use skill 1? Using skills 5~8 has been an ongoing problem for me since the beginning of GW. I've actually tried buying different mouses (or is it mice?) just for GW and they never worked out.

My program would allow to do that, so that's not at all an off-topic question, except that you would do it with Shift-1 or Alt-1 etc.; unfortunately, at this moment it won't be possible to use the mouse to activate a macro with my tool.

odly · Jan 16, 2008, 09:08 AM // 09:08

Can't you allready do some of those things with GW allready ?

There is an interface panel in the options menu that lets you assign the keys for the recognised hot-key commands.

What I thought your program would do was add new hot-keys that didn't exist as key presses, but as mouse clicks.

There are no hot-keys for activating hero skills atm.
You can only do that by mouse clicks.

But you can assign different keys to use instead of the 1-8 for the skills.
There are also a number of unassigned hotkeys by default.
I think you can allready assign hot keys to party members 1-8, but I'm not sure of that.
There are

Esan · Jan 16, 2008, 10:11 AM // 10:11

Won't Ctrl+1-8 interfere with target calling?
Shift+ and Alt+ are OK, though.

Roland of Gilead · Jan 16, 2008, 04:00 PM // 16:00

Some more ideas to implement that I had: My program would also allow for setting hero/pet behaviour, locking targets, and sending health/energy status to chat, like control-clicking on a health/energy bar. Finally, if that's possible from within the GW client, you could add a checkbox to disable the Windows key, because if people use Alt and Control a lot, it's inevitable to hit the Windows key every now and then, making for an annoyance and possibly death during an intense fight. Combine all that with the ability to load/save hotkey profiles like with skill templates and we have already reached the end of my wishlist

odly: of course GW already offers (some) hotkeys and the (limited) ability to change them. My tool would allow to define any hotkey you like and when you activate it, either have it translated to an existing hotkey in the game (for example 'Shift-U' instead of 'U' to open the minimap), or simulate a mouse click to perform any one action that could formerly not be activated without a mouse, for example using hero skills.

Esan, my tool would "use up" any defined hotkey when it is pressed so it wouldn't be processed again in GW. That means, if you want the "1" key to, for example, activate skill 1 of hero 1, then you would not at the same time activate your own skill 1. If you defined "Ctrl-1" to do something, then it would no longer activate your skill 1 and call it.

ducktape · Jan 16, 2008, 04:40 PM // 16:40

Wow, this would be great, it would really help to use the keyboard for more things by making more customized hotkeys available, I have a lot of problems with my wrist and it hurts much less to use the keyboard than it hurts to use the mouse.

Also, if you successfully make the ability to disable the Windows key, that would be like one of the best mods ever. HATE the Windows key and would be thrilled to prevent it from minimizing GW whenever I accidentally press it. Would you accept gratuity in the form of candy canes or eggnogs?

Congrats on having your program accepted by ANet and inspiring them to add more command options to the game!

Roland of Gilead · Jan 16, 2008, 05:08 PM // 17:08

ducktape, I would gratefully accept almost any form of approval. However, you should know that I'm a lazy bum at heart, so if (but only if) the developers hold Gaile's promise (

) and the new featues pretty much obsolete my tool before it came out, it would probably rot on my HD half-done. After all, compared to what the devs could do, my solution would have been rather ugly and hacked together under the hood, so I'd rather save myself the embarassment of opening up this can of spagetthi code. Therefore, save the booze at least until you have the tool in your hands, so to speak

Celestial_Kitsune · Jan 17, 2008, 07:39 PM // 19:39

Well, looks like Anet only added hero skill activation in the latest update, but no Shift key functionality...

I hope your program can do that