This game badly needs mods and macros.

[Mineria]

I really feel like the people that are against macros and add-ons have a huge misunderstanding as to how the average player uses them. Most macros aren't cast sequence macros. Most macros aren't auto-target macros. Both functions can be blocked in the API and be made a non-issue.

 

Chaining up abilities x-y in a macro and setting my keyboard to autospam that key will sequence a rotation as far as I'm aware of.

It can not be blocked in the API unless you only allow 1 skill pr. macro, since it works directly with the keyboard driver.

I can even go to the toilet in the middle of an boss encounter without anyone noticing it, my dps would still be top.

Oh, and I am NOT the only person with such a keyboard, heck, there is even an application available making it work with keyboards that don't ship with such.

 

So sure give us macros but block any form of chaining up skills.

 

I do not understand why the in game GUI elements can't be resized neither be moved around.

I would like to see that we can do it in game, not with a mod.

 

Number one of any TOP DPS priority and rotation system is made by simple time and damage calculations what ever it involved a meter or not.

If you CAN'T figure out how to read tooltips and floating damage numbers, you won't get anything out of a DPS meter.

[Szev]

.....If you are claiming you can figure out your dps via reading floating text and prompts relating to your damage I would call you a fibber sir.

 

Raiders want accuracy not random guesswork by people who have no education in numbers.

[romandaemon]

.....If you are claiming you can figure out your dps via reading floating text and prompts relating to your damage I would call you a fibber sir.

 

Raiders want accuracy not random guesswork by people who have no education in numbers.

 

Correction.....hardcore raiders who do nothing but raid do

 

easy fix....remove operations.....drive end game through story, flashpoints and pvp.

[CharagonIGN]

In the end, Mods aren't about making the game easier. They're about making the game yours. My WoW UI gives me the functions I want and the information I want. It's painstakingly customzied to fit my needs.

 

Until SWTOR can let me do the same it's just a game, not MY game.

 

 

 

As for Macros, they aren't really going to matter until we get some "target of target" functionality going on.

 

 

I suppose as a Jedi Knight, I wouldn't mind having Rift's broken style of mods. It'd be pretty useless to have WoW's system.

 

As a Gunslinger, there's not a whole lot I would really need macros for beyond macroing everything to "target of target" so I can always be shooting what the tank is looking at.

[Szev]

Correction.....hardcore raiders who do nothing but raid do

 

easy fix....remove operations.....drive end game through story, flashpoints and pvp.

 

I'm not a hardcore raider but I am not ignorant enough to take guessworks as to my performance. I think you will find a lot of gamers care about their performance.

[Mineria]

.....If you are claiming you can figure out your dps via reading floating text and prompts relating to your damage I would call you a fibber sir.

 

Raiders want accuracy not random guesswork by people who have no education in numbers.

 

It's not hard to see how much damage each skill and DoT does by checking your floating text and then add cast times, DoT up times, debuffs, cooldowns and energy cost/gain into calculation.

It's exactly the same thing you do when tracking with SW Stats or any other web collection of raid DPS.

I'm not claiming either, I know it can be done, nothing wrong with my math, I have proven that clearly in an other mmorpg which we don't talk about here.

 

In the end you will need to do some math to get the tightest and highest DPS output. regardless if there is a meter or not.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Mineria

[Szev]

..... Yeah no you can't.

 

We'll ignore the fact that no scrolling combat text, including this FlyText accurately shows all damage your character does. It will double up and also sometimes fail to display damage values entirely.

 

 

But hey, do I really need to go on? You are telling me you can accurately gauge dps from looking at scrolling combat text.

 

Well.

 

I'll do you one better. I can make cats float by dancing. The only valid argument for dps meters if performance gauging, which can only be done real time.

 

....... Also I just noticed you seem to think the damage values on the abilities tool tips somehow reflect your characters damage per second?

 

Those two bits of information have absolutely nothing to do with each other. One is a game guesstimate of the average damage the ability does, whereas your dps is based upon your real-time damage per second in varying raid encounters, this encompasses your knowledge of your class as well as LAG, and hundreds of other factors that go right down to the armor values of the target you are hitting.

 

And just elaborating slightly on that last point, this is why DPS meters are so crucial to gauging DPS performance. Your average dps on a target dummy was, is and always will be irrelevant. It in no way indicates your ability to perform within a moving living encounter that requires many outputs for your attention.

Edited January 14, 2012 by Szev

[dargor-]

In the end, Mods aren't about making the game easier. They're about making the game yours. My WoW UI gives me the functions I want and the information I want. It's painstakingly customzied to fit my needs.

 

Until SWTOR can let me do the same it's just a game, not MY game.

 

 

 

As for Macros, they aren't really going to matter until we get some "target of target" functionality going on.

 

 

I suppose as a Jedi Knight, I wouldn't mind having Rift's broken style of mods. It'd be pretty useless to have WoW's system.

 

As a Gunslinger, there's not a whole lot I would really need macros for beyond macroing everything to "target of target" so I can always be shooting what the tank is looking at.

That's a pretty nice analogy

[zolthie]

Yes, this game does need that, badly.

[Excedrin]

Correction.....hardcore raiders who do nothing but raid do

 

easy fix....remove operations.....drive end game through story, flashpoints and pvp.

 

^ End goal of these people. Hope you're paying attention Bioware.

[Manchuwook]

Chaining up abilities x-y in a macro and setting my keyboard to autospam that key will sequence a rotation as far as I'm aware of.

It can not be blocked in the API unless you only allow 1 skill pr. macro, since it works directly with the keyboard driver.

I can even go to the toilet in the middle of an boss encounter without anyone noticing it, my dps would still be top.

 

If you honestly think that this will work in all situations, you are going to be in a world of hurt. You will either do such good dps that you will snatch aggro from the tank, come back from pooping to find your character dead with alot of pissed off guildies in vent. Or you come back and find yourself dead because you stood in the fire. Or the entire party wiped because you didn't switch to the adds that you were supposed to be killing.

 

This theoretical situation is not going to be the norm, so please don't try to jump to such conclusions merely because you think people can "bot" raids. No one can top out their dps while nomming popcorn and smacking their keyboard with a ruler.

 

Even if people could bot with macros, you'd be hocking some website that sells credits for real cash and get banned for it.

[GalacticKegger]

In the end, Mods aren't about making the game easier. They're about making the game yours. My WoW UI gives me the functions I want and the information I want. It's painstakingly customzied to fit my needs.

 

Until SWTOR can let me do the same it's just a game, not MY game.

Is that your default WoW UI or your Bartender/Dominos UI? Dev has already published in their blog as well as these forums that allowing UI customization is a top priority once other more pressing issues are resolved. I would recommend the forum search function except there isn't one yet. So here's the blog:

 

http://www.swtor.com/news/blog/20111213-0

 

Cheers!

Edited January 14, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[HeatherRae]

This is my UI:

 

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7019/6698702953_b4c77069f4_b.jpg

 

It has everything exactly as I want it to be. To me, it's visually attractive. I can easily see the CDs that I need, and the visible bars hold everything I need to have access to at a moment's notice. You may notice that everything is basically under my character's feet, including the raid frames. This is very important to me, as a healer, to help me with movement, and knowing when I'm standing in fire.

 

I can't achieve anything close to this with the current SWTOR UI. And as a poster above said, that makes it a game - but it's not my game. It's not my UI. It's a clunky thing that I have to work around to function. That isn't fun for me.

 

Maybe that makes me bad. All I know is that I have a better, less stressful time when I can set my UI up the way I want it, with addons that make my UI look prettier and make healing more intuitive to me.

[Kurnea]

Actually mod support is so integral to WoW that if addons were taken away there'd be rioting and its end game would implode. Not sure that's a good state to be in.

 

Take a feature you like in TOR, say storyline or pvp or operations. Now get rid of it after the playerbase has enjoyed it for a period of several years. Chances are, there would be rioting, and the playerbase would complain.

[Johnnytc]

For everyone who thinks a game doesnt need mods, is very seriously mistaken

 

How do you know if the person if your group is pulling less dps then a lvl 45? How do you know your doing enough dps..

 

For me, mods are the most important feature of a game, as it lets you see how the group is going to work, who needs to be kicked, cuz lets face it... damage meters were made for the reason of weeding the people who dont even know there own class

 

And yes the UI needs to have more mods, as i hate this UI.. Why is it in every game theres no option for a third center bar, or a fourth center bar.. its always 2 centers and 1 left 1 right.. so tired of that ffs

[Prezendes]

The only real change I would like to see is for the bars. It would be nice to have more then just the one row. In my WOW UI I love Bartender 4. Its a must have for me. I hate having to page through bars.

[GalacticKegger]

Take a feature you like in TOR, say storyline or pvp or operations. Now get rid of it after the playerbase has enjoyed it for a period of several years. Chances are, there would be rioting, and the playerbase would complain.

The features I like in TOR came built into the game, which is why I purchased it. That's not the case with the other game, as addons were aftermarket enhancements. Hence the term addon, though the game itself has since been designed and patched around them. The games are dissimilar in that regard. Edited January 15, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[Kurnea]

The features I like in TOR came built into the game, which is why I bought it. That's not the case with the other game, as addons were aftermarket enhancements, hence the term addon. Though the game has since been designed around them. The games are dissimilar in that regard.

 

Not that dissimilar, surely you're aware that Bioware is focused on adding many aftermarket enchancements. For instance, just a few days ago there was a post that new options and tools will come for finding group content. Before, were you suggesting that there's something wrong with the playerbase enjoying or becoming dependent on aftermarket changes? I don't think there's anything wrong with the playerbase becoming accustomed to the changes that the developers bring about.

[Gezzer]

I'm leary of too many mods or a too powerful macro ability.

 

For example DPS and Heal meters turn raids into a numbers game not just for the players but the developers as well. And powerful macros tend to make a player lazy. I know this for a fact because I had some pretty potent macros in WoW, and when the macro system got nerfed I found it really hard to play without them. Once I did I realized I had more fun with out them.

 

I think we simply need macros for text related things, and that would be fine. One of my toons is a healer, and though I have learned to type "Get him off me" really really fast it would be nice to be able to bind a key to "Your healer is taking damage, please help him" or something to that effect.

As well I would like the ability to customize the UI a bit. Change sizes and locations on the screen would be nice. I'm about to setup a 3 monitor system and I've heard that the UI sucks a bit for that.

[Twixted]

The features I like in TOR came built into the game, which is why I purchased it. That's not the case with the other game, as addons were aftermarket enhancements. Hence the term addon, though the game itself has since been designed and patched around them. The games are dissimilar in that regard.

 

"aftermarket enhancements" interesting way to put what is really user generated content.

 

Would you call firefox "aftermarket enhancement?

[GalacticKegger]

Not that dissimilar, surely you're aware that Bioware is focused on adding many aftermarket enchancements. For instance, just a few days ago there was a post that new options and tools will come for finding group content. Before, were you suggesting that there's something wrong with the playerbase enjoying or becoming dependent on aftermarket changes? I don't think there's anything wrong with the playerbase becoming accustomed to the changes that the developers bring about.

Having btdt I like and appreciate the increased QC that comes with keeping everything in house. So what I WOULD like to see is some fundamental addon funtionality being integrated directly into the game, maybe released as major patches. By doing it this way, the need for having to constantly monitor for new updates and download them every time one is released would be eliminated.

 

I'd love to see a combat log and UI customization built into the game. Maybe a target droid/flashpoint/raid-enableable (if that's a word) damage meter and possibly even a threat meter. I see those as useful in-game tools for advanced progression. I don't see the game needing anything else that could be classified in WoW terms as an addon though.

Edited January 15, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[GalacticKegger]

"aftermarket enhancements" interesting way to put what is really user generated content.

 

Would you call firefox "aftermarket enhancement?

Content based on 3rd party dev generated tools. Users are just the guinnea pigs. Edited January 15, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[Kurnea]

Content based on 3rd party dev generated tools. Users are just the guinnea pigs.

 

Users are part of that very community that create the tools. Not to mention, the addons functionality is inherently limited by the developer provided api in the first place.

 

I just don't get this fear of 3rd party tools. You use parties other than Bioware for your operating system, your virus control, your video card drivers, etc. Are you browsing these forums with some Bioware provided browser, or more than likely are you using Chrome or Firefox?

[Twixted]

Content based on 3rd party dev generated tools. Users are just the guinnea pigs.

 

Users are stuck with the results no matter who designs them. If its 3rd party and you CHOOSE to use it, when it doesnt work, or no longer supported that is your own fault.

 

Not allowing things like this to develop is almost fascist in my opinion.

 

EDIT:

 

By not allowing these things it makes the game further feel like a console game that you can play online.

Edited January 15, 2012 by Twixted

[Kurnea]

Users are stuck with the results no matter who designs them. If its 3rd party and you CHOOSE to use it, when it doesnt work, or no longer supported that is your own fault.

 

Not allowing things like this to develop is almost fascist in my opinion.

 

It's a somewhat Harrison Bergeron kind of mentality imo.