Star Wars Galaxies: The end of recursive (looping) macros??

Go here to tell Thunderheart how this change would affect your profession. And go here to discuss it in our forums :) *does the byebye afktainers happy dance*

A macro is basically something that is a set of keystrokes and instructions that are recorded, saved, and assigned to a short key code/command. When the command is typed, the recorded keystrokes and instructions execute or "play back". In SWG, we can even attach those macros to handy toolbar buttons. (It may even be a third party program that executes macros, but that is a no-no that breaks EULA policy and gets players banned).

A recursive macro is a macro that executes the set of player commands and then starts over again in a never ending loop.

Star Wars Galaxies was designed with the idea that macros are ultimately inevitable. They are part of the game and there are many beneficial uses for in-game macros. The philosophical question is that do you both disallow macros and work against anyone who uses them or you make them available to everyone? If you choose the first choice, the inevitable outcome is that there are lots of players who will always figure out how to use macros. This puts extra strain on CS and creates a small group of players who have advantages over everyone else. If you choose to allow them for everyone, you create an environment where players can set up bots, AFK play for their main characters and other sorts of activities that are less than optimally conducive to playing in an online world.

The design to decision to remove them from the game has been made. They are coming out soon to clean up a lot of the AFK game. You will still be able to write fairly long macros, but you will no longer be able to loop them and use a macro to activate a macro from itself.

What effect will this have on your profession?

Kurt "Thunderheart" Stangl
Community Relations Manager