Ranger Autofire Open Discussion

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Alphawolf, Dec 30, 2020.

  1. Alphawolf

    Alphawolf New Member

    Messages:
    23
    Hey all!

    I recently have gotten my trio to 60 (which includes a ranger) and have gotten the EQ/AM3 AAs! (yay!) I've noticed, however, that since getting the AAs it's become more of a curse than a blessing. In effect, I lost my ability to box competently.

    Most people here who box rangers have a second PC where they have a sticky-key effect when holding down a button (roll of quarters mentioned here many times). I, due to financial constraints and honestly lack of want, do not have a second PC at my disposal.

    I'm wondering what practical difference there would be with me having a toggle-able script whereby a repeated button is pressed in a certain window (same exact effect of having a second PC and holding quarters down). I'd obviously have to keep tabbing to the window, assisting, turning macro on/off during that period in order to keep the ranger on the right target (as you have to if you have 2 PCs). This in effect allows me to have the benefit of the second PC without having to buy a second one.

    I feel there are no practical differences here, but I don't want to willy-nilly do it on my own volition thinking there's no difference and get perma-banned. I'm falling behind my multi-PC ranger peers and am beginning to feel that if I don't get a second PC I may have to reroll. Thoughts?
     
  2. necra

    necra People Like Me

    Messages:
    606
  3. sowislifesowislove

    sowislifesowislove People Like Me

    Messages:
    854
    Yea. It definitely can be a curse. I have a cleric that I box for raids. Being on a mac I don’t have access to hotkey.net and can’t set up fancy f11 key to help auto fire. It’s a constant switch back and forth. Definitely always looking forward to easy rooted mob raids where I can just bring my ranger and one other. Etc. PS. 1.5oz+ fishing sinker works way better than quarters or pennies ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
     
    Ripwind and Tuluvien like this.
  4. Devour_Souls

    Devour_Souls People Like Me

    Messages:
    583
    Are we allowed to send commands to windows in the background? I think that is what he is asking to do.
     
  5. Mokli

    Mokli I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    2,455
    This is why I prefer not to use hotkeynet. Its too fuzzy when you start to apply logic to its use.
     
  6. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,194
    This script keeps pushing range attack as long as the ranger is in the foreground.
    For this to work right, I have slightly different key bindings in the ranger client and the other ones - F11 (my ranged hotkey) is not bound to anything in the others, so that when I switch and a keypress sneaks through, it doesn't do anything. I have 2 different copies of the game in separate directories.

    Code:
    [ Only registered users can see the bbcode. Click Here To Register... ]
     
  7. Lenas

    Lenas I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    2,968
    Absolutely not.
     
  8. Alphawolf

    Alphawolf New Member

    Messages:
    23
    If I instead had a Virtual Machine in the background that was basically it's own mini-computer within my computer that I could play the game on my ranger on, would that be acceptable. That's basically having 2 PCs and sharing one screen/mouse/keyboard. You wouldn't be sending commands to a background window as that's it's own PC completely. Not sure how this is different than having two physical PCs. I'm trying to make this work inside the bounds of the ToS for this server.

    TL;DR: Can't really afford the two separate PC option so trying to remain useful to my guild/party while using just one.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
  9. Tuluvien

    Tuluvien I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    1,085
    Nope
     
  10. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,194
    Well i'm not the rules police but hear me out. The point of the rules is simply to keep people on a similar footing and not have it devolve into the botting that is present on most of the other everquest servers. This game is trivial to automate because of its low APM requirement. That's why people can play a whole group of characters at the same time. So with there not being autofire, melody and many other things, the action of pushing that button, stupid as it might seem in contrast with newer games, was/is part of the game in this era. The UI is intentionally crippled to make the game more difficult to control, by Sony's original design, and so doing tedious clicking and button pushing is how the game is to be played. People who build some contraption to trivialize it are getting an advantage over others and this community is a manual-play-only server where that is frowned on. Another thing I'll mention is that some of the best players here are following these rules and simply doing all these things manually and still managing to beat the difficult encounters so the game isn't so hard that it requires these kinds of aids.

    All that being said, if you do automate it with whatever thing you're trying to do, probably nobody will know the difference, so make of it what you will. The players here have a lot of experience and can recognize macroing and 4 boxing and whatever else, so whatever you decide to do, keep that in mind. It's not some us vs them thing, it's all of us collectively agreeing to play a certain way to make this environment the way it is.
     
    Linkamus, Sketchy, Ripwind and 4 others like this.
  11. Alphawolf

    Alphawolf New Member

    Messages:
    23
    Thank you for your thoughtful answer. My main concerns are that I'm unable to compete with other rangers who use two PCs. I'm not asking you to nerf them or to disallow the use of multiple PCs, but I'm trying to have their level of competence with just one. Say what you will but people do parse, and when my other chars are useless and my ranger is parsing the same as a sticky-keyed spare PC'd ranger while they're in healchain and tanking, I just feel pretty awful.
     
  12. Foxboxx

    Foxboxx People Like Me

    Messages:
    218
    I think you greatly overestimate how many rangers are using multiple PCs, especially if the ranger is considered their main. I only use a single monitor to play, and keep all 3 windows layered on top of each other even. Just gotta get used to consistent hotkey setups so you don't spend much time looking at the other chars during arrowing.
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2020
  13. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,194
    I think you'll find that in places where there is a heal chain, you can rarely use archery anyway because people like to push the NPCs into the corner, and you can just melee in the background in that case. A wizard might be a better background ranged DPS. You can switch faster because you're on the same keyboard and don't have to reach for your other PC though.
     
  14. sowislifesowislove

    sowislifesowislove People Like Me

    Messages:
    854
    Linkamus started an argument similar to this which greatly improved the life of PC rangers. I guess he was hard to understand when talking in Discord because he was furiously smashing his keys shooting arrows lol. So they enabled macros/hotkeynet so that PC ranger can have a similar experience as my fishing sinkers, except it’s definitely better now Except, I’ve heard you can use a key like f11 and type through shooting which you can’t do on a mac.
     
  15. gardnerjens

    gardnerjens People Like Me

    Messages:
    715
    People who roll 3 rangers have 3 physical machines :)
     
  16. solar

    solar Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    1,194
    That's what I posted above but it still doesn't work for shift/alt/ctrl while the macro is running, so if you try to type ? you get / but at least no spam from using a key like '1'
     
  17. Sketchy

    Sketchy People Like Me

    Messages:
    991
    Why the focus on competition? This is a 6 year old EQEMU based on EQMAC what was what, 10 years old. Work with your guildmates. Have fun. I know, I used to chase bigger numbers, more efficiency and it comes to a point where it's no longer enjoyable. That said you do you. Seems more trouble to circumnavigate rules in order to excel that extra 1%
     
  18. necra

    necra People Like Me

    Messages:
    606
    I really don’t think any of the guilds here care that much about you maxing you’re dps potential
     
    Cillipis likes this.
  19. Linkamus

    Linkamus People Like Me

    Messages:
    413
    I know no one in Temerity is boxing multiple rangers on raids.

    Because of the corner bug being intentionally implemented here, it's just way more powerful and easier to box 3 wizards if you're looking to maximize DPS on raids.
     
  20. Break

    Break People Like Me

    Messages:
    610
    I think you can do this on a mac by just plugging in a second keyboard. I have a wireless keyboard as my main keyboard. When I practice spell casting skill ups, I use a secondary wired keyboard with a stapler holding down the 0 number pad key as my hotkey. I can still type and do anything else on that character while that key is held down.
     
  21. sowislifesowislove

    sowislifesowislove People Like Me

    Messages:
    854
    Very cool. Thanks for the tip.
     
  22. Foxboxx

    Foxboxx People Like Me

    Messages:
    218
    Pfft, I started that silly rambling of a thread =P.
     
    sowislifesowislove likes this.
  23. Linkamus

    Linkamus People Like Me

    Messages:
    413
    We all look alike.
     
    Smudge and Tuluvien like this.
  24. Faults

    Faults I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    1,892
    Everything truly begins and ends with monk ac. Thus has this rant ended.
     
    Smudge and Mokli like this.
  25. Majo

    Majo Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    55
    Monk ac!
     
  26. Sketchy

    Sketchy People Like Me

    Messages:
    991
    Nothing like using precious Dev time to rehash issues that we discuss at least once a year as we get new influxes of players and our older ones forget the reasoning in the first place. Of course, I suspect your mostly trolling Faults.
     
  27. Alphawolf

    Alphawolf New Member

    Messages:
    23
    Well, I wasn't hoping to re-hash old much-discussed issues but more to get a general idea of specifically what's allowed (sending commands to background windows in an effort to mimick having 2 PCs for ranger while on just 1 PC or using a virtual machine to act as a background PC inside of my real PC to again have a macro spammed, in an effort to replicate 2 PCs while on 1 PC.) I want to do everything within the server guidelines, and that's why I made this thread. I'm very much not interested in being banned, so I just wanted to see what was passable/allowable and what was not. So far I've heard that both of my ideas are not allowed, so I will either have to purchase a second PC or just learn to live with the situation as is. I appreciate all the posts so far and the macro ideas. Thank you!!
     
  28. Sketchy

    Sketchy People Like Me

    Messages:
    991
    Fair enough, apologies for my tone. I was misunderstanding your intent and that was my fault. I can see you're doing your best to adhere to server guidelines and follow some slightly arcane and complicated rules.

    Kind regards and best of luck.
     
  29. Lenas

    Lenas I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    2,968
    I have a hard time believing in competition in EQ, especially on a server like TAKP. Most people drag around two other characters that are literal dead weight outside of buffs or whatever. Unless you're going for something on the trio trophy challenge.
     
  30. Tuluvien

    Tuluvien I Feel Loved

    Messages:
    1,085
    If you're hitting all your heal chain timing then I'm sure your guild would be very happy to have whatever else you can add on top of that. Some DPS? Gravy, even if it's not maximized.
     
    Palarran likes this.