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The game been running for 6 days. I'll let you guys figure out how many hours per day that works out to...

Well what can you expect, the game is that great. The time limit that will be present in the furture will not only force players to watch the time consumption, but it will also allow us to not get so addicted in the game.

Keep up the good work.

Yeah it seems a lot of time, but since the auto-traderoute not yet is fully functional, I have to use a screen macro program, so actually it is actually the program which is "online". F.ex. takes 100 traderoutes this way about 25 min. which with autotraderoutes takes some few seconds...
so 16K-17K of the turns has been used by this screen macro (Therefrom you can likewise easily calculate the use of time by "Non human movement"....hmmm that could be me too... "Non-human")

But 2 day online-time seems wild (almost like the "Away-time" for PJ in the same periode of time ), but when knowing that the time I have had to move the mouse myself is about some few hours is still a lot but not as WILD as the missing Auto-traderoute makes it

Yeah, U could call it a none-browser program.

The one I use I got from this site:

http://www.macros.com/

It only costs 40 bucks, so it have already been worth it. It has "Played" app. 95-98% of my online time

I would like to express a displeasure at reading this topic... The use of such a program is very questionable in my mind... I had thought of using a program like this at one time, but thought it unethical. I am fine with other folks doing so, but it brings an element to the game that questions top players efforts and real skill level.... If one is fine with a Pseudo, top gun rank.... great. I respect you telling the forum that such program was in use.

it cant prevent an @ss whippin from happening sooner or later.

such negativity from the boy who isnt very active. you'll have to talk to me about it on messenger, cause i would not know.

LOL, Neon quit suckin up, your just tired of being podded

Well you have to leave sector 1 once and a while

Just how wide spread is the use of MACRO's?

No one seemed concerned about its use in this game. I was offended that it cost $40.00. In Tradewars there were several helper programs for sale. They would map out the universe for you. find the best traderoutes for you, and even hunt down your enemies for you....

IMHO I dont think the use of any external program is legitiment. It gives an unfair advantage to the person using the program and from the start the future of this game has been about making a balance. But to answer your question, how wide-spread is it? While not with a shadow of a doubt, i dont believe the problem stems far. And if it did in .21 will not be able to do as much in .3. Firstly such programs are for repition, the main times that your repeting yourself is trading and adding colonists, which when all is said and done will already be automatic. Other times of repition would be adding sd and attacking sd, which would be suicide to do that automatic 100% of the time when attacking, and there is a great deal of risk when adding sd to your own sector as well. The other most effective use for a external program would be to scan the universe but even that would not be effective in .3, for one it would be a huge risk, you're sitting in a sector for a while, leaving warp trails, and going to random sectors. Secondly, the new randomly generated sector names make it ineffective a anyway.

Just my opinion, but it seems once we get all the normal features back in the game, there will be little to no use for any external program to automate the game. And if people do use them, be sure to capitalize on the risk they are taking, because they deserve it.

I am gonna admit it to the world. I use a macro program just for this reason.

In all seriousness. Placing AAT SD makes my hand VERY sore. Sometimes, I can't hold a mouse for the rest of the day or even two. I am not being funny... it really does just kill my hand. It is a borderline repetive stress injury for all the mousing involved.

So way back when I found a macro program that mimics what I clicked and it runs at the same speed I would be adding SD anyhow. It often crashes or locks up or the server won't return a page fast enough so it starts clicking on random things..... so I am right here WATCHING my macro work. It basically is doing the clicking for me so I can save my hand. But I want to say again.... I AM RIGHT HERE WATCHING IT.

The repetition of adding SD manual is just beyond silly. And I have tried in the past to get this changed with a big resounding NO from PJ. He has a pretty decent reason, I must admit... but other servers have come up with good solutions to mitigate his concerns (Universe Empires and Outposts).

I can't play AAT without the macro program unless something is done about the way that SD is placed.

Well from what i understand, Tarnus and PJ are against adding sd as quick as you can do a traderoute, imagine what would happen if sd could be laid in excessive amounts in less then a second. When the new time limit is added into mix, macros will be obsolete in terms of getting things done while you are not on the computer.

You use it while you are away, you have no more time to play. lol

As long as laying sd takes a fair amount of time, (a macro still accomplishes this), and you are susceptible to attack during the entire process, (no help from a macro there either), it seems fine to be used in that instance, problem arises when some people have access to such a program, and in this case reason, they may be tempted to use it for other purposes, though i dont even know what would be benificial when the new version is complete, time limit and all.

Still the one sole reason exists, so if Tarnus or PJ made a similiar type of sd thrower in the game itself. One that while being automatic still maintains what they want putting defence up to include, risk and time, then even the reason to use an external program would be gone.

If such an option existed in the game, would there be any reason to use a macro?
Please answer this question if you have the time.
Keep in mind the following though, as for most people, this is the reason to use programs such as macros,

If the time limit was operational, would you seriously risk using it up for a program to do a repetitive operation, even if the hole for sd is closed.

I didnt hear anyone whining. In fact I was hoping this would turn into a good discussion on why people would choose to use such programs, and what would be needed to make them unneccesary for the game. How much of a help would that be for our admins, if in the forums we discussed why people would resort to macros and any other kinds of program that can be used to quoteunquote cheat then we will be able as a community to see the signs of cheaters while playing the game, and new ideas can be brought up to make it unneccessary to cheat in whichever aspect is being abused.

As long as Alien Assualt is a game people will try to cheat on it, you can't escape that fact. But if you attempt to lower the reasons to use programs legitimently you are in effect lowering the number of people who would be tempted to use it illegitimently. If 100 people use a program to drop sd, the chances are high for one to be tempted to use it in some other way. But if there is an ingame option to drop sd then those hundred people just turned to 0.

Well, we will never have an option to automate dropping SD in the game. The people who are using scripts to do it usually take a very long time to fill a sector. Not that much faster than doing it manually. Their ships can still get tagged.

The only reason some people are using macros/scripts for trade routes is because the planet tradreoutes aren't working and once they are installed people will stop using those scripts for that.

And as someone else mentioned once games have the daily time limit turned on people using scripts will be the ones at a disadvantage. Right now we have the daily time limits turned off so people can test the game as much as possible. The default time limit is going to be 4 hours of play per day and people using scripts to play for them will find out they run out of time and haven't accomplished that much.

Big's score would be very different if the 4 hour per day play limit was enabled. And if the planet traderoutes were enabled then other scores would probably be as high as Bigs.