Another scripting legend

[Fleur-de-me]

I don't mind afk scripters. I do mind afk scripters that use trash scripts.

Wait...so your problem is with bigshot not the afk scripter?

It sure sounded like you were pretty mad at Dalabrac, not the other way around.

[Fleur-de-me]

Not really a huge secret who my character is and im active on Discord if you had shot me a message id gladly have addressed it immediately and paid you back for whatever i looted. Still will if you want.
It obviously wasnt intentional and didn't really know there was an issue until I saw this. I havent changed anything lately so im not sure why its doing it, its obviously not a super complicated attack cycle. Did you direct message me? I dont have a separate chat window so if you only said something local there's no doubt i would have missed it and it scrolls pretty fast.
Either way im sure its not the cool PC thing to do or whatever but I apologize, and Sorry that happened.

Holy shit, maturity, civility, and owning one's mistakes. Someone archive that post immediately we may never see that again. Kudos. We need more players like this guy, AFK or NOT.

[Hightower]

Yep, and my opinion is that fully automated hunting is a blight to this game. Which is likely a minority opinion, I realize, seeing as pretty much everyone bots now.

FWIW, I agree. But that ship sailed many years ago. I don't blame the players. A lot of them are supplementing their income because for some reason this game's currencies, items, and characters still have decent cash value. But even if it weren't about the money, the gameplay is mind-numbingly boring. Why torture yourself actually playing it when you can just let it play itself and get the things you want out of it?

As a consequence, there is also little worthwhile interaction. With most players spending the vast majority of their time in game not actually playing or paying attention to it, interaction is mostly relegated to special events which invariably feel contrived. There are probably still a few try-hards out there, attempting to recapture what made this game special to them at some point in the distant past. They're a bit like a mime on a street corner as everybody shuffles past on their way to work. If you're looking for compelling gameplay or worthwhile interaction, I'm afraid GS ain't it.

[Viekn]

As a consequence, there is also little worthwhile interaction. With most players spending the vast majority of their time in game not actually playing or paying attention to it, interaction is mostly relegated to special events which invariably feel contrived. There are probably still a few try-hards out there, attempting to recapture what made this game special to them at some point in the distant past. They're a bit like a mime on a street corner as everybody shuffles past on their way to work. If you're looking for compelling gameplay or worthwhile interaction, I'm afraid GS ain't it.

For context, I started playing in 1996, stopped in 2003, then started playing again in 2014 and have been pretty consistently active with a few short breaks. Was hunting ever filled with rich interaction and RP opportunity back in the day? I recall going out in groups more often back then, and indeed that was more fun. Maybe we lament the fact there's not so many people playing the game now and therefore we have fewer friends to go out and group hunt with? But I don't remember going on solo hunts pre-bigshot and finding that I was constantly interacting with people. When I was solo hunting pre-bigshot, my usual interaction was when people poached stuff, which is the same thing this thread is about, only with bigshot.

I agree with you that depending on the special event, those interactions feel contrived. The whole storyline around Lumnis and the flowers changing colors at the Festival of Lumnea felt extremely contrived and cringy to me. We were standing in a field trying to figure out what might have lead to the flowers changing color and maybe why Lumnis was unhappy. There was like 20-30 people just standing there, while a small group would just toss out ideas. It didn't feel like a natural interaction in any way at all.

Conversely, as I've mentioned in another thread, I attended a Beacon Hall Restday Fast Breaking they hold every Sunday and it was a ton of fun, the interactions were all natural and didn't feel contrived at all. But that was a player run event, and not a GM run special event. With a GM run special event, I'd say it's more likely to feel a little contrived. Instead of the group interacting with each other, it's more about individuals in the group interacting with the GM('s).

I compare the possibility of fun interactions in GS with taking a walk in a busy neighborhood park. If you go for a walk in a local park that's fairly busy, would you say that you're often interacting with the people there in meaningful way? Probably not. You're going for a walk, they're doing their own things, and chances are you're never going to interact with them. But if interaction is what you want, you could look for local groups that are having get togethers at the park: group walks, softball, barbecues/picnics, etc., and look to attend those things. To me, it's the same with GS, if you're expecting consistent meaningful interaction from your everyday business in GS, it's not impossible, but with fewer people playing the game, the odds just aren't great anymore.

But I think that has little to do with bigshot. I'm not saying there's no issue with AFK scripters. If you're letting bigshot run for hours at a time while you're off watching a movie, doing chores, running errands, sleeping, that's no good for anyone and I think enforcement of the rules around that behavior is crucial. If that's your goal, to earn silvers, gear, increase your character level, all on auto-pilot, then do it in Shattered or some other instance designed for that, BUT...allow silvers/gear (NOT Shattered ooc gear)/characters built there to be transferred to Prime. You'd obviously have to tweak the systems/rules, but allowing something like that would remove the afk auto scripters from Prime, but allow them to still get from the game what they want without ruining people's experiences in Prime.

[Tgo01]

But I don't remember going on solo hunts pre-bigshot and finding that I was constantly interacting with people.

Honestly I think people interact with me more now while I'm hunting than they did back in the good ol' days of 2000+ people logged in at once.

Back then I think the most interaction I had was someone entering my room, yelling "CHASE!", killing the critter that clearly spawned in my room and didn't enter the room from another room, skin and loot said critter, then move on.

[Gelston]

Yeah, I've never had any meaningful interaction while solo hunting, scripts or not. We did use to do TD parties and shit, but that is gone because player numbers are a lot lower and honestly, people are done with the entry level hunting areas in the first hour of playing.

[Hightower]

To clarify, I was not referring to interaction while hunting. I meant that full automation has contributed to the change in player behavior patterns all around. Obviously, a player who is AFK scripting on a hunt/rest cycle doesn't interact at all. But even players who would interact now "play" the game without playing it. We're doing chores, work, playing other games with actual engaging gameplay, watching Netflix, etc. As these are the things engaging our attention most of the time as we play, we're engaging less in the game. And as that is obviously a two-way street in any interaction, there are generally fewer players left to interact with at any given time. So, unless you're the mime on the street corner, there's rarely a reason to "perform", as it were.

[Ramrod]

FWIW, I agree. But that ship sailed many years ago. I don't blame the players. A lot of them are supplementing their income because for some reason this game's currencies, items, and characters still have decent cash value. But even if it weren't about the money, the gameplay is mind-numbingly boring. Why torture yourself actually playing it when you can just let it play itself and get the things you want out of it?

100%. Also keep in mind that they added a bunch of end game content AND massively slowed down experience gain when they nerfed Symbol of Dreams and Meditate years back. People used to make 25K exp/day playing by hand. To go from 0-100 today literally takes years now with scripting. Even if you AFK script 24/7 it takes over a year to get to cap.

They've also introduced all these weapons, spells, etc that produce a shit-ton of screen scroll even with combat brief on. A single attack can basically scroll the entire game window in half a second. If you're at the keyboard AND paying close attention it's easy to miss something. If you're not paying close attention it's even easier.

I would guess that at least 75% of their players are scripting. If they want, they could catch every single one of them at some point. Punishing players for scripting will be the end of the game. There's simply not enough players that don't script to keep the game alive.

[Fleur-de-me]

100%. Also keep in mind that they added a bunch of end game content AND massively slowed down experience gain when they nerfed Symbol of Dreams and Meditate years back. People used to make 25K exp/day playing by hand. To go from 0-100 today literally takes years now with scripting. Even if you AFK script 24/7 it takes over a year to get to cap.

They've also introduced all these weapons, spells, etc that produce a shit-ton of screen scroll even with combat brief on. A single attack can basically scroll the entire game window in half a second. If you're at the keyboard AND paying close attention it's easy to miss something. If you're not paying close attention it's even easier.

I would guess that at least 75% of their players are scripting. If they want, they could catch every single one of them at some point. Punishing players for scripting will be the end of the game. There's simply not enough players that don't script to keep the game alive.

This is absolutely correct. Agreed.

[Taernath]

playing other games with actual engaging gameplay

This is the heart of it. We were starved for choice 30 years ago and put up with clunky typing syntax and absorption mechanics because we had to. Now other games and their gameplay have evolved exponentially while we are still expected to sit there and >ATT RAT forever. Relying on scripts is a method to alleviate some of the worst aspects of GS.