Eve Online Macro’s

EvE Mag recently published an “anonymous” letter from an alleged eve player who has developed and uses a Macro to mine.

As all good eve players know, this is against the EULA and will get you banned. RPGN.net do NOT condone this activity, but it’s an interesting article and I’m going to re-post it here.

You can also read the original at EvE Mag here.

(mac – ro).Computer Science. An instruction that represents a sequence of instructions in abbreviated form.

Not only am I LIKE the Cheshire cat, I’m also just like you! ~The Evil Macro’er

Please let me introduce myself. I am an American, in my early thirties and I have two kids, two cats, and a neurotic dog with a Quaker Parrot buddy. I’ve played some MMOs for 4 years at a time. I like Front Lines: Fuel of War and ketchup goes on just about everything but a good steak. I am a degreed professional but not a programmer, I served in the military and I knew Obama would be the winner. I am also an amateur macro’er. Yes, I have macro’ed the holy crap out of certain video games. I’ve been doing it for more than 8 years now so tell me; at what point did you notice your Eve gaming experience going down the tubes because of me? I’ll bet your downward spiral really has nothing to do with me macro’ing, now does it?

In the Beginning

I think I started macro’ing during my Ultima Online days. I remember trying out the UO Extreme program and being floored with what others in the game had been using for a very long time. It was at that point, in seeing the advantage gained, that my “follow the rules” style of playing video games began to melt. For weeks I researched the who, the what and the how. It was all very above my head. The final straw was when I became aware that a particular guild was made up of nothing but people who hacked, and hacked quite well. At that point, I knew I was out-gunned.

So, now that you think you know what this will be about, let me tell you what this article is not going to be about. It’s not going to tell you how to macro, nor is it going to justify doing so. It will simply tell you what some developers think about it, how I came about doing it, what is involved and to what extent it actually affects the game from a veteran’s point of view.

What THEY think

You would be surprised about the attitude MMO game developers take when it comes to people figuring out how to macro their game. With some MMOs sucking up tens of millions of dollars in development and taking 5 years to get to the point where they can even think about launching you’d think that they were all gung-ho about squashing “dem ‘lil macroing varmints”. While I cannot speak for all of them, nor have I developed one myself and can say that I have had very long discussions with four game developers. Three of them were game masters in game (as well as programmers of the game) and the last one was the CEO of an MMO. Believe me, you know this CEO guy and have most likely played at least one of his video games in your lifetime. Since I do not have his permission, I’ll call him Mr. D.

Mr. D and I met because of my wife’s (who is just as avid about playing MMOs as I am) great skill in networking. She’s a chick playing an MMO, so the advantage is hers from the get-go, right? Well, she played a particular MMO for a few years, one that was small and not well known and eventually she started talking to the guy that happened to run the MMO. A few months later and Mr. D is over at our house spending the weekend just to hang out. It was a pleasure for me to show him the macro I had written over a nine month long period to specifically logic out all combat while I was asleep. He thought it was good, but otherwise did not care at all. I was puzzled to say the least. Mr. D’s attitude on it was something two fold. His first response was, “Why do you even want to play the game like that?”. The second point was, as long as you are not interfering with other players, “I don’t care.”.

To the first point, I play the game using macros because it is a fantastic challenge. I hit a Zen like state when I program them. There is a positive and tangible reward for doing it as well. My response to the second point is the real heart of the matter. I like to think of it as “flying under the radar”. If I can do it and not hurt anyone then it is game on for macro’ing! And yes, I realize I am increasing my signature radius by posting this article.

So, if a guy that earns his sizable paycheck does not care that I macro his livelihood to death while his End User License Agreement clearly states that macro’ing will get you banned, then why should I care, too? The truth of the matter is that macro’ing is a game style. If you are having trouble understanding that, think of low-sec pirates in Eve. They kill for little to no reason and sometimes only for your grief mail. It’s just a game style to them and they have all kinds of justifications for doing so. Now, they don’t get banned sure, but you have to admit, it is simply an attitude they carry forth into the game. I am no different in how I design the macro and implement it into the game. In all likelihood I’m probably macro’ing right now!

What THEY say

So, you are thinking by now, “Pirates don’t mess up my game!”. They are not breaking the EULA either! While the first point is somewhat arguable (another article in and of itself) the second is not. They certainly are not breaking the EULA. I’m such a rebel. For the last few months or so I have been cautiously inquiring to others about why they are so zealous about ganking those they perceive as being macro’ers. I have yet to get a thoughtful and even agreeable answer, let alone an analysis on the impact of macro’ers, specifically macro miners in the game of Eve Online. Most that post about macro miners on Eve-Online are simply upset and wish to vent. Some want a reason to play the righteous EULA avenger. Still, others just want to eat your lunch and leave you a processed lunch sample for your trouble. So, from their perspective I will list some points that I commonly read about on the Eve-Online forums. I’ll try to be thorough and forgive me if I miss some points as this is not easy:

1. Macro’ing is against the EULA! - I don’t care. I don’t care in the way that you don’t care that you have not started a fair fight in Eve in a very long time.
2. You sell your ISK for real life money, not fair! - No, I certainly do not. I spent a long time making and learning how to make this macro and I am going to use the proceeds to enjoy the game. True, some could do this, but I do not. It also benefits me to not get caught by selling ISK.
3. You are ruining my game, stop it! - If I don’t sell the ISK I make but instead use it to purchase items, buy skill books or produce them then I’m helping the economy, not hurting./li>
4. It’s just not fair! - No one is stopping you from taking the path that I did. I’ve never taken a programming course, no one taught me any of this and the macro’ing “playing field” is an even one.
5. You can mine all day, I can’t, no fair! - I love this one. The amount of time any given player can put into playing Eve has never (NEVER) been fair. It is a fact that some people fall asleep playing Eve, drool on keyboard and everything. Did you ever truly believe that all players are equal in the amount of time they have, what about skill? Do you really think you could ever compete with that proverbial fearless 12 year old that never has homework?? If I can mine 23/7 that is only because everyone else has the same amount of time per day to play.
6. You hurt the in game economy! - Are you kidding me? Logic this one out a little. Ever wonder why mineral prices shoot up after an expansion? Some of that upswing is because it takes awhile for the macro miners to adjust their code! We defiantly have an effect on the price you pay for minerals and that is, we keep it down. More plainly put: The less minerals on the market, the more you pay.

In Defense of CCP

In all fairness perhaps we don’t really have an impact on the game at all, without access to the data mining capabilities that all MMOs have I could never know for sure. But I bet I know someone that does know for sure and that is CCP. They have almost 400 employees. These guys/gals can write custom code like StacklessIO and have people so dedicated to game mechanics that at least one of them was hospitalized after role playing an RPG for 48 hours straight. So you know they know what they are doing. I’d bet my last donut that they have analyzed it up and down and few times sideways to boot. It is a common consensus that petitions in game about players that are “obviously” macro’ing never receive a reply. In defense of CCP I would like to use the list form to cover the points, so bear with me again:

1. There are 240,000+ players on a single “shard” and only what, a dozen game masters? I don’t know the real number of game masters, but it could not possibly be enough to cover all bases.
2. The actual number of people engaging in macro mining is simply not large enough, or the impact is not large enough for CCP to continuously ferret them out.
3. A good macro is very hard to spot, like the Cheshire cat in Alice and Wonderland it is there, but you can only see it if you want to.
4. There is nothing a macro does that a human at the controls could not do, except for maybe the drooling on the keyboard mentioned earlier.
5. To ensure that there are no macro miners in the game would require massive amounts of time and energy, so much so that it would likely bankrupt the company if they tried to hire people to specifically hunt them. It’s an enormous task.

Does CCP hate macro miners? Probably not, these people understand games and have an understanding that you cannot stop people from macro’ing. There is a lot of programming talent out there and as long as I am not hurting you, then really, why should they care? Do they love us? You know, Eve has a very funny standpoint towards the things that make Eve so “compelling” and “dangerous” (take corp theft for example) that I’d say outlawing macro’ing but turning a blind eye to it is just another way to draw in players to them. On the other hand, perhaps it is not a blind eye, but more like an arms race.

The Arms Race

Some players contend that CCP could do something about these macros be it a small code change, some sort of game mechanic or even a “rat on your buddy” type of program. They certainly could change the code, even do what UO did and secretly put in “anti-macro’ing” code. It is a waste of time and resources though. You see, if they build a better mouse trap, I am going to build a better mouse. I’m one guy with some time on his hands and nothing to lose but my account, who do you think will adapt first? And for those that want an in game system for reporting suspected macro’ers, what stops someone from writing a macro that will make multiple false suspected macro’er reports all night long? Trust me, we could go round and round with this. My point is that as soon as they adapt, macro writers adapt.

Coming from the fingertips of a macro’er, I would say for sure that they do need to keep it in check. Macros can be abused when you have in game items being exchanged for real life money. You really are hurting the company in some way when you do that. That said, I have never done such a thing nor do I plan to. So now you know how I came to macro’ing and know a little bit on how I feel about it. Now let us get to the meat. How did you do it?

Putting Some Meat on Them Bones

Writing a macro to run any video game first requires that you have a very good understanding of that video game. The next thing one requires is a good understanding of the programming language you will be using. Some macros are a custom language and have no use outside of the specific environment they are created with; it is basically a program you can write within another program.

Other macros are the kind that takes a college degree in order to write. Those are the best ones and far out of my reach. Macros of that caliber are the kind that wraps itself around the executable program and puts out feelers for information that a macro which only takes over your keyboard and mouse can dream of. In the interest of flying under the radar I’m not going to name programs but…cough cough… Glider for WoW…cough cough…might slip past my lips as an example.

So if you have the video game mechanics down, and you are not daunted about learning a new language then the last thing you need is a “dedicated” computer or two or three or 36. For the level of sophistication that I can do my macro takes over the computer 100%. I have to have a specific bit setting, resolution and a plethora of in game settings JUST RIGHT in order for the macro to work. If it is off, it breaks, when it is on, I am off. I can Pause it (sometimes) to check email, watch South Park or perhaps some late night movie watching but that’s it.

From here on out, when I say macro I will be referring to the one I have written.

Keep in mind that macros are not magical. My macro cannot read words on a screen. My macro cannot intercept, decode, decipher nor even invite to tea the packets that are sent out and received by the Eve servers. That’s the secret though. That is flying under the radar. I’m not hacking anything. My macro can only do what my eyes and my hands can do. Its brain is only as good as the cross between my programming skills, understanding of the game and the amount of garbage I can put into it.

It may not be able to read, but it sure can see color. In fact, it can differentiate more than a million different shades and I can be very, very specific about the shade I am looking for. For instance, you gankers out there will love this one; I can program my macro to check my shield level every .83 seconds. If it is white then do nothing, but should my macro see red instead, then execute a specific procedure to dock me at the station! That would take about 400 lines of code to do properly. I put that one in 4 months ago. It gets better. Say that I know that Goonswarm is ganking high-sec miners, all I do is set them to -10 standing and the Eve game puts a red box by their character. Now, as long as I can make that red box for any given character show up in local and I know where to look for it all I need to know then is the exact shade of color to scan for. An asshat enters the system with a red box and BAAAM my macro warps me to the station and stays until the hostile is gone. Other things that macros can do:

1. Automatically re-log you if you lose connection. Again, color detection in the right places is the key.
2. Know when to target another asteroid.
3. Vary mining patterns to look like a bored player looking for new scenery.
4. Vary asteroid selection and even imperfectly mine to fool others.
5. Say HOWDY PARTNER YEEEE HAWWW! in Local when someone enters or chats in local

In short, a well written macro can go quite far in terms of stealthing itself. It is very difficult to know for sure that the person in your system is a macro miner or not. I am defiantly not using the most sophisticated programming techniques out there and I can fool most people. You can even say that this contributes to CCP’s attitude on macro miners as its just plain hard to tell some macros apart from some players.

Here is a more complete list of what mine can do (again, not the best out there):

1. Mines 23/7
2. Auto logs for you, chooses a character and starts mining.
3. EDITED OUT
4. Determines where you are within a system and returns you to a starting point (handy for loss of connection)
5. Can be used out of a regular Starbase or a POS
6. Stacks your ore after dumping it
7. Dynamic warp detection (will work on any ship with no adjustment to code)
8. Runs in 1024×768 mode, 16 bit only
9. Gives you a choice of specific ore types to mine and will ignore all others
10. Mines 3 asteroids at a time
11. Detects the amount of active lasers you have, how many asteroids you have locked and retargets and fires lasers as needed
12. Detects your ship’s health and warps you to the station in the event of you going below a specified shield level
13. Detects known tagged hostiles as they enter the system and immediately returns you to a safe spot and indefinitely waits until all hostiles have left the system
14. EDITED OUT
15. Aggressive mining logic, very efficient.
16. Can handle drones (took out but still have code due to rats consistently destroying them)
17. Can set where in a corporate hanger to put the mined ore
18. EDITED OUT
19. Uses a lot of default settings in Eve for better reliability
20. Can be modified to do jet-can mining (no hauler code though)
21. Keeps track of loading times, station exit times and warping times (aids in debugging)
22. Large amount of timestamps for aggressive debugging as well as limited self correcting code
23. Configurable to any ship
24. EDITED OUT
25. Automatically pauses when Eve is not the main window, upon Resume it brings Eve back up and continues as if nothing happened (very very useful tool)
26. Can handle 3 systems with 18 bookmarks/system (total of 54 bookmarks)
27. EDITED OUT
28. Can detect an empty field and remove the bookmark for a more aggressive mining capability
29. Works in any system despite background color
30. Now with limited skill changing ability!
31. feeling quite naked now so I will wrap this up.

Summary

I can honestly say that I would not play Eve should the macro’ing be shut down as I simply do not have the time to earn the ISK to do the things I want to do in Eve. I have always been of the opinion that if a game has macro’ers in it, then there is a game mechanic that needs to be improved. I played WoW for over a year and never even thought about macro’ing because it was a blast to be at the controls all the time.

I do try my best to not piss off others and fly under the radar with this macro. I don’t sell anything for real life money and I certainly don’t make the kind of ISK that others not “in the know” say macro’ers do. I’d just prefer to play the game like this because I not only like the challenge of playing Eve itself but I also enjoy the challenge of building a program to macro it. And should you have a hankering to try it out, keep in mind that it took me two months to get a basic macro working and the next 10+ months of tweaking and updating to get all the bells and whistles it has now. It is very custom, computer specific and not a “plug and play” type of thing.

One last thing, since I took the time to educate you, in exchange, I’d like to be left the hell alone, Eve is my therapy and unlike my last therapist, Eve did not take away all of my superpowers. So life would suck without it. I play my way, you play yours.

PS: I welcome only intelligent and non flaming replies, should you post otherwise you can bet I will ignore it completely and your point will be lost on me. Please put some time and logic into your responses, thanks!