MacroQuest64

So...

a) Should I update the /macros directory to have useful macros contributed by our macro depot friends...
b) Do you want another readme that gives a sample perl macro...
c) The manual is meant to be a reference, not a step-through guide... Do we need one (and who is volunteering to write it?)

Im dead serious about this.. please post legit non-funny comments and suggestions please.

Rizwank
_________________
#macroquest op
Macroquest Official Documentarion
Macroquest Board Moderator

I think that MQ as it is now is already quite simple to use. Doing minimal amounts of research it is possible to learn how to use it. Should it be made easier? Hell no. More features? Definately.

Happy with it as it is. As soon as i have more time, i can learn the perl stuff necessary from the existing .pl's and references on the 'net.

I just want more features. Debug features to be specific.

-Phantal

I tend to like the readme and the example is good I would love to see the ones inside the macro folder documented a bit more. The pizza one is good but there is so much more to learn than what is shown. Also peal examples would rock.




Madman

I voted for more help type stuff. If nothing else flamers will at least be justified in saying read the FAQ and readme. The readme is good as a command reference in its current form. i think the pizza macro is rather complex for somebody to understand if they have never coded before so a simpler macro would probably make a better example. Maybe Fishing or Foraging.

I think an FAQ would be a good idea it it was linked from the main or forums page. filling the FAQ should be easy from posts on the forums. Maybe a topic on what should be included in the FAQ should be started and then sombody could pick it up and compile it when its got enough info to be worthwhile.

I did once post the start of a more newbie friendly readme put I dont remember which thread it was in. I will try and locate it and add to it.

Fippy

requesting an add in for the readme file.

can you change the explination of

/charinfo
Displays loc of bind, and original bind point (place of birth)

so that it lets people know that it will update the itemdb.txt file It took me a couple of days to figure it out having much more fun with /item now that I am aware of it.

not sure if this belonged in a post or pm to you ?

Madman

I'd like to see perl sytax or sample macros to use as reference... perhaps an old style macro compared to one in perl format.
The macros that came with MQ and the stuff in the depot helped me enormously when I started. Hopefully the more info provided, the less likely people are to ask really dumb things.

Perl Perl Perl

I don't have a problem with it being easier to use personally. Although certain people with more crybaby-elitist additudes despise anyone but them being able to use MQ.....losers

this is also true tux... thats why im trying to balance the two..

K i found the howto i started. I will add some more to it then send it to somebody when I am done, prolly be a few days though.

Riz PM or mail me with an address to mail it to.

Sample perl would go down a treat m8 - the rest is fine.

thx
GT

I'd like to see the readme be a reference file for the commands in MQ script and Perl.

A Howto guide would be helpful.

I don't think you need to include the sample macros in the distribution. Some macros have to be rewritten when a code change occurs. Just update the howto guide with one well document macro to reflect the changes.

I'm fluent in various other languages, I just need the reference guide to relate my previous knowledge to the MQ commands.

Slice

MQ is pretty simpe to use as an EQ extended command language. It is significantly more difficult to use as a macro environment.

If you want to make it easier for newbies and programmers then I think a few smaller macro examples (instead of pizza) in the readme would suffice. For example, explaining some of the macros that are in the macro directory would be sufficient.

Suggested examples that should be explained instead of pizza
------------------------------------------------------------------------
tradeskill: A generic tradeskill macro
hunter: a simple target from alert, goto, kill, loot, repeat
medup: med to full mana and quit

(maybe hunter is not in the macro dir yet)

The rest of the macros can be extracted from the depot and/or written by a user.

Though a brain damaged chimp can use this program there is a certain level of sophistication required to program it. Most seasoned programmers require a reference guide and a few simple examples to understand it. This we already have with the boards and the existing readme. I personally dont use MQ for tradeskills so I didnt find pizza that useful and therefore I am a little biased, but I believe newbie examples should all fit on a single page.

WRT perl, I am learning perl at the moment and all I would need is a few simple examples and a command summary. It is going to be difficult to maintain two language sets but I believe you should have seperate readme files.


--EqAddict

I'm a n00b. Not so bad as some, but definately much worse than others.

It took me about....mebbe.....30 minutes to get it up and running the first time, but that's because the IRC release is a little hidden, and if you're *brand* new you don't know where to look for offsets.

Since then...I've spent lots of time taking apart macros and giving them autopsies. That's mostly just fun.

Until I get the skill to make a macro to allow my dr00d to desecrate rathe for PP, I really can't think of any more macro's...to be honest, I really don't like the auto-buy/sell ones for tradeskills. I'm all for macroing tradeskills, but....I mean...

The argument with making it easier is that it'll get used more, and will thus attract more attention, and thus will make Verant get more pissy about it and finally getting around to changing the stuff that makes it possible. For example, they don't have to recreate the game to change the packet encoding...it'd be easy enuf to re-decode, but the core would have to be rewritten. They could easily implement a client side algorithm to hide info about spawns, pc's, etc, that would effectively make MQ useless. It'd degrade performance, but they'd probably favor that over people leeching plat and abilities. They're not gonna monitor keystrokes or background programs, cuz in the US that's sueable/prosecutable.

The moral of the story, is that I think it's really pretty good where it is. The sheer "code" behind the macros is enough to throw off the people who would really ruin things, and those people who will glean the most use from the program catch on pretty quickly and the boards help a lot. The n00b flames do get a little old, seems like if you can't talk nice don't troll the boards...

A slightly cleaned up manual might be nice, I'd be willing to help out some once finals are over. What's there is nice, but not so great for the uninitiated. :)

That's just my 2cp, I'ma cast AoE fireresist now, so all gather around.

~Malachi

PS-it's your program, you're the brains behind it. What was YOUR goal for it/how close are you to that goal now?