nzer

No

I'm skeptical that this is the case, given the frequency at which non-IOs need to be replaced.

If the intent is that players will need to do research and engage with the AH just to keep their slots filled, then I think that intention is unreasonable. A player should be able to keep their slots filled playing blind, even if their enhancements are of lesser quality.

No, money making ability is dependent on knowledge.

Of course you should be able to get enough inf just from leveling to keep yourself fully slotted. The game gives you the slots, you should be able to use them without having to google around for money making guides or mooching off randos in atlas. If the goal is to create a sliding scale of effectiveness based on money-making ability, the way to do that is to have different tiers of enhancements in which cost is proportional to effectiveness, not to deny players the ability to use the slots they have. This is something that already exists, and it's a problem that even the lowest tiers are still prohibitively expensive for a new player who's experiencing the game blind given they have to be replaced every six levels. I can't think of a reason why this should be the case.

I don't see how. I gave you very specific arguments which you are actively choosing not to respond to. The workaround isn't "completely effective." I've already explained why, and instead of responding you decided to act like I'm not making any sense. If you need me to explain something more clearly I'm happy to do so, but you need to tell me what it is you're not understanding first. I don't expect you will though, you seem much more interested in insulting and dismissing people than in having actual discussion. And I don't care whether multiple autocast is implemented, for what it's worth. Most of my characters wouldn't even need it. My problem is people shooting down perfectly reasonable suggestions for silly reasons that don't stand up to even the smallest amount of scrutiny. This is so rich coming from someone who literally wrote a guide explaining how to mimic multiple autocasts with binds. By all means, explain how one changes fundamental aspects of the game while the other doesn't. I don't think nature-of-game reasons stand up to scrutiny, because the game already gives players tools to significantly automate gameplay. You can, for example, use binds and macros to create a system where by spamming a single key you automatically target enemies, move to them, and cast all your abilities. You can literally create a system in which all you have to do is press F over and over, and the game will mostly play itself. If multiple autocasts aren't allowed because they change the nature of the game, everything that allows for that scenario needs to be removed from the game, but I don't see anyone arguing that, and in fact your own guides explain how to do all of those things. So if it's not a nature-of-game concern, it instead becomes a question of the practical value of restricting the player to a single autocast. And that's something I don't think anyone in this discussion has fielded a compelling argument for.

Are you going to make some kind of argument, or am I supposed to read your mind? I'm aware of that, but I don't see how it's relevant. You aren't queuing abilities literally 100% of the time, so there will be moments where something gets delayed because an autocast fired. In fact, this also means your autocasts may not fire right away because you're inadvertently preventing them from firing by queuing abilities, which is yet another way autocast is less optimal than manual activation.

I can't find a single thing in this comment that is a response to something I'm arguing. How does anything I'm saying only apply to endgame, slotted-to-the-gills players, and how is asking for two or three autocasts instead of one the same as wanting "unlimited power"? I provided very specific criticisms of the way this is currently accomplished. Do you want to attempt to respond to them at all? Autocast has absolutely nothing to with any of this. If you have enough recharge to make the buff perma, it will be perma whether you're autocasting it or not. If not, it will not be perma whether you're autocasting it or not. The balancing of these powers has nothing to do with whether they can be autocasted, full stop. They're stronger than toggles because you have to invest into them to get more uptime, often to a staggering degree. Toggles, by definition, don't need recharge slotting plus five LotGs plus hasten plus set bonuses to be perma. Your conclusion here is so completely backwards. Autocasts remove your ability to decide when to recast a buff, interrupting your attack chain unexpectedly, and you think that makes the player more effective? It doesn't. In fact it is strictly unoptimal, and is purely a convenience. The only way autocasts could possibly shift the balance of the game in the player's favor is if players are consistently unable to reactivate their click buffs in time without it. Do you think that happens? How far off would you guess the typical player is, on average? Keeping in mind that most builds only have one or two click buffs and that there may be twenty seconds or more between when the ability recharges and when the buff falls off.

Again, I don't see what's bizarre about that. Arguing that the "auto-ness" of the game is already a matter of degree seems completely reasonable to me. If colorful examples are all it takes to scare you away from an argument, I guess I may end up using more of them.

I don't know what was bizarre about what I said, and I'm pretty sure this is just an excuse to avoid having to substantiate your arguments. But sure, more power to you. Shield defense as well. I'm sure there are more, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is when someone draws the line at a different spot in the sand and can't or won't attempt to articulate why they've drawn it there beyond "more auto == bad," which is relevant because if it was clear why they've drawn the line where they have it might be possible to find a different solution that both sides are okay with.

I don't have any idea what this is supposed to mean. If something is trivially easy, how can it possibly be a balance consideration? You're welcome to substantiate this point by explaining how the game is balanced around players only having one autocast, if you can. Then I suppose we should remove attacks automatically targeting if a target isn't selected, the follow command, the entire macro system, the ability to load bind files in other bind files, etc., because those are all things that make the game more "auto." Might as well remove targeting altogether and make players aim their abilities, right? Why have health bars? Just physically simulate each character, right? Except none of those things are going to happen, because whether something is considered "too idle" is a matter of degree, not black and white, and allowing multiple autocast for self-buffs does not move that needle even a little bit. Correct, the game itself is gated because players must come to this site to install it, which is why the installer is linked very prominently right on the homepage. And do you genuinely think every player who comes to this site for the installer goes on to read the forum? Because they don't. I'd be surprised if even 10% did, frankly. You'd have the same problem no matter what you bound them to, and the only reason I mentioned movement keys is because that's the most commonly suggested method.

And the purpose of countering that argument is to argue against the implementation of this suggestion, so yes, you are absolutely using it as such. You are saying there's no reason to implement this suggestion because a proper implementation will be just as janky and unpredictable as the hacky way players currently replicate this functionality. This is a patently bad faith argument in the first place, because it assumes the devs are too incompetent to implement the feature without bugs, or to fix any bugs that emerge. Then you should have no problem with multiple autocasts so long as they're restricted from being used on powers that affect enemies, as has already been suggested. Except it's not on you, because the game could provide this behavior as a first class feature. Having to discover and read a guide on a forum somewhere to be able to take advantage of this feature is a gate, whether you want to admit it or not. That's not what I mean. If you have autocast cycling set up on a set of keys, you have to hit all of those keys at regular intervals to ensure reliable activation of the abilities. If they're on your movement keys, for example, what happens if you just don't move backward very often? What happens if you happen to not strafe left for several minutes? Etc. The solution to this is to absentmindedly spam the keys constantly, which is a degenerate play pattern that shouldn't be encouraged.

"We can't implement this because the implementation might not work" isn't a compelling argument for reasons that should be obvious, but we're also talking about very different degrees of janky and unpredictable here.

There are two reasons: Requiring it to be done with binds gates the feature to only players who have an advanced understanding of the game's commands, or who happen to read about it on a forum, while actively implying to all other players that multiple autocasting is intentionally impossible It is janky and unpredictable if you don't spam your keys to ensure cycling, which can aggravate or even induce repetitive strain injuries Whether these things are an acceptable cost for avoiding having to spend dev time on a proper implementation is up to the devs, not us, and that is therefore not a good reason to shoot down a suggestion. And I really can't take the argument that this would constitute the game "playing itself" seriously. We're talking about autocasting several minute long self-buffs here, not automating an attack chain. If you think having to recast Practiced Brawler or Kuji-In Rin every two minutes is a critical, inviolable element of the game's play experience, I have to wonder whether we're even talking about the same game.

There's no earthly way having to click one or two buttons every several minutes can be considered an element of difficulty. You're going to have to make some kind of substantive argument to support that claim, because it's ridiculous. Never mind that autocasting that many powers can already be done by cycling the autocast with binds, so the game had better be designed around it.

You know what, that's on me for not thinking to check whether there was a command. That does make things easier.

I would extend this to minimal FX options for all stealth powers. I can't tell you how many times I've thought about making an Energy Aura character, then abandoned the idea when I remembered Energy Cloak exists.

I'm not asserting or even implying either of those things. If Hasten is too distracting, think instead about a */SR/Energy scrapper with enough recharge to make Conserve Power perma who wants to be able to autocast Conserve Power and Practiced Brawler. Or any other scrapper/tanker/brute/stalker who wants to do the same thing, since many armor powersets have clicky mez protection. Or a Time/ defender who has Farsight and Chrono Shift perma and wants to autocast them. Or whatever other example you want, there are many. This is not an argument for why there should only be one autocast. It is a cop-out to avoid having to make a real argument. Why is only allowing one autocast good for the game? The game's power design, both in powersets and in power pools, creates a reasonable use case for multiple autocasts on clicky self-buffs, and this restriction precludes that use case. So what problem is it solving, is it the only solution to that problem, and is solving that problem worth sacrificing quality of life? As far as I can tell, all the problems it could be attempting to solve could also be solved by restricting autocast from being used on any ability that can affect enemies. And that solution wouldn't hurt quality of life.

This is the solution to everything that's been mentioned so far, in my opinion. If there was a way to put the tray number at the end of the 3x4 layout instead of the front the naga tray could quite literally be removed from the game altogether.

If you think two or three autocasts instead of one with additional restrictions to prevent abuse constitutes the game becoming an idle game, then yes, it is absolutely you policing how other people play for no reason. That's a patently ridiculous stance any way you slice it.

Again, this does not have anything to do with what I said or what I responded to. I didn't say hasten has to be taken on all builds and has to always be autocast. I'm saying that if you're going to argue wanting more than one autocast represents a failure in the design of your powersets, that argument has to be squared with abilities outside the powersets that lend themselves to autocast. In an effort to not derail the thread, I'm not going to explain this again. So you are trying to police how other people play even though it does not affect you at all? Cool, well I disagree with that, and frankly this is a blatant slippery slope fallacy.

That doesn't have anything to do with what I said or what I was responding to. If you're going to argue that wanting more than one autocast means your powersets or AT need to be reworked, that argument has to somehow square itself with the fact that there are pool powers you might realistically want to have on autocast. Like hasten. You don't even have to go that far, frankly. What if your primary and secondary powerset both have an ability that lends itself to autocast? Is that not allowed from a design perspective?

Actually, it looks like it can't be forced below 50% anymore? I know I had it set below 50%, but since the patch it doesn't seem to be working. Edit: It does work, it's just finicky and sometimes requires a logout to take. Maybe it has to do with the new close button clamping the value, not sure.

Not at all costs, surely. That would mean we have to not just remove autocasting, but also all abilities that are able to deal damage without constant player input. Again, I don't really understand why people care whether it's possible to AFK farm or not. Very few people are going to create a character just to AFK farm, those that want to already can and can even fully automate the character with external macros, and as far as I can tell AFK farming and even farming in general has done basically nothing to shift market prices over the past four years. So why exactly are we interested in sacrificing quality of life in the rest of the game to curtail farming? It seems like little more than an attempt to police how other people want to enjoy the game, which I'm not super cool with. Hasten is a thing, so this would mean no powerset could ever have an ability you want to autocast. Or that hasten would need to be reworked, which I don't think there's much appetite for.

I don't know if this is just me, but 50% is still extremely sensitive. The value can be forced to go below 50% by editing the config file, so it seems like the slider should be able to go all the way down to zero.