Guild Wars 2

@Torsailr cheers for the heads up regarding ANet’s past behaviour too

@Artanis Thanks for being so clear about the policy. That is exactly the sort of clarification I was after. It confirms what some others have said, or hinted at, so I know where I stand now.

I think using pedals to take movement and strafing off the mouse should make the difference for me, I’m going to give that a go. My mmo mouse has enough buttons for the keybinds, and with pedals I can press the ones I need quickly enough to get by.

To everyone who has chipped in; I genuinely appreciate it. The whole situation has been pretty **** for me frankly, and it’s great to know people are prepared to help. I’ll probably stop checking this thread soon, for now at least, but hopefully it’ll be useful for others in the same boat.

Thanks all

@Artanis Regarding the first bit, I think you’ve got your wires crossed? The ctrl + 1 to 5 bit was just an example mtpelion gave when we were discussing his set up, it isn’t what I was trying to achieve. Hope I haven’t missed something there, it’s been a long day and I’m v. tired!

The pedals thing might be good since, as you say, the dodge issue would be sorted leaving your hand more free to be doing other things.

I appreciate why they would want to disallow cycling a single key through multiple actions since, as you say, WoW did get daft in that regard. It would have helped me a lot at the moment, but if they won’t allow it then they won’t, so that’s my problem. I just wanted to figure out what the rules specifcally were so I can operate within them.

Honestly, I’m stunned by the response overall. I wasn’t sure I’d get any answers at all, so thanks everyone.

@Quarktastic Thanks, but the number of buttons is not the issue, it is my physical inability to press enough of them at once. That is why I needed to know about whether macros were allowed for very simply combinations, like dodge+left.

@Palador I was actually just wondering whether pedals for strafing or something could work, thanks for the suggestion

@Coulter I think you may be misunderstanding my intentions. The intention of the thread was to try, as far as possible, to get to the bottom of what is already known (and what is not known) about the specific fine details of the macro policy, so asking about details seems reasonable.

I’m not trying to ‘get around’ the policy, I just want to be clear what it actually is, because it effects whether I can play or not. I don’t want anyone to say “it’s okay because you’ve argued your case”. If I seem to be asking about the fine print, it’s because that’s exactly what the pupose of this thread was. If the fine print isn’t publicly available, then there’s my answer.

I’m also not being picky for fun. I already have several gaming mice – that alone is not sufficient for me to simulate having two good hands without the help of a few macros. I’m asking about the details because I literally can’t play otherwise. I wanted to find out what what is considered acceptable, and we appear to have achieved that as far as possible.

I will attempt to play without macros by being creative with a gaming mouse, and if it isn’t possible then I’ll just have to put GW2 on the pile of games I can’t play. Presumeably as someone who enjoys the game yourself you can understand my disappointment, and my wanting to see if anyone knew what the rules actually are.

Thanks for taking the time to answer.

@Infenso thanks for the suggestion

@Belzebu “make 1 keystroke perform “[enter] + /wave” for example, your macro will perform 6 commands to perform 1 action.”

Purely out of interest, could chat macros then be used to communicate quick tactics in pvp or similar, thus giving your team an advantage? (which is against their guidelines)? I know we used to have chat macros (‘inc. sawmill’ etc…) in WoW. Just curious. I’m so new to this I don’t even know if you have team chat in pvp!

“About making a macro that performs a rotation doing 1 stroke per command seem legal imo, but it is a quite elaborated macro to do correctly.”

I feel like it seems legal according to their guidelines too, but I’m getting the impression they don’t mean it to be?

@rapthorne Thank you for confirming that ANet “allow keybind altering, but not macroing”. As I initally stated, I did not intend to be pedantic at all. Since the whole point of the original post was my total confusion over Anet’s use of the term Macro when they appeared to mean Keybind, I don’t feel it was off topic to clarify what we each meant by the term. No offence was intended.

@mtpelion No argument there my friend, just checking we’re all on the same page. I still feel ANet’s macro policy would be rather clearer if it just said “you can use keybinds but not macros, unless it’s for instruments”.

Thanks again for everyone’s help

@mtpelion – I have to do something similar. Just so you know (and I’m genuinely hoping to be informative here, not pedantic ) if I’ve understood your setup correctly, technically ctrl+1 is still just a keybind. A macro is a single computer instruction that represents a sequence of instructions or keystrokes. In fact, ctrl+1 would be the opposite of a macro; you’re having to press 2 keys to simulate one press?

@coulter Yea, I’ve ordered one; it helps to some degree, and might be enough if my condition improves.

thanks again guys.

Thanks for the response.

“Officially, the use of any macro that is not a 1 to 1 keybind is a bannable offense.”

1 to 1 keybinds are literally not macros. Macros are sequences of actions. If the official position is that macros are totally banned, it would help if they’d stop calling keybinds macros!

So basically I either have to not play, or take my chances getting banned? Not exactly an inclusive policy :/

I have been searching for days and cannot find clarification to this, only people repeating the same copy paste over and over again, so please read this through before replying. Apologies for the wall of text.

I have a permanent injury in my left hand and need to use a few very basic macros to enable me to play. The official statements don’t clarify whether it’s okay or not. Here is the macro policy for reference, my questions are below it:

“Guild Wars 2 players are permitted to use macros as long as the macros are programmed with a 1 key for 1 function protocol.

- This means that if you program a macro, it must require one keystroke per action. You may not program a single key to perform multiple functions.

- For example, if you Press A and it results in the casting of a single skill, you’re ok. If you Press A and it casts multiple spells, you’re not ok."

Question 1: I have heard 2 interpretations of the policy:

a) a macro is only allowed if one key press literally simulates another key press or click – but that makes no sense since that is not a macro at all – that is a keybind. A macro is by definition something that cause multiple inputs to happen. So in this explanation the macro policy would basically be saying “you can only use macros that are not macros” which makes no sense.

b) a macro is allowed if the end result is one ‘action’, ‘function protocol’ or ‘spell’ . As an example; the macro policy says “if you Press A and it results in the casting of a single skill, you’re ok”. So according to this if ‘A’ is a macro (f1 > 1) that first swaps attunment bar (f1) then casts the spell (1) it should be okay. That is 2 button presses but it is still only doing one thing – casting one spell.

Or what about situations where you have to press 2 buttons at once to perform one action, like a dodge left? (dodge + left)?

(it doesn’t help that they don’t define what they mean by “function protocol”)

Question 2:
This also does not cover situations where a macro does one action per press, but the action changes each time e.g. first press: ‘f1’ second press: ‘2’ third press: f3. If you are unable to move your hand this is the only way you can perform a rotation of casts while moving. It doesn’t give you an advantage, it just lets you not move your hand, and would meet the “one press, one action” rule. The rules say “You may not program a single key to perform multiple functions.” but it isn’t clear if this means one after another, or at the same time.

The issue boils down to this: some people say macros are totally banned (but continue to refer to keybinds as if they were ‘allowed macros’). Other people are saying they’re fine to help you press several keys, so long as the outcome is one discrete action (but they don’t define what one action actually is.)

Even guidelines like ‘does it give you an advantage over other players?’ is unclear, since for me I’m at a massive disadvantage already, only having one good hand. In some case a macro that presses 2 keys together (to perform one action) is the only way I can do it at all.

Even if the offical answer is “we’re leaving it vague on purpose so we have wiggle room” that would be better than nothing, although risking a ban for having an injury seems a bit unfair.

This is incredibly frustrating for me. I just want to be able to play with my friends without getting banned, so if anyone could clarify the official position for people in my situation I would be extremely grateful.