Resource sampling macro

[Tech Twin]

The macro can still be used with mining droids. But since the buff is triggered automatically you can remove the /ui action pettoolbarSlot3 line since it doesn't do anything. However, if you use a lvl 90 pet to help protect you while sampling in nasty areas you can keep the macro as is and use it for both droids (in safer areas) and pets (in nasty areas). The line wont trigger an action if a pet isn't called and therefor has no negative effects when a droid is being used.

The follow function is to prevent you from moving across the terrain and off the hot spot you are sampling and is completely independent of droid vs pet use.

I'm eager to test out those droids myself... just don't have any damn resoruces

Good Luck.

[passionfly1]

could you tell me if the OP's macro would apply to the new mining droids?

I just made my first droid since update 12 and its a mining droid to help me hand sample musty stuff but it only came out 53 hand sample power since the musty copper is so horrendous on Flurry atm. All 6 of my hand sample modules for this droid came out 8's at 87% =(

I don't think when you sample with mining droids you need to follow them since they just give u bonus to your sampling buff so I'm not sure how that goes. Do you need to follow mining droids? I'm not sure.

Anywho, once the servers are up I'm gonna try this sampling macro as I was dying to find one on the SOE forums and couldn't but my fav swgcraft forums never fail me! *hug*

I haven't used a droid yet, but if it's as you suggest and the ability is triggered just by being out then you wouldn't need to follow him. the follow feature is meant only to keep your trader from drifting. So, if I'm reading you right, there are two separate things going on and they are independant of each other.

Ya, when I have my droid out on Musty I just have to have him grouped with me and I get the "Hand Sample" buff. That's how it seems to work anyway.

[Dea]

This is just too cool. You guys are always so up to date! I was looking for hand sampling macro's since I haven't done it after leveling up my trader, but wanted to start on Mustafar now. And with the new droid having a hand sample buff, it all just works out. LOL Thanks for posting all this info. I can't wait to get home and try it out.

[Balinor]

I have come back to SWG after a couple of years and rolled a trader. I found this site and this thread for the macro, I don't have a pet/droid, so I am using the macro without that part of it.

My problem is that once I initiate tha macro, I cannot get it to stop, LOL I even tried logging out. I thought well maybe /macro stop wouel work, I get a message "Unable to execute macro stop" so how do I stop this insane macro, LOL.

Also I read something about the spam "You are already sampling" but didn't really see a fix for that either, it may be there , I rushed through the thread cause I am in a time crunch right now....

Any help would be greatly appreciated....

[Dea]

I always use /dump to stop a macro. That should work fine for you. And welcome!


Edit: Oh, and I get the "you are already sampling" sometimes too, but it still keeps on working, so I don't pay attention to that message.

[Tech Twin]

yes, /dump is what you want. If you use a lot of looping macros with complicated (or a lot of) timed actions it you might find it easier to make it a macro and then assign the macro a key or place it on your action bar.

Of course, if all your macros allow you the time to type /dump without closing the command line there is no need. (unless you're a lazy macro whore like I am, lol.)

[Sarafina]

I use two macros for hand sampling. I don't like the /ui action defaultButton method, as it can get bugged, and it can also be used by people to grief you. (They can send you various pop-ups, including marriage proposals, and you will automatically accept it if you use /ui action defaultButton.) So I use the old /stand/sample/sit routine from days gone by where sitting actually made you recover your action faster.

I also do not try to activate the pet resource scavenger buff from my main sampling macro, as I have found that to be very unreliable. The buff will fail to apply if you are not standing (gives a system message about "cannot blah blah while sitting/sampling/etc"). And even if the buff fails to apply, it will trigger the cooldown on the buff ability. What's worse, when I was first testing out macros to keep the pet buff applied when it was first introduced (I have the two hand-sampling collection server firsts on Eclipse...), using /ui action petToolbarSlotX was so bugged that if you activated it while the command was still on cooldown, it would of course fail, but it would also reset the cooldown. Thus, firing it faster than the cooldown resulted in it never firing again! (This may have been fixed now.) So for toons using a pet (as opposed to the new hand-sampling droids), I use a separate macro to keep the pet buff active.

For the actual sampling macro, I use:

Code: Select all

/stand;
/follow Petname;
/pause 2;
/stopfollow;
/sample;
/pause 5;
/sit;
/pause 10;
/macro SampleMacroLooping;

On a trader with full sampling expertise (Extraction Efficiency 4/4 and Extraction Techniques 3/3), your base sampling time is 15 seconds a round. However, it currently takes 17 seconds to fully regenerate your action. So the extra 2 seconds in the macro for the follow->stopfollow to keep you near the pet works out perfectly for continuous sampling without ever missing a round. And it doesn't get bugged like /ui action defaultButton does where you simply stop sampling.

If you are using a droid for your hand-sampling buff, then the above is all you need. Just make sure you put the pet's name in parenthesis. E.g., "/follow (Droidname);". You could make a separate macro to periodically fire off a droid battery. But since droid batteries seem to last 8-10 hours now in a hand-sampling droid, I don't bother.

If you are using a pet for the Resource Scavenger buff, then you want this second macro as well:

Code: Select all

/ui action petToolbarSlot2;
/stand;
/pause 2;
/ui action petToolbarSlot3;
/pause 125;
/macro PetResourceBuffLooping;

As explained, this macro includes a /stand to ensure the buff doesn't fail with the 'cannot blah while sitting/sampling/etc' error. It also makes sure your pet is always set to 'stay' (they can move if attacked, albeit this should be rare while you are hand-sampling.) And it's on a two minute cycle (the cooldown of the buff application plus a couple seconds just to ensure the lag monster doesn't attack you). So every time the buff application comes off cooldown, it attempts to reapply it. If you already have the buff, nothing happens (except the cooldown gets triggered again). If you don't have the buff, now you do. And if it hiccups for whatever reason (since firing pet specials from /ui action petToolbarSlotX seems slightly buggy in general), you only have to wait for the cooldown period, as opposed to a macro that tries to re-apply once every 15 minutes. So your window of 'no buff active' is greatly minimized.

[Dea]

I may try your macros tonight. So far, so good on the one I've been using. But I would like to perfect it. I use one of the new droids now with the hand sampling buff.

[Garralt]

I'm having a problem and I don't know if it's with this macro or my swg client..

I run the sampling macro with my droid for the buff. I've targeted the droid and the follow command only works while the cursor is on the droid. If I go afk, I move past the droid and drift 25+ meters from the droid.. Only while I have the cursor on the droid does the follow command work.. Yes, I have the macro set with my droids name.

Any thoughts?

Garralt on Starsider.
Back after a 4 year break..

[Tech Twin]

If you post the macro you're using we can help you better. There should be no need to target the droid or pet if you're using the /follow pet or /follow (droid) syntax.

[Garralt]

I found the problem last night.. I didn't have the () brackets on my pet name. I put those in an now it's working like a charm..

So, I'm sampling on musty and I now have a crowd gathered.. I noticed one of the other people on the side of the hill with me constantly spinning.. No droid for an anchor, but constantly spinning, not moving while sampling. I assume that that's an external macro at work, correct?

[Dea]

That's too funny. I was sampling in a crowd myself the other night. Usually I never see anyone. I'm making a point to sample every night. I only woke up in the cloning station once, and I think I forgot to follow my droid that time. Just by adding that follow command at first, it must be what's keeping me in game. I'm not sure. But I sampled for 18 hours straight the other day. And that's the only thing I'm doing different.

[Tungsten]

I have been experimenting with sampling macros for a while, here is what I use right now:

Code: Select all

/sample
/pause 3
/stand
/kneel
/pause 14
/macro AutoSample

It takes care of the drifting problem and the pop-up messages. Since there is no delay between /stand and /kneel, my toon does not have enough time to actually move, but it still stops the sampling. At full expertise, I need the 14 seconds to completely recover my Action, then I can start sampling again. Since sampling is stopped and then restarted, the pop-ups do not disturb me.

[Zimoon]

I believe players' tested what gave most yield for different kinds of macros back in the days and found that the one with "ui action default-button" gave better yield per day, but the drift was to be managed somehow. I might be wrong though.

/Z

PS: My compliments for your resource updating at Chim; if you use ISDroids or if you do all creature resources at a time you might be interested in an in-game mail we send each other before doing another volley, we have used it for quite some time now. Send an in-game mail to So'ma and I will send you an example.

/Z

[Nautillus]

I myself do not use /stand, /kneel/, /sit, etc. I used to just autotarget my droid and follow, but my toon had a tendency to get just at the edge of the follow range and would kneel to sample then stand up and try to follow.

So I learned the if you "ctrl shift s" your char will spin and there for not drift.