Whilst I completely agree that we are in need of a very very clear response on this from the Devs, I also think we need to delve into the more explorative side of why a player might use one or all of these methods?
I will give an honest account of my personal use of any of these “software/hardware” solutions.
I had never used any before and so it was all new to me to try and use these things, which in the end I found to be too much of headache to set up and always had issues with getting it right in the first place.
CRAFTING
Reducing 30 clicks to 1 was enough to drive me to use an auto-clicker - this was and still is something I use, isit cheating? ancient oortian theorists say no. the advantage is clear less finger strain.
Implementable Solution - the coveted “craft all” button that we desire, bye bye clicker.
General machine interaction compared to other games where crafting is a huge gameplay element is actually pretty nice, but again loading a specific amount of resources into a machine/furnace etc especially when you are doing a big batch becomes a chore.
Unloading the finished items particularly when you need to do this to ensure the queued crafts keep going becomes a chore.
Combined with the multiple crafting clicks the interaction clicks became a chore.
This was enough to drive to me try and learn how to effectively use macros with some element of scripting to be able to place things in a machine/furnace and hit craft/smelt, and then another to be able to empty them. I don’t use this anymore since this was the around the time when this topic took off and since we didnt have a clear answer I stopped. Full disclosure I wasn’t very good at it in the first place and the results were never consistent.
Implementable solution - there are probably a few ways, having an empty to inventory and an empty inventory button is likely needed along with some smart storage. MC has it, scrap mechanic has it even craftopia has it, let us link or shove a storage to a machine and then Bob’s your uncle…bye bye macro for this purpose.
Moving on, crafting typically requires the use of more than one machine, so the above ties in where you have to move stuff from one to the other and hit click again…
This time I was totally unable to make something that worked flawlessly and so gave up pretty quick.
Now tying in this and the above point James did mention something along the lines of being able to set each machine to craft a specific thing so far as it had the resources inside to do it, so I’d assume he would not have said that unless it was possible.
Not a end all solution but definitely an improvement, especially if we have smart storage.
this is where I go meta and say hey why bother with machines at all right?
we have a form of mass storage already with the reclaim system, I know I use reclaims as smart storage the only downside to them is the way you take things out otherwise indexable colour organised its perfect.
So better storage using systems that already exist and that can be linked in someway to your account. now you have the best of both worlds, storage boxes with an interface that organises what you put in, and still being able to have separate boxes for things if you wish.
The ability to send things to storage directly from inventory would be nice too but would probably get cumbersome in execution.
In creative, hit the knowledge tab find a thing and hit give right? so in normal mode hit the knowledge tab and hit craft. if the stuff is in your global ledger of items boom it crafts and then you select if you want it in your inventory or sent straight to storage.
Bye bye machines…bye bye lag…bye bye complex object limit reached…
XP
We all need it, some of us want it more than others. The issue here as far as i can see is when you want it in huge numbers and really quick. Can’t control everyones desire and appetite for it, already have measures in place to avoid some exploits.
What do get it from it, well levels and then cubits. Coin not so appealing, hitting achievements can be decent, but lets be real here other than the update that never came where we thought we need to make as much XP now before the system changes it really comes down to cubits and plots.
That desire was real, I farmed gleam and refined it like there was no tomorrow to max level atleast one character. I also did it to get a number of plots that I just couldnt justify parting with that much cash for (personal choice).
Gaining resources kind of also ties into this, I have seen with my own eyes people using bots to farm sap on one occasion, a conversation with someone who got annoyed at a friend who admitted to having made a bot to farm at this person’s sap farm and numerous encounters at gleam ■■■■■ and low level soil/sand farms. I cant say I’ve seen it since the last time this was a big subject.
Anyway at the time I wasnt hungry for xp, but what did hurt my butt, was that these people were getting resources on auto pilot regardless of how much input they might have had to put it to place themselves correctly or eat food or empty inventory they were forgoing the motions.
In my eyes that was and still is unfair.
Holding down action button while you move around? I take no issue.
But having your character do all the things and then regen bomb at the end and start over? no thanks.
Should i care? probably not because its a game and i have no idea what they were using the mats for not that it matters but it did and would still bug me purely because once set up its probably quite effortless.
Solution? we have a dev answer on this I believe which is a resounding no, but being able to stop it? I dont know enough at a technical level to know what could be done.
My opinion is just that, its mine so my comments above are not aimed at anyone they are tied to my emotion and thought process.
Being able to gain XP using the rather creative method that has just come about? I see no issue, it can be done on both platforms.
Being able to gain XP or resources using an actual bot or whatever you want to call it? I dont think its fair.
Whats the difference between the two anyway right?
IMO the intention,
Programming a bot to effectively play the game for you for personal gain, there is clear intention there and frankly puts the PS users at a huge loss if its condoned.
Using the games mechanics to do something is a non issue and if its a game breaking issue “exploit” then it should be addressed by the Devs.
Again its no easy feat to repair a million coils (unless you write a bot to go with it :D) or use my spanners, on sale now at the TNT Megahub.
AFAIK They clearly asked us not to do this.
