New anti-macroing combine delay?

[Tudamorf]

Ever since the last set of patches which were supposed to fix the alleged macroing "exploit", I have been unable to make celestial essences without pausing a second over a combine button. It just won't let me do the combines any faster than about 2-3 seconds immediately after a previous combine, which is extremely annoying since I'm used to doing a stack in 20-30 seconds, and some recipes call for huge amounts of essences. At first I thought it was just a busy server but I have tried it at several different times of the day.

Am I the only one having this problem? Is this how they intend to "fix" macroing, by punishing players who don't exploit and annoying them to death on combines which are already pretty annoying to begin with?

[Kilyn]

I did a few hundred last night, and did not notice a delay.

maybe I just combine slow though. =/

[Emerest]

When I originally posted under this topic, I had not done any tradeskilling for a few days (gasp!). In my post, I noted that, while I had experienced the same delay issue mentioned in the original post, the problem had subsequently cleared up.

I'm sad to report that it is, indeed, back. It is not as bad as it was the first time I noticed it (which was a few weeks ago), but there is definitely a highly annoying split-second delay between "click" and "action".

I honestly hope this is just a (soon to be remedied) bug and not a permanent issue...


~ Emmie

[Cerpicio]

Yes! I've been thinking of asking the exact same question.

I noticed this right after the patch. It happened in PoK and SH, so it wasn't zone population.

I have a nice rythym going when I make things, and I can't do it nearly as quickly now. If I try, I'll often click on Combine and get no response. It's quite annoying.


-- C.

[Ilona]

I noticed this when they removed the old ui.
I could do combines much quicker in the old ui (ie before you could customise).

[Bartox]

same thing with selling.

thought it was just lag.

but cannot combine or sell items at the rate I am used to.. now i have to pause, or double (even triple) click before it accepts.

very annoying when your trying to power-skill up through 200 combines.

[andyhre]

I heard about this, so I sat in my very quiet room and made spiderling silks into silk thread and could hear my wall clock ticking. it turns out I grab the two threads and hit combine, autoinventory and do it again at a rate of about 2.5 seconds per cycle. I had no issues with the supposed enforced delay. I could NOT get it so that I did it in less than two clock ticks, though, not b/c of any enforced delay, but because I am not personally dextrous enough.

[eniamn]

have noticed lag does this. dont think its intentional.

[Arghargh]

I play from one machine with a direct ethernet connection, and another with a at best a 36K dailup connection. There has always been a huge difference between the two in the time between hitting combine, and getting the result. Long ping times and lag will make the combine take longer. This is probably due to the fact that placing stuff in the trade container is client side, but the actual combine results are server side.

Arhargh

[Rhyss-Bristlebane]

How would you use a macro-ing thing if you were, which of course you wouldnt because it is against the rules, but if you were how would that be set up?

[BamanLron]

I've noticed the same thing, tried relogging, rebooting, different zones, multiple times of the day (4am CST even), I was even the sole person in the zone. I've watched the lag meter, it happens even with 0.0% on both counters and very low round trip numbers (DSL connection). Sometimes I have to click 3 or 4 times before it will do anything. The clicks are just lost, if you click and wait, nothing ever happens.

There is a definite time restriction on how fast you can do combines and it showed up after the last patch. You have to be fairly fast to notice it, but I've gotten it down to a nice fast, easy on the hands rhythm, and this is REALLY messing me up. It takes better than twice as long now to do a full bag's worth of combines. The first day I noticed it, I /bug'd it, the next day after reading about all the other exploit fixes I figured it was intentional and did a /feedback on it.

Hopefully they will reduce the time limit soon to something that will still slow down the macro bots but not impact regular players as it is very very annoying.

Bam

[andyhre]

The irony, of course, is that if it is really a delay and it is a fixed amount of time, the macro just gets adjusted once and it slows them down, but since they are doing it infinitely, they make an infinite amount, it just takes them longer to get there.

For the honest player who whips out 100 of something and moves on, I guess this is hard to tell the poison from the cure. Then there are folks like me who I guess are too slow to be affected.

[Malodium]

This isnt a lag problem. I have perfect pings all the time and have noticed the same thing since last patch. Where I noticed it was in CC down at the forge trying to break down velium. If I tried to press the button right the instant after I put the velium in the forge, nothing would happen. If it was a lag issue, all I would have to do is wait a few second and it would finally work. But it never did.

I always had to wait about 2 seconds after placing it in the forge before it would work.

This coincides with the bug I am having where I will kill a mob, and then I cant loot it, and none of my spell buttons works.

Happening to a lot of people apparently.
Wonder if its related.

[thrashette]

Stuff

Ever since the last set of patches which were supposed to fix the alleged macroing "exploit", I have been unable to make celestial essences without pausing a second over a combine button.

I have ALWAYS noticed a delay between putting things in a container, being able to click combine, and getting the product back. It is as if the server has to register the items in the container before the combine button will work. It also has to think about whether I get a product back.

This delay has always been proportional to the player load in the zone, and unrelated to internet lag. In Halas, no delay ever. In primetime PoK, I always get to click two or three times.

I suspect that Sony added some additional checks to tradeskill combines that makes this timing even more likely to be delayed by server lag.

This coincides with the bug I am having where I will kill a mob, and then I cant loot it, and none of my spell buttons works

What happens is that for some period of time, your mouse buttons stop working.

This happens to me once per day on average. I wait, and function comes back in one to five minutes. It's a client bug of some kind.

[Tudamorf]

For those suggesting this is just lag, let me clarify: I have a very fast system and a high bandwidth DSL connection that hovers around 40ms ping time, which always allowed me to do 2-component combines roughly every 1-1.5 seconds. If you're on dialup, your ping time is probably 200ms+, and therefore you may not be affected by this phenomenon because the ping delay adds another second or so to the total even if you have wrists of lightning.

Originally posted by thrashette
This delay has always been proportional to the player load in the zone, and unrelated to internet lag. In Halas, no delay ever. In primetime PoK, I always get to click two or three times.

I have never had any significant delay in PoK -- until the recent patches. I have also tried combining in Greater Faydark (an empty zone) and had the same problem. I suppose I can try a few other empty zones but I'm not hopeful.

Originally posted by Malodium
This coincides with the bug I am having where I will kill a mob, and then I cant loot it, and none of my spell buttons works.

I have noticed that too since the latest patch. I know it's not just a mouse issue because I can still open bags with the mouse. However for the duration of the bug I can't cast spells, open a trade window (it acts as if I'm in the middle of another trade), or loot or corpse. The bug is almost like an invisible trade window in the background.