Post by Amairgen on Jan 10, 2013 14:52:55 GMT -8
Razor User's Guide to Common Training Macros
(credit to Mara at RunUO 2010)
Section 1: Preliminary Information
Skill Cap and Total Skill Points: One of the first things that you should do after character creation is lock all of your skills so that you don’t inadvertently train skills that you do not need. Plan your final template ahead of time, and if you are in doubt about the best order, post a question in the Discusion section of the forums.
The skills Alchemy, Animal Taming, Blacksmithy, Bowcraft/Fletching, Carpentry, Inscription, Lockpicking, Magery, Poisoning, Provocation, Remove Trap, Resisting Spells, Tailoring, and possibly Tinkering are all ones I would consider doing early if you intend to have them in your final template. It can cost 3x as much and take 3x as long to finish some of these skills at the skill cap compared to doing them first.
On the skill gump, you will notice that there is a show-real button. When enabled, it will show you the actual amount of skill points that you have invested into a particular skill, and how far along you are toward your skill cap. With the show-real button off, you will see what is called your ‘displayed skill’. Many skills receive a bonus to them from your stats, even though you have not invested any actual points into the skill. This bonus is gradually phased out as you approach GM in a skill. The game uses your displayed skill for calculating your success chance at skill related tasks.
Macro List – How to use: Each macro has a section that describes what the macro does, and often additional information that makes training the skill easier. Be sure to read the macro description as it often gives some specific information that can be used to get the most out of the macro.
Following the description is an approximation of what the macro looks like as you would see it in razor. The macro steps are in bold, and there is often information to the right to help in setting things up properly. This is useful if you want to build the macro yourself from scratch.
The last section for each macro contains the actual code for the macro. You can simply create new blank macros in razor, assign them names, and then exit out of all instances of razor and the client(don’t just logout). Then, you can navigate to C:\Programs\Razor\Macros and open up the given macro file you created with Notepad. Next you can simply copy and paste the code provided, save the macro, and then close it. When you re-enter Razor, you will see that the macro is built and ready to use. Many times, you will want to make small adjustments to the macro or add your own line items. When you do this, make sure you only have 1 instance of razor open at the time, and remember that modifications will be written to the file when the last instance of razor is closed out.
Hotkeys: There are at least two hotkeys that you will want to set up when using these macros. In addition, after you create a macro, it can be helpful to assign that to a hotkey as well. This can all be done on the Hotkey tab of Razor.
Set Last Target: This allows you to assign many things in the game to Razor’s last target. You can also use Razor’s other targeting commands to accomplish the same.
Stop Macro: This does exactly what you would think.
Execute Selection: When you are recording your own line items into razor, it can be useful to execute things that you see in the Hotkeys tab without having to assign them to a hotkey and using them. You can Right-click on a line item in your macro, select Begin Recording Here, navigate to the Hotkeys tab, and then execute what you are looking for. The action will be recorded into your macro.
Editing and Creating Your Own Macros: The macros presented are a guide and a good starting point. You should feel free to edit and modify them however you wish. The macros have been built to provide the greatest applicability to players of varying ping times; however, some adjustment is bound to be necessary to get things working perfectly on your computer. Do not hesitate to experiment. Many options are available when you Right-click on a line item. Many times, a more advanced and useful macro can be made depending upon the setup that you have to train the skill.
Wait For Target/Gump vs Manual Pauses: As much as possible, Wait for Target and Wait for Gump pauses were used so that players with varying pings would experience the macro the same way. It is important to follow the instructions given if building the macro from scratch in regard to editing the timeouts. The timeouts are there so that if a target or gump does not come up the way that it should, the macro will skip back to the beginning. This can be a useful feature in and of itself, but you want to ensure that you set the timeouts properly so that lag and world saves do not cause your macros to delay unnecessarily. Feel free to edit the timeouts if needed. Manual pauses are necessary in some macros like Mining in order to get the macro to function properly and will occasionally need to be adjusted to maximize the performance of the macro for you. Additionally, I occasionally use a Pause of 0ms, which is actually just a small minimum delay. Each line item takes a small amount of time to process as the macro moves along, and this is something to consider if you write very long macros. This time may be a factor of your computer’s processor and clock, but I have only tested such things on my own computer, so I cannot be certain.
Display/Counters Tab: This Razor tab allows you to set up counters that can be used in your macros as well as to put icons with an item count in your titlebar. This can be used to keep track of what items you have on you during gameplay as well as giving you the ability to create more advanced triggers in your macros. Although their use is not covered in this guide, this is something that is worth looking into and experimenting with. For example, you can add an If/Then statement into your macro that restocks ingots to your pack when it gets low automatically so that you do not have to sit at the computer watching the macro work the entire time.
Restock & Organizer Agents: The Restock and Organizer agents are both valuable assets of the Razor program. You should try to experiment with them and incorporate them into your macros to make them even easier to use. You will find that they work best, as with many other features of Razor, if you have properly set your Object Delay setting on the ‘More Options’ tab of Razor.
A Brief Word on PVP Macros: Often new players will wonder how much gameplay is being performed by macros and it is a very good question to think about. There are a great variety of possibilities that you can try to set up to make things easier for you, even if you are only setting up your macros in the UO Client itself. For example, a simple macro that Yells: All Come, and then double-clicks your mount is a great thing to set up in Razor since it has no built in remount feature. You would need one of these for each of your characters (and mounts unless you edit as you go), and it can be a great way to deal with being bolaed. Another set of small macros might involve setting up dress agents for each wand type (greater heal, lightning, etc.) that you anticipate using, and then creating a macro like: Dress: WandGreaterHeal, Pause .00sec, Exec: Use Item in Hand. The minimum pause inserted in the middle is not entirely necessary if you have your Object Delay set well, but I tend to have mine set for a little better performance, and this added pause creates a slight additional delay to ensure that my wand activation has more reliability. The wand will work fine without the minimum pause as well. You have to add and remove specific wands to your dress lists as needed.
These types of small macros can be very useful. Sometimes though, people attempt to set up long chains of actions and If/Then statements to use for PVP. I will not try to unnecessarily dissuade you from trying. The problem with these long chains is that line item processing time creates a lot of delay that makes you a much less agile player. A player has to be able to react to the things that are happening as they go, sometimes taking actions on the order of 50-100ms based upon what they see on-screen. I can say with certainty that you will never achieve the top level of play that you see in tournaments if you choose to be a macro style player, although some people have to find this out for themselves. With the exception of groups of players that gank, it is quite easy to disrupt the types of things that a macro style player can throw at you.
Faction Skill Loss: When you die to an enemy faction or commit suicide while you are in factions, your skills are temporarily set to 2/3’s of their trained levels, generally for about 4 minutes or so. If you are well prepared, keep all of your training gear in one backpack, and die near an NPC healer, this can be an excellent way to finish up skills that are otherwise very difficult to complete.
(credit to Mara at RunUO 2010)
Section 1: Preliminary Information
Skill Cap and Total Skill Points: One of the first things that you should do after character creation is lock all of your skills so that you don’t inadvertently train skills that you do not need. Plan your final template ahead of time, and if you are in doubt about the best order, post a question in the Discusion section of the forums.
The skills Alchemy, Animal Taming, Blacksmithy, Bowcraft/Fletching, Carpentry, Inscription, Lockpicking, Magery, Poisoning, Provocation, Remove Trap, Resisting Spells, Tailoring, and possibly Tinkering are all ones I would consider doing early if you intend to have them in your final template. It can cost 3x as much and take 3x as long to finish some of these skills at the skill cap compared to doing them first.
On the skill gump, you will notice that there is a show-real button. When enabled, it will show you the actual amount of skill points that you have invested into a particular skill, and how far along you are toward your skill cap. With the show-real button off, you will see what is called your ‘displayed skill’. Many skills receive a bonus to them from your stats, even though you have not invested any actual points into the skill. This bonus is gradually phased out as you approach GM in a skill. The game uses your displayed skill for calculating your success chance at skill related tasks.
Macro List – How to use: Each macro has a section that describes what the macro does, and often additional information that makes training the skill easier. Be sure to read the macro description as it often gives some specific information that can be used to get the most out of the macro.
Following the description is an approximation of what the macro looks like as you would see it in razor. The macro steps are in bold, and there is often information to the right to help in setting things up properly. This is useful if you want to build the macro yourself from scratch.
The last section for each macro contains the actual code for the macro. You can simply create new blank macros in razor, assign them names, and then exit out of all instances of razor and the client(don’t just logout). Then, you can navigate to C:\Programs\Razor\Macros and open up the given macro file you created with Notepad. Next you can simply copy and paste the code provided, save the macro, and then close it. When you re-enter Razor, you will see that the macro is built and ready to use. Many times, you will want to make small adjustments to the macro or add your own line items. When you do this, make sure you only have 1 instance of razor open at the time, and remember that modifications will be written to the file when the last instance of razor is closed out.
Hotkeys: There are at least two hotkeys that you will want to set up when using these macros. In addition, after you create a macro, it can be helpful to assign that to a hotkey as well. This can all be done on the Hotkey tab of Razor.
Set Last Target: This allows you to assign many things in the game to Razor’s last target. You can also use Razor’s other targeting commands to accomplish the same.
Stop Macro: This does exactly what you would think.
Execute Selection: When you are recording your own line items into razor, it can be useful to execute things that you see in the Hotkeys tab without having to assign them to a hotkey and using them. You can Right-click on a line item in your macro, select Begin Recording Here, navigate to the Hotkeys tab, and then execute what you are looking for. The action will be recorded into your macro.
Editing and Creating Your Own Macros: The macros presented are a guide and a good starting point. You should feel free to edit and modify them however you wish. The macros have been built to provide the greatest applicability to players of varying ping times; however, some adjustment is bound to be necessary to get things working perfectly on your computer. Do not hesitate to experiment. Many options are available when you Right-click on a line item. Many times, a more advanced and useful macro can be made depending upon the setup that you have to train the skill.
Wait For Target/Gump vs Manual Pauses: As much as possible, Wait for Target and Wait for Gump pauses were used so that players with varying pings would experience the macro the same way. It is important to follow the instructions given if building the macro from scratch in regard to editing the timeouts. The timeouts are there so that if a target or gump does not come up the way that it should, the macro will skip back to the beginning. This can be a useful feature in and of itself, but you want to ensure that you set the timeouts properly so that lag and world saves do not cause your macros to delay unnecessarily. Feel free to edit the timeouts if needed. Manual pauses are necessary in some macros like Mining in order to get the macro to function properly and will occasionally need to be adjusted to maximize the performance of the macro for you. Additionally, I occasionally use a Pause of 0ms, which is actually just a small minimum delay. Each line item takes a small amount of time to process as the macro moves along, and this is something to consider if you write very long macros. This time may be a factor of your computer’s processor and clock, but I have only tested such things on my own computer, so I cannot be certain.
Display/Counters Tab: This Razor tab allows you to set up counters that can be used in your macros as well as to put icons with an item count in your titlebar. This can be used to keep track of what items you have on you during gameplay as well as giving you the ability to create more advanced triggers in your macros. Although their use is not covered in this guide, this is something that is worth looking into and experimenting with. For example, you can add an If/Then statement into your macro that restocks ingots to your pack when it gets low automatically so that you do not have to sit at the computer watching the macro work the entire time.
Restock & Organizer Agents: The Restock and Organizer agents are both valuable assets of the Razor program. You should try to experiment with them and incorporate them into your macros to make them even easier to use. You will find that they work best, as with many other features of Razor, if you have properly set your Object Delay setting on the ‘More Options’ tab of Razor.
A Brief Word on PVP Macros: Often new players will wonder how much gameplay is being performed by macros and it is a very good question to think about. There are a great variety of possibilities that you can try to set up to make things easier for you, even if you are only setting up your macros in the UO Client itself. For example, a simple macro that Yells: All Come, and then double-clicks your mount is a great thing to set up in Razor since it has no built in remount feature. You would need one of these for each of your characters (and mounts unless you edit as you go), and it can be a great way to deal with being bolaed. Another set of small macros might involve setting up dress agents for each wand type (greater heal, lightning, etc.) that you anticipate using, and then creating a macro like: Dress: WandGreaterHeal, Pause .00sec, Exec: Use Item in Hand. The minimum pause inserted in the middle is not entirely necessary if you have your Object Delay set well, but I tend to have mine set for a little better performance, and this added pause creates a slight additional delay to ensure that my wand activation has more reliability. The wand will work fine without the minimum pause as well. You have to add and remove specific wands to your dress lists as needed.
These types of small macros can be very useful. Sometimes though, people attempt to set up long chains of actions and If/Then statements to use for PVP. I will not try to unnecessarily dissuade you from trying. The problem with these long chains is that line item processing time creates a lot of delay that makes you a much less agile player. A player has to be able to react to the things that are happening as they go, sometimes taking actions on the order of 50-100ms based upon what they see on-screen. I can say with certainty that you will never achieve the top level of play that you see in tournaments if you choose to be a macro style player, although some people have to find this out for themselves. With the exception of groups of players that gank, it is quite easy to disrupt the types of things that a macro style player can throw at you.
Faction Skill Loss: When you die to an enemy faction or commit suicide while you are in factions, your skills are temporarily set to 2/3’s of their trained levels, generally for about 4 minutes or so. If you are well prepared, keep all of your training gear in one backpack, and die near an NPC healer, this can be an excellent way to finish up skills that are otherwise very difficult to complete.
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