Does this break TOS

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well he is asking here to see what the reaction is of people who are in the know, before going to Blizzard for the final say. I often will bounce ideas off of the people here before doing things, thats what forums are for.

Its a lot grey as its the timeing part that is questionable. You are not allowed to introduce timing into macros. Logic that goes. If its time A cast A if its time B then cast B is little different then putting in a fixed delay.

This is illgal:

/cast 1
/delay 10
/cast 2

Thus this is also illegal:

/cast 1
if delay less then or equal 9 cast 1 again else cast 2


.....

[zanthor]

For what it's worth... This doesn't give you any advantage and in fact can and will fail on you quite frequently.

If I am understanding what you want is a button that when pressed the first time will send F1 and when pressed additional times within X seconds will send F2. Leaving spells and abilities out of this to avoid confusion.

Why will this fail?

F1 is your HOT spell you wish to apply, F2 is your heal spell...

You happen to be spell locked when you press F1, the spell fails. You are not hotted for the duration and in this configuration you are unable to hit F1 again.

If GCP has the ability to tell if F1 was successfully cast and make a decision it's already violating TOS (I don't believe this is the case) so the addition of this functionality actually limits you more.

A similar functionality to this would be a key that when pressed sends F1 then for 10 more presses sends F2. Spamming this button @ 1 press per second would have the same effect as what you are describing and is certainly not a violation of the TOS - the ONLY difference is you are adding a timed duration. The functionality without a timer is able to be accomplished within the native UI as it stands (Macrosequence by Cogwheel) but not with a timer.

[Barelan]

If GCP has the ability to tell if F1 was successfully cast and make a decision it's already violating TOS (I don't believe this is the case) so the addition of this functionality actually limits you more.

You are correct in your belief that we don't do this.

A similar functionality to this would be a key that when pressed sends F1 then for 10 more presses sends F2. Spamming this button @ 1 press per second would have the same effect as what you are describing and is certainly not a violation of the TOS - the ONLY difference is you are adding a timed duration. The functionality without a timer is able to be accomplished within the native UI as it stands (Macrosequence by Cogwheel) but not with a timer.

The functionality you describe still seems to be a timed casting. The only difference is that the "clock tick" is provided by the user rather than the system. I personally feel both are automation but if other people feel differently then surely our proposal would be ok as well.

[zanthor]

The functionality you describe still seems to be a timed casting. The only difference is that the "clock tick" is provided by the user rather than the system. I personally feel both are automation but if other people feel differently then surely our proposal would be ok as well.

The primary difference being I can accomplish the cast sequence I described 100% within the wow interface language and I cannot accomplish what you describe that way.

Blues have stated many times that if you can accomplish it within the native UI you are most likely safe to replicate the functionality elsewhere.

[coupas]

The "IF" part is the part that breaks it for me.

[Catamer]

we might seem like experts on what Bliz is going to say is or isn't valid TOS but we aren't.

Go to the wow forums and ask for a blue post on what your are proposing.... then you have it from the only people who matter on the subject.

[zanthor]

we might seem like experts on what Bliz is going to say is or isn't valid TOS but we aren't.

Go to the wow forums and ask for a blue post on what your are proposing.... then you have it from the only people who matter on the subject.

Actually you are mistaken if you think Blues matter. Policy is set high above them and handed to them. They won't have an answer to a question like this so they won't answer it any more directly than we are here.

It all boils down to the golden rule - do you FEEL it's going to get you banned. If so, don't do it.

[jak3676]

Short version - I would think that violates the TOS.

From a philosophical point of view:
"an explicit timed delay being used to provide conditional logic". - as soon as you are supplying logic to the game using a 3rd party application, you have violated the TOS.

"The only difference is that the "clock tick" is provided by the user rather than the system. I personally feel both are automation but if other people feel differently then surely our proposal would be ok as well. " - The big difference is that the timing is provided by the user - not the system. Sure it's a fine line, and blizzard may well decide that the current /click spam isn't correct either. But as soon as you supply that timing outside the game, then I think you are in violation. I can appreciate your argument that all you are trying to do is the same thing that /click does, but you are specifially building in a pre-set timer.

From a CYA point of view:
Blizzard can (and does) occasionally ban people from using an "in-game" exploit. I'm sure you can find a few examples on the forums from people that felt that were only doing things Blizzard had already built into the game. But those cases are pretty rare. I'd guess 99.999% of the time Blizzard just fixes the "exploit" if they were the ones that caused it in the first place. Overall if you look at all the bannings that Blizzard has done since the game came out. I would guess 99.999% of them were from someone using a 3rd party application. I think if you built this logic into your product you would be subjecting your users to possible banning.

[Whowantstoknow]

I already think that castequences used for timing crosses the line and blizzard will eventually fix it. The differences with the /castsequence method is that it is achieved 100% with the default UI so it is unlikely that you would get banned for it without warning. Using a program to do this is a big no no. Fairly sure that you can even find blue posts where they specifically forbid delays in3rd party software eg g15 software and scripting programs eg HKN and AHK

[zanthor]

I already think that castequences used for timing crosses the line and blizzard will eventually fix it. The differences with the /castsequence method is that it is achieved 100% with the default UI so it is unlikely that you would get banned for it without warning. Using a program to do this is a big no no. Fairly sure that you can even find blue posts where they specifically forbid delays in3rd party software eg g15 software and scripting programs eg HKN and AHK

To clarify he's not talking about a delayed send.

He's talking about a key that sends F1 when you press it the first time and each successive press for X seconds sends F2.