Hello, I want to use the Steelseries Engine for the Apex keyboard I just bought. I want to know that since it's a third party software that can possibly enhance gameplay experience is it bannable? For example, I want to set up a timed macro that will let me switch to my 5th slot and put down ammo/turret for my engineer. Is that okay to do? I appreciate the input from the community but I'm looking for an official word on this. Thanks!
So long as it is programmed in game with key binding its ok. If it some string operation by the key manufacture doing multi stuff then it can be seen as a hack and you get ban for that. The key binding in the game can do a series of functions just like a string does. Don't under estimate what SOE gave you. I would suggest you get an mmo mouse....to do all the hard work..
No, performing more than one action with a key press. Bannable. Not that hard to just do it the normal way.
Yeh ... figures .. the example I gave wasn't the exact one I was gonna use but I was considering the possibility of some creative uses for macros. But if that ain't happening then I'm not gonna bind them for stuff other than Teamspeak shortcuts I suppose. Thanks for the input y'all
Sure, programming macors is bannable. However, is running steelseries software while playing the game bannable? I've never used it, but I would assume that it's the software that controls more aspects of the keyboard than just macros. For instance, my logitech softpoint software includes the abilities to disable capslock and assign keyboard keys to the mouse. I would imagines that the steelseries software does the same thing. Just to be clear, I want to know if the PS2 anticheat detection will recognize the software itself as a cheat and issue a ban.
That's actually a good point that I didn't consider :s Since it's a third party software that can change what keys do what and disables certain keypresses it could be flagged. It would be a real shame though because the Engine is fantastic and I can change my keyboard colors, profiles for teamspeak etc. :3
I expect this would incur a response similar to those who use Razer or Logitech products and their drivers. Running the software/drivers by itself wont get you banned, but using multi-sequence macros will. Rebinding individual keys wont get you banned.
Well, since I didn't get any official word here I guess I'll open a customer support ticket. I hate to do that since a lot of people have much more pressing concerns but it's better than getting banned. I'm not gonna be using any multi-button macros but I wanna know if simply running the software could result in a ban because I WILL be using multi-button macros to navigate my Teamspeak while I'm in game.
here's the thing... how? how are they going to detect this? many 'gaming grade' peripherals are running their macros on the mouse or keyboard itself. making it easier to go to a lan and own with a stock setup. that means that by the time the signal reaches the computer itself you can't tell if it's a human or a macro inputing the commands. that means that you would have to record the timings of every single action, and then compare them for consistency. and then look at that effort for the amount of effect such a macro could get you. in say, team fortress 2 (where macros are expressly allowed by Valve. they even give you 9 different .ini files to write them in) they can be helpful, but here? with the exception of quickly placing an object, there really isn't much benefit to macros. there aren't that many repeatable action where a macro would be helpful outside of chat functions (stay away from the crown was popular back before the crown was nerfed) short answer. i HIGHLY doubt you will get banned for a turret deploy macro, and i would bet you $100 that controlling TS3 with your mouse wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at the SOE offices.
You can detect when a human inputs a macro and when a human does. A macro will do it far quicker, and will still input commands even though you are lagging or being shot or whatever which can be detected. You can get around it sometimes by placing waiting times to make it seem human. So the macro presses 5 then waites 1 second to place the turrent then 1 second before mounting it. Instead of doing all 3 within a single second, but doing that is pointless and still be detected as it will always be a 1 second wait which is inhuman. Macros are mainly banned because people will become rampant with them especially when firing. Macros were used widely in beta and early launch to compensate bullet spray and recoil. You click your mouse once and it will fire X amount of bullets then wait to correct the gun and fire again in an endless loop until the player stopped the macro. So macros were banned except for one key per function which allows you to remap keys such as knife, reload and so on without giving you an advantage.
see here you are getting into the grey area of having the macro move the mouse, which is clearly out of bounds in my mind. even then if you are making a 3 round burst macro, i can see just as many situations where it would get you killed as it would save you. as i have said before, i really don't see how complex macros would be an advantage in a game like this. it isn't WoW or LOL. as far as detecting wait times, again, they would need to collect and analyze all my key inputs for comparison.(players can be surprisingly consistent when given video and audio cues.) and then they would need to notice that after i press 'G' i always press 'T' 1 second later. (but only when i activate my G then T macro) not saying it can't be done, but that is NSA/CIA - 'breaking a code by looking for repeated patterns' level of data mining. especially when you consider how many keystrokes are in an average player's 1 hour session. it just doesn't seem to me like it would be an intelligent use of SOE's resources to find and ban someone over a "quick turret placement" macro when we know there are people out there using aimbots and exploits that are evading the automated dragnets. so again, i know what the rule is. but just i don't see simple QoL macros getting you banned. there are much bigger fish to fry.
I think his concern is that he has to run a program to have his macro work. Since players were banned in the past for having autohotkey running, he wants to know if steelseries engine will also cause a ban.
well the razer software has yet to get me banned from any game i've ever played so... i'd go with doubtful. then again i'm not running macros since i don't find them worth the effort, so take that with a grain of salt
I am pretty sure that the razer and logitech software was white listed along with TS and mumble. I would have to dig really far back to find that thread though... Autohotkey can do no recoil, as you can program mouse axis movement, so I understand why that could get you banned.
You can set up two firing keys. One for the macro and one to fire normally. If you have the macro for long range only then you will nearly always win. As SOE give out life time bans without any way to redeem yourself, I wouldn't be surprised if they do check your key presses. About aimbots, I can understand why it takes a while to ban them. It seems as if SOE are using an in-house anti-cheat system that they are building by scratch. So yes they leave 10 hackers run rampant for 20 days, but in those 20 days they can collect all the information about the hack seeing as they have access to what you're running in memory and probably your stored files on your HDD. Once the data is collected they add it to their system and 250 people get life time bans by collecting data on 10 people. That would be my guess on how it works.
Well, I issued a customer support ticket which went like this: This is the reply I got: Well .. seems to me like an extremely polite way of saying "we don't know, use it at your own risk" which is very non-specific and ambiguous. Oh well .. I'll only be using macros for Teamspeak as explained in the support ticket but what I'm worried about is insanely fast key-presses (even if they don't do anything in game) may be flagged. But I guess since I have this ticket and it won't give me any in-game advantage I should be ok.
ya man i wouldnt worry about it. ive been using the logitech crap to remap keys since closed beta days. if there was a problem with it im sure i would have found out by now.
Its not seen as cheat software. As for the one press = one action, I'm not even sure if it can be detected programatically because its all just directx input anyways. Some comes from windows, some comes from your keyboard program. Probably all looks the same to the game. I have keyboard "modes" that allow me to achieve consistency for different loadouts, so that C4, pistols, tools, launchers are always the same button no matter what class or loadout I'm using. One place where doing more than one thing probably wont get you noticed is when on the loadout screen, utilize your macro keys to select the desired loadout and configure your keyboard software the the correct mode.
