Feature Proposal: Official Autocasting

[Chewart Bandler]

Going back to the original question, (and in seeing the need to patch security problems) I think it would be very useful to have a built in autocaster. I have been using a 4 key, 1 hour gesture since about 8K exp, and used it to get to HoF. This being said, I have been in many tournaments using my gesture. Most of the time I come in around 10th, but today came in first against someone using a hud....I don't think using a gesture, autocaster or manually casting (as long as you are on top of it) make any difference in how you place in a contest. It's all about timing, and an official autocaster would mean that if it doesn't work, it is supported and will be fixed. It also won't be using an exploit in the system...so my vote is that it would be great to have an official autocaster that people (and contest managers) can turn on and off. Personally, I would allow them in my area, as I don't see a difference in who wins and who looses based on what their fishing method is.

On a side note though, with an autocaster, it would probably cause more people to reach HoF faster, and you might want to consider higher level achievements (I think I read someones post that talked about that)

Thank you to the Seven Seas staff for thinking enough of this issue to ask us about it, and not just implement it. That alone shows they care about the 7seas community!

[Seven Shikami]

The math certainly backs it up that HUD, gesture, whatever -- you have no greater or lesser chance to win with or without autocasting. There is no "levelling the playing field". But there's a PERCEIVED advantage, though, which I am concerned will trump any actual fact in this situation and result in some bitter feelings from the community. Fortunately, as noted, we're being responsible about this and letting anybody who dislikes autocasters turn the official one off with the flip of a switch at their fishing area.

(Regarding new rewards for advancement, we have some ideas in the works for that; we'll post about it in a seperate thread once we have some of the concepts nailed down. Thank goodness for secured Boast commands!)

[Demaris Moonites]

I dont have an issue with autocasters. Often I get caught up in conversations and forget to cast! Of course there will always be people who just "set it and forget it" like the old Ronco ads advise. Gaming keyboards will allow programming of individual keys or a combo of keys to be pressed for infinity if the owner requests that.

I think an official autocaster would be great, and allowing fishing owners to disable on their land is only fair.

[Barbara Schwarz]

(removed)

[Amara Twilight]

[Olivia]

I think an autocaster would be great because if I try to be social during a tournament, I miss hitting the F2 key, therefore, I tend to not talk much at the tournaments. Also, if one should need to run get a drink, use the bathroom, etc, it would be advantageous. And, let's not forget that there apparently are many autocasters out there, so why not even the playing field.

I really don't think using the F2 key or using an autocaster reflects the winner of the tournament. It's computer luck.... imho.

[Barbara Schwarz]

(removed)

[Kitsune Lassiter]

I think it's silly to ask fishers to refrain from using a HUD or a gesture. And as for detection Karl was able to detect mine while using Mystitool on a project he was working on while I was fishing. So there ARE ways to detect the undetectable. I think that it would be FANTASTIC to have this available. I would have more time to build my customs while fishing for new fish that 7seas has out. Why not?

And by the way, independently Karl and I had the same results as Grey Nacht you do not "always" win with a gesture or HUD. Most of the time, lag takes over with some of these tools and it it actually becomes a handicap. It would be great to have the option to turn it on and off too. I can see when I would want it and there would be times that I don't. PLEASE Seven put the autocaster in the rods It would REALLY make life easier!

[LittleHelper Eichel]

Hi all,

I am not a friend of all those autocast-tools, but as said i cannot really control if one is used or not.
So an official autocast-system is just one more... But one for all users, so everyone with same possibilties to use or not.

Good result could be: no more autocasters are used that send out a cast-order every second once or twice (that is what i really hate)
Worst case could be: Fishers come to a contest, turn on their autocast, and leave the keyboard until the end of the contest.
I dont really need such visitors. I would prefer a nice talk instead during contests...

So my thoughts about an official autocaster: Better then 3rd party tools.

additional suggestion:
vary the castperiod randomly between 25-30 sec if possible (against those 28sec-autocastgestures with always the same silly phrases in chat, that would make them sensless)

LH

[Seven Shikami]

The problem with deliberately hampering the autocaster in some way is that if I do that, third party autocasters STILL become the go-to solution for people who wanna cast. If you present a product that's weaker than alternatives, why use it? It has to be equivilant to manual casting and other autocasters, or there's no point.

Anyway, you will have the ability to shut down autocasting if you dislike it. Fishing area owners have that right. You can't stop gesture based ones, but post a rule at your fishing area (No Autocasting, Period!) and anybody who refuses to respect that rule can get the boot, I'd say.


Moving on -- we've decided based on your feedback in this thread, which has been very positive towards introducing an official AutoCaster, to add one. It'll be in the Rod 3.3 update. We'll have more details on the update as we get closer to release (it also involves additional security fixes, so it's our top priority right now... kind of unfortunate as we'd like to spend dev time on other things that'd be more fun for you, but hey, you do what you gotta do.)