Macro

A Macro, variously referred to as a macroer, bot, auto(er), or autobot, is a third-party software that preforms a automated task, such as Woodcutting or Mining. The use of a macro is against the RuneScape rules, and the use of a macro will result in action taken against that players account such as a permanent ban, and possibly having that players IP address blocked from the Runescape website (usually only with gold farming bots).

A macro program operates by automating user input to the game. A simple macro may automatically move the cursor to a certain position and performs a click while a more advanced one may actually interact with the game client. This can make for a much more powerful macro, but can also makes it much easier to detect. Use of a macro is against the rules, as it breaks Rule 7.

The macroing tools are reputed to do lots of tasks. Some of these examples are given below.


 * One example is macro tools are sometimes used for simple tasks as autotyping the same message repeatedly. This is often used by players in busy banks, where a trade offer quickly disappears in the volume of other messages. This can be a nuisance to other players with all the spam, and can also be reportable under Rule 7.


 * Autoclickers are another kind of macro tool used to repeatedly click a desired spot. These can be set at a desired speed to click such as 10 clicks a second. Autoclickers are mostly used to put user input into the game in order to circumvent the auto-logout system.


 * Another task that a macro tool can perform is autobuying from shops. Right clicking buy 10 of an item loads of times is an example. This was solved in a new update, meaning basic items (pots, bowls etc.) are infinite. A new feature (buy X) was also added for main stocks, whilst a buy 50 option is used in the player stocks. As a result, autobuying bots are very rare, if there are any of them left.


 * Some macros involve more complicated tasks such as banking, mining, woodcutting, fishing, monster killing, and more. A RuneScape character controlled by a macro is commonly called a bot.

Most but not all bots in the game are created to amass coins by doing repetitive money-making tasks (such as fishing or woodcutting) in order to sell the collected gold for real world cash (see Gold farming below).

On December 10th 2007, Jagex implemented an enormous amount of updates aimed at ending the use of macros in the game. Although these updates have been successful at drastically cutting down on the number of both macros and real-world traders, reactions among players who haven't used bots have been mixed concerning how well-implemented these updates were. (see below).

Gold Farming

 * See also: Real world trading

Gold farmers are also considered to be macros since they behave like them, and most of them are even automated via macroing programs. The money generated from real world money transfers makes it profitable to operate sweatshops in low wage countries (such as China or Korea) where humans are required to play RuneScape for very long hours in poor working conditions, and collect Runescape gold and items to sell for real world cash. Sweatshop workers play their characters for extended periods of time performing tasks that are too difficult for macroers to perform. Fighting monsters and dealing with random events is not easily automated, as they can be very complicated to script. The sweatshop workers can actually perform such tasks and still make money for the shop operators. These accounts may be in breach of Rule 6 (which forbids more than one person using any one account), but a stricter enforcement of Rule 12 (real world trading) is the most important part in eliminating the sellers and buyers of this collected gold, as well as the collectors.

This is the main reason why macros exist in the game, and are used for the same purpose as the sweatshop workers. Because macros are not controlled by humans, it is possible to operate a large amount of them at once, allowing more gold and items to be collected quickly.

Note that even though some gold farmers aren't using macroing programs, they can and should be reported under Rule 7.

Common Macroing Hotspots
This is a list of the common spots for macroing/gold farming activity, prior to the December 10th 2007 update, except where noted.

Any ones marked "obsolete" are hotspots that macros stopped hanging around at before December 10. Any ones marked "still ongoing" are hotspots that macros/gold farmers can still be found at, even after December 10.

Common free-to-play Hotspots

 * Chopping Willow trees near the bank in Draynor Village, in Lumbridge just outside the general store, south of the Port Sarim jail, and east of the Port Sarim Bar.
 * Chopping almost every Yew tree in existence.
 * Chopping Normal trees behind Lumbridge Castle.
 * Chopping Oak trees behind Lumbridge general store, forest between Draynor and Lumbridge, and north of Port Sarim Bar.
 * Fishing lobsters in Karamja.
 * Net fishing in Draynor Village. These are usually fishing bots training their levels up.
 * Mining Rune essence in Varrock.
 * Mining gold at the Crafting Guild.
 * Mining coal at the mining guild (rare).
 * Autobuying feathers from Gerrant's Fishy Business in Port Sarim (obsolete).
 * Autobuying adamant and mithril arrows from Brian's Archery Supplies in Rimmington (obsolete).
 * Autobuying bronze and iron arrows from Lowe's Archery Emporium in Varrock (obsolete).
 * Autobuying chaos and death runes from Aubury's Rune Shop in Varrock (obsolete).
 * Autobuying chaos and death runes from Betty's Magic Emporium in Port Sarim (obsolete).
 * Standing around in various banks (particularly the Varrock west bank) and Lumbridge advertising Real World Item Trading websites (still ongoing).

Common pay-to-play Hotspots
Macros had not until recently become prominent in members-only worlds, due to the cost required to maintain membership and the ease of making money in free-to-play worlds (for instance, cutting yews or fishing lobsters). With the better money making options in members, there is an increasing amount of autoing activity on the member servers. Jagex has also claimed that gold farmers pay for their membership using stolen credit card numbers. Some member money making activities done by macros/gold farmers are:
 * Mining Pure essence in Varrock.
 * Killing Green dragons in Wilderness (still ongoing, especially at the area east of Clan Wars).
 * Fishing Sharks and Lobsters at the Fishing guild.
 * Fishing Sharks and Lobsters in Catherby.
 * Picking Flax in Seer's Village.
 * Spinning flax into bow strings in Lumbridge Castle.
 * Making oak planks at the sawmill near Varrock.
 * Fighting flesh crawlers in the Stronghold of Security. These are usually Green Dragon bots training their skills up.
 * Chopping Magic trees at Sorcerer's Tower (rare).
 * Ranging Blue Dragons in Ogre Enclave (rare).
 * Tanning hides in Al Kharid (rare).
 * Crafting Nature runes in Karamja and the Abyss (rare).
 * Autobuying Chaos, Death, Law, Cosmic, and Nature runes from the Mage Arena (obsolete).

The selling of items obtained by gold farmers are notable both in the game worlds and on the market forums, where they will typically be selling vast amounts of an item at once (such as 20k Willow logs or 10k Lobsters).

Macro program risks
Many programs claim to be a macro program of some sort. Often such programs originate from dubious sources and merely infect the computers that they are installed on with spyware and/or other malware. The sole aim of the malware is to obtain the RuneScape account details, (i.e. Keyloggers which steal your usernames and passwords not only to RuneScape, but to everything on your computer). Some malware is reputed to be capable of discovering the in-game bank PIN, usually by taking screenshots of your computer every time you click. In addition to the malware, using a macro program also is against Rule 7 (which states "You must not use other software to gain an unfair advantage in the game" ).

Identifying and Reporting Macros
Most macros/gold farmers are on the f2p version of the game chopping trees, or fishing lobsters, though they're also on the p2p version as well. They will then sell their collected items to make real world money. See the hotspots section above for a list of common areas that macros hang around at.

Elements that raise suspicion to macroing/gold farming are:
 * A hard to remember name with lots of random numbers or letters (eg: Yrtkjdk7790), or an Asian-like name (eg: Shangjiao293) (although not all Asian-named players are bots).
 * Only one skill trained (usually woodcutting, fishing, mining, or melee combat)
 * Are level 3, though can be higher sometimes.
 * Will have the default look (male, bald, and a dark brown goatee), although they have been known to diversify somewhat.
 * Are dressed in the default outfit (khaki shirt and forest green pants), or random event clothing.
 * Will not respond to private/clan/public chat, or will speak in an Asian language (usually Chinese, though not all Asian langauge speakers are farmers).

It is not necessary for a player to check that macroers are actually using a macro before reporting them, as Jagex checks to be sure a report is true before acting on it, and a player reporting a non-macro will not be punished.

If an advertising bot is found, in addition to reporting it, a player can alert the moderators through the clan chat of "Ad Busters". Then, a moderator can come and deal with the spambot.

RuneScape Rules
All examples above break one or more rules. The main reason for the tools is to increase the game entertainment factor for all players. There are several mechanisms in the game that are reputed to deter and detect rule abuse, in particular the use of bots. Some examples are random events, periodic shifts in map orientation and changes to the game. No information is available about the macro detecting facilities that operate on the game servers. Mod Jon H on the Official forum has a thread under Rants with more information on reporting large amounts of suspected rule 7 breakers at a time. Go to "Comment on our service" on the home page, click on the link for "Other" comments, log in with your username, and at the top of the page, type "Suspected Rule 7 Breakers". Then proceed to make your list, and a mod will send you a message shortly via the game inbox. This method takes longer for Jagex to review the players, as it does not send a 60 second snapshot, but is more efficient than waiting 60 seconds until the reporting system allows you to report again.

Macros and the Economy
Some players argue that macros contribute over half the raw materials in the game, thus making them useful, doing tasks that no person would want to do, like cutting yews constantly. Bots also will eventually be banned, so most the bot-made money leaves the game anyway so they don't damage the economy.

However, macros greatly affect prices of raw materials, reducing the prices of items due to many of them being released into the economy at once (prices of sharks plummeted from 800 each to 400 each at one point). As macros gain capabilities, there are increasingly fewer options for honest players to generate money from raw material collection.

Internal workings
Like normal players, a macro tool needs to control the game by giving the appropriate inputs. These controls result in some game reaction that the macro needs to observe and interpret to plan the next action. Typically, a macro tool is split into several components that are described below.

Gaming engine
The gaming engine is the part of the macro that interacts with the game and that analyzes the responses. A software program running on the game playing computer usually has the capability to generate mouse input (move, click, drag, etc.) and to generate keyboard input (key down, key up). Analyzing the response from the game can be done by capturing the entire game image. Some image processing might be required to obtain information about the game response. The gaming engine provides the basic mechanisms to play the game, but it requires task specific knowledge to actually perform the macro operation. Some basic ones click colours on the screen. Others hack the RuneScape canvas to make the colour bots minimizable and to be able to run many. More advanced ones use BCEL or reflection java API's to inject/scan the RuneScape client for variables.

Task script engine
In order to create a bot, a macro tool contains a task script engine to implement a sequence of steps to perform a particular task. A single purpose bot is not particularly useful, so task script engines have the capability to load and execute scripts containing the programming instructions for a particular bot task. Common tasks such as random event detection are supported in default scripts that any bot will need to use.

Jagex responses
On the first of May 2007, Jagex started enforcing Rule 7 and Rule 12 even further and began tracking items that originally came from a macro's account, and have claimed they ban about 8,000 macro accounts a week. They have also updated the punishment for attempting this type of cheating. The number of blackmarks given for macroing was moved from 7 to 90 (which would permanently ban the player 9 times over) because some macro users were selling the coins they would get for real life money.

Increasingly difficult random events have also been one of Jagex's methods to decrease the prevalence of macroers, although it hasn't considered very effective as most macros have been able to solve them via special scripts or human input.

On December 10th, 2007, Jagex furthered their crackdown on Real world trading by making all drops, stakes, and trades for new accounts to have a max net worth of 3,000 coins, as well as altering the wilderness. The changed wilderness sparked controversy and riots, most notably the Pay to Pk Riot. On the other hand, real world trading is now more difficult, as the wealth they gather cannot be transfered to buyer accounts as fast or easily. Therefore, seeing a macroer is now rare, as unbalanced trading made gold farming fairly worthless. But it is still possible to see them doing any of the activities mentioned above (mostly killing Green Dragons). On the 2nd of January, Jagex eliminated unbalanced trades for all accounts, with additional coins being able to be gained or lost proportionate to the player's Quest Points (with a minimum of 3,000 coins and a maximum of 30,000 coins).