Black Desert Online Lets You Use Your AFK Time Even Better with Autolooping
Black Desert Online is a quite peculiar MMORPG in many ways. Most MMORPG developers try to discourage any kind of gameplay while “AFK” (Away From the Keyboard), billing it at botting and often even distributing bans to those that engage in it via macros or bots.
While many bring up philosophical reasons for those policies, the real issue is that by encouraging players to actually log off when they’re not actively playing, the strain on the servers is reduced.
Black Desert Online is different. Since launch, it already included an autofishing feature, allowing player to just leave their characters online while fishing, gathering precious seafood (albeit more slowly than while fishing actively) that could then be processed or sold.
Today there was an emergency maintenance, the developers took advantage of it to introduce “autolooping,” a feature that already existed in the original Korean server and that does exactly what it says on the tin.
The game already had an autopathing feature, letting you set a waypoint on the map, which your character would then follow to his destination. Autolooping brings it to the next level. It lets you set a return path, and your character will follow the set route indefinitely until you stop him.
This has a few beneficial effects. Horses level up by distance traveled, and your own character’s breath (which increases stamina) and strength (which increases your carried weight allowance) also grow by walking long distances without or with a trade pack on your back.
By setting an autoloop route and then leaving your PC to do the rest (for instance while you sleep), you can level up your horses and strength passively when you don’t have time to actually play, and enjoy more active and fun aspects of the game when you’re at your keyboard.
In order to create an autoloop route you have to first select a waypoint normally by right-clicking on the map.
Then you hold ALT and hover your mouse on the icon of your own character, until the route glows green instead of blue. When it does, right click again.
Incidentally, if you’re on a wagon, I would suggest avoiding areas with cities or obstacles, because Wagons might get stuck against the corners of buildings, making the whole process moot (your horses won’t level up if they just run on the spot)
Once your route is set and it glows green, you can just press “T” to let your character follow it for the time being.
If you’re on a horse, you can check the small box under its stamina meter to automatically feed him carrots from your inventory every time he’s about to run out of stamina.
I know that some are adamantly against this kind of features, but personally I find them very handy.
A lot of people simply don’t have as much time as others to dedicate to a MMORPG, and allowing them to still get some progression while not at the computer is, in my opinion, a good way to close the gap a bit with those who play all the time.
source: dual shocker
source: dual shocker