I think the most intelligent thing to do, is approach each profession from a different standpoint. Crafters have a machine, literally, in front of them that requires almost no interaction (just like always). I am glad for the OFFICIAL AC now, finally ends THAT discussion.
For miners, I would actually prefer something akin to a mini-tower, that the miner could put on the claim rod itself. Yes, I would actually prefer if this was a SEPARATELY designed item, beyond the drillers/miners we have currently - the reason? Because it would give minimal skill on use. Like 1/10th what the regular drill towers give when you empty them.
This would give an incentive still to manually click (for skill), but for those who don't wan to spend the time/patience to drill up the 3k lyst, they could pop one of these babies on it, and come back the next day (or when it's done) and pull it up. And, just like a regular drill tower, it stays there on the claim spot until it's emptied (when it would be put back into the users inventory - broke, of course).
For hunters, I do think we need either an auto-fire, or a burst fire... maybe even an option
on the gun (like, I don't know... how Crysis has it's fire settings perhaps?
). Auto fire could have it's downsides, such as a mob is almost dead, you're using a 200% MU gun that fires 20 rounds/shot @ 55/min, and then you get hit with a lag spike, and the gun keeps firing for another 15-30 seconds. That's a lot of wasted ammo/decay/markup. If MA put a connection check in for that so that there wouldn't be any wasted clicks, I would be happy with a full-auto fire.
And remember, Marco did say that they were looking at something for the miners, but it wouldn't be here for a little while... think he said no earlier than beginning of next year? It's a lot of different possibilities they have to look at, heck I can come up with a dozen sitting here on my ass, but the question is 'balance' and 'feasibility'. Imagine if we just stick an AC button on drillers... we'd have whine threads like hell about how people were ACing their claims, and someone comes along, finds out their AFK, and drags a pile of mobs onto them "cuz they're ACing, you see!"
. Or get PK'd on Amethera while AC drilling... etc etc.