Diary of a new dual-boxer (Potentially long-winded)

[Combat Rock]

Greetings one and all.

I have been lurking here for a few weeks now and have scoured the FAQ's in great depth and have came to a decision: I am going to try dual-boxing!

The reason for this thread? Well, when I first came here I was a bit daunted by the techno-babble, jargon and complexities that would appear to be involved in boxing. I am not a rocket scientist, have a very basic understanding of computers but I'm a steady learner if the subject interests me and the idea of boxing has really got me hooked! Hopefully I can lean on the community for answers if the FAQ's/Wikki's dont cover my problems and also glean some info/tips from the battle-scarred vets who use the site. It's worth highlighting that I am not (at this stage) asking any questions! I have a wealth of resource info here to refer to if I start to struggle and can hopefully work things out using the FAQ's.

Here is my current set-up

PC Spec:

Intel core 2 quad CPU Q9550 @2.83Ghz 2.83Ghz

Memory: 8Gig RAM

64 Bit OS (Vista)

Graphics Card: NVidia GeForce 9600GT x2

42" Plasma Screen (Samsung)

Standard keyboard/mouse

Here is my intended boxing set-up

Two accounts (I currently have two accounts with plenty of gold etc on each)

Maximizer (Yet to obtain this)

Keyclone (Yet to obtain this)

Two elemental shaman as starting/testing toons.



I will be using Jon Barton's excellent blog as a guide to getting things moving (http://www.gaxonline.com/profiles/blog/show?id=1511077%3ABlogPost%3A107675) and will post my progress/results here as things start to take shape.



If I can pull this off then anyone can...

Wish me luck!



PS: If this type of thread has been done before or it's not really required then say the word and I'll pull the plug.

[Chranny]

I remember when I'd just started dual-boxing, never had that much fun. Good luck with your team and all. :thumbsup:

[keyclone]

Howdy CR and welcome to the forums!

your system looks rock solid, but i would wonder about the resolution you can get with the plasma.
btw, you don't need to get maximizer... it's built into keyclone now (it's been there for about a year)

if you come across something that has you stumped, feel free to drop me a PM(or call... number is on solidice.com) and i'll see what i can do.

good luck and welcome to the insanity,

Rob (keyclone developer)

ps: don't forget to post some pics of your crew as they level up. it's cool to watch them 'grow up' :D

[Combat Rock]

Thanks for the support guys, I'm bound to take you up on it at some point!

Yup, Keyclone would appear to be an "all in one" solution but I want to tinker with various apps and set ups etc to see the different possibilities available. I will probably settle with Keyclone but would still like to get a working knowledge of maximizer.

Unfortunately there will be a delay to the project getting started in earnest as I have to attend a course (residential, 300+ miles from home) and probably wont have net access. It's only one week long...cant wait to get back and sink my teeth into this!

Cya soon!

Edit: Course has been cancelled!

Ok, Keyclone downloaded, installed and registered. Time to hit a few FAQ's to brush up on the basics and see if I can wrap my head around this...

[Combat Rock]

Alrighty, so far this has been surprisingly easy!

Following a couple of the FAQ's dotted around these forums I have managed to:

1) Create a two man (Shaman) team

2) Get them to follow each other using basic macro's

3) Get them to assist each other using basic macro's

4) Get them to heal each other and/or themselves using basic macro's



Total time spent so far: 10 minutes flicking between the game client and explorer. Very easy to do, now to see if I can use keyclone to set up both screens on the plasma at the same time. This looks slightly more complex than getting the Shammy team to work.

[keyclone]

there might be a trick or two to get the aspect ratios to match, if both screens are running @ different resolutions.

don't forget to check the enable maximizer and match the region names exactly between the command and the region

if you'd like some help, just drop me a note (or call)

[Combat Rock]

Erm...a slight delay (yet again) as I am having too much fun playing my shammy duo!

I did tinker with Keyclone and the integrated maximizer although I hit a brick wall! I think I might need to cut 'n' paste my WoW install in order to "point" the seperate clients at their respective regions. Could be wrong though as I have been a bit half hearted due to the lure of twin-shammy goodness. I did read somewhere in one of the FAQ's about creating a copy of .ini files as a method of negating the need to cut 'n' paste the whole install although I'm not 100% sure where I read it. Darned shammy-lure has been THAT strong...:P

I will knuckle down tomorrow and devote much more time to maximizer.

Note: Anyone reading this and contemplating dual-boxing should dive in! It's so much fun and breathes a ton of fresh air into the game!

[keyclone]

you shouldn't need to copy/paste the wow folders (some people do, but it's for performance in some cases)... the wow settings files could allow you to skip over some tweaking, but typing it in directly is probably easier.

don't forget to use PAUSE when you need to tweak one wow and not the other. the PAUSE key is the default hotkey for toggling keyclone's behavior (thereby overriding it).

[Noodlez]

welome! I have just started as well, 4 shammies and loving it! my Wow time has been decreased because of work and the WotLK raiding leaves me cold(haha), so I took up m-boxing and have fallen in love with it!

These forums are excellent and I have found all my answers here.

Browse, have fun and good luck!!!! :D :D :D

[Combat Rock]

you shouldn't need to copy/paste the wow folders (some people do, but it's for performance in some cases)
Thanks buddy! I had a session of "try it and see what happens" as described below...

I was going to hammer my Shammy duo this evening but decided to fire up the coffee pot and get to grips with the Maximizer settings. I was completely stumped as to why my display was corrupted, it looked like eight or nine WoW clients stacked on top of each other although only one was actually active. Keyclone was dutifully telling me "no region available" regardless of how much I fiddled with resolutions, positions etc and then I remembered a top tip I read somewhere: scrub everything, check the FAQ's and start again.

Yup, I had "pointed" Keyclone to the launcher and not the Wow.exe. I guess muppets come in all shapes and sizes...:)

So, now that I have fixed it I have a brilliant "main" screen with a dinky little "secondary" screen tucked in the top left hand corner of my T.V. This leaves me with a fresh problem...the "secondary" screen looks lonely up there. I think its time to invest in a third and fourth account!

Observations on actually playing whilst dual-boxing:

1) It can be tricky dragging my secondary character around scenery and obstacles. I have seen boxers using direct control of their alts and will need to investigate this as it seems to be a better method especially if I add more accounts to the mix.

2) Picking up/turning in quests can be a painful process. I know I read a macro system somewhere about picking up on the main then sharing with the alts. I will dig up the FAQ and add that to my set-up.

3) People react in very strange ways when they see you boxing. Some are friendly and inquisitive (I pointed three players to this site today) and others are very hostile. I remained polite even when confronted with abusive/trollish players...no point getting caught up in an argument when theres mobs to be killed :)

4) With two characters mobs die rapidly...I cant wait to jump up to four!

Keyclone has created a monster...mwuhahah!

[Solon]

Congrats and welcome!

1) I have found that always taking a wide path (like turning a vehicle with a trailer) helps a lot with your alts, and try jumping when one hangs up a bit. You'd be surprised at how that can affect their path.

2) As for the quests, and general multiboxing, the addon Jamba addon is spectacular. I highly recommend it, and as you seem to be able (and willing!) to read and understand the faqs/directions here, going to the sticky on it [Addon] Jamba - An assistant for multiboxers. 10th Update - 0.4b released. ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=Thread&threadID=12887') and a little reading will make your boxing much faster and easier.

3) Hrmm, I wish my ignore list was longer TBH. I have quit sending people to this site until after i tell them you need 5 accounts and they respond intelligently. (Yes, I am aware that you don't need 5, but in for a penny, in for a pound right?)

4) Oh, yes they do! It gives you a lot of room to play with odd ball talent specs and class combos.

Have fun!

[Combat Rock]

As for the quests, and general multiboxing, the addon Jamba addon is spectacular



Ah yes, I read about that a few days back. Thanks for the tip, I have added the link to my favourites and will investigate it shortly :)

I'm still tweaking the basic stuff I know how to do and adding a bit of polish to my set-up. My healing macros were a bit crude but I have sorted them out and have thrown gift of the naru into the mix. I am trying to avoid using the number keys for healing and want to get used to using shift/alt in conjunction with them. Hopefully this will make is easier to keep the combat abilities simple as shaman end up with quite a few spells/totems. Its like learning to play WoW from day one again...so much fun!



Oh, and I re-rolled my duo and played them up to level 10 again. This was an invaluable exercise in getting used to the set-up, keys, macros etc.

Thanks for the support guys, its nice to see a friendly community here! :thumbsup:

[nooblet]

Hey there Combat Rock! We're at the same exact pace, basically :). I've been rerolling and playing with my toons until I got a firm grasp on it, and then I started quin-boxing a team for the first time (the first non-test team :P). I hope you have some good multi-boxing experiences! I know I have :).

[Combat Rock]

Hey there Combat Rock! We're at the same exact pace, basically :). I've been rerolling and playing with my toons until I got a firm grasp on it, and then I started quin-boxing a team for the first time (the first non-test team :P). I hope you have some good multi-boxing experiences! I know I have :).
Cheers buddy!

Yup, I think it was a worthwhile exercise when I re-rolled. I picked up a few little nuggets of useful info on the FAQs and tweaked a few of my macros. Things are progressing nicely and I have managed to overcome every problem encountered so far. The FAQ's on this site are absolutely awesome!

Good luck with the team mate, I will be adding three more accounts to my set-up this weekend.

:D

[Combat Rock]

Well, I'm going to stop adding to this thread, its kinda pointless as boxing is pretty much easy as pie!

Anything that confuses me or causes problems is cured with a quick sniff around this site. Thanks again for the pointers and encouragement folks and I'll no doubt catch up with you all on the forums. Oh, and I'll post some pictures of my team(s) and set-up when they are a little bit more presentable.

Have fun! :thumbsup: