jaxsplace
04-13-2009, 11:54 PM
I have been triple boxing for a while now and I have since evolved to voice commanding characters in the world of warcraft. My present voice command infrastructure right now is limited to dual boxing two characters, my but hardware solution for multiboxing, I used VETRA Megacast and Megaswitch with Y connectors. I found that using a manual input with XKeys pro controlling multiple characters has become cumbersome, so I have switched to voice commanding my subordinate character(s). I am looking strongly considering keyclone in order to add a third toon to my group.
I have read a lot of posts of people using VR Commander and Voice Commander. I guess I am different; I use software called VAC (Voice Activated Commands)
http://www.dwvac.com/ ('http://www.dwvac.com/')
From just reading the posts the only difference between VR Commander and VAC is VR Commander does not require training whereas VAC does use windows vista speech recognition components (or xp if you download the components) in order to work, which does requiring training. The training does not take long in my opinion and the results of using voice have been phenomenal because I no longer have to fiddle around with fingers touching a button and remembering where I put what character-ability to what button. I simply speak and the toon acts accordingly.
I have read where some people say that there is a delay when using voice, but in my experience this is not true. I speak and the character ability executes instantly. I have also read where some players wanted to split the multiboxing tasks between Xkeys and reserve voice commands for special situations and I would say, you are selling yourself short by not allowing voice to dominate and use xKeys for special situations or do not use xKeys at all.
Now I will admit, that voice is not perfect, but it is in my opinion 90% effective. For example, I tend to sniffle a lot as allergies make boogers in my nose grow at rapid rate, so I am always sniffling. If I sniffle most of the time it executes the fade power on my priest, which can be annoying but also an indirect benefit while in combat. If I am riding on my mount and I sniffle, fade kicks and I dismount. If I sigh with a long exhale, the priest may sit and stand and sit stand. So to avoid these kinds of screw ups I will mute the microphone when things are in transit, otherwise, I keep a good check on my sniffles and breathing while in combating mobs. There has been a time or two, when the battle goes wrong and I may curse my priest and he will just start running off. These things happen but for the most part you can control it by keeping a conscious attention on yourself epically if you sniffle, sneeze or breath hard frequently.
I currently run the following class combinations when I dual box using voice:
Hunter – Priest
Warlock – Priest
Death Knight – Resto Druid
Feral Druid – Resto Druid
I am looking at keyclone because I really want to add a third character to my group. I want to add a second hunter to an existing hunter- priest setup.
I setup as many character abilities as possible, to include movement, and targeting. For my priest it is very easy. I will say “member one” and it targets my hunter. I may say “pet one” and it targets my hunter’s pet, then I may follow up with saying, “power word shield”, or “renew” and priest abilities execute accordingly. I may say, “member one” and then say, “follow me” and the priest follows me. When I get ready for combat and I need to flexibility to use my hunter without the priest tagging behind, I will say “step back” and priest steps back breaking the follow on my hunter. If my priest has a hard time dumping agro even after a fade, I may say, “move back” and priest moves backward continuously for about four second attempting to move out of harm’s way, but overall I can manage agro very well using my pet, distract shot and fade. If the action leaves my priest’s point of view in other words I do not what is going on in front of me on my priest montier, I may say, “Turn Right” or “Turn Left” and my priest turns 90 degrees. I may say, “Hard Right” or “Hard Left” and my priest turns 180 degrees. If I need a little dps boost, I may say “assist me” (or “acquire target”) and the priest targets my target (or the nearest target) and I say, “Shadow word pain” or “Smite”. I have taken on as many as 7 or 8 mobs at a time at my own level or greater and survived all because of being able to use a priest via voice in conjunction the hunter’s flexibility.
The cool thing about VAC (and I would guess probably with VR commander as well) is you can set up reusable templates. For example, I could build a template for holy priest and reuse that template for any priest of any given race. The only thing that may differ are racial abilities.
I wanted share my experience because it may contribute to someone’s else motivation to want to try voice or give some else some ideas of the flexibility it offers.
I have read a lot of posts of people using VR Commander and Voice Commander. I guess I am different; I use software called VAC (Voice Activated Commands)
http://www.dwvac.com/ ('http://www.dwvac.com/')
From just reading the posts the only difference between VR Commander and VAC is VR Commander does not require training whereas VAC does use windows vista speech recognition components (or xp if you download the components) in order to work, which does requiring training. The training does not take long in my opinion and the results of using voice have been phenomenal because I no longer have to fiddle around with fingers touching a button and remembering where I put what character-ability to what button. I simply speak and the toon acts accordingly.
I have read where some people say that there is a delay when using voice, but in my experience this is not true. I speak and the character ability executes instantly. I have also read where some players wanted to split the multiboxing tasks between Xkeys and reserve voice commands for special situations and I would say, you are selling yourself short by not allowing voice to dominate and use xKeys for special situations or do not use xKeys at all.
Now I will admit, that voice is not perfect, but it is in my opinion 90% effective. For example, I tend to sniffle a lot as allergies make boogers in my nose grow at rapid rate, so I am always sniffling. If I sniffle most of the time it executes the fade power on my priest, which can be annoying but also an indirect benefit while in combat. If I am riding on my mount and I sniffle, fade kicks and I dismount. If I sigh with a long exhale, the priest may sit and stand and sit stand. So to avoid these kinds of screw ups I will mute the microphone when things are in transit, otherwise, I keep a good check on my sniffles and breathing while in combating mobs. There has been a time or two, when the battle goes wrong and I may curse my priest and he will just start running off. These things happen but for the most part you can control it by keeping a conscious attention on yourself epically if you sniffle, sneeze or breath hard frequently.
I currently run the following class combinations when I dual box using voice:
Hunter – Priest
Warlock – Priest
Death Knight – Resto Druid
Feral Druid – Resto Druid
I am looking at keyclone because I really want to add a third character to my group. I want to add a second hunter to an existing hunter- priest setup.
I setup as many character abilities as possible, to include movement, and targeting. For my priest it is very easy. I will say “member one” and it targets my hunter. I may say “pet one” and it targets my hunter’s pet, then I may follow up with saying, “power word shield”, or “renew” and priest abilities execute accordingly. I may say, “member one” and then say, “follow me” and the priest follows me. When I get ready for combat and I need to flexibility to use my hunter without the priest tagging behind, I will say “step back” and priest steps back breaking the follow on my hunter. If my priest has a hard time dumping agro even after a fade, I may say, “move back” and priest moves backward continuously for about four second attempting to move out of harm’s way, but overall I can manage agro very well using my pet, distract shot and fade. If the action leaves my priest’s point of view in other words I do not what is going on in front of me on my priest montier, I may say, “Turn Right” or “Turn Left” and my priest turns 90 degrees. I may say, “Hard Right” or “Hard Left” and my priest turns 180 degrees. If I need a little dps boost, I may say “assist me” (or “acquire target”) and the priest targets my target (or the nearest target) and I say, “Shadow word pain” or “Smite”. I have taken on as many as 7 or 8 mobs at a time at my own level or greater and survived all because of being able to use a priest via voice in conjunction the hunter’s flexibility.
The cool thing about VAC (and I would guess probably with VR commander as well) is you can set up reusable templates. For example, I could build a template for holy priest and reuse that template for any priest of any given race. The only thing that may differ are racial abilities.
I wanted share my experience because it may contribute to someone’s else motivation to want to try voice or give some else some ideas of the flexibility it offers.