The "EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW" Thread

[amalgam]

EDIT: Fixed formatting at work. Now it's pretty.


I just started throwing together an outline for this massive project and wanted to get some opinions on stuff that needs to be added, modified, etc. I also type sometimes like a blind child with Parkinson's so feel free to correct typos, grammar, and soforth.

And, no, I will not argue about my comma-listing style. It's a moot point from Old English and Victorian eras; move on, people.

GETTING TO THE POINT, I PROMISE:

ADVANCED HELP FOR SETTING UP MULTI-BOXING

Purpose: Aid in the creation of a flexible, effective way to synchronize two or more characters in World of Warcraft using nothing more than the in-game macro system and a hardware and/or software broadcasting solution, all while remaining with the realm of Blizzard's Terms of Service (ToS) and End-User License Agreement (EULA). And have a little fun along the way, of course.

Contents:
[code:1]
I. Welcome to Multi-Boxing!
1. Choosing Your Group
A. What to Know Before Starting
i. Difficulty
ii. Dealing With "Noobs"
iii. Words to Avoid
iv. Naming Conventions
v. Quests and Levelling
B. How Many Classes Should I Play?
i. One Class: We Are Anonymous, We Are Legion
ii. Two Classes: The Formulaic Group
iii. Three Classes: The Holy Trinity
iv. Four Classes: The Insane
v. Five Classes and Beyond: /wrists
C. What Classes Should I Play?
i. Hybrids: Not Just for the Environment
ii. Damage-Dealers: I Like Lasers and Melty Stuff
iii. Healers: The Truly Masochistic
D. What Races Should I Use?
i. PvP-Oriented
a. Alliance: Midget Feet are Small
b. Horde: Zombies Don't Need Sleep or Get Scared. Ever. Seriously.
ii. PvE-Oriented
a. Alliance: Of Midgets and Men...and Other Men-like Creatures
b. Horde: Jamaicans, "Cavemen" References, Zombies, Legolas, and Steaks
2. Setting Everything Up
A. How Many Can I Run?
i. Computer Performance Specifications
ii. Considering Income
B. Hardware or Software Solution?
i. Hardware Broadcasting: Go Big or Go Home
a. Wireless Receiver Method
b. Multiplexers
ii. Software Broadcasting: "Hey, Guys! Look what I Can Do, LOL!"
a. keyclone
b. Open-Source Solutions
1. Synergy
2. Multibox
3. Octopus
4. Other Solutions
C. Choosing Your Input Device(s)
i. Keyboards and Similar Devices
a. X-keys: I Wanna Be Like Xzin
b. G15: Fancy Keyboard
c. Nostromo: The New Nintendo Power Glove, Now With Less Suck
d. Other Devices
ii. Mice
D. Displaying Your New Army
i. Multiple WoWs and Maximizer: OMG MATH
ii. Multiple Monitors and Their Setup
II. Logging In to Your New Life in WoW
1. Level 1 and Lost: The Multi-Boxer's First Hour of Panic
A. Focus and its Monumental Impact on Your Playstyle
i. The "Focus for Everything" Style
ii. The "Focus for Crowd Control" Style
B. Casting Spells and Learning to Tweak Macros to Suit YOU
i. A Warning About Macro Space
ii. Variable Target Checks = Good
2. Level 10 and Somewhat Confident: The Multi-Boxer's Fun Zone
A. Not THAT Fun Zone, You Pervs
i. Questing
ii. The First 1500 Questions from Lowbies
3. Level 20 and Loving it: The First Nightmare is Over
A. Class-Defining Abilities
B. Soloing Instances
[/code:1]

<<<THIS DOCUMENT NEEDS SERIOUS EXPANSION FROM USER INPUT>>>




I. Welcome to Multi-Boxing!

So, you've come across our little corner of the Internet. maybe you saw a Multi-boxer in a BG or questing or maybe you saw a video of it being done and want to give it a shot. Hopefully, this document will be a handy reference for those just starting out. Let's get to it.

1. Choosing Your Group

We'll discuss these points more in-depth in a second, but for the moment just get in mind what you want. All-melee is mostly out and using any melee except your main is probably going to be more frustrating than anything. The typical setup is one tank and several ranged DPS, so your first group should be something similar.

>>>A. What to Know Before Starting

Multi-boxing is not easier than levelling one character.

I'll repeat that because it's worth repeating.

Multi-boxing is NOT easier than levelling one character. There is a learning curve you must overcome and it will be a long, hard road full of tweaking macros and testing what works and what does not. The XP is the same rate, but now it's divided 5 ways in instances and grinding. You need up to 5 times the money, but you're working off of the same amount you'd get alone. Latency will cause targeting to fail, /follow will break, macros will behave strangely, and so on. There will be difficulty, so do not expect it to be easy.

You WILL garner unnecessary (or unwanted) attention for what you do. Whether it's the usual "cool" response or the "OMG CHEATER" response, you are going to be noticed. The response you want to give in these circumstances is polite. There is no such thing as good attention from a GM unless he shows up and praises the ground you are standing on, so being rude and harassing in response to a comment is the wrong path to take.

If someone does make a public "OMG BOT" comment, I tend to go out of my way to show his error just to keep the public informed that this is within ToS and EULA. It's probably not necessary, but the more support you can get, the better.

On another note, you will be asked a LOT of questions. Expect to macro the answers. Seriously. Avoid certain words like automatic, bot, third-party, hack, etc. in these responses; they carry negative connotations and may do more harm for you than you think.

As far as naming your characters goes, there are a few approaches. I like to use Greek letters or their abbreviations in my names, while others use variations of the same word (Eteocles, Eteoclees, etc.). Still others go with the anti-Arena route using similar letters or arrangements to accomplish obfuscating targets (Lliilliillili, Lliillililliil, etc.). Use whatever you think works.


Version Tracker:
10 Jan 2008 -- v0.1 -- Created Topic and posted first draft of Outline

[Xzin]

I like it, a solid start!

[Wilbur]

This will be good until we get the Wiki up :-D

[Contents]

So are you just putting up a general outline in which you are updating the sections, or are you asking for some input from the community?

If the latter: Remember kids, lvls 1-20 will make you want to /wrists, but after that things go much easier. As the cool kids these days say, "Keep on truckin'."

[Avathar]

Remember kids, lvls 1-20 will make you want to /wrists, but after that things go much easier. As the cool kids these days say, "Keep on truckin'."

Just out of curiosity, why is this? My husband and I play together, but I'm levelling our characters up on my own when he's not around (since I can't get Octopus up and running for some reason and don't have keyclone yet, I normally play with one on follow except when I need a sheep or something) and it's not that bad. My only frustration is the constant need to alt-tab at the moment...I can't wait till I get one of the softwares to work.

[marvein]

Remember kids, lvls 1-20 will make you want to /wrists, but after that things go much easier. As the cool kids these days say, "Keep on truckin'."

Just out of curiosity, why is this? My husband and I play together, but I'm levelling our characters up on my own when he's not around (since I can't get Octopus up and running for some reason and don't have keyclone yet, I normally play with one on follow except when I need a sheep or something) and it's not that bad. My only frustration is the constant need to alt-tab at the moment...I can't wait till I get one of the softwares to work.

the learning curve and severely limited spells/abilities you have at those levels combined with trying to do several at once just makes it worse. For me it was lvl 14 because by then I was able to start easily clearing instances for nice gear and better exp but it depends on what you are playing. Basically dont get frustrated too quickly, its normal for the start of this to be a bit hard/annoying :)

[amalgam]

This is just the outline. I will be creating the aforementioned sections and fleshing them out soon; I've already got a healthy start on the more basic stuff.

However, if you have input/suggestions, by all means, post it. I am not one to be particularly adverse to accepting criticism and so forth, so if you feel something should be changed, post about it and say why.

For the record, the only tidbits of info I have about hardware multi-boxing is from the stickies (I use software), so if someone wants to do a condensed write-up and link to some more prominent threads on the HW side, go for it.

[keyclone]

@ Avathar

drop me a PM and we'll see what we can come up with.