New ISBoxer - Major Issue

[Mercurio]

Lax (or whoever can help),

I downloaded the latest ISBoxer today and it makes the game basically unplayable for me. I think the problem lies with something that was done with how characters are loaded. Some background on how I use ISBoxer:

I run what might be called a character agnostic setup. I have ten accounts. I have no set teams. I routinely switch different characters on various accounts one at a time on the fly. Once I log into ISBoxer, I can be logged in for weeks at a time without ever reloading it. I use ISBoxer to load up ten windows, then play whichever characters (and sometimes even whichever accounts) I want to in those windows. I only have ten names listed under the "Characters" section of ISBoxer and these names don't even match character names I play.

Need a shammy healer instead of a priest? No problem, I just type "/logout" on that window, double-click another character, invite her to the party or raid, and start playing. None of my macros are tied to certain characters and everything is mix and match.

However, with the new ISBoxer, this functionality seems to have been removed. When I loaded my characters in today, there was an odd message on all of my windows that said, "Character in wrong window? ISBoxer expeted So-and-so but got So-and-see. Some functionality may not work correctly." Basic commands still worked, but something major doesn't - if I ever swap windows, the swapped windows minimize - permanantly. I can't get them to show up again at all unless I use windows to completely close the window and reload everything from scratch. Its like playing WoW with no monitor. And unfortunately I found that I'm just not skilled enough to play with no visual or audible feedback whatsoever. :p Edit: Actually, it looks like all the windows are still running, but in the same screen area, so I can only see one at a time.

So, my immediate question is, is there any way to turn off this forcing of the window name to be the same as the character I load that was introduced in the latest build? Or is there another work around?

[Mercurio]

Of much less importance, but something this has made me wonder is, am I the only one that plays this way? Does everyone else have to shut down WoW and load in another character set when they want to change characters? I can see the advantage that you could then put specific characters into sets like "Mage" or "Healer" and automatically run macros through ISBoxer, but that sounds very painful. In playing with lots of other boxers on Kil'jaeden, it seems like asking them to switch out a character or load in a different set of characters than the two hard-wired parties they typically play leads to major angst and tons of configuration issues with ISBoxer. Am I accurately depicting these two different styles (character agnostic windows vs hard-wired teams only)? If so, why wouldn't more people run a character agnostic setup?

[Lax]

No, nobody is shutting down WoW to load another Character Set, unless they don't know the following: All you need to do is log out to Character Select, select the new team from the launch menu, then log into the new (matching) characters in the game from there.

As far as the issue with your Window Layout, it sounds like you may not have done an Export since upgrading? The behavior you're describing is expected until you do. At worst, you can run the Window Layout Wizard (right click on Window Layouts) and replace your current Window Layout with a newly-generated one.

And as far as the ISBoxer Addon giving that warning box... because of the way you are designing your configuration (to not rely on the Character names), you can safely ignore it and click it off. In build 38.2.312.1 or later (not out yet as of this post) you can put in a * for the "Actual name" field per Character to make it ignore.

[Mercurio]

Lax,

Thanks. As always, you are here to clear up ignorance about how ISBoxer works and we appreciate it. I exported again and this time it "took", so window swapping is no longer an issue. Major issue solved!

However, I'm still a bit puzzled about how most people use ISBoxer. Even if they don't have to reload WoW, it sounds like they have to load in a different character set before logging in the new character. I'm obviously using it in a somewhat different way. So, with a simple 3-man setup like this:

Window/Account 1
Mage
Lock

Window/Account 2
Ele Shammy
Boomkin

Window/Account 3
Warrior
Pally

Most people might set up a Character Set 1 of Mage, Ele Shammy, Warrior and a Character Set 2 of Lock, Boomkin, Pally.

If you loaded Character Set 1, then wanted to switch out your Lock for the Mage, would you:
1) simply logout your Mage, have ISBoxer load Character Set 2 (which I guess would ensure your WoW windows were up, but not reload them), then log in your Lock? Then ignore the error message on Accounts 2 and 3 since Character Set 2 is expecting a Boomkin and Pally? And any macros you managed in ISBoxer that were character specific for the Warrior and Ele Shammy would not work, right?
or you could
2) make things really smooth by setting up a Character Set 3 of Lock, Ele Shammy, Warrior.

But doing #2 (setting up a Character Set for every combination of characters) would get lengthy. Obviously this would be untenable for 3 or 4 full teams and 10 accounts due to the almost infinite number of combinations.

Just seeking to understand. Thanks again for your help!

[Lax]

I swear we had this conversation a year ago, maybe it was a different 10 boxer though ;)

Your list is missing a third option:
3) drag desired characters to existing character set, export

Yes, creating a character set for every permutation would be lengthy. Chances are you don't need that many sets ;) Most people aren't that clever and don't mix and match their teams -- it's hard enough thinking about how to set up a specific set of characters, let alone how to make any combo work.

[Mercurio]

Heck, I can't remember what happened last month.

I'll have to consider if I want to use option #3 or just keep using my character agnostic setup.

So in summary, I'm going to assume that was you calling me clever in your last post, even after I showed my ignorance of your great software (again? who knows, I can't remember). I call that a win. If that's a bad assumption, no need to reply. ;)

Thanks again!

<Thread Closed>

[Toned]

I tried to make a totally generic setup where it doesn't matter what character is in the slot, but it got more time consuming than my current method of basically making a character set for each setup I run.

I have a template that i use, and in most cases it's just a slight mod to an exisiting setup, so I copy a character set add/remove who is new/gone and export and load. It's pretty fast.

[Dorffo]

...

[luxlunae]

I just wanted to say that like Mercurio I was hard shutting down wow every time I switched teams before I saw this!

I also only just learned that if one client freezes and I can figure out a way to hard shut down just that client, launching the team again only launches the slot that I closed.

[Lax]

I also only just learned that if one client freezes and I can figure out a way to hard shut down just that client, launching the team again only launches the slot that I closed.
This is a pretty good indicator of who hasn't skimmed the Quick Start Guide ;) though I could do a better job of making some things more obvious.

Relating to the question of how to set up hot swappable teams, though, Berserker is fleshing out a really cool idea over on the isboxer.com forums: http://isboxer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4493#p4493. He's playing Rift, but the same concept works for WoW and probably other games.