Need more keys

[Bigbr]

First of all, thank you to everyone who contributes to this hobby. I can't believe the amount of detail that is put into these guides, and how hard so many of you have worked to share information. I have been lurking here for some time and just finally decided to give multiboxing a go. That said, I'm not yet familiar with all the terminology, but I simply need more keys! I use ISBoxer and I'm running a Shaman team, keeping all abilities identical to make my first team easy to learn with. I am quickly realizing that the few 1 through = keys are not enough to effectively map all of my abilities. I haven't even began trying to change specs and use macros for various slaves so I know I will need even more available mutual key binds in the future. I am sure that I must have missed something in all the videos I've watched and guides I read on this site. Is there another way to broadcast abilities to my slaves other than putting a spell on the very few 1 through = key binds?

A less important question; is there a way to loot with my main toon (master) so as to collect all the loot and distribute it out to the other toons, whether through a round robin style distribution, or manually? It is getting tedious to have to switch screens to manually loot on slaves. I am guessing IWT and repeater is the answer but I can't figure out how to make it work.

Thanks again :D

[Ualaa]

You can use modifiers with your keys.

For example, if you use the mapped key wizard...
You can use a hot key of Control + A, and have it send whatever you want to the game.
Which doesn't have to be Control A, but it could be.
You can have a macro bound to act on the Control A input.
In a lot of games you can add additional action bars, and often have those bars hidden so they don't clutter your screen real-estate.
The hot key will still activate the ability.

You're not limited to Control, and can also use Alt or Shift quite easily.

Modifier keys sometimes don't interact properly with the numpad keys.
But they work fine with the numbers above the alphabet keys and of course with the alphabet characters too.

You can use mouse buttons as hot keys, especially if you have a fancy mouse like a G700 or something similar with a lot of keys.
In general its good to use the mouse as the hot key, but have a key combination sent to the game.
With something bound to that key combination.

You can use a combination of modifiers, such as Alt + Control + Whatever.

You could also use another key, as a modifier ability.
Make an entire key map, similar to Control/Always On or General.
You'd have a two-step mapped key, which activates on press or release.
When you press the key, or more specifically while you hold it down your alternate keymap is on step one.
Which deactivates your 'normal' keymap and activates your 'alternate' keymap.
When you release the key, it reverses the activations so your alternate keymap is turned off and your normal keymap is enabled again.
That way, your 1, 2, 3, 4 etc... can do a normal action most of the time, but act entirely differently while you're holding down a specific hot key (which might be a your mouse's side button which is pressed by your thumb.



If your game is world or warcraft, or something very similar in mechanics.
You can set Click to Move to be on (escape, interface actions, mouse actions, check the box).
And have an Interact With Target hot key set.
Then you target the corpse with the lead/active character.
Everyone assists, which could be your 'cast whatever kill key', which won't fire off because the target is dead... but will still make the other windows/slaves assist your active character.
Then broadcast the IWT key a few times... might need to press it once/twice to get the slaves to move into range of the corpse, and then again once they're stationary and near it.
Sometimes I needed to push it once per character.
But eventually they all loot the corpse and each take what they can from it.

You can use this exact method to interact with a flight master or with a quest NPC.
Mouse broadcast (or the Jamba addon, if you're playing Warcraft), can have your slaves pick the same option as your active/master character.

[MiRai]

Is there another way to broadcast abilities to my slaves other than putting a spell on the very few 1 through = key binds?
Yes, use the Mapped Key Wizard to create whatever you need.

http://isboxer.com/wiki/WoW:Quick_Start_Guide#Quickly_add_many_hotkeys.2C_ optionally_with_auto-assist
http://isboxer.com/wiki/Common_modifications#The_game.27s_Action_Bars
http://isboxer.com/wiki/Mapped_Key_Wizard


A less important question; is there a way to loot with my main toon (master) so as to collect all the loot and distribute it out to the other toons, whether through a round robin style distribution, or manually? It is getting tedious to have to switch screens to manually loot on slaves. I am guessing IWT and repeater is the answer but I can't figure out how to make it work.
No, a single character cannot "collect" the loot and distribute it afterwards -- This is one of the functions of Interact with Target. Setting up IWT is literally three steps:


Set a key binding in game
Tell ISBoxer what that key binding is under Variable Keystrokes > Interact with Target
Assign a Hotkey to the Mapped Key for Interact with Target

http://isboxer.com/wiki/WoW:Quick_Start_Guide#Interaction_with_NPCs
http://isboxer.com/wiki/WoW:Interact_with_Target

[Bigbr]

Ah, now I understand the key mapping video a little more. I am going to re-watch it now and hopefully I'll get much more out of it. Not sure if either of you made the video but the animations explaining how key mapping works are very well done.

I actually do have an old razer naga mouse and a new Logtec G600 along with a razer nostromo game pad. Between these tools I should be able to remap some buttons to use to map keys to. I am still scratching my head at all of this info a bit but hopefully I am not the only noob who had to reread everything a few times before all the light bulbs turned on.

About the looting, that makes perfect sense. I remembered reading info on how to properly utilize IwT, and watching part of a video that discussed it. I just needed someone to explain it in the context of looting for me to connect the dots. I wish these tools would have been around when I was multiboxing ice wizards in DAOC back in the day, powerleveing guildies and wrecking old Emain :D

Thanks again for your help. This may be the most dedicated and helpful gaming community I have ever came across. Mad props!

[TheOlz]

II am still scratching my head at all of this info a bit but hopefully I am not the only noob who had to reread everything a few times before all the light bulbs turned on.

Trust me, you are not alone. Don't feel too overwhelmed!
I think I spent a month reading here and watching YouTube guides, reading guides on isboxer site, etc before anything made sense to me, beyond the setup wizard. If there was no wizard in isBoxer I'd never have made it through. It is pretty overwhelming if you aren't someone who's really technically minded (like myself) to start with, but once you start setting things up it should all start to fall into place. At least, it's starting to for me.
I've only multiboxed for about 3 months, and there is still a lot I want to learn to do!

Good luck and have fun, dude!

[Bigbr]

Trust me, you are not alone. Don't feel too overwhelmed!
I think I spent a month reading here and watching YouTube guides, reading guides on isboxer site, etc before anything made sense to me, beyond the setup wizard. If there was no wizard in isBoxer I'd never have made it through. It is pretty overwhelming if you aren't someone who's really technically minded (like myself) to start with, but once you start setting things up it should all start to fall into place. At least, it's starting to for me.
I've only multiboxed for about 3 months, and there is still a lot I want to learn to do!

Good luck and have fun, dude!

The biggest problem I'm having right now is trying to get shift1-shift= to work exactly as the start up wizard programed 1-= to work. Ie., Lightning Bolt in my main action bar, spot number one, when activated via pressing #1 on my mouse also activates spot one on the main action bar on all slaves. That way I can just drag and drop abilities to associated key bound action bar spots. I can also write in game macros and assign them to those key binds. I know this may not be the best use of ISboxer, but it makes sense to me and keeps it as close to what I have got used to doing, playing a single character as possible. I basically want to expand the automatically configured 1-= to also include shift1-shift=, with the ability to possible assign more down the road (ie., control1-control6). I hope this makes sense. I have been playing with the key map wizard and can't get this to work. I have also tried adding the action directly to the tree, using the option (wow generated macro) and clicking /assist [FTL] macro, but it doesn't seem to work.

[TheOlz]

To clarify are you looking for keystroke broadcasting only, or both mouse click and keystroke for the action bars?

For keystroke only, it should be fairly straight forward, you could even copy & paste the existing 1 thru =, and just change them in isBoxer (though you'd be better off using the keymap wizard as explained in the tutorial above). Remember that you have to set the right key as the key bind in game too, isboxer can't do that bit for you.

If you want the option to click also, using the "green menu bar" that is used, you will need to create a new menu to overlay on your new action bar, too. That, I, unfortunately can't help you with as I have opted out of using mouse clicks for actions (it was a habit I wanted to break for even single player), so I have that disabled.

Someone here will be able to assist though, though you could probably scour the isboxer forum for an answer too! :)

Also, remember that WoW uses some modifier+number by default, for example pet bars default to crtl+1 through 7 (I think), if you want to use those keybinds for something else, make sure they are no longer assigned to pet action bar in game.

[Bigbr]

To clarify are you looking for keystroke broadcasting only, or both mouse click and keystroke for the action bars? Keystroke only. The only time i ever actually click anything is with quest rewards, various menu items and such. I have tried using the wizard so many times, and in various ways and I simply cant get my shift 1 (the key I have been experimenting with) to broadcast when I activate it. Thing is, the others were set up to not only broadcast what ever is in the corresponding action bar slot, but to also do so with an assist macro built in. When I try to do the same with Shift-1, I can find an assist macro in the "wow macro" option of the drop down menu but it writes the macro as "/assist [TFL]" with no option to edit it. But even putting the macro aside, I can't figure out how to merely broadcast the shift-1. The only work around is to turn broadcasting on which is obviously counter productive. I know I am probably missing something that is glaryingly obvious but my mind is all buggered up screwing with this hangup and I am getting frustrated.

[Khatovar]

I simply cant get my shift 1 (the key I have been experimenting with) to broadcast when I activate it.

Are you sure? IIRC, Shift + 1-6{?} pages the action bar by default. Using Shift+1 means all you're asking your toons to do is assist and then change the action bar to page 1 {default bar}. It may look like they aren't doing anything, but in fact they are - it's just not what you were expecting. To use any modified key you need to be sure it isn't already assigned to something else in the WoW Keybindings.

Also, shift+numpad activates the alternate actions on the numberpad. That is Shift+numpad1 = End, Shift+numpad3 = PageDown etc. If you're using the Naga with the default binding profiles, then you're using the Numpad, not the base 1-= keybinds. You'd need to edit the bindings in the Naga Configurator to use straight number keys or shift+straight numbers.

[Bigbr]

Are you sure? IIRC, Shift + 1-6{?} pages the action bar by default. Using Shift+1 means all you're asking your toons to do is assist and then change the action bar to page 1 {default bar}. It may look like they aren't doing anything, but in fact they are - it's just not what you were expecting. To use any modified key you need to be sure it isn't already assigned to something else in the WoW Keybindings.

Also, shift+numpad activates the alternate actions on the numberpad. That is Shift+numpad1 = End, Shift+numpad3 = PageDown etc. If you're using the Naga with the default binding profiles, then you're using the Numpad, not the base 1-= keybinds. You'd need to edit the bindings in the Naga Configurator to use straight number keys or shift+straight numbers.
I'm absolutely sure. I changed the keybinds to set up my action bars as soon as I made the toons anyway. I have shift1-3 bound on bartender action bar 10 and shift 4-6 on another bar (not sure which one) because I have them arranged in a way that mimics my mouse visually. I have been using the same UI setup for years. And just to make sure I wasn't missing something I reset the shift keybinds and bound them to something else, then rebound them back to the action bars I choosed to have them on. On top of that I used shift-1 on both my mouse, my keyboard and my number pad, along with using both keyboard shift keys and the one's on my mouse and nostromo game pad. I think I am going to call it quits. I've wasted hours tonight trying to do this one thing, as a matter of principle! lol. Maybe tomorrow with a fresh head I will see something I missed. I'll also re-watch the tutorial video on key mapping. Thanks for your help.

[TheOlz]

Something must be going wrong for you.
To simplify the process, by copy/pasting and not figuring out the assist and stuff yourself...

Under your Mapped Keys, Combat
Right Click "Assist+Broadcast 1", select Make a Copy.
You will now have a duplicate at the bottom of the list - rename it to whatever (probably "Assist+Broadcast Shift+1")
On the right hand side pane, change the hotkey to whatever you want to press (probably Shift+1) to pass this key to the WoW clients.
Expand the Mapped Key (the little +), expand the Steps (the little +)
On the right hand side pane, under Actions, select the 2nd item which will be "1->All" and change the Key Combination to Shift+1

Make sure to save your settings (ctrl+s), export to Inner Space (ctrl+e) and you should be fine.

If you have changed nothing else from what the basic wizard sets you up with, you will now have a Shift+1 that broadcasts, with an assist before it.
Which it sounds like is all you are after to start with.

As mentioned make sure you don't have shift+1 set anywhere else to broadcast in isBoxer (by default you won't) and have it set to only the action bar spot you want in game (ie. unbound from switching default action bars)

If that doesn't work, it seems like something is going wrong elsewhere, because I quite literally did this as I typed it up on a clean wizard setup and it works fine. If it's a no-go, you're going to need someone more experienced than I am, and it might be worth dropping into the isboxer chat room to see if you can get some assistance there.

[MiRai]

If you need further assistance with this, then you should share your profile (http://isboxer.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=13). Endlessly guessing as to why something might be wrong with your profile is kind of a big waste of time after the first few initial guesses, especially with something as simple as setting up an assist & broadcast Mapped Key.

[Ishar]

You might want to look into a like a pro type setup. At least regarding the functions bit. Then rather than broadcast whole swaths of keys just have keymaps broadcast the specific ones you need.

To clarify this won't fix whatever configuration error you are having but it is probably a better long term approach.

Once functions are defined hit a dummy and integrate abilities a few at a time and testing as you go until all are mapped.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk

[Bigbr]

Ok, here is my profile. I did what TheOlz suggested and it still won't work ingame. And when I copied the working keymap the copy was identical to the new keymap I made via the wizard, and directly creating it in the tree. I have checked off all noob steps (ie., making sure shift-1 isn't bound to anything other than an action bar ingame, saving the new setup in ISBoxer, exporting to inerspace ect.).

http://www.privatepaste.com/e5e74aad44

[Bigbr]

Also, last night I tried to shut my PC down and this morning it was still on. It said that ISBoxer wouldn't allow my PC to shut down. I can't figure out how to shut ISBoxer off. Short of forcing it closed via the task manager, which I don't want to do since I'm already having problems with it.

[Bigbr]

Problem Solved! So, whatever was causeing my ISBoxer to not close, keeping my PC from turning off and forceing me to force close it via the task manager, was also causing mapped keys to not save. So I was creating them correctly, but because they were not saveing they were not getting pushed out to inner space. I went ahead and erased all key maps and everything else, re-ran the set up wizard, and now I am able to add key maps and they work in game.

On an odd side note, now only the new mapped keys I create show up in ISBoxer. The ones created during the set up wizerd to /assist me and use 1through+ are not visible under the mapped keys menu, though they are working correctly in game. I guess I wont complain since they are working, but If I need to copy them, edit them, or whatever, it would be impossible...

Thanks to everyone who tried to help me figure this puzzle out!

[MiRai]

Ok, here is my profile. I did what TheOlz suggested and it still won't work ingame. And when I copied the working keymap the copy was identical to the new keymap I made via the wizard, and directly creating it in the tree. I have checked off all noob steps (ie., making sure shift-1 isn't bound to anything other than an action bar ingame, saving the new setup in ISBoxer, exporting to inerspace ect.).

http://www.privatepaste.com/e5e74aad44
For future reference, the problem with the profile above is that you had three sets of default Key Maps and you were adding new Mapped Keys into Key Maps which weren't even attached to your Character Set. So, no matter what you would have kept adding it would have never worked for your one Character Set. You mention you've since cleaned out the profile and started fresh, which would have cleared out all the duplicate Key Maps, and, as you mention, fixed the problem. The issue was not related to the "can't close ISBoxer" bug, which Lax has been trying to track down for some time now, but either way, glad it's all working correctly.


On an odd side note, now only the new mapped keys I create show up in ISBoxer. The ones created during the set up wizerd to /assist me and use 1through+ are not visible under the mapped keys menu, though they are working correctly in game. I guess I wont complain since they are working, but If I need to copy them, edit them, or whatever, it would be impossible...
If you chose to use the Menu overlay (the green boxes) on the final step of the Wizard, then 1 through = are set up inside of the Menu's Hotkey/Button sets and not in the Combat Key Map.

[Bigbr]

h, that definitely explains the problem I was having. I was wondering why there were multiple map key sets. well now that everything is working correctly I'm really enjoying this program. tThanks again for your time.