Is delay allowed?

[sharpMouse]

If I:

1. Press something on main.
2. Wait a little (lets say, half a second).
3. Broadcast it to minion(s).

is this allowed by Blizzard?

This is needed for assist-macro because /assist command works only after some time. And the assist macro is needed for looting without mouse (in combination with IWT).

[EaTCarbS]

no.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

If I:

1. Press something on main.
2. Wait a little (lets say, half a second).
3. Broadcast it to minion(s).

is this allowed by Blizzard?

This is needed for assist-macro because /assist command works only after some time. And the assist macro is needed for looting without mouse (in combination with IWT).
Not if the delayed action is automatically activated by software.

The way to do that with modern multiboxing software is via something like ISBoxer's steps.

For a mapped key (set to activate when pressed or released; assume this example is for a warrior):
* Step 1 (key down); sent to leader only = /cast Charge
* Step 2 (key up); set option to "Do not progress to the next step for 0.5 seconds"; send to leader only = /cast Devastate (or whatever spell you want)
* Step 3 (key down); send to all other characters = /assist {FTL}
* Step 4 (key up); send to all other characters = /doattackmacrothingshere

That means it requires an explicit action on the part of the user for each "action." Technically, you can combine steps 3 and 4 in the same step since you can do those in the same in-game macro, too.


The only exception to this is non-activated actions like (I think) chat messages, or showing an innerspace text message on the screen (which does not affect anything in game).

[jinkobi]

If you're lazy- you can use an addon called Gnomesequencer. Looks like they have it for Classic also.

Basically it allows macros to use the old castsequence where pressing one macro/key can cycle through commands. Fully customization too.

[sharpMouse]

no.
Why? It doesn't break the rule "one press - one action". Any blue post about it?


* Step 2 (key up); set option to "Do not progress to the next step for 0.5 seconds"; send to leader only = /cast Devastate (or whatever spell you want)
Your step 2 is exactly like mine. It does a delay after real event. Why do you think that yours is better?

Also, splitting key event into down and up looks to be self-deception. I cannot find a bluepost now but I am pretty sure that Blizzard doesn't agree with this split. One key press is one event, with both down and up. You are not banned just because, as Lax said, multiply sendings are allowed if done at same time.

[Moorea]

I tend to agree multi step isboxer keymaps specially with "Do not progress to the next step for X time" is indeed the same as a delay
(and yes key up vs key down is very convenient but...)

I guess the general idea is don't mash 1 key that does a gazillion things while almost afk - be there to play the game and control your toons

(in the specific case though, I think having 1 key for assist and 1 key for iwt is fine; I don't think there is much delay in the default wizard for isboxer but it ends up doing those 2 each spell cast (assist+cast) in 1 key press (and release))

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Let me ask if I understand your position.

Via in-game macro or ISBoxer actions, when the user presses a single key:

/assist Foo
/startattack
/cast Devastate
which has three actions happen instantly when either the keydown or keyup hardware event is detected, is exactly the same thing as when the user presses a single key:

/assist Foo
/startattack
/cast Devastate
*DELAY*
does anything else in game
? Is that your assertion?

[Wubsie]

Your step 2 is exactly like mine. It does a delay after real event. Why do you think that yours is better?

Also, splitting key event into down and up looks to be self-deception. I cannot find a bluepost now but I am pretty sure that Blizzard doesn't agree with this split. One key press is one event, with both down and up. You are not banned just because, as Lax said, multiply sendings are allowed if done at same time.

The difference seems to me to be that the action is triggered without delay due to the input by the player. It does not execute the action automatically after the delay but rather stops the player from taking that action for a set time. Think of it like unbinding or disabling a key outside of the game for a set amount of time.

[sharpMouse]

rather stops the player from taking that action for a set time.
Actually I am doing the same. My program stops sending queue for some time and then continue to process sending queue.

I call it "delay" and may be it is wrong word but I guess Blizzard doesn't care about words.

[Sservis]

Why? It doesn't break the rule "one press - one action". Any blue post about it?

Blizzard does not care about what tools players use and how they do things, they only care about what happens in terms of in-game behavior. Each broadcast action should have an immediately preceding user action at the time of the broadcast. A good specific quote on this is at https://www.dual-boxing.com/threads/46453-Blues-on-Boxing (read the whole thread)

The moment that single keypress initiates a string of actions not normally possible via our base macro system for an individual character, then that is a different matter. It is also a separate offense.

Specifically, delays are not part of the base macro system. There are other similar quotes in that archived thread that pretty clearly call out delays as automation.


Your step 2 is exactly like mine. It does a delay after real event. Why do you think that yours is better?

Also, splitting key event into down and up looks to be self-deception. I cannot find a bluepost now but I am pretty sure that Blizzard doesn't agree with this split. One key press is one event, with both down and up. You are not banned just because, as Lax said, multiply sendings are allowed if done at same time.

Solutions I can think of

Pausing the recognizing of events for a duration and spamming your single key. This is Ughmahedhurtz's solution, note that they could be successive downs.
Leader on Down and rest on Up. This avoids the question of if Up/Down on the same character is one or two actions as there's a console option in game for which type of Key event fires the default bars. This is quite definitely legal as it simply mimics something you could configure in game.
Two keybindings that you manually do in sequence. (or one you spam as in Ughmahedhurtz's solution)
Loot-a-Rang for your specific example, only requires Engineering(1) If you were asking about something else, like chain CC, anti-afk or other things doable with delays, then this won't work.



Also, the linked thread of Blue quotes has a quote that clarifies keypress and release. Also not clear if specific policy has changed since then.

[sharpMouse]

Thank you for the link to blue quotes, it was very informative.

The delay is officially "not okay", but it is mostly about GCD and spell cooldowns. I use delay only for /assist macro and only because current targets of nearby characters are updated with some delay. I guess this is against the word of ToS but not against the spirit of ToS: minion character does exactly the same thing as main - picks a target.

Also the idea to split keydown and keyup events is illegal:

"Just make absolutely certain that you’re not making more than one keypress (for the purposes of the word ‘keypress’ this includes a single key press AND release with no delays), or including delays between key-presses with each action."

It works just because, in practice, generating several keypresses simultaneously is not punished.

[mbox_bob]

Actually I am doing the same. My program stops sending queue for some time and then continue to process sending queue.

I call it "delay" and may be it is wrong word but I guess Blizzard doesn't care about words.Aye, they would not mince words. It would be called a bot. Because with enough stopping and continuing of the "sending queue", and the appropriate keystrokes being queued up, you could start it off, walk away from the computer, and the toon will continue to play the game all by itself. This is pretty much the definition of a bot.
You may not be taking it quite this far, but how are we to know? You yourself must realise all this already, otherwise you would have posed your question on Blizzard's forums.



I tend to agree multi step isboxer keymaps specially with "Do not progress to the next step for X time" is indeed the same as a delay No, ISBoxer's implementation of "Do not progress....." is not the same. It does have a progression delay in the switching to the next step, within the ISBoxer configuration, however it DOES NOT EXECUTE the next step all by itself when that delay happens to have expired.
If you start a mapped key sequence in ISBoxer, and walk away from the keyboard, it will never finish that sequence, because it requires you to press the hotkey to progress the next available step. i.e. it stops sending any keystrokes to the game the moment you stop pressing keys on the keyboard.

[MadMilitia]

It's nuanced but think of it this way. You can't ever get isboxer to do something you yourself didn't initiate.

Sure, just like in WoW you can have 1 key do almost everything and many of us have tried but it's not the same at all as pressing one key and walking away from the computer while it works itself.

And this is exactly why the WoW API and CastSequence macros are severely limited. So you can't macro a gaming keyboard and write giant logical routines to do all your work. For example procs. Procs to be played 100% efficiently need to be done entirely at random of your normal rotation. You will never even get close to 100% efficiency with procs on a CastSequence macro. Not ever. Every lazy macro out there that uses CastSequence has a keymodifier that intiiates the use of the proc. Basically, the user is then pressing alt/shift/ctrl whatever and their 1 DPS button. This is no different than them having multiple buttons in their layout which they initiate.

Hopefully that makes more sense. This issue was sussed out over a decade ago. It's not as if you found IsBoxer and then found something illegal in it a decade after it has been researched.

[Sservis]

Also the idea to split keydown and keyup events is illegal:

"Just make absolutely certain that you’re not making more than one keypress (for the purposes of the word ‘keypress’ this includes a single key press AND release with no delays), or including delays between key-presses with each action."

It works just because, in practice, generating several keypresses simultaneously is not punished.

I'm assuming you're responding to others. I was very particular in that I said leader on key down and others on key up. Each character in that case is still just one action per keypress and this is fine. You can then create your own variable length delay by holding the key.

[aasi888]

I'm wondering if I can do this on a single key press:

keydown (Master):

/startattack
/cast Spell

keyup (Slaves):

/assist Master
/cast Heroic Strike
USE IWT hotkey


Is this allowed and is this how ISBoxer does this? IWT + Cast is done at the same time? I couldn't find anything in the docs: http://isboxer.com/wiki/WoW:Interact_with_Target

EDIT: Specifically I want to know if the key-up action you can see up here is OK (or do I need to separate the IWT from it).

[Sservis]

I'm wondering if I can do this on a single key press:

keydown (Master):

/startattack
/cast Spell

keyup (Slaves):

/assist Master
/cast Heroic Strike
USE IWT hotkey


Is this allowed and is this how ISBoxer does this? IWT + Cast is done at the same time? I couldn't find anything in the docs: http://isboxer.com/wiki/WoW:Interact_with_Target

EDIT: Specifically I want to know if the key-up action you can see up here is OK (or do I need to separate the IWT from it).

I would expect this to be fine the triggering of the actions to be fine. For what you're doing on the trigger, the question to ask is "Could I write an in game macro (or addon) that does that?"