UI to control alts like a pet?

[lilbopeep]

Is there any technical stumbling block to creating a UI mod that uses a private chat channel to send commands to your other alts to trigger spells and commands?

I am thinking of something like a pet bar, that allows you to control your alts without having to use 3rd party software. I don't see any reason something like that would be against TOS since nothing is automated, its still a person typing on a keyboard sending commands.

I'm thinking something like how GEM works with it's custom chat channel to send data back and forth. The tricky part would be getting the UI to perform the actions on the slave characters.

Has anybody tried something like this? It would make multiboxing much more user friendly.

[Scribbler]

There was an addon like this a long time ago, but it got destroyed by Blizz.

It used to work on whispers, it would quee(sp) the spells you told it too, and perofrm them when you hit a macro on that character.

[zanthor]

Is there any technical stumbling block to creating a UI mod that uses a private chat channel to send commands to your other alts to trigger spells and commands?

I am thinking of something like a pet bar, that allows you to control your alts without having to use 3rd party software. I don't see any reason something like that would be against TOS since nothing is automated, its still a person typing on a keyboard sending commands.

I'm thinking something like how GEM works with it's custom chat channel to send data back and forth. The tricky part would be getting the UI to perform the actions on the slave characters.

Has anybody tried something like this? It would make multiboxing much more user friendly.

I wrote a bot that leveled from 1-60 and got exhalted with alterac valley using this concept... However, 2.0 nerfed it and the techniques used within the UI to accomplish this. It is no longer possible without the use of 3rd party software.

[HPAVC]

Is there any technical stumbling block to creating a UI mod that uses a private chat channel to send commands to your other alts to trigger spells and commands?

Yes, basically the API restrictions.

Some commands, like /follow and you can do. But spells like 'heal','frost nova' ... no cannot do that and for some time.

[lilbopeep]

So you couldn't make a UI do something like copy text from the chat channel and then make a key binding to paste it to execute the command from the clipboard?

IE you hit the "Frost nova" button on your pet bar, it sends ___frost_nova___ to a private chat channel

slave computer sees ___frost_nova___ and copies /cast Frost nova into the clipboard

then all it takes is the coresponding key press to CTRL-V

it wouldn't be fully automated in this respect but you could quickly change what the button did or maybe find a way to automate the CTRL-V part as well

[Sovereign]

Why would you want to do it that way when the ability to do that already exists with simple apps or hardware?

[zanthor]

So you couldn't make a UI do something like copy text from the chat channel and then make a key binding to paste it to execute the command from the clipboard?

IE you hit the "Frost nova" button on your pet bar, it sends ___frost_nova___ to a private chat channel

slave computer sees ___frost_nova___ and copies /cast Frost nova into the clipboard

then all it takes is the coresponding key press to CTRL-V

it wouldn't be fully automated in this respect but you could quickly change what the button did or maybe find a way to automate the CTRL-V part as well

No. You can't do this.

If you would like I can go into the full scope of the issues with protected vs public functions in the wow API however I'm guessing this wouldn't be of much interest to you anyhow.

Even before 2.0 you couldn't do this without 3rd part software or hardware. My bot (which was inspired by Whispercast) used a Nostromo N52 (BFO, since I'm running out of keys on my G15 I should dig that out of storage!) macro to press the END key over and over... the end key then used a logic trap to decide what spell to cast, if it needed to modify a keybind (to break follow) or whatever.

The programatic selection of spells is now impossible because the CastSpell function is no longer usable in combat. You can make a mod that does exactly what you are asking - for buffing, making water, wandering around the world... however once you get attacked, or attack something, it stops working.

What you are asking is perfectly viable to do with Keyclone or any hardware solution if you are using multiple machines.

[lilbopeep]

My prob is I can't dual box on 1 machine because of blue screens which I suspect are my 8800GTS drivers immaturity showing. I know wow already has issues with that card and with dual core cpu's.


so I'm using an Ibook/PC combo so it would be difficult to find a hardware solution to work with a G15 USB keyboard, and an Ibook which has no PS/2 ports.

Same with any packet software solution. Two dis-similar operating systems, different keyboard layouts, etc.

I already have too many pc's as it is and I don't want to build a 2nd one for my computer desk just to dual box.

So for now I guess its nostromo/ibook and g15/pc

[zanthor]

My prob is I can't dual box on 1 machine because of blue screens which I suspect are my 8800GTS drivers immaturity showing. I know wow already has issues with that card and with dual core cpu's.


so I'm using an Ibook/PC combo so it would be difficult to find a hardware solution to work with a G15 USB keyboard, and an Ibook which has no PS/2 ports.

Same with any packet software solution. Two dis-similar operating systems, different keyboard layouts, etc.

I already have too many pc's as it is and I don't want to build a 2nd one for my computer desk just to dual box.

So for now I guess its nostromo/ibook and g15/pc

Unless I'm mistaken Synergy supports mac, and Multibox is a product of a Synergy branch... which means that you should be able to get Multibox running on Mac and PC as an IP solution.

[Morganti]

I believe Synergy runs on all OS's. Multiplicity is PC only.