The IT Monkey
08-31-2007, 01:35 PM
So thanks to StumbleUpon and Zin's awesome write up about it I only discovered Multi-Boxing yesterday.
Sounds like I'm Columbus or something
"I've discovered a new world!", says Columbus.
"Um, excuse me?", says the native American.
"Shut up you," Columbus says, "I name the INDIAN!"
"But this isn't India," protests the native.
"Are you still here?" asks Columbus.
ANYWAY, sorry for the interruption.
Set up a core duo laptop to either side of my main computers screen. Set them all up with Synergy and Keyclone. Got myself two trial accounts. And I was off and running.
Made three mages and had a blast until I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer, reached level 6 at least.
Thoughts and problems and learning curves:
1) VERY FUN. I was giggling like a school girl again, (Yeah, not a pretty sight to see a 37 year old man giggling like a school girl... but I digress).
2) Tried to set it up with the Multi-Boxing version (if that is even the proper term for something that is no longer a version of) Synergy but experienced some kind of problem. It would start out as fine as a cold beer on a summer day but then it would stop communicating with the laptops and every time you tried to move the mouse over to those laptops the cursor would not appear and the main machine would lag to a stand still. No errors seemed to be reported and Multi-Box didn't state that it lost connection. If I stopped the server of multi-box and restarted it it would work again but only for a short period before showing the same symptoms.
3) Expect I am going to have to learn a lot more about macros. The thread here at Duel-Boxing regarding macros helped a lot but it also went to show that there is a LOT to learn about macros.
4) Looked into using AutoHotKey instead of Keyclone since AHK is free and open source... but AHK just goes to show that sometimes a payed for program is the way to go over free. AHK looks like I would almost have to learn a programing language to use it while KC did exactly what I wanted it to do right out of the box.
5) That being said, Robert (AKA: keyclone), you might think about putting some detailed instructions on your webpage. I figured it out and all but for a guy who works in IT it took me WAY to long for something that turned out to be pretty simple once you figured it out. I found the instructions that you wrote for these forums but even a simple How-To on your website may have helped shorten the frustration time. It IS a great program though. Looking forward to getting into it further.
6) Finally, my ultimate goal is to move up to Five-Boxing. It just looks too damn fun to pass up. I know the laptops will run two each as I tested that but what worries me is questing. It was not quite as difficult with three characters and three screens as I first thought it would be, especially with the help of Synergy. But I worry about having two windowed clients on each of the laptops. What is the protocol here? Is it just easier to farm XP rather than work through five characters on three screens to accept and turn in quests? Thoughts?
All in all my few hours playing around with the whole thing last night is going to pay off dividends for many hours to come. Had a BLAST and a big THANK YOU to the members of this community who made discovering and implementing this experience easy. And when I say DISCOVERING I mean "new to me"... I am by no means Columbus.)
-J (The IT Monkey)
Sounds like I'm Columbus or something
"I've discovered a new world!", says Columbus.
"Um, excuse me?", says the native American.
"Shut up you," Columbus says, "I name the INDIAN!"
"But this isn't India," protests the native.
"Are you still here?" asks Columbus.
ANYWAY, sorry for the interruption.
Set up a core duo laptop to either side of my main computers screen. Set them all up with Synergy and Keyclone. Got myself two trial accounts. And I was off and running.
Made three mages and had a blast until I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer, reached level 6 at least.
Thoughts and problems and learning curves:
1) VERY FUN. I was giggling like a school girl again, (Yeah, not a pretty sight to see a 37 year old man giggling like a school girl... but I digress).
2) Tried to set it up with the Multi-Boxing version (if that is even the proper term for something that is no longer a version of) Synergy but experienced some kind of problem. It would start out as fine as a cold beer on a summer day but then it would stop communicating with the laptops and every time you tried to move the mouse over to those laptops the cursor would not appear and the main machine would lag to a stand still. No errors seemed to be reported and Multi-Box didn't state that it lost connection. If I stopped the server of multi-box and restarted it it would work again but only for a short period before showing the same symptoms.
3) Expect I am going to have to learn a lot more about macros. The thread here at Duel-Boxing regarding macros helped a lot but it also went to show that there is a LOT to learn about macros.
4) Looked into using AutoHotKey instead of Keyclone since AHK is free and open source... but AHK just goes to show that sometimes a payed for program is the way to go over free. AHK looks like I would almost have to learn a programing language to use it while KC did exactly what I wanted it to do right out of the box.
5) That being said, Robert (AKA: keyclone), you might think about putting some detailed instructions on your webpage. I figured it out and all but for a guy who works in IT it took me WAY to long for something that turned out to be pretty simple once you figured it out. I found the instructions that you wrote for these forums but even a simple How-To on your website may have helped shorten the frustration time. It IS a great program though. Looking forward to getting into it further.
6) Finally, my ultimate goal is to move up to Five-Boxing. It just looks too damn fun to pass up. I know the laptops will run two each as I tested that but what worries me is questing. It was not quite as difficult with three characters and three screens as I first thought it would be, especially with the help of Synergy. But I worry about having two windowed clients on each of the laptops. What is the protocol here? Is it just easier to farm XP rather than work through five characters on three screens to accept and turn in quests? Thoughts?
All in all my few hours playing around with the whole thing last night is going to pay off dividends for many hours to come. Had a BLAST and a big THANK YOU to the members of this community who made discovering and implementing this experience easy. And when I say DISCOVERING I mean "new to me"... I am by no means Columbus.)
-J (The IT Monkey)