Multi Step Isboxer Project [Update]

[Lax]

The reason your WoW Macros aren't executing is because you didn't give them a possible way to execute. Named WoW Macro Action is the same as WoW Macro Action, except the macro and the Key Combination are configured in this library. Named WoW Macro Action, and WoW Macro Action, are the same as Keystroke Actions, except that they are directly linked to a WoW Macro on that Keystroke. In this case, the bug is that you are allowed to Export this without it having any keystrokes to press!

/click names can be used to execute the WoW Macro from some other WoW Macro. If one is not given, it will be automatically generated internally -- the macro has to have a name either way. The /click name has no use at all, other than if YOU want to put "/click MyOtherMacro" inside some WoW Macro that is running due to some keystroke or actual mouse click.

So each of your macros either needs a Key Combination that is unique against all of the other WoW Macros loaded on the same character. I would generally recommend separating the WoW Macros into Sets on a per-class basis, and then only load the right class's set for each Character. That way you can reuse the same 3-5 key combinations (e.g. because a Hunter won't need to load Mage) instead of 30-50.

The tradeoff to separating the macro sets is that your Hunter will not have Mage loaded, and therefore it will need to be loaded in order to put a Mage in that slot.

Personally I don't switch teams around more than once every 30 seconds so I really don't mind my method of switching teams:
1. Drag a character into some Slot to replace another
2. Export -- this part will generate the ISBoxer Addon with the right toon names from the switch, and it will tell each window to reload ISBoxer settings
3. Re-launch the newly modified team -- this is going to apply the characters that are now specified by the team. This is important, because an Export is just going to tell each logged-in guy to reload (not switch to the replacement character)
4. Do a /console reloadui on all characters that are still in the game -- this reloads the ISBoxer Addon and thus all of its newly adjusted WoW Macros

Takes a few seconds but it's not that bad. Most people don't realize this is possible.

[Aragent]

The reason your WoW Macros aren't executing is because you didn't give them a possible way to execute. Named WoW Macro Action is the same as WoW Macro Action, except the macro and the Key Combination are configured in this library. Named WoW Macro Action, and WoW Macro Action, are the same as Keystroke Actions, except that they are directly linked to a WoW Macro on that Keystroke. In this case, the bug is that you are allowed to Export this without it having any keystrokes to press!

/click names can be used to execute the WoW Macro from some other WoW Macro. If one is not given, it will be automatically generated internally -- the macro has to have a name either way. The /click name has no use at all, other than if YOU want to put "/click MyOtherMacro" inside some WoW Macro that is running due to some keystroke or actual mouse click.

So each of your macros either needs a Key Combination that is unique against all of the other WoW Macros loaded on the same character. I would generally recommend separating the WoW Macros into Sets on a per-class basis, and then only load the right class's set for each Character. That way you can reuse the same 3-5 key combinations (e.g. because a Hunter won't need to load Mage) instead of 30-50.

The tradeoff to separating the macro sets is that your Hunter will not have Mage loaded, and therefore it will need to be loaded in order to put a Mage in that slot.

Personally I don't switch teams around more than once every 30 seconds so I really don't mind my method of switching teams:
1. Drag a character into some Slot to replace another
2. Export -- this part will generate the ISBoxer Addon with the right toon names from the switch, and it will tell each window to reload ISBoxer settings
3. Re-launch the newly modified team -- this is going to apply the characters that are now specified by the team. This is important, because an Export is just going to tell each logged-in guy to reload (not switch to the replacement character)
4. Do a /console reloadui on all characters that are still in the game -- this reloads the ISBoxer Addon and thus all of its newly adjusted WoW Macros

Takes a few seconds but it's not that bad. Most people don't realize this is possible.

Thanks Lax as always.
I will correct the issue right away (Not sure why I thought that since we were calling it internelly that it didn't need a combination), However this is a easy fix that I will rectify.

[Iru]

The reason your WoW Macros aren't executing is because you didn't give them a possible way to execute. Named WoW Macro Action is the same as WoW Macro Action, except the macro and the Key Combination are configured in this library. Named WoW Macro Action, and WoW Macro Action, are the same as Keystroke Actions, except that they are directly linked to a WoW Macro on that Keystroke. In this case, the bug is that you are allowed to Export this without it having any keystrokes to press!

/click names can be used to execute the WoW Macro from some other WoW Macro. If one is not given, it will be automatically generated internally -- the macro has to have a name either way. The /click name has no use at all, other than if YOU want to put "/click MyOtherMacro" inside some WoW Macro that is running due to some keystroke or actual mouse click.

So each of your macros either needs a Key Combination that is unique against all of the other WoW Macros loaded on the same character. I would generally recommend separating the WoW Macros into Sets on a per-class basis, and then only load the right class's set for each Character. That way you can reuse the same 3-5 key combinations (e.g. because a Hunter won't need to load Mage) instead of 30-50.

The tradeoff to separating the macro sets is that your Hunter will not have Mage loaded, and therefore it will need to be loaded in order to put a Mage in that slot.

If I understand this correctly it means that all the !If (character in "Class ATG") components in each macro are superfluous as you would have to assign macro sets to characters manually. That means the only upside of this overall approach is avoiding the need to manage multiple macro sets for different levels of the same spec. That's not nothing but it leaves you with a lot more setup work that the previous approach.

[Iru]

Following up on your own post is bad form but too bad. Hopefully this post will help some others avoid the same over-engineering path I went down...

So I was attempting to implement Aragent's per-class/spec 2 step macro solution over the week-end and discovered - as Lax has mentioned - that Wow helper macros without key bindings are silently dropped from the ISBoxer addon per-character files.

As I'm trying to set this up for all possible class/spec combinations (saves adding to it later) and I don't want to consume 30 unique key bindings, I broke the macro helpers into 30 separate units (one per class/spec) with a Rotation and a Proc macro in each. I then created 30 ATGs (plus the appropriate level ATGs) and altered my spam key steps to invoke the appropriate helper action for each class/spec. For those of you doing the math, that means 30 actions in each of step 1 & 2.

A conversation with Lax on irc this morning about my concerns about the performance of that many actions in a single step, led to Lax chiding my about a lack of virtualization, which led to the recognition that I had made things way too complicated.

Specifically, the 30 class/spec ATGs and the 30 actions per step are both unnecessary. If you use the same key strokes for the Rotation and Proc macros (e.g. use Ctrl+[ & Ctrl+] for Roation & Proc respectively) in each class/spec helper, you don't need to assign characters to class ATGs and you can remove that part of Aragent's macros (as I noted above), although you do still need the level ATGs. You then assign the helper sections on a per character basis, which both acts as a selector and ensures that ISBoxer will protect you from sticking the same character in multiple groups as the assigned key sequences will clash. The spam macro them becomes very simple: just invoke the key presses directly (e.g. use Ctrl+[ & Ctrl+]). No named macro assignments, no ATGs.

tl'dr: Moral of the story: Keep It Simple Stupid

[Darelik]

Following up on your own post is bad form but too bad. Hopefully this post will help some others avoid the same over-engineering path I went down...

So I was attempting to implement Aragent's per-class/spec 2 step macro solution over the week-end and discovered - as Lax has ...

Be nice if u could post a screenshot or better yet, the resulting xml as I'm a bit slow. Cheers.

Edit: think i just got it rofl.
-Remove the class/spec atg's!
-Just select the toons from the helper macros eg highlight your prot paladin's name on the prot helper macro itself (bottom right window)
Assign ctrl [ to sequences and ctrl ] to procs!
Yaaaarrrr!!! Did i get it? Can't test til i get home. Will update.

Update:
-i didn't remove the class/spec ATGs (will use them for other things), instead i split up the class/spec helper macros into their own respective sets, e.g. 1 set for paladin protection prot; this gave me a total of 60 sets altogether
-moved aragent's sequence and proc macros into their respective helper macro sets
-assigned ctrl + [ to all class/spec helper macro sets that are sequences and ctrl + ] to procs
-made the 2step spam key (Key maps -> 2 Step -> Mapped Keys -> 2 Step) concise by removing all the "named wow macro action" for each class/spec sequence and procs for both steps
-added just a regular keystroke action ctrl + [ for step 1 and ctrl + ] for step 2 in the same 2 Step mapped key where the "named wow macro action" for each class/spec sequence and proc were removed
-also removed the extra "Do FTL Assist Me in General Key Map -> self" step in the "Melee IWT" mapped key within "Custom" Key Map as this was causing jumpy targetting for the driver toon
-going into Game Helpers -> World of Warcraft -> Macro Sets, i just selected the toon's class/spec within the macro set, e.g. for my prot pally, i went to Paladins Protection Proc and highlighted my toon on the bottom rightmost window and then do the same for the sequence
hope this helps someone.

[jrob]

Hello all,

I'm very new to multiboxing, and I've been racking my brain trying to get this multi-step approach to work. For the most part, when my group composition consists of the same classes (5 boxing btw) everything seems to work as intended, but when I mix things up that's when it starts to break down. I was hoping that someone might be able to provide some insight as to what I'm missing, and to help me understand this better. I apologize in advance for the long post

This is the profile I'm currently using http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19776901/WoW.xml

At the moment I'm using my Pally to boost 4 Hunters. When I run the with just the Hunters everything is fine, but when I introduce the Pally in the mix here's what happens:

Problem 1: No matter which character I lead with, the first time I select my target and have the party assist off of me it works, but from that point forward anytime I select a new target as soon as I hit my hotkey (which is R) for my party to begin the 2 Step Keymap, my character's target jumps back to the previous target. If I continue to hit "R" my target keeps jumping from second target to first target. I've tried changing multiple things in my profile to no avail, but if i remove my pally from the WoW Melee ATG the targeting and assist on my hunters works again. I'm guessing that the problem lies somewhere in the part of my 2 step where it makes the call to that ATG. Another interesting thing I noticed is that when this is happening and I try to type /reload ui, as soon as I hit "r" it looks like its sending out a various commands like: /focus jamba and a few other things previously typed in my chat log. Any clues on how to fix this?

Problem 2: When my Hunter's begin their attack rotation, they repeatedly cast Aspect of the Hawk on every keypress. I'm using the macros that Aragent posted, and the first line in the macro for level 30-39 Hunter Beastmaster is /cast !Aspect of the Hawk. I thought that it would only cast if the Aspect was currently off? When I remove that line everything works fine.

Problem 3: I've tried changing multiple things in my configuration, and a couple of times I thought I had everything working...except when my Pally would run into combat via IWT he would just do crusader strike. Thinking a reload of the UI might fix the problem I did that, but instead it put me back at Problem 1 listed above. But that got me wondering...if I want my Hunters to run their Beastmaster macro and my Pally to run his Retribution macro set how exactly do I do that. I mean will the 2 Step keymap call both macros with one keypress based on which class/spec/level each toon is, and if so how do the hotkeys work for that exactly? Because right now I seem to only be able to get one set of macros running. I'd really like to understand this better.

Again, sorry for the lengthy post, and if there is anything I left out that would help to better understand how I've got my stuff setup, please let me know.

Thanks!

[Darelik]

Problem 1: No matter which character I lead with, the first time I select my target and have the party assist off of me it works, but from that point forward anytime I select a new target as soon as I hit my hotkey (which is R) for my party to begin the 2 Step Keymap, my character's target jumps back to the previous target. If I continue to hit "R" my target keeps jumping from second target to first target.

i called it jumpy targeting and it was caused by having 'Do FTL Assist Me in General Key Map' not set to Window:Current. also found an extra 'Do FTL Assist Me in General Key Map' in the Melee IWT mapped key in the Custom key map and deleted it since '2 Step' mapped key already has one. no point calling it twice imo.

Problem 2: When my Hunter's begin their attack rotation, they repeatedly cast Aspect of the Hawk on every keypress. I'm using the macros that Aragent posted, and the first line in the macro for level 30-39 Hunter Beastmaster is /cast !Aspect of the Hawk. I thought that it would only cast if the Aspect was currently off? When I remove that line everything works fine.

/cast !Aspect of the Hawk
will cast it only if it is off, but if it's on, it will cast it anyway. also, the exclamation point (!) will only work for toggleable abilities such as those abilities that when clicked, turns on or off (e.g. Concentration Aura turns on when first clicked, then off when clicked again).

[jrob]

Thanks Darelik.

Removing the additional Assist Me in the Melee IWT Custom keymap solved the jumpy targeting problem. Now all of my toons are working in harmony.

I moved the Aspect of the Hawk call to only fire before my castsequence with the [nocombat] parameter. Just to keep from having to hear that hawk screech in 4 box surround sound

Now that my hunters are past the 30 - 39 ATG bracket I had to remove /cast Kill Shot from the macro because my sequence was dropping at that point. I'm assuming it's because Kill Shot cannot execute unless the target is under 20%. I just moved it to another keybind.

My Pally still does some crazy stuff every now via IWT, but as of now, everything is working great. Still tweaking a few things, but all-in-all extremely happy with this setup.

Thanks again for the input Darelik.