How to Box 5 accounts (or 2 or 3 or 4) with ONE computer:

[keyclone]

realize.. there are people that could be trolls looking to cause issues and hope to emot this exact reaction. their goal would be to minimize/damage multi boxing and the community @ dual-boxing.

my suggestion would be, have patience or don't answer beyond what you believe is acceptable. let them stew on the answers you've already provided, assuming they are more then just RTFM.

if they continue to call out for help, someone else will pick up where you left off. (one of the benefits of a great community like this)

[Stricknine]

This is my first post here, I've been lurking for a few days reading some of the stickies and was directed to this post from Xzin's stickied writeup on multiboxing. Its the first link in his post @

http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums2/viewtopic.php?t=410

Now, I am a pretty smart guy, I have been working in computers and gaming for probably 20 years now. I am technically and financially able to multibox once I learn more about it.

I've been playing WoW for a little over a year and due to being in a small, unprogressing guild made up of real life friends (so I can't just dump them for a bigger guild) I thought mutliboxing might be fun to do instead of raiding. So I start reading this forum.

Then I get to this thread. Some guy posts in "Beginners Haven" who obviously has NO macro experience (like myself) and gets flamed for it. I realize its probably been asked 100 times, but for someone (LIKE ME) who isn't up on the lingo, getting started on macros is not the easiest thing. I'd suggest that for threads linked from one of the better summary posts (thanks Xzin, your write ups got me interested in this unique playstyle) not flame n00b's or potential n00bs (ME) like that.

Some people (ME) have never used macro's in WoW. I would have no idea for what to even search for in the forums. I'm not asking for a "type this, blah blah IWIN!!" tutorial, but maybe just a little primer on the subject. So please, instead of flaming me, possibly direct me to a specific post for some beginning macro creation help as it relates to multiboxing.

Macro's and the keyboard/mouse control are the biggest hurdles in my beginner opinion. I can buy equipment and hook it all up, thats easy. Making it work slick is a whole other bag of tricks I hope I can learn here without 3rd degree flame burns.

[Wilbur]

The macro and Addons forum has numerous posts on Howto Macro and a list of other useful resources as well as some examples on what you should be including in your macros, what format you should be going for insofar as character control, etc.

[Sam DeathWalker]

Well I box 4 each on 6 computers. For EQ1 you dont need a whole lot, any up to date machine should be able to do it but ya ram is most necessary. Im still on win2K but I can see 3.6G (there is .5 gig flash ram on my motherboard) which is sufficient without using a 64 bit operating system.

I only play in full screen for the "immersion" factor. Autofollow will fail with only one machine so you have to move your lead in a "walk" mode to slow things up, and overshoot turns then come back with the main when the follows are positioned corrected for the turn.

I just switch through my groups. Press a single key and I am at "group 1", then flip to "group 2" etc.

Should be simple enough to control 4 or 5 by switiching from one to the other, and if only a single window has focus, which is always the case, then you don't need seperate keys for each character. Ya you gonna lose some serious time flipping from toon 1 to toon 4 but ... I just don't go for having a bunch of tiny screen on the computer.

What you want to do is to minimize flipping time whcih is basically a function of your hardware. So just buy the fastest stuffs heh, and more ram is better always. And a raptor.

[offive]

I run all 5 accounts on my single system.

AMD 64x2 5400, XP 32 bit, 4gb (3gb usable in 32 bit OS), SLI 8800GTXs. 24" wide aspect LCD with AHK. OS on Raptors in raid 0 and Wow builds on seperate Raptor.

I resize windows on my two dpsers down a lot. The healers get more screen space. The tank gets the most so I can pick up agro changes easier.

Turn off sound and visual effects on all screens except the main.

Another thing to note if you minimze a window that lags that process, better to simply shrink the screen down.

I tried running 5 in Vista x64 but the overhead from the 32bit code caused max CPU load and it was pretty much unplayable compared to the 32 bit XP. Now if Bliizz would release a 64bit client... i might see better performance on Vistax64.

[Lokked]

Alright, I amassed as much information as my brain could handle for tonight, but I still have a few questions.

My system-to-be (I haven't purchased it yet, but its about ready):
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
Asus P5K base model.
BFI or some other crap brand nVidia 8800GT 512MB
2x2GB Micron 5-5-5-5 DDR2 DIMMs (4GB)
Some sorta hard drive, not RAIDed (How big a deal is RAID0 HDDs?)

I want to run 5 instances of WoW and, later on, 3 instances of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning when it comes out, all on this machine. I have 2 LCD panels.

My concern is that my friends told me that running multiple online games from the same IP causes bad IP stacking, where 1 or more of your instances will not recieve its packets when it should, due to strange routing (??), and disconnects. Dunno if this is an issue. Some light shed on this would be fantastic.

My other problem is what operating system to purchase (yeah, I'm going to use a purchased version). A couple posts back sais Vista is bad, while others say it's good. Basically I want someone to tell me straight out what OS to use

If there is anything else I require hardware-wise to pull this off, let me know. I think, besides the WoW copies and actual computer, the ideas in my head work!

[Wilbur]

Raid 0 HDD's offer some performance boost when loading, etc Although to be honest, there won't be a *huge* amount of diffrence, however it should be noticable.

As far as Age of Reckoning, my "sources" tell me that its far more CPU intensive than WoW. Apparently it supports SLI as well, which could make things interesting (WuWu for joo Xzin :P).

Your friends have misinformed you about "IP stacking" I don't think anyone here considers this an issue.

As for an operating system, XP 64 bit or Vista 64 bit. This is the only essential thing for systems with > 3GB RAM. This aside, you'll suffer a performance hit with Vista (due to the extra bells and whistles) however XP does have its own "issues" with Dual-view which cuts performance significantly. In XP the Dual-view performance problem can be fixed by switching to horizontal span instead.

As for extra hardware, Most people just use their normal keyboard, however some have used things like X-keys and such to great effect (Programmable keyboards) But this is considered a "plus".

Good Luck.

[marvein]

I find that if you are playing all the same class then 1 keyboard is sufficient for most uses. I have an n52 as well but I only use it for convenient things because atm its not really necessary just handy. When I do another 5man team it will be a different thing so it might be needed.