FOCUS in WoW Classic: Need a Solution [HotKeyNet]

[Wubsie]

I've managed to cover the HKN side of things and just listed it in the title because so many people use ISBoxer. (I imagine that ISBoxer uses a completely different method for my inquiry.)

My main issue is macros within WoW or, specifically, to change focus so that all of the slave toons can assist the toon of my currently active window. How can people do this in Classic?

Perhaps I am just not following here, but why are you trying to set this up in the macros within WoW, when the exact thing you want exists on the multiboxing software side?

[nerdgasm2045]

Perhaps I am just not following here, but why are you trying to set this up in the macros within WoW, when the exact thing you want exists on the multiboxing software side?

I don't see how it exists at the moment. Here's an example.

You're in WoW Classic semi-afk eating a sandwich when a rogue pops out and kills your lead toon in a couple of hits. You hit your keybind to switch windows (again, Hotkeynet), swapping from WoW1 to WoW2. Now, at this point, how will your slave toons know to /assist the toon controlled by the WoW2 window?

The in-game macros for retail can easily be set to /focus Name and /assist focus, but there is no direct focus option in Classic. The example listed before simply shows how to broadcast keys within HKN based on the currently active and background windows, but that doesn't address the issue of the characters within the game not knowing that the currently active toon needs to be assisted (via /assist Name, to know what to target).

I don't just want to keep a setup where one toon is the leader, all of the macros reflect that, and if it dies then your team becomes useless. I'd like to be able to swap windows and have the characters be able to assist the newly active leader on-the-fly for wpvp. Blizz seems to have removed any sort of focus functionality, both the 2.0+ /focus and vanilla /script variants, and so I've been wondering how people can swap windows to a new lead and have their toons know how to assist the new leader. Maybe it's impossible since most people just use ISBoxer.

[Wubsie]

You're in WoW Classic semi-afk eating a sandwich when a rogue pops out and kills your lead toon in a couple of hits. You hit your keybind to switch windows (again, Hotkeynet), swapping from WoW1 to WoW2. Now, at this point, how will your slave toons know to /assist the toon controlled by the WoW2 window?

Because you would be sending a different keystroke to your clients based on which client you are leading from. Those keys then can be bound to separate /follow and /assist macros per character so they always assist the character in the currently active window when the hotkey is pressed. Focus is not required for this functionality.

E.g.

You are leading from Toon1. Your follow key sends "1" to all other windows. "1" is bound to "/follow Toon1".

You switch to leading from Toon2. The same follow hotkey now sends "2" to all the other windows, which is bound to "/follow Toon2".

Rinse and repeat for as many toons as you'd like. Same exact hotkey, they always follow whoever you are leading from.

Get the basic idea? This is exactly what ISBoxer does as well. It just sets all this up for you. It's called an FTL setup which stands for Focusless Targetless Leaderless, meaning none of those are required for controlling assisting and/or following for the setup. Using focus for this is rather old school and hasn't really been a thing since... a decade or so ago or in games where direct assisting or following through macros is not available.

[nerdgasm2045]

Because you would be sending a different keystroke to your clients based on which client you are leading from. Those keys then can be bound to separate /follow and /assist macros per character so they always assist the character in the currently active window when the hotkey is pressed. Focus is not required for this functionality.

E.g.

You are leading from Toon1. Your follow key sends "1" to all other windows. "1" is bound to "/follow Toon1".

You switch to leading from Toon2. The same follow hotkey now sends "2" to all the other windows, which is bound to "/follow Toon2".

Rinse and repeat for as many toons as you'd like. Same exact hotkey, they always follow whoever you are leading from.

Get the basic idea? This is exactly what ISBoxer does as well. It just sets all this up for you. It's called an FTL setup which stands for Focusless Targetless Leaderless, meaning none of those are required for controlling assisting and/or following for the setup. Using focus for this is rather old school and hasn't really been a thing since... a decade or so ago or in games where direct assisting or following through macros is not available.

Hrm. I thought of this a number of times, but it felt so unappealing to make several macros for the same function. Yeah, I totally get the broadcasting change based on which window is active, that's the whole point of using the activewinis and else arguments. I was just hoping for a more elegant solution and just assumed one was out there... guess not, and back to the clutter it is for now.

Thanks for the responses, guys. It seems I'll just have to anticipate clearing up my bars in Classic TBC.

[Wubsie]

Hrm. I thought of this a number of times, but it felt so unappealing to make several macros for the same function. Yeah, I totally get the broadcasting change based on which window is active, that's the whole point of using the activewinis and else arguments. I was just hoping for a more elegant solution and just assumed one was out there... guess not, and back to the clutter it is for now. Thanks for the responses, guys. It seems I'll just have to anticipate clearing up my bars in Classic TBC.

Well, you could consolidate them in to a single macro by using the modifiers that can be used within WoW macros.

E.g. Have your follow key do the following:

If leading from Toon1:  Send "1" 
If leading from Toon2:  Send "Shift+1"
If leading from Toon3:  Send "Alt+Shift+1"

Then your follow macro would be bound to "1" and have something like:

/follow [nomod] Toon1 
/follow [mod:shift] Toon2 
/follow [mod:altshift] Toon3

1 button, 1 macro, follow enabled for 3 characters based on who is leading.