RedSorc - I tried boxing DDO about 6 or 7 years ago iirc. Its very fuzzy in my memory, but I seem to recall lots of alt-tabbing to toggle targets and actions, even with a gamepad to control one character and keyboard/mouse for the other. What is your method for handling targeting/movement simultaneously with both?Originally Posted by RedSorc
That could be a long answer, but I'll try my best to cram it into a length that doesn't derail the thread!
Basic Controls. The general principle is that I use my keyboard for one character, and an MMO mouse (specifically this one) to control the other. I primarily use ESDF as movement keys to guide the left-hand character, and I have the righthand window generally focused so that I can use the side buttons on the mouse to move while using right click and drag to steer.
In this setup, I have the two clients in two windows split-screen with a vertical divide on one monitor, rather than giving one character a single monitor. I do this because I find it easier to watch both characters at the same time when their windows are closer together.
This takes getting used to, but over time I've gradually become comfortable moving two characters around simultaneously. If I have to do precise movement (like a platforming section or dodging through traps) I'll usually do it one character at a time.
Character Selection. Choice of character build is important in any multiboxed MMO, but particularly important here, as you want to make your life as simple as possible. Generally, we are looking for characters that do not have many buttons to press and are very forgiving in terms of targeting. In addition, whilst DDO does generally not need a party to have a tank character, it can be very helpful here to have one of your characters be a very durable self-healer that is capable of maintaining aggro, as it means that your other character will not have to dodge and weave so much.
So, I'm looking for a "Tank" and a ranged auto-attacker. My current combo is to use a Enlightened Spirit Warlock as the tank like this (tanks using his crazy refreshing temporary hitpoints, the temp HP also keeps healer hirelings alive, plus almost all his damage is AoE auras and blasts so it doesn't matter which way he points) and a Rogue Mechanic like this (Can handle traps, almost all damage is done through pure auto-attacks and has access to almost all skills as he's INT-based).
If you don't have access to Warlocks (they are a premium class), then the Warlock could be replaced with any two-handed weapon fighting melee character. With the new THF strikethrough rules, THF is effectively an AoE attack so its not so important where you are aiming as long as you get the general area right. A barbarian would work well, a paladin would also be great, a warchanter bard would also be interesting as an option to replicate the ES Warlocks temp HP.
Another strong option in a different paradigm would be to go for two palemaster wizards. Double Death Auras mean double healing ticks to add tankiness, you get two pets for pulling levers and standing on pads, you can give one of them a couple of levels of rogue to do traps, having double necrotic blast removes some of the frustration from fighting undead as one necrotic blast will apply unholy avatar, and the second necrotic blast will obliterate the pack. There are more buttons to press, but you can duplicate those button presses to both characters. The team is also a bit more able to act independently of one another in rare situations where that's necessary (e.g. House C challenges, VoN6, Xorian Cipher).
Targeting. With our choice of characters in mind, allowing us some leeway here, we have a couple of ways of dealing with targeting.
Generally speaking, I have a master DPS rotation button that acts as my team's "heartbeat" using a custom ISBoxer keybind. This heartbeat alternates between mashing relevant damage abilities and targeting enemies. I generally bind it to mouse wheel, so I'm rolling the mouse wheel the entire time I'm fighting.
For the targeting aspect of the hotkey, one approach is to simply mash the "target nearest enemy" hotkey in the heartbeat and be done with it. This is particularly fine for THF melee characters, as attacking something within melee range is about as specific as they need to be.
You can also do an assist on your unselected character. There actually is an "Assist" function buried in DDO's keybinds somewhere. In this case, your ISBoxer heartbeat would do the following in order:
- First Press: Target the character in the presently selected window.
- Second Press: Hit the assist key.
- Third Press: Hit any dps buttons. Do not advance past this step for a second or so.
Note if anyone reading is unaware: In your "Basic Feats" section of your character sheet, there is a toggle-able auto attack ability. When this is toggled on, your character will automatically attack your current target without having to hold down the left mouse button, meaning you only have to worry about abilities.
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There's probably a lot more advice to give, but we should probably get our own thread if I'm going to go on much more than that. If it would be helpful to anybody, I'd be perfectly happy to put together a video to show how to stitch this all together and show how it works in game.
Yes please start a new thread on how to dual-box DDO with video(s) if you can/want to.
DDO is a fantastic game with near infinite progression and play-ability with an amazing amount of dungeons and includes some of the best content ever created in any game.
Not counting leaving alts at entrances or the few "king of the hill" instances where you could park your party at a location and the mobs all come at you I could only ever dual-box DDO and even then I typically just did thing solo with a trapper capable character...
My DDO dual-boxing often leveraged toggling on/off autorun with direction adjustments over time and auto-tab-targeting and wasn't really ideal and yours sounds much better so I would love to see it in action and better understand the details to make it smoother...
If you can put what info you can on which duo you can run in Reaper mode would also be especially appreciated as I stopped playing DDO before reaper became the biggest end game scene and not sure which builds, are dual-boxable or soloable in reaper (especially also being able to do traps/chests and find secrets).
Last edited by nodoze : 11-07-2020 at 10:12 AM
*Best Crocodile Dundee impression* That's not a <Metric ton of good info on DDO dual-boxing>...
That's a <Actual metric ton of info on DDO dual-boxing>.
I've effectively written everything I know about DDO dual-boxing in the thread, if anyone finds it helpful.
Here's the promised video demonstrating what I was talking about earlier.
I am going to try EVE online, can't broadcast keys either but game is gonna be a lot easier to control per character cause a lot of ingame automation. i think 2-3 accounts is good enough.
might look at eve echoes its made for the mobile gaming on phones and such but can be ran on PC. i'm running 5 accounts on it now.
thank youi'll DM you if i get into it.
Thanks for various input. For my part, I'm going to take a break from boxing for now, and just play normally and give FFXIV a try. I try to avoid group content with other players, but I can do it if it's really necessary.
Long story short I quit WoW in 06 due to military stuff, DCUO on and off from 10-12, Eve from 13-17, then came back to WoW in 18. Eve is a very good game, extremely competitive, and manipulative. But it is extremely unforgiving, for anyone that is new at least research the slang before attempting to play the game. a small mistake can cost you a lot in game since when you get killed, everyone else gets your stuff that's not destroyed. Ratted in nul-sec.
Just wanted to send a big thanks to RedSorc for a great write up on the other options that are out there. I went ahead and downloaded and started playing SWTOR and FFXIV to test them out solo and try to determine which I would like to multibox or if I am even going too. Either way just filling time till Hogwarts Legacy drops next year, since I've gotten the wife hooked on the idea of us both playing it. Knew I would get her into gaming sooner or later!
Mostly 5Box Alliance Eitrigg-US but can sometimes be found on Alliance Sargeras-US or Horde Lothar-US.
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/vndinmchine
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dx84crx
ISBoxer profile: https://github.com/Hisha/Multiboxing_Public
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