Make Boxing easier.

Recall Sklug chatting about this as something he was hoping to get round to one day, so perhaps there's a design document.

I'd not mind setting up a configuration page/ini file to set what account are allowed to send/receive commands, so I can do stuff like;

/sendCommand "accountName(that'sMyHealer)" /Target.Store() ; /target "jyve" ; /cast 3 ; /Target.Restore()
/sendCommand "accountName(that'sTheCC)" /assist Puller ; /click "debuffClicky" ; /cast "mezSpell" ; /say "have mezed %T" ;

/sendCommand "accountName(that'sTheDPS" /assist MT ; /attack on; /pause 20 ; /fireDiscs
/sendCommand "accountName(That'sTheHealerAgain" /target "Jyve" ; /cast (fastHeals) ; /passcommandToMerc "/Stance Reactive"

Sure, I can alt tab around to other toons, but would be good to 'yell out' from one set of hotkeys what you want the other boxed toons to be doing. (not like I've not got enough buttons to mash as is, but some things would be better integrated to what I'm doing, so I really am controlling the group. If I fade/activate a bandolier, also send the command for the healer to target me, cast a fast heal.)

We've got non-boxing servers, hopefully we can get more box friendly commands for regular servers or even a extra box friendly server. Maybe even, as a trial, a server where you get 2(3?) toons to log in at the same time for that server only on one account? /shrug.

/Perhaps.../
/sendCommand "AccountName" /PositionSave "1";
so you run to a location, mark a position, then during a raid script, you can
/sendCommand "accountName" /PositionRestore "1";
so you can get your boxed toon a bit more controllable when raiding.

Not that I'd ever be able to manage more than 1 toon on a raid personally, but sure there's some dextrous/more spatial awareness orientated people who'd be able to multibox some raids. Stuff they're probably able to do with various tools, but having an ingame method? Sure!

Such an original idea

Funny your almost exactly describing [Unmentioned 3rd Party Software] a 3rd party software that works with EQ.

Your plans always seem to cost Daybreak a ton of money.

Well, all servers have boxers, even Phingel I'm sure. There's nothing that prohibits it.

But, I do believe it is in the realm of possibility to make the structural changes to have one master account with slave accounts (so the user can benefit from any rewards from total dollars spent) and also have a master client that has boxing capabilities built right in.

Seamless mouse movement over pip Windows. These sub Windows can be sized according to each individual's desire. In-game macro capabilities that allows keystrokes to go to certain sub clients or all clients, depending on the user's setup and requirements.

Now would it be difficult? Maybe, but the ends the would justify the means in sheer sub accounts that could be formally adopted.

I don't see things two feet in front of my face. I try to look at the horizons.

I honestly don't know or am aware of any third-party tools, but even if it is similar, why not just bring it in? DB's reliance on third parties creates a middleman. They can benefit financially be removing that middleman and encouraging and sanctioning it.

There's nothing economically infallible about that IMO.

If you orientate a toon more up on your windowed mode.. put a hotbar at the top of the screen .. so you can see it no matter which toon you're playing it would be like an overlay . Can do same thing to the right on another toon. Left on another toon. Botton on another toon. Can use viewport too. Be pretty interesting because you can click the hotbars. I have a 24 in monitor so mine might be too small to try this one + the not really boxing a lot of toons except my 3.

Phinigel has truebox, which doesn't allow multiple clients logged in from the same PC. You are allowed to box from multiple PCs, hence the "truebox" name.

We made a solid attempt to break truebox on test, and while we didn't pull out ALL the stops, your average person isn't going to circumvent this.

It probably monitors internal IP on the clients PC. This is, to my knowledge, impossible to circumvent without an external virtualization. I don't know that for sure, its just my theory.

As a result, phinny is mostly box free

Yeah, I wasn't aware of that. Not sure the extents of people playing on multiple PCs, but that is or was the old old-school way of boxing.

I'm sure there's some clever person out there who could indeed circumvent it, the bigger question being is what would DB do considering the "head in the sand" stance, especially if that person is a paying customer. That means they can indeed ban boxers, or at least make it more difficult, but openly chooses not to.

If that's the case, why play half measures? Like I said before, it's like that drunk relative no one likes to talk about. Blind eyes, looking the other way, either ban it or embrace it.

Currently you have to bring the instance into focus to send a keystroke to it.

The biggest improvement they could make is to allow us to send keystrokes to an unfocused instance on the same box.

I understand and agree with unattended game play or automation while the player is not at the keyboard. But if a player is at the keyboard then get your game on as long as you are triggering something on a hot-bar.

Macro lines, Can we get 1 more line for a total of 6 lines per macro? Or allow us to edit the characters ini to add more lines if we wish?

Another idea to go along with the pseudo or master-client is to build one main toolbar that can be mapped to any of the sub Windows. This bar or bars can move idependently of the Pip Windows.

Well I started boxing two characters in this game 2 months after release as I added a cleric to my warrior. What I learned back then is mostly true today, I can rely on myself to keep me alive more than the average player can. I still prefer to play with other players, but mostly in a raid setting and less for group content. I like to go at my own pace, start and stop when I want, etc.

To me, boxing has been a part of my EQ experience that has kept me playing it while I have tried and quit almost every other one.

So let's summarize my little forum journey here, which is intertwined with my recent reintroduction to EQ.

A lot of you are misguided in thinking I'm some troll. I'm not. But thanks for the laughs. True colors, yeah I saw that (ironic) and I remember those forum names. It was funny in how quick people are to judge.

Even though I was a hardcore raider back in the day, seriously hardcore, it's been so long, and so much has changed that I took the opportunity to see and experience this game from a new light. A true newbie experience.

I had no idea what server meant what, I had no idea what the rule sets were, I didn't even know what those rules meant. I'm just a die-hard, fully membered planetside 2 player who got bored and wanted to take advantage of what that membership offers, so I dug up old memories and installed EQ.

I took the "recommended" server, which was Vox, naive and not knowing any better. I've seen all of the old crap, I wanted to experience new. I also didn't want to grind through the zones I'm all too familiar with, so I purchased a heroic, two in fact, same account. I'm not poor, at all, but I'm not about to abandon my commitment to my heroic characters, nor do I want recreate on TLP (had no idea what that even was) as I've said, been there, done that.

What I saw and experienced was just shocking. Armies of toons on auto follow, empty zones at the equivalent levels for heroic characters, aside from those boxers. It was pathetic. Any new player, following the same path I did, will see exactly what I saw. Bots, lots of boxed bots. That was my company. Hey, after a while I learned to take advantage of these boxing "players," but regardless, it saddened me to see that's what this game has become.

So, in light of my experience and what I saw, I proposed two mercs at once. I asked myself, hey, I really don't want to box again (yes, I use to box, the old-school way), and I do indeed like a little challenge, I just felt it was unfair these people could blast through content I'm struggling with, alone with one merc. I said to myself, well there must be an alternative. I'm not one to crutch myself with a full-blown box setup, so why not ask for another merc? Sure, it's not as powerful, but you know what, it would be enough. I would even pay more, and I'm sure there are like-minded people, who don't want to go through the hassles of boxing, but would enjoy at least a semblance of equality.

Well that got gloriously shot down.

So I thought, well hey, let's bring those boxers back to the world we all knew. Let's just ban boxing altogether. Shared goals might be more prevalent just by sheer chance of having more people in the "pool." You can't have those opportunities if people don't need them to begin with.

Again, nuked.

What other alternatives are there? Well you know what, this game STILL isn't serious enough for me to box. I'm at an impasse. Stuck in empty VoA zones, crappy zone and half that my level 92 shoe-horns me to, yet I see the next tier up being boxed by people five levels below me. Whatever.

Let's just bring boxing into the formal mix, then. I'm all for making it easier, at this point. Embrace it and move on. Or heck, rethink introducing two mercs. That merc power isn't enough to overcome the sheer weight of a box and trust me, you won't lose boxers. Yeah, it's a pathetic half-measure, but DB, you're good at that.

But don't shoe-horn me back into your ideal of a "leet" player and what I SHOULD do based upon your standards. Leet, uber, who freaking cares, those days are gone for me. I'm seeing this from a newbie's perspective, one that is somewhat familiar with this game. The old one at least and the disparity between a boxer and a newbie is like the Pacific Ocean. It's a huge rift.

If you payed for the Heroic slots you can delete and recycle the heroic slot.

Start toons on other servers, don't have to level them just poke around in General chat or whatever and see if maybe there is a guild you might enjoy trying there. Some servers are better than others population wise and personality wise.

Man, seriously not this again. You're going off subject. I don't like paying for the same real estate twice.

What's done is done. Some newbie will take the same damn recommended server I did. That doesn't solve anything.

They stop crying about everything like a 2 year old then. I gave an option to possibly, possibly change your situation but that's not good enough for you. Stop the tantrum that others have something and you don't.

With your attitude enjoy not getting groups, enjoy watching the Bot / Box crews pass you by and wonder why not you....

By your responses absolutely nothing, zero will appease you. So why bother and just uninstall Everquest.

Christ, you really want to get into this again?

I'm not crying; I'm explaining my intentions. I've seen a lot of crying, though.

Groups? What groups? That's one problem, see above. No, I'm not going start over again. I'll say it again, I'm not going to start over again. That's the whole reason I went heroic to begin with.

But hey, back on subject, this game should embrace boxing, full-blown boxing, with all the tools and implements needed. Let's see who is against this now and why, I'm really curious at this point.

people really have been trying to help ya. but you are not going to get more than one merc and boxing is not going to be banned. and i really doubt that they are going to implement some new features to make it even easier to box.

now in case you are not too familiar with the heroic toons. once you buy the heroic upgrade slot then you have that slot forever. if you delete the toon that you upgraded then you get the heroic slot back. you dont get the 15k pp except for the first time and maybe a few other items are only once but you can rinse and repeat the heroic toon as much as you want without having to buy the slot again. and that is what warpeace was trying to tell ya

That isn't the point of this thread, it's about making boxing easier. Feel free to contribute on that level.

In fact, if they do make boxing easier, I won't need groups, or anyone else's help, so let's stay on topic. Or should boxing be banned?

boxing is already easy enough so why would the devs need to spend content building resources to make it easier.

It can be even easier, officially sanctioned and above all else, be known to newbies right off the bat, who might know otherwise.

Boxing is easy enough in Everquest, Daybreak has no desire to make it easier as that leads to automation.

/thread

Maybe start a thread about the price limits in the Bazzar?