Does Truebox actually solve anything?

I normally start my posts off by apologizing because I don't like people mad at me, but a friend told me I apologize too much, so whatever be mad.

I ask this question in earnest. I understand the reasoning behind Trueboxing: multiboxing is too accessible and bots everywhere just ruin the game. I've been playing on Oakwynd for ~9 months now, and the issue certainly isn't fixed.

My main problem with the actual execution of Truebox (and this is an assumption so please correct me if I'm wrong) is that the "problem boxers" are always going to find a way. Whether it's by doing it the legitimate way and buying a bunch of mini PCs, or using VMWare, or figuring out a bypass (I know they exist), those people who are are set to profit off of EverQuest are just going to take the extra step to keep doing what they were doing.

Again, my opinion, but the real people who suffer from Truebox are the casual boxers. The people who just like to play the game solo and don't care to profit off the game. To make it personal, I'm a dad and a husband and my playtimes will always be disjointed. I enjoy being able to jump in and play the game without relying on anyone else. It's fun to play different characters and micromanage my characters so they perform optimally.

Anyway, I just wonder if continuing to enforce this Truebox ruleset really does anything to benefit the overall quality of the game. I'm also very curious to see how/if they implement it in the next TLP.

I two box have since 2000, although I did take a pretty long break and came back because of Oakwynd and the FTE ruleset.

I see on Oakwynd boxers running 6 or more characters all the time...whether they use a lot of laptop or Virtual Machines they are doing it.

I use two PC's my main PC which is a liquid cooled hot rod and my second PC is a $124 rebuilt dell desktop. it works fine but would rather use a single machine.

True box simply does not in any way slow down the multi-box crews that run around on EVERY SERVER regardless of ruleset.

Imagine the characters you could play on that bad boy!

Just because someone 6 boxes doesnt mean they are "profiting off the game". I dont like people, and prefer to play by myself.

Ive 6 boxed for 15 years, and when Phinny was first announced (the first truebox server) I dropped to 1 character (mostly due to lack of computers since i never needed more than 1). It was extremely boring, even playing a high APM?? class like necro.

Ive since moved back into 6 boxing. I have 1 main desktop with 2 monitors. I have 2 laptops that are connected via mouse and keyboard software. So I move my mouse to the left and control laptop 1, move my mouse up and control laptop 2. The other 3 computers are mini computers with no monitors that I remote desktop into, and just have them on my 2nd monitor. My mouse hovers over the window and I can hit the buttons without needing to click or alt tab or anything. I use 1 mouse and keyboard for all 6 toons, I hit every button manually and control every piece of movement myself.

You can find a laptop suitable to run an EQ box for less than $100, If you wanted to box on truebox servers you would.

Posts like yours are why theres such a divide between people who box and people who dont. Because everytime a post about boxing comes up, you lump massive 36 boxers using special software in with random players who just want to be their own group. Not every boxer is an RMTLord, not every RMTLord boxes. I was reported day 1 of mischief because I had 3 characters on autofollow. Wasnt even killing anything, was just running. Experiences like that, and posts like this are why so many boxers just become 100% anti-social lol.

PS: you dont have to apologize to anyone, your opinions are yours.

Well I'll at least apologize to you because I misled you! Or at least didn't clarify enough My aim wasn't to cause a divide. I will happily play 6-12 characters if Truebox didn't exist. And to be honest I still may, I just haven't gotten to the point of taking that dive and buying multiple PCs. I realize that if you want to bad enough you'll find a way within the rules of the server. I just meant to say that the Truebox ruleset didn't have any effect (or any large effect) on the people they were targeting; it had more of an effect on the people who play for fun and were more-or-less defeated (or found themselves limited by) a ruleset that I don't think was meant to be aimed at them.

I guess I am still lumping people, but my point is there are people that use the powers of multiboxing mostly for fun and those that use it purely for profit. The former suffered while the latter were seemingly unaffected.

Having lived through Sleeper/Combine, Vulak/Fippy, and Ragefire/Lockjaw, I can say that yes Truebox DOES help.

I was one of the people here advocating for something like Truebox and I still believe it helps for the early expansions. Does it get rid of boxing? No, but that wasn't the point. Are there still people boxing 12, 18, maybe even 24 characters? Yes, but those people are very few and far between now. I can count on one hand the number of 18 boxers I know of on Mischief.

On Servers prior to Truebox...there was so many 12+ boxers that it was overwhelmingly insane. Nothing is more game breaking than going to EC tunnel and seeing 20+ characters following 20 different mains. If you think one or two box armies can lock down a few spawns, imagine if there were 50, or 100 of them. It was completely stupid and ridiculous to go to Hate and see 10, 20 boxers locking everything down.

Now, I do think as the game goes on Truebox looses its needs and by OOW I think it should be gone (Maybe even PoP).

But I DO think there is a need for Truebox at least through PoP. I do not want to return to the servers of MASS boxing. 6 boxing is fine, but when there are 100 people 24 boxing, it gets ridiculous.

That being said, Im not against another boxing server and let the boxers go do their thing like they did on Selos.

After playing on some of the early TLP's without truebox I can tell you that it for sure reduces the mass boxing. There are obviously still big crews but not like Lockjaw or some of the others.

It makes it harder to box multiple toons and anything that makes it harder to box is a big plus.

Yeah, I think there's a difference between wanting to do things on your own and having a raid army. Allowing 6 boxing would be ideal. Maybe even 12 to incorporate more classes into your comp. I think they define relaxed Truebox as what, 3? Would nice to start a TLP as relaxed and then get "more relaxed" by PoP.

Starting relaxed in OOW kind of feels too late for those that enjoy the TLP mindset. I mean I guess that's the point is to avoid it altogether for the TLPers the way it currently is. But I'm arguing against the current rules afterall, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's like the old saying, "It helps keep honest people honest."

Can you get around it? Yeah, people do all the time. But quite a few obey the rules and it keeps botting and boxing (different things, I know) from being a bigger problem than it already is.

And thats the key to all of it. Most of us are dads n' husbands. The boxers and the solo folks. Being able to fire up the PCs and get right to killing is why we do it. There's no fun in killing all the way down to juggs in seb or kennels in chardok and then the healer needing to log immediately. Or both the charmers. etc. Convenience and self-sufficiency is different from Brad's vision, but its the game we now play.

I have 5 laptops and zero actual beast machines, so I have the exact opposite problem you do. The real trick in truebox is I assume its almost impossible to detect if exactly 3 or less characters are running from one machine/ip/etc. It's way easier to detect any form of multiplicity and broadcasting. Imagine trying to prove someone is broadcasting to 6 instead of 3... Thats what removing truebox entirely does.

My mindset is at the point that DPG is milking whats left of EQ1 for the 25th anniversary... EQs model of releasing full on sequel properties and still actively working on new content as well as juggling a classic TLP for a 25 year old game is unusual at best and unique at worst. It's not the most financially lucrative model. So the pragmatist in me is telling me to embrace and enjoy whatever happens in 2 months, as it very well might be the final rodeo for 'classic flavored eq tlp' as we know it.

It is not illegal to box on a true box server, you are just supposed to use two machines...people can even get around that so not sure what the point behind true box is anymore.

Truebox makes it harder to get around it. When you can box as many as you want on PC then it makes that barrier to entry very small. The more barriers you erect to the boxing the harder it is and the less people will do it, or do it on a smaller scale.

That is the whole point of truebox. It isn't to stop people boxing, its to erect barriers of entry to boxing so that it is more difficult to do. And it servers it purpose well.

Loading up 12 instances of EQ on 1 PC is very easy. Installing VMs, having 14 pcs, or using fairly sophisticated software is much more difficult. For instance, in my current guild, I know of 2 people who "circumvented" the truebox by nefarious means, and both of them worked in the IT field. Everyone else lived by the Truebox rules, meaning it served its purpose.

Which I guess is my point at the end of the day.

No...
The people that are going to box are going to find away this box. Whether it's that computer that barely runs EQ or using 3rd party stuff to skate by. The only people hurt by true box are the players that are casual about it and puts them at an even larger disadvantage then Jimmy and his 20 mage army.

It’s pretty sad mole. The easier it is to box on one computer, the easier it is to box 71 other characters on the server. True box makes it where the average person has to use actual computers to box more characters.

People still get around it, but not as many.

It’s far easier and convenient to box a group or more on one computer than it is to use six computers. So again, it helps keep honest people honest.

Only it is not dishonest to box.

And True box is not stopping large bot crews at all...

No it doesn't help anything. AoC and picks help fix most of the toxic issues going on between boxers and solo players. If anything truebox has made certain situations worse. If you are new to a truebox server and missed the launch it can be alot harder to lvl up to find groups and what not. When you remove legit boxing crews from your server you take away the only counter to the massive BOT crews. BOT crews have never made more money then they have on truebox servers.

BOT crews and boxers are 2 different things. Boxers usually don't have time to lfg for hours to get in a grp for 30min. Some just hate playing with other people. BOT crews are only here for RMT and profit greatly off of casual players that can't find groups. The BOT crews in PoI and the deep make 100+ Kronos every 2 days.

Truebox sucks.

It wont transport you back to your 20s.

It had it's day. Time to move on.

100% agree