Instead of boxes, let us have mercs that we have to control. I.E. Boxes we don't have to level. Any class that is available to create, we can hire. We have to actually control these mercs, and the limit is 2 or 3ish. They are the same level as us, and in group content gear. There would be a limit of 2 hours that we can have them, and there is a lockout timer of 22 hours. Boxes for hire, if you will. It would help those of us with limited playing time that run into the occasional night when we can't find a group. As an enchanter, I rarely am LFG for long, but tonight I have been for a few hours. I have a necro alt that I play that is about the same level. Usually if I can't find a group with the enchanter, the necro can. Worst case, I solo on the necro for horrid xp. I would form a group on the chanter, but there hasn't been one healer LFG in my level range. At least that I have seen. If I could heal bot for the chanter, then I could form a group np as it's a DPS LFG night in my level range. It would be nice to have a box crew for nights like this. Or if I wanted to do a single group quest without having to ask others for help from time to time. Just a stupid idea as I solo on the necro. I know it wont go anywhere, but I would be nice.
They could. I would have paid 5 bucks tonight to not have to LFG then PUG it up. Sucks I didn't play on this server from day one, and I probably wont stick around forever. With said option, I probably would make it farther.
If they could work a way to allow boxing on a single machine with no automated help that is what I would prefer. I've always manually boxed, and its difficult using two computers.
They answered this question before. They do not want mercs that you control. They want mercs to have their own minds and decision making. Plus, we don't get mercs for a long long long time.
That is the big selling point for Phinny. On Ragefire and on Lockjaw, the boxing got so out of hand that there was a public outcry against them (Not against the boxers themselves as per say, but against the program that made it easy to box 6-32 accounts at a single time). Eventually, it became standard practice for the big guilds to specifically recruit those big boxers because they could not field the single player numbers.
But it's the programs that made this possible that are the real problem. Whether "true boxing" on 2-3 PCs or alt-tabbing, people running 2-3 accounts aren't the issue. However, I suspect if they change the code to allow alt-tab boxing, they'd open the door for the 3rd party program boxers, and hackers. Or open it further, I don't doubt (though I have no personal knowledge) that there are already hacks out there.
No thanks : it would bring Phinigel to the exact same situation as Ragefire, where a non boxed cleric couldn't find a group.
This is not necessarily the case. Checking for one client per machine and checking for 3rd party software are two completely different things. There should be no reason they couldn't leave the 3rd party software checks in place while removing the one client per machine check.
But, I assume the 3rd party software checks can't check for absolutely everything, the one client per machine check is a catch-all.
There aren't an infinite amount of 3rd party programs used with Everquest. Really, if they disable M Q and nothing else they are solving the problem.
If disabling that program was simple they would have done it already. It's an arms race between the Devi and hackers, and it's really not worth the monetary investment to try and keep up with the the other guys. Easier to just ban the a virus abusers.
It IS that simple for Phinny. As you say, what is not that simple is keeping up with it when the m q devs change things to avoid their detection. DBG seems to have reached an agreement with them, they disabled m q for Phinny but won't use the same code to disable it for live servers so that the arms race won't ensue. There are some very public discussions about how this all went down and what specifically DBG checks for on various forums.
the questing of macros is far, far less prevalent on phinny than it is on rage and lock. it and its ilk are not totally irradicated sure, but its not near the problem it is elsewhere.
I think an XP boost to Phinny would solve most of these problems for now. I'm slowly twinking an alt but he's staying at level 1 until the XP is increased.
