Truebox - Fact vs. Fiction

That's a different discussion than arguing the servers can't handle it. It may or may not be correct. If it is correct, there is no reason for them to not launch a separate server for boxers where they won't drive away anyone who doesn't want to box, is there? Best of both worlds, they get both piles of money.

If multiboxing drove more people away than multiboxing brought in, this game would have died before they ever had the chance to make EQ2. Just sayin'.

Ah yes the memories of jumping out of the tub, racing to the computer, waiting on it to boot up, logging in to EverQuest, and getting to the raid boss just in time to see the raid disband because he's already dead and loot bid out. Oh the joys of Ragefire.

It's the logical implication of what you said.

If boxing causes problems with instances, it's because too many accounts would be launching instances at once. AKA too great a population load. Boxes don't impact the server any differently than any other account, so the only way boxing could cause problems is by increasing the load overall. More accounts == better, if the servers can't handle the accounts, DBG should add more servers rather than limiting their subscription base by restricting boxing.

At any rate, we all know that server load had nothing to do with them adding Truebox on Phinny (and subsequent servers.) They did not say to themselves, "Ragefire cannot run smoothly with so many many boxes, how can we cut down on that so the servers will run better?"

Not enough people to justify that server cost. There are parts of the game that can be on demand like pick zones but all of the zones have to be up and running and server costs are not cheap.

You know they have done the math and found it lacking.

Now to the performance issue, of course it affects the server. You have more people spawning more picks or more instances with boxes. With boxes you also have more characters accessing the backend resources like the sql database. All of those comes at a cost. Add in the hidden players aspect of they have their own private zone to try and exploit in with nobody around to report them if they are warping etc.

thats why you didnt shut down your computer or EQ, just stayed afk

Yes, but they also implemented the kick on prolonged AFK at one point!

Boxing at that level was not generally happening prior to EQ2. Look into some of the famous multi boxers back then.

Since then you can see it has been struggling here and there. It probably keeps the lights on for live but the money maker is TLP right now and they won’t pass up more free money from krono or shop sales.

thats what drinky bird is for

When you have 40 players requesting a raid instance from an AoC, that's 1 raid instance for 40+ players.

On the other hand, when you have 40 multi-boxers requesting a raid instance for each of their raid forces, that's 40 raid instances.

Allowing multi-boxing on one computer makes it a ton easier for the average Joe to box. That ends up leading to having more people boxing on the server than what there would on a truebox server. Ragefire was a perfect example of this. Everybody and their dog and each of their dog's fleas multi-boxed on Ragefire. The hardcore boxers ran armies. The average Joes ran groups. There was MORE boxers on Ragefire than there ever was on Phinigel, Agnarr, and Coirnav combined.


You don't want to accept it, but the reality is that it's an issue of resources, and resources equals money.

Nobody ever said that the reason Phinigel was created with Truebox was because of too many AoC instances. That's an assumption you have made on your own.

Phinigel came about because of the massive numbers of people complaining about the bot armies on Ragefire. SoE created the first Truebox TLP server as their answer for the outcry of people hating the box armies.

Boxing at what level? I assume you're talking about the crazies that box 12+ accounts? Because about everyone I knew was boxing 2-6 chars by the time EQ2 Beta opened. lol Heck, I started boxing because everyone I knew had at least 1 box, it seemed, and I wanted to join in on the fun. This was during early PoP.

But yeah, TLP is the bread winner. I know it, you know it, they know it. But, I don't know how they'd actually gauge whether or not opening up a 3rd server just to cater to people who wanna play 2+ characters on a single pc would be worth it or not. There is clearly a demand for a non-true box server, regardless of what the haters think. But, is there enough of one to warrant it's own special "boxing" server? I don't know.

I'm not super confident that they have, personally. I think it is more likely they don't like cheating, (I wouldn't either as a dev), and were sick of how prevalent automation was both on live and previous TLP's. After years of attempting to stop it and failing, this was their chance to do something about it finally without losing all their live subbers who have been reliant on software for many years now.

I don't think too many people would argue that DBG, or SOE before them, tend to make great and well thought out financial decisions.

You realize that in the example you are giving, the problem is the difference between 40 paying accounts and 1600 paying accounts, right?

Seriously, do you not see this? Which do you think DBG would rather have?

Not all paying customers are worth their monthly because of their entitlement and the problems they bring to the table.

You guys keep assuming that a game company is turning down “free money”.

I know you wont trust me, but I'm going to say it anyway... trust me when I say they don't ever do anything to the game BECAUSE of cheaters. They couldn't give a crap less. Certain people know that, and you look up to them as the "elite" because of their accomplishments (when in reality, they only have those accomplishments by cheating).

You people really need to take the tinted shades off and see just how naive you have been for the past two decades.

What do you mean, you people?

No need to be a condescending .

I am quite familiar with the history of cheating in EQ, how rampant it has been and for how long.

I just had a Tropic Thunder flashback LOL! "What do you mean you people?!"

Bunch of angry cheaters in this thread.. Sorry you can't cheat with your 20 automated boxes on our pure TLP TRUEBOX servers. Go play on Lockjaw with your kind, or some random single player game lololol.

Ugh... No thanks. And def not while you are still involved with running it.

Don't get me wrong - my ideal scenario would ban all 3rd party software. Box what you can

However nobody's yet answered the fundamental question. What's wrong with launching a server for each group? Truebox on... truebox off. Surely there are no losers under this scenario?