TurpsterVision: Multiboxing Unmasked
Last week we had a look into the benefits of Blizzard's Recruit a Friend scheme and Multiboxing; today we look at how to get started with Multiboxing at home with one PC and several WoW accounts. For me to share these secrets of success with you I must first ask you to join me in the Multiboxer's oath:
I wanna be the very best,
Like no one ever was.
To roll 5 toons is my real test,
To level them all at once.
I will travel across the land,
Questing far and wide.
Or just get boosted through SM,
And the huge amounds of XP that's inside.
MULTIBOX! (GOTTA PLAY'EM ALL!)
It's you, you, you, you and me!
I know it's my destiny!
Like no one ever was.
To roll 5 toons is my real test,
To level them all at once.
I will travel across the land,
Questing far and wide.
Or just get boosted through SM,
And the huge amounds of XP that's inside.
MULTIBOX! (GOTTA PLAY'EM ALL!)
It's you, you, you, you and me!
I know it's my destiny!
TO ONE SHOT!
For the real tips and hints, check out the video and then join me after the break for the software, addons and macros that you'll need. (WARNING: There are some really big numbers and long words that I don't fully understand but they make lots of characters do similar things at the same time)
Ok, first up we need to talk about software, in the video guide I suggest you use either Keyclone ($19.99 one-off payment) or Octopus (Warning: This links directly to the .rar file of the program for download) -- there are many other applications out there but these seem to be the best of the bunch as far as I have experienced them. Once you have installed your chosen piece of software, you need to tell it where you have installed your WoW clients on your computer and then where you would like to have them displayed on your screen. You can set up other options in here, such as creating a white-list (a list of keys that will be the only ones cloned and sent through to your clients) or a black-list (a set of keys that will not be cloned and sent through to your clients) or even cloning mouse actions -- though I choose not to do this as it doesn't work well in my experience unless you are running all of your accounts at the same resolution.
Next we need to download and install Jamba into our World of Warcraft Interface folder of every installation. Do this as you would any other add-on; and while you are at it you might as well grab QuestHelper and Cartographer if you haven't already got them. When you load up your account you will need to enter the Interface menu and type in the names of your characters. You need to repeat this on each account so that the addon can synchronize the commands for accepting quests, following etc.
I mention in the video about setting up the processor affinity for your WoW clients, to do this manually we need to first understand a bit of binary. It is often said: "There are 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't" - I guess I must be in the other 8 'cause I don't have a clue -- unfortunately for you, I'm all you've got! To set up the processor affinity manually you need to edit the Config.wtf file stored in the WTF folder in your WoW installation directory with a program like notepad. You need to add the line:
Set ProcessAffinity "XX"
With XX being the decimal number that relates to the binary string saying which cores we are using. Confused yet? Well hold on a tick, I've got a table with numbers in coming your way!
|
Core 8 0 |
Core 7 0 |
Core 6 1 |
Core 5 1 |
Core 4 0 |
Core 3 0 |
Core 2 1 |
Core 1 1 |
Still with me? Good...the people who skip past this bit are such a bunch of casuals... Next up we've got to tackle the in-game Macros. As I said in the video, we want to remain flexible in case the lead or master character were to die. To do this we have to have a 'Focus' macro:
/focus [target=TOON1, nodead][target=TOON2, nondead][target=TOON3, nodead][target=TOON4, nodead][target=TOON5, nondead][target=player]
/target focus
/follow focus
/target focus
/follow focus
Obviously replace the TOON# statements with your characters names in the order of the 'chain of command'. Press this once at the beginning of every play session and whenever your main character dies. I also suggest running a separate macro with a '/follow focus' for whenever your players get left behind. For every character you are controlling I then suggest replacing the normal spell buttons on their hotbars with macros in this style:
#showtooltip
/assist focus
/cast SPELLNAMEHERE
/assist focus
/cast SPELLNAMEHERE
Easy! Now you are pretty much ready to go out there and 'pwn' the world (of Warcraft). The main thing to remember with all of this is to have fun while trying out something new, so if at any point it starts to feel a bit like too much work, take a break and try it again later. If you are still unsure about any of the points I have covered then please leave a comment below. Otherwise why not join in with the fantastic community over at Dual-Boxing.com where they have loads of great tips, tricks and videos of players soloing end game bosses to inspire you!
For the people out there who want to know how to beat a multiboxer, you have to understand first how a multiboxer works. They are dependant on the coordination between their accounts. If you disrupt this, then you have the upperhand -- at least for a moment. So make sure you drop fears on characters to spread them out, face them the wrong way. Targeting the lead character will slow down the multiboxer, but as with any fight in WoW where you are out numbered, don't expect to win everytime!
I will ask one final thing, if you decide to start multiboxing on my server and you see me playing...don't camp me, it's just not cool.
Filed under: How-tos, Walkthroughs, Guides, TurpsterVision
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Mark Turpin Jul 22nd 2009 5:29PM
lol, totally get what you are saying but WoW defaults to the first two cores, so normally you'll find that they wont use the other cores available. It really does make a difference when you are running multiple WoW copies.
Belthatar Jul 22nd 2009 6:11PM
Does it amuse you that Blizzard thinks they know more about process scheduling, and thus force their application to run on the two cores, too? Because that's just as ignorant. I am not sure why they didn't allow the OS to schedule the process and its threads as it would.
Of course, there's lots I'm not sure about in this game -- why all of the shadow and projected texture rendering math is done on the main processor instead of on the graphics card using DX9 or DX10 shaders is at the top of that list.
Not that I don't love it. I just wish it wouldn't sacrifice so much potential for the sake of remaining compatible with the people still running it on Pentium 4s with Voodoo3s. Transform and Lighting, anyone?
But I guess the $$$ of the subscriber running the ancient machine wins out over reasonable software development each and every time -- at least that's the rationale at my company. Blizzard, I'm sure, is laughing their way to the bank.
Daniel Portalla Jul 23rd 2009 5:01AM
if you use party1, party2, party3, party4 and party5 on you focus macro you will have a lot of more space to do other things on your macro
Hoaxs Jul 23rd 2009 7:01AM
This has made me want to try Multiboxing again. I think i'm going to start with Dual Boxing first. Get my Pally and Hunter from 50-60. Thanks Turpster.
artifex Jul 23rd 2009 1:11PM
"there are many other applications out there"
can anyone suggest a good one they've used in OS X?
Mark Turpin Jul 23rd 2009 1:13PM
Sure thing, CloneKeys http://code.google.com/p/clonekeys/ . It's not as pretty but it gets the job done fairly well.
Nekrodamus Jul 23rd 2009 6:42PM
Another cool feature on boxing. gj Turp!
Also, didn't see it anywhere in here, but you said to look out for you. What server are you on?
Tarpo Jul 23rd 2009 6:50PM
Turpster- Are you aware that Pwnboxer is far easier to set up than any program you've covered, you don't have to do that affinity junk, it is built into Pwnboxer, and so are some extremely easy set up methods?
You should check it out, it definitely blows Keyclone and Octopus away - http://pwnboxer.com
Jafula Jul 23rd 2009 11:00PM
T,
Love your description of Jamba being "slightly bottish".
Jafula.
Mark Turpin Jul 24th 2009 3:50AM
Totally love your addon, Multiboxing without it is soul destroying, thanks!
~T
Azrul Jul 24th 2009 3:03PM
Turpster.
We need an impartial person to do a side by side comparison of the options available to us. I'm a brand spankin' new multi-boxer, and have just started with HotKeyNet because it was free. I ran around a bit last night with my dual lvl 1 mages and it was awesome, but before I go dropping some $$ on one of the other available products I would love to know how they stack up to one another. Are you the man for the job? Has anyone ever sat down to give this a try? A nice spread sheet that shows all of the features available in different apps, and some rating on ease of use / set-up would be ideal. If anyone knows of such a comparison I would love to see the results.
Tominsocal Jul 28th 2009 9:47AM
Hey T,
If you want to save a few clicks one thing you can do is get a quest on your master character and share it. With Jamba your slaves should all automatically accept. Could help speed up things when you enter a new quest hub. See you at Blizzcon!
fireymerlin Aug 1st 2009 11:57PM
I've just started multiboxing. I've tried/purchased keyclone and pwnboxer.
I came across ISboxer which is the best muti-boxing program I've seen.
It works with Jamba.
It is designed to NOT break Blizzards terms of service.
It is free but you have to subscibe to a service (about $3 per month) for it work.
http://www.lavishsoft.com/account/key.php?key=fireymerlin-ceb720efa4197962364a839c823982e4
hyper_flea_69 Aug 18th 2009 12:25PM
Right im trying to use Octopus 1.3.8 but when i type the pathway to my account in im always receiving an error message which then closes octopus can anyoen help me with this?
Dominik Aug 20th 2009 12:58PM
Hi, first i must say nice video ;)
i come from Garmany i have a question at You tube there is a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ilKi9JTMlA&feature=PlayList&p=2933B4F3659BC065&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=53
in the 4:54 minute conjure the Multiboxer Rain of fire with all the chars.
how functioning that can you me show
sorry,for potential misspelling ;))
Dominik C. Aug 20th 2009 1:53PM
hi, first nice Video ;)
i came from Germany i have a qeustion at you tube there is a Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ilKi9JTMlA&feature=PlayList&p=2933B4F3659BC065&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=53
in the 4:54 minute cast the multiboxer Rain of Fire with all his chars.
My question ;) how functioning that with Keyclone, can you me show.
sorry, for potential misspelling :p
falcon13 Oct 13th 2009 3:07PM
How do i set up processor affinity on just a single quad core system, i had one set up with 0011, which is 3 and set the other to 1100 which is 12, but whenever i start up wow they just both go back to only being on the first 2 cores.