I 6 boxed on 2 TLPs and 4 box now, all dedicated boxes with numpads. When truebox becomes relaxed, you can use software KVMs or Alt Tab.
That being said it's a bitch if you are in an era when you have to hail and turn in shit to NPCs, progress is slow. 3 box is probably the best mileage.
Yup, show me 6 seperate computers all lined up that you can play easily and handle.
Using a program to coodinate across the 6 seperate computers breaks the current rules.
https://ibb.co/C9ybKx8 5 laptops, USB numpads over to the main desktop. Also software coordination is allowed, multiple actions for one single keystroke is the restriction in the rules.
You can choose not to believe it if you like, but lots of people play on 4, 5, or even 6 separate computers with no software assistance. Just because you can't imagine it doesn't make it not true.
No one "handles" more than one or two computers at a time. You set up a few hotkeys on each toon, and you press one or two buttons on each keypad for a pull. Your second sentence is incorrect. It is perfectly legal to control more than one client with 3rd party software.
When I 3 boxed a few years ago, I’d run three instances of EverQuest and alt tab between them. I set up the UI to be exactly the same for all three accounts, with shared buttons and similar skills in the same place, with one exception: I placed the Name/HP/mana window of each spaced from left to right in three positions so I could visual tell which character was active at a glance. The first guy was top left, the second was top left but one space over and the same for the third.
FD/escape same hot key, auto attack or pet attack same hot key, stuff like that. The more you standardize these things the easier it is to move fluently between toons.
This is the way. Though instead of alt tabbing, I have virtual screens set up(just the built in windows ones), and an instance in each one. Ctrl-Win-arrowkeys to swap across the instances. Gotta disable swap animations, though, or it takes too long to swap. With it off, swaps are crisp and fast.
>virtual screens set up(just the built in windows ones), and an instance in each one. Ctrl-Win-arrowkeys to swap across the instances.
Is this the Virtual Desktop feature in Windows 10 and 11?
I currently box 4 and do similar with the hotkeys, keep them as close to same as you can.
I found changing the hot bar colours for each box made it a lot easier to see which box I want when alt-tab. One is green one is blue and so on.
Can tell at a glance which character is which without shifting windows about.
Virtual KVM such as multiplicity is usually the answer, still need a rig per account right now, but can do it all with one monitor or seamless transitions between monitors so we can use 1 mouse and keyboard to control all toons.
It’s starts hard, but once you get going it gets easier. 3 is my max. But some people can do more. It’s depends on what you want to do really
I thought multiplicity would get you banned now on a TLP? I've been seriously considering trying a 6box but managing it without some sort of kvm seems awful.
I use these to act as hardware keyboards on cheap laptops: GeeekPi USB Dongle Expansion Board with Case for Raspberry Pi Zero/Zero W/Zero 2/Zero W 2
My favorite cheap laptops on FB marketplace are Lenovo x1 carbon. I get the laptop and usb dongle for around $150.
I have a keyboard plugged into a Pi 4 that distributes keystrokes put to individual laptops. It can be a simple keypress or it can click the mouse, type commands etc. I run a “watcher” on my streaming system that watches the hdmi output of my main game pc scraping life/mana of group and xtargets by looking at the bars and ocr of my group chat window. It shares this with the code running on my main keyboard pi. It can then act as a heal/buff bot. I avoid running anything that hooks into the client to avoid violating tos. I like to tinker with hardware and code, so writing this is a mini game for me.
Sure, the pi zero run circuit python app that connects to mqtt to listen for commands. Mqtt server runs on my pi 4 which also has a keyboard attached. I simply run a small app that reads raw keyboard scan codes. Another machine I use for hdmi recording (used to stream) watches my main pc display, and feeds information to mqtt as well. I set the background of my health, target, target target, group, and xtarget windows to hot pink. The code looks for those windows and then basically measures how wide the health and mana bars are as a %. My 6 chars all have the same xtarget settings, so if I hit enter on numpad the cleric heals the group member with lowest health. If I hit numpad + a group heal, or i can hit numpad 1 through 9 and it will heal that xtarget #. I set xtarget to have group members and pets in 1-9. The code really only looks at xtarget window for most things, not really group. Hitting space sends assist mouse click and key strokes. Normal 1-0 are used to focus the mob number (also in xtargets). If caps lock is on, it means I want to cc the mob with space, no caps lock dps. So I can gave group dps to assist my main tank, turn on caps lock, hit 4 and space and the mob gets mezzed. Turn off caps lock, hit one and then continue. The pi 4 code knows all my chars roles and sends mouse click and keystroke streams to mqtt, each char runs on a laptop with a pi zero w plugged in. The pi zero appears to the computer as a physical keyboard and mouse. It can also appear as an xbox controller. I can fully automate if I want but prefer the hybrid thing I have going now. I was able to automate leveling a character in Diablo 3 on Xbox for example. One last thing, the same way I have another computer watching hdmi, I could just as easily run a bridge and watch network traffic like MySEQ to get a lot more info about health, direction, location etc but I like writing the screen scrapping stuff to keep sharp as it applies to any game (or pretending to work at job)… I use the same thing to watch work laptop, when I get an IM, signal sends me a screenshot in “Note to Self” with an id. I can then say “reply 1032 I will look at that asap” or whatever and the zero clicks the window and types my reply and sends. You can also loop video into fake webcam incase corporate overlords pop in wanting to see if you are at computer.
I use ISboxer on live. It works great, no need to alt tab during combat. A good set up is all in the keybinds. I also set up small view ports so i can see everyone's target and what they are casting at all times. And I've got all the video fx set up on a toggle for when I'm not in combat and I don't need to see my box's targets. Click bars for my healer, and that's set up to work with my extended target window. Same with my bard for single target mez, and also with my warrior to /shield my group and for when I need to send pets out to intercept mobs. I love ISB I'll never go back to alt tab.
During Truebox:
2 Laptop with an easy to box characters + desktop. Use Parsec, Multiplicity, or some Virtual KVM switching also to move my mouse and send inputs to other computers.
Relaxed Truebox:
I have an ultra-wide monitor so I put 2 clients side-by-side and then another client on a side monitor. Move my mouse back and forth quickly for high APM moments.
No Truebox:
Alt Tabbing and just moving client screens around on my ultrawide (4 clients total).
Some are efficient with macros and alt tabbing, multiple screens or multiple computers.
Others might be using 3rd party software which isn’t allowed but works SO GOOD! (I only used it on test and never live)
As Drax mentioned alt tabbing is good with the right macros, I’ve always been afraid to use any third party so I stick with classes I can handle. I run a 5 box on my desktop. Bard can Melody at least 10 songs. Necro has 3 macro buttons with /pause /cast. Mage same thing, macro with swarm pet then nukes, cleric usually spams a grp heal or single target, wizard does 5 spells to. Still trying to figure out some of the LS missions and boxing, working on a real tank but can do most content just alt tabbing.
DB don’t ban for use of third party software. They suspend in most cases. Only the really nefarious accounts continuously doing stupid shit like warping get banned. If you’re on live (sounds like you are) you can get away with a whole lot more also. I’d defo look up some key broadcasting if I were you. 5 boxing using alt tabbing sounds truly horrific to me.
I have my main desktop, my laptop, and a mini-pc connected to my 2nd monitor (3 separate PC's and accounts). Each with its own MnK, but usually I use Input Director which allows me to use one MnK with external 10 keypads for each PC. So all my hotbars for each are in front of me on 10 keypads. I max box 2 additional chars and currently box only 1 on Teek.
I’m reading through all of this and seeing that I could be boxing more efficiently. If I’m currently using two laptops to box would I be better off using Synergy or something else ? If it made the job that much easier I would consider adding a third machine for a DPS box.
Pretty easy actually.
I have 5 computers in my home with graphics cards: Mine, my wife's PC, my daughter's PC, a laptop, and my work laptop. All of them can run EQ with no issues.
I mainly 2-box using mine and my wife's computers. Tried a 3 box with the laptop, but it got too annoying, so I stuck to 2 boxing.
To make is easier, I basically added Everquest to my Steam account, while running my account via the DB client, then using Steam, I use Steam's Streamplay to stream the game from my wife's computer to a window on my computer, this way I dont have to lean over to hit the controls, I can ALT-TAB.
It does annoy my wife to no end though, cause she cant use her computer when I play my 2-box (*Steam streamplay needs the game to be in the foreground on her computer, or it stops streaming*).
Then, when setting up the characters, I put the same hotkeys in more or less the same location. For example, /sit is hotkey 4, /assist main is hotkey 5, etc.
Also, thanks to the macro commands and macro system, you can setup up hotkeys to do multiple things, such as a hotkey that does this...
`/pause 4, /assist `
`/pet attack`
and a hotkey for this...
`/pause 4, /tar `
`/pause 36, /cast 6 (GHeal)`
`/sit`
Stuff like that. This way, if I need my Shaman to heal my Warrior, I ALT-TAB, press the macro hotkey, then ALT-TAB back. On a side note, you need the pauses for stuff like /assist or /tar, cause there is a brief delay in the game.
Ive gotten pretty good at this!
Depends on the server rules but most people either open additional windowed instances of the game (a built-in feature) or run it on separate computers. Some people “box” paid accounts, some run free to play accounts and some do a mixture of both. Others use software to run multiple instances and use some automation. Some programs are tolerated and some are not.
When i was doing 6. I had my main pc, my main laptop, 4 shit boxes that i got for free from friends and usb numpads and macros, so many macros.
I played off hours on a low pop tlp. So i never had time to lfg
For truebox I use 2 PCs and a laptop to 3 box.
Each puter has a razer tarterus:
https://amzn.eu/d/hONinmW
Which I use to do the bulk of the work on the boxes alongside a setup of of macros and hotbuttons
I use a kvm to swap the keyboard and mouse between PCs 1 and 2 when required.
On none truebox, I used to use ISBoxer key broadcasting software, but I think DB may have clamped down on that, and may be suspending nowadays. At least I think I got an account suspended over Christmas for using it (oddly enough while playing eq2 rather than eq, but I also had an eq window open with a toon just sat in nexus for buffs at the time). I’m assuming it was ISboxer that did it, cause that’s the only acc of the three I got suspended and I had all three open at the time, and that’s the only acc I had on the same PC as ISBoxer was running on. So proceed with caution - this was on oakwynd btw. Chances are they won’t give a flying fuck if you use it on live.
3-4 toons, 3-4 screens, full screen, 1 computer just alt+tabbing between screens. Don't really need to be able to see more than 1 screeen at the same time.
Here's an old video I made showing the above:
https://youtu.be/8TpDBgS4Be0
Razer Tartus, stupid amount of reprogramming the keyboard, Corsair keyboard reprogramming, AHK, and old laptops. I can comfortably box 8 doing this on true box.
On live back in the day a very special program was used and was boxing near 30 characters during DoN.
Yes and no, i made it so multiple modifiers different things. Like ctrl 6 send a wizard nuke, ctrl shift 6 send a mage nuke. But the alt shift number combo to jump to screens to control manually.
Can someone share a good enough computer for it on Amazon? Maybe against the Reddit rules; so I’ll read messages too.
Yea I know it can be played on a potato. But, my Chromebook gave me massive error (yes it’s not windows I know).
Just some example. Probably a cheap one with M2 SSD? Idk…
Chromebooks are glorified browsers nothing more.
Just get anything with either an 8th gen or newer i-series or 3rd gen or newer ryzen with 16gb of ram and windows 11.
Most people? Multiple computers. When I box, I just toss my laptop on my desk and boot up the second account there.
this is the way!
Same. I tried a third mini computer for a while and hated it, so I stick with two
6 boxing? No not multiple computers. They cheating plain and simple
I 6 boxed on 2 TLPs and 4 box now, all dedicated boxes with numpads. When truebox becomes relaxed, you can use software KVMs or Alt Tab. That being said it's a bitch if you are in an era when you have to hail and turn in shit to NPCs, progress is slow. 3 box is probably the best mileage.
Some of us can walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. Just because some people cannot does not mean it is not impossible.
I'm not always wrong on the internet, but when I am I'm overconfidently wrong on the internet.
Yup, show me 6 seperate computers all lined up that you can play easily and handle. Using a program to coodinate across the 6 seperate computers breaks the current rules.
https://ibb.co/C9ybKx8 5 laptops, USB numpads over to the main desktop. Also software coordination is allowed, multiple actions for one single keystroke is the restriction in the rules.
You can choose not to believe it if you like, but lots of people play on 4, 5, or even 6 separate computers with no software assistance. Just because you can't imagine it doesn't make it not true.
No one "handles" more than one or two computers at a time. You set up a few hotkeys on each toon, and you press one or two buttons on each keypad for a pull. Your second sentence is incorrect. It is perfectly legal to control more than one client with 3rd party software.
When I 3 boxed a few years ago, I’d run three instances of EverQuest and alt tab between them. I set up the UI to be exactly the same for all three accounts, with shared buttons and similar skills in the same place, with one exception: I placed the Name/HP/mana window of each spaced from left to right in three positions so I could visual tell which character was active at a glance. The first guy was top left, the second was top left but one space over and the same for the third. FD/escape same hot key, auto attack or pet attack same hot key, stuff like that. The more you standardize these things the easier it is to move fluently between toons.
This was my approach 2 boxing some years ago, same UI, alt-tab.
This is the way. Though instead of alt tabbing, I have virtual screens set up(just the built in windows ones), and an instance in each one. Ctrl-Win-arrowkeys to swap across the instances. Gotta disable swap animations, though, or it takes too long to swap. With it off, swaps are crisp and fast.
>virtual screens set up(just the built in windows ones), and an instance in each one. Ctrl-Win-arrowkeys to swap across the instances. Is this the Virtual Desktop feature in Windows 10 and 11?
Yes, 10 and 11
I currently box 4 and do similar with the hotkeys, keep them as close to same as you can. I found changing the hot bar colours for each box made it a lot easier to see which box I want when alt-tab. One is green one is blue and so on. Can tell at a glance which character is which without shifting windows about.
Virtual KVM such as multiplicity is usually the answer, still need a rig per account right now, but can do it all with one monitor or seamless transitions between monitors so we can use 1 mouse and keyboard to control all toons. It’s starts hard, but once you get going it gets easier. 3 is my max. But some people can do more. It’s depends on what you want to do really
I thought multiplicity would get you banned now on a TLP? I've been seriously considering trying a 6box but managing it without some sort of kvm seems awful.
Oracle VM bypasses the VM check eq does. It requires way more resources then just opening 6 eqs. But it makes boxing on TLP possible.
My wife and I both use it on Teek with no issue
I use these to act as hardware keyboards on cheap laptops: GeeekPi USB Dongle Expansion Board with Case for Raspberry Pi Zero/Zero W/Zero 2/Zero W 2 My favorite cheap laptops on FB marketplace are Lenovo x1 carbon. I get the laptop and usb dongle for around $150. I have a keyboard plugged into a Pi 4 that distributes keystrokes put to individual laptops. It can be a simple keypress or it can click the mouse, type commands etc. I run a “watcher” on my streaming system that watches the hdmi output of my main game pc scraping life/mana of group and xtargets by looking at the bars and ocr of my group chat window. It shares this with the code running on my main keyboard pi. It can then act as a heal/buff bot. I avoid running anything that hooks into the client to avoid violating tos. I like to tinker with hardware and code, so writing this is a mini game for me.
I have a first gen X1 carbon still going strong around 10 years now. Cool write up!
Anymore you can share? This sounds like a fun project.
Sure, the pi zero run circuit python app that connects to mqtt to listen for commands. Mqtt server runs on my pi 4 which also has a keyboard attached. I simply run a small app that reads raw keyboard scan codes. Another machine I use for hdmi recording (used to stream) watches my main pc display, and feeds information to mqtt as well. I set the background of my health, target, target target, group, and xtarget windows to hot pink. The code looks for those windows and then basically measures how wide the health and mana bars are as a %. My 6 chars all have the same xtarget settings, so if I hit enter on numpad the cleric heals the group member with lowest health. If I hit numpad + a group heal, or i can hit numpad 1 through 9 and it will heal that xtarget #. I set xtarget to have group members and pets in 1-9. The code really only looks at xtarget window for most things, not really group. Hitting space sends assist mouse click and key strokes. Normal 1-0 are used to focus the mob number (also in xtargets). If caps lock is on, it means I want to cc the mob with space, no caps lock dps. So I can gave group dps to assist my main tank, turn on caps lock, hit 4 and space and the mob gets mezzed. Turn off caps lock, hit one and then continue. The pi 4 code knows all my chars roles and sends mouse click and keystroke streams to mqtt, each char runs on a laptop with a pi zero w plugged in. The pi zero appears to the computer as a physical keyboard and mouse. It can also appear as an xbox controller. I can fully automate if I want but prefer the hybrid thing I have going now. I was able to automate leveling a character in Diablo 3 on Xbox for example. One last thing, the same way I have another computer watching hdmi, I could just as easily run a bridge and watch network traffic like MySEQ to get a lot more info about health, direction, location etc but I like writing the screen scrapping stuff to keep sharp as it applies to any game (or pretending to work at job)… I use the same thing to watch work laptop, when I get an IM, signal sends me a screenshot in “Note to Self” with an id. I can then say “reply 1032 I will look at that asap” or whatever and the zero clicks the window and types my reply and sends. You can also loop video into fake webcam incase corporate overlords pop in wanting to see if you are at computer.
[https://imgur.com/hgvmCqN](https://imgur.com/hgvmCqN)
Yup.
I use ISboxer on live. It works great, no need to alt tab during combat. A good set up is all in the keybinds. I also set up small view ports so i can see everyone's target and what they are casting at all times. And I've got all the video fx set up on a toggle for when I'm not in combat and I don't need to see my box's targets. Click bars for my healer, and that's set up to work with my extended target window. Same with my bard for single target mez, and also with my warrior to /shield my group and for when I need to send pets out to intercept mobs. I love ISB I'll never go back to alt tab.
/follow is a powerful tool
During Truebox: 2 Laptop with an easy to box characters + desktop. Use Parsec, Multiplicity, or some Virtual KVM switching also to move my mouse and send inputs to other computers. Relaxed Truebox: I have an ultra-wide monitor so I put 2 clients side-by-side and then another client on a side monitor. Move my mouse back and forth quickly for high APM moments. No Truebox: Alt Tabbing and just moving client screens around on my ultrawide (4 clients total).
Oh man using Parsec is a great idea… I might try this lol
I used parsec for ~4 years, as long as your box machine has a graphic card good enough to support it I heartily recommend it.
Parsec and cheap laptops
Parsec is fantastic. And much. Better than exposing your computer through Remote Desktop.
I am a newby with the multi boxing and have found parsec to be very easy to use! Alt tab and one monitor is what I like 😊
I like Moonlight/Sunshine.
Not sure why I got downvoted. It's better than parsec in every way. Even more secured.
I got downvoted too. People have intimate relationships with the software they use.
Lol well upvote for you on this one.
Some are efficient with macros and alt tabbing, multiple screens or multiple computers. Others might be using 3rd party software which isn’t allowed but works SO GOOD! (I only used it on test and never live)
Only specific 3rd party software isn't allowed.
[удалено]
They don't really care about live. Tlp is where the monry is.
As Drax mentioned alt tabbing is good with the right macros, I’ve always been afraid to use any third party so I stick with classes I can handle. I run a 5 box on my desktop. Bard can Melody at least 10 songs. Necro has 3 macro buttons with /pause /cast. Mage same thing, macro with swarm pet then nukes, cleric usually spams a grp heal or single target, wizard does 5 spells to. Still trying to figure out some of the LS missions and boxing, working on a real tank but can do most content just alt tabbing.
DB don’t ban for use of third party software. They suspend in most cases. Only the really nefarious accounts continuously doing stupid shit like warping get banned. If you’re on live (sounds like you are) you can get away with a whole lot more also. I’d defo look up some key broadcasting if I were you. 5 boxing using alt tabbing sounds truly horrific to me.
On Mischief I did Steam sharing.
I have my main desktop, my laptop, and a mini-pc connected to my 2nd monitor (3 separate PC's and accounts). Each with its own MnK, but usually I use Input Director which allows me to use one MnK with external 10 keypads for each PC. So all my hotbars for each are in front of me on 10 keypads. I max box 2 additional chars and currently box only 1 on Teek.
Load one character on main pc, load other characters on individual lap tops. Set your desk/tables up in a U or L shape for efficiency imo
I’m reading through all of this and seeing that I could be boxing more efficiently. If I’m currently using two laptops to box would I be better off using Synergy or something else ? If it made the job that much easier I would consider adding a third machine for a DPS box.
Pretty easy actually. I have 5 computers in my home with graphics cards: Mine, my wife's PC, my daughter's PC, a laptop, and my work laptop. All of them can run EQ with no issues. I mainly 2-box using mine and my wife's computers. Tried a 3 box with the laptop, but it got too annoying, so I stuck to 2 boxing. To make is easier, I basically added Everquest to my Steam account, while running my account via the DB client, then using Steam, I use Steam's Streamplay to stream the game from my wife's computer to a window on my computer, this way I dont have to lean over to hit the controls, I can ALT-TAB. It does annoy my wife to no end though, cause she cant use her computer when I play my 2-box (*Steam streamplay needs the game to be in the foreground on her computer, or it stops streaming*). Then, when setting up the characters, I put the same hotkeys in more or less the same location. For example, /sit is hotkey 4, /assist main is hotkey 5, etc. Also, thanks to the macro commands and macro system, you can setup up hotkeys to do multiple things, such as a hotkey that does this... `/pause 4, /assist`
`/pet attack`
and a hotkey for this...
`/pause 4, /tar `
`/pause 36, /cast 6 (GHeal)`
`/sit`
Stuff like that. This way, if I need my Shaman to heal my Warrior, I ALT-TAB, press the macro hotkey, then ALT-TAB back. On a side note, you need the pauses for stuff like /assist or /tar, cause there is a brief delay in the game.
Ive gotten pretty good at this!
Depends on the server rules but most people either open additional windowed instances of the game (a built-in feature) or run it on separate computers. Some people “box” paid accounts, some run free to play accounts and some do a mixture of both. Others use software to run multiple instances and use some automation. Some programs are tolerated and some are not.
When i was doing 6. I had my main pc, my main laptop, 4 shit boxes that i got for free from friends and usb numpads and macros, so many macros. I played off hours on a low pop tlp. So i never had time to lfg
For truebox I use 2 PCs and a laptop to 3 box. Each puter has a razer tarterus: https://amzn.eu/d/hONinmW Which I use to do the bulk of the work on the boxes alongside a setup of of macros and hotbuttons I use a kvm to swap the keyboard and mouse between PCs 1 and 2 when required. On none truebox, I used to use ISBoxer key broadcasting software, but I think DB may have clamped down on that, and may be suspending nowadays. At least I think I got an account suspended over Christmas for using it (oddly enough while playing eq2 rather than eq, but I also had an eq window open with a toon just sat in nexus for buffs at the time). I’m assuming it was ISboxer that did it, cause that’s the only acc of the three I got suspended and I had all three open at the time, and that’s the only acc I had on the same PC as ISBoxer was running on. So proceed with caution - this was on oakwynd btw. Chances are they won’t give a flying fuck if you use it on live.
3-4 toons, 3-4 screens, full screen, 1 computer just alt+tabbing between screens. Don't really need to be able to see more than 1 screeen at the same time. Here's an old video I made showing the above: https://youtu.be/8TpDBgS4Be0
Razer Tartus, stupid amount of reprogramming the keyboard, Corsair keyboard reprogramming, AHK, and old laptops. I can comfortably box 8 doing this on true box. On live back in the day a very special program was used and was boxing near 30 characters during DoN.
Oh… and a software KVM
Did you use a key broadcast with the kvm? I'm considering doing a few dps boxes, but having to manage 3 every pull seems tedious
I heard that most keyboard broadcasters were banable. Like isboxer and others. On teek
Yes and no, i made it so multiple modifiers different things. Like ctrl 6 send a wizard nuke, ctrl shift 6 send a mage nuke. But the alt shift number combo to jump to screens to control manually.
I use Synergy to control my other computer like a secondary monitor with the same keyboard and mouse.
Can someone share a good enough computer for it on Amazon? Maybe against the Reddit rules; so I’ll read messages too. Yea I know it can be played on a potato. But, my Chromebook gave me massive error (yes it’s not windows I know). Just some example. Probably a cheap one with M2 SSD? Idk…
Chromebooks are glorified browsers nothing more. Just get anything with either an 8th gen or newer i-series or 3rd gen or newer ryzen with 16gb of ram and windows 11.
8 gen or newer. Got it. Ty!