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Bots and Multibox ???
PatrickWillian
Member
Dear developers, I beg you, do not let BOTS and Multibox dominate Ashes of Creation, see Blizzard has lost all its dominance, today in the classic it is impossible to farm something without disputing with other 20 bots around you, showing that you care little for their consumers and they only think in the short term, which in the end is destroying the economy the servers and the community of real players!
Thank you and see you soon!
Thank you and see you soon!
3
Comments
Multiboxing relies entirely on scripts unless you have 4 arms to use. What kind of scripts are you talking about?
20 character multiboxing does require scripts, but that isn't the only multiboxing.
I've multiboxed in four MMO's, and not used any scripts in any of them (a script in this instance being any situation in which I would get more than one action out of one key press).
The most I've multiboxed like this is 4 characters at once, using two computers, keyboards and mice, and a whole lot of alt-tabbing. Now though, I'd just set up four cheap computers (or four VM's) on a single 4k monitor with PBP and run Synergy or something.
I have seen people clear single group content in WoW by themselves running 5 accounts without scripts.
My wife and I both play games together. There was a point in time where we had 4 active players for the same game in the same house. 4 Players active at the same time.
People say limit it by IP address, well then you'll lose customers because if I can't play with my household, then I'm just not going to play your game.
Now for the people who are saying "mutli boxing requires scripts" sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
In Eve Online I ran 4-6 accounts at the same time, all without scripts. One machine displaying 4 accounts, and then 2 other machines each displaying 1 account. Sometimes it was done with synergy, other times it was done with 2 keyboards on the desk and one in the keyboard tray. Its not impossible to switch between keyboards and mice if you have had to do for a career. If you want to argue that Synergy is a script (it isn't) then we can go old school with a KVM switch on the desk.
You don't need a script to get some automated support either. I went with the good ole fashion quarter between the 1 and 2 key to get a support character to keep casting AOE attack speed songs in Archeage. Sit the bard on my 2 person mount. The mount follows me. The bard continues to play songs while seated.
I'm not sure which MMO this will be (may be Ashes, may not), but I think this may prove to be an efficient setup.
We have collision, that alone means you can't stand on top of each other, increasing the difficulty of controlling multiple toons. Not only could it make controlling them a little more difficult but it also creates an easy avenue for you to be trolled. if you have a bunch of toons following you, If I park myself and/or my mount in from of them, you will most likely be forced to take manual control to get them around me which is time-consuming and there is nothing stopping me from doing this more then once.
There is also the death penalty to think about, wow doesn't have a very steep one but ashes does. Recouping from dying will take longer and be more expensive. The more toons you have, the more expensive and time-consuming it will be.
There will be people who try multiboxing but I doubt it will be as optimal a playstyle as it is in classic so I don't think it will be a problem where we have multiboxes destroying the market or any other aspect of the game.
There are some of us who will fall on that sword if needed.
I'm unlikely to multibox in Ashes because many players have a negative reaction to multiboxing, and in Ashes, it will be very easy to interrupt a player attempting to multibox open content. Many people associate multiboxing with botting, scripts and third party RMT (which is understandable, as must bots also multibox), and it gives those of us that occasionally multibox for the challenge an impossible task of trying to point out that it is a legitimate game play option.
Since people have this negative view of multiboxing, and since Ashes will make it really easy to interrupt other players, I don't see it being worth trying to multibox at all in Ashes.
This is fine if the game offers up enough challenging content though, as my main reason for multiboxing in any game is to offer up a challenge that the game is not offering if I were to play it the more conventional way.
Things that are added for convenience purposes for players end up being used to fuel this entire play style. Multiboxing can actually be stopped by stripping away certain conveniences. An example of this was actually demonstrated in WoW by mistake. There was an issue with people creating follow macros in battleground instances. The 'bots' were more than likely using common hardware macros in combination with in game macros to follow their teammates into battle, flagging the follow macro users as not AFK. To remedy this problem, Blizzard removed the follow command from battlegrounds. This indirectly threw a wrench into multiboxer setups. Crowd control tends to unstack characters of multiboxers, which can result in them being heavily inconvenienced without the follow command. Multiple characters following one lead character is how they restack and face the same direction so quickly.
Should there be a follow command in Ashes of Creation? Should there be target of target macros? That'll be up to Steven.
Edit: Here's a video of a guy that attempts to demonstrate restacking multiple characters without using follow in WoW.
Sounds like fun!
Yes there should be a follow command.
Yes there should be target of target, but it's ok if it's not macro.
Virtue is the only good.
The target macro in WoW is pretty powerful. A multiboxer can group up with themselves and use a target raid member's target macro. A macro to target a target could be made. For targeting a target's target's target's target's target's target's target can be done too. It just goes on and on. I was once trying to make a little bit of a cheap addon in WoW before I quit. It could target a target, target a target's target, then target their target's target's target, etc. Then every time it targeted somebody it would list their name and current health status in a list of health bar buttons. Basically it was a kind of... version of the addon Spy but with health bars? It sort of turned everybody into an unintentional Spy. Your own faction, your enemies... even NPCs. A simple mouse over was all that was needed. I was even planning on making it give health status updates via raid target of target. Pretty crazy stuff. I got lazy and never finished it, though.
Some games just aren't careful enough with what they give their clients.
One player = One character ONLY, One account ONLY
I know its a bit hardcore in this modern days, but if you think about it from other side...
We play MMORPG games, becouse we like to interact with others, we like to trade, build, farm, pvp, go to dungeons with other players... Thats the spirit of MMORPG games.
But when game, let people to be self sustain in MMO just becouse they can create different classes with different professions to do it all by them selfs... it somehow kills the meaning to play MMO and they should just play Single player RPG instead...
An mmorpg that only lets you create 1 character isn't going to last very long in my opinion.
My super Duper boxing ranger healing magic casting summoning blacksmith leatherworking enchanting jewelry making fishing cooking Jedi sorcerer starship captain tug-of-war would be a great character
Virtue is the only good.
I admit, I liked it. It was different and refreshing. I wouldn’t object to another MMO with that stance.
The issue with that was they couldn't stop people having two accounts.
It meant those few people that were spies were able to act without suspicion.
I'd be all for one character per account myself. One account per player would also be fine with me - but only if Intrepid were able to find a way to enforce it without preventing different people in the same house playing together.
To me, like many things, this should only be a rule if it can be enforced.
I don't think I could ever get behind this with a locked class system. I always enjoy playing different classes and experiencing the world from "the other side" once I've hit cap, feel confident in my abilities in high end content, and need a break or refresher. I know with this style of game there will be plenty to explore and do once I hit cap compared to most games, but even then sometimes I need something fresh. If I got bored with my class and had to buy another subscription just to try another class, I'd rather just quit the game entirely.
If it was a game where you could be every class and every crafter/gatherer on one character I'd be fine with one character since I usually only ever have one to begin with, but they already said that's not what they're going for.
Support/bard classess have abililities that improve character stats: buffs.
Those buffs last 20minutes.
A group of 5-6 friends would create 1 tank, 1 healer, 3-4 combat orientated classes.
Those 5-6 friends would log in 5-6 support/bard/gathering characters, have them follow their main char and buff the group once every 20mins.
This playstyle chips away from immersion, feels more like a real time strategy game, or something like Dragon Age, Divinity Original Din, Spellforce RPG.
People who multibox will obviously progress at a greater pace than those who dont, no comparisson.
Organisation needs/skills will go out the window, multiboxing groups will be preferable to other guild members, but wont be as social.
Most of all, people who want to play support/bard classes, and characters based on gathering/farming will no longer be welcome in guilds.
If me and my friends share a few crafters and buffers why would we want to find an active player, who will demand that we also share our mats, drops, and time to improve his gear/progress.
We can just have alts following our msin chars.
I'm curious as to what games your experience here is derived from.
First of all, I've never seen a support class that only buffs once every 20 minutes and then has nothing else to do - I've never actually seen a support class that has more than about 30% of it's effectiveness derived from long duration buffs - most of them gain their real worth from powerful short duration buffs, debuffs, and additional DPS that they deliver themselves.
Generally, multiboxing doesn't progress faster than a single player with a single character. It progresses faster than a single player with two characters, playing one at a time, but that's about it. While you are able to kill things faster while boxing, you also need to spend additional time on handling two characters, getting quest updates on two characters, gearing two characters, dealing with stuck characters - all of this stuff takes up a lot of additional time.
It is possibly faster to level a healer or tank up if you multibox them with a DPS, but you are talking about support classes and they usually level almost as fast as DPS classes.
And if the game in question has content specific to a given class that needs to be completed for any reason, all of a sudden you are left having to solo two classes, neither of which you really know how to play by themselves.
Boxed characters are usually not bought along on group content if that group content poses even the smallest amount of challenge. I have never been in a situation or seen a situation where a boxed character was ever preferred over bringing another player - though have been in many situations where the content dictated that no boxed characters be bought along even if that meant an empty group/raid spot. Some content out there is simply not suitable for boxing at all.
I've also never seen a guild that has not welcomed support classes to guilds due to having boxed characters of the same class - a player playing that class will always be better than a boxed character.
Gathering/farming based characters though, I've never been in a guild that would accept players based on that, so I'm not sure what the point there is.
Your experience here seems to be based more on a group of friends that have closed themselves up to other players, more than it has to do with multiboxers.