Dual-boxing

[Superspeed_Hi5]

The ONLY possible time someone else would use the account is at the computer next to me, in the same room, after I had typed in the top-secret, highly-secure password myself.

Chickenpox32?

[Crazeee]

They simply do not have an official position on it. They purposefully turned a blind eye on it so far, so it would theoretically possible that they crack down on it, but it seems highly unlikely.

If a ingame gm tells you otherwise, they simply don't know about that.

Why should they be against people having multiple accounts that need to be upgraded? Either someone has two subscriptions or buys the same pack over and over. For Turbine it's $$$, so it's OK!

[doomboy]

Chickenpox32?

*looks around*
how did you know?!

[OzmarDDO]

You have nothing to worry about OP. Some households have 2 or more accounts. To Turbine, you might as well be two room mates, or father and son, or husband and wife playing the game from the same IP.

We run 3 computers in my house. Me, wife, daughter group up for some DDO. I guess that counts as "triple-boxing?" But not really, since we're all playing our own accounts. What would be the difference if I made chars on their accounts and ran them all from a desk shaped like an evil mastermind's Matrix console? ... actually, that sounds like fun!

-Ozmar the Intrigued... Muhahahaah!

[OzmarDDO]

This would break Point 10 of the Code of Conduct:

You may not advertise the intent to, or commit the act of, unauthorized selling, buying, transferring or sharing access to any Dungeons&Dragons Online game account.

Oh dear! I'd better not talk about my knowledge of my daughter's account, then.

No sharing! Well, she'd probably kill me if I did anyway, so that's for the best.

-Ozmar the Good Daddy

[Bolo_Grubb]

We run 3 computers in my house. Me, wife, daughter group up for some DDO. I guess that counts as "triple-boxing?" But not really, since we're all playing our own accounts. What would be the difference if I made chars on their accounts and ran them all from a desk shaped like an evil mastermind's Matrix console? ... actually, that sounds like fun!

-Ozmar the Intrigued... Muhahahaah!

It can be fun. I do run 3 account at times, 2 desktops and 1 laptop mostly. I have even gotten pretty good running my healer and a melee for shroud runs simultaneously. Mostly I just do it for slayer areas, and easy to get to quests.

[HunterjWizzard]

What would be the difference if I made chars on their accounts and ran them all from a desk shaped like an evil mastermind's Matrix console? ... actually, that sounds like fun!

My desk definitely meets that criteria. 8 monitors, 3 keyboards... its either controling a death-ray or launching the space shuttle. Not sure which.

[doomboy]

My desk definitely meets that criteria. 8 monitors, 3 keyboards... its either controling a death-ray or launching the space shuttle. Not sure which.

sounds incredible, compared to my setup. just one of everything

[Ziindarax]

Lol, I gave tri-boxing a shot, didna work out sooooo well.

Anyway, I've been using a secondary about for a while now with a pretty decently-leveled cleric(16 cleric/1 sorcerer) I was toiying with grabbing vet-2 for the second account while its on sale, which I now think I shall do. And next time warforged artificers go on sale... oh yes.

Automation is a definite no, I basically just pike with myself, running an artificer around while something else sits at the quest entrance and gains XP. I powerleved a few friend that way(I have multiple computers, so its easy). I had so much fun at it I think its actually worth spending a few bucks on.

I could also easily run 5 or 6 on my main workstation but I don't like windowed mode.

I encountered someone in SW:TOR once who'd Quad-boxed. Yes, Quad-boxed. He had four Jedi Counsulars (Jedi Wizard path) that looked exactly the same, and did exactly the same thing, at the same time... Didn't work out too well in areas where a mixed group was needed. It was hilarious to watch.

[karpedieme]

Its all about economics really.

Turbine would not officially condem one from having 1-4 accounts and simultaneously playing them.

Zonnix and his 6-box lvl 100 guild thing was a prime example.

No matter if its 1-4 VIP accounts or all Premium / F2P somehow in the scheme of things its all about consumables and opening up the DDO Store.

One who chooses to buy the MOTU X-Pac and drop 80$ X 1-4 to level his toons and Greater tomes etc is all up to him.

Why snap at the hand that feeds the Hamsters @ Turbine is what it comes down to pretty much.

You can install 2 diffrent Fresh Clients unmodified in 2 seperate folders.... All you need to do is rename the launcher portion (DDO original, DDO Copy). So its pretty much Code of Conduct proper. You just need to launch both clients and fill in sub info and start games in a close time-frame.

And as stated above as long as you are in control of the account it is not publicly condoned.

As long as it falls in line with EULA and the Code of Conduct it is implied as tolerated.

Many MMO's have embraced the Multi-Boxing environment. DDO with the client user side is not as easy to multi-box as per say WOW.

Just the view of some guy with a couple screens up full time

Best of luck to all of you if its one character or half a dozen its all about having fun in our varying degrees

Laters

[HunterjWizzard]

I have actually found I can quite simply copy/paste the client folder and it works with little difficulty(had 2 clients running on the big box in windowed mode, I'll do that next time I'm up for tri-boxing. Based on the recomendations from the thread on the subject, my primary workstation could actually support about 6 or 7 clients without difficulty, solo shroud, anyone? j/k.

Typically I just have 2 computers, as I do actually have 2 full keyboard/mouse setups at my disposal(I'm a hobbiest, I also collect cables and switches...) I've actually got a total of around 5 able to run DDO without difficulty but using the KVM is annoying. And, frankly, any more than 2 just gets crazy. I actually dual-boxed Mired in Kobalds on hard a few days ago with a group, successfully playing both characters(though "success" may have suffered from a certain amount of re-definition). I'd be happy to post pictures of my setup later, last night I was playing with the client stretched across three 24" monitors... it was fun.

So now that we've established that it's acceptable and technically very feasable, does anyone have any tips or thoughts on actually playing? My main issue is movement. For the moment I have to keep advancing the second character manaually, which is tedious and a bit annoying.

[FooWonk]

During the Build your guild event, someone on Sarlona 6-boxed to power-level characters. He kept his primary characters at level 4 & 7 and pike-leveled 128+ characters in secondary accounts to level 8.

Multiple developers congratulated the user for reaching guild level 100. It was very clear how he was doing it.

According to ToS all is good, if you're controlling all the characters...

--- The reality of dual-boxing DDO ---

I have dual-boxed, using ISBoxer to broadcast keyboard & mouse between multiple clients. Technically, it works flawlessly. Both characters move in tandem, act in tandem, etc.

Without auto-follow, you'll end up switching between characters in order to position each. There are many factors that keep the character movement out of sync: striding, race, bumping terrain, encountering obstacles, etc.

Assist this character command when your secondary character is ranged. It rarely works well for melee and doesn't work at all for casters.

Even with key commands setup to utilize a caster, any spell/ability that checks facing requires you to adjust the casters facing in order to use it.

The end result is that you'll end up switching often between windows.

--- What has worked for me ---

#1 Healer/Caster, #2 Melee/Tank —> melee set to auto-attack and assist #1. When moving through dungeon, you control #2. When encountering mobs, attack with #2. Immediately switch to #1 and adjust the mob #2 attacks by targeting mobs with #1.

Fun factor: not very
Challenging: not very
Tediousness: very

#1 Zerg-character, #2 Bard/Trapper —> #2's job is to buff at the beginning of the quest and pike. #1 Zergs through quest until encountering an obstacle that needs the buffer/trapper. Switch to #2 and run up to handle traps, etc. Recast/sing buffs for #1 then pike s'more.

Fun factor: saves waiting for trapper for quests that need it
Challenging: not very
Tediousness: a lot less tedious than staring at an LFM waiting for a trapper that isn't going to be useless

#1 Bard/Trapper, #2-#N Caster —> basically move all the casters through dungeon simultaneously...best done with same race, same class, same striding (just use haste). When you get to an obstacle, get around it one at a time. If you stack your characters with all having the same facing, your selection or reticle placement should be close enough. 2-5 casters all cast the same spell simultaneously.

Fun factor: when it works, it's pretty silly fun
Challenging: hard to get it to work, when it does...nothing in game ready for it
Tediousness: a bit to get characters all facing correctly when moving

[Purgatory]

I have 2 accounts

First is my Main with normal toons. If you can call them normal lol.

The 2nd is for helping my Main account lvl so this what I use

lvl 7 WF, Wiz - (for shadowcrypt farming for toon that are lvl 4-7) rarely use this one it was set up to help congo bowl players get from 4 to 6 in less then hour.

lvl 9 WF, Sor - (For farming Deleras)

lvl 11 WF, Sor - (for Shadowcrypt farming X: 354 completions of SC)

lvl 13 WF, Sor - (For Running lvl 11-12 quests fast obviously X: desert, enemy within)

lvl 15 WF, Sor - (For ruuning lvl 13-14 quest fast obviously X: GH sides, ghost of perdition)

lvl 18 Hmn, FVS - (For running 16-20 quests X: BB and wings out performs sor at this lvl)

lvl 25 Hmn, Brd - (Currently lvling up. Max space for keeping everything i want to sell and buy in one spot max Haggle X: heal scrolls, cure serious pots, haste pots)


Some of my toons rarely need my 2nd account to help lvl. it slower to run 2 accounts around. But other need the hand as they just not powerful enuf to solo zerg elite Streaking on there own and relying on pugs is not a good way to level fast.

[HunterjWizzard]

Wouldn't a program like ISBoxer violate the terms of service? If not it may be exactly what I'm looking for.

Using a cleric and an artificer, I basically need the cleric to stay in range to cast healing spells and throw down blade barriers and other AOE. The artificer tries to avoid melee combat like the plague(I think he's a germafobe, or something) so ultimately all I need is to clone his movements to an ok-degree, then just tap hotkeys on the second keyboard. It'll get a little nuts, but the movement is the only real hurdle.

[Hunta-EU]

Use PYLOTRO

Its a Linux based thin client that will launch a separate instance, effectively sand boxing DDO. No need for multiple directories that take up space on your computer.

[HunterjWizzard]

Space is sincerely not an issue, I have a 1tb raid-array that's practically empty. Buy a laptop in the past 2 years and its got at least 750 gb, desktops standard with 2 tb. Copying directories is a much simpler option than trying to make anything with "linux" or "thin client" in the name work :P

[Ryiah]

4.) Use a sandbox program. No need to manage multiple installations. You can always start your 2nd client whenever you want, no need for fast double clicking or such.

I do something similar only I don't use a third-party program, I use the mklink command built into Windows 7 (no idea how far back it goes) to create a junction directory.

MKLINK /J "DDO Alt" "DDO"

Space is sincerely not an issue, I have a 1tb raid-array that's practically empty. Buy a laptop in the past 2 years and its got at least 750 gb, desktops standard with 2 tb. Copying directories is a much simpler option than trying to make anything with "linux" or "thin client" in the name work :P

Space can be an issue if you're using an SSD and cannot afford the bigger ones. The difference in speed more than makes up for the reduced capacity though.

[zebidos]

OP Just answer the two questions below for your answer

1) Does it make money for Turbine?

2) Are you controlling both accounts or using a program that automates the actions of one character?

[HunterjWizzard]

Space can be an issue if you're using an SSD and cannot afford the bigger ones. The difference in speed more than makes up for the reduced capacity though.

That is certainly true.

[HunterjWizzard]

OP Just answer the two questions below for your answer

1) Does it make money for Turbine?

2) Are you controlling both accounts or using a program that automates the actions of one character?

1)yes

2)controling both accounts.