Never seen anyone 3-Box like this before

[Smokewolf]

Today I Ran across someone in the Argo market-place who was playing three Wizards at once. (approx 4:30pm +1 GMT) This in and of it self isn't too unusual, as I know a few people that 2 box. Where in each case they're never in sync as they often need to swap toons / PC's to move them from instance to instance. (they don't join combat as a result) However, what was different is that all three of this players Wizards and the summoned skellies were 100% physically in sync, as if there was no delay or difference in their movements. (maybe a 1/10 of a second difference) The skellies idle-animation was very interesting to watch as the physical forms appeared on-top of each other and danced back and forth as if each was the shadow for the others. (players forms did this as well) Anyways, the guy ran off as I was attempting to record the video of it. Noticed on the "Who" panel that they went to Crystal Cove.


Odds are that within a quest this is also the case, as its likely that the player is effectively hacking the server or his client code to do it. I'm wondering if the appearance of this individual is a coincidence with the heavy lag I was suddenly experiencing?

Side note: I've posted the player names and guild to the Dev's, in the hopes that they'll look into this situation.

Cheers!

Resin

 

[Contessor]

There is a third party software that has a follow me mechanic for boxing. Personally I think dual boxing is too much work, but man shadow crypt farm is totally worth it for a dual box. If you do an easy pug raid having an extra puller is kind of nice I suppose, but just kind of pain to level something up and make sure it has access.

Not sure how this would work in Crystal cove although.

 

[rabidfox]

Odds are that within a quest this is also the case, as its likely that the player is effectively hacking the server or his client code to do it. I'm wondering if the appearance of this individual is a coincidence with the heavy lag I was suddenly experiencing?

I do the tab between method you originally talked about and move 1 character at time when I bother with my 2nd account. But you can easily setup keyboard presses to go to every DDO client running at once and as long you initially align your characters then they all move pretty much as one; it's a basic staple of multi-boxes and fully allowed as a human is controlling everything. (And I'd assume aligning characters initially is pretty easy since when you zone you're facing the same direction and in the same exact spot)

 

[Dragavon]

Today I Ran across someone in the Argo market-place who was playing three Wizards at once. (approx 4:30pm +1 GMT) This in and of it self isn't too unusual, as I know a few people that 2 box. Where in each case they're never in sync as they often need to swap toons / PC's to move them from instance to instance. (they don't join combat as a result) However, what was different is that all three of this players Wizards and the summoned skellies were 100% physically in sync, as if there was no delay or difference in their movements. (maybe a 1/10 of a second difference) The skellies idle-animation was very interesting to watch as the physical forms appeared on-top of each other and danced back and forth as if each was the shadow for the others. (players forms did this as well) Anyways, the guy ran off as I was attempting to record the video of it. Noticed on the "Who" panel that they went to Crystal Cove.


Odds are that within a quest this is also the case, as its likely that the player is effectively hacking the server or his client code to do it. I'm wondering if the appearance of this individual is a coincidence with the heavy lag I was suddenly experiencing?

Side note: I've posted the player names and guild to the Dev's, in the hopes that they'll look into this situation.

You are completely wrong.

There is a third party utility that lets people with multiple accounts have the secondary account characters automatically follow their active character. This utility has unofficial support from SSG, as in devs have helped them make it work.

It is not a hack, it is not cheating.

 

[FaceDancer]

I think I've seen something like this on Argo. The animations were synced for all of the 3 skelli's, and that's why it really stood out.

 

[Smokewolf]

There is a third party software that has a follow me mechanic for boxing. Personally I think dual boxing is too much work, but man shadow crypt farm is totally worth it for a dual box. If you do an easy pug raid having an extra puller is kind of nice I suppose, but just kind of pain to level something up and make sure it has access.

Not sure how this would work in Crystal cove although.

Yes I've seen this software, and not what I saw today was definitely not this.

 

[Smokewolf]

I do the tab between method you originally talked about and move 1 character at time when I bother with my 2nd account. But you can easily setup keyboard presses to go to every DDO client running at once and as long you initially align your characters then they all move pretty much as one; it's a basic staple of multi-boxes and fully allowed as a human is controlling everything. (And I'd assume aligning characters initially is pretty easy since when you zone you're facing the same direction and in the same exact spot)

Yeah i get that, as I've seen this software work. However what I saw today to near absolute sync'ing between three Wizards and three pets at the same time. This wasn't lag, as the player was running across the market to the harbor and all three were still in sync, not following a few seconds behind as if a play needed to alt-tab to shoot the command to follow. Even the skelly animations were sync'd, which I've never seen before.

Note: I was at the market place bridge and saw them all teleport in at the exact same moment. The movement and animation was so surreal that I though I was watching a single player glitch until I notices there were three names.

 

[Smokewolf]

You are completely wrong.

There is a third party utility that lets people with multiple accounts have the secondary account characters automatically follow their active character. This utility has unofficial support from SSG, as in devs have helped them make it work.

It is not a hack, it is not cheating.

I've seen the "utility" you speak of, and what i saw today was 100% not this. The utility allows for simple commands to be passed, which is why 2-boxing in DDO is such a PITA. No one will release a mod that does more, fearing that they'll breach the ToS and get their accounts banned.

Edit: Re-reading your post and the emoji you placed on the initial thread, makes me wonder if you have a guilty conscious ?

 

[Phoenicis]

I dual box frequently, using an autofollow program. Any interaction past that I alt-tab to the other client for commands.

That said, I've seen my companions, and occasionally my wife's as well, in uncanny sync, so it's possible.

 

[rabidfox]

The lag was so bad, that at one point I was playing a turn based game, yet the server bit rates remained constant.

Welcome to crystal cove; it's generally a lag fest when it's up. That's been true of every time the event has run from my experience. Don't need to blame a 3rd party for that; it's a DDO event known for it.

I have no clue what that person was doing; you could've sent them a tell and asked, most folks are nice and we'll tell you things like what software they're using. But if multiple characters are standing perfectly on top of each other, they're likely not using anything more than a keyboard and simple software that sends the same keypress to each app; it's pretty basic and has been used for a long time across every MMO (and other games) out there. Don't have to assign it to some magical hack of the client or server to explain it; it's old school multi-boxing methods at its finest.

 

[Dragavon]

I've seen the "utility" you speak of, and what i saw today was 100% not this. The utility allows for simple commands to be passed, which is why 2-boxing in DDO is such a PITA. No one will release a mod that does more, fearing that they'll breach the ToS and get their accounts banned.

Edit: Re-reading your post and the emoji you placed on the initial thread, makes me wonder if you have a guilty conscious ?

I play 6 accounts most of the time and use this utility. What you describe looks pretty much what I see on screen every time I play. The followers will stand in the same spot facing the same way when I stop on my active character.

It is not hacking or cheating just because you have not seen it before and you should be very careful of accusing other players of cheating when you do not know what you are talking about.

 

[Contessor]

Yes I've seen this software, and not what I saw today was definitely not this.

You are looking at the wrong software then. There is one specific for DDO and others universally made for many MMOs. The shadow feature is intended to meet ToS of the MMOs, that specifically a human is in charge and not a bot or AI. I have not used them, buit I know they exist. And the shadow one, if you spend the time to properly setup, can done very accurately replicate your keystrokes. position, etc, from my understanding.

I know SSG has been very unofficial about this stuff, but I know players who have screenshots of devs saying as long as a human is in charge of the account they are fine. Bots farming stuff on their own is not permitted.

 

[Timmius]

didn't this game have a "follow" feature way back in the day or am I thinking of some long defunct mmo?

 

[rabidfox]

didn't this game have a "follow" feature way back in the day or am I thinking of some long defunct mmo?

LOTRO has a follow command baked in.

 

[Smokewolf]

LOTRO has a follow command baked in.

And this proves what in DDO, other then our Dev's don't respond to the player bases needs?

 

[Sarlona Raiding]

SSG should just incorporate these features into their software instead of being silent on a third-party plug-in.

There is a non-zero risk with using any third-party plug-in on multiple levels.

Here are a few nice features:

Ability to auto-follow obviously.
Ability to auto-attack with dual boxes increasing dps when soloing and short-manning
Ability to auto-scoop remnants and such. Ironically SSG won't add this feature for players, but you can get it with a third-party plug-in.

Here is the link: https://dungeonhelper.com/

Here is the community discord: https://discord.gg/bfMZnbz

 

[FaceDancer]

Just for the record, I have absolutely no issue with multi-boxing. Would consider it myself, but so far I'm too lazy. ?

 

[vryxnr]

I do the tab between method you originally talked about and move 1 character at time when I bother with my 2nd account. But you can easily setup keyboard presses to go to every DDO client running at once and as long you initially align your characters then they all move pretty much as one; it's a basic staple of multi-boxes and fully allowed as a human is controlling everything. (And I'd assume aligning characters initially is pretty easy since when you zone you're facing the same direction and in the same exact spot)

This.

Being synced like that in game is most likely the result of what Rabidfox is describing. Shared keyboard or keyboard broadcast between accounts (NOT auto-follow) is what causes things to look like this, and is indeed a staple of multiboxing tools. ISBoxer for example was - iirc - originally made for WoW but quickly expanded to be compatible with many many games (DDO included) and it has this feature.

It doesn't hack the server or the .dat files on the client or anything like that. All it does is transmits your mouse and keyboard presses to multiple active instances of a game on your computer instead of to only one at a time.

If they actually are hacking, yeah, banhammer. But 99.99999% of the time, this behaviour is not hacking, and afaik permitted because a human at the keyboard is controlling the action directly. IMO this is even more permissible than auto-follow because with auto-follow you can walk away from your keyboard and your character will still follow the target, whereas here, you can't do that. Here you still have to be at the keyboard for things to happen.

 

[Hobgoblin]

but anyway.


gooze frabba.

just because someone is wrong doesnt mean i need to point it out

new people on squelch list

life goes on

 

[Matuse]

I've seen the "utility" you speak of, and what i saw today was 100% not this. The utility allows for simple commands to be passed, which is why 2-boxing in DDO is such a PITA. No one will release a mod that does more, fearing that they'll breach the ToS and get their accounts banned.

Edit: Re-reading your post and the emoji you placed on the initial thread, makes me wonder if you have a guilty conscious ?

No, you have not seen the utility he's speaking of. You are talking about a program that copies keystrokes to other instances of the game. That is not what exists for DDO. It's a purpose built DDO accessory program that (among other things) triggers autofollow.

I have used it to 6-box raids, because why not. There is nothing against the game's TOS about it, since a real player is present for all of the characters. The Devs have a problem with automation where no actual person is in control.