multi boxing EM Event end - YES!!

[THP]

from the questiion answer at anni meet up

Q: Multiboxing?
A: When EJ is released, multiboxing will be illegal. Until then, it will not be enforced. (Note: I specifically asked Bleak at the barbecue the next day if that meant that multi-CLIENTING would be deactivated. He stated that multi-clienting would be okay; only actual multi-boxing, controlling multiple accounts on the same keystrokes/controls, would be prohibited.)

YES one result at least

 

[Mr Bug]

This has been long overdue.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

I applaud the end of Multi-Boxing.. just not sure how they will be able to tell who is multi-boxing really. I mean one dude (on another forum) was bragging about having like 14 characters spread out over 4-5 machines and being able to respond to any GM on any account within seconds of them "talking" to any of the characters. With folks doing that.. how will they be able to tell? Pulling IP addresses? Ummm, heck that would goof up folks like me.. there are times to where me, my wife and my son are all playing while sitting in the living room lol. All the same IP at the router.... *shrugs*

 

[MalagAste]

I believe what was stated was that they would be watching at events and anyone who was "observed" making the same keystrokes and such on multiple characters would be banned.

 

[Tyrath]

I applaud the end of Multi-Boxing.. just not sure how they will be able to tell who is multi-boxing really. I mean one dude (on another forum) was bragging about having like 14 characters spread out over 4-5 machines and being able to respond to any GM on any account within seconds of them "talking" to any of the characters. With folks doing that.. how will they be able to tell? Pulling IP addresses? Ummm, heck that would goof up folks like me.. there are times to where me, my wife and my son are all playing while sitting in the living room lol. All the same IP at the router.... *shrugs*

Same here not uncommon to have 5+ machines running on the same IP with me, the wife and other family and friends. I find it odd that now it is going to be illegal when up til now it was not detectable.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

Hopefully just the threat of banning is enough to get some folks to stop. Highly doubt they ALL stop, I mean some of them just don't give a crap lol. But, others do.. I know of a couple with great reps who multi-box because of the "do what it takes to win" mantra that Mesanna used. Once it goes to "illegal status" those would likely stop on their own.

Could be wrong.. but kinda doubt it.

 

[skittles1337]

You guys really think the multiboxers are just going to go away? They are going to adjust, make templates that don't require much interaction. This gives them a solid 6 months to build new characters and be good to go. This will be the end of the archer/thrower army, but you will see others that will be easy to manually control aka a tamer army.

 

[Riyana]

My only quibble is: why wait?

Why not go ahead and do it now, get the worst of it out of the game for when they start trying to attract new and returning players with EJ? This isn't a new phenomenon.

 

[Lord Arm]

get rid of the follow command u need to control your chars not just follow. its just use as an exploit now

 

[King Greg]

The only way that they will actually be able to achieve this is to ban the use of 3rd party programs at events. Beyond that, it will still go on, It will just be less noticeable.

 

[The Craftsman]

YES one result at least

Save the celebrations until they actually do something about it. Talk is cheap.

 

[S_S]

It's NOT that damn hard to tell.... Multi boxers will have the chars stand on the exact same tile as each other. One single tile with multiple chars standing on each other. When they move, it will show a trail/lag like action when the chars all move at once . People have pointed this out for months now and the DEVS have ignored it up until now. I'm not holding my breath that EJ is going to stop it.

 

[4runnersport]

Is it okay to ban someone from using a 3rd party program from events and idocs but not ban them from using it to do something as simple as training chars? I know its profitable but if yes is your answer I would like to see a better reason why than just that... Cheating is cheating no matter how little or big. Now aside from that skittles is correct. People have 6 months to adjust. Just like when people wanted the top damage removed from events people adjusted. And to some degree it only made things worse for most of the people that complained to have it changed (just 1 example all the lag from so many toons now). Once the change takes place if it even does and people adjust again it will probably be even more laggy. Then another complaint will come. Does it suck for people that cannot compete with the select few so they complain and wait for change? Yes it does. Will it actually fix the problem? No not really because those people know how to adapt and will always know how. Something to honestly think about since it will most likely make people more upset just like the last time when i said taking away top damage was a bad idea

 

[skett]

Top damage should be taking away unless the devs can balance ALL classes to do equal Damage

Not just theirs and their friends favorite templates doing top damage

 

[S_S]

Top damage should be taking away unless the devs can balance ALL classes to do equal Damage

Not just theirs and their friends favorite templates doing top damage

I don't see top damage being the biggest issue. It's how many chars you can get that get looting rights to something, mainly an EM event that has an item drop. Don't always have to be top damager, just get looting rights.

 

[Promathia]

Top damage should be taking away unless the devs can balance ALL classes to do equal Damage

Not just theirs and their friends favorite templates doing top damage

Except that "Top Damager" has meant for a pretty long time now:
1. Taking Damage
2. Doing Damage
3. Healing damage taken from that target

 

[4runnersport]

Top damage has been taken away. It is also achievable on several different templates if you know how to do it. All templates? no of course not but more than just 1 or 2. The same people that can adapt knows how to do it. Top damage was not perfect by no means but it would cut the multiboxing from 10 accounts to roughly 2 r 3

Basically your just gonna have 10 gdragons per person instead of 10 thrower/archers
Imagine the lag with just the tamers now and then imagine it with all the thrower/archers added in with it. You think targeting the boss is hard and the lag sucks now. I'm only simply stating what is to come just like i did before nothing more nothing less

 

[hardy-]

Same here not uncommon to have 5+ machines running on the same IP with me, the wife and other family and friends. I find it odd that now it is going to be illegal when up til now it was not detectable.

Imagine me a ton of machines in the same ip since i need a tunnel to play (everyone of tunel have same ip)

 

[Promathia]

but you will see others that will be easy to manually control aka a tamer army.

If they are manually using 10 accounts at an event, there should be absolutely NO PROBLEM with that.

There's only an issue now because they use 10 throwers/archers and control them all at once.

 

[Kylie Kinslayer]

If they are manually using 10 accounts at an event, there should be absolutely NO PROBLEM with that.

I get angry enough with 1 account getting locked up at events.. 10 would just cause a stroke for me, so no need to play around with that.

 

[4runnersport]

There's only an issue now because they use 10 throwers/archers and control them all at once.

Tbh it want be hard to manually control alot of tamer/spellweavers that really only need to hit 1 wod. So same issue just diff template that people will hate more. I bet a few of the thrower army's out there wish they did tamers in the beginning even before all this just for the fact that it will be so much easier

 

[Promathia]

Tbh it want be hard to manually control alot of tamer/spellweavers that really only need to hit 1 wod. So same issue just diff template that people will hate more. I bet a few of the thrower army's out there wish they did tamers in the beginning even before all this just for the fact that it will be so much easier

I wouldn't argue it is harder or easier , but I would say its fairer.

Casting WoD on 10 characters manually + separately is fairer than controlling all 10 characters at once and hitting one button.

 

[Parthis]

I would love to be able to post my point of views on this, but to have an open conversation about multibotting we need to have a thread where we can talk about 3rd party programs. And, how to acutally fix the problem. Becuase, the way they have worded it means there are so many ways around it.

 

[Picus of Napa]

Why would they bother doing anything about them now? It's a really big gamble to clean out the paying accounts for the chance of ej revenue.

 

[skittles1337]

In a year people will be crying about the same thing, I guarantee it. Go back to top damage solves the entire problem, never saw this during that era. In the current era I could just run around and heal one person who has been hit by the boss and get a shot at the drop.

 

[4runnersport]

Like i said all this will do is cause more lag, make it harder for people to target bosses and things like that. I was right b4 when i said people would regret taking away top damage. Well see if i go 2 for 2 when it changes. It may sound more fair to you solus but i wouldn't lie to you when i am saying it will be just as easy... i don't have much time to play uo anymore i am just letting everyone know like i did last time that they will regret the change.


also skittles just brought up another good point.. you don't even have to take the time to make tamer/weavers if you don't want. healing dying all that gives you the same chance. There is alot of diff ways to combat the change if it happens

 

[Uriah Heep]

I doubt it will take long for someone to come up with a script that will delay the commands down the line to move, cast, etc so that they are running in sequence instead of all at once for a proper appearance. And to stand -1 or -2 tiles away from each other

 

[Parnoc]

get rid of the follow command u need to control your chars not just follow. its just use as an exploit now

The follow command has no relationship to multiboxing, it only follows and does nothing else, multi-boxing is almost complete control of several characters with the same keystroke from one keyboard. Don't confuse the 2, lots of folks love the follow command.

 

[MissEcho]

Believe it when I see it.

Why would they bother to 'police' or stop anything illegal now when for the past 20 years the cheats have run rampant. Seriously guys? You actually believe anything is gonna be done about this? Perhaps for the first month just so it 'appears' something is being done. After that and the 'new' EJ players are in and 'paying' for their bits and pieces, after that it will be a free for all just like it is now. It will be the same as Draconi burning down a few buildings while the scripters, bots and speed hackers continued on their way and everyone saying 'look something is being done'.

I cannot believe any of you actually think there will be any stop to this cheating.

I predict that cheating is going to 'boom' once the EJ's get in. I reckon people are gonna be really pissed if there is a huge influx of 'free' players who then complete for all hunting areas, spawns etc etc, the cheating ramps up and the overall game play deteriorates so that those of us actually 'paying' subscriptions end up leaving in disgust.

Hope I am wrong, but I can only base my assessment on past performance.

 

[Tyrath]

I doubt it will take long for someone to come up with a script that will delay the commands down the line to move, cast, etc so that they are running in sequence instead of all at once for a proper appearance. And to stand -1 or -2 tiles away from each other

It already exist.

 

[THP]

great talking thread yes.... but yes ...why wait....do it today

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

I wouldn't argue it is harder or easier , but I would say its fairer.

Casting WoD on 10 characters manually + separately is fairer than controlling all 10 characters at once and hitting one button.

This is not even a possibility without an assist from illicit third party software. IDC how frigging good a person is at the game, two is pushing it without computer assisted help due to the dynamic nature of events. Feel free to argue this point until blue in the face, but we played for years doing events together and we both know better.

On a side note, watching events alone won't curb multiboxing. To nip this in the bud will require making a list of gear farming spots (low pop servers and all) and actively policing them.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

great talking thread yes.... but yes ...why wait....do it today

I would guess they are working on tools to enable them to monitor this more consistently...but that is just a guess.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

Tbh it want be hard to manually control alot of tamer/spellweavers that really only need to hit 1 wod. So same issue just diff template that people will hate more. I bet a few of the thrower army's out there wish they did tamers in the beginning even before all this just for the fact that it will be so much easier

Shenanigans.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

Top damage should be taking away unless the devs can balance ALL classes to do equal Damage

Not just theirs and their friends favorite templates doing top damage

Class balance wouldn't be the issue here, mob balance would. The moment a class is excluded from doing damage is the moment disparity becomes an issue.

Another side note, @Mesanna, if you fix the issues with looting in the EC and bring back corpse loot, people will be less inclined to multibox because you would add one more step in the process of getting a reward...actually looting.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

I applaud the end of Multi-Boxing.. just not sure how they will be able to tell who is multi-boxing really. I mean one dude (on another forum) was bragging about having like 14 characters spread out over 4-5 machines and being able to respond to any GM on any account within seconds of them "talking" to any of the characters. With folks doing that.. how will they be able to tell? Pulling IP addresses? Ummm, heck that would goof up folks like me.. there are times to where me, my wife and my son are all playing while sitting in the living room lol. All the same IP at the router.... *shrugs*

If you think 14 is alot, a friend of mind sent me pics of someone using 35. Yes, 35.

 

[Olcher]

Wonderful news! Keep up the great work Broadsword Team!

 

[Lore]

Some of you don't understand multi-boxing versus multi-client. Multi-boxing is very clear on if it's happening. There's no masking it. It's just not possible. You can respond all you want, but it's clear all the characters are doing all the same things within milliseconds of each other.

Multi-client is still legal. Why wouldn't it be? There's no problem with a guy having 15 computers running 15 clients of UO. It's the keybinding into a shared key input server that is illegal or however kids are doing it these days. Also, EJ isn't eligible for event drops anyways so like others have said... why wait for EJ?

 

[Tina Small]

I am wondering if the delay in enforcement is tied into the renewal of Broadsword's contract with EA. I have read now several times that there is a rumor that the contract is up for renewal in November. Perhaps under a new contract, Broadsword will be receiving more money from EA for enforcement purposes once the Endless Journey publish goes live. If so, that might explain why the enforcement against multi-boxing is going to wait until Endless Journey happens.

 

[The Craftsman]

I am wondering if the delay in enforcement is tied into the renewal of Broadsword's contract with EA. I have read now several times that there is a rumor that the contract is up for renewal in November. Perhaps under a new contract, Broadsword will be receiving more money from EA for enforcement purposes once the Endless Journey publish goes live. If so, that might explain why the enforcement against multi-boxing is going to wait until Endless Journey happens.

BS should be enforcing the TOS now. Surely that is part of their existing contract. If it's not then that's just asinine. It shouldnt be a case of them enforcing the rules if they are paid more money ... enforcement of the rules should be standard.

 

[Basara]

Same here not uncommon to have 5+ machines running on the same IP with me, the wife and other family and friends. I find it odd that now it is going to be illegal when up til now it was not detectable.

Is there some reason you are DELIBERATELY MISREPRESENTING what was stated?

IP was NEVER part of the equation. It's the multiple characters being controlled simultaneously by one person that is the thing being looked for. And, yes, even ones with a time offset would be fairly obvious to an observer - and multiple people playing from one IP could NOT be mistaken easily for a multi-boxer visually, unless everyone had identical outfits and templates.

 

[S_S]

It amazes me how many players think they know about Multi Clienting and Multi Boxing.. yet are so far wrong on the difference between the two.

That aside, the DEVS should KNOW the dang difference and this should have been stopped a long time ago. Instead, they choose to sit on their asses and let it get out of control to the point where we are now with it.

 

[Lord Arm]

The follow command has no relationship to multiboxing, it only follows and does nothing else, multi-boxing is almost complete control of several characters with the same keystroke from one keyboard. Don't confuse the 2, lots of folks love the follow command.

what I am saying if u are using more than one account, u need to control them not just follow another char around, using buffs, heal what ever. theres not many more buttons u need to click between multi boxing and mutli char use. both should never been allowed. people use to get banned for either.
only solution is one char use.

 

[skittles1337]

Is there some reason you are DELIBERATELY MISREPRESENTING what was stated?

IP was NEVER part of the equation. It's the multiple characters being controlled simultaneously by one person that is the thing being looked for. And, yes, even ones with a time offset would be fairly obvious to an observer - and multiple people playing from one IP could NOT be mistaken easily for a multi-boxer visually, unless everyone had identical outfits and templates.

So you think that every multiboxer uses the same template and dresses their characters the same? Yea you're wrong, I know over 3 off the top of my head that have different templates and specifically dress their characters differently. One could easily put a random offset time that changes within a script so a player can follow at a different speed every time the group moves. I know that not every multibox script doesn't stack, they give options on character formation. So a smart person could easily change this up every time they move, GMs are going to need clear evidence to do anything.

 

[The Slug]

I am wondering if the delay in enforcement is tied into the renewal of Broadsword's contract with EA. I have read now several times that there is a rumor that the contract is up for renewal in November. Perhaps under a new contract, Broadsword will be receiving more money from EA for enforcement purposes once the Endless Journey publish goes live. If so, that might explain why the enforcement against multi-boxing is going to wait until Endless Journey happens.

If that is true I would say it's just the opposite. If BS cracks down on multibotting BEFORE signing, it's likely that a significant amount of accounts would be closed, making the "bottom line" look bad and may affect renewal of the contract. Not saying I condone it, but what can ya do?

 

[Lore]

So you think that every multiboxer uses the same template and dresses their characters the same? Yea you're wrong, I know over 3 off the top of my head that have different templates and specifically dress their characters differently. One could easily put a random offset time that changes within a script so a player can follow at a different speed every time the group moves. I know that not every multibox script doesn't stack, they give options on character formation. So a smart person could easily change this up every time they move, GMs are going to need clear evidence to do anything.

Scripting is not multi boxing.
Multi-client is not multi boxing.
Multi boxing is multi boxing.

The way I multiboxed in Warcraft was to use a separate server that all machines could get keystrokes from. I did not explore it deeply, but a delay is possible, however, it's not very convenient with as many places as you could get hung up in UO. In WoW, I would mostly join battlegrounds and chain lightning with a group of shaman on RAF accounts.

It's very obvious you are multiboxing. Your character will have a blurred movement as everything walks right up on each other or it will look obvious that their footsteps are almost identical. They may also walk clumsily and slowly so as to allow for input lag.

Multi-clienting should never be illegal. If I want one account open on one PC or even monitor and another on another monitor or PC and I have separate inputs what's the problem? How is that cheating vs you and a family member playing?

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

So you think that every multiboxer uses the same template and dresses their characters the same? Yea you're wrong, I know over 3 off the top of my head that have different templates and specifically dress their characters differently. One could easily put a random offset time that changes within a script so a player can follow at a different speed every time the group moves. I know that not every multibox script doesn't stack, they give options on character formation. So a smart person could easily change this up every time they move, GMs are going to need clear evidence to do anything.

You seem to be well versed on the in's and out's of multiboxing, I wonder why that is....

 

[Tyrath]

Is there some reason you are DELIBERATELY MISREPRESENTING what was stated?

IP was NEVER part of the equation. It's the multiple characters being controlled simultaneously by one person that is the thing being looked for. And, yes, even ones with a time offset would be fairly obvious to an observer - and multiple people playing from one IP could NOT be mistaken easily for a multi-boxer visually, unless everyone had identical outfits and templates.

In regard to the IP I was replying to someone else that speculated about IPs. Some of the private scripts get very complex in what and how they do things, I would wager you could not tell some of them from a legit player, now chain those together and it will be very difficult to say the person running those more advanced scripts than you will find in any PSL is real or fake. I believe it was that M lady in some meet and greet that said it was either undectable or very hard to detect............. So which part did I DELIBERATELY MISREPRESENT?

 

[Parnoc]

what I am saying if u are using more than one account, u need to control them not just follow another char around, using buffs, heal what ever. theres not many more buttons u need to click between multi boxing and mutli char use. both should never been allowed. people use to get banned for either.
only solution is one char use.

I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. If you banned people that multi client, you would lose most of our players. In this day and age, most of the players you see have multiple accounts and they certainly should be able to use them. For instance at times we will have a guild hunt and I or one of our members will often have a separate account crafter on to repair suits etc, saves time and is convenient and has no game changing advantage benefit whatsoever on anyone except for the time saved.

 

[lineman]

Cant wait till they ban the ones who have been abusing this for few years now. Already seeing a few people sweat in this thread lol. I love it.