The Beastlords' Den

Everquest 1 => Multi-Boxing Discussions => Topic started by: Tigrah on January 20, 2016, 06:53:12 PM

Title: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Tigrah on January 20, 2016, 06:53:12 PM
I had started to 2-box a long time ago, but was doing it all by hand... had been raising a shamy, with intent to raise a cleric, enc, and mag as well (for buff reasons hehe). I am putting serious thought into 2-boxing seriously. I must admit that the druid is my prefered alt, for the listed reasons in another post. I do not know how to start a 2-box scenario with any hope of more than a headache, and was wondering if anyone knew of a guide I could refer to, or could give me advice on how to 2-box wi/out getting banned?
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Baelance on January 20, 2016, 10:31:58 PM
I 3 box all the time and I don't ever worry about being banned.. I just alt tab between my windows and generally don't have an issue.  As long as you aren't using something that goes against the terms of service you should be fine.  It will take some practice you have not boxed before, and I would recommend setting up as many hotkeys as you can.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Tigrah on January 21, 2016, 07:47:43 AM
ok. I never could figure out how to open multiple instances of EQ. Is there a trick to it?
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Khauruk on January 22, 2016, 02:57:14 AM
I recommend you download WinEQLite.  It's not necessary, but it makes it a bit easier.  And it's free.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Tigrah on January 22, 2016, 07:52:50 AM
Can you explain WinEQLite a little bit Khauruk?
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Zorthaz on January 22, 2016, 04:38:29 PM
I 2 box all the time and sometimes 3 box with a free account.  If you want to keep from bogging down it helps to make a second (or more as needed) copy of your EQ folder, one for each toon you plan to box.  Make sure you only have logging running for one instance. Setup shortcuts to the individual folders.

I connected a second monitor to my PC so I could see what both toons are seeing.  I 2 box a bard and use him to pull and it makes it nice to have both views.

-Z-
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Illiyana on January 22, 2016, 11:17:01 PM
There is also a script you can use that forces multiple instances of the game to run on different CPUs, but it has been so long, I have forgotten it.  I will have to look around to find it.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Khauruk on January 23, 2016, 12:30:22 AM
Their website does a better job than I.

In short, though, it has the ability to force instances to run on different CPU cores (though EQ does alright with this nowadays, I think).

It allows you to have multiple instances load with different INI files, so each instances can have different window sizes, different resolutions, different models, and all the settings that are in eqclient.ini.

It allows you to cap frame rate for background/foreground instances so that they can play nicer with each other.

It 'fixes' how EQ captures the mouse when you're playing in windowed mode (the only way to play).

And a variety of other features.  It's free, and the features are listed here:  https://www.lavishsoft.com/wiki/index.php/WinEQ_1.38#WinEQ_1.38_Lite_Feature_Set

Download it and try it, it's easy enough to move away if you want.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Tigrah on January 23, 2016, 11:41:45 PM
sounds like a little more than this lil laptop can handle. once I get my own pc I'll prob try it.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Khauruk on January 24, 2016, 01:05:48 AM
This helps more on a cheap laptop than on a good PC.  You can set the second box to a lower resolution, old models, and all sorts of good stuff to help speed things up.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Tigrah on January 29, 2016, 07:41:37 AM
I'm definately going to look into this program, once I have my own pc. ATM I'm using my mothers, and it's Windows... I intend to set up a Linux PC, which means buying the version for Windows would be a little pointless in the long run. Guess I do things the hard way until then lol
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Khauruk on January 31, 2016, 02:38:15 AM
Uhmm, it's free.  WinEQ*Lite* is the free version.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Tigrah on February 06, 2016, 05:24:17 PM
Well, so far the alt+tab method seems to b working very well. I must say tho, a Jt5 healer kinda makes the druid heals a little useless lol
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Khauruk on February 07, 2016, 02:16:42 AM
Yep, except for hard things.  This means you can do harder stuff and need the extra debuffs and heals, or you can use it as puller/CC and debuffs/mediocre DPS, or you can dump the healer for a wiz merc.

There's some great druid DPS threads on the sony forums if you wish to go that route.  Those druid debuffs attack debuffs are amazingly awesome for beastlords as well, since they're like adding a permanently worn shield.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Illiyana on February 08, 2016, 07:58:33 PM
Also with the new pet aggro rules, you could let your pet tank and you heal it. 
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Zorthaz on February 08, 2016, 10:47:36 PM
I was playing around with my Druid again this last week.  I got him to level 102 doing the Broken Mirror partisan tasks.  The pet aggro thing after the last de-tune really makes it tough to debuff and DPS on the Druid.  I got him killed multiple times.  One thing that seemed to help the pet with aggo was having the druid cast "Reptile" on the pet.  Since the proc was random, so were the results.

-Z-
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Khauruk on February 09, 2016, 12:07:28 AM
Do you use the defensive spell on the pet that boosts agro?
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Zorthaz on February 09, 2016, 03:31:47 PM
Yes, I use the defensive buff that boosts aggro, taunt is on, hobble is on, withering bite is on, epic is on and still I have to be careful about aggro.  Slowing down DPS drives me crazy, but thats what I have to do.  The tank merc holds aggro better then a pet.
-Z-
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Khauruk on February 09, 2016, 11:36:37 PM
Wow, it's worse than I expected.

It won't do much, but using Spirit of Visoracius will provide a bit more hate.  Yeah, it has that hate reduction line, 1283 + 400 - 700 = 983 hate per proc.  Possibly more, since the stun may give more than 400 hate (I forget if we know the proper value, but stuns are minimum 400 hate).  You don't get much benefit from the Withering either.

Man, that's so many procs between the different things on the pet, it's crazy that it doesn't help.

I assume you also have your agro control AAs maxed and in use?

The only other thing is that I'd do the old-school monkey pre-emptive flops occasionally for yourself on the bst.  Keep the druid far enough away if possible so that the mob won't be able to get far enough before pet regains agro.

Have you tested how many times that hate swords will proc per minute?  I can't see it being enough, but I have no idea.
Title: Re: 2-boxing Qs
Post by: Zorthaz on February 10, 2016, 01:15:27 AM
I can always flop to dump aggro, but I can tank these mobs.  The Druid on the other hand, the mobs are red cons so he can't use veil of the underbrush to fade off aggro.  I was running 2 cleric mercs at the time and had to heal the druid for a few minutes before the pet would regain aggro.  Tank merc does work fine on trash, but for named mobs I have to drop the tank merc and load up a second cleric merc.

Now I said named....that named mob Vomitous was able to instantly kill my pet with 2 cleric mercs and the druid healing my pet.  He smoked a fully buffed primary pet and then smoked the backup pet in 30 seconds flat.  I could not figure it out.
-Z-