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Discussion - Going from Day 1 to Dominating (1 Viewer)

Joined
Mar 6, 2023
RedCents
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Hail, fellow roleplayers! My name is Enormo and I've been playing EQ off and on since the original Kunark on hard mode (as a Paladin). After 20+ years, I've decided to try multi-boxing. I have found it initially a bit confusing and overwhelming so I thought I would make a thread to capture my thoughts in real-time as they happen.

Why am I here? I love EQ and I believe its magic is the community. Unfortunately after 20yrs the community size is smaller than ideal so it can be hard to find 5 other people who want to adventure with me. Also, I've morphed from college kid who can play 24/7 to an old guy with a job and a family. I want to make the most of the time I can spend in the game, be more productive, and have more fun experiencing the content which is mostly group focused.

Experience playing multiple characters - For the majority of my EQ life I played only 1 char, but occasionally someone would need to go to bed and ask me to play their char to keep the group going so I learned how to launch a second EQ window and alt-tab between them. I learned that hotkeys are crucial to be able to do simple things in the least amount of time. Very simple things like /assist the tank and cast 3 nukes with an appropriate pause in between them, or invis the group and /follow the main char. My efforts were crude and only marginally effective. I always felt like I was getting at best 25% of the true potential of that botted char versus someone who knew the class and was paying attention. This sparked my interest in a better botting solution and led me to Redguides.

Why Redguides? - I know there are other options out there but I only play EQ so I have no need for a platform that can also bot other games. I am not a coder and have no desire to start from scratch with an "open source" program. I have a bit of disposable income, and I will gladly pay for this community's years of development, fine tuning, and updates. I believe Red is the best solution for my personal situation, so I decided to sign up, pay the 10 bucks, and see what adventures lie ahead. I will update this thread as I learn more so that perhaps another new person down the road will benefit and the community will continue to grow playing the game we enjoy.

Ok here we go!

- In order to learn how to swim you have to jump in the pool. I created my forum username/login, and paid 10 bucks to get access to the program. /borat very nice!
- I watched the first "beginner" video on how to install the program. Not bad. Basically click the red button on the forum, download it, install it like you would any program. Now I have a shortcut on my desktop to the launcher!
- But I'm not ready to go just yet... In the launcher, I need to click on Very Vanilla and install that too. It feels like the launcher is MS Dos and VV is Windows. You need both to make the magic happen. I don't currently have a good handle on what plugins, macros, Lua, myseq, or anything else means. Trying not to feel overwhelmed. Am overwhelmed.
- F it, we ball. I log into EQ the normal way and i see a bunch of new and ugly boxes pop up. This seems like a good sign, things are working! I have no idea what I can do yet, so I watch the next couple beginner videos.
- Some guy teaches me how to have all my chars /wave. All of my problems are now solved, the tutorial ends, I am ready to go conquer EQ with my new software and group! Not so much... I still have literally no idea what any of the commands are, must watch more videos.
- One of the worst parts about botting 2 chars is the /follow feature works about as well as telling your most drunk friend to follow you down a crowded street to another bar. It's virtually guaranteed he's going to stop and look around or get punched in the face. I see a button on the group window called "follow me" and i click it. To my surprise it is working very well!
- I watch the beginner video about movement, and it tells me I need some meshes. I thoroughly enjoy mesh shorts, so I am all in for EQ mesh. Back to the launcher, Very Vanilla, and i launch the mesh updater. I have 0 out of 500, so its time to update. It seems like they should give you these upon install, but we install and move onward, hopefully that we can now navigate more efficiently.


OPEN ITEMS - QUESTIONS - STILL TO COME

- It seems like plugins are little programs that people make that can add into Redguides. I can't tell what Very Vanilla already has already installed by default, or which ones are so good that I need to add, so I have held off so far until i test out the default program.
- Frankly I am not even sure if this thing is called Redguides, VV, MQ, MQ2, or it doesnt matter because we're not allowed to speak about it ingame.
- I'm not sure what macros or Lua are yet.
- I've read some forum threads where people mention/argue about which acronyms are better -- dannet, eqbc, cwtn, kissassist, etc... i dont know what any of this means yet, or how to make those decisions, so I am ignoring until i get to a point where i learn or am forced to install something
- I remember MySEQ from a long time ago, it feels somewhat across the line of cheating to me so I haven't investigated that tab yet. However, I noticed that after the initial install of VV my ingame map has exploded with realtime mob locations. My knee jerk reaction is to figure out how to turn this feature off (which you can do with the little layer "2" button on the map. But... I also notice that it shows the location of the little collectable ground spawns. This will be impossible for me to turn off now because i find those to be the most obnoxious yet necessary aspect of the game and i am ok getting some help finding those. I can feel my moral compass beginning to point a little more south.
- I still have no idea how to make the relevant hotkeys yet. This is top of my list to learn, I have to figure out how to make my bot more efficient while I am playing my pally, and then i will be comfortable adding more chars....
- I only have 2 chars so far, a paladin and a wizzy who I made to port me around and increase DPS. I've now realized porting isn't as big a deal as it used to be because of Guild Hall transports, Throne which is essentially a translocate, and the 2 anchor gates. And apparently wizzies are currently not in favor, oh well, at least she's a high elf. I havent decided what classes I would like to add yet, how many my computer can handle, and how much better 6 real chars would be than 3 + 3 mercs. My initial plan is to keep the paladin main and wizzy bot since they are both 112 and decently geared. I will likely add a shammy or an ench because my ability to pull singles is as a pally is limited, and i tend to get squished on named mobs without slow and only merc heals. Everyone tells me to make a bard, but I have no experience at all with bards and I'm hesitant to learn unless there is some kind of plugin/macro/hotkey setup that will make it literally plug and play easy.

Happy Questing!
Enormo

Note: I've decided not to edit this initial post since so many great comments and advice were given below. I will post new replies as I continue on the adventure.
 
Last edited:
Welcome to RedGuides

MacroQuest (MQ) is the platform that all the macros, plugins, and luas run on.
Very Vanilla is the "flavor" or MacroQuest that RedGuides (this site) offers.

Plugins are (currently) compiled c++ programs that run, and you can run multiple concurrently - the appeal of these existed because of the lack of ability to run concurrent macros
Macros use the homebrew macroscript macro language - it isn't great, and requires a lot of "gotchas"
Lua is a #RealLanguage so it comes with a bunch of freebies and functionality that macro language doesn't have - it also means you can run them concurrently.

MySEQ is a separate thing alltogether and not a part of MacroQuest

I have a bunch of videos and resources that might help you out - check out my how i move my toons around video - it was made while using cwtn plugins and kissassist, but many of the hotkeys, or the "ideas behind the keys" are applicable

when you ask for questions about making your toons do something, make sure to post in the correct area and/or let folks know what automation you're using.

Bad question -> Y does my bard not sing song?
Good Question -> I'm using kissassist for my bard, here is the ini (and i didn't post my toon's name in it) and I don't appear to be singing "cool song of awesomeness", it is currently memorized in gem 5, any ideas?

Bad question -> this fucking sucks, my tank is dead all the time
Good Question -> My tank seems less sturdy than I would have expected. I am x level with y AAs and abc gear, 9999 ac and using sword and shield, I am running xyz automation on it. my healer is a ranger played by my mailman who's afk most of them time, and always bumbles into adds when he isn't - I'm guessing the healing is the issue, but anything I can do with my tank to try and overcome that shortcoming?

Choice of automation is a personal one, I'd recommend trying out a few and find out what you like the best, and go from there.

Lots of very viable options
 
Welcome Enormo!

Nice write up about your first day. 100% check out Sic-vids. When i came to this community, I semi watched, just jump in (had used MQ previously). Not the way to go. Watch vids, practice the info, play around a little. Once your like "ok cool", go back and re-watch and or re-read the info, there are nuances that you wont see the first, second, and maybe even the third time. This community is great, and SUPER helpful, so if you watch/read and still aren't getting the expected results, you can post a question, or jump into the RG discord.

Again, welcome to RG's, and get ready to have your mind blown.
 
- It seems like plugins are little programs that people make that can add into Redguides. I can't tell what Very Vanilla already has already installed by default, or which ones are so good that I need to add, so I have held off so far until i test out the default program.
RedGuides is a community and offers a version of MacroQuest (MQ) called Very Vanilla. VV has a number of macros and plugins which aid in making your life easier. You can pick and choose which of the things you want to use, enable, or even disable. While macros (file.mac) are loaded by hand plugins are automatically loaded in some cases. There's a handy tool called MQ2PluginManager which provides a user interface for your to be able to see what plugins exist and which are loaded (green text) and which are not loaded (red text).

- Frankly I am not even sure if this thing is called Redguides, VV, MQ, MQ2, or it doesnt matter because we're not allowed to speak about it ingame.
Check references above.

- I'm not sure what macros or Lua are yet.
Macros are "scripts" written in MacroScript - a scripting language which is only used within MacroQuest.
Lua is an industry standard scripting language which has been included in MacroQuest (MQ) for easy of use. These are scripts, but use a more well defined language.
Both of these scripting languages do require some ability in order to create. As a user of such, you don't need to know how to script, you just need to read the resource which relates to the thing you want to use.

- I've read some forum threads where people mention/argue about which acronyms are better -- dannet, eqbc, cwtn, kissassist, etc... i dont know what any of this means yet, or how to make those decisions, so I am ignoring until i get to a point where i learn or am forced to install something
Dannet and EQBC(S) are communication mechanisms to allow your toons to communicate. As new, I recommend using Dannet.
KissAssist, MuleAssist, CWTN Plugins (i.e. mq2war) are combat utilities which automate the button pushing you have hated over 20 years.

- I remember MySEQ from a long time ago, it feels somewhat across the line of cheating to me so I haven't investigated that tab yet. However, I noticed that after the initial install of VV my ingame map has exploded with realtime mob locations. My knee jerk reaction is to figure out how to turn this feature off (which you can do with the little layer "2" button on the map. But... I also notice that it shows the location of the little collectable ground spawns. This will be impossible for me to turn off now because i find those to be the most obnoxious yet necessary aspect of the game and i am ok getting some help finding those. I can feel my moral compass beginning to point a little more south.
The in game map has been enriched with MQ2Map (which you can read up on). You can enable / disable several filters to make it more useful for yourself. Be certain to read up on that plugin (use search feature).

- I still have no idea how to make the relevant hotkeys yet. This is top of my list to learn, I have to figure out how to make my bot more efficient while I am playing my pally, and then i will be comfortable adding more chars....
Start with sic's hotkey video, check his signature and click the link above my reply.

- I only have 2 chars so far, a paladin and a wizzy who I made to port me around and increase DPS. I've now realized porting isn't as big a deal as it used to be because of Guild Hall transports, Throne which is essentially a translocate, and the 2 anchor gates. And apparently wizzies are currently not in favor, oh well, at least she's a high elf. I havent decided what classes I would like to add yet, how many my computer can handle, and how much better 6 real chars would be than 3 + 3 mercs. My initial plan is to keep the paladin main and wizzy bot since they are both 112 and decently geared. I will likely add a shammy or an ench because my ability to pull singles is as a pally is limited, and i tend to get squished on named mobs without slow and only merc heals. Everyone tells me to make a bard, but I have no experience at all with bards and I'm hesitant to learn unless there is some kind of plugin/macro/hotkey setup that will make it literally plug and play easy.
You must play what you want to play, nothing anyone tells you should alter your enjoyment from personal choice, ever.

Welcome to the community!
 
Happy Questing!
Enormo

Welcome aboard! You are like many who have joined, we want to spend our (rare) spare time efficiently and not waiting around /lfg!

Big thing, MQ brings you a vast amount of information, and multiple ways to do most things.. So #1 just be patient.. Alot of really super helpful people here who will assist if you ask.. Start off with the videos and stuff that sic suggested, and then just get yourself aquainted with the basics, moving your group around, responding to commands, assisting..

learn the difference between macros, plugins, and Lua scripts.. they all do things slightly different from each other..

then you will have to choose the type of automation for your team, this is what will actually do all the work like fighting, casting etc when you engage mobs.. lots of choices here too, rgmercs, kissassist, muleassist, the premium ctwn plugins,etc...

Don't be afraid to ask for help!

Cheers
Lordeth
 
- [...] I can't tell what Very Vanilla already has already installed by default, or which ones are so good that I need to add, so I have held off so far until i test out the default program.

Here> MQ2PluginManager lets you see what plugins are loaded and load/unload with left/right-click of your mouse

- I still have no idea how to make the relevant hotkeys yet. This is top of my list to learn, I have to figure out how to make my bot more efficient while I am playing my pally, and then i will be comfortable adding more chars....

Here> LUA Buttonmaster -- go read Sic's hotkeys guide (I rec. MQ2Dannet > EQBC)

You'll find at least 1 thread discussing group makeups. Your other questions have been answered or you'll quickly figure out as you go.

You'll also probably dip your toes into the water with combat automation starting with KissAssist, the main combat macro for VV. Do yourself a favor and bookmark the wiki as you'll find answers to most of your questions reading through the write-up.
 
Don't stop at 3. Kick those mercs to the curb and build a solid foundation. Whether you go with bard or enchanter is personal preferrence. The enchanter has CWTN plugin which is awesome but there is an awesome Bard ini for KissAssist(I am not going to say it's Sic's work, again because I love it lol). In the end as long as you're having fun, it's a win win situation. Be mindful of others when running automation as any form of it is frowned upon by Day Break. This community has a plethora of knowledge and can help you along your journey here. Watch Sic's videos a few times as you will miss stuff. I still look at them and think to myself, "Oh yeah, I need to do that". Anyways, welcome aboard!
 
I had to laugh reading this because I recognize the confusion; I had all the same questions. Two years on, and I'm now programming my own resources. 💪
Keep at it and you'll learn as you go. I still am.

As for the number of toons, I only run 3 (an SK, Shaman, and Rogue), and I have beaten all the latest group content with my little group.
Of course, more is always better, but 3 accounts is all I'm willing to pay for at the moment.
I use MQ2Shaman and MQ2Eskay.. and I run my Rogue as my main, augmented with LeRogue.lua.
Someday, if <<shall not be named>> ever comes out, I might add a bard to the mix.
 
Hail, fellow roleplayers! My name is Enormo and I've been playing EQ off and on since the original Kunark on hard mode (as a Paladin). After 20+ years, I've decided to try multi-boxing. I have found it initially a bit confusing and overwhelming so I thought I would make a thread to capture my thoughts in real-time as they happen.

Why am I here? I love EQ and I believe its magic is the community. Unfortunately after 20yrs the community size is smaller than ideal so it can be hard to find 5 other people who want to adventure with me. Also, I've morphed from college kid who can play 24/7 to an old guy with a job and a family. I want to make the most of the time I can spend in the game, be more productive, and have more fun experiencing the content which is mostly group focused.

Experience playing multiple characters - For the majority of my EQ life I played only 1 char, but occasionally someone would need to go to bed and ask me to play their char to keep the group going so I learned how to launch a second EQ window and alt-tab between them. I learned that hotkeys are crucial to be able to do simple things in the least amount of time. Very simple things like /assist the tank and cast 3 nukes with an appropriate pause in between them, or invis the group and /follow the main char. My efforts were crude and only marginally effective. I always felt like I was getting at best 25% of the true potential of that botted char versus someone who knew the class and was paying attention. This sparked my interest in a better botting solution and led me to Redguides.

Why Redguides? - I know there are other options out there but I only play EQ so I have no need for a platform that can also bot other games. I am not a coder and have no desire to start from scratch with an "open source" program. I have a bit of disposable income, and I will gladly pay for this community's years of development, fine tuning, and updates. I believe Red is the best solution for my personal situation, so I decided to sign up, pay the 10 bucks, and see what adventures lie ahead. I will update this thread as I learn more so that perhaps another new person down the road will benefit and the community will continue to grow playing the game we enjoy.

Ok here we go!

- In order to learn how to swim you have to jump in the pool. I created my forum username/login, and paid 10 bucks to get access to the program. /borat very nice!
- I watched the first "beginner" video on how to install the program. Not bad. Basically click the red button on the forum, download it, install it like you would any program. Now I have a shortcut on my desktop to the launcher!
- But I'm not ready to go just yet... In the launcher, I need to click on Very Vanilla and install that too. It feels like the launcher is MS Dos and VV is Windows. You need both to make the magic happen. I don't currently have a good handle on what plugins, macros, Lua, myseq, or anything else means. Trying not to feel overwhelmed. Am overwhelmed.
- F it, we ball. I log into EQ the normal way and i see a bunch of new and ugly boxes pop up. This seems like a good sign, things are working! I have no idea what I can do yet, so I watch the next couple beginner videos.
- Some guy teaches me how to have all my chars /wave. All of my problems are now solved, the tutorial ends, I am ready to go conquer EQ with my new software and group! Not so much... I still have literally no idea what any of the commands are, must watch more videos.
- One of the worst parts about botting 2 chars is the /follow feature works about as well as telling your most drunk friend to follow you down a crowded street to another bar. It's virtually guaranteed he's going to stop and look around or get punched in the face. I see a button on the group window called "follow me" and i click it. To my surprise it is working very well!
- I watch the beginner video about movement, and it tells me I need some meshes. I thoroughly enjoy mesh shorts, so I am all in for EQ mesh. Back to the launcher, Very Vanilla, and i launch the mesh updater. I have 0 out of 500, so its time to update. It seems like they should give you these upon install, but we install and move onward, hopefully that we can now navigate more efficiently.


OPEN ITEMS - QUESTIONS - STILL TO COME

- It seems like plugins are little programs that people make that can add into Redguides. I can't tell what Very Vanilla already has already installed by default, or which ones are so good that I need to add, so I have held off so far until i test out the default program.
- Frankly I am not even sure if this thing is called Redguides, VV, MQ, MQ2, or it doesnt matter because we're not allowed to speak about it ingame.
- I'm not sure what macros or Lua are yet.
- I've read some forum threads where people mention/argue about which acronyms are better -- dannet, eqbc, cwtn, kissassist, etc... i dont know what any of this means yet, or how to make those decisions, so I am ignoring until i get to a point where i learn or am forced to install something
- I remember MySEQ from a long time ago, it feels somewhat across the line of cheating to me so I haven't investigated that tab yet. However, I noticed that after the initial install of VV my ingame map has exploded with realtime mob locations. My knee jerk reaction is to figure out how to turn this feature off (which you can do with the little layer "2" button on the map. But... I also notice that it shows the location of the little collectable ground spawns. This will be impossible for me to turn off now because i find those to be the most obnoxious yet necessary aspect of the game and i am ok getting some help finding those. I can feel my moral compass beginning to point a little more south.
- I still have no idea how to make the relevant hotkeys yet. This is top of my list to learn, I have to figure out how to make my bot more efficient while I am playing my pally, and then i will be comfortable adding more chars....
- I only have 2 chars so far, a paladin and a wizzy who I made to port me around and increase DPS. I've now realized porting isn't as big a deal as it used to be because of Guild Hall transports, Throne which is essentially a translocate, and the 2 anchor gates. And apparently wizzies are currently not in favor, oh well, at least she's a high elf. I havent decided what classes I would like to add yet, how many my computer can handle, and how much better 6 real chars would be than 3 + 3 mercs. My initial plan is to keep the paladin main and wizzy bot since they are both 112 and decently geared. I will likely add a shammy or an ench because my ability to pull singles is as a pally is limited, and i tend to get squished on named mobs without slow and only merc heals. Everyone tells me to make a bard, but I have no experience at all with bards and I'm hesitant to learn unless there is some kind of plugin/macro/hotkey setup that will make it literally plug and play easy.

Happy Questing!
Enormo
Enormo,
Absolutely loved your post man ! Felt like reading my thought from years ago when I started. Giant welcome to RG !!! Between the forum and Discord, you will find all your answers.
 
Joining Welcome Home GIF
 
Enormo

Hi and welcome to Redguides. I came back to EQ a couple of years ago and then took a break, now I am just recently returned to EQ (few months now). If you haven't figured it out by now, it is a VERY steep learning curve to overcome. All I can say is that persistence pays off. You keep trying things, asking questions, implementing changes, looking shit up for the umpteenth time until it all comes together. There is not a more satisfying feeling than to sit back and watch your group just absolutely destroy mobs one after another. It is sooo cool. So with that thought in mind here are a couple of real basic tips for you:

1. Every time you look something up either here or from Google/Youtube, make a favorite for it. I double damn guarantee you will want to come back to it at one point or another.

2. Read, read, read, as much as your mind can absorb. Take the first month reading. Play the game to implement stuff you learn from your reading. In other words take your time to learn the basics so you can troubleshoot things properly later on.

3. There is a "sort of unspoken" protocol for how to ask questions here. Sic outlined some of them above. As you read you will pick up on them. As always politeness gets you a lot better results. Not saying your not polite, seems like you are. But some people get soo frustrated at this game and the whole multi boxing thing that they blow up sometimes. Shrug, just saying.

4. After you get through the beginner videos for installing and setting up this software, make this one the next one you watch. Setting up Autogroup (my abbreviation for the title btw). After you have this setup it will make your life so much easier. Think of it as your first step in automating your group. First of many. Think about double clicking on 1 icon and watching 6 toons login and setup their group without you having to do a damn thing. Hell ya!

5. Suggestion (you have options here, just my opinions) Setup using Dannet instead of EQBCS. I started with EQBCS and am now using Dannet. It is newer and quickly becoming the standard.

6. Suggestion: Automation, there are several choices available to you. Kissassist is the standard and is very well documented. I started on this and it is truly a good learning experience. Muleassist is a branch off from KA. But when you add on MAUI (Lua GUI for MA) it is so much more user friendly. I currently use this for 2 of my 6 toons. RGMerc's is also a viable alternative although I have no experience with it. Here is the caveat to using these. All this automation comes from pre written commands, in the form if a file called an .ini file. And needless to say, you will learn all about ini files. But every time you make a new level and buy new spells or abilities you have to edit aforementioned ini file for EACH toon. Now think about having 6 characters each a different class, running to the spell vendor, picking and choosing which spells to buy, do you have the plat to buy these. Meming them and then fitting them into your existing ini file. You see my point, by the time you take a team from 1 to 60 you will probably feel exhausted, I know I did. Maui made it a lot easier to implement but it is still a ton of your time to do and you feel like your doing it way to much. Which brings me to my next suggestion.

7. You will see mention of CWTN's plugins for each class (except a couple that haven't been completed yet). These are truly plug and play automation for your toons. You install the plugin, get in game and start it up and it just runs your toon. Now you can fine tune things that you like or don't like but it is pretty much hands free. You still have to go buy your spells and mem them but boy does it cut down on the "setup time". Now again there is a caveat. They cost $20 each for a year, for each class. Now you can use it on as many toons that you have on different accounts and or servers. I noted you said in your OP that you have a few bucks stashed away and sounded like you were willing to spend some of it. Well this is the biggest time saver you can invest in. Want to get to that point where your toons are actually operating as a group? Buy these and start enjoying the game more. I went months of reading and learning. Wished now I had just made the commitment and saved all that time playing the game. Sheesh. I'll say one thing right now. I'll never go back to the old way.

8. So on top of reading about MQ2 and stuff you also have to re learn this game. God there will come a time when you just sit back and scream at your screen for some of the truly stupid shit this game has in it. There are still some good resources to read but not nearly as many/or are outdated, as there were, back in the day. You can still find answers for the majority of it. And the game is truly huge. You will find that you out level whole expansions. And the gear chase is relentless, almost as bad as the spells, worse as you get up in levels.

9. Everyone has their favorite classes they like to play or feel nostalgic over. Keep in mind that classes come and go in this game. And the game has been around for over 20 years. Lots of changes, tons. But one thing remains true in this game. The TRIAD. The absolute 3 classes that you HAVE to have to make a successful group. Tank, Healer, and CC (crowd control). Now I will grant you that mercenaries have eased those requirements somewhat but it is a real joy to watch a tank pick up the aggro and healer heals just enough to keep the tank on his feet, and the enchanter to do his magic (literally) and lock down any adds that show up. Man my enchanter is awesome she will lock down the adds then slow the tanks target and then charm one of the adds and start kicking ass. I swear I have started to watch my enchanter more the I watch the tank lol. Group make up is truly up to the individual. But if you want to make your life easier for your first group then stick to old reliable. And then throw in 3 dps classes of your choice. My group is WAR, CLR, ENC, MAG, RNG, DRU. Also there are 2 camps here on this site. The ones who like a "Caster" flavored group and others who prefer a "Melee" based group. Your normal melee group is SHD, SHM, BRD, BER, BER, BST. Actually I think the melee groups put out better dps than the casters do. My next group will be a melee group just cause I can lol. I haven't tried a 3 toons and 3 mercs group yet either, but I read that they do pretty well up to certain levels.

10. Last suggestion. You said your Pally and WIZ are 112. It is probably going to be harder for you to learn using them in a multibox environment. Instead, I suggest you start a whole new group with an eye to being able to drop 2 members to incorporate your 2 112's later down the line. Also you can use those 2 to power level your lowbies if you want, just makes the whole thing go faster. It's just that lower level areas are a lot more forgiving than most of the 110-115 areas. It will again, make your life easier. Second advantage to making a new group is that you will get to see the old game again. I know it brought back a lot of fond memories for me and kinda made up for the frustration of how slow this was going. If you decide to go this route there are some Tutorial macro's that will make life easier for you, check them out. The EQ tutorial is pretty good once or twice but gets old real quick. And after you have some new stuff to go through. Serpent Spine expansion. not bad starter area. And something new to explore and easy to level up. Do some reading, there all kinds of short cuts you can use, like getting all your new toons to level 12 in like 10 min. Not bad, I am going to use this on my next group.

11. Ok last,last suggestion, I swear. It is early March, I know big deal huh? Well it is a special time for EQ. It is anniversary time and that means about a month and half of DOUBLE XP. Did you catch the emphasis? Man this is primo time to level those toons. Also anniversary quests and missions that have some pretty good items to have, and you make DOUBLE XP from them lol.

Anyways sorry for making this so long, I just kept thinking of things that would keep the frustration down to a dull roar. Oh don't worry you will find plenty of bullshit along the way. Good luck and have fun while your at it, and welcome to the multiboxing fraternity.

Vrak
 
Welcome to the community. Loved the recap as I'm sure most of us had that same experience when we started. Not much to add to what others have posted here. Keep reading, learning nd trying new things and it will be second nature before you know it. When you get stuck and can't find an answer here on the boards with a search, just ask. Someone always responds as this community rocks!
 
I've been watching some videos and boy is there a lot to think about! Two things I've started with - movement and logistics. I've started with the absolute basics, trying to get navigating down pat. I've learned that /nav target is fantastic for intra-zone movement because I can /target a mob from anywhere and then walk right to it. The ctrl-F then ctrl-shft click is very nice too if the particular mob appears on that list.

I find that i often use the "follow me" instead of the /dgae or group commands which I need to get more confident using.

Then I tried to setup AutoGroup and AutoAccept, which after a little tinkering worked like a charm! I learned that you can edit the profile groups by right clicking on the character names if you need to change the pw or shortcut.

Dying is frequent in the initial testing phases. /mqsettings will bring up a window that allows you to go to the plugin for "rez" and turn it on. I set it to minimum lvl 96 because exp is precious.

Next i'll add in Yes, but didn't want too many moving pieces all at once incase things went off the rails. My goal is to get to the point where I can click one button on the launcher, go get a soda pop, and all 4 chars will be loaded, grouped up, buffed, and ready to dominate! Next I just have to learn how to fight :)

Baby steps...
 
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WTG man, improvements are being made. That is exactly how you do it, One step at a time. Keep up the good work and try to enjoy it at the same time. And remember the best times are yet to come.

Vrak
 
I just got back into EQ and this software. It's real confusing at first, but it starts to make sense. Just need to learn all the commands. Using Kissassist with the macros is VERY time consuming and frustrating. There are a lot of ones already made, but you need to tweak them, as many of them haven't been updated for level 120 or for NOS. Also, like they said before, you need to manually change any spell or ability upgrade in the ini files, when you upgrade. They actually work shockingly well, the program is mind blowing. I have some decent macros for my guys, but I think I'm gonna buy the MQ2 plugins for my SK, Rogue, Shaman.Mage and maybe Enchanter if I decided to use that instead of my Bard, because the plugin looks sooo coo!(No Bard or Ranger plugin yet unfortunately) Having CC that you don't have to control, would be a dream.

This program makes EQ fun to play again. Trying to box, alt tabbing, clicking like a fool all over the place, gets old and nerve wracking, with my toons doing<50% of their potential at best. I just want to enjoy my toons and relax and play a GAME, to have FUN.
 
Today's breakthrough was installing MQ2GroundSpawns and realizing its amazing. Clearly works best with a rogue or something with double super secret invis, but what a gamechanger. Took my least favorite part of the game and made it trivial.
 
Open Items I need to solve: Before someone thinks "this guy needs to read the darn wiki!" I am posting these so i stay disciplined in making progress, know what things to google/youtube while I'm at work, and I remember to come back and explain the solutions so perhaps others can learn as well :)

- Despite having all of the meshes, sometimes characters get stuck around doors or corners. I need to figure out how to best correct when this happens... A command to cancel for one or all characters... It's possible that i should be using /nav more than just the "follow me" button....
- Similarly, sometimes a char will gain aggro, it would be nice to be able to have a command that says everyone stop and kill this thing or everyone stop and have the wizzy evac out.
- Unless I do /travelto I am not sure how to get my group to zone into places. Like if i have everyone on follow me, and i zone in my main to a zone that requires clicking on something everyone else just sits there. This is also true for tasks, i'm not yet sure how to get the group to go over to the right place and click the right place then click "adventure" rather than the normal zone.

I do think that long term I will migrate to the cwtn class specific controls for each char, especially for things like my shammy who has a zillion buffs and heals and debuffs and dots... I don't mind learning the systems and the INI settings at the start, espeically since i am still doing content i could do with my original 2 chars. But i'm also not particuarly interested in constantly tweaking the INI file to get things perfectly adjusted, especially before i get to max level since all the spells keep changing. To me personally, the $20/yr for a finely tuned bot seems like a compelling deal.
 
wiht easyfind you can /travelto group poknowledge or do a /dgga /travelto poknowledge etc
 
Enormo

Moving forward at an accelerated pace I see.

Sic is spot on, that travelto command works great or Cntrl F even. But if you have watched one of Sic's video's, you already know he has a penchant for typing, he types pretty fast. I much prefer the non typing way. That is where the new Imgui (Lua's) come in. Do yourself a favor and install this one and make your life easier. Magellan. It works great getting your group from place to place. I have it setup to auto load on my main toon that I drive with. And it has a feature that I use all the time. It has a "Pause" button, something that can't be said for the two previously mentioned commands. My group has toons that are just slower than the others, and if you let the driver zone in before the others get in range then the rest of them stop and you have to do 1 by 1 to get them all caught up. Biggest time waster in the game is getting all your group to the same place. Anyways, I just pause the driver toon before the zone line and wait for the rest to catch up. Then hit the "Continue" button on Magellan and they all zone in at the same time. Neat.

Now doors and PoK books are different. I run my group up to a door or stone ( I use the "Come to Me" button here, all gather around kiddies) and use this command:

Doors and PoK Stones
/dgga /multiline ; /doortarget; /click left door

Of course I have this in a social, so I just hit that button on my main's bar. And it uses Dannet (you are using Dannet right?). It makes all my toons target the closest door and then left click on it. It is NOT fool proof, sometimes your toons have a mind of their own. Or you run your main too close to the door and it starts to zone in by proximity (Guild Hall?). Then I have my secondary driver use the Follow command and then a Door command to get the rest through. And lol if your Main is standing too close to the door (on the other side) when the secondary fires off the Door command then he will zone back into the place he just left and the rest of the group goes through to where they should have been if things worked the way they should have. Shrug, like I said before, stupid shit in this game.

Now here is fix for something you haven't mentioned yet (or at least I haven't seen it yet in this thread), but you will. Questing and multiboxing just don't mix well. You have probably already experienced this, especially if you have new toons. Lots of quests. Anyways it is a total PITA. To minimize the absolute time waster use this Imgui (Lua) Don't Make Me Say It! This neat little addon will save you so much time. Install it and set it up to auto load on your main toon. Now this one is a bit more eccentric rather than straight forward. It has it's quirks, but it is all in procedure. It works well when you have it down pat. One thing to note is that you right click on the Don't say it box to open the gui (or the little arrow in the upper left corner) and then left click on what you want the group to say. And while that gui is open you can't just click on say, a social button. You have to turn off the gui by clicking on the background or a button once before you can actually click on that AcceptAll button. Which segways right into the next time saver.

So you start a quest or mission, and a box pops up on your screen on all toons, now you have to swap to each toon and click accept right? Not anymore. Use this simple command in a social button:

-Accept Adventure for All -
/dgga /notify largedialogwindow "LDW_YesButton" leftmouseup

-Accept Task for All -
/dgga /notify TaskSelectWnd TSEL_AcceptButton leftmouseup

Wallah all your toons just accepted the quest. I just use the first one for quests and missions, I haven't used the second one yet because I haven't run into a Task yet. Now Sic has another way that is easier and yet harder. And that is to use the "Yes" command, but with the caveat of setting your aliases up beforehand. He has a write up on how to do that in his "Sic's hotkeys" post.

Some of the simplest things in this game can be the most time consuming, especially compounded when you have to multiply it by 6. MQ has found ways to minimize that, but it takes time to learn and implement those things lol. Needless to say this has been one of the most time consuming hobbies I have ever had. But what else do I have to spend all this new free time I have on my hands?

Ok that is enough for now, this should keep you occupied for at least the next day or so lol. More to come, I'm sure.

Vrak
 
Hail, fellow roleplayers! A few big advancements recently:

- I officially dove into the pool of CWTN, and the water is warm. These are great products well worth the $20/yr. That said, my onboarding was a little difficult because most of the videos I was watching assumed a little more basic knowledge on the syntax than I had. For example, you're going to laugh at this, but for quite some time I had no idea what "CWTN" meant. It stands for Chat With This Name, which is the forum name of the author of the program. Then I watched an intro video and it was like "just make a bunch of these super simple hotkeys!" The hotkey: "cwtnra=/dgra /docommand /$\{Me.Class.ShortName}" (me wondering if i clicked on the advanced video). This is not a slight at the video makers, it's just a disconnect between my first month on the forum versus everyone else who has lived and breathed these systems for years if not decades.

- CWTN plugins are great from day 1, and they continue to get better as I learn more about them. The only way to learn is to go out and fight with them. Small improvements make a lot of difference. The best feature when leveling up chars is that it tells you what spells/discs your char is missing, and it will automatically use the best quality highest level one you have memmed. This alone is worth the cost of admission versus trying to download someone's best attempt at a Kissassist ini file from years ago which they abandoned after they got 5 levels higher. If you're max level and like to tinker I'm sure kissassist can do everything you want it to. For those who want to log in and play to the best of multiple char's ability, CWTN is for you.

- I am still learning the "modes" for each character. Right now I basically only have 3 statuses..
1. I'm running around invis going somewhere, everyone is on "0" or manual mode.
2. I'm camping in a particular spot, everyone is in "1" or assist/camp mode. This means your dudes will stay where they are and fight things you bring them
3. I'm dungeon crawling, everyone is in "2" or chase mode. This means your dudes are basically following you and ready to fight anything you fight.

My advice on hotkeys, take it slow. Make the basics, and then add as you recognize pain points.
- They automatically give you "follow me" and "come to me" which i use all the time.
- After a few days of manually switching everyone's modes I got sick of that so I made a "camp on" and "camp off" hotkey. I kept it super simple and didn't add in anything about mounts or dismounting yet.
- I made a hotkey for one of my guys to cast group invis another to cast group invis undead (because I don't have a bard)
- I made a hotkey for everyone to click Lesson - all of these chars exist for the purpose of gaining exp for my main, we gotta keep our eye on the prize
- I made a hotkey for everyone to everyone click their illusion mask - who doesnt get nervous when 5 sarnaks are rumbling toward them?
- I made a hotkey for everyone to everyone click their broken mirror port item (because i'm doing content in that expansion)
- I made a hotkey for the wizzy to evac the group - this has saved me some wipes as I figure this stuff out

I'm still running my main tank without CWTN, mainly because I want to still feel like im doing something myself, but I may give in down the road and I know I'll be embarrassed by how much more efficiently it uses my spells and alt abilities.


Anyway, that's all for now. Cheers!
 
I'm still running my main tank without CWTN, mainly because I want to still feel like im doing something myself, but I may give in down the road and I know I'll be embarrassed by how much more efficiently it uses my spells and alt abilities.

Look into Mode 7 (aka Sic Mode). It allows you to roam away from camp to go out and pull what you want to pull. After you use a spell/bow/ability to pull the mob, you can make a hot key to have the puller return back to camp.

I know Sic discusses this in either his MQ2War or MQ2EsKay video. For example in my case, I pull and tank with my SK. He uses a debuff which has a range of 200. I run him out of camp manually; make sure I have line of sight and am within 200; hit my cast hotkey; spell lands; hit my return to camp hotkey. He runs back to the group and waits to tank when the mob is within the camp radius.

Be well. Happy automating.
 
Hi Enormo,
The learning curve is not so steep.
Nowadays there are macro or plugins which hardly require any configuration like rgmerc and the cwtn class plugins.
They allow a huge time saving.
 
I decided to continue my journey of learning with MQ2Grind. It couldn't be any more plug and play... Literally just walk up to the task mob, turn it on, and it will do everything for as long as you let it grind. The only input I have is to sort the loot and mem spells when my team levels.

I was a little concerned because my group makeup was far apart in levels - 115, 113, 107, 103, 102. Because I'd like to close those gaps, I took it "easy" by doing the FM task which is listed at 95+. This is a heroic adventure so it may be that the most scale to the group level because the mobs were around lvl 103 which made it easy enough to tank with my 115, but still good exp for my 3 lower chars. I was killing about 70 mobs per task in around 22mins, getting between .25-.41exp per kill without lesson on the lower chars, and .01 or less on my 2 higher chars so a great low risk way to catch them up. The grind was setup in a way so that i never had more than 3 mobs at aggro at once, but usually less. Once i can get my 3 lowrer chars to 110 i'll move over to EW and skip all the tasks/flagging that's involved with TBL.
 
I decided to continue my journey of learning with MQ2Grind. It couldn't be any more plug and play... Literally just walk up to the task mob, turn it on, and it will do everything for as long as you let it grind. The only input I have is to sort the loot and mem spells when my team levels.

I was a little concerned because my group makeup was far apart in levels - 115, 113, 107, 103, 102. Because I'd like to close those gaps, I took it "easy" by doing the FM task which is listed at 95+. This is a heroic adventure so it may be that the most scale to the group level because the mobs were around lvl 103 which made it easy enough to tank with my 115, but still good exp for my 3 lower chars. I was killing about 70 mobs per task in around 22mins, getting between .25-.41exp per kill without lesson on the lower chars, and .01 or less on my 2 higher chars so a great low risk way to catch them up. The grind was setup in a way so that i never had more than 3 mobs at aggro at once, but usually less. Once i can get my 3 lowrer chars to 110 i'll move over to EW and skip all the tasks/flagging that's involved with TBL.

Another option could be, kill what the big boys can kill and to close the gap turn AA to 100% exp for the toons that are ahead of the lower ones.

Just a thought to give to options.

Be well. Happy gaming.
 
- I made a hotkey for everyone to click Lesson - all of these chars exist for the purpose of gaining exp for my main, we gotta keep our eye on the prize
Enormo,

you don’t have 5 alts and a single ”main” anymore. You have 6 ”mains”, gear them, AA them, do progression on them, love them all equally.

your mindset will begin to evolve.
 
Enormo,

you don’t have 5 alts and a single ”main” anymore. You have 6 ”mains”, gear them, AA them, do progression on them, love them all equally.

your mindset will begin to evolve.
You still roll your monk tho :p
 
You forgot the occasional new user experience:

"Saw 'Macroquest...even when you're loading,' on the load screen. Uninstalled everything and posted on the RG forum about how DBG seent me running MQ!"
 
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That feeling of "why arent my guys fighting with me?! I set the camp, the mob is below 98%, ahhhhh" then you realize you left the group and came back but forgot to reset yourself as Main Tank / Main Assist :confused:
 
Things I'm currently investigating a better solution for:

- I still manually master loot everything and it's kind of annoying. Ideally this is what I'd like a system to prioritize -- loot anything that is vendorable at more than 5pp on one char, loot anything that is worth more than 1000 tribute on another char, loot anything for tradeskills on another char, and any rogue poison ingredients on the rogue. Loot every collectable on my main if he needs it, then waterfall them to my others. Review anything substantial like a rare drop. Auto approve looting them once allocated even if they are no drop. Leave on corpse anything of low/no value. Extra props if there would be a way to monitor inventory and summon the vendor to sell all the junk once a day or when full.

- Since I am doing things hardmode without a bard I have a hard time telling when my chars are double invis -- i can gather them all and look third person for the (names) when single invis, but i have to look manually to make sure the timing was right and everyone's double invis stuck. A lot of times if the timing isnt just right one will interrupt, or someone will cast a spell and break one. I saw Sic was working on a plugin for this but it sounds like it may not be possible.

- My map is a huge jumbled mess when it's showing all mobs. I know i can toggle it to just show nameds, but more often i just turn off labels and look at the dots. Im not sure if there is a smarter way people optimize that.

- It would be great if while running through a zone it there was a way to visually see when a mob can see invis. Like in Overthere all the chardoki see invis so I'm used to that, and in Howling Stone all the golems see invis so I know that...now... but it would be cool to get a warning without having to con everything.
 
- Since I am doing things hardmode without a bard I have a hard time telling when my chars are double invis -- i can gather them all and look third person for the (names) when single invis, but i have to look manually to make sure the timing was right and everyone's double invis stuck. A lot of times if the timing isnt just right one will interrupt, or someone will cast a spell and break one. I saw Sic was working on a plugin for this but it sounds like it may not be possible.
I think MQ2Status can do this. Try (assuming you're using DanNet): /dgae /status invis.
 
- Since I am doing things hardmode without a bard I have a hard time telling when my chars are double invis -- i can gather them all and look third person for the (names) when single invis, but i have to look manually to make sure the timing was right and everyone's double invis stuck. A lot of times if the timing isnt just right one will interrupt, or someone will cast a spell and break one. I saw Sic was working on a plugin for this but it sounds like it may not be possible.
Or this works well. I use it - https://www.redguides.com/community/resources/invisdisplay.2374/

- I still manually master loot everything and it's kind of annoying. Ideally this is what I'd like a system to prioritize -- loot anything that is vendorable at more than 5pp on one char, loot anything that is worth more than 1000 tribute on another char, loot anything for tradeskills on another char, and any rogue poison ingredients on the rogue. Loot every collectable on my main if he needs it, then waterfall them to my others. Review anything substantial like a rare drop. Auto approve looting them once allocated even if they are no drop. Leave on corpse anything of low/no value. Extra props if there would be a way to monitor inventory and summon the vendor to sell all the junk once a day or when full.
Have you tried - https://www.redguides.com/community/threads/lootly.78705/

- My map is a huge jumbled mess when it's showing all mobs. I know i can toggle it to just show nameds, but more often i just turn off labels and look at the dots. Im not sure if there is a smarter way people optimize that.
I have seen some use MySeq, but I am not familiar with hit tbh.

- It would be great if while running through a zone it there was a way to visually see when a mob can see invis. Like in Overthere all the chardoki see invis so I'm used to that, and in Howling Stone all the golems see invis so I know that...now... but it would be cool to get a warning without having to con everything.
Now this would be the BOMB! Would help in so many zones!
 
Just dinged 119 on my main so I figured it was a good time to check back in. Things are going well, and mq2grind has been a great addition - it allows me to focus on quests and “value add” things while I am actively playing without feeling like I should be grinding xp, and then grind some exp while I need to multitask. Great tool.

I still run into small annoying problems, like my wizzy using Kissassist, LOVES to wait until I’m about 5 seconds into a port spell cast and then sit down and load back the other spell it thinks should be there…. I haven’t figured out how to prevent that without unloading kiss then restarting it later.

Now that I am at 119 I want to try to get some cheap xp by finishing collections. I’m now looking I to see if there is a good way to do this across a bunch of accounts - from grinding I have a ton of collectibles spread across 5 chars and I need to set up a trading and clicking party where my main gets first dibs and then the scraps get passed on down.
 
Now that I am at 119 I want to try to get some cheap xp by finishing collections. I’m now looking I to see if there is a good way to do this across a bunch of accounts - from grinding I have a ton of collectibles spread across 5 chars and I need to set up a trading and clicking party where my main gets first dibs and then the scraps get passed on down.
I have 1 house for each expansion that I unload all my collections to with shiny mac. Then just use collectiblehouse mac or shiny.mac on all other toons
 
Discussion - Going from Day 1 to Dominating

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