Question - New Member Help - What's The Best Program?

[EqVet]

Hey all,

Returning EQ player after 13 years. I rolled on one of the new servers and I'm looking to duo. Back in 2005 when I played I used to run a box program that literally downloaded tons of scrips to the box directory that people had written that would virtually play an entire group for you while you slept. While I'm not interested in doing that this time, I WOULD like it to play my second toon for me. Example:

I run in with a character, the bot knows to assist and stand. Nuke and or heal then sit down etc. The more options the better. Also, I need something that sees a second computer since both accounts are independent of each other. I prefer not to use any programs where the mouse jumps to both computers, but rather have the second account automated. Does such a program exist anymore? Any information is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Sic]

Hey all,

Returning EQ player after 13 years. I rolled on one of the new servers and I'm looking to duo. Back in 2005 when I played I used to run a box program that literally downloaded tons of scrips to the box directory that people had written that would virtually play an entire group for you while you slept. While I'm not interested in doing that this time, I WOULD like it to play my second toon for me. Example:

I run in with a character, the bot knows to assist and stand. Nuke and or heal then sit down etc. The more options the better. Also, I need something that sees a second computer since both accounts are independent of each other. I prefer not to use any programs where the mouse jumps to both computers, but rather have the second account automated. Does such a program exist anymore? Any information is appreciated.

Thanks!

there are a ton of options these days - from stuff that requires minimal setup/tweaking to stuff that allows very fine access
Macros like IHC work "out the box" with little setup.
Plugins like the CWTN plugins work "out the box" with minimal setup

Macros like kissassist offer finer customization and specificity for what/where/when/how/why
kissmule/mq2mule offers the finer customization that kissassist has, but also has a sweet ui and easy on the fly modifaction/scaling to your settings

then you have stuff like ModBot/core/entropy which offer finer controls and specificity for your toons.

there is no best as that is very subjective - I recommend watching some videos and talking to folks and trying them all out - different people's needs vary.

due to needing to run on seperate computers - the cwtn stuff is likely not going to meet your needs for the buffing classes we have so far like cleric and bst, but ihc uses dannet which you can run across multiple PCs, so IHC might be a good starting point for "out of the box they just work"


Welcome and Good luck!

 

[Hulda99]

Watch Sic's Video's (Linked in his signature line) ^^^^

Also, why two computers? you can run multiple EQ's on one computer. So that requirement seems a little fuzzy.

 

[toadwart]

Sic's info is very helpful. I would like to make a simple statement that:

Yes, the plugins and macros here will do what you're looking for. Using Sic's guidance above, just pick the flavor you're looking for, they do what you want, just in slightly different and more/less fiddly ways, giving you different levels of granular control to accomplishing them.

Using eqbcs or dannet for communications between accounts will allow you to do it from different computers as you ask, though like Hulda said, computers nowadays can easily run multiple accounts simultaneously. You can do it with different computers however. Keeping in mind the limitations with truebox and TLP restrictions that this system will not bypass, nor override.

 

[EqVet]

The new Aradune server does not allow 2 instances on 1 computer. You must have 2 physical machines. I'm looking for a program that's fully automated but not overly complex to setup. Maybe a small UI with some check boxes and minimal setup. I don't want to write code or scripts etc.

 

[EqVet]

I forgot to mention that it would be used on Aradune if that matters. It wont be unattended and only used for 1 account. @Sic which would you recommend?

 

[Hulda99]

Yeah, MQ2 will not work for you. Since you have a 2nd computer, and I assume, a 2nd monitor, I'd just use a USB numpad. to control the other toon. The 10+ keys give you enough options on macros that you write within EQ itself.

 

[Sic]

I forgot to mention that it would be used on Aradune if that matters. It wont be unattended and only used for 1 account. @Sic which would you recommend?

macroquest2 does not work on any truebox server - aradune is a truebox server and as such, mq2 does not work. Rizlona is not a truebox and mq2 does work there.

 

[EqVet]

@Sic is MQ2 the same thing as the IHC you mentioned above? Sorry I'm a newbie at this. If that won't work is there any good software to handle what I'm looking for on Aradune? I know somethings out there. I see people doing it. Thanks!

 

[toadwart]

MQ2 is the base program that everything else runs on. (for those live servers that we can use it on anyway, Trueboxes not being one of them)

IHC is a set of macros that run with the instruction sets provided by MQ2
Kissassist is another, as is Core.

Macros are modifiable by the user, and allow for far more customization, but also can require more maintenance at times, also provides far more granular control of what and how you do things. Using IHC is an out of the box scenario where pretty much everything is set up for you already, and you can just run with it. It will allow modification if you want, but is by no means required. Kissassist requires more fiddling. Not programming, but you do need to define your spells sets and combat abilities in a simple text file more. Core is the other extreme, where there is massive fiddling needed, though not programming, many many settings and much very granular adjustments are possible, but with a steeper learning curve.

The plugins that Sic mentioned are a different way of running the characters, also within the MQ2 command structure. Plugins tend to be more of a "black box" approach, where there's little to no customization, though there can be some. The programmers have attempted to catch all of the scenarios and tried to make it as "plug-and-play" as possible. Chatwiththisname and Sic especially have devoted a massive amount of time and effort to the class plugins over the past year, and continue to tweak and add to them. For a very simple start and run approach this is the easiest way to go about it, though plugins generally will cost money, due to the effort and time required to code and maintain them.

 

[EqVet]

Damn so nothing here will work. I need to find out what these people are using. Thanks for the clarification!

 

[Knightly]

Just a note on toadwart's post: I would argue that a plugin costing money has nothing to do with effort and time to maintain them. Some plugins cost money and some macros cost money and those are both due to the authors charging for them and really unrelated to anything else.

Otherwise, good explanation.