New efforts!

[Codewalker]

For dual boxing I did one account on my desktop, one on my laptop.

For quad boxing, I did the same, and the other two accounts in their own virtual machines (one on my desktop, one on my laptop). The reason for the VM is that COH has some weirdness with focus where it refuses to process keystrokes unless it has focus and is in front, even in windowed mode. Of course THEN I had to fix an OpenGL bug in the game client causing it to crash when using VirtualBox's GL passthrough driver, but anyway...

[Remaugen]

I sometimes ran multiple accounts on one machine (with the graphics settings turned way down) but my second and third toons pretty much had to doorset or camp in spawn spots with auto-attack on.

I am guessing that this is not really the same thing that you are describing though. With multiple boxes can you slave things so that all toons are actively playing or do you have to juggle keyboards ect?

[Waffles]

I sometimes ran multiple accounts on one machine (with the graphics settings turned way down) but my second and third toons pretty much had to doorset or camp in spawn spots with auto-attack on.

I am guessing that this is not really the same thing that you are describing though. With multiple boxes can you slave things so that all toons are actively playing or do you have to juggle keyboards ect?

http://www.hotkeynet.com/

[Remaugen]

Thanks! That makes things a lot clearer.

[FloatingFatMan]

Well I've already had 2 people PM me about my spreadsheet-in-progress.  I can put you on the distribution list as well, if you'd like, when I'm finished with it.

It's starting to feel a little bit like EVE around here... First there was Spreadsheets in Space! Now, it's Spreadsheets in Capes! :p

[Arcana]

So you're running another account on each different box?

You couldn't log in twice on two different machines with the same account.  The moment you tried to log in the second time you'd be forced out of the first one.

For me, I had my account, and I had control of my brother's account.  I eventually got a cheapo boxed set and subbed it to have a third account.  Around Freedom I bought a fourth account.  On top of that, I had *many* free-to-play accounts.  I think nine.

I used to use my home computer and my laptop, and sometimes I would remote to my work desktop from home to get box #3, and then I started using VMs.  VMware workstation could run the client, but ultra slow.  Only good for characters on auto really (although it was an excellent simulation of the CoV beta load test #2, aka City of Powerpoint Presentation).  In a pinch, I could marshal two more actual desktop systems to run the client, when they were available (not mine, but often unused).

What good are free accounts you can't do everything on, and running on systems you barely can control the characters on?  Well, for one thing, they make excellent PvP targets.  Log in one account, surround it by logging in about twelve others, and start killing them on autopilot while tucked away in an undisturbed area of a PvP zone.  They only need to have characters with the right level and powers, and be able to die.  In fact, if you're not going to do anything with those accounts except log them in, you could in fact run a lot of clients on Windows 7 Ultimate with enough memory.  I actually got all 13 logged in once without resorting to VMs all on one PC.  Just turn the detail down real low to reduce the load on the sessions you don't need to see much on.  Of course, with that much running, the only thing I could do was go to sleep and check on it the next morning, because my computer wasn't good for much else while doing  that.

[Remaugen]

I sometime farmed Recluses Victory on Champion like that. Set up toons three accounts (on the same machine) in an NPC spawn area and turn on an AoE auto-attack, (Usually foot stomp or something like that) the next morning I often had a few purples. Sometimes I would use a roof top and one account on auto attack and the other two on auto self-rez. It seemed to work best in RV for me, there was a low zone population and I saw far more purples there than anywhere else (I don't have the math to support that, but I very rarely got purples anywhere else).

More often than not though, my PC would crash during the night or someone would come along and spoil the farm by killing the damage toon.

[LaughingAlex]

You couldn't log in twice on two different machines with the same account.  The moment you tried to log in the second time you'd be forced out of the first one.

For me, I had my account, and I had control of my brother's account.  I eventually got a cheapo boxed set and subbed it to have a third account.  Around Freedom I bought a fourth account.  On top of that, I had *many* free-to-play accounts.  I think nine.

I used to use my home computer and my laptop, and sometimes I would remote to my work desktop from home to get box #3, and then I started using VMs.  VMware workstation could run the client, but ultra slow.  Only good for characters on auto really (although it was an excellent simulation of the CoV beta load test #2, aka City of Powerpoint Presentation).  In a pinch, I could marshal two more actual desktop systems to run the client, when they were available (not mine, but often unused).

What good are free accounts you can't do everything on, and running on systems you barely can control the characters on?  Well, for one thing, they make excellent PvP targets.  Log in one account, surround it by logging in about twelve others, and start killing them on autopilot while tucked away in an undisturbed area of a PvP zone.  They only need to have characters with the right level and powers, and be able to die.  In fact, if you're not going to do anything with those accounts except log them in, you could in fact run a lot of clients on Windows 7 Ultimate with enough memory.  I actually got all 13 logged in once without resorting to VMs all on one PC.  Just turn the detail down real low to reduce the load on the sessions you don't need to see much on.  Of course, with that much running, the only thing I could do was go to sleep and check on it the next morning, because my computer wasn't good for much else while doing  that.

I remember someone who was able to syncronize the controls of two characters, but she had jumped through hoops to do it.  It wasn't for pvp but more for roleplaying two characters at the same time as a kind of duo, weird in a way.  I felt it was rather impractical.

[Power Gamer]

I sometimes ran multiple accounts on one machine (with the graphics settings turned way down) but my second and third toons pretty much had to doorset or camp in spawn spots with auto-attack on.

I am guessing that this is not really the same thing that you are describing though. With multiple boxes can you slave things so that all toons are actively playing or do you have to juggle keyboards ect?

Guess I've been living under a rock.  :-[

[Rejolt]

I ran two accounts for two years. The novelty of it lasted me for a year. It was also amazing for badging, holding mission doors open, farming, leveling friends, padding team size when you couldn't find a plus one... but after a bit I let it lapse.

[duane]

I ran two accounts for two years. The novelty of it lasted me for a year. It was also amazing for badging, holding mission doors open, farming, leveling friends, padding team size when you couldn't find a plus one... but after a bit I let it lapse.

Someone in the super-group ran two accounts... however the second one had random roommates, friends, family members and people running the account.  A few times those person's graduated to their own accounts and joined the group.

[r00tb0ySlim]

I sometime farmed Recluses Victory on Champion like that. Set up toons three accounts (on the same machine) in an NPC spawn area and turn on an AoE auto-attack, (Usually foot stomp or something like that) the next morning I often had a few purples. Sometimes I would use a roof top and one account on auto attack and the other two on auto self-rez. It seemed to work best in RV for me, there was a low zone population and I saw far more purples there than anywhere else (I don't have the math to support that, but I very rarely got purples anywhere else).

The best place that I found for this type of farming, in lieu of rooftops, was in Warburg under the map or BB behind a "forest wall".  Very private.  Warburg had a bunch them.  I never tried RV  ;D

[Microcosm]

I sometime farmed Recluses Victory on Champion like that. Set up toons three accounts (on the same machine) in an NPC spawn area and turn on an AoE auto-attack, (Usually foot stomp or something like that) the next morning I often had a few purples. Sometimes I would use a roof top and one account on auto attack and the other two on auto self-rez. It seemed to work best in RV for me, there was a low zone population and I saw far more purples there than anywhere else (I don't have the math to support that, but I very rarely got purples anywhere else).

More often than not though, my PC would crash during the night or someone would come along and spoil the farm by killing the damage toon.

I thought the system logged you out for inactivity on outdoor maps after x amount of time?

[Taceus Jiwede]

I thought the system logged you out for inactivity on outdoor maps after x amount of time?

Foot stomping would count as remaining active I imagine.  There were ways around the AFK booting.

[r00tb0ySlim]

I thought the system logged you out for inactivity on outdoor maps after x amount of time?

I had an AE mission active while doing this.

[MM3squints]

I thought the system logged you out for inactivity on outdoor maps after x amount of time?

Trick to AFK farming is to say in a TF and not quit. If your in TF mode, the game won't kick you

[Arcana]

Trick to AFK farming is to say in a TF and not quit. If your in TF mode, the game won't kick you

The advantage of going with the AE variant was that you could invite accounts into the AE team and they would also be protected from autologout (can't do that with TFs).  So you only needed to keep one dummy account logged into an AE mission, and you could add and subtract other accounts into that team as needed or desired.

[r00tb0ySlim]

The advantage of going with the AE variant was that you could invite accounts into the AE team and they would also be protected from autologout (can't do that with TFs).  So you only needed to keep one dummy account logged into an AE mission, and you could add and subtract other accounts into that team as needed or desired.

BINGO ;D

[Teikiatsu]

I ran two accounts for two years. The novelty of it lasted me for a year. It was also amazing for badging, holding mission doors open, farming, leveling friends, padding team size when you couldn't find a plus one... but after a bit I let it lapse.

I kept my wife's account active after she semi-retired, and ran her toons when she wasn't on her computer.  I'd just have them auto-target through me with a selected power on, then if I felt it was better to switch to her toon I'd set mine up to target through hers.  Never tried the VM, would I be able to switch controls off the same keyboard with that setup?

[MM3squints]

The advantage of going with the AE variant was that you could invite accounts into the AE team and they would also be protected from autologout (can't do that with TFs).  So you only needed to keep one dummy account logged into an AE mission, and you could add and subtract other accounts into that team as needed or desired.

Sorry meant to be more clear, "TF Mode" what you do in AE. I'm used to calling it TF mode because I used to AFK farm for badges before AE came out.