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you can control 4 or 5 toons at same time without using any third part software. Try to find auto focus on windows. You can change it to auto focus any window your mouse is over in 1 or 5mS. So all you need to do is to pass your mouse over a window and keep pressing same key. So a macro ( at game ) will do the action you want. so if you keep 4 window at same monitor you can do a little circle and control 4 toons at same time. You just need practice to do it. you also can use a macro program to repeat same action on all windows with same name. So YES is possible to control 4 or 5 toons using legal situation and illegal programs. Question is many players here don´t know anything about Programs, computers or whatever ( they don´t need to know ) but once you have no skills to do something doesn´t mean the other guy is a cheater. I saw some guys killing bosses with only 2 toons in a perfect heal sync, melee sync. Should I say they are cheating? My opnion is they are good, I would like to do the same, but I can´t .

A last word about the multiboxing question (just for information for all):

Ryzom Team News - 2012/10/29

I doubt that the limitation of 4acc/addr may be interpreted in the way that a player is expected to use >1 IP to comply :). But as long as the limit is not exceeded it is not justified to blame someone for abuse, though one may doubt such style of playing which is a matter of taste.

Personally, I could not imagine to play with so many characters. My co-character and ingame little sister Diwu is not a slave or a "pod", but a character in her own right, frequently taking the lead, sometimes quarreling with me in RP, and costing playtime as well as reflection about her role - a schizophrenia I as creator of both characters enjoy. I can't imagine how to do the same with a crowd of alts.

With respect to the limitations on a singlr IP address, Could you possibly use a free, public, proxy? There are some good such proxies in China, Russia, or Brazil..

Just saying....

i've tried 4 times to write a post on this thread, and everytime i keep slaping myself in the head saying is this really what the powers that be waste time on?

we've lost alot of income over the stupid x number of accounts bs, yaka had many sub's, firstdo had many sub's, iwishiwasfive had many sub's, safrina had many sub's, how many 100's of dollars a month did ryzom cost it's self restricting these players that put in great effort to learn to run more then one toon.

no, not everyone can do it, but then again not everyone can fly a plane, race a car, drive a boat, shoot a silver dollat at 1000m, build a nuclear reactor, go to the space station, fly to the moon, sky dive, i could go on for hours, to be able to do anything requires effort, those that put in the effort reap a reward, given the ever smaller population of ryzom this is going to become more and more common, and the steam community at large are going to be coming from games like WoW and EQO and SW, Diablo 3, ect, where multiboxing is a common and valid way of life. i love ryzom but sometimes we're still too hung up on what one person can do that someone else can't, in order to do anything, one must put in effort and try, and try, and try, and sooner or later they will find they can do it as well.

on all other things spoken on here, i will not get involved with, but as for the topic of running more then one toon, get with the times cause it's the normal way many people play mmo's these days, ryzom's only going to kill it's self off by always attacking people paying 50, 60, 100 $ a month, i have to wonder about the owners of the game, do you want to make money, or piss off paying players and cause them to stop paying you and pay someone else?

i'm not saying ryzom should be like other games, but there are some things that are just plain stupid from a business point of view, and telling someone they can't pay you for the ability to play more then x toons is just stupid, it's like someone telling you that you can only drink 4 can's of coke out of a 6 pack you paid for.

beef, i don't really know you, but personally i thank you for paying so many sub's your helping to ensure that ryzom doesn't go offline, and if you can do things i can't do, well, i'm sure i can learn to sooner or later.

just my 2 dappers from the 4th attempt to like a draft of a reply on this thread.

talk

It does take a lot of practise and a lot of prep, for example starting small and building up. Making a follow, heal and careplan macro on the alts and just using them for those 3 tasks to begin with. Slowly over time you adjust the macros and get used to doing the tasks you are set up for more easily and eventually add another task and set up the macros and get used to doing that too, adjusting and editing and getting more comfortable until you eventually add another and so on.

I cant really count of the wasted hours of changing all of my desktops, skillbars, macros, stanzas to try out an idea only to end up changing it all back the next day or having a better idea to try. Really I am no better than any decent gamer like yourself, Talk and I am pretty sure if you got the sudden urge to play 4, 7, 9 toons at once (hypothetically) you would probably be able to run rings around me and teach me some new tricks in no time.

The most helpful tricks for seamlessly switching between clients were things TI mentioned years ago when I was on the other side of a similar argument. At the time I didnt think it possible to run more than 4 or 5 toons and control them all manually but I was wrong. Its not only possible to run a full team yourself manually, its actually pretty easy once you get used to it. If I had put in the time and effort all those years ago and gotten as good as Yaka, Nit and company, I might have actually been able to give them a decent fight.

Whow, lot's of technical skills needed for running so many toons, it seems.
Nice for the players who can do so. Nice for Winch Gate who get lots of subscription money.

So, winwin for everybody?
Yet, am I allowed to raise some concerns?

So - how will other players feel about it? A massive multiplayer online roleplaying game is about real social interaction between real persons who run their avatars, or am I wrong with this? Maybe I am wrong, but I think the social aspect is very relevant in sandbox mmorpgs like ryzom.

Just imagine:
Would it be really fun for a new player to be trecked by a team of multiple toons instead of real players?
Would other players really accept to see bosses killed by a team of several toons instead of real players?

So it is 'technical skills' versus 'social skills'.

Personally I would feel like playing with a team of non-personal-characters - and then, would there be a need to subscribe an mmorpg?

There are pros for allowing multiple toons, but there are grave cons too, I think.

Now i feel bad for using my character name ...

Question withdrawn :) Moving on.

If a man can pay for and run 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 toons at a time who is anyone to say he cannot use them all at once for the gain of guild and other players in the community? Dont bash a man simply because he can play the game better and do things you simply cannot do alone.... makes no sense.

Anyone can sit and cry, "omg he killed me on his main wile is alt healed him" wow really get over it, you must of killed me what 6 times or more last war and i killed you, OMG let me go complain and ticket you for it, NO, its called a game and fun.

Grow up and let the man run as many toons as he wants, if you cant then dont complain about it, and if you have that big of an issue get your paper up so you can pay for all those subs and work just as hard as he did to GAIN ALL THOSE MASTERS for ALL those toons.

More power to you beef, Goodluck.

Well Beeficus, it looks like lots of homins have come to your aid. Many have defended you :)

I think its important to point out that Beeficus and his beefy alts also help other players. They are not just used for selfish gain. He helps players like me, who have otherwise felt isolated (up until recently), find a full team to do things like plods or Pei. He doesn't just help people in his guild or in his faction, either.

So, since he is helping others, I would like to think that his beefy, McMeaty army is fine with the community.

Cheers to moving on

Lessah <3

[EN]While I want to emphasize that I never criticized multiboxing, as long as it is inside the rules and CoC, I would like to remind (as an answer to Talkirc and Lilz) how the restrictions to at most 4 characters allowed to be played at a time arose.

The three former servers had different traditions and rules. As Mermaidia already mentioned, multiboxing beyond two characters playing together was forbidden and considered cheating on Aniro, even playing with two characters was frowned upon by many, to the extent that some believed it were forbidden as well (that, in fact was not the case, even on Aniro).

On Leanon, playing two characters together had become commonplace, and prove useful under conditions of a considerably small community (Leanon had the smallest player community of the three servers). Playing with more than two players at a time was uncommon, though (except a third "rescue character" parked close to delicate locations), and excessive use of large packs of multiboxed characters, as observed on Arispotle, was considered abusive and very seldom (I recall that extended alt use during OP wars led to complaints of cheating).

On Arispotle, indeed, a couple of players seem to have played multiboxed crowds of characters. I do not know how the former Arispotle community as a whole thought about, yet I caught some grumblling vibrations from some players as well. But in general, it does not seem to have been considered a big deal.

To put that straight: It is undeniable that playing a multiplicity of clients in a multiwindowed environment is possible, and not even overly hard, without usage of any illicit utilities. The focus follows mouse behavior is a common option in all Unix style X-Windows graphical user interfaces, and may be configured under MS Windows and Mac OS as well. The rest is macro configuration, and fanning over a set of windows while pressing a key (ideally always the same) multiple times. I once tried it, as a proof of concept, and did not find it difficult (in my eyes, it is boring, and killing athmosphere and roleplay, but this is a different question and left to anybody's taste and decision).

All that became a real problem after the fusion. Then, the three communities with their very different attitudes towards multiboxing, and a number of other differing customary habits were lumped together which erupted in a considerable number of conflicts which are still not all reconciled.

This situation was worsened by the scarcity of valuable harvested and looted items, excellent and supreme raw materials in particular, after the fusion. Before, practically all guildhalls and other storage of most guilds and long term players were overcrowded with valuables of any kind, larger guilds had up to ten additional storage GH, even normal players had several of them on auxiliary characters. After the fusion, with considerably more players than ever in the three or four years before, and with empty storage everywhere, gaining better materials became a highly contested occupation. Running around with a full team of multiboxed alts appeared not only as cheating, but as theft in addition, hence the fevered complaints, especially by players who saw such behaviour the first time.

The decision by the CSR team I already cited was a wise compromise, as I assume, found only after intense discussions. Inaction, as Talkirc proposes, might have lead to the mass exodus of tens of active and dedicated players, mainly from the french community, and lasting strife and conflicts. And imperfect as it might have been, I fail to see a reasonable alternative to this decision.

Nowadays, the situation is ways more relaxed. I am therefore against any accusation or harassment against those choosing to play with multiple characters. Those who do should be aware, though, that their style is not liked by everybody.

A few notes, I was not present when the conflict arose, nevertheless I think I have some direct standing in order to comment:

1. When you go ahead and cry in Universe about "kami players being <this> and <that>" (whiny, entitled, etc) - I feel targeted. I am kami. I did not participate in the war. Please feel free to name & shame if you feel like it, but going at it about the entire faction feels slightly tasteless.

2. Your actions did not impact only the parties to the war. Any person wanting to travel would face the slowness of NH, created not by normal wear down from players, but manually by a very specific group of players. In short, doing this interfered with the other player's enjoyment of the game.

Naturally, you argue that this is an intended mechanic and as such valid. However, the mechanic is presumably implemented in order to provide an extra incentive for players to feed the transporters. Neither you nor me (or any other player) know what Winch Gate intended. Had I been online at the time of the war, I would have raised a ticket myself, just to find out if this kind of forced wear-out is indeed sanctioned by GMs.

3. We have absolutely no need or reason to "know you" before your actions are questioned. Asylum used to be reported for soloing the NPC bosses, yet I didn't hear them cry about it. Nice of you to explain humblebrag about your gaming achievements, though.

Good game :)

Moving on.

What I find hilarious Beefie (and you might too) is that Yenno was banned for botting 2 toons training. If I remember correctly it was around the time you took that screenshot actually!

Good post and points- but we don't have to worry about Kami tears any more as their numbers are back :P

Also that NH trick is absolute genius. Big +1 for that.