How to configure a Focusless/Targetless/Leaderless multiboxing system

[TRoN]

I'll try to make this as simple as I can. The configuration I will describe it's based on the one I use after some experiment and testing different approaches of this concept.


How does it works?

Each TOON has a special key combination that is recognized by the other TOONS as been sent by a specific TOON. If I press the FOLLOW key on TOON1 all the others know that it was sent by TOON1. This is the base of all the implementation.

So, your MB program must be able to do key translation.


I use the following keys on my setup:

|F| - Follow (I tell slaves to follow me)

Usually, I use Jamba-Follow-After-Combat so my toons are always on follow. But sometimes you need to switch it off so they stay in their positions and don't come to the tank after a kill, for example. This key will be used when you want them to come to you, when follow brokes, when they are facing the wrong way or too far from mob (you move behind the mob and press FOLLOW), etc.

|\| (on my keyboard, it's the key left from 1, top left key of keyboard) - Target (I tell slaves to target my target)

You will have to press this key on some special situations: If you want to BE SURE that the slaves are targeting the target you want them to or if you want assign focus to any/all of your toons. Usually, on easy runs, trash mobs or questing you don't even need to press this key for them to attack if your SPAM key (we'll talk about this later) has a /startattack before the /cast stuff - they will attack the nearest target so it's 'run and spamkill FTW'.


Now, lets do it...

THE ONLY KEYS/MACROS YOU NEED TO CONFIGURE are FOLLOW and TARGET and, if you want, formation keys (I advise you to make at least the Spread one - you'll find it very useful).

All the other macros/keybindings will be the ones you use for solo. You can aswell just put the spells directly on your action bars, if you want.


KEYS TRANSLATION

THIS IS MADE IN YOUR MB SOFTWARE. Each Instance of the game will use a DIFFERENT keymap. For example: if you have a 3 box system, you'll have to configure each of those 3 instances. You'll set regions and screen position, processor affinity, username, etc. In adition you will have the possibility of configure a KEYMAP.

So lets take a look at our KEYMAPS (I use |F| and |\| keys as example, you can adapt to the ones you like)


TOON1:

F --> FO1
Ctrl-Alt-F --> FO2
Alt-Shift-F --> FO3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F --> FO4
Ctrl-F --> FO5

\ --> TA1
Ctrl-Alt-\ --> TA2
Alt-Shift-\ --> TA3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-\ --> TA4
Ctrl-\ --> TA5


TOON2:

Ctrl-Shift-F --> FO1
F --> FO2
Alt-Shift-F --> FO3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F --> FO4
Ctrl-F --> FO5

Ctrl-Shift-\ --> TA1
\ --> TA2
Alt-Shift-\ --> TA3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-\ --> TA4
Ctrl-\ --> TA5


TOON3:

Ctrl-Shift-F --> FO1
Ctrl-Alt-F --> FO2
F --> FO3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F --> FO4
Ctrl-F --> FO5

Ctrl-Shift-\ --> TA1
Ctrl-Alt-\ --> TA2
\ --> TA3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-\ --> TA4
Ctrl-\ --> TA5


TOON4:

Ctrl-Shift-F --> FO1
Ctrl-Alt-F --> FO2
Alt-Shift-F --> FO3
F --> FO4
Ctrl-F --> FO5

Ctrl-Shift-\ --> TA1
Ctrl-Alt-\ --> TA2
Alt-Shift-\ --> TA3
\ --> TA4
Ctrl-\ --> TA5


TOON5:

Ctrl-Shift-F --> FO1
Ctrl-Alt-F --> FO2
Alt-Shift-F --> FO3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-F --> FO4
F --> FO5

Ctrl-Shift-\ --> TA1
Ctrl-Alt-\ --> TA2
Alt-Shift-\ --> TA3
Ctrl-Alt-Shift-\ --> TA4
\ --> TA5


NOTE: FOn and TAn are just labels the system uses to identify the key combinations. They can be whatever you want to name them (for example you may want to name it Follow.TOON1 instead of FO1 or TargetToon2Target instead of TA2.

IMPORTANT NOTE: You just need to keymap according to the team you play. If you 2BOX you just need to configure FO1,FO2,TA1,TA2 FOR TOON1 and TOON2. BUT if you plan, in the future, to get some reinforcements.... well, better keymap all of them. It will not harm your set at all no matter you play solo, 2, 3, 4 or 5 boxes.

VERY VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: When we refer TOON1 we are talking about toon you logged with wow.instance.1 (TOON2=wow2; etc.), not the one you defined as Tank or the gorgeous one or whatever.

YET ANOTHER VERY VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: You must check that none of this key combinations are used/bound in your Keybind Interface.


MACROS:

You'll need to create the following macros (do it as Global Macros because you may use them for any team you may want to create - you just need to change the toons names. I have 1 set for each team and one more for ocasional groups - the one I edit for testing and stuff like that.

All toons will have these same 2 macros.


FOLLOW.team.x

/stopmacro [nomod]
/tar [mod:ctrl,mod:shift,nomod:alt,target=TOON1][mod:ctrl,mod:alt,nomod:shift,target=TOON2][mod:alt,mod:shift,nomod:ctrl,target=Toon3][mod:ctrl,mod:alt,mod:shift,target=TOON4][mod:ctrl,target=TOON5]
/f
/targetlasttarget

TARGET.team.x

/click MultiBarLeftButton1
/stopmacro [nomod]
/a [mod:ctrl,mod:shift,nomod:alt,target=TOON1][mod:ctrl,mod:alt,nomod:shift,target=TOON2][mod:alt,mod:shift,nomod:ctrl,target=TOON3][mod:ctrl,mod:alt,mod:shift,target=TOON4][mod:ctrl,target=TOON5]

NOTE: What's that 1st line? Well, it's just a way to solve the 255 characters limitation. Blizzard built-in macro editor just let you create macros with less or equal to 255 characters. It sucks!

MultiBarLeftButton1 is the top first slot of inside-lateral-right bar where I have a button with this macro (SKULL):

/script SetRaidTarget("target",8)

Everytime I press the TARGET key, it marks the target with SKULL. This way I have a better visual control of who am I attacking. It helps in BGs too (when ppl give me the leader) because everybody knows wich target to spike and PUM!

The /click command can help you to solve characters limitation problems. I will not go into it but take this as an example... The /click command is not bradcasted. It's not a true click but more like an execute command.

So, now you have 2 macros for your team. Put them on your Action Bar. I use the 2 first slots of top-left-bar for those.

NOTE: (Almost) every character I have has the same key bindings. This way I can easily switch teams, re-group or play solo without having to re-learn where are the damn actions.

_________________________________________________

"Maaaaannn, this is chinese to me... Can you explain it better"

Ok. Lets do a simulation...

1) TOON2 pressed F.
2) The MB proggy looks at TOON2 keymap and detects F as beeing mapped to an action labeled FO2.

"mmm let's see if the other toons knows anything about FO2..."

3) It looks to the other toons keymaps to see if they have some key combination labeled FO2.
4) Yes they have! Program sends Ctrl-Alt-F to other toons.

Now lets look what happens inside the game and how macros respond to this.

1) TOON2 pressed F. The macro is activated for everyone.
2) TOON2 macro stopped because [nomod] condition. He does nothing.
2) The other toons receive Ctrl-Alt-F.
3) There's CTRL, there's ALT, no SHIFT. Mmmm the condition that fits perfectly is [mod:ctrl,mod:alt,nomod:shift,target=TOON2]. My target is TOON2!
4) "But wait, I'm nuking the mob right now!". "Don't worry, just /tar toon2 /follow him then /tar lasttarget and continue to pwn..."

"mmm ye. I see it now But how do I configure the keymap thing?"

Depends on the MBprogram. The one I use has a Keymap Setup button where you can load and save keymap files and build new ones. To build a keymap you have 2 fields:

One is the key combination (you put the cursor there and press the keys. It will show what you've pressed. You can edit/override this.

The other field is the label (alias) you assign to that key combination. You can edit/override this.


So, following my setup,

Press F and name it FO1. Press ADD key button.
Press Ctrl-Alt-F and name it FO2. Press ADD key button.
etc. etc.

Save the keymap as TOON1_keys.
Do the same to the other toons (5 different keymaps if 5BOX).
You just need to do this procedure once. When done, it's done! Enjoy!


In the command editor (where you configure your different wow instances) you choose TOON1_keys for wow1, TOON2_keys for wow2, and so on.

NOTE: You can explore this functionality for even more advanced usage if you want to go deeper on this keymap thing.

_________________________________________________

FORMATIONS:

Implementing FORMATIONS with this system makes it dynamic. TOONS always form up independently of who's MASTER.

I use 2 keys for formations:

|,| Spread (I tell slaves to spread)
|.| Gather (I tell slaves to gather if they are spreaded. If not, they spread exactly the opposite way of Spread key)

These are simple formations to adjust toons positioning. They are not meant for coreography and show off.

Here's an example if TOON1 is master (dots are just to adjust text position):

On follow:

....T1

....Tn

Spread |,|

....T1
....T5
T2.....T3
....T4

Gather |.|

....T1
....T4
T3.....T2
....T5

T3 moves the opposite way of T2. T5 moves the opposite way of T4. For example, if T4 or T5 is a mellee class, i can bring him to the face of the mob while casters get away, pressing SPREAD or GATHER keys. I'll update this part when I have time to think about some other nice and usefull 5 men formations.


FORMATIONS KEYMAP

TOON1:

, --> SPREAD1
. --> GATHER1
Shift+Right --> SPREAD2
Shift+Left --> SPREAD3
Ctrl+Left --> GATHER2
Ctrl+Right --> GATHER3
Shift+Down --> SPREAD4
Shift+Up --> SPREAD5
Ctrl+Up --> GATHER4
Ctrl+Down --> GATHER5


TOON2:

, --> SPREAD2
. --> GATHER2
Shift+Right --> SPREAD4
Shift+Left --> SPREAD1
Ctrl+Left --> GATHER4
Ctrl+Right --> GATHER1
Shift+Down --> SPREAD3
Shift+Up --> SPREAD5
Ctrl+Up --> GATHER3
Ctrl+Down --> GATHER5


TOON3:

, --> SPREAD3
. --> GATHER3
Shift+Right --> SPREAD1
Shift+Left --> SPREAD4
Ctrl+Left --> GATHER1
Ctrl+Right --> GATHER4
Shift+Down --> SPREAD2
Shift+Up --> SPREAD5
Ctrl+Up --> GATHER2
Ctrl+Down --> GATHER5


TOON4:

, --> SPREAD4
. --> GATHER4
Shift+Right --> SPREAD3
Shift+Left --> SPREAD2
Ctrl+Left --> GATHER3
Ctrl+Right --> GATHER2
Shift+Down --> SPREAD1
Shift+Up --> SPREAD5
Ctrl+Up --> GATHER1
Ctrl+Down --> GATHER5


TOON5:

, --> SPREAD5
. --> GATHER5
Shift+Right --> SPREAD3
Shift+Left --> SPREAD2
Ctrl+Left --> GATHER3
Ctrl+Right --> GATHER2
Shift+Down --> SPREAD1
Shift+Up --> SPREAD4
Ctrl+Up --> GATHER1
Ctrl+Down --> GATHER4

_________________________________________________

As I said, The FOLLOW and TARGET macros are what you need to build this FTL system BUT ...

Let's take a look to some other macros that can help your MB setup.

I have this Global Macro created on every account. It accomplishes different functions.

/jamba setmeasmaster all
/script SetView(5);SetView(5);

Previously you've configured regions in your MB program, right? Lets suppose your main window (the big one) is region.1, and the others region.n. You also assigned a key to switch between them, right? In my configuration F9 calls TOON1 (wow.instance.1) to my main window, F10 calls TOON2 to my main window (...) and so on.

So, when I hit F9 I'm playing with TOON1 in my main window and I want him to be the Master. Jamba do that for me. (The SetView stuff is just to adjust camera view.)

I keybound F9-F12 to my outside-lateral-right bar 1st 4 slots. Then I put this macro on F9 slot on TOON1, F10 on TOON2, F11 on TOON3, F12 on TOON4. Each toon has this macro on different bar slot.

Of course I could just bound F9 on account.1, F10 on account.2, etc. That would free up action bar slots BUT I prefer to deal with the ALL CHARS HAS SAME KEYBIND politic. Let's suppose tonight I only want to play with 2 TOONS using regions 1 and 3 - I Just have to move the button to F9 on TOON1 and to F11 on TOON2. Simple!

Resumming - This macro/button will bring the chosen TOON to main window and give him Team Leadership (you need to turn on 'Set master as leader' on Jamba).


Finnaly, the well known and magic 'The One Button'. I have it located on bottom last slot on the inside-lateral-right bar anf I keybound |HOME| for it (On bottom last slot on the outside-lateral-right bar I have Jamba button to a fast access. Simple macro just with /jamba, No keybind - I just access Jamba from Master and I click the button.)

The One Button:

/script AcceptQuest(); AcceptTrade(); RetrieveCorpse(); RepopMe(); ConfirmAcceptQuest(); StaticPopup_Hide("PARTY_INVITE"); StaticPopup_Hide("QUEST_ACCEPT");
/jamba-group invite

It does it all! Basicly it answers YES to any question the UI may asks. It also invites all toons to the party.


Next post explores some thoughts about multiboxing layouts, configurations, macros and keybindings.

I hope this will help in some way.
Thanks for reading.

Happy boxing!!

[TRoN]

Some thoughts about multiboxing layouts, configurations, macros and keybindings

First of all, I will focus just the most basic aspects of this. I'll focus mainly the aspects related to the FTL implementation altough it can be used by any other setup.

Take a look at EaTCarbS post Team Awesome Macro Compilation - You'll find a lot of good information and great tips about how to setup your MB layout and how to use specific actions based on the situation. Digg the forums and read a lot - You'll end up finding the answer to ease some problem you may face. Ask for help - There's always someone willing to help. Share your knowledge and your experience with the community - there are lots of different aproaches that can be discussed and improved. We should inspire the software developers to implement new and better functionallities ...

That said, let's take a look at some global interface options and addons:

a) I just use 1 MBOX addon - Jamba. It all I need, thanks god!
b) I don't use External action bars. I grow tired of having to reconfigure every single toon every time we have patches or expansions or the addon is discontinued, bah - no more! (I have 36 chars just in Burning Blade-EU - what a mess!!!). Blizzard action bars are just fine for ALL my needs. Period.
c) I don't use active frames like X-Perl or anything like that for the same reasons plus waste of memory. I just use Grid and Clique on my healer toons.
d) I use Althoolic too to check evrything about my alts and my accounts.

I keep everything simple and similar. When I play solo (and I do it a lot) I just log the toon I want and play. I don't have separated configurations for Solo and MBing. Everything lies the same. The only thing I do when going solo is press Jamba button and activate 'Enter Solo Mode' to get rid of the annoying message 'Player X is not online'.


KEYBOARD:

I use a very normal and cheap keyboard. I use QWEASD to move as almost everyone. Now, I have some defined zones where I can find the actions I need to perform.

F1 to F5 to assign focus to TOON1 to TOON5. I target something, I press F1 and TOON1 will focus that target. Same to all the others.

F7 to heartstone. F8 to mount. F9 to F12 to promote a TOON to Master/Leader and bring him to my main window (see 1st post of this thread).

IOP+´ and KLǺ~ are (on some cases) used to healing macros. Individual healing. Usually I don't need/use them because I have a dynamic healing button (I'll explain it later). But when, for some reason, I need to heal/cure/dispel some TOON, I use these keys. For example, |I| will cast a Greater Heal on TOON1 ALT+|I| will cast Remove 'Anything Bad'
on TOON1. So, these keys are TOON related: Spell.1 on TOON1-5, Spell.2 on TOON1-5. Lets call them 'Save TOONX ass keys'.

I use keypad to mark targets when Solo. 1 to 8. 9 clear target mark. 0 clearfocus.

The upper-left bar has 8 keys bound to it:

The first 3 from left to right are |\| |F| |G| (Target, Follow, Counterpells/Interrupts/etc.)
The first 4 from right to left are |«| |'| |0| |9|. That's the buff section. |«| and |'| are MYBUFFS |0| and |9| are TEAMBUFFS.

Examples:

(MyBUFFS)

/target player
/cast Inner Fire

Why /tar player if Inner fire is a self spell?! I gave this example precisely to bold what EaTCarbS said somewhere, 'this is like a coreography'. The methods we use follow some principles that help us to have a quick understanding over what we're doing.

My fingers dance to buff my 4BOX lev 19 team is |«| |0| |0| |0| |0|

On |0| I have this:

(PartyBUFFS)

/cast Power Word: Fortitude
/targetparty

So if I didn't had /tar player in that macro, my little priest would never buff herself with Fortitude. Because she would BUFF the current target then move to the next party mate. This way she casts Inner Fire, then Stamina on herself then on the rest of the group

I use the main action bar to the hot stuff. Default bindings from 1 to 7, then I have |R|, MouseButton4, MouseWheelDown, MouseWheelUp, MouseButton3.

I will not go into details about wich spells I have in each button. It depends on the toon's class and so. As I said before, more important is to know that there you have your main battle actions.

|1| is Pull, 1st action (send pets, cast DOTs, put shields on, ... - anything you usually do before or at the beginning of the fight)

Example:

(DK.Init)

/clearfocus [mod]
/cast Bone Shield
/startattack
/petattack [target=focus,harm,nodead][target=target,harm,nodead]

|2| and |3| are the main spell sequences. I took some hours with every team in front of a dummy to test the best rotations/combinations. I advise you to do the same the way you can reach the best cicle for your needs.

Example:

(DK.Spam.1)

/stopmacro [noharm]
/castsequence [mod:alt] Death Grip; reset=combat/target Plague Strike, Icy Touch, Scourge Strike, Blood Strike, Blood Strike, Death Coil

|4| is a finisher. Instant spells like Moonfire, Fireblast, etc.

|5| Crowd control the previously assigned target! 'Do it or re-do it NOW!'

Examples:

(Lock.Shoo)

#showtooltip
/cast [nomod][target=focus,harm,nodead][target=target,harm,nodead] Fear; [mod:shift] Howl of Terror

(Sheep.MOver)

#showtooltip Polymorph
/cast [target=mouseover,exists][target=focus,exists][target=target,exists] Polymorph

|6| and |7| are whatever is needed and not used often.

Then, I use modifiers (ALT,SHIFT,CTRL) on some of these macros. For example - Drain Man. I use Drain Mana once a week! So I don't have it on front of my bread and butter spells. But I need it there for when I need it. So, I use ALT+key or CTRL+key to cast those spells. Banish, Mind Control, etc. - you know what I mean...

|R| is the 'HEAL the target that is beeing attacked' button. I have all avaiable modifiers assigned to this key. For mass heals, sequenced heals, just renews/rejuvs, heal-over time, anything the toon can do.

Examples. Some variations of the same concept. It will heal the target of the target if exists (in a fight, the target of the mob is the one beeing hitted and most probably the one who needs healing). If the target don't have a target it heals the target. If there aren't targets at all, well, it heals the caster.

/castsequence [target=targettarget,exists,mod:alt][target=target,exists,mod:alt][target=player,mod:alt] reset=180 Gift of the Naaru,,; [target=targettarget,exists][target=target,exists][target=player] reset=30 Heal,,

#showtooltip [mod:alt] Power Word: Shield; Renew
/castsequence [target=targettarget,exists,mod:alt][target=target,exists,mod:alt][target=player,mod:alt]Power Word: Shield,,;[target=targettarget,exists][target=target,exists][target=player]Renew

#showtooltip
/cast [target=targettarget,exists,mod:alt][target=target,exists,mod:alt][target=player,mod:alt] Healing Touch; [target=targettarget,exists][target=target,exists][target=player] Rejuvenation

THE MOUSE:

I have a very good mouse. Every button is bound to main actions I usually perform. 3 buttons + WheelUp/WheelDown, with or without single modifiers (alt,ctrl,shift) - I'm talking about 20 different actions I can bound to the mouse. (I changed the defaut zoomin/zoomout bindings to Shift+MWU/shift+MWD)

When I'm multiboxing, I use my mouse like I usually do when I'm solo. It's good to keep in mind that your Main Window TOON, the Master, is a skilled player, you, doing the most adequated actions at any instant. The other TOONS, well, sometimes they are a bit dumb (let's say they don't have the vision to react to some unexpected situations). But you, the main toon - you can! So, you play your main like a pro.

So, again, I use my mouse exactly like I'm playing solo BUT I have a small trick. My 'spam pain key' is MouseWheelDown. I configured the program I use (I think all the programs can do that) the way it brodcasts MouseWheelDown mapped to |2|. So when I pull the weel down all toons recieve |2| and they spam their rage as fast as me

At the moment, I just have the MouseWheelDown button mapped but I've been thinking maybe I can map one more button without loosing that 'I'm a player playing on a team feeling'. Mouse works as my personal gun not the way to control what my teammates are doing. 'Spam pain' it's ok but the other keys are set to fit my own playstyle when I play solo on each of my characters.

And that's it!

Lets recall some important things you should try to follow when multiboxing:

1) You will not need to fill your action bars with every spell from your spellbook.
2) You don't need to use all those fancy addons you never use.
3) You will look at your keys as Actions you will perform in some situation and NOT as spell X or spell Y. I've learn that reading EaTCarB post I've mentioned. That seems to make no difference when you run 5 shammies but if you run a druid+hunter+2mages+priest, for example, well, that will make all the diffence and will be a breeze to configure.


To finish... in every fight, even you do it automaticly, without thinking, there's some phases since the the aproach to the end.

Lets assume we are in a instance ready for some challenging fight (I take this example because if you're running arround questing or grinding you'll be spamming 1 or 2 keys and Pew Pew FTW).

1. Plan how to engage the mobs.
2. Assign (or not) targets to control.
3. Engage/Control.
4. Tank (even if you don't have a tank, someone will be tanking :P), spank (DPS), heal, CC when needed.
5. Survive and win the fight.

Your layout should be able to accomplish all these phases.

The questions you should ask to yourself when you're setting up your multibox layout is 'Can I do that? How?'. 'Can I do it independently of wich TOON I'm playing as the main?' If you can, you're set to go


The last part of this tutorial, Assigning Focus and Crowd Control is done and posted some pages ahead.


I hope this will help in some way.
Thanks for reading.

Happy boxing
/cheer

[Tim]

Wow, great post!

I do have a couple questions, so I am going to play devils advocate here.

Firstly, the naming of focusless/targetless/leaderless is really misleading. You will always have a leader, always have a focus, and always have a target. Just because you can switch between them, doesn't mean they don't exist. If not, then you would never "main control" anybody, you would never be able to attack a mob or interact at all, and you would never be able to easily multitarget mobs. So the whole focusless/targetless/leaderless really is not accurate at all. Sure, it sound sexy, but it isn't accurate.

So overall, why do this complicated setup versus simply and easily using 1 focus macro for each member of your team? Using 1 focus macro is about a billion percent easier than the set up you've explained.

What if I don't want a separate game window to be the leader, what if I just want to control him, what you've explained wouldn't really allow that.

What do I do if I want finite control over who is leader, who isn't, and to be able to set this on each of the team members, your setup doesn't seem to allow for that.

So while I do see what you are saying, I just don't see how it is more valuable than using a traditional focus setup.

A traditional focus setup lets you:

a) Make any person in your team the leader whenever you want
b) Lets you make some of your toons attack some mobs, while the others attack others
c) Gives you extreme control on what you want your team to do
d) Allows you to instantly swap between any person to be your new leader and make the others follow


So I see what you are saying, but the FTL (even though it seems to be named wrong) seems to give you less control over your guys and add complication that isn't need.

My 2 cents at least but I am very interested!

[LindlineOLD]

Lets call it a "Dynamic FTL" system. Dynamic Focus/Target/Leader. Or DFTL.

[Tim]

Oh TRoN, I didn't mean to sound like I'm slamming your post. It is more that I don't understand the advantages of using this over manually and quickly being able to spot focus control your group

But then again, as you guys know from my choice of in-game mods (or lack thereof), I'm often resilient to change!

[TRoN]

Originally Posted by Tim

Oh TRoN, I didn't mean to sound like I'm slamming your post. It is more that I don't understand the advantages of using this over manually and quickly being able to spot focus control your group [...] I'm often resilient to change!

No problem Tim. I understand your reasons very well.

I was, myself resistent when I was faced with this new aproach but now I have to say it was the best thing I've done. I appreciate a lot more multiboxing since then. And it's done. I will never have to configure it again

Originally Posted by Tim

I do have a couple questions, so I am going to play devils advocate here.

I'll do my best ...

Originally Posted by Tim

Firstly, the naming of focusless/targetless/leaderless is really misleading. You will always have a leader, always have a focus, and always have a target.

I don't know if it was or not a wise decision and, tbh, I really don't care. The guys who invented this (Deceased and Pocalypse) named it FTL because is not mandatory that SLAVES use focus or taget to 'know' who is the MASTER. The implementation itself brings that information to them.

From Dual-Boxing Wiki

Focusless/Targetless:

The ‘focus’/’target’ of each toon is neither used for specifying the group leader nor the dps-target, so it can be freely used for other needs, like setting cc-targets.

Leaderless:

There is no predefined leader/main of the group. The leader of your group will automatically be the toon you're currently controlling.

NOTE: On the early MBoxing configurations, some time ago, the leader was fixed and all was configured based on that. The new programs we currently use brought new and powerful functionalities and nowadays the Leader is the one we're playing on the main window. But we should not forget the history and admire and respect the pioneers.

In the future, you and your program will be part of MB history too, even if you decide to stop what you're doing now. You'll and pwnboxer will be remembered ...

Originally Posted by Tim

So overall, why do this complicated setup versus simply and easily using 1 focus macro for each member of your team? Using 1 focus macro is about a billion percent easier than the set up you've explained.

* Free use of focus and target on each toon
* Simple leader-switching without the need of using focus/target or dying of the former leader
* Easy recovery of half-group-deaths
* Solo-playability of each toon
* You don't need a macro to each spell. You can just drag your spells to you action bar and go

Originally Posted by Tim

What if I don't want a separate game window to be the leader, what if I just want to control him, what you've explained wouldn't really allow that.

I'm not sure I understood what you're saying here. Usually the leader is the TOON I'm playing. And usually I play on main window, right?

One thing is the Master, other is the Leader. Normally Master is Leader (Jamba functionality). You can be master and not the leader. This has nothing to do with FTL implementation. It's an addon/macro thing. Master is the TOON you're playing with.

Originally Posted by Tim

What do I do if I want finite control over who is leader, who isn't, and to be able to set this on each of the team members, your setup doesn't seem to allow for that.

If you don't want Master to be the Leader set it OFF at Jamba. Leader will be the guy who invited the rest or the one promoted. For the rest of the day...

Again, that's a Jamba thing not FTL thing. In my case, I feel necessary that Master is Team Leader so I set it ON.

Originally Posted by Tim

So while I do see what you are saying, I just don't see how it is more valuable than using a traditional focus setup.

* Free use of focus and target on each toon - This only reason is enough for me!

I felt very limitated when I used the traditional focus setup. Toons were like sheeps following and shooting Master's target. Now they have a some free will, if you know what I mean. They do what I tell them to do but they can perform roles more adequated to their classes on some particular situations.

Originally Posted by Tim

A traditional focus setup lets you:

a) Make any person in your team the leader whenever you want
b) Lets you make some of your toons attack some mobs, while the others attack others
c) Gives you extreme control on what you want your team to do
d) Allows you to instantly swap between any person to be your new leader and make the others follow

In my humble oppinion, the FTL system let you do all this long way better then the traditional focus system.

I doubt you can, using the focus system, easily accomplish b). Therefore c) will fail too.

Can you please tell me how, for example, you tell your mage to sheep a mob, while DPSing, the druid to hibernate other mob, while healing the tank, your tank tanking the boss plus 1 add and the DPS squad nuking the add, then the boss when add dies?

It will be a pain in the ass, Tim. You must admit it...

Now, you want to know how it is with the setup I use?

|F3| 'Mage, sheep this guy'
|F4| 'Druid, Hibernate this guy'
|\| 'Everybody attack this guy'
|5| 'Do it now!'
MouseWheelDown... rolling rolling the wheel... 'Spam your rage'
|R| 'Heal the tank dude'
MouseWheelDown... rolling the wheel... 'Spam your rage'
|5| 'Keep them sheep'd/ZZzZZZz'
(add is dead)
|\| 'Everybody attack this new guy'
MouseWheelDown... rolling the wheel... 'Spam your rage'

... and so on.

Originally Posted by Tim

So I see what you are saying, but the FTL (even though it seems to be named wrong) seems to give you less control over your guys and add complication that isn't need.

No commet for this one. Maybe I wasn't clear enough on my explanations but it's obvious that it's exactly the contrary.

You can tell that the traditional focus system is enough for your needs and fits your own playstyle. That's a good reason. But, beeing a ceptic as you said you are, maybe you need to test it to undestand its true potential.

/hug
TRoN

[adz4u28]

wtb a brain surgery diploma...

[LindlineOLD]

Originally Posted by adz4u28

wtb a brain surgery diploma...

I know, right? I need to grab a pencil and some paper to work it all out.

[ollee]

Seems like its super functional for PvP but also seems like an extra 2 or 3 hours of setup and super more difficult to control...I would never be able to remember which set of key strokes with CTRL ALT and SHFT to press when hitting follow and they would be all like "NO....**** YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!D1!D1D!DDddDdDDDd!!!!!! !!"

Edit: Oh and TRoN, crazy good post....

[TRoN]

Originally Posted by ollee

Seems like its super functional for PvP but also seems like an extra 2 or 3 hours of setup [...]

You need some time to understand what this is about. You need 15 minutes to setup. The time to type the keymap

Originally Posted by ollee

[...] and super more difficult to control...I would never be able to remember which set of key strokes with CTRL ALT and SHFT to press when hitting follow and they would be all like "NO....**** YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!D1!D1D!DDddDdDDDd!!!!!! !!"

You don't need to press anything any key combinations when playing. The system knows what to send to each toon. You press just ONE key to make your slaves following your master, WHO EVER YOUR MASTER IS. Slaves always follow the guy you're playing with.