The Mana World Forums

Split from viewtopic.php?f=20&t=20904 as Court House is not a discussion forum.

We need a clarification here.

Can we please have a clear explanation of this multiboxing. See, there is a problem.

Sharing with an alt doesn't automatically give a person double experience, but half the experience that they would normally get, with the other half going to the alt. Using two characters as a tag-team does, regardless of whether they are alts or not.

The explanation of multiboxing does not say "using an alt to gain double experience" if I recall, but If this is the new definition, then I would like to discuss it in more detail, as there are other advantages/disadvantages that need to be sorted out to bring in a form of fairness in game. Surely the game should be fair for all players?

Da Rules wrote:

6. Do not multibox

You are not allowed to engage in combat while controlling more than one character at a time.

I don't understand where this doesn't seem fair in this specific case.

WildX wrote: ↑15 Feb 2021, 17:49

Da Rules wrote:

6. Do not multibox

You are not allowed to engage in combat while controlling more than one character at a time.

I don't understand where this doesn't seem fair in this specific case.

What about using another alt for everything else but engaging in combat like getting shared exp and healing then?
Rule 6 seems not to forbid that but players may find it unfair.

As for specifics wordings:

“You are not allowed to engage in combat while controlling more than one character at a time.”

engage in combat → specific action in singular, subject is "you"
controlling more than one character at a time. → generic condition/action

This means that if you are controlling two chars and one engages in combat, even if the second one doesn't, that qualifies as multiboxing ex literis. Keep in mind that it'll be GM discretion, not ex literis.

This means if alt 2 moves while alt 1 is busy fighting, even if alt 2 is just following around or, uhm, I dunno, running a dance script because why not, that qualifies as multiboxing “in the cold letter of the law” (ex literis or "literally").

As for technical details... Eh, depends on TMWA versus Evol2.

The literal definition is imperative in Evol2 because it does not share 100% of experience - it explicitly gives a bonus if exp sharing is active, but then I'm not sure if TMWA shares 100% either. Due to truncation et cetera it is common that 49%~51% is shared instead of 50%.

Evol2 servers at least have an idle timer, if a char you're sharing exp with doesn't move after a while, they are excluded from calculations. But TMWA... It is TMWA. No one knows for sure what it is doing. Maybe o11c does but he is long gone.

So yeah, from a technical standpoint, the game engine “was never designed with multiple accounts for the same person connected at once in mind” and the behavior is best described as “undefined”.

Is this rule even needed? Does it really hurt the game?

My computer can handle running several Manaplus windows at once, some people can't do that. That gives me an unfair advantage.

It's also on the borderline of automated activity for gameplay advantage, which is generally frowned upon in all MMOs.

(I would think healing very much counts as engaging in combat. Combat is not only dealing damage, healing is also combat if you are healing during a fight.)

WildX wrote: ↑17 Feb 2021, 16:59

My computer can handle running several Manaplus windows at once, some people can't do that. That gives me an unfair advantage.

It's also on the borderline of automated activity for gameplay advantage, which is generally frowned upon in all MMOs.

(I would think healing very much counts as engaging in combat. Combat is not only dealing damage, healing is also combat if you are healing during a fight.)

Healing is combat; Combat is generally divided in offensive and support. (And hybrid).
In my opinion, at least; I would classify all magic usage as combat including joyplim

WildX wrote: ↑15 Feb 2021, 17:49

Da Rules wrote:

6. Do not multibox

You are not allowed to engage in combat while controlling more than one character at a time.

I don't understand where this doesn't seem fair in this specific case.

"...not allowed to engage in combat...", according to this format means anything that is otherwise than either not moving at all, or chatting, because
"...while controlling more than one character at a time." means that one player can not do anything on game while another character is on game regardless of whether one char is doing something or not, because the instance a person who has more than one character in game plays, they are multiboxing...as they are controlling more than one character at a time.

If this is incorrect, as a person might claim, "But the other is doing nothing but sitting there", then this also means that rule applies for those who hit one item, sit down, and then hit with the other one to get double points, as they are not "controlling more than one character at a time"

...which is where the issue with the wording lies.

This seems to state then that "If a person has more than one character on game at a time, neither of their characters are allowed to participate in gameplay".

Would a rule like 'Players are not allowed to run multiple characters engaged in combat (including combat support) or sharing combat experience.' be more specific to the behavior you want to prevent?

I could picture one character engaged in combat / questing while another is sitting idle in some social area being a legitimate use of multiple characters.