Spiral Knights - Effective multibox, what's the stance

Effective multibox, what's the stance

17 replies [Last post]

Thu, 11/24/2011 - 15:30

Ciopo

Greetings.

Now, I know having multiple accounts is officially accepted, I myself have 3 paid account and a free one, I also know that I can do "group activity" with them without problems, I do "play one and carry 3 deaths" on lucrative levels from time to time and I know that's perfectly legal too.

Since I like to multibox, hell I do so on WoW, figures I'd try to do so there too.

I do, however, wonder what is the stance on that, since by forum search the only reference I found to that was this: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/22531

Strictly speaking, the use I would have of autohotkey would be simply to broadcast my keystrokes to multiple java clients, so I wouldn't incur in that 13th case of restricted behaviour , but I prefer to be safe than sorry, so I ask.

is it permitted?

To be clear in case I'm leaving too much to assumptions, I'm asking if it's allowed to control simultaneously multiple characters at once by means of software.

For sure by means of hardware it can't possibly be not allowed, but I'd prefer not to have to use multiple machines for SK, given it's low running requirements :D

Thu, 11/24/2011 - 15:53

Chris

Doing so would give you an

I would like a GM to comment on this as well.

Just asked a GM to take a look at this thread and give us an official statement, hopefully we will see it soon :)

Thu, 11/24/2011 - 16:38

Paweu

From the patch notes from

From the patch notes from 2011-08-11
Misc
Gamepad controls will only work for the client in focus and not control multiple clients at once.

Thu, 11/24/2011 - 17:08

Avixi

Multiple accounts are legal

Multiple accounts are legal the last time i checked (post #16), but questions about multiboxing are either unanswered or i missed them.

Thu, 11/24/2011 - 23:47

Zinqf

Carrying 3 deaths...

This would make soloing shadow lairs not look financially dumb <3

Cause atm the only thing stopping me from doing solos is that it looks DUMB from a CE wasting standpoint.

Thu, 11/24/2011 - 23:54

Dirt

@Ciopo

You can refer to Paweu's post for probably the most relevant information public right now. I'm not sure that this is something that would be allowed, but I suppose we'll see.

Fri, 11/25/2011 - 02:45

Trias

"I also know that I can do

"I also know that I can do "group activity" with them without problems, I do "play one and carry 3 deaths" on lucrative levels from time to time and I know that's perfectly legal too."

Is it? It would be great if we could have a GM response on that as well.

Sat, 11/26/2011 - 17:43

Algol-Sixty

My guess is that OOO really

My guess is that OOO really wouldn't want people controlling multiple clients that way.

I know that the two games don't match up exactly, but the same GMs here are also on OOO's Puzzle Pirates, so it might give some insight into how OOO will react. Programs that "play the game for you" are a huge no-no, and I suspect that is how OOO would interpret a program that splits input and feeds it to multiple clients would be seen as.

On the other hand, there are people who play Puzzle Pirates via multiple clients, very similar to having several clients in the same party in Spiral Knights. Doing this multi-clienting has created many very long and vocal threads. On one side, there are people who claim that using multiple clients is unfair because those people get two (or more) times as much as most people and that these people *MUST* be performing worse than if they if they were working just one client and therefore are hurting the performance of the party. Now, as you might guess, Puzzle Pirates is puzzle oriented, rather than the twitch games that Spiral Knights is, and on the other side, there are people who can perform at the maximum level (Incredible) doing two or even three clients. These people argue that not only are they not hurting anyone, but they better than something like 95%-99% of all players and therefore people should want them to multi-client.

Ok, the key point out of the Puzzle Pirate threads is that in the many years they have been raging, I've never heard of a ringer weigh in on the issue, and they have never banned anyone for it. Despite many calls for it, no modifications to Puzzle Pirates have been made to prevent it.

So, I suspect that if you can use two keyboards/game controllers in a party and control two different SK clients, OOO probably won't object. But, if you can't do well independently controlling two clients, don't cry if you get kicked (or have other party members leave). And, if you need a program to "help you play", well, don't be surprised if you get banned.

Sat, 11/26/2011 - 17:58

Ciopo

Time to dust of the KVM

Time to dust of the KVM switch and do it the hardware way then, and no worries, I won't do it without any "random" in party, so no whine from anyone if I end up sucking :)

Thanks for the insight.

Gearing up will be a PITA T_T

Sat, 11/26/2011 - 18:03

Oceanprince

There's more then one way to

There's more then one way to multibox. Who says you have to join a party?

That being said, multiboxing is technically against the rules/ToS since you are getting around the game's restrictions for mist energy restrictions per client.

Sat, 11/26/2011 - 18:18

#10

Ciopo

so nice that misinformation

so nice that misinformation about multiaccounts keeps being spread.

First of all, I clearly stated that I have 3 paid account and one free, so no, I'm not getting around the game restriction for mist energy per client.

Second of all, even if they were all free account, which I state again, they're not,since what I'm going to do is plug 4 pc together to control them with one keyboard, one mouse, one screen, so, it still wouldn't be getting around the game restriction for mist energy, which is on a computer basis, not on a person basis :)

Sat, 11/26/2011 - 18:18

#11

Batabii

still seems like exploiting

still seems like exploiting to me

Sat, 11/26/2011 - 18:53

#12

Spamisalreadyinuse

what if i hire 3 kids 5 cents

what if i hire 3 kids 5 cents a day to play spiral knights with me on my 3 laptops? is that illegal?

Tue, 11/29/2011 - 23:54

#13

Endymion

Game Master

We have discussed this

We have discussed this internally and decided that we would consider the use of software to replicate keystrokes to multiple instances of Spiral Knights a violation of our Terms of Service.

In other words - sorry, no multiboxing through any technical means is allowed in Spiral Knights.

Wed, 11/30/2011 - 00:12

#14

Zinqf

Although

Multiboxing dead weights (only manipulating one active client at a time and having to switch) is not unreasonable correct? No outside technical means are used to alt-tab and simply use ingame controls to move a single player...even if you are running multiple SKs at once.

**Edit** Although I'm arguing "Ineffective Multibox" not "Effective Multibox" <3

Wed, 11/30/2011 - 04:24

#15

Watermelon-Soda

I hope Multiboxing dead weights is still okay, otherwise it would spell "THE END" for my Watermelon Brigade!

Wed, 11/30/2011 - 05:35

#16

Ufana

In other words - sorry, no

In other words - sorry, no multiboxing through any technical means is allowed in Spiral Knights.
Wait, does that mean that playing with multiple accounts manually is ok? Like if someone used wasd-space-shift for one client and hjku-altgr-enter for the second one? Sounds like fun...

Wed, 11/30/2011 - 06:39

#17

Algol-Sixty

As already linked to once in

As already linked to once in this thread, OOO has said that "multiple accounts are absolutely fine by us, provided they follow our terms of service and set account conditions."

I greatly appreciate ringers telling us where the grey areas of the ToS are and how they interpret it, but I don't think they should be expected to repeat what they say in every thread where it comes up.

I'm not a ringer, but everything I have said in this thread and the above linked to thread appears to be consistent with the way OOO has treated both Spiral Knights and Puzzle Pirates over many years of playing. My guess is that yes, playing two clients, one with the wasd keys and one with the hjku keys is fine. Go for the challenge! You are spending twice the energy for getting back twice the crowns and the same amount of mats, while facing harder monsters. Things that make the game more challenging, such as using proto-gear on T2 bosses, is something I suspect OOO likes to see. Things that make the game easier to play, such as input splitters, well, those kind of violate the spirit of the game (ToS 6.14).

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Effective multibox, what's the stance