ISBoxer:World of Warcraft

Playing non-main characters

There is basically 4 ways of handling the ability to play any character as the main character (for targeting and following).

Manual vs Automatic assist

The first determination you should make is whether you want to manually press an assist key, or have WoW macros that automatically assist for you. The difference is in the number of WoW macros needed -- one assist macro total, or one assist macro per ability (that also casts the ability).

Focus Target or "FTL" Modifiers

Next, determine whether you want to use the Focus Target to determine who to follow and assist or not. If you do not use the Focus Target feature in World of Warcraft while multi-boxing, using the Focus Target is much less complicated. The difference otherwise is the complexity of the WoW macros needed -- using Focus Target simplifies the macros, while using modifier combinations (e.g. shift+alt, ctrl+alt, etc) vastly complicates the macros. Another worthwhile point is that with Focus Target, your each character's name appears in exactly one macro per character, while with modifier combinations, each character's name appears in one macro per ability per character -- in other words, if you want to swap another character in place of another (say, changing out one class for another such as a tank), modifier combinations make this increasingly difficult while it would take only a moment to change a Focus macro. And finally, using modifier combinations may actually require un-binding many WoW keys, as a key bound to, for example, CTRL+1 being a key bind in WoW will prevent CTRL from being used in modifier conditional macros for the 1 key.

So here are the 4 possible combinations:

1. Manual Assist, Focus Target assist: Easy setup, few simple WoW macros
2. Manual Assist, modifier-based assist: Easy setup, few complex WoW macros
3. Auto Assist, Focus Target assist: Complex setup, many simple WoW macros
4. Auto Assist, modifier-based assist: Complex setup, many complex WoW macros

Configuration for all 4 combinations will be detailed in the following sections (currently under construction).

Old info while the rest is under construction

World of Warcraft: Using Hot Character switch notifier

The Hot Character switch notifier feature of ISBoxer can be used to notify all Characters of the current Hot Character. In World of Warcraft, this is typically used to set the Focus Target (there may be equivalents in other games that can be used in a similar fashion). If you are not familiar with Focus Target in World of Warcraft, it is basically an additional unit portrait frame that can be used to help cast spells on, follow, or assist a specific player. If you do not intend to use Focus Target for another reason while multi-boxing, and do not mind manually pressing an Assist key to make your followers assist, this is the simplest and easiest method to be able to switch to using any of your Characters as the main while playing.

An alternative method is configuring a bunch of World of Warcraft macros to determine which modifier keys are held down, and automatically assist a different player accordingly (see Using FTL Modifiers, below) -- this would remove the need to press an Assist key, but requires a lot of extra work, a lot of extra keys, and is quite confusing to the typical player. Using the Focus Target method requires very little additional World of Warcraft configuration, and does not require replacing your Action Bar buttons with macros, creating a separate macro for each action, or un-binding any World of Warcraft key bindings.

Step 1: Create World of Warcraft macros

This method requires the following macros on every Character:

1. /follow focus
2. /assist focus
3. /focus <name> -- for each Character

So, for example, if you have 3 Characters named Alice, Bob and Charles, the following macros would be required on each Character, identically for all Characters:

1. /follow focus
2. /assist focus
3. /focus Alice
4. /focus Bob
5. /focus Charles

Note: For advanced users, all of the /focus macros could be combined into one macro. This tutorial is not intended for advanced users, who probably already know how to set up their Focus Target-based macros.

The easiest way to create all of the macros is to log all of the Characters into the game, then use Mouse and Key Repeat (with no white or black list) to create identical macros on each character. The process goes something like this:

1. Log all Characters into the game
2. Turn on Mouse and Key Repeat
3. Click the menu button at the bottom of the screen to get the menu that has buttons for video options, key bindings, interface options, macros, and so on. The menu should open on all Characters (assuming each Character is at the same video resolution in-game)
4. Click on Macros in the menu to open up the Macro editor
5. Click on the Character Specific macros tab at the top, in order to create macros for these specific Characters, instead of making them apply to all Characters on your account
6. Click the New button at the bottom to create a new Macro
7. Click in the "Enter Macro Name" box in the window that opens, and type a name for the macro. For example, you could name the "/assist focus" button "Assist", the "/follow focus" button "Follow" and "/focus Alice" might be named "Alice"
8. Select an icon from the list. It doesn't really matter which icon you select. I never show the action bar that has these macros on them anyway, and ideally you shouldn't either (unless you want to, it's up to you)
9. After entering a name and selecting an icon, click the Okay button
10. Now you must type in the "Enter Macro Commands" box. If creating the Follow macro, type "/follow focus", and so on. The exact commands for each are listed above in various places.
11. After entering the command, you are done with this macro and may continue creating the next macro. Repeat until each macro is created.

Once your macros are created, you will need to assign them to an Action Bar in order to create key bindings for them in the game. Here is an example process for doing so, but you can place them on any action bar and assign any key combinations (note that you do not actually have to press the keys you are setting here, so they can be as obscure or complicated as you like):

1. In the Interface options menu under Action Bars, show Right Action Bar 2
2. In the Key Bindings options, assign Key Combinations F6 through F12 to the first 7 Right Action Bar 2 actions (if you have fewer than 5 Characters, you may not need all of them, but this will show how to do up to a full group of 5 Characters with the 2 macros for Assist and Follow)
3. In the Macros window, drag the Follow macro to the top slot in Right Action Bar 2, the one that should be labelled F6
4. Drag the Assist macro to the next slot in Right Action Bar 2, the one that should be labelled F7
5. Drag each Character Focus macro to the next open slots in Right Action Bar 2, which should be labelled F8, F9, and so on, in the order that is configured or will be configured in your ISBoxer Character Set Slots -- so that the F8 button corresponds to the Character in Slot 1 (window 1), the F9 button corresponds to the Character in Slot 2 (window 2), and so on
6. In the Interface options menu under Action Bars, you can now hide Right Action Bar 2 again so that these macros are out of sight and out of mind!

Step 2: Configure ISBoxer to use our macros

First, set up the Hot character switch notifier in your Character Set, for each Slot:

1. Check the Broadcast keystroke button
2. Click the < button in the box next to it to pick a keystroke -- make this correspond to the Character Focus macro you made in World of Warcraft for the Character. In the example given above, this means F8 for Slot 1, F9 for Slot 2, F10 for Slot 3, and so on.
3. Select between "When above hotkey is pressed" and "Any time I switch to this character". It's up to you. With the hotkey option, the key will only be broadcast (and therefore the Focus Target only changed) when using that hotkey to switch windows, as opposed to also when you alt+tab, click, or any other method to switch windows. I use the "Any time" option, which broadcasts the keystroke any time I switch windows, regardless of the method used.

Next, set up Mapped Keys for Assist and Follow:

1. If you do not have a Key Map that applies to your whole Character Set, make one now by creating a new Key Map, and dragging your Character Set into it
2. Create a New Mapped Key for Follow
   1. In the Hotkey box, pick the key combination you actually want to press to make your other characters follow you. As I have a G15 Keyboard, mine is the G16 key, an easily accessible key. It is recommended that you do not make Mapped Keys that you would normally use for typing in a chat window, so it would be a bad idea, for example, to make it F. However, Alt+F or Shift+Alt+F would be appropriate.
   2. Create 1 Step for the Mapped Key
   3. In Step 1, add one Keystroke action. In the Target box, select "Window:All w/o Current". For Key combination, put the key combination assigned to the "/follow focus" macro in the game
3. Repeat the above for Assist, using a different Hotkey to assist, and using the key combination for the "/assist focus" macro in game

You're done! Save it!

World of Warcraft: Using FTL Modifiers

Note: FTL Modifiers are NOT configured by ISBoxer to broadcast with Repeater. You will want to use Key Maps.

FTL Modifiers can be used to designate the currently active Character (also known as the Hot Character, aka the window you are clicking or pressing keys in). This allows macros to be created inside World of Warcraft that determine which modifier keys (CTRL,ALT,SHIFT) are pressed, and assist or follow that Character accordingly.

A good, and less complex, alternative to using FTL Modifiers is the use of Focus Target (a feature of World of Warcraft). If you do not need Focus Target for another purpose, and do not mind hitting an Assist key, using Focus Target is the easiest solution. Detailed instructions on setting up this alternative will soon be available here.

Step 1: Select modifiers to designate a Character

First, select a combination of modifier keys to be used for each Character.

"Standard" FTL modifiers for up to 5 Characters are as follows:

1. CTRL+SHIFT
2. CTRL+ALT
3. ALT+SHIFT
4. CTRL+ALT+SHIFT
5. CTRL

... but any combination that suits your fancy is fine to use.

In your Character Set configuration for each Slot, check the boxes for your desired FTL Modifiers for that Slot. In the above example sequence, that means that Slot 1 would have Left Ctrl and Left Shift, Slot 2 would have Left Ctrl and Left Alt, and so on. World of Warcraft and Inner Space do support the use of the right-hand modifier keys should you want (or need, e.g. having more slots than key combinations the 3 left-hand modifiers will allow).

Step 2: Create World of Warcraft macros

This is the hard part. Instructions to follow soon.

Step 3: Create Mapped Keys

1. FTL Modifiers must be enabled for any Mapped Key you want to use with FTL. This can be done either by checking "Use FTL Modifiers" for an entire Key Map (which will apply to all Mapped Keys that don't specify otherwise), or for individual Mapped Keys (which by default will follow the rules of the Key Map they are in).
2. Each Keystroke Action added to any Step in a Mapped Key will then automatically apply the FTL Modifiers assigned to the Slot they are sent from. If you are playing the 1st Character, the modifiers from Slot 1 will be applied. If playing the 2nd Character, the modifiers from Slot 2 will be applied, and so on.
3. If the Character you are playing is to receive a Keystroke, you will need to specify its Keystroke separately (it can be the same key) with Current Window, in order for it to NOT receive the FTL Modifiers. Otherwise, for example if "2" is sent to "All w/ current", the current window will also receive the FTL Modifiers for its own Slot. If "2" is sent to "Current Window" it will NOT receive FTL modifiers, even though "2" may be sent to "All w/o current" to have all of the other windows receive 2 with the FTL Modifiers.

Example

• Slot 1 FTL modifiers: CTRL+SHIFT
• Slot 2 FTL modifiers: ALT+SHIFT
• Mapped Key: Hotkey is "2". Step 1 sends "2" to Current Window, and "2" to All w/o current.
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 1: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "CTRL+SHIFT+2"
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 2: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "ALT+SHIFT+2"

Some people like to put their FTL macros on a separate key instead of the key pressed in the main window

• Slot 1 FTL modifiers: CTRL+SHIFT
• Slot 2 FTL modifiers: ALT+SHIFT
• Mapped Key: Hotkey is "2". Step 1 sends "2" to Current Window, and "]" to All w/o current.
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 1: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "CTRL+SHIFT+]"
• What happens when playing Character in Slot 2: You press "2", Current Window receives "2", and all other windows receive "ALT+SHIFT+]"

See Also

• ISBoxer