[Suggestion] Server - Account Stress Relief

[Cr0wL0ck]

It should come as no surprise when i say a connected account consumes more resources than a random npc and it is also common knowledge on private servers that you benefit more from having your characters on different accounts allowing them to boost eachother, trade, bank, buff or simply multibox PvE content so a certain number of players have more than 1 account with them being online at the same time, the booster & traders only take 2-3 times the resource while a multiboxer takes up to 5 times as much.

I have an unorthodox solution suggestion for first of all reducing the benefit difference between single & multiple accounts and secondly reducing stress on the server even by a small fraction.


Solution:

Spoiler

Add a command slightly different from /logout which does not log out the character but instead dismisses pet and sets the character in a semi passive state where it will only respond to characters of the same account only. inviting the character will cause it to automatically accept, typing /followme will make it use /follow which if in range will follow you. For characters outside the account it will automatically decline all.

The character will stay logged in for 10 minutes unless you interract with it once every 10 minutes to refresh it. During the npc state it goes without saying that it will decline any and all loot rolls and only benefit from xp/rep and upon dying/ressurection it auto releases/accepts however it cannot accept battleground/arena popup's for obvious reasons.

Trade could get commands like /trade weapon, /trade offhand, /trade chest and such but everything would be placed in the "will not be traded" window. In short you would be able to enchant your own characters.

note: if the followed character disapears from range like walking into a portal or other reasons the following character will walk to the spot your character disapeared at + 3 yards extra making it follow through dungeon portals etc. after a loading screen the npc player would automatically repeat the last /followme in case you are still nearby when it arrives.

Why ?:

Spoiler

This would limit level/reputation boosters to one account as it would be more convinient with one account clicking a /followme emote macro once every 10 minutes or for those who wish to make certain the item goes to the correct destination trading it directly to the character needing it. This would make level boosters have only 1 connection and it would be possible to enchant or buff your own characters without having to own multiple accounts switching between screens although you still cannot multibox and its usage is limited as you cannot command it to mount or dismount so it remains in the state it logged out as.

note: this grants a benefit for players as they wont have to spread characters across multiple accounts and a benefit to the server as it should reduce the stress slightly even if only by 1%.

In short the idea is to make multiple accounts less tempting and thus relieve the server from a fraction of its stress caused by population even though the mechanic itself would take time and occupy some stress i doubt it would be as much as multiple connections.

 

[Kamchak]

Unless it is already implemented and hidden, this seems like plenty of work to me, not to mention that there could be errors in every piece of allowed action you suggest that will need testing before going live.

As for the idea itself: it seems to me that its primary objective is to easy up life of 'multiboxers' rather than to free system resources. I would rather suggest to forbid 'multiboxing' (or even having several accounts) completely. This is a social game. If you want something enchanted, find yourself an enchanter, you needn't create another character to do so. If you want to go into a dungeon with several characters, go there several times. Dungeons are meant for groups of people, not groups of characters of a same person.

 

[Cr0wL0ck]

well the term "multibox" is used when one controls multiple characters but if they are on the same account you no-longer have control of it especially not if it turns into a mindless npc only reponding to some commands from characters from the same account. At best you could put a paladin on follow for an aura but as you cant command it to mount up you would have to log out and on it to mount then log out and in on your other.

I wish you could forbid multiboxing but looking at it logically makes it impossible, you could try limit ip butplayers from same town/building might happen to have the same or suddenly another's ip due to how IPv4 works. you could try make software to record & limit amount of wow.exe running but people can run simulated pc's on the same and then still multibox.... multiboxing is impossible to filter out as a whole and can only be caught 1 at a time if they do it somewhere obvious but if they move each character seperately up until the dungeon how would you notice it ? i completely agree an mmo is meant for groups of people not single player but you cant prevent it sadly however you can limit its appeal by making single accounts less inferior in some fields. and true it would be a lot of work however the worst bugs that could come from it would be the inability to log on to that character or it never goes offline or it logs out and disapears like normal even with the command... or doesnt auto accept release/ressurection or it could react to players outside the account but well it only has follow/release & trade that only puts equipped soulbounds into the do not trade window... and it could fail to put its armor/weapon into the trade for enchant i guess thats the full list of possibilities here as it only has few actions and the trade only has the soulbound slots which by default cant be traded.

 

[Kamchak]

Thinking about the idea again, I think it's already against the rules.

Player Behavior:
...

C. On Kronos it is strictly forbidden to actively control multiple Characters at once using 3rd party software/3rd party mechanics (known as Multiboxing). It is also against the rules to participate in a Battleground with more than 1 character. Alt-tabbing with multiple clients to play (Questing, World PvP, etc…) is not against the rules, while battlegrounds are against the rules. Botting and/or unmanned automation of your character is strictly prohibited and will be banned on the spot.

 

[Erewain]

For me, it sounds like made-up issue. I don't think the issue of server having problems handling logged accounts/characters is even a thing on Kronos... or issue big enough to justify huge amount of development needed to make Your suggestion a reality.

 

[Kioshi]

There is absolutly no need for this. Seems more like idea to make multiboxing (which is not allowed) easier to players.

 

[Cr0wL0ck]

multibox = one players controlling multiple characters usually through software or hardware setup

My suggestion was allowing a character needing boost in xp/rep to turn into a mindless npc that cannot attack and only has few emote's to be controlled in short it would be impossible to control other's than the first and would be more identical to two players with the lazy pig addon installed while one goes afk following. Last i checked Lazypig isnt considered multiboxing but rather responds to commands like "/followme" if enabled. there are also mage addons to trade X water to those who trade or auto accept ressurection.

the idea would limit players connection count as it would only be 1 character with a following npc acting as if it had addons but completely unable to act in any other way.

note: i don't mind if its a bad idea as its just a random idea but at least don't misunderstand me "that" much... please read what i typed as it feels rather offensive when for example your suggestion is to reduce something and replies ask why you wish to increase it ? XD

or should i understand it as since new year npc's respond to emote's with their own emote as multiboxing ? emotes are chat related last i checked and many addons have reactions like trade/follow, emote or auto reply messages that can trigger from such.
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to prevent making another post i will reply to the below here.

kioshi by that logic we have a bot addon called lazypig, it auto-accepts chat commands, accepts invites from certain people, auto rolls on specific items. why is that addon allowed if you clasify it as multiboxing.

please read what i wrote rather than make an assumption and skip the reading... but i agree with the last post by kamchak this post should just close down as it leads nowhere if those responding do not at least read what they reply to...

 

[Kioshi]

1] Your suggestion would be probably even worse perfomace wise
2] You want command that will make your other character follow you and listening your commands, so basicly you want us to implement software solution for controling multiple characters as one player, which is exact definiton of multiboxing you stated above.

 

[Kamchak]

Maybe lock this topic already?