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Posted (edited)

This topic comes up often and I find myself always linking people to the same threads so I wanted to consolidate some links into one place and provide a bit of an overview for anyone interested in getting started.

 

The usual disclaimers:

  • Net-7 allows ATTENDED multiboxing; this thread is not about botting, AFK, or unattended play of any kind which are against the Terms of Service and the GMs WILL take action against people who violate this, also, seriously, just don't be a jerk
  • This thread is for tools and resources for people interested in getting started with multiboxing or improving your existing setup, not debating the ethic or moral implications, what effects it has on the game, whether it should be allowed or not, etc. so please stay on topic! :)
  • There is no single best or right way to do any of these things and everyone is going to have different needs and capabilities so I'm not trying to guide anyone down any particular path, only gather lots of options in one place with links back to the original threads.
  • There is no "easy button" here. All of these options require some amount of configuration at a minimum and the ability to code/script in order to really customize and make these things your own.

 

There are a couple large existing threads on the topic which is where most of this info comes from:

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/8349-running-multiple-clients-simultaneously-multiboxing/

  • original source of Net7MultiClientUnlocker (which is now mostly used for launching and positioning windows via a GUI)
  • tip on renaming the autoplay movies on startup for faster login (Data/client/mixfiles/EB_Sizzle.bik, recommend same for Data/client/mixfiles/eb_ws_logo.bik)
  • original source of my login.ahk described in more detail below (and based on the ones in the following thread)
  • technical details on the mutex in the original client which prevented multiple clients from being launched and net7proxy's workaround for it which renders unlockers unnecessary

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/12050-ahk-and-multiboxing/#comment-97865

  • original source of wolfie's loader+play scripts detailed below
  • original source of Doctor's login script
  • The login.ahk script I provide below is based on these

 

I'll summarize some of the available resources from these threads roughly chronologically and by author.

 

 

@Huron

Huron created the Net7MultiClientUnlocker tool which is still useful for launching and positioning client windows.

It is written in C# and the source is available here:

https://github.com/Rmkrs/Net7Unlocker

 

This was originally posted in the thread:

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/8349-running-multiple-clients-simultaneously-multiboxing/

 

Pros:

  • GUI, no scripting needed
  • Very configurable

Cons:

  • Doesn't automate login
  • No other multiboxing functionality, just client launching and positioning so you probably want this plus one of the below options
  • Third party binary, though source is available so you can inspect and compile yourself if desired

 

 

@wolfie

wolfie created a fairly elaborate set of AutoHotKey (AHK) scripts which was where I started out with multiboxing, they are available in the thread:

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/12050-ahk-and-multiboxing/#comment-97865

 

@Wyzzard also created a take on these with more instructions:

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/12259-ahk-multiboxing-setup-thanks-wolfie/#comment-99302

 

Pros:

  • Modular scripts for Loader (client launching and positioning) vs. Play
  • Lots of great examples of how AutoHotKey can be used for multiboxing (tons of features, see original thread for list, but highlights below)
    • Client launch/position (multi-monitor, dynamic resolution, adapts to number of alts)
    • All mouse clicks for alts return the mouse to the main window
    • Handles group leader target acquisition
    • Handles loot and close for alts on each pull to release the carcass
    • Mass accept/reject wormhole
    • Mass Action/Alt Action on selected target (ie dock is Action, Register is Alt Action)
    • Group Formation and alts join
    • Has full panel sell
    • Quick Buy of 12 of the current item

Cons:

  • Doesn't automate login
  • Loader window positioning complex and difficult to configure, better suited for multi-monitor, includes external dll call which seems unnecessary
  • Includes unlocker which is no longer necessary

Depends:

 

 

@Doctor

Doctor has shared several different AHK scripts which are fairly advanced, both here on the forums and on the wiki.

 

FN<=>NV Trade Runs, Trade Automation, Client Launch/Positioning and more:

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/12050-ahk-and-multiboxing/&do=findComment&comment=106155

 

Pros:

  • Fully automated client launch and login
  • Demonstrates some advanced AHK usage with PixelGetColor and ImageSearch
  • Lots of useful functionality:
    • Trade Run / Navigation automation
    • Buying/selling trade items
    • Inviting alts to a group
    • Moving items into the trade window (2 methods)
    • Vault Collapse (another version posted on wiki below)

Cons:

  • It only works at 1280x700 resolution and trade run picky about graphics settings (see thread)
  • Lots of unrelated stuff all combined together so takes some time to separate if you are only interested in one part
  • Includes unlocker which is no longer necessary

Depends:

 

Some other cool scripts he has posted:


Vault Collapse:

https://www.net-7.org/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Ores#Autohotkey_vault_collapse_script

 

Mining-focused Mass Automated Trading (for unloading mules), demonstrates advanced OCR using GDI+ standard lib:

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/13497-mining-ahk-goodies/#comment-106484

 

 

@Codemonkeyx

I've posted a couple relatively small, focused, and self-contained scripts to help people with specific requests here on the forums.

 

login.ahk

 

multifire.ahk

 

Pros:

  • Each script does one thing
  • Serve as good examples / starting points for larger scripts

Cons:

  • Not intended to be used together (e.g. different incompatible approaches to window naming)
  • Some minor configuration required

Depends:

 

Honorable Mentions

Others I'm aware of but for which there are no forum threads to link to (that I'm aware of) and whose work I don't want to publish without their permission:

 

  • @Teflon / @TeflonPrime uses and swears by a paid application called JitBit Macro Recorder which may be a better option for folks who don't know how to or don't want to write code/scripts. If you see this thread perhaps you could post some example JitBit macros, Tef?
  • @mozuzaeram / Aligrant also wrote some fairly advanced AHK scripts using some different techniques like skinned button overlays and even a color picker(!) for coordinating your fleet livery which none of the above scripts demonstrate; she might be willing to post some examples here?
Edited by Codemonkeyx
  • Like 1
  • Upvote 2
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
Posted

To everyone who has seen/tried the above, are there any you'd recommend more than others?  I'm looking to get back in, but want to get multiboxing sorted out before I do

Posted (edited)

I have indeed found JitBit to be workable for someone with no script knowledge/ability.  If youre script savvy - I'm sure the other options are more powerful.  

 

Now if I can just get comfortable my laptop gfx can support an ultrawide...!! 

 

(edit - Welcome Back!) 

Edited by Sioux
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

After several hours fighting with the @Codemonkeyx login.ahk scripts, I'm giving up.  Half the time it doesn't close the EULA acceptance window, it often has 'Cannot divide by 0' errors when I try to use something other than my primary monitor, and it's just not working as desired.  At some point I may just write my own simpler AHK file, but for now I think I'm just not destined to multibox again.

 

If anyone has a current solution that they actually have working, please let me know as I'd love to test it out!

Posted (edited)
8 hours ago, Razmeth said:

After several hours fighting with the @Codemonkeyx login.ahk scripts, I'm giving up.  Half the time it doesn't close the EULA acceptance window, it often has 'Cannot divide by 0' errors when I try to use something other than my primary monitor, and it's just not working as desired.  At some point I may just write my own simpler AHK file, but for now I think I'm just not destined to multibox again.

 

If anyone has a current solution that they actually have working, please let me know as I'd love to test it out!

 

Raz - I have zero scripting ability and I find JitBit great.  All I've used it for, thus far, is to load my 6 character configuration for farming.  It handles everything including account names and passwords.  It is indeed a paid service, but I'm pretty confident the free Mini Mouse would do the exact same thing.  

 

(edit - noticed I already replied to you once, apologies) 

Edited by Sioux
Posted

Sioux, thank you!  I did see that (and thank you for the welcome back!), and I will give it a try, I was just very frustrated last night.  I'll give JitBit a shot, but was just trying to avoid a paid service of any kind if possible.  I'll also try writing my own scripts like I've done to multibox games like Perpetuum which has a similar sort of setup.

Posted

For anyone who is interested, I got an AHK script up an running, it starts up all 6x clients, the first in 1920x1080, the rest in 640*480, tiles the 5x smaller ones on a single screen, logs in all clients, including selecting the top character in the list and entering the game.  If anyone is interested in a version of the script, let me know and I can sanitize and upload it.

 

Future options I'll be adding tonight/tomorrow include accepting a party request, selecting the leader's target and firing all weapons, joining a formation, etc.  Any other suggested features would also be appreciated, but to be clear these features would only be for hotkeys that simplify play, nothing automated to allow it to play without you.

 

Also, issues I've run into include that apparently you cannot click (even with the mouse, not just in the script) on any part of a window that has a negative coordinate.  I've got 3x monitors, with two stacked on top of each other on the right, and a third centered to the left, with the left one as Primary.  This means the coordinates for the top right screen staart at (1920, -540) or so, and therefore if the client on that screen is 1920x1080, I cannot click on the top half of the client (X coordinate = -540 to 0), but I can click on anything in the bottom half of the client (X coordinate = 0 to 540).  This seems unrelated to AHK and I don't have that issue with any other application, so I think it's an issue with EnB, but if I find otherwise, or a workaround, I'll post it here as well.

  • 1 month later...
Posted
On 11/21/2024 at 8:38 PM, Razmeth said:

For anyone who is interested, I got an AHK script up an running, it starts up all 6x clients, the first in 1920x1080, the rest in 640*480, tiles the 5x smaller ones on a single screen, logs in all clients, including selecting the top character in the list and entering the game.  If anyone is interested in a version of the script, let me know and I can sanitize and upload it.

 

Future options I'll be adding tonight/tomorrow include accepting a party request, selecting the leader's target and firing all weapons, joining a formation, etc.  Any other suggested features would also be appreciated, but to be clear these features would only be for hotkeys that simplify play, nothing automated to allow it to play without you.

 

Also, issues I've run into include that apparently you cannot click (even with the mouse, not just in the script) on any part of a window that has a negative coordinate.  I've got 3x monitors, with two stacked on top of each other on the right, and a third centered to the left, with the left one as Primary.  This means the coordinates for the top right screen staart at (1920, -540) or so, and therefore if the client on that screen is 1920x1080, I cannot click on the top half of the client (X coordinate = -540 to 0), but I can click on anything in the bottom half of the client (X coordinate = 0 to 540).  This seems unrelated to AHK and I don't have that issue with any other application, so I think it's an issue with EnB, but if I find otherwise, or a workaround, I'll post it here as well.

 

Hey is this something you are still working on? I'm getting into this myself and would love to see a better basis (Was running into the same issues as you with the multi login)

Posted
39 minutes ago, Zerodragoon said:

 

Hey is this something you are still working on? I'm getting into this myself and would love to see a better basis (Was running into the same issues as you with the multi login)

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/12050-ahk-and-multiboxing/&do=findComment&comment=106155

My FN->NV trade script actually has login code. It isn't scaled for 1920x1080 windows, but all you'd need to do is update coordinates, like:

 

PixelGetColor, bcolor, 268,193, RGB

 

and all of the places where it has 'msgbox, FIXME - ...' messages (which mostly is putting in account names and passwords, or paths to your install). Ok...actually, looking at it, there's a LOT of coordinates that would need updating. To understand though, are you on a 4k monitor where you actually wanted 3 1920x1080 game windows on each of two monitors, or are you on a 1080p monitor and want 3 (smaller) game windows per monitor? If you want the latter, that's what the script is currently setup to do.

 

ctrl+shift+m is the hotkey for starting the login process. It launches 5 clients, but you could easily make that 6. It also assumes the loginclient#: targets are setup for which accounts you want to be auto logged in.

 

I understand if this is too much tinkering for you. My stuff tends to be...well, if you use my stuff, you tend to teach yourself a lot about what is going on and why. :) Which is how I got where I am. :)

  • Like 1
Posted
42 minutes ago, Doctor said:

https://forum.enb-emulator.com/index.php?/topic/12050-ahk-and-multiboxing/&do=findComment&comment=106155

My FN->NV trade script actually has login code. It isn't scaled for 1920x1080 windows, but all you'd need to do is update coordinates, like:

 

PixelGetColor, bcolor, 268,193, RGB

 

and all of the places where it has 'msgbox, FIXME - ...' messages (which mostly is putting in account names and passwords, or paths to your install). Ok...actually, looking at it, there's a LOT of coordinates that would need updating. To understand though, are you on a 4k monitor where you actually wanted 3 1920x1080 game windows on each of two monitors, or are you on a 1080p monitor and want 3 (smaller) game windows per monitor? If you want the latter, that's what the script is currently setup to do.

 

ctrl+shift+m is the hotkey for starting the login process. It launches 5 clients, but you could easily make that 6. It also assumes the loginclient#: targets are setup for which accounts you want to be auto logged in.

 

I understand if this is too much tinkering for you. My stuff tends to be...well, if you use my stuff, you tend to teach yourself a lot about what is going on and why. :) Which is how I got where I am. :)

 

Thanks, 

 

I may take a look at it in a bit, I did end up getting Codemonkey's script working, primarily it needed a lot of sleeps. It was mostly trying to do things too fast and even on a modern computer (or mine at least) it really just need to chill out and let things happen before trying to advance to the next action. Once I've used it for a bit and am confident in the updates I can submit the updates as a pull request if he is interested. It probably can also be expanded beyond just sleeps to more checking of window existence etc.

Posted

Thanks @Zerodragoon, I'm running in a very different environment on a very high end machine and fiber internet so I'm not surprised things needed some tweaking. I'd definitely accept a PR. That script is primarily based on @Doctor's but updated to AHK2 and made generic so it should work at any resolution, so credit where credit is due!

Posted (edited)

Hey @Codemonkeyx - I just wanted to say thanks for doing this post.

 

I played back in live. I'm now 43. 😃

 

Every year or two I come back for some sweet nostalgia, usually starting over.

 

On this return I want to actually get a bit further. I've never really explored multi boxing but recently I started doing it just for Trade XP and to share manufactured items (I'm a bit of a loner).

 

Then I figured why not do a bit of combat or mining in a formation? I'm doing it raw at the moment and it's a tad painful.

 

So this will help me a lot so I don't have to dig through old threads and try to find out what is out of date or still applicable.

 

My gratitude to everybody who has shared their skills, scripts and knowledge too. See you on the other side!

 

 

Edited by clavius
Posted (edited)

P.S. I'm sure I'll find a solution when I start tinkering but my main issue seems to be if I'm logged into two accounts everything is fine until I gate or dock. One account will crash. I'm very careful to keep the window focused until one is docked/gated and then initiate the other (I notice if I alt tab whilst docking/gating when on a single account I always crash) but it still happens.

 

Is it because I'm so insistent on full screen? 😂

Edited by clavius
  • Upvote 1
Posted (edited)

Full Screen shouldn't have anything to do with it, make sure all of these are checked on the launcher:

 

Launcher_Checkboxes.png

 

I went ahead and posted this on the wiki too (along with some other troubleshooting tips and tricks):

 

https://net7wiki.bmsite.net/index.php?title=Troubleshooting#Frequent_Disconnects_While_Gating_or_Docking

Edited by Codemonkeyx
add wiki link
Posted (edited)
On 1/11/2025 at 7:25 PM, Codemonkeyx said:

Full Screen shouldn't have anything to do with it, make sure all of these are checked on the launcher:

 

Launcher_Checkboxes.png

 

I went ahead and posted this on the wiki too (along with some other troubleshooting tips and tricks):

 

https://net7wiki.bmsite.net/index.php?title=Troubleshooting#Frequent_Disconnects_While_Gating_or_Docking


Thanks @Codemonkeyx. The only one I didn't have checked was Protoype Reorder and just that has made a huge difference. Much less crashing on gate/dock now! What does it do?

Edited by clavius
Posted

I don't have any technical details or history but I assume it's related to packet ordering between the net7proxy and the server and experience has shown that with modern network stacks it definitely needs to be enabled.

  • Like 1
Posted
On 1/5/2025 at 8:20 PM, Codemonkeyx said:

Thanks @Zerodragoon, I'm running in a very different environment on a very high end machine and fiber internet so I'm not surprised things needed some tweaking. I'd definitely accept a PR. That script is primarily based on @Doctor's but updated to AHK2 and made generic so it should work at any resolution, so credit where credit is due!

 

So I played for a week or two here and I tweaked your login script here with some sleeps for timing (I have a very good machine but it just wasn't opening certain screens etc fast enough and just need a bit of delay to get things to line up properly).  

 

I've attached it below mostly restored to defaults. I added a few additional features such as auto selecting a character to login as well as booting/logging in/positioning a single character (very useful crashes for crashed) that is context sensitive to if the window already exists or not. I have also changed the window naming to match Wyzzards script so that they can be used in combo together. I will also attach that script which includes some additions such us buy and sell and invite alts from Doctor's scripts.

 

Long term I don't think I'll be sticking around (unfortunately there just isn't enough MMO to the MMO with its current population, nobodies fault as well as the general age of the game and mechanics) but was great to come back in and muck around for a few weeks and scratch that itch.

 

Hopefully some of these tweaks will be useful to someone in the future.

EnBPlay.ahk enb_login.ahk

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