Control scheme difficulties aside, yes it should absolutely be possible as long as Inner Space is compatible with the game itself.
There are a few examples of games "we" (people within the ISBoxer community) have multiboxed that use a similar control scheme. Perpetuum being one example that a handful of people used ISBoxer with back in the day.
I'm a developer representing a 3rd person MOBA called Schmaragon(available on Steam), which shares the same control scheme.
What would be the easiest way to achieve multiboxing capability if that control scheme is taken into account?
What do we need to implement?
I appreciate this question, I would be happy to work with you on answers
Generally speaking, the difficulty multiboxing in a free-look 3D environment is moving your characters around together. It's easy to fire off hotkeys in different windows, but pointing characters in the same direction in order to be able to move straight forward together "in formation" (without getting further spread apart over time) is difficult, if not impossible depending on game design. Even in an MMORPG, auto-follow is usually the preferred mechanic to always remain moving in the same direction. There are a number of MMORPGs without auto-follow, which are usually multiboxed on a smaller scale and the addiitonal characters often serve a more passive purpose -- left to sit somewhere as a "buff bot" or to soak up XP while the user primarily focuses on one main character.
So with that said, here's a handful of things that come to mind:
- obviously, auto-follow on a teammate is highly desirable in terms of multiboxing. but, not right for all games either.
- alternatively the automatic forward movement part of auto-follow can be left out entirely and still be incredibly useful. for example either a) a button to point your character directly at your teammate, or b) a way to point in exactly the same direction as your teammate is pointing would also suffice. multiboxers like to re-sync often, but this sort of thing can also come at a cost, and naturally from any kind of "reset" or "teleport" condition, e.g. entering a portal of any kind, teleporting back to home base, respawning...
- a way to "lock in" your current heading, e.g. hold a button to maintain heading while free to aim up/down and strafe left/right.
- Gamepad/Controller support can be extremely helpful. Some ARPG multiboxers (e.g. Diablo series) prefer using a gamepad, though in those games the world itself stays oriented to where movement with the gamepad joystick always moves the characters in exactly the same direction.
- For mouse control, a button to toggle between mouselook with the targeting reticle and having a cursor is always helpful. (Well, except those times as a multiboxer where you toggled it in one window and then switch to another window and try to broadcast, now that one other window has a cursor floating around and the others are using mouselook
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A couple of these things are technically possible on my end as well. For example I could implement a way to temporarily lock out X (and/or Y) axis inputs, which would help maintain heading and probably be useful in other cases as well.
Tue Feb 20, 2024 6:06 am 