How to run D3 in a virtual machine?

[SkyCrown]

Blue poster Belfaire explains Blizzard's stance on multiboxing

Multiboxing, the process of one person playing multiple characters on multiple accounts at one time, usually by the use of multiple computers (thus the term) and macros that can be activated on all accounts by the push of a single button, has most recently seen coverage here on WoW with our 2-man Karazhan report. The act of multiboxing is one that has been the subject of some debates, mostly centered around whether or not it violates the EULA. Those in favor of multiboxing can breathe easier today, as Blizzard poster Belfaire has stated in no uncertain terms that Blizzard has no problem with the practice in a post on the customer service forums.

In short, he says that the advantages of multiboxing are no different than the advantages offered by normal grouping. Since multiboxers can be damaged, feared and CC'd as easily as separate people playing separate accounts, and since they can't do anything the same amount of characters couldn't do when played by different people, there is no reason to consider it an unfair advantage in PvP or PvE. He also answers quite a few specific questions posed by thread starter and multiboxer Velath that clarify why Blizzard accepts Multiboxing and does not consider it an exploit or an unfair advantage.

For example, he clarifies that using one keyboard to trigger macros on multiple accounts is not exploiting, but using that same keyboard to make a Fireball spell go off whenever it is availible is. Switching between windows or boxes to issue commands? Not exploitation. Using a bot program to make those windows run automatically? Exploit. In short, just like with people running one account, automation of a character via a third party program is Illegal. Setting up shortcuts to use macros or using gaming mice or keyboards (such as those in Adam Holisky's recent series of articles)is legal, and something that has always been fine with Blizzard no matter how many accounts the person in question is playing.

I certainly applaud this stance by Blizzard, even if I don't quite see myself doing the whole multiple rig setup. Admittedly, I am somewhat biased, as back in my Everquest days, I was about the only member of my small guild that didn't multibox, and was always greatly appreciative when someone when bring out their tank and healer multibox team so we didn't have to worry about who was going to fill those roles. Either way, it looks like Multiboxing is here to stay. So the next time you curse that 5-box Elemental Shaman arena team that just Chain Lightning'd you into next week, just remember that you can't call them illegal. However, you can still thank your lucky stars that they weren't Restoration Druids.

 

[devestator]

You will use more resources btw. D3 at best uses 8% of my CPU per window while VM ware will use a consistent 20%.

With D3 running in the VM it is currently using 6% of my cpu =P

I wasn't kidding when I said my computer laughed at virtual machines lol, the 6 core extreme processor is a nasty chip on it's own, with it oc'd at 5.2 ghz I haven't found anything (short of intentionally doing it with something like SETI) that can slow it down.

And SkyCrown, the purpose of this is not to avoid multi box detection, it's so that if the botting account gets banned it's in no way connected to my main account.

 

[SkyCrown]

With D3 running in the VM it is currently using 6% of my cpu =P

I wasn't kidding when I said my computer laughed at virtual machines lol, the 6 core extreme processor is a nasty chip on it's own, with it oc'd at 5.2 ghz I haven't found anything (short of intentionally doing it with something like SETI) that can slow it down.

And SkyCrown, the purpose of this is not to avoid multi box detection, it's so that if the botting account gets banned it's in no way connected to my main account.

Understood. So you never trade items or gold between your characters?

The first time you do, your flagged, or add another as a friend, alt character to boost etc

 

[devestator]

Understood. So you never trade items or gold between your characters?

The first time you do, your flagged, or add another as a friend, alt character to boost etc

I don't really plan on doing any transfers with the account, but even if I did that does not really create a link between the accounts. They would have no way of knowing that I'm the one on both accounts and not simply giving a friend some stuff. The same as I have given to plenty of my other friends in game. It would be a really far stretch for them to ban all the friends of an account holder caught cheating lol.

However if they see two accounts running on the same IP address / computer id, and ban one for cheating, it's not so much of a stretch to ban the other as well. And they do detect computer ids, possibly mac addresses or a combination of the computer name and mac address and such, load up another pc and run it from your home and log in and you'll get a warning message that you are logging in from an unrecognized location.

 

[SkyCrown]

Agreed. Although the methods used now are different due to all the hacked accounts that have been used to transfer items, so less focus is placed on IP's and more so on character performing transfers. No or few hacked accounts that were doing transfers had the same IP's. Just new methodology they have had to implement based on transfers, so yes they have flagging in place, low medium and high flagging based on item transfers.

 

[SkyCrown]

The real question is what a ban is for. As the Blue post above highlights, mice and keyboards are perfectly fine even with macro's. Then they get into grey areas that can not be proven, unless warden makes its way around or through DB. At which point it really doesn't matter if you have seperate IP's or the same.

 

[devestator]

... unless warden makes its way around or through DB. At which point it really doesn't matter if you have seperate IP's or the same.

I don't understand your logic there. If I'm only running demonbuddy on the one account in a vm instance, and they started detecting demonbuddy, separate IPs will still matter. Instead of detecting demonbuddy on the same ip / machine as my main account, they will detect it on another ip / machine not associated with my main account in any way. I'm not planning on running demonbuddy on both instances, that would completely defeat the purpose of running one instance in a virtual machine.

And the primary reason I'm using a virtual machine instead of an entirely separate computer is because I don't want the additional heat from another computer raising the temperature in my house lol.

 

[SkyCrown]

Follow you now, makes perfect sense.