So lately it appears, that many servers are putting no-dualbox policy as a main feature (Even putting a lot effort in developing anti-dualbox captchas). I am wondering if that is really a good thing now? Like as much as I love this game, one has to admit that some classes are really unplayable (Like SE, SWS, BD are so boring IMHO). OTH if dualbox allowed w/o limitation then many ppl simply won't take a support, but make one, so allowing 5-6 boxes might have a bad impact on the community. So I'm kind of curious about fellow players thoughts about this topic

Unrestricted dualboxing may lead to decreased player interactions, as individuals might prioritize multiboxing over actively engaging with others. I think they are trying to strike a balance between player freedom and the need for a healthy and interactive community. Personally, I'm not bothered.

I'm a big fan of that tbh, this is how the game was always meant to be played. I was a bit worried how it would work on servers with lower population, but it commonly evens out anyway because of supply and demand

single box is much better honestly. you see in servers like elmorelab 1x people interact with each other much more and search parties, while on their dualbox server you have people just farming in duos (so just one person)...

imo instead of dualbox servers should offer an NPC buffer with just basic buffs since they just want to allow solo PvE...

It's really not the latest trend at all. Pretty much all the relevant private servers back in the day were blocking dual boxing. Blocking dual boxing just changes the whole dynamic where people actually want to group up, which is a good thing for a "massively multiplayer" game. That's basically the way it supposed to be.

Let's be real here, all classes in L2 are absolute snoozefest to play. No one is playing the game because of the exciting combat or gameplay it has. The game is good because of the group dynamics, which are heavily undermined by allowing people to dual box.



I don't remember which server had the feature, where buffers could set up an automatic buff shop in towns. This is such a great solution for it, not sure why more servers don't try to adapt it.

I understand the points, though on most servers I see ppl still playing alone, just running back to MDT to buy some buffs, which is indeed an interaction between players, though not a quality one I think both has its pros and cons, but I do see from the answers it's a popular thing.

And what do you think about enforcing this rule? I saw different captchas to overcome 2nd PCs/Virtual boxes with VPN, and ppl being afk buffing every 20 minutes, then getting exp. Is this necessary or setting a 1 box limit/IP should already have the impact needed?

You do see people still playing alone, but they are gimping their progressions so hard that eventually they will have to group. Which is exactly the point, you are able to progress solo, but it's not very efficient.



This is the tricky part, I think what Reborn has with the whole captchas and can't AFK in parties is just absolutely bullshit, that's way overboard with it. I like the ElmoreLab approach better, which is just your basic IP/HWID checks, and then it's just GMs doing manual checks and banning people.

Haven't played ElmoreLab, does this system actually work though? Haven't people found and extensively use some work around? I've had experience in past that servers had the zero dualbox policy basically just on paper, but too many people just used other laptop/some virtual machine (?) to box their buffers, and realistically GMs never did anything/enough to stop this.

There is always a workaround, no system is perfect. It's not that hard to detect with active GMs, though, and that's why people getting banned on ElmoreLab left and right for it.

TLDR: no dualbox policy is the best that can happen to the game at this stage
l2 was designed as subscription based so if anyone would be willing to shell out money for 2-3-4-5 subscriptions, thats alright - go and pay money, let the developers get paid, expect new iterations of the game and new content to consume. no money - no game.

when we are speaking of private freeshards then definitely the best way to go is no dualbox, no point in a low rate server otherwise.
the game content was designed for classes to group up and be able to aoe to progress faster
any grind MMO is beaten by forming aoe party so *this is de way*

on the point that many classes feel "boring to play" i see where you are coming from but l2 is a classic mmorpg game where the RPG element is based on very strong holy trinity (supp,dd,tank)
so to progress adequately through the game players need to undertstand the RPG part (trinity) and the MMO part (parties, clans, etc). with this in mind any class can be fun to play if put in the correct premise. if you are a recharge bot for a mage you will indeed find the game monotonous. if you are part of an aoe party there will be alot of clutch situations for you to shine as ee/se/wc/whatever supp. same if you are part of a cp/clan that hunts rbs. you will definitely get ganged and will have to show your skills.

on the point of captchas - i find them annoying and frequently it has happened that they trigger in a terrible moment, covering parts of the screen that i was just about to click
they are very easy to overcome for anyone with about 2-3 months of experience with python or any programming language.

all measures as said above can be side stepped and it is not about absolute cure but creating obstacles to reduce the number of people dualboxing/botting whatever

remember not everyone has a 2nd laptop, not everyone has enough ram to run virtual machines, not everyone takes the game so competitively to cheat but rather enjoy the journey. finally you will find out that most fun you will have with the role-play gamers who have nothing to prove by winning pixels.

having active GMs is the right way to go, however their common sense/understanding of the game etc might vary greatly and cause frustration in players

the buff sell stores are a nice idea and back in c2-c3 we would just put a shop with some arrows or stems and sell buffs that way, so its better if you just add UI to buy single buffs (Etina had this feature). the game and its economy have a natural way of balancing out.
when you have buffers that sell buffs at affordable prices there is no need at low level of support classes (except when raid rolling for exp boosting, but u gotta have adena and gear or u will go broke and waste your time).
as the game progresses buffers raise their prices and that service becomes too expensive for low level players (not speaking of alts or so called twinks) so they have incentive to group up with buffers or just take the L and solo like nabs wondering why the leveling goes so slow.

the selling buffs part can be easily automated and botted as well using screen capture, image to text and a few macros even if there is captcha involved


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