About M.A.M.A. Multiboxing

MAMA is now Mama-forever: Multiboxing helper for WoW Forever (the new beta client, interface 16xxx). One standalone addon, no libraries andno other addon needed. It is the successor of MAMA + DynamicBoxer + MoLib, rewritten for Forever only.

It lets all your windows of the same team:

• find each other and form a group automatically (one-time setup: on one PC, just type a slot number per window),
• follow and assist whoever is the lead, with one key or one macro,
• follow in a train ordered by team slot, with one key,
• share, accept and abandon quests together,
• sell the same junk at every vendor (a team wide sell list, greys optional),
• with master loot, give each item to the team member who uses it (quest items to whoever still needs them),
• be managed from a small team status window (invite, disband, party/raid, target, ...),
• mark a member away for a while (Alt+Left click its status window row, or /mama away): no invites, followalerts or quest/dialog sync, still trades and forwards whispers.

Names in Forever are First Last (with a space) and there is no realm part: Mama-forever treats them as opaque names.

Install

Install it with an addon manager: the CurseForge app,WowUp or Wago. Or download the zip from theGitHub releases and extract it inWorld of Warcraft\_forever_\Interface\AddOns\ (_classic_beta_ for the beta; it contains the Mama folder).

One-time setup

Each character needs two things, once:

• a slot number: its place in the team. Slot 1 is the master window (it invites the others); 2, 3... set thefollow train order.
• the team token: a shared secret made by slot 1, so your windows trust each other's messages (and nobody else's).

There are two ways to set them up.

A. Recommended when all your accounts play on this PC: start with one window. Nothing to copy or paste.

1. Start the game in one window only and log in the character that will be slot 1. (Also a good moment to setwhat every window shares on this PC: graphics settings, max foreground/background frame rates, UI scale...)
2. Type /mama s 1. A dialog shows the token: click its Reload button. That saves the token on this PC for all itsWoW accounts (and saves your settings). Exiting the game works too.
3. Start the other windows and log in. Each one says "using the team token saved on this PC" and asks for its slot,with a suggested number: change it if needed, then Enter. If that slot already belongs to another team member whois online, the window picks the next free slot by itself and tells you (/mama s N changes it later).

Escape in that slot dialog skips it until the next /reload or login; /mama s 0 on a character stops asking for it(for a character that isn't part of the team).

B. All windows already running, or windows on several PCs: copy/paste the token.

1. In the first window: /mama s 1. A dialog shows the team token: press Ctrl-C, then Enter.
2. In the second window: /mama s 2, press Ctrl-V in the dialog and Enter ("token accepted").
3. Same for the third window with /mama s 3, and so on (up to 40).

Either way the windows then find each other, the status window appears, and slot 1 invites everybody (switching toa raid above 5 characters). New characters later: on a PC with a saved token, just log them in and answer the slotdialog; otherwise /mama s N and paste the token (/mama token on slot 1 shows it again).

The token is saved, so you don't redo this at the next login. Team messages are signed with the token's secret, soonly messages signed with that secret are accepted as team commands. Characters that exchange the tokenare added to the trusted team and their group invites are auto accepted. /mama token shows it again./mama token new (slot 1) makes a new secret: only for a leaked token or a separate team, as every other window thenneeds the new one. /mama team add [Full Name] can separately trust a name for auto-acceptingthat character's group invites; it does not pair that character, assign it a slot, or give it the token needed toexchange team messages. Each participating window still needs its own /mama s N setup and the shared token.

Each character remembers its own team (slot, token, teammates): switching between teams played on the sameaccounts picks up the right one at login.

Log in slot 1 last (when you can't log in all windows at once). Slot 1 invites its team as soon as it logs in, andthe others accept automatically. If slot 1 logs in first, those invites find nobody, and the group only forms once theother windows' announces reach slot 1, which can take minutes when the server's chat lags. If that happens, left clickthe status window on slot 1 (or /mama invite, or the Invite team key) once everyone is logged in.

New team or new master (other characters, or another character as slot 1): on the new slot 1, /mama s 1 and copythe token it shows (same secret, this character as master). On each other window, /mama s N (or/mama token, or Ctrl+Right on the status window) and paste it in the dialog, which names the current master (Escapekeeps it); /mama token <paste> works too. Pasting a token makes that window forget the previous team and talk to thenew master right away.

New characters may need one manual invite. Windows find each other by whispering names they already know (slot 1from the token, characters recorded in earlier sessions). Addon messages only work by whisper, party/raid or guild (notsay/yell), so a character never seen before, or the first team on another faction, can't be found: invite it once byhand (or have both in the same guild). Once grouped they record each other and it's automatic from then on.

Using it

Follow and assist

The "lead" is the group leader by default. /mama lead on a window makes that window the lead for the whole team(and the group leader promotes it), /mama lead auto goes back to following the group leader.

Follow and assist are protected actions that must come from a key press or your own macro, so there are two ways:

• Key bindings (Game Menu > Key Bindings > Mama-forever): Follow + assist lead, Assist lead,Follow train + assist lead (each slot follows the previous slot; the lead stops following),Make me lead, Invite team, Disband team, Identify slot. New characters get Alt-F (follow + assist),Alt-T (train) and Alt-L (make me lead) when these keys are free (see New characters below).
• The MAMA macro: Mama-forever creates a per character macro called MAMA with a starter for your class(follow and assist the lead, attack, send the pet, cast a basic spell) and keeps its /follow and /assist linespointed at the current lead. Open the macro window (/macro, character tab), drag MAMA to an action bar onceand use it. Edit it freely (spell, icon, extra lines): only the /follow and /assist lines are updated.Until you edit it, the starter picks up a better spell when you learn it (Judgement for paladins, Serpent Stingfor hunters, Charge out of combat and Rend for warriors)./mama macro reset puts the class starter back, /mama macro off stops managing it. The account wide MAMA macroof older versions is deleted.

New characters

A level 1 character's first login with Mama sets up, once: action bars 2-5 shown, A/D turn and Q/E strafe,Alt-F/Alt-T/Alt-L for the follow, train and make me lead keys, . for interact with target, autoloot,the MAMA macro on button 1 (what was there moves to the button above it) and the Classic Edit Mode layout (the restof the Modern choice, like high resolution characters, is kept). Each one only if it is still at the new characterdefault: bars you turned off, your own key bindings or a custom layout are left alone. /mama setup off turns it off,/mama setup now does it on the current character.

Quests

• Quests you accept are shared with the group, and shared quests are accepted automatically on the other windows.
• Hold Shift, Ctrl or Alt while opening a quest giver (or clicking a quest) to skip auto accept and read it first.
• Abandoning a quest on one window abandons it on the others (never a completed quest).
• Talking to an NPC whose dialog has only one option and no quest (most vendors and trainers) picks that option: you gostraight to the vendor window. Same for an NPC with only one quest to pick up and nothing else: the quest opens (andgets auto accepted when grouped), or with only one completed quest to turn in: it opens for turn in. Hold Shift, Ctrlor Alt while opening the NPC to see the dialog; /mama gossip off turns it off.
• The lead's dialog choices (gossip options, quests, flight paths) are made on the other windows too, and so are thelead's clicks on popups (spirit healer, accept resurrect or summon, release spirit...) on the windows showing thesame popup. Never for deleting items, logging out or quitting. /mama dialog off turns it off.

Professions and trading mats

Each window tells the team its professions (/mama profs lists them, /mama profs sync asks everyone again; also inthe status window row tooltips). Opening a trade with a team member puts the mats they use in the trade window (6stacks per trade, trade again for more); you still click Trade. Mats you could use yourself stay with you (a tailorkeeps their cloth, unless the other tailor is better); the "Mama: give mats" button above the trade window gives themanyway (e.g. a blacksmith's spare bars to an engineer):

Pick the kinds in Options > AddOns > Mama-forever > Trade (or /mama trade list, /mama trade greens off);/mama trade off turns the auto fill off (the button still works). "Send settings to team" (on both options pages)copies this window's options and trade kinds to the rest of the group.

Selling at vendors

Opening a merchant sells the items on your sell list, and every grey item if you tick that box (hold Shift, Ctrlor Alt while opening it to sell nothing). Edit the list with /mama vendor or the "Mama: sell list" button above themerchant window: drop items from your bags on it, Ctrl+Right click them in your bags while it's open, or type anitem's name or ID in its box; the X on a row removes it. Every addition, removal and the greys box are sent to the team members online, so all windows sell thesame things; "Send list to team" replaces their whole list with yours (e.g. for a window that was offline)./mama vendor add|remove <item>, greys [on|off], list, sync and sell do the same from the chat line.

Bags full? Open a trade with the team member who has the most free bag slots (status window) and click the "Mama:vendor items" button above the trade window: it puts 6 of the items you'd sell (sell list and greys, partial stackslast) in the trade, for them to sell at the next merchant.

Auto repair (Options, off by default: early on, the money is better spent on training than on repairing gearyou'll soon replace): after selling, a merchant that can repair fixes all your gear, if you have the money.

Master loot

With "Master loot auto distribution" and "Set team loot" on (the default, see Options), the full team gets master lootby the lead (or pick master looter in the group menu yourself); /mama loot off for free for all instead. The threshold goesdown to greys (once: raise it again if you want), and the master looter's window gives each item to the team memberwho uses it:

• quest items to whoever still needs them, the one furthest behind in xp first (until done), the looter on a tie;quest items that drop once per player (heads...): the looter keeps its copy and the lead's window gets one raidwarning listing who must loot theirs,
• mats and recipes to the best profession holder (same kinds as trades),
• armor to the classes that wear that type (leather to the rogue or druid...), weapons to the classes that can usethem, taking turns; greens nobody uses to the enchanter,
• greys, the sell list and everything else to the most free bag slots.

Soulbound items open a picker next to the loot window instead, the suggestion first (another candidate, or theenchanter to disenchant it); clicking an item in the loot window opens it too. Hold Shift, Ctrl or Alt while openingthe loot to give it all by hand. Turn it off with "Master loot auto distribution" (Options) or /mama loot off.

Alerts to the lead

• Follow broken: when a window stops following out of combat (not in a fight, where that's normal) and the leadthen gets out of follow range (stuck behind a tree or a wall), the lead's window gets a raid warning and a sound.Same when a follow key or the MAMA macro doesn't start following out of combat (too far, out of sight...): notwhile the lead is fighting, while casting, or in the few seconds after a fight.Only for windows that were near the lead in the last 2 minutes, and never while the lead is dead, a ghost or on aflight, nor right after it came back to life, released, landed or went through a loading screen.
• Whispers: whispers from players outside the team to the other windows are shown in the lead's window (click thename to answer). GM whispers are tagged <GM> with a raid warning and the GM sound. If the whisper can't be read(chat lockdown), the lead is still told to look at that window.

Both are on by default (Options > Alerts to the lead).

Status window

One row per slot. White is this window, green is in the group, yellow is online but not grouped, grey is not seen yet,blue grey is away (left out of the title count), * marks the lead. The number right of each name is its free bag slots (orange under 5, red when full). The bottomline is the team's gold; hover it for the gold and bag slots of every character of this faction you've played withMama, alts included (last known values). Hover the title for all the shortcuts:

On a row: left click targets the character (or invites it when not grouped), right click opens its unit menu,Alt+Left marks it away or back (see below).

Away team members (one doing its own thing for a while, in the group or not): Alt+Left click its row,/mama away 3 4 (slots) or /mama away Full Name, and /mama back 3|Full Name|all. It's shown on every window andremembered until it's back. An away member isn't invited (clicking its row still does), doesn't keep the team frombeing complete (free for all loot, /mama complete keeps its slot), sends no follow alerts, and its window leavesquests (accept, share, abandon) and the lead's dialogs and popups alone. Trade fill, gold and bag stats and whisperforwarding keep working.

Turning Mama off for one character (e.g. one that is sometimes part of another team): /mama disable, theTurn Mama off/on key binding or Ctrl+Middle click on the status window. That character then sends and reads noteam messages and does no team automation (auto accept invites/quests, quest sharing, loot, trade fill, vendorselling, alerts); the status window title shows "disabled" in red. Its slot and token setup are kept, and it isremembered for that character until /mama enable turns it back on.

Commands and options

/mama help lists everything: s, token, lead, team, away, back, invite, disband, raid, autoinvite, status,macro, setup, quest, dialog, gossip, profs, trade, vendor, loot, ui, enable, disable, identify, options, complete, debug, bug (copyable log), clearlog. The options panel is in Game Menu > Options > AddOns > Mama-forever(/mama options): auto accept/share quests, abandon everywhere, auto accept team invites, auto invite, auto raid,mirror the lead's dialog choices, skip single option dialogs, team loot (free for all or master), master loot auto distribution, auto fill trades, auto repair, MAMA macro, follow broken warning, whisperforwarding, status window, slot display at login, debug.

Not included (compared to the old addons)

No ISBoxer team discovery (Even if it should still work, but use WowOpenBox instead - open source and designed to be safe and compliant), no EMA integration, no support for other WoW versions (yet).

Development

• From a clone, install.bat copies the Mama folder to the game's AddOns folder (adjust the path in it if needed).

• Releases are built by the GitHub action in .github/workflows usingBigWigsMods/packager and pkgmeta.yaml when a tag is pushed.

• Opensource license (so if the current author gets hit by a bus, anyone else can pick it up and/or make improvements)

• Formatting (for ref on my pc; lua-format.exe needs the msys64 ucrt64 DLLs on PATH)

$env:PATH = "C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin;" + $env:PATHGet-ChildItem -Filter *.lua -Recurse | ForEach-Object {  C:\Users\l\AppData\Roaming\luarocks\bin\lua-format.exe -c  .\luaformat.cfg -i $_.FullName }

More info

• CurseForge page: https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/mama-multiboxing

• Source code is https://github.com/mooreatv/MAMA-multiboxing

• The older version, pre WoW forever rewrite, that used MoLib and DynamicBoxer can be found at https://github.com/mooreatv/MAMA-multiboxing/tree/v1.24.0