The evil of Multiboxing

Communications Center General Discussion
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Here’s a little story to explain my frustration with EVE online.

I’m ratting in a wormhole when a Vexor Navy issue agresses me. I’m in a well tanked Nestor with cap boosters and dual armor reps. The Vexor deal a decent amount of dps but I win the fight and kill him, but there’s a second VNI on grid now, and he finishes me off.

I reship into a recon ship and hunt down one of the VNIs who’s still in the wormhole. I agress, scramble and dampen and almost kill him, when a third VNI warp in on top of me. I loose again.

I reship again and hunt down one of the VNIs in a tripple rep battlecruiser with dual cap boosters, I know the VNIs are neut fit so I hope my fit will survive, but as I’m about to finish him off, the third VNI warps on top of me again and assists the dying VNI in neuting me dry and killing me.

I talk to the guy, and as expected, it’s the same guy multiboxing in three identical VNI. Strategy is simple, if the first VNI fails, he got two in reserve to finish the job.

I see this a lot in this game, and I find it ironic that people still talk about pvp in this game. I acctually won that fight, but he got away with the loot and two out of three ships, while I lost three ships, fighting against one and the same guy.

I find this strategy quite prevalent in this game and there’s absolutely no way to win playing solo when you’re up agains multiple instances of the same guy on the same grid.

In my opinion, multiboxing is the worst evil in this game, and destroy the game for anyone who try to play this game solo. I might also add that I’m camping in this wormhole because I got wardeced by a guy who run an entire fleet with his own alts, and while he’s in high sec running incursion sites, making billions of ISK, I’m loosing ISK alone in a wormhole.

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how is this functionally any different than the guy having a mate there to help him?

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Wrong windmill, senor.

The evil is automating responses between accounts - not multiboxing.

–Gadgeto Panza

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it is different, because no mate would go along with beeing his backup only when things go wrong. Multiboxing is not the same as a group playing together, not in any way.

I have also run with fleets where they acctually prefere players who multibox for some roles, as they bring valuable logistics and other functions to the fleet that no solo player can compete with, but that’s another topic.

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You completely missed the point Gadget Helmsdottir…

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some ppl dont have friends to play with so they invent them through alt :slight_smile:

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That is not true at all. I’ve seen ample people wait to join a fight for a variety of reasons. They may not want to reveal the full force they are using, they may be swapping put a probe ship for a combat ship, they may want to let a guy solo a kill, or they may just be slow in warp.

You are assuming a very specific player action and saying it never happens, yet it does often.

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Its functionally different, cos there isnt another guy there to help him.

Its all him. No other guy involved.

Hence, OPs issue with multiboxing.

In other words, multiboxers win over single boxers.
In other words, somewhat pay to win.

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Nice to see somebody got my point. I acctually killed that guy, but there he was again, and again…

I simply dont know what I can do to combat something like that? I only have one ship at the time, and if I ask for help, I have to rely on them to join in. I simply cant just switch to another screen and have a brand new ship in the same fight.

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Your concern/grievance is valid, but unfortunately, thats how EVE works atm.

Some players have more active accounts than you.

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bring a mate

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Perhaps, senor, but I am only a poor squire. :slightly_frowning_face:

The current multiboxing rules are in place partly due to single person bombing squadrons.
You can still multibox multiple bombers, but it is much harder to coordinate each ship with precision without using disallowed automation.

You encountered multiple ships. You were going to lose regardless. (assuming the pilot(s) were competent)
If the VNI’s were under multiple pilots, then maybe they would have attacked en masse. Loss.
If the VNI’s were under automation and a single pilot, then same thing.
If the VNI’s were brought in a group under a single pilot using current multiboxing rules, then there’s a possibility that the pilot would have made a mistake - maybe enough for you to capitalize and bug out or turn the tides. Most likely though, you would have still lost.
Instead, the pilot had you in his sights, fed you a ship, and you lost.

In this case, the only way to win - was not to play.

If you hadn’t commed, would you have noticed the difference?

I will agree that multiboxing does make it - maybe not easier - but possible for a pilot to do multiple things without relying on others. Actually, beyond the trust and convenience factor, each ship being piloted by an individual would have worked better.

This I can agree with to a point. It can mimic a fleet (so I would have excluded “not in any way”) but the dynamics are different. In most ways good (from the pilot’s perspective), but in other ways not so good.
Piloting a group of ships at once is easier when they’re all the same. Start mixing classes, and types, and most importantly functions, then a traditionally piloted fleet will outperform.

In your encounter, I actually have to give it to the pilot - good assessment and an interesting tactic using available tools.

Isn’t that EvE?

–Gadget is Legion

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yeah that dosent tell me how its functionally any different salvos.

i get why hes annoyed , im questioning if that annoyance has any value.

so again, had he not spoken to the guy after and been told, what about this engagement made it any different than two mate in doctrine fit ships?

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One player multiboxing three accounts, and three players flying one account each, are functionally different. I dont understand what else I have to explain about that.

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I’m not assuming anything. The player told me he was multiboxing three toons, and he didn’t have another player there to help him. In fact, he tried to recruit me to his corp.

Point I’m making is that I cant win against players who multibox like that. If this was a group of players, I would’nt complain, but when one player put me under siege with multiple toons, then I do complain. I lose every time, and he win every fight.

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Problem is, I cant bring a mate every time, he dont have to bring anyone.

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oh , i see what this is about

yeeeeeeeeah looooool,
id be bent out of shape about that too,
then again
i wouldn’t take a shiny pve fit into wormhole space (without any probes ill add).

i could have taken that in a frigate man

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Case closed.

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Are you saying the outcome of the fight would have been different if he and his “buddy” had both aggressed you at the same time?

You fought two pilots. It makes no difference at all whether it was one person or two people controlling them. You lost a 2v1.

“multiboxing” had nothing to do with this.

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Playing Devil’s Advocate…

With multiboxing you don’t have to wait on your mate. You can do it whenever you want.

/Playing Devil’s Advocate

However, IMO multiboxing is likely less efficient than with two people. Splitting your attention between two or more screens is more difficult than simply having two people focus on one screen each.

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