Market Discussions

perhaps? same thing can be done using 3rd party legitimate programs. you hardly need to bot ice mining.

None of this directly indicates botting over multi-boxing while watching tv. Ice mining is brain dead. You target the ice, hit F1, wait a long time, dump your stuff in station and repeat...

The person operating the ships in that screen shot, is well known, and has been investigated before.

If you had asked who it was while you were there, you would have been told that by the locals.

I no longer mine in that system, but hardly an hour goes by, maybe 2, and some one pops in, freaks out, and accuses the guy of botting

He runs 24 clients max per machine across 3 machines.

Strike up a convo with him, if you see those ships, he is there in a Tengu standing guard to kill rats.

I used to run 4 Hulks and an Orca on one machine in that system, and another Orca as a transport, very easy to do.

I see no issue doing what he is doing, maybe a bit crazy, but nothing wrong.

Also, note that the other people mining there, are all aware of gankers/greifers entering the system, and call it out immediately.

No doubt people think what you are seeing must be something wrong, buy hey, the guy is used to it, so go ahead =P

I didn't think that guy played eve.

I run multiple accounts, I use no additional programs, I tab and click everything but you can fleet warp as well as use a multi-box program. I know a lot of players in eve who do this with 7-25 accounts and up. Many of them are also in 0.0.

Almost all of them are going to be dropping their mining accounts and just sticking to a handful or less of accounts though, because mining cannot keep up with plex prices anymore, as I plan on doing so. Going to be deactivation 6 of my accounts and just keeping a ratter, because he can make far more money with the right ship than any three mining pilots.

You can play dozens of retrievers / macks without even the need for a multi-box setup. Since ice roids don't deplete, no micromanagement is needed. Their cargo holds enough that you need to empty after a lot of time.

To me, this is just a perfect illustration of why ice mining is a completely broken game mechanic and should be moved into PI. It's a mind-bogglingly boring and time-intensive grind, and the only way to do it profitably is to multibox in the manner of the gentleman being mentioned above. (Normal mining is boring enough; I can't imagine why someone would spend that amount of effort on ice mining.) I'm not a fan of AFK players or botters as a rule, but in the case of ice mining I make an exception. Until CCP makes this game mechanic less of a soul-sucking exercise in boredom, I'm in favor of anything that produces sufficient supply of ice products at a reasonable market price.

And not to mention he's one of CCP's favorite customers as well. I bet he get a christmas card from CCP every year

In EVE, it's almost a requirement to multibox if you want to be successful. It points to a really bad defect in the game where you can't successfully play the game with a single toon. If it were possible to "win" at EVE by playing a single account, people would do it -- Q.E.D. Everybody multiboxes because the game is all but unplayable otherwise.

1. Industry/mining - I know people who run 10+ accounts just to get more miners in the belts or more manufacturing slots. Also dedicated toons for PI.
2. Trading - 5+ accounts, one alt in each trade hub.
3. Combat - a main combat alt (or two, or three), plus a logi pilot. Or a lowsec/null toon and a highsec carebear toon.

The list goes on. Lots of corps are composed of nothing but one guy running a bunch of alts. This is one of the main indicators of a defective game mechanic: EVE is meant to foster group play, but in a low-trust environment like EVE, the only person you can really trust is yourself.

I'd bet RL money that at any given moment, 40% or more of EVE's population are multibox accounts. I don't know that I'd declare it a "problem" or not -- after all, CCP still gets paid for every account -- but I think it'd be a healthier game if all those active accounts represented separate individuals.