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Multi boxing l4 missions
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Grinner Martial
Solar Cycle
#1 - 2011-12-07 03:14:14 UTC
A question for the multiboxing mission runners.

How many characters can you realistically handle for level 4 missions? I'm trying to determine how many characters I want to run with but I'm not sure if it's even feasible to run more than two as I only have 2 monitors. I'm worried that I'll hit diminishing returns with not being able to micro enough to make use of the extra characters.

Also, for people who use drones to alleviate the problem, what's a good drone ship to multibox with?

Thanks
Noopy Nemra
#2 - 2011-12-07 04:28:01 UTC  |  Edited by: Noopy Nemra
Drones are nice as you can have them assist your main deeps toon. Just know your mission specific drone aggro rules. T2 sentries on all toons (where appropriate) is an easy way to up dps without a lot of extra work for each additional toon. Map a kb shortcut to both drone engage (e.g. control - e) and return & scoop (e.g. control - d). The return & scoop vs. just scoop has no different behavior with sentries relative to scoop (i.e. they don't move!), but it will also work for any drone so it simplifies your kb which is a lot of the overhead / toon. Leverage fleets, fleet bonuses and 'warp fleet.' Get to know the kb command for gate jumping.

As far as how many to run. I'd say as many as are fun to run. Too many can be.. well, almost stressful. Have fun!

Edit: as for boats, pick a tank, domi is fine, alts bring in highest level of vexor -> myrm -> ishtar -> domi

Can't wait to hear other responses... OP. Beware, this is my input, but there are other threads on this topic. You could even grab urls and post them below and make your thread an authoritative source.
VIP Ares
Sebiestor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#3 - 2011-12-07 08:29:25 UTC
As long as other ships are drone boats you can do as many as you want.. Once u launch drones, you have option assist your main. That way drones will always attack same target as your main.

Happy killing!

http://www.balex.info/index.php/pilot_detail/47623/
Glarrion
Minner Alliance
#4 - 2011-12-07 08:35:01 UTC
navy domi + CNR/Golem

also main with domi is tengu trained but domi tank is much better ... and drones ;p
Starshi
RANDOM RETARDS
#5 - 2011-12-07 14:10:36 UTC
I have dual-boxed on 1 monitor with Paladin/CNR and it was pretty fast once you get the hang of it. If you care about efficiency you should go with 2 dps ships, since drone boats sucks when it comes to damage.
dorfsorc
AWE Corporation
Intrepid Crossing
#6 - 2011-12-07 15:41:32 UTC
i run my level 4's in a golem, rattlesnake combo. between drones and missiles they go fast and can do light cleanup if i dont want to fly the noctis over. the salvage rewards in high sec are questionable, so mission speed is of more value in generating LP or isk. Angels Extravaganza takes the longest at about 35 minutes.
Spineker
#7 - 2011-12-07 17:39:52 UTC  |  Edited by: Spineker
Do you lose a lot of drones with that passive stance? I seem to have the worst luck with drones.

I run two tengus at the moment with a golem or mach thrown in once in a while. However the Tengus are so cool as long as they are not webbed they are very forgiving with multitasking. At over 1500DPS combined with orbiting afterburning doesn't matter how much aggro they gather, it seems to take more time to lock targets and target and fire than to kill. I have never really thought of adding a 3rd passive drone alt but the duo-tengu kills so quick now I think it would be too much work.

I use dual monitor setup although my 4 year old computer minus a few upgrades is seeing its last days, it still runs both clients with no problem. Of course it was very powerful 4 years ago and with a new video card it has been a champ. Only time it will stutter is Caldari Recon Mission 1/3 where the gate is sitting in that glowing orange yellow cloud thing puts a major strain on my system but most missions are smooth as glass (or most of them clouds are hard). Ok babbling the coffee is good this morning.
drdxie
#8 - 2011-12-07 18:32:08 UTC  |  Edited by: drdxie
I run a tengu/NM team and this keeps me pretty busy targeting and killing things. For me a 3rd toon in the mission would be wasted. Maybe as mentioned, adding a drone toon may help, but things die so quickly already I am not sure there will be any benefits of the added efforts. I would think if you were using a drone toon to assign drones you would perhaps use sentry or heavy drones, they can take more damage. With the right fit and skills Garde can hit anything but frigs orbiting under 10km and an ogre can hit the close orbiting frigs OK. They just need to get of 1 or 2 hits and the frig is gone.

Caldari Loving needed.. https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1608277&#post1608277
IceBergSlim
Royal Amarr Institute
Amarr Empire
#9 - 2011-12-07 19:08:57 UTC
Tbh mate, dual boxing versus triple boxing? Hmmmm...lot of management for almost no difference in speed. Maybe a salvaging character? Although the management is again called upon to perform.
Fango Mango
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2011-12-08 01:09:53 UTC
Running on dual screens . . .

5 is easy 2x groups of 2 running different missions + 1 Noctis between them.
Mainly because my video card can only render 5 screens at a time.

I've been trying to run 8, (2x groups of 3x fighters + 1 noctis). This takes a lot of minimizing in order to keep the of screens being rendered below 5 (or a nicer video card than a 4870).

Important stuff to keep in mind . . .
You need to use drones - assist or guard are the only way to handle that many damage dealers.
You need a way to tank the whole room - remote reps are much more powerful than local reps. Its almost impossible to track what's going on with 8 ships even with watch windows.
Skip the missions that have spawns, its not worth your time. If you have 6 mission runners and work out of a station with 2 agents, then you can decline 12 missions every 4 hours, just cherry pick the ones you want


The domi is your friend. 3 weeks of training to Domi + Caldari Navy Wasps (or Sentries if you for some reason think they work better in missions).

If you run in low/null -
make sure to always keep the window with your D-SCAN on top and D-SCANing every 10-20 seconds.
Have a safespot or two per system and be prepared to jump away.
Cloaking devices will make hunters bored and leave you alone *eventually*

Commands you absolutely have to know how to use.
Drones -> Assist and Guard
Fleet -> Group Warps, Broadcast Travel To, Broadcast Target (for emergencies), Watch List


- Fango Mango
(may he R.I.P.)
GreenSeed
#11 - 2011-12-08 09:32:00 UTC  |  Edited by: GreenSeed
had a long reply, but this crap forum ate it.



get a rattler, noobfit it, that is resists + lolpurgers + lolrelays. should not cost more than 600m, or 1.2b if you want one caldari navy invul + t2 invul + T2 em and heat Amplifiers. more than that is even more overkill.

then get one

[Gila, Gila-D]
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Co-Processor II

Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Cap Recharger II
Drone Navigation Computer I
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

[empty high slot]
Pithum A-Type Medium Shield Transporter
Corpum A-Type Medium Energy Transfer Array
Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I


Hobgoblin II x10
Hammerhead II x10
Hornet II x5
Vespa II x10
Ogre II x5


The deadspace A type modules listed there go for 10m a piece on jita, so the total cost for the ship should be around 160m. as it is this fit needs a +5% cpu implant, but can easily use no implant if you drop the Drone Navigation Computer for another cap recharger and re-rig. this fit is stable as long as it runs either the remote shield repper OR the remote cap. (only used the remote shield rep on bonus rooms.) the remote cap will see a lot of use, since the rattler cant even run the 2 invuls stable Lol

The other alts should fly

[Gila, Gila-K]
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Capacitor Power Relay II
Co-Processor II

Magnetic Scattering Amplifier II
Heat Dissipation Amplifier II
Drone Navigation Computer I
Drone Navigation Computer I
Large Shield Extender II
Large Shield Extender II

[empty high slot]
[empty high slot]
Pithum A-Type Medium Shield Transporter
Drone Link Augmentor I
Drone Link Augmentor I

Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I
Medium Core Defence Field Extender I


Hobgoblin II x10
Hammerhead II x10
Hornet II x5
Vespa II x10
Ogre II x5

150m each. not stable, for emergency reps only, never used them but it cant hurt to keep em around in case the noctis gets agro. btw, the Gilas dont need RR, they can easily tank a spawn.

if you want to fly with a booster, make him fly a myrmidon, not really necessary since i keep forgetting to turn on the siegue warfare link. Blink


currently i clean rooms in 6 minutes, but i have to stay on the room usually another minute just finishing salvaging... so yeah the bottleneck is the speed of salvaging, im hoping t2 salvagers will do the trick.

IMHO its way more entertaining than 3 shotting ships with a mach, it can be even faster, and consumes no ammo.
Aoki Ayumi
project HAVEN
#12 - 2011-12-08 15:10:25 UTC
Why would you have to use two accounts for doing level 4 missions?
I mean... It is faster using a single marauder than having to manage two accounts. Way more relaxed.
I just don't get it.
hiporiko
Hyena Capital Management
#13 - 2011-12-08 16:22:42 UTC  |  Edited by: hiporiko
Aoki Ayumi wrote:
Why would you have to use two accounts for doing level 4 missions?
I mean... It is faster using a single marauder than having to manage two accounts. Way more relaxed.
I just don't get it.


A Marauder doesn't even come close to the mission completion time of a competent dual-box setup.

That class of boat really did become obsolete with the Noctis. Not that a 40km tractor beam was ever impressive.
Spineker
#14 - 2011-12-08 17:20:27 UTC  |  Edited by: Spineker
Aoki Ayumi wrote:
Why would you have to use two accounts for doing level 4 missions?
I mean... It is faster using a single marauder than having to manage two accounts. Way more relaxed.
I just don't get it.



I can do Enemies Abound 1/5 before a marauder alone can kill off the elite frigs, using 2 tengus. One comes in with precision missiles the other fury for the BSs. The whole room melts, I can be back with a noctis suck up everything before you are even nearly done with the rats not to mention the slow boat to the objective.

It was confusing at first but with two monitors and windowed mode it is not an issue once you get used to being on the correct client.
Aoki Ayumi
project HAVEN
#15 - 2011-12-08 19:38:39 UTC
Can dual boxing net more than the double isk doing level 4 missions, in order to pay for the two accounts?
I mean, if you get 100m isk per hour in a marauder, can you get more than 200m with dual boxing?
Spineker
#16 - 2011-12-08 20:27:55 UTC  |  Edited by: Spineker
Depends on the circumstances and where you mission. I never made 100m isk an hour in a single ship with Marauder V even is not going to happen, might do it 1 out of 15 hours of play if that. I might hit that magic 100 with two ships though.

Where I run missions it is also nice to turn down some missions and use the alts mission with 3 level IV agents within 3 or 4 jumps of each other that is 6 potiential missions running a circuit and doing the best missions you can get and turning down the garbage.
Fango Mango
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#17 - 2011-12-09 02:40:14 UTC
Aoki Ayumi wrote:
Can dual boxing net more than the double isk doing level 4 missions, in order to pay for the two accounts?
I mean, if you get 100m isk per hour in a marauder, can you get more than 200m with dual boxing?


If only there was some way to play two account while only buying one plex every month . . .

hint . . . you can
Mara Rinn
Cosmic Goo Convertor
#18 - 2011-12-10 01:31:12 UTC
Aoki Ayumi wrote:
Can dual boxing net more than the double isk doing level 4 missions, in order to pay for the two accounts?


Doubling the DPS available will more than halve the time to kill an NPC, due to NPC tanking being overwhelmed. If you accept multiple missions at once, you will save some time on docking/undocking, and travelling between systems.

Two options for multi boxing are the "AFK drone boat" approach, or the Zhek Kromtor 26-ships-one-keyboard approach.

The AFK drone boat technique involves warping in one or more specialist drone characters in e.g.: Dominix or Ishtar, deploying sentry drones, and setting the drones to assist the main character. The main should use web and painter where possible. This method does not improve past level 5 skills: once you have top drone skills there are no shiny modules you can buy to improve your DPS by spending a lot of ISK. There are no keyboard shortcuts for deploying drones, so you'll be doing a lot of micromanagement.

The Zhek Kromtor approach involves having a fleet full of same/similar ships (e.g.: Armageddons for maximum DPS, Guardians for tank and cap) and using fleet broadcasts and keybindings to help all the characters focus on the appropriate target. Use Synergy to broadcast keystrokes to all clients, and make sure DPS ships use different keybindings to logistics ships (so that broadcasting the key bound to "lock target" doesn't result in logistics trying to repair NPCs). This method scales well with ISK: as you earn more ISK, you buy shinier fittings for your fleet and do more DPS thus making ISK faster.

Day 0 Advice for New Players
Flurk Hellbron
Science and Trade Institute
Caldari State
#19 - 2011-12-10 01:56:04 UTC
I guess it stops with two. But never tried more.
Guess it has to stay a game...........Smile
XxDEATH SN1PAxX
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#20 - 2011-12-10 02:03:15 UTC
I know a few people that do L4's by dual boxing two battleships, then when a group of around 3 L4's are done tget will come back and salvage everything in two noctis' however I'm unsure of what effect it would have but if you could keep up with it and your computer can handle it then why not have a shot at it once in empire so it minimizes risk?

Good luck
Death
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