EVE General Discussion

The only reason this is spawning so much discussion is people are being deliberately obtuse to try and wiggle around it. And your defense argument is a strawman. Let it go before you make yourself look even more foolish.

Finally! RIP ISBoxer!

Bingo.

If PLEX prices were where they used to be back in better days, I'd be using them to train more than one character at a time. Presently they cost almost everything I have as I don't get to grind much.


Now, for everbody who is like "Hurrrr durrr there goes my 20+ accounts Eve is dead hurrr durrr CCP dancing in the street for nickels in a year" I have a little song for you.

Yes

WTS mining characters rush is already happening in bazaar.

Because of Falcon

I think CCP Falcon was quite clear on this: whatever affects the Eve Universe.

Whether it is PvP, PvE, mining or freighting goods from here to there, input broadcasting affects the Eve universe.

PvP - pretty obvious (or at least I would hope it is)

PvE - one player can wipe out multiple sites easily removing them for others and also gaining the player a distinct advantage in income.

Mining - one player decimating an ice field in 10 minutes using 20+ skiffs all responding to one click. Does the work of 20 players for just one. Removes content, income advantage.

Freighting goods - this one is not as obvious, or frankly, bad as the others. But runs a similar line to mining.

This is a great move by CCP. I regularly run three accounts but I click on each one to accomplish my goals. I am glad to see the days of 20 cruisers sitting on a gate, all boosting each others sensors to insta-lock, then targeting all 20 on a ship with one click and delivering a 20-ship mega-alpha with one click GONE.

P.S. Dear ISBoxer guys: can I haz ur stuffs?

I Multibox (Mining) with 10 Accounts.. 1 x Rorqual booster, and 9 miners.

2 screens, Main character on the big screen, she controls the squad warp if **** happens, the other 9 are on the 2nd smaller monitor.

It takes me best part of 5 - 10 minutes, to log all accounts in, join them to fleet and get them warping, then once in the belt, another 2 mins to get them all mining. after that, it's constant listening to 'Asteroid Depleted' messages, and quickly switching from tab to tab to make sure they are all active ...

My previous corp, I thought was quite successful capital building corp, but after moving to a bigger alliance, I realised that we just can't compete, not even slightly, with what can only be described as massive industrial capability, from pvp focused groups.

Today's news, has just given hope, that there might actually be a future once again for myself, and the friends that have flown with me for the last few years, and that we may actually be capable of competing, especially after reading all the posts from people that seemingly can't mine with more than one account manually ??

I have always shot down people that say mining is boring, with the response 'you should try it with 10 accounts, it's a full time job' I enjoy that, I enjoy the challenge of keeping the efficiency up as best I can, while maintaining my squads safety, that's eve for me, not some crap like ISboxer..

This is one of the best announcements I can ever recall from CCP, well done ... it gives the smaller scale guys a chance, and hope for the future :)

As a side note, I also PVP, but with 1 account, and no miners on whilst doing so... mining is easy with multi accounts, but I never felt comfortable pvp with more than 1 (unlike the isboxer posts above regarding quite large fleets.. good riddance ...)

I cannot believe I read every post in this thread. I feel as though I am going to get cancer from this, but I thought it would be prudent to read all of the opinions expressed in this thread before expressing my own.

I am neither for nor against these changes to CCP's stance.

On a personal level, this will be annoying but it will be something that can be adapted to. Multiboxing has existed in its true alt+tab form for many years before ISBoxer came into existence and will continue to do so.

With that out of the way, many players have this sentiment that Multiboxing is easy and takes away from the health of the game. While plex prices have continued to trend upward, mineral prices have been relatively stable for years. Looking at tritanium prices year over year have seen very little increase where as an item such as plex has inflated at an incredible rate. One of the reasons for this would have to be given credit to the multiboxed miners in null and hisec. The abundance of minerals that a 10 man multiboxed miner can provide far outweighs the amount of minerals a single person with a single toon can provide. This allows for diminished inflation on mineral prices which is why we, the players, can enjoy fairly un-inflated ship prices to get ourselves blown up in.

The reason the 1b per plex prices seem high is also because of the lack of mineral inflation. Prices for minerals have stayed steady while plex has steadily increased. Removing multiboxed miners from the equation, you will start to see an uptick in mineral prices as time goes on and plex prices will see continued growth as time goes on. This means that the lower prices prices that people seem to be cheering about will be short lived while still having to pay more per ship.

With these changes, you will see a separation of the casual multiboxers and the true fans of multiboxing. There will still be multiboxed mining fleets that come into ice belts and "hoover" the entire belt. It will be more obnoxious for them to do it, but its more of a reduction of quality of life rather than removable of a certain gameplay.

Now with that out of the way,

My main concern with these changes has little to do with the actual changes, but with how GM's will be handling enforcing these changes. Consistency is something that I have requested of CCP for a very long time and it is sometimes hit or miss.

With multiboxers still in existence post mutiplexing changes, CCP's shoot from the hip approach to banning offenders will need to be closely monitored. Especially with the policy of the first violation being a 30 day ban, If someone is falsely accused and banned for multiplexing when they are instead alt tabbing, it will be a lot of time and effort to get this sorted and all accounts restored.

Due to the architecture of the game engine, commands can and will be delayed processing into Tranquility and sometimes they will show up as being sent with similar time logs. A careful eye will be able to distinguish the difference between a multiplex'd command and a player who is simply adept at alt tabbing, but I fear that the average GM may not be able to without proper training. I understand that it is difficult to train all GMs to be properly informed about these nuances, but having to deal with petitions and delays will be a deal breaker for many people.

Even if a player goes through the motion of petitioning and getting everything sorted, how will the time they had to take to get everything sorted be compensated? Restored SP for the time they were banned? What about loss of play time due to GM ignorance?

If the initial penalty for it was a warning, said player could always petition and have the warning removed off the accounts at their leisure, however the penalty for this is a 30 day instant ban. Which means the player will need to take the time and lost game time to have this sorted even if the player is eventually unbanned.

If CCP's wish is to take a no compromise stance on multiplexing, I will neither argue for nor against these changes. What I will argue against is GM negligence and ignorance. Before these changes go in, please take the time, ( and i do truly mean take the time, and not a small memo ) to train the GMs to identify the differences and ban accordingly.

Eve online is a sandbox game that boasts an open world for all types of gameplay. Multiboxing is one of these types of gameplays. CCP has decided to crack down on a quality of life feature of ISBoxer that has been breaking the game experience for other players and which other players have been claiming to be a method of botting. Having a neutral view on this change of policy, I will be watching very closely the implementation and enforcement of these policy changes.

If they decide to change them in the future then they will. Remember that the legality of said built in options has NEVER been in question, while the use of macros and such as been against the EULA since before I even started playing.

Also remember it's not ISBoxer that's banned, its the use of third party features that allow a single player to control multiple accounts while only having to input one set of commands. Botting, automation of controls, and stuff like that has been against the EULA for some time, CCP just decided to make it clear that broadcasting commands to multiple game sessions does in fact fall under that category, and is therefore bannable.