My plans for multiboxing in EVE

[dfo]

Hey guys, just thought I'd share my plans for multiboxing in EVE and get some opinions/suggestions from those that have done this for a while.

FIRST OFF:

My basic plan is to blow through L4 missions as fast as possible, cherry picking missions that are best suited for multiboxing, and start doing this as fast as possible. My main combat-capable character has high enough faction standings with Amarr that I can decline as many crap missions as I want (within a reasonable amount, of course), regardless of what my standing with the agent is, and still accept missions because my faction standing overrides the agent standing.

THE HARDWARE:

First off is my computer setup - I currently run an i7 970 with 3x 1920x1080 monitors (I enjoy racing games, and started out using this setup for that, then noticed it worked great for multiple EVE clients) powered by 2 GTX 460s in SLi.

THE CHARACTERS:

I will be using 6 characters to multibox with. Here is how I plan to do it.

1x Dominix pilot to serve as tank and gain full aggro and then transfer energy to the Oracles to keep them capacitor stable
1x Guardian pilot to remote repair and feed capacitor to the Dominix
4x Oracles fit with Tachyon Beams fitted for full gank/no tank

THE SHIPS:

A little more about the ships...

Dominix Fit:

[Dominix, New Setup 1]
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor EM Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Armor Thermic Hardener II
Signal Amplifier II

Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
Omnidirectional Tracking Link I
100MN Afterburner II

Medium Energy Transfer Array II
Medium Energy Transfer Array II
Medium Energy Transfer Array II
Medium Energy Transfer Array II
Medium Energy Transfer Array II
Large Remote Armor Repair System II

Large Sentry Damage Augmentor I
Large Sentry Damage Augmentor I
[empty rig slot]


Garde II x5
Hammerhead II x5
Hobgoblin II x5

How it will work: The Dominix will serve as the tank for the missions, as well as keeping the Guardian alive in case it somehow gets aggro, as well as feeding Capacitor to the Guardian and Oracle alts to keep their guns running constantly.

Receiving power from 2x Large Energy Transfer Array IIs and armor from 3x Large Remote Armor Repair System IIs and a single Medium Remote Armor Repair System II, the Dominix will be be cap stable, tank 2992 DPS (at its lowest resists, EM/Therm, since I'm in Amarr space) and deal 502 DPS using Garde II sentry drones with my characters skills.

Guardian Fit:

[Guardian, New Setup 1]
True Sansha Armor EM Hardener
True Sansha Armor Thermic Hardener
Adaptive Nano Plating II
Adaptive Nano Plating II
True Sansha Capacitor Power Relay

Cap Recharger II
10MN Afterburner II

Large Energy Transfer Array II
Large Energy Transfer Array II
Medium Remote Armor Repair System II
Large Remote Armor Repair System II
Large Remote Armor Repair System II
Large Remote Armor Repair System II

Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit II

How it will work: The Guardian will feed capacitor and remote repair the Dominix.

Receiving power and armor from the Dominix with a Medium Energy Transfer Array II and a Large Remote Armor Repair System II will keep the Guardian cap stable as well as letting it tank 436 DPS just in case some ships happen to aggro it.

Oracle Fit:

Unfortunately I do not have Pyfa with the test server database on it to fit up an Oracle with on this computer. However, here is how it will be fit and generally how they will work.

High:
8x Tachyon Modulated Energy Beam I

Mid:
1x 10MN Afterburner I
2x Tracking Computer II - Tracking Speed Script

Low:
4x Heat Sink II
2x Tracking Enhancer II

Rigs:
1x Medium Energy Burst Aerator II
1x Medium Energy Metastasis Adjuster I

How these will work:

After the Dominix has aggro'd all the NPCs in the mission, the Oracles will warp in and start wiping the floor. Their fit is a mixed T2/T1 because the accounts are all buddy accounted (Buy plex, invite buddy account with plex gift, give buddy account plex and activate it, receive plex gift, repeat) and will need to get started in the missions as soon as possible. Obviously as they skill up I will upgrade everything to T2 gear.

I chose the Oracles because of their ability to provide Nightmare-like DPS (without the tracking bonus unfortunately) at long ranges with high-damage short range crystals. They will be cheap and relatively easy to fit.

The Dominix will supply capacitor to these Oracles with a Medium Energy Transfer Array IIs on each one in order to keep their guns running even with mediocre capacitor skills on these alts.

HOW I PLAN TO MANAGE IT ALL:

On 2 of my 3 monitors I will run 2 full eve clients - one being the Dominix character and the other being the Guardian character

On my 3rd monitor, I will be running 4 VMWare Player virtual machines with each VM running an eve client with a Oracle alt. The VMWare clients will be linked with Input Director so that by controlling one client I can control all of them at the same time.

STUFF I HAVEN'T FIGURED OUT YET:

What is the best way to sort the overview so that I will be targeting the correct NPCs on the Oracle alts? Since I will be controlling only 1 Oracle "directly" targeting may be an issue - I'm not entirely sure how to work around this, though I guess I might be able to use the broadcast system, but that means moving away from the Oracle clients to broadcast on the Dominix or Guardian client which would waste some time. However, I guess I'll figure that one out. Distance would be a problem as sometimes NPCs are grouped close together and not all ships warp in at the same distance. What about sorting them by name? Do same-named NPCs just get put in a random order across all clients?

Any suggestions or huge oversights with my plans?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Why would you inject VMWare into the mix? You should be able to run 6 clients OK on your system.

The overview, sorted by range, generally works pretty good for mousebroadcast-targeting. Check the option for "Put broadcasted targets at the top of the list" (or whatever it's called) and when you broadcast, it bubbles up to the first slot for easy mass targeting.

Same-named NPCs at the same range show up pretty randomly in my experience. I gave up trying to sort by name/type (except where sentry guns exist, like in AE bonus room) and just use range. Honestly, with the right UI layout (see the in-game elements layout thread in this forum) targeting is not difficult or time-consuming.

You don't really need to worry about frigates with your setup. Just target BC and up and blow 'em up and the DPS will rarely ever get high enough to care about. Then just mop up frigs with drones after the big ships/towers are dead. Point being, you can set up a tab in your overview with only BC/BS/etc. in it and it makes your targeting picture much simpler. Then switch back to the normal tab to see the small ships once the others are dead. I'm thinking/optimizing my overview setup today to see if I can get it even easier to manage. I'll update the other thread when I'm happy with things.

[edit] Also, ISBoxer's video feeds make these setups a breeze. Especially being able to turn on broadcasting only to the DPS group, as an example.
In another 6 weeks or so, my hauler/salvager pilot will have logistics skills and I'm planning to convert to a setup similar to yours. 5x DPS+resists and a basilisk.

[dfo]

Well, the reason I am using VMWare is so I can manage the clients all at once... I like the idea of ISBoxer but to be honest I'm already paying a subscription for several of my EVE clients at the moment so the idea of paying a subscription for even more software is something I'm not really interested in. I would be all over it if I could purchase a license for a 1-time fee but unfortunately I'm not interested in another subscription.

I've looked at several other alternatives such as Pwnboxer, but pwnboxer doesn't seem to work with EVE online... I misunderstood some information on their forum and thought it would support eve and purchased a license, but it turns out I'm wrong about that.

The VMWare setup works great, I played around with it a bit last night, but memory starts to become an issue - I currently have 6GB and I'm right on the limit.

[tchallawow]

Ughma. You sticking with Caldari?

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Yeah. Going to try something new out in a week or two when my newest guy trains a few more skills. If it works like I'm thinking it will, it will make even the hardest L4's trivial. I'll make a new post about when I find out if it works. :P

dfo, can you get a refund on pwnboxer? If it doesn't support the game you wanna play, it shouldn't be a big deal to get it refunded. ISBoxer is that way (as are most well-supported products).

[tchallawow]

In a week..... Hmmmm. That puts winter expansion out.

Complete guess on my part... Scorp tank, Raven dps, Basi logi.

[Redbeard]

I cringe every time I see domi setups but it looks like he only has one so...
Dont mind me =P

[d0z3rr]

I cringe every time I see domi setups but it looks like he only has one so...
Dont mind me =P

Why is that? I wanted to do domi's when I got to l4's...


You don't really need to worry about frigates with your setup. Just target BC and up and blow 'em up and the DPS will rarely ever get high enough to care about. Then just mop up frigs with drones after the big ships/towers are dead. Point being, you can set up a tab in your overview with only BC/BS/etc. in it and it makes your targeting picture much simpler. Then switch back to the normal tab to see the small ships once the others are dead.

That's a really good idea.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

That's a really good idea.
Just have to be damned sure you can tank things long enough to kill off the high-DPS incoming. ;)

[dfo]

Well I'm not ready to try out any missions yet since my characters don't have any skills yet, but just test running everything looks like this setup will work out pretty well. The VMs perform flawlessly with Input Directory and very very rarely do I have a "misclick" or manage to get something out of sync between the clients.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/36945615/Screenshots/multiboxing.jpg

[Ughmahedhurtz]

So how are you planning to multibox that with VMWare in the picture? Meaning broadcasting mouse-clicks and such.

[dfo]

Input Director in mirror mode. The VM on the far left is the master and the other 3 VMs are the slaves - anything I do with the mouse/keyboard on the master VM is mirrored on the other VMs, so they all operate simultaneously.

The 2 clients on the far left are running on the machines native OS, since once those get into the mission, start tanking, and assign drones to the main master DPS ship, they won't need to be touched.

I'm not just planning, in that picture I'm testing it, it works.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Ah, OK. Hey, whatever works. :)

[Redbeard]

Sorry been kind of out of it.

I am a skilled drone pilot who is anti drones these days... though they've improved quite a bit, i still dont think its worth the hassle, especially if you have 5 pilots going.

[dfo]

There is only 1 dominix there, its reason is just to tank the entire room and use the drones to kill all the triggers to gain full aggro for the entire mission. I'm not using 5 Dominixes, lol.

Then the drones will be assigned to 1 of the 4 Oracles to provide some extra DPS.

1 Dominix to tank + provide power to Oracles
1 Guardian to provide tank + power for the Dominix
4x Oracles controlled at the same time for DPS

[RobinGBrown]

You're gonna be shafted if they ever change aggro mechanics.

[Kromtor]

i like it. your real problem is that while you'll be flying through level 4's at a tremondous rate and cutting down their completion time you won't be cutting down on travel time which can become a real bitch. but like they said, if they change aggro mechanics and you need to tank on all your ships you'll be in a world of hurt.

[Kromtor]

also, overview sorting on eve is a nightmare. sorting by name is most reliable for making sure you have the right things clicked but this does NOT put them necessarily in the same order for same named ships. honestly it shouldnt be of a huge concern to you since you have so much DPS it's not essential that your DPS be entirely focused, you will still kill stuff in L4's handily.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

You're gonna be shafted if they ever change aggro mechanics.
Not to mention those missions where it spawns in waves and the waves aggro randomly. Thus my current setup of having everyone carry remote shield transporters. I'm still dedicating one guy as primary logistics but even if he gets aggro, I have 5 other reppers that can focus on him until the aggro dies. Secondary benefit to this is that you can use Cap Power Relay II's and not suffer any penalties to shield transfers, making more room for shield hardeners and damage mods. So far, it's working swimmingly in the harder missions (The Assault, etc.). I haven't gotten Angel Extravaganza yet but I"m really looking forward to it. :)

[RSM72]

Solo battleships already dominate L4 missions. Doing them with an additional damage dealer is easy/speed mode. Efficiency goes down from there. Three ships is overkill already and by doing it with 6 ships you are wasting time.

Split your single fleet into two separate ones and do 2 missions at once.

EDIT: Oh and on top of that the local player pirate crowd will be pleased to have you as a new toy once they realize what you are doing.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Solo battleships already dominate L4 missions. Doing them with an additional damage dealer is easy/speed mode. Efficiency goes down from there. Three ships is overkill already and by doing it with 6 ships you are wasting time.Unless, of course, your intent is not to be the fastest or richest but to just have fun. ;)


EDIT: Oh and on top of that the local player pirate crowd will be pleased to have you as a new toy once they realize what you are doing.
I keep hearing that. I guess it depends on where you are and how you're doing things. I have yet to have anyone harass me in missions, even when I've done some mining in the pockets (which takes a LOT longer than the mission itself).