Previous Setups


CCP has reversed the 3-day ban they issued long ago and clarified their stance on multiboxing. Here is the e-mail I received from GM Krymus who was the GM who originally issued the 3-day ban:
2010.05.11 16:28:00 GM Krymus
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Hi,
 
Our sincere apologies for the delayed response, this was due to an error in our system that resulted in this falling through the cracks, so to speak.
 
The reason for the ban was that large numbers of accounts were seemingly being used in an automated fashion. I'm willing to accept that we have made an error on our part regarding this as our logs do indicate that your accounts were performing the actions at the same time as you say. Our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused to you by this.
 
Best regards,
 
GM Krymus
The EVE Online Customer Support Team
CCP hf.
Senior GM Lelouch verified that software and hardware multiboxing is indeed legal in Eve in this forum reply to my eve-o thread:
Posted - 2010.04.23 15:51:00
Hello there,
 
To make a long story short, automation of gameplay is not permitted; players must be manually issuing the commands to control their character(s) at all times.
 
Our stance on programs such as Synergy and hardware/software combination such as the G15 keyboard is that they can be legitimately used as long as gameplay isn't automated. Synergy allows you to move your mouse cursor to multiple different monitors which are hooked up to different computers and we do not have any qualms with players using the program for this purpose. If Synergy was used in some way to control your accounts for you without a need for you to be at your keyboard, then that would not be allowed, but I am not aware of such a functionality with this program. If Synergy is used in conjunction with some other program to automate gameplay, it would not be permitted. G15 "macros" which allow you to group different commands into one keypress are allowed. For example, setting your G1 key to press F1, F2, F3 and so on for you with one key press is allowed (although this specific command is not as useful as it was before now that we have weapon grouping).
 
An exceedingly complex G15 macro which would effectively automate gameplay, such as mining, without a need for the player to be present at his keyboard would be against the EULA, regardless of whether the player utilizing said macro is sitting at his keyboard at the time!
 
Lastly, multiboxing is allowed, and programs designed for multiboxing in mind which allow a player to manually issue the same command to multiple game clients at the same time are allowed. In the same vein as what has been stated above, the player must be manually sending the commands; if a program is automating those commands for you, then it would be considered a breach of our EULA.
 
I hope this clears up this matter.
 
Best regards,
Senior GM Lelouch
EVE Online Customer Support
 
A big thank you to CCP for correcting this mistake and clarifying the rules! Now I can use Synergy again and not have to mess with the retarded mouse cluster seen below, but make no mistake, Eve is one of the hardest MMO's to multibox on a large (5+ accounts) scale even with perfectly synchronized mouse clicks. Multiboxers coming from WoW or EQ will find it very frustrating at first.
 
 
History
My Eve multiboxing began sometime in 2007 running 6 crappy computers (Myrmidons mainly) with Zek Kromt*r and lasted a couple months in Goonfleet before leaving to box some other MMO's. In 2009 I returned to Goonfleet this time with 7 good computers and 13 new pilots: Zhek Krom*r+r and the Drake/Raven blobs were born complete with a gang booster. Had another fun couple months before getting sucked into boxing WoW arenas.
 
In March 2010 I returned to Eve to try some high-sec mining so I could get back on my feet. I got to mine for about 2 days before being 3-day banned for "macro use"... I can understand how it may have looked like macroing seeing 12 ospreys with nearly the same name sucking rocks and the GM's probably got so many petitions that they said to hell with even sending this guy a message and just banned me. But then I come to realize after complaining to other multiboxers on dual-boxing.com that CCP may not even allow software multiboxing - that is sending a keyboard or mouseclick to multiple computers or clients at the same time via multiboxing software such as Synergy, Keyclone, Octopus, etc. Software multiboxing is explicity allowed by most popular MMO's such as WoW, Anarchy Online, AoC and the draconic (and hopefully incorrect) response by one GM is likely preventing a slew of multiboxers from enjoying an incredibly fun MMO.
 
Nonetheless, I have set out to continue to play Eve without breaking any rules. Observe my asinine contraptions that allow for my self-powered control of my many PC's at once:
You'll see the 6 keypads have 4 wooden dowels each with 6 screws making contact with the same key on each pad. A little tab of superglue under each screw ensures it stays in place. This will only give you access to 4 keys on the keypad unless you want to type on them seperately in which case you can just squeeze your fingers underneath the wood with minor difficulty.
 
As for the mice it's pretty self explanatory: packaging tape and some skewers. Once you tweak it a bit and have the mice aligned properly (if they're angled differently they'll be moving the cursor in different directions) it's not too bad to use. You have to use two hands on them if you want to click on 6 buttons, but you get used to that pretty quickly. Remember to keep your overview or whatever you intend to be clicking with the mouse most frequently close to a corner of the monitor so you can move the mouse cursor into that corner to ensure all the cursors are starting at the same location. Make sure you're using the same default drivers, turn off mouse acceleration, and don't give up trying to get your mice motion reasonably synched - it will take a lot of fiddling.
 
And here is the actual monitor array:
 If you don't want to spend a fortune buying monitor mounts make your own out of conduit pipe like this:
And here's the stack of comps themselves since I know this is porn to some: