Multiboxing is a sign of a deeper problem with the game.

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Strawberry, Mar 14, 2022.

  1. Strawberry Augur

    Multiboxing is a consequence of a seriously mismanaged game. Players who seek a solution to the inability to easily form groups, investing time and resources to maintain multiple characters as a way to remedy a gameplay issue.

    Multiboxing is a short time solution to a long lasting problem in Everquest. A solution that leads to player burnout and a game that lost its social fabric over time.

    Players should not be the ones coming up with convoluted solutions like multiboxing to get enjoyment out of a game. Instead, developers should fix the core issues with this game instead.
    pickmepickme, Caell, Xyphen and 3 others like this.
  2. mark Augur

    i dont agree with you multiboxing lets people be unsocial ,social or a combination ,i always have friends and the wife in my group, some times my friend would be boxing and i would play 1 charecter in the group or be 6 boxing and drop charecters to have friends join, also in some deep dungeons you needed 2 groups to keep an area clear and with the use of discord or other voice systems loot can be easily distributed also most social everquest players have prebuilt groups.
  3. Jumbur Improved Familiar


    I actually agree with you there. But the "core issue" imo is that there is not much to do in the game without a group. At least some classes have bad synergy with the selection of mercs we have.
    For example a squishy wizard without a pet, doesn't have a great merc-solution when most encounters are tank & spank(and lacking either a tank or a healer is a big handicap). Im sure some other classes have similar issues.

    Most other MMO's have group-content, raid-content AND solo-content, which makes the demand for boxing less severe in those games. Everquest have decided to skip the solo-content part.

    The only solution I can see, is to either make new solo-content, or to adjust character-abilities(or make mobs more vulnerable to the abilities we have) to lessen inter-dependency, or to buff mercs.
  4. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]

    I like in FFXIV that you have to keep moving while fighting. Boxing is only an option in EQ because you can switch away from a character long enough to play another without getting wrecked.
    Kazint likes this.
  5. Smokezz The Bane Crew

    Welcome back to the game. It'll take you a bit to catch up, taking a break around the SoD time... but it's doable.
  6. CatsPaws No response to your post cause your on ignore

    I totally disagree.

    Originally the game was grouping only. Each class brought something to the group so it functioned well. If you tried to solo you were limited to what you could do. I remember wanting to just go solo something but could not because you needed a group or whatever so I would log off. Boxing was not common and few could do it on the computers and connections (how many phone lines did you have?) back then.

    Then the player base got less and less so groups were harder and harder to find and they created Mercs. I thought these were the best thing to happen to the game since now players have a choice. Solo or Molo.

    Then computers and internet connections improve (from dial up really) and one learns to box because you can run more than one account on high speed connections now and my own company is much better than 90% of the other players in the game.

    Its not a mismanaged game at all but one that has adapted to the times.

    Remember it is always better to offer a solution when you complain. Makes one look better and not like a whiner.
  7. Angahran Augur

    The major issue I see is people seem to confuse 'boxing' (manually playing more than one character) with 'botting' (having software 'play' characters for you).

    Boxing has been around since the game started. People had characters simply for buffs, or heals, etc.
    Most people I know who play more than one character will quite happily drop a box out of a group to invite a live player.

    Botting on the other hand is, and has always been, cheating and 100% against the EULA.
    Being able to park your 'group' in a spot and have them do their thing 24/7/365 with no input from you is not 'playing the game'.

    And no, you botters are NOT 'keeping the lights on'!
  8. Sissruukk Rogue One

    Except that it hasn't adapted with the times. WoW, SWTOR, LoTRO, and numerous other post EQ heyday games have the options of solo, group, and raid content. In SWTOR and LoTRO (I haven't touched WoW in over a decade) when you finish progression content (solo) they have daily quests which are soloable. I know that in LoTRO you can do group content (missions 3-6 man) and raids (12+). So I, being mostly a solo player, can complete the current content story arcs in the game without the need for a group (there are some arcs that have missions, but the story arc can still be completed solo because the missions are optional).

    Some people say, "Well, there is plenty of previous xpac content you can do solo." Yes, there is, there is a lot in EQ that can be done by going backwards, but I feel that a good many people would want solo content going forward. It isn't that people don't want to socialize, it is just frustrating to sit around looking for a group and not finding one the entire time you are online.

    I am a solo player. I tried boxing for a short time, but sucked at it. In my guild we have pretty much one active solo tank which I group with when he is on. But due to RL stuff, he isn't on for half the year. So, for half a year I am often finding myself without a group.

    The solution to the issue is to create current content soloable story arc questlines, as well as have group content and raids. Have dailies that can be completed solo. Rotate dailies like they do in SWTOR. Have dailies earn you currency that you can use to buy upgraded gear, fun clickies, and other stuff.
  9. Waring_McMarrin Augur


    From what I understand all of those games had soloing in the design from the start while EQ was designed to group to progress and making that design change after the fact can be harder then it seems.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare likes this.
  10. Sissruukk Rogue One

    I realize this, and I know that others do as well. But I wanted to present a solution rather than appear to just be whining about it.
  11. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    Saying what other games can do because they where designed for it isn't a solution and making it so every class in EQ can solo would be a major change and likely break balance pretty badly.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare likes this.
  12. Sissruukk Rogue One

    You wouldn't necessarily have to make every class soloable by changing the class. You just change how the quests work, scaling them to be able to be soloable. You can also buff mercs to make them a viable option for soloing. Change dropped loot to coin-based loot or reward quest loot and you stop most people from monopolizing camps. You don't need to unbalance the classes to get this done. They have already taken a step toward this concept by making it so that questing gets you higher XP than grinding it out at a camp.
  13. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    When you have classes that can't do enough dps to solo mobs, can't take the damage to tank or can't heal enough to keep a tank/dps up it can be hard for them to solo. Take a pure DPS class and figure out how they are going to be able to tank/heal even with a merc. With the way EQ is designed there are going to be some classes that will struggle to solo no matter what is done.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare and Grove like this.
  14. Jumbur Improved Familiar

    Wizards are one of the problematic classes, but if mobs where not immune to runspeed changes and CC, and couldn't summon, then we could get very far. Changing the class itself wouldn't be necessary at all.

    For other classes to flourish, they could probably remove immunity to mez, charm and stun from the mobs. Even adjusting strikethrough values would make a big change. The classes would feel even more like EQ-classes.
    Let us use the abilities we already have...Headshot should work on everything with heads, root should work on anything with feet, charm and mez should work on anything with a mind, etc...Not counting boss mobs of course, missions should imo still require grouping...

    I don't know other classes and their limitations well, so this is just guesswork, but I don't think it would require a fundamental redesign of the game.
    Caell and Sissruukk like this.
  15. Coagagin Guild house cat

    Yeah and we used to have something called "class balance" where even the well under-powered Wizard class had little problem soloing. Well, the class can solo today in a few outside zones but mob density often makes this difficult to don't bother.
    Caell and Jumbur like this.
  16. Bernel Augur

    The design of EQ was built around grouping, but casual/pick-up grouping isn't really viable on live servers unless you're at top level. On a live server, the zones below 100 or so are pretty much deserted. Not only will you have these lower-level zones to yourself, you may even be the only person in the whole expansion.

    I also don't really like boxing. It feels very clunky and takes me out of the immersion of playing. I feel more like a observer controlling the characters rather than being a character myself. I would prefer that there be mechanics which address the fact that there is pretty much no casual grouping before 100-110. If you're not at the top levels and don't have a friend group, in a guild, or box, then you are on your own. There are no LFG groups to join. Often this makes for a frustrating experience that cause people to quit. Boxing is one solution, but that's not really what EQ was designed with either, and not all players like boxing. If someone would rather quit than box, it seems beneficial to EQ to find a way to keep that player in the game.

    One way to address this is to make older expansions more solo friendly. If an older expansion requires 3+ players to request missions which unlock content, change that to 2+ so the solo player can do it. Make mercs tougher and more effective in older expansions so that the solo player can live through encounters. Or allow multiple mercs in older expansions. Newer expansions don't need this bonus since there are plenty of people doing that content to group with. As expansions age and get more deserted, make that older content more doable for the solo player. This will allow the solo player to level up to the point at which they can play with the rest of the server population.
    Wulfhere, Caell and Grove like this.
  17. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    What about Rogues? I don't think a simple runspeed/summon change would let them solo. My point is that there are some classes that would have issues soloing unless significant changes are made. And when I talk about soloing I am excluding classes that can solo with raid gear or a skilled enough player behind the keyboard as soloing should be considered for a larger group of players who do not have raid level gear.
    Xianzu_Monk_Tunare and Jumbur like this.
  18. Thash Zoner

    People play games for different reasons. In this particular game, the "high end" is something a solo player will see very little of, particularly if they are the appropriate level for a given expansion.

    For players that want to see as much of the game as possible, have difficulty sticking to raid schedules, or simply want to be more self-sufficient, the fact that you can box is one of eq's great redeeming factors and is the very reason a lot of us choose this game in particular over another.

    It is a natural progression, as an old fan of this game; 15 years of single LFG characters may lead to 3 boxing, 5 years of 3 boxing may lead to 6, etc. I speak only as one who plays for fun and wants to experience the content more fully.

    Some games really hate solo players, require guilding, and enforce matching and queues for dungeons, thank goodness this isn't one of them.

    In other words, it may be a flaw, but it's the flaw we're here for.
  19. Waring_McMarrin Augur

    What I remember was they could solo but it was only in places where they could kite the mobs around which normally was only outdoor zones.

    I also remember that they added mechanics like summoning to prevent that type of soloing as it wasn't intended.
  20. Cicelee Augur

    If multiboxing is the problem, what is the solution?