Only one character slot? (Please answer poll)

I thought I read somewhere the plan is to only allow one character. Can anyone confirm? I really hope that is not the case. I loved being able to have a tamer, then switch over to my crafter, spend some time pk'ing with my fencing dexer, and then grinding out some loot with my caster and an army of energy vortex's!!!

Please please please allow more than one character per account. I have already pledged the $550 and would gladly pay for extra slots if need be!

 

That's the plan but Chris has said that if it becomes an annoyance for people that could be changed. I'm still hoping it will change but we will have to wait and see and campaign of course

 

Ultima Online (at least when I played it at launch) had hard skill and attribute caps. It almost forced you to have separate characters because learning one skill was literally at the opportunity cost of learning another.

If this game doesn't have such skill/attribute caps, then I don't mind having a single character slot. And while I would prefer the ability to have alts, I'd understand if the rewards were tied to a single character.

 

I suspect even in the best circumstances they will not allow a single character to master all skills to the point of being self-sufficient in the way you could in UO with multiple characters.

 

I always must have two characters, even if it means purchasing and paying for more then one account. Reason? Sometimes you want to be someone that people don't know, for privacy. I find its nicer to just play a dif character rather then worrying about.. will I be seen? do I set afk? Do I set Anon mode? Etc...

Another character that only VERY close friends know about, that you can get on with to just be private for a bit, is something I will most likely always want as an option.

-Stile
Guild Master - Caverns, Dungeons, and Beyond
www.thecaverns.net

 

To answer the question in more detail, the last Dev chat I watched in that Lord British spoke about this, his example was:

(Paraphrase, summary, and just tossing fake examples):

if there are 100 skills in the game, I only want 1 player to be able to master 50% of them. This is so that they have to go to other players for the other 50%

Also your not going to this world to be Conan or some other hero, your going to be yourself and play yourself. Sure you get stronger, but you are still you.

^^ That's the basic gist, and general outlook that is being taken on the one player thing.

-Stile
Guild Master ? Caverns, Dungeons, and Beyond
http://www.thecaverns.net

 

I can't voice my support for the Single Character direction any louder. Actually, I could: I CAN'T VOICE MY SUPPORT FOR THE SINGLE CHARACTER DIRECTION ANY LOUDER.

If you want to buy a new account, that's your business. Really, no one can stop you and why would they? But I think the spirit of the game, the way your actions affect you, affect others, interface with the 'selective' multiplayer, work best with 1 character.

Whether you are famous, infamous, or an obscure nobody, you are always who you are. A unique approach, given today's MMOs. How can you truly care about a character if you have 12?

~Holt

 

This has come up before. And I'm normally a huge altaholic. I love the idea of one character, they just need to figure out how to make it work. And if this means people end up with multiple accounts, then it doesn't work.

If I were designing the game, I'd have it be one "avatar" but you'd have alts/henchmen/companions/apprentices/servants who you could also play around with. But they would not be avatars and there's parts of the story they wouldn't do.

 

This is going to be a thing and I think it's a thing they need to decide firmly before release. People who really want another character will purchase a second copy of the game but I am not sure it is fair to make them do that.

And then what if they open up a second slot six months after that? Those people who did purchase a second copy have lost out and it is going to taste even more bitter if they are someone who pledged a fair sum during the KS.

One character per account won't stop alts existing but it will create an annoying and potentially bitter pay barrier for players, as well as extra admin (regarding usernames and passwords, house friendship, guilds, etc.

I'm not saying give everyone twenty slots, but I think three is more fair.

 

I also like the idea of the single character per account.

I also always make a ton of alts to try every class.

At this time we know it's a classless system, with a plan of 3 main skill trees, combat, magic, and subterfuge. (crafting/gathering/farming is separate)

We really don't know how the options and limits will work. We do know that RG has said he doesn't want someone to master both magic and combat (warrior+mage). We also know EXP will be used to level your skills in each tree..we don't know what restrictions might go into place, assuming deeper into the skill tree we need a lot more EXP, but could we branch out into all 3 skills, being a jack of all trades? where is the cap/restriction? we don't know yet. With that being said, I've presented this idea before:

Short version: change your skills out so you can learn new skills, your old skills are saved and able to be reverted to.

Long version of how it might work in game description:

What if people were able to repress their memory/thoughts and focus on new experiences... forget their magic tree and able to start fresh on combat. Then going back to a sort of meditation specialist (available in the major cities) who will be able to switch you back, refocusing your thoughts and energy towards the past, relearning your magic tree and forgetting your new combat tree. So you are right back where you were. This allows you to experiment with new skills and playstyles and keeps you from wasting too much time if there is some sort of skill down mechanism.

I guess we'll see what they come up with. I'll suggest it again in alpha/beta if they don't have some system like that.


For the roleplayers a disguise kit has been suggested. I really don't understand a privacy-close friends/family only type role though, that's the first time ive ever heard of someone needing that. In that case a 2nd account would likely be your best option. although single player online or friends only online options might work as well.

 

I'm happy with a single character if there are no skill trees, but instead there is a quantity of skills (say 100), each with a maximum skill value (again, say 100) and a skill cap that requires I make choices regarding which skills I improve. So I can max out 50 of those skills with 5000 skill points, but that's it. After that, I have to unlearn or reduce a skill to learn another.

However, to combine skill trees with a skill cap, or to have skill trees at all, whereby you're restricted in choosing any skill due to an extremely narrow pre-requisite path, I'm not a fan of that. It's not innovative, and not fun, for me. Every prerequisite skill and/or skill tree also eliminates some amount of illusion of uniqueness, choice or freedom, from what I've seen.

Unfortunately, for players who have been at this a very long while, any sort of artificial restriction like "you can only max half the skills" simply translates as "I have to buy two accounts" because they're unwilling to put up with a bot-ridden/gold-farmer-controlled market and experience has taught them self sufficiency is the only way to avoid that. Time will tell if Portalarium addresses these issues or not.

 

In every game I've played, my main gets most of the attention anyway. I make all these alts and end up half-ass developing them.

There are some people, if they have more time, that can manage / max out the potential of all their characters.

Now if I had no time constraints, sure Alts might appeal to me more. Right now I'm glad they are only allowing 1 character so I can have a life outside this game lol.

Advantages to both I suppose, but the quality/substance of that single character, in most cases, will be better if your time is not spread out between alts. Now some might be able to Role-play using multiple characters, but only allowing 1 character will increase the odds that interaction with that person will be of a greater quality.

Don't know if I explained that well. Basically, I think alts can dilute the quality of avatars. If you put your time into only 1 toon, that toon will have more potential.

Understand where i'm coming from?

 

I lived through this conversation on the SWG pre-alpha forums (SCS/MCS) where the devs originally wanted to go Single Character Slot.... and they gave in to the outcry against it.

As a devoted altaholic, I am excited to play a game that is willing to say "THIS is our vision, and our reasons, for a single avatar. We get why you want more characters but trust us, one is better." and I hope they stick to their guns on it.

It comes down to I trust them, even if it's not 'everything *I* would do' designing a game.

 

Oh believe me, Gunga Din, if there was a way to guarantee that only a single person was a single character for the lifetime of a title, I'd be all over that. Unfortunately, that's not the case.

I too believe that, to a degree, the amount of time involved in character development determines the quality of social interaction. If it takes 100 days of play time to get a character close to "powerful" and requires dependency on other players for that entire 100 days, people behave. Older MMO's have proven this out.

1 week and solo? Not so much. Modern persistent worlds where a player has no requirement to socialize and yet can have a constant negative impact on the world around them, and reaches "extremely powerful" in hours or days, it's a recipe for disaster.

 

Single character helps much more for the immersion in the world. I read in the topic about wanted key features the Story driven and believable world was among the first choices... and then comes a wish for alternate characters. It sounds contradictory to me.
When you play one character it is your character. It has strengths and weaknesses but it makes it unique. It creates a style in which you play the game - you are a magician, so you solve the problems with magic, you are a warrior - you bash through them with sword, you are a crafter - you pick a clever solution... You want to know about the other options - go talk with your friends and play with them. You need some magic while you are not able to do it - find a friend who can. That's what we do in the real life - we don't go and learn new skills for minor problems - we ask others to help us (sometime we pay for it too).
I strongly support one character choice and hope the team will not change it in favor of more mass market approach. Each game should have its own charisma and approach. I don't think we need another WoW - we need another game.

 

@Vjek : yes, quality of social interaction. I was looking for those words.

 

I personally would prefer at least another slot for testing.
The idea i have would be to include an group/clan system, where your chars would be connected, so you woudn't go away with crimes. But then you could have at least another slot for testing.

The always mentioned reason about its your self, its your soul, etc. Its yust an avatar.

But with 2 slots, you would only be able to have one fixed avatar, if you still want to test around. So most likely it will end in one main then. Star Cititzen considered it with 2 slots aswell, what i heard. First they wanted aswell only one slot.

 

Id imagine the single player offline mode could be played on and tested as much as you want... it's DRM Free so you can put it on as many computers as you'd like.

 

Yes, and the single player offline mode will aswell have mod support. I would now say, that i will most likely then be most time in single player offline mode, to test around with the mods, etc. But then i will start to threaten around again, that i only play offline.

 

I might not be in the majority, but I like the single character idea.