Characters and accounts.

[Rebs]

I tried searching for this topic and I am sure it's been mentioned before but I have a general question.

Why are Alts a thing?
I assume the argument is it allows normal people to have multiple characters, not just those who have 100 emails.

In the last few worlds, I have been trying more and more to only use one character. it increases the risk factor which makes fighting/hunting more heart pumping, but I still cannot play without a labor alt to do all my hard labor activities.

Has there been any thought about limiting one character to one account? I find it rather against the grain that people make alts for fighting so they don't need to risk anything.. I imagine it would change the balance of the game alot if people actually lose progress if they lose fights - could lead to interesting ambushes to halt the progress of your neighbors..

And as mentioned, most people make alts on separate accounts so they can play two characters at once, you know.. because it's free to do so, so why not?

I have seen a few topics on making life easier for one character gameplay so I assume there is a demand.

I think you will never get of alts unless you have a base value for an account. and even then there will always be people willing to pay £10 for another account/character.
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If there is already a topic on the matter please link me (Y)

[loftar]

I mean, you said it yourself:

I think you will never get of alts unless you have a base value for an account. and even then there will always be people willing to pay £10 for another account/character.

Given that, why force people into using up more account names if they don't have to? Furthermore, I also don't think all instances of using multiple characters are bad. Which ones are can be debated, but it's hardly an intrinsic evil.

[Sevenless]

Haven is a game with high levels of character specialization, long term progression, and permadeath. Alts are inevitable.

Due to the game really being a free trial as opposed to truly F2P, many accounts will actually be subbed for important secondary characters. Of course not accounts intended for suicide labour or botting, but there are many instances of alting that are already "paying their way" so to speak.

[vatas]

You can have multiple accounts on one e-mail, there's just one-hour or so cooldown.

[Rebs]

I mean, you said it yourself:

I think you will never get of alts unless you have a base value for an account. and even then there will always be people willing to pay £10 for another account/character.

Given that, why force people into using up more account names if they don't have to? Furthermore, I also don't think all instances of using multiple characters are bad. Which ones are can be debated, but it's hardly an intrinsic evil.

Yeah I get it, but surely there are mechanics in the game that are just abused with alts..
why set a character limit for villages if one player can just do it?
Why add wounds to the game when people just use alts for tasks that give them wounds?
why have energy if you supply an infinite amount of it with alts? (granted you have to feed them crap in order to do hard labor)
why have perma-death if I can stick a main behind a wall to never die and I can have an alt factory for the purpose of risky tasks that may end in death?

Personally, I think it's so against the grain of survival if you are giving everyone the opportunity to avoid the survival aspects of the game.
I imagine alot of fights are mostly rage alt characters that players are not scared to lose.

I say all this and cannot even think of how you would avoid this. alts and smurfs are in most games..

[loftar]

All of those may be legitimate opinions, but they are no reason for limiting an account to one character. As you said yourself, creating new accounts is trivial.

[MagicManICT]

I'm just going to say that very few RPGs, if any, limit you to one character, let alone one account.

[loftar]

I mean, if we could limit people to one account, that could certainly be an interesting experiment, at least, but it really isn't particularly realistic to expect to be able to do that.

We have actually considered something like having a second server where only verified accounts can play, and only one account per credit card, but even then that'd just encourage people to borrow their friends' credit cards to verify another account and so on. It would still require very active manual policing to do anything meaningful.

[Burinn]

I mean, if we could limit people to one account, that could certainly be an interesting experiment, at least, but it really isn't particularly realistic to expect to be able to do that.

Where should I be sending my passport and birth certificate for account verification?

[Rebs]

I mean, if we could limit people to one account, that could certainly be an interesting experiment, at least, but it really isn't particularly realistic to expect to be able to do that.

We have actually considered something like having a second server where only verified accounts can play, and only one account per credit card, but even then that'd just encourage people to borrow their friends' credit cards to verify another account and so on. It would still require very active manual policing to do anything meaningful.

That's fair, just wanted to hear your opinion on it.
It is a far-fetched idea to limit it and even difficult to do, I just stand by my opinion that I think the game would be more balanced to some degree. and I don't think you have disagreed with that notion.

And you are right tho, why make it harder for the casual players to make alts when there will always be dedicated players who will try to get the upper for having alts no matter how hard it is to make them.
Plus Alts are part of the game, I can't remember the last time I was in a village without shared accounts for specialized characters, it just feels rather meh.

Maybe a better way to look at is, is encouraging people to only use one character? There is already a bunch of benefits for only managing one, but it's rather outweighed against the benefits of alts.