To stop alts and altocalypse

[Caradon]

Verify accounts with paypal or credit card. one account per paypal/credit card. $2 for life membership until commercial release, assuming there is ever a commercial release.

Limit new character creation to 3 characters, charge 50 cents for every new character above 3.

This would keep the trolls away a great deal, and anyone complaining about $2 has more to worry about than not being able to play Haven and Hearth.

[sabinati]

that wouldn't work. i have literally tens of dollars. you can't stop my alt army.

[Pumpkin]

This idea is one of the worst I have seen posted on the forums.

Seriously, you should be ashamed.

[jorb]

I think this "altpocalypse" thing is an overstated problem.

Edit: People throw the word "alt" around, taking it to mean a character who has little or no serious investment behind it which would make it "legit". This completely misses the point that, right now, by the logic of things, a character needs serious investment before even reaching the point where he can at all be considered a thief in terms of skills and values. I.e. no thief can be an "alt" in the sense that this word is now being used. I.e. there are no alt thieves.

If it's not exploited, I have absolutely no issue with people playing as many characters as they like. More power to you. The only problem that I, presently, see with multiple characters is alt vaults. The practice of stashing valuables in the inventories of low level characters, to keep said valuables perpetually safe from theft. This is a problem and it will be fixed. Not by charging money, of course. (Loosely: Hearthfire will be a container -- if no hearthfire, don't log out with stuff on you. You will drop it. Theft from HF will require additional skill/investment in thief, and always produce scent, regardless of claim.)

In short: Stop throwing this alt concept around with such reckless abandon.

[niltrias]

I dont want to quote the above, because of its length, but I would like to say:
AWESOME.

[Pumpkin]

I think this "altpocalypse" thing is an overstated problem.

Edit: People throw the word "alt" around, taking it to mean a character who has little or no serious investment behind it which would make it "legit". This completely misses the point that, right now, by the logic of things, a character needs serious investment before even reaching the point where he can at all be considered a thief in terms of skills and values. I.e. no thief can be an "alt" in the sense that this word is now being used. I.e. there are no alt thieves.

If it's not exploited, I have absolutely no issue with people playing as many characters as they like. More power to you. The only problem that I, presently, see with multiple characters is alt vaults. The practice of stashing valuables in the inventories of low level characters, to keep said valuables perpetually safe from theft. This is a problem and it will be fixed. Not by charging money, of course. (Loosely: Hearthfire will be a container -- if no hearthfire, don't log out with stuff on you. You will drop it. Theft from HF will require additional skill/investment in thief, and always produce scent, regardless of claim.)

In short: Stop throwing this alt concept around with such reckless abandon.

Allow Village Idols to operate as containers with 2-4x the storage of a chest, which can be stolen from via the same mechanic. This would be awesome.

[Potjeh]

This suggestion would drive me out of the game. I have no credit card, nor does anyone in my family (I live in Bosnia).

But I guess the mention of money makes this the perfect place to ask the devs about their plans for H&H. Will it remain free forever, or will payment be needed (one off or monthly?)? Or is it undecided thus far?

[Jackard]

amazing thread

[jorb]

It feels presumptuous to discuss the issue of payments, as if H&H was something worth paying for. I'm happy that some people seem to think so, but I feel very humble about it, personally. We'd love to make money off of the game, and we'd love to be able to work full time/more on it (And I think you'd love the development pace if we did). Even if it's not about making money we can't keep on running the game from my dorm room forever, if it continues to grow as it has done for the past three months. We've discussed the issue, and one idea that we've often returned to is to allow for a certain amount of free time each month (Say in between 24-48 hours), and then charge a fixed monthly subscription price if you want to play more than that -- which you really shouldn't, as real life is more important. Hopefully, this way, subscriptions would always be made with at least one eye simply looking to support a game you like, and casual/new/less fortunate/ players could still play and add to the world without having to fork out hard earned dough for it. And then maybe some forum/login screen bling-bling for paying customers, just to show love.

Ads are out, since they are tools of Satan which should always be blocked using an ad blocker near you.
Paying for game content is gay and not happening.
Capping the number of maximum logged in players would allow us to remain free of charge in my dorm room longer, and could be considered.

But, as has been stated elsewhere, development doesn't really hinge on us getting payed at some stage. Our servers being what they are, playability might, though.

Edit: In addition to that, we'd probably set the company up on the Cayman Islands or some such, since the Swedish IRS hates business, trade, commerce, freedom, life in general and human beings in particular, and should be dealt with to as small an extent as possible.

[VoodooDog]

what is that "altpocalypse" thing ?