Alt city...

[screwbag]

Ok, I realize that I'm fairly new but I have a question / observation that I would like to ask / discuss...

I cruise the dawves and thieves forum sometimes and see ads like "farmer needed" or some such skill...

People keep replying with "yeah I'm a great farmer (or whatever ) but I won't come...I'll make another useless no skilled alt to come instead..."

Even if the PLAYER is experienced, what good is a new toon with zero skills? Until they get their skills up I would think that they would not be an asset to a thriving village or camp...

Or am I missing something?

Ok, discuss... And thanks.

[MagicManICT]

You're exactly right. New alts are more or less useless to established villages.

[screwbag]

That was much less of a discussion than I expected....

[Tonkyhonk]

there can be a few reasons, but it all depends on each player, of course. and most are good at making excuses.

1) he/she may want to erase the previous records by what he/she has done on the last char.
...possibly he/she was a criminal and might have enemies, dekinned players, so on. renewing reputation.
...possibly he/she has left scents on the previous char and has been marked by others.
...possibly he/she is embarrased of his/her previous char for some reason.
...possibly he/she was low lvl enough not to care about the main stats, but rather have a new char name.
...possibly he/she has died recently, and some mixture of the above.

2) he/she may just want to try and see if its the right village he/she is looking for.
...possibly he/she may have gotten a few invitations and want to join the best one later with his/her main.
...possibly he/she is just a bit too paranoid of getting main killed at the new village. (but it happens sometimes)

3) he/she may be a spy! hiding his/her true identity!!! checking out if your village got any good loot
4) he/she may be a thief! just going to grab all the valuables in your village and leave soon!
5) he/she may be the one you had kicked before!

what good can alts do?
well you can sometimes get to know the player without worrying about his/her relationship with other players.
you dont have to worry about rangers (or raiders) they may bring in by the scents they left recently.
when your village is established, you can feed enough curios and food to let them advance faster in the beginning and till they get good enough, they shouldnt mind doing chores other experienced players do not actually wish to do lol
(if they still mind doing chores while they can't do anything good, they are no worth, kick them.)
...hmm that is about it that i can think of right now.

[screwbag]

Of course I would feel safer inviting a new character that is an unknown...so villagers don't get killed...

[Eemerald]

new players can be good for developing villages. when i started mine everyone was a newb, and for some jobs it didnt really require anyone with great skill sets, like mining for isntance. plus in an established village newbs can progress quickly. they have good foods, like sausages and cheese and baked goods etc, plus easy access to curios. as well as they will have specific job, rather than doing everything if they had jsut started or were hermiting. so it gives them more time and oppertunity to pick thigns up quickly.

but it depends, i do spend more time quizzing people who plan on porting over to me abt their skill sets than someone whose forming a new charachter inside my village from scratch

[Potjeh]

No skill newbie can still bring in lumber, which is in constant demand in any village. Kinda hard to find people willing to do such a boring job, though.

[Achilles]

Is that one at me?

Hunt, bricks, wood, some other boring jobs. There are lots of ways to help village. As for reasons, there's great answer from Tonkyhonk.

Certain alt had to hunt and make leather, bone glue and cupboards. He had no inspiration though, and there was no noticeable activity around.
A village that lives on certain main? What in the world for?

[screwbag]

Ok I can see some advantages to an alt... I guess it really boils down to trust. And hoping all goes well in the end...
Any village would most likely be wary of a new member I guess. I got lucky when I started, an experienced friend invited me in to the game, and a week or so later I was invited to the village.....otherwise I would have died a LOT!

[Sevenless]

New chars will be a drain on village resources for approximately two weeks after birth. During that time they'll be eating int/per food and curios, but will be unable to contribute other than through brute wood hauling and brick making. And we all know how often someone's willing to do THAT for two weeks. Even hunting takes realistically a week before they get up to speed in best case scenario.

I don't like the fact that starting chars have nothing to do, but it's unavoidable. The honest truth though is that forum recruiting is dangerous. What you're going to get is new players, people who died (mostly while hermitting) looking for a new start, and spies. New players represent an investment of resources for a rather shaky payoff. They might get bored, quit after their 3rd death or who knows what else. The odd hermits who show up have more potential, they'll be what you're really looking for. And spies... yeah it's a significant problem for the more established villages. It's why they don't tend to recruit on the forums.

As for me? Friends of friends are what I tend to recruit. I've met a lot of people while trading and chatting on the forums, got to know a few and offered a couple refuge when they needed it. As things progressed my village grew stronger while my friend's villages died, so I started absorbing the most active remaining members. You'll want to make some significant investments into quality boosters for this. Grind those pearls for the Q60 kiln if you have to do it yourself. 50%% of an established village can be brute forced from hard work via pearls/edels these days. The other 50% comes from hard work at mining and farming to get your quality up from that end of things. Watch the marketplace like a hawk for a better Q smithing set to bump your armoury Q and curio Q that extra 10 points. Quality is the marker of an established village, and people want the Q60 Bark bread if they have a choice between that and Q20 cow chorizos.

Ultimately? It comes down to being a leader or a faction who can attract followers instead of having to hunt for them. However it is you go about that is up to you.