Limit number of characters per account.

Thoughts on the further development of Haven & Hearth? Feel free to opine!
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cobaltjones
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Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:27 am

Limit number of characters per account.

Post by cobaltjones »

While reading the recent Superfriends vs. Russians thread, I came across this post which really struck me:
Potjeh wrote:I'll tell you a trade secret: we get good resources by spamming alts. Basically, wilderness spawn alt, check quality of soil, water and clay, and then do it all again. A guy in my group has been doing this 8 hours a day since the reset, spawning several hundreds of such characters, and we still haven't found anything over q60 :cry:
I'm no programmer so maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like hundreds and hundreds of basically "junk" characters spawned (multiplied by dozens of accounts) would have some sort of strain on the server or database or at least be a generally bad thing for making things run smoothly. I'm aware that people use alts for various tasks, and a dedicated hermit might have 10+ separate characters on his account for various tasks, but this just seems ridiculous. There should probably be some sort of cap as to the number of active characters one account can have. I'd say something like 10-15, but perhaps people more intune with the game would know what the reasonable limit for actual characters is. Also, it's extremely easy to grief someone this way, by spawning a junk character and then setting their HF outside of the targets claim and spawn away. Within 30 minutes you can have hundreds of HFs blocking the way and generally causing annoyance for whoever lives there. I'm aware that if you set the account limit to 20 that people will still be able to create hundreds of characters by making new accounts every so often, but at least it slows them down or prohibits their progress a little.

If in fact the creation of hundreds and thousands of "junk" accounts doesn't actually clog up the database or cause any sort of server problems, then I suppose things can just stay the way they are. Still, it's kind of offputting that it's entirely possible for someone to spawn 300 characters on the same account. Just doesn't seem right.
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LimaZulu
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Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by LimaZulu »

Potjeh and Burgingham abusing the system? I'm surprised again!
JKGraziano
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Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:31 pm

Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by JKGraziano »

Agree 100%. Maybe a 10, 20 character cap? This obviously won't stop a determined spammer (dying and creating), but it will help to deter.
Tamalak
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Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:31 am

Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by Tamalak »

The problem is you can have unlimited accounts, too.

IMO they should charge a (small) monthly fee based on character slots. That would help otherwise difficult-to-solve alt abuses like:

1. Keeping treasures protected against anything by having them in an alt's inventory.
2. Farming LP on 100 alts with long term curiosities and then sacrificing them for LP (which is not implemented because of this very abuse)
3. Farming up combat alts to grief with.

This would also help them GET A BETTER DAMN SERVER
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cobaltjones
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Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 1:27 am

Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by cobaltjones »

Tamalak wrote:The problem is you can have unlimited accounts, too.

IMO they should charge a (small) monthly fee based on character slots. That would help otherwise difficult-to-solve alt abuses like:

1. Keeping treasures protected against anything by having them in an alt's inventory.
2. Farming LP on 100 alts with long term curiosities and then sacrificing them for LP (which is not implemented because of this very abuse)
3. Farming up combat alts to grief with.

This would also help them GET A BETTER DAMN SERVER
Ugh don't fuck up my thread with horrible ideas. Keep this on topic.
Tamalak
Posts: 879
Joined: Sun Feb 20, 2011 12:31 am

Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by Tamalak »

cobaltjones wrote:
Tamalak wrote:The problem is you can have unlimited accounts, too.

IMO they should charge a (small) monthly fee based on character slots. That would help otherwise difficult-to-solve alt abuses like:

1. Keeping treasures protected against anything by having them in an alt's inventory.
2. Farming LP on 100 alts with long term curiosities and then sacrificing them for LP (which is not implemented because of this very abuse)
3. Farming up combat alts to grief with.

This would also help them GET A BETTER DAMN SERVER
Ugh don't fuck up my thread with horrible ideas. Keep this on topic.
Ok then how are you going to get around the multiple account thing :twisted:
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cobaltjones
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Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by cobaltjones »

I have no idea. I'll leave that up to the general playerbase that are more knowledgable than me. But suggesting pay-to-play an alpha game isn't really the solution.
JKGraziano
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:31 pm

Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by JKGraziano »

Multiple accounts, while possible, would add time to the spamming of alts... another deterrent. A pay system at this stage doesn't make sense for this game.
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Avu
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Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by Avu »

What they need to do is make resource q nodes raisable by work so your entire success does not reside on the spam of crap accounts in early game or boating every 2 screens and dig dig empty fill flask. You want to kill the effect and not the cause which is not the smart way of doing things.
"Since all men count themselves righteous, and since
no righteous man raises his hand against the innocent,
a man need only strike another to make him evil."
JKGraziano
Posts: 38
Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2011 10:31 pm

Re: Limit number of characters per account.

Post by JKGraziano »

Avu wrote:What they need to do is make resource q nodes raisable by work so your entire success does not reside on the spam of crap accounts in early game or boating every 2 screens and dig dig empty fill flask. You want to kill the effect and not the cause which is not the smart way of doing things.
I think both needs to happen, actually. I agree that we should be able to enhance the quality of our resources through work.

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