We need Alts. Low level areas/economy is dead

General Discussion General Discussion
25

I did, as I posted in the OP.

I think having multiple characters on the same server would allow us to make more permanent characters at specific specs, rather than having to keep respeccing to try something different. If I found decent gear on one character for a different spec, I could transfer it to my other characters with that spec.

I’m not saying they need to change anything with the way people can respec now. I just want the option to be able to stay on my same server and play a different build/character.

I just find it annoying to have to keep full sets of gear for different builds. Having to reassign points to respec. Plus, It’s give me a reason to start over again without feeling like I’m missing out on anything.

I could build a PVP focused character, an Expedition focused character, and a Zerg-focused character, for example. And if I get decent BoE items, I can split them between my characters based on who needs what.

I could build a Woodwoorking/Engineering focused character, a Miner/Smith, a Harvester/Weaver, etc… Instead of having to pile everything on a single character and constantly re-equip gear.

26

imo, game isnt really fun low level at all, it was just new. The most entertaining part of the game to me was after I hit 60 and could do whatever I wanted and access all things.

of course that is no longer the case, they added more dailies, expertise, etc. but it was fun while it lasted.

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27

There’s actually more than a dozen.

28

You’re a bot farmer arguing to make bot farming more accessible. Every single argument you have is a straw man. You’re a disingenuous liar.

This is the most blatant pile of bad faith bullshit I’ve seen here. This is worse than the bots who have been banned coming here claiming victim hood because they were mass reported.

No one here is buying your bullshit bad faith any longer.

I’m sure you think you’re slick, but you just outed yourself. I hope you get banned.

You’re the reason the economy is fucked.
You’re the reason resources cost what they do.
You’re a lamprey.

Now go prove me right by spam flagging my post with your bot army you human paraquot

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29

The setup is this way for a reason. Buy another account. You think this game is free? Also, on my server low level mats are gaining value. Less players farming them, more bots, richer WW and EF owners so market is easier to control.

If you wanna sell low level gear, gl.

30

Eh… okay…
Something tells me to not feed your paranoia, because soon you’ll accuse me of JFK’s murder and 9/11.

But I’ll bite.
What bad faith? For asking for alts, a feature present in most if not all of other MMOs?
Which strawmen? In order to make a strawman argument, I must have tried to rebatee one of your arguments by laughing at a simplified version of them.
But I have not been telling you that you are wrong.
I have been telling you that leveling alts are an activity favored by casuals, over grinding end-game content at high difficulty levels, for diminishing rewards, which is the opposite of “casual”.
Casuals are the “whale” customers that keeps servers going, and population stable at multipe XP levels.

And that some other of your points, while true (storage, economy), the impact of alts on them would be insignificant compared to the effects of bots, companies sucking millions out of the economy, and buying entire catalog from the Trading Post, exploits, and dupes have had, and are still having on the economy of the game.
This game’s economy is wrecked beyond repair. The omnipresence of bots is just a sign of the extreme differences between the “haves” and the “have nots”.
The devs are balancing the new content according to the “haves”, who have the resources to get multiple armor sets, fully comprised of legendary pieces, all with the right stats and traits, because they are swimming in money.
The “have nots”, who barely afford to farm money to pay housing, repairs, and purple items off the Trading Posts, either skip the end game, quit altogether, or use their real-life ground money to buy coin and resources off bot farmers.

AGS could get rid of the bot problem by selling gold directly on the in-game store. Or focusing less on the “haves” hardcore players, owners of Everfall and Windward, Scrooge McDucks.

Now, I would like to know the mental process that leads you to combine everything I said above, into the conclusion that I am a bot farmer. I have genuine interest, from a psychological standpoint.

31

Maybe not a bot farmer but the way you are saying stuff…

raises some red flags…

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32

An alt could mean double the housing and storage, I like that idea!

33

This will be abused.

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34

Account bank is what you want.

35

Everything in games can and will be abused by some, but the benifits to all out weigh the cheaters IMO.

36

The reason there are no alts is because AGS made the new character levelling process too rewarding in terms of coin received as an incentive to play. Then at 60, a lot of those sources dry up.

Alts would be abused (as other have said) and actually were abused by gold sellers that found it was really easy to make quick stacks of cash by making an endless stream of new characters. AGS did push the rewards out but they are still easily achievable.

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37

I see zero benefit to having an alt.

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38

Only reason I have alts is daily cooldowns. Farm enough mats(doesnt even take long) and boom extra CDs

39

Yeah just starting out finding gear on market would be difficult but honestly you level so much it’s not worth it. Most players don’t roll new ones because there’s really no incentive

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40

Perpetually leveling Alts is a legit mode of gameplay for some players much like crafters, PVPers and RPers, it’s got an important place and shouldn’t be left out.

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42

I don’t advocate for bot-farming just because I state the reason why bot-farmers are making money in the game. Let’s not live in a black-and-white world of “you are with me, or your are my enemy”.
By understanding what makes it possible for bot-farmers to exist, we can figure out how to get rid of them, by attacking their reason of existence.

Bots selling gold for money exist because of a reality that AGS and, apparently, many hardcore players, don’t want to admit: Many people just want to have fun when they play a videogame.
Think that it’s not that they are lazy. They are just middle age adults with families and jobs, that can consider themselves lucky to get a few hours a week of free time to have fun.
They don’t want to spend their valuable and scarce free time doing menial tasks, that unlock fun later.

And I say “valuable”, because in the time they would spend working in a fake videogame job, they could be working instead on their real world job doing overtime and getting lots of money.
So their free time is as worth as the overtime they could be doing instead.

Of course, the conclusion is that by placing timesink obstacles in their wayt to fun, the game is pushing those people to bypass those unfun menial tasks by spending real money to get the stuff done (farm gold, farm materials, etc), so that they can skip to the fun part.
This is not any stupid conclusion I have come to by myself. This is the core business model of all browser and mobile games of recent: “Play for free. But fun costs X (energy/gems/time). Or you bypass that with real money.”

The more inaccessible you make the fun stuff, the more people will want to skip the obstacles, and the more profitable will be for bot-farmers to supply that demand.
I am not stating anything that anyone with a minimum knowledge of how the market works doesn’t know already.

So in order to remove the bot-farmers, AGS needs to take one (or multiple) of these paths:

  • Sell materials or gold in the in-game store for cheap, and take the bots out of business by undercutting their prices. This will cause the playerbase to scream “Pay to win!”, though.
  • Add a certain bypass to all the menial tasks and requirements so that people can have fun straight away without having to grind for it. Perhaps to versions of PvP and PvE content that doesn’t provide the same rewards as the real thing. Either way, the hardcore playerbase will scream “Stop listening to the carebears!”
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43

I am a complete altaholic usually. I got 19 characters on GW2, can’t recall how many I got on ESO, but plenty as well. Had loads on Lotro too, RoM - if I can have alts, I tend to end with an army of them :roll_eyes:

Reading your arguments, obviously a part of me perks up - alts! As I am also addicted to housing, the thought that through alts, I could come to buy houses I right now can’t, for added decoration fun, brings tears of joy to me eyes. I also get bored to stare at the same character all the time, and we lack a transmorg system, so right now I have to counter that by owning an array of chest pieces I switch around, some head pieces too.

But alts, while a vital fun part for me, will not solve the other issues I have with the game, and there is just not enough content on offer to make me believe I’d do much with those alts, past housing and some customisation. As I imagine, introducing an alt system to the game would require quite a bit of dev time (how to incorporate alts into the faction and company system?), while right now I would rather see that time spend on fixing other aspects of the game.

Once all those things are sorted, I’d say yes, alts would be nice, and not sure what alts have to do with bots. Any account can only have one character active inside the game at any time, and if a bot is reported and dealt with, I would think the whole account gets banned (or should be). Just because someone with bad intentions would make 5 characters on their account, would not mean they could use those characters at the same time, so botting is not the issue in regards to alts.

Not certain why the company opted against alts. They may thought with their weapon and respec system it would not be needed/desired by players, but well, there are so many QoL features missing anyway, alts could be considered just part of that overall trend.

So yes, maybe in the future, but there is a lot which has to be taken care of first, and it’s quite a list already as is, at least in my view.

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44

I agree thats alts are needed, and will help the game overall rather than hinder. Being able to skill up in any new weapon is not a reason to prohibit Alts.
It can be easily added without causing a problem with spying as you would restrict the Faction of your alt to the same as your Main. This was done in Dark Ages of Camelot a loooong time ago and worked.
Alts would allow players already maxed out to experience the game again from another starting location.
Add to the low level economy.
And vitally allow people to create a new character with their friend who’s just bought the game and level up with them.

The argument to not allow it due to prevent Botting, doesn’t hold water as apparently that issue already exists.

The only reason I can think of not to allow it is to force those who want to alt on the same server as their other friends and Guildies to shell out for an additionally copy of the game.
I think it would be reasonable to have a nominal cost to create an alt as something to buy in the store.

45

We have bots for that. Silly.