We have permadeath. Great! But then we have alts. Why?

[Dallane]

Since our basic pitch is Free to play and open registration I don't think there's anything meaningful we can do to discourage people using multiple characters -- seeing as how players can set up as many different accounts as they want to -- nor do I think that brute-force discouraging multiple game accounts of charachters by game-external incentives is particularly fun. Also, there are a thousand very legitimate reasons why one would want several characters, and blablabla.

Kinda takes away from the meaningful characters idea with how easy it is to make combat alts.

[jorb]

There's a case to be made that characters could use more meaningful personality, and be less interchangeable, but I don't think the solution there is to try to enforce a no-alting rule, because that really doesn't address the actual issue at all.

[Dallane]

There's a case to be made that characters could use more meaningful personality, and be less interchangeable, but I don't think the solution there is to try to enforce a no-alting rule, because that really doesn't address the actual issue at all.

True just one issue of many. Should really be a cap on the # of characters you can make. I know people have hit 100+

[Darwoth]

I don't like permadeath because it just equates to allowing griefers to grief harder.

Sure you're in the right game, then? This, as has been said many, many times before, is a key feature that will not get changed.

I'm just adding my opinion. Perhaps the number of people who have pointed the same thing out speaks for itself?

not really, i heard world of warcraft has about 30 million people that would agree with you also. probably why they play that game instead of a permadeath one.

[Darwoth]

The thing with permadeath is that it may stop griefing, but it can also cause more of it. You want to troll someone really hard and make them butthurt, you murder them. If someone murders me I'd get so solace from his death because I still lost my character. I don't completely hate permadeath, it makes the game interesting but when you have assholes whose only purpose is to murder other pilgrims just for the sheer pleasure, it kinda ruins the game for some. Have other aspects that can kill you, like how bears can. You could also make it so people can turn PvP on or off, separate those who want to fight from those who don't. How is one that decided to be fully intelligent based supposed to go up against a person stacked with health, yellow bile, and all the fighting skills? You could also make it so everyone is immune to attacks from other pilgrims(unless you turn PvP on), or commit a crime, at which point would allow others to attack you without that penalty for some time(like how when you use criminal acts to trespass, you have that timer that doesn't let you teleport, or regen humours.) Or if you trespass on someone's property they can KO(not murder) you, without their immunity being revoked. I wouldn't mind having to defend myself against animals, because at least then I know what I'm up against, as opposed to having no idea what the guys health, or yellow bile is.

have you left the town claim yet? because it certainly doesnt sound like you know anything about the game.

[fox]

well, than maybe to made p2p test server with 1 character?

[Potjeh]

There's a case to be made that characters could use more meaningful personality, and be less interchangeable

This would only further promote alting. It's basically going back to industry/nature slider.

[Maggie_Scott]

The thing with permadeath is that it may stop griefing, but it can also cause more of it. You want to troll someone really hard and make them butthurt, you murder them. If someone murders me I'd get so solace from his death because I still lost my character. I don't completely hate permadeath, it makes the game interesting but when you have assholes whose only purpose is to murder other pilgrims just for the sheer pleasure, it kinda ruins the game for some. Have other aspects that can kill you, like how bears can. You could also make it so people can turn PvP on or off, separate those who want to fight from those who don't. How is one that decided to be fully intelligent based supposed to go up against a person stacked with health, yellow bile, and all the fighting skills? You could also make it so everyone is immune to attacks from other pilgrims(unless you turn PvP on), or commit a crime, at which point would allow others to attack you without that penalty for some time(like how when you use criminal acts to trespass, you have that timer that doesn't let you teleport, or regen humours.) Or if you trespass on someone's property they can KO(not murder) you, without their immunity being revoked. I wouldn't mind having to defend myself against animals, because at least then I know what I'm up against, as opposed to having no idea what the guys health, or yellow bile is.

Why not just play WoW on a care bear server then?

[Wournos]

I'm not a big fan of permadeath (haven't died yet *knocks on wood*) and that is why I have a map-maker character out there exploring and getting educated (by himself. Someone destroyed his leanto so he can't teleport back to "Boston" or connect with my main (yet) ).

If the developers decided to only allow 1 character only per player then I wouldn't stick around if my character got murdered. I also feel that what someone else said about Salem encouraging working together because of permadeath, is not entirely true. Although I can't speak for everyone, I have no desire to engage with people because they can't be trusted - due to PvP/raiding/permadeath.

"Et tu, Brute?"

[nexustrimean]

It does seem odd to me that we have alts in a game that is supposed to feature hard core permadeath. yet most people use those alts to circumvent and lessen the impact of that central aspect of the game.

As Jorb said, there is no good technical way to limit alts, but lets assume that the developers intent is to have each person play a single character. How can we encourage this type of game play? Incentivise characters with diverse skill sets. I hate to use a buzzword, but Skill Synergy is one way to combat alt spam. Characters with many and diverse skills can do things faster/better than those who have chosen to only develop a single skill set. This means Stronger older characters who are generally mains would be better, lowering the power of alts made to do a single task. This is far more doable than IP Restrictions, and Encourages Gameplay, rather than discourages it. I know there are already some skill boosting from various professions, but there could easily be more, and not just having proficiencies boost skills, but having skills boost other skills as well as the base proficiencies. (If you ever played Diablo 2, many of the skills in the same tree did this.)

You could also make it more difficult to Level alts, though i don't think this is as good solution as buffing the skill synergies, There are people who enjoy creating alternate characters, and I certainly don't want to make there game play more difficult.

"But Nexus, this is an MMO, creating super mains discourages cooperative play!"
Yes, it does, but so does having a million alts all with one skill each. This will not combat hermit-ing at all, and in some ways encourages it. But a solution for that problem is beyond the scope of this topic.