Hi… I would like to make a suggestion that we are allowed 3 alts and a main instead of the 2 alts and a main as it currently stands.
I don’t doubt the developers want to keep “player alt” sprawl to a minimum but I think 2 is somewhat limiting. My primary reason for this is that there are currently 4 zones yet we can only have a total of 3 players. It would be nice to know their reasoning though on why the cap on Alts.
I was trying to experience the planets that were in the other zones and it would have been nice to create a new player on each beginner world. I am unable to do this due to the player limit.
I don’t have much justification on why it would be a good thing, beyond that I just feel like I am missing out on the experience of each unique zone…
Maybe other people support this idea and would be willing to back it… It would just be nice to have 4 ppl total with one in each zone. 
Just a suggestion…
Each of the starter planets are supposed to offer the same experience, other than the player built structures already in there. Other than that. You can start on any of the starter planets, and thanks to the player portals, reach any of the 12 planets currently available.
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There will be many more zones at 1.0, it doesn’t seem reasonable to have an alt parked in each zone. You can still travel to these zones via portals and warps, so there is no reason for an alt dedicated to each zone.
The purpose for the zones is to provide a server closest to any players geographic location to keep latency times low. By making an alt in each zone, your kind of sabotaging your own connection times. There should be enough worlds in each zone to get a consistent experience across regions without having to connect to a zone furthest from your geographic location.
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Well I have no idea how many zones there will be or if that even happens… All I know right now is that having to rely on portals provided by other people or trying to run my own (which isn’t cheap) isn’t always an option. So as I stated I was trying to experience each group of planets natively and from the start and that can only be done with 4 characters not 3.
Most times you have localized infrastructure it is designed for latency like you mention, but the game is the same everywhere. That is not the truth here… Berlyn is a completely different feel than Therka, etc. People want other colors of items (like green wood, etc.) and that requires people to cross zones. Due to this, the latency concern is now moot because the items from various planets becomes an expectation of the game. So region based infrastructure is not really what is being done here. It is more of a secondary benefit.
And honestly whether there was a hundred zones or not, that wasn’t what I was trying to get at on having another alt possibility. I’m sure my point didn’t come across perfectly… I just was feeling a little restricted with 2 alts and asking the devs about a possibility of adding 1 more.
I have no idea why they decided on 2 alts only and was just trying to get it to be looked at. I’d be surprised if zone count was part of the decision.
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You could always just try it out on one planet to a certain extent, then delete your character and create a new on starting on one of the other worlds.
I’d say they gave only 2, partly so that the landscape on one planet was not completely flooded with just a few players main characters and their alts, but also in part, that you could potentially (although I haven’t checked!) have every possible skill path with an additional alt on the roster.
It’s definitely not done due to zone count, as there were many more worlds/zones earlier on in the development, and I would imagine that there will probably be many more localised zones upon release as well (I’ve seen the question asked somewhere regarding which other real-world server locations would benefit the community).
That being said, the intention for 1.0, is that all starting worlds with be equal in resources distribution, landscape, creatures and general feel … basically “earth-like”, which they mostly are at the moment - with the exception of the sky colour and grass variation - so there’s not really much else that’s different.
You’re probably right, zone count was probably not a consideration. I wonder if it has to do with the number of profession paths available? Its been stated before that they want to strike a balance between allowing solo players to be able to do everything in the game themselves, and encouraging cooperation between players. Too many alts may contradict this design goal?
Unrelated, I apologize if in my replies I come off poorly. I often assume when I see a newish name asking lots of questions that they maybe aren’t familiar with game design or various limitations the development, and I over-explain things that are maybe obvious to most others. This is clearly not the case with you, as you seem quite competent in these matters.
All good… the responses help ground things for everything so I’m good. I’m still so new to this game that I really don’t know history or previous discussions and that is very critical in understanding perspective and approach. You’re experience in that is key.
Not everyone reading or wanting to reply will have 15+ years in IT program and architecture design focused mostly on culture and business change. So I deal a lot with work flow and how people use things after change.
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