The switching cost of alts

[Miaii]

I like the idea of allowing spaces in character names and adding the ability to change character names, I would totally add the ‘Family Name’ to my characters/alts if that was added.

[Stormsoul]

I just want to add something here, overall, about the community here.

How many MMOs could have a thread like this, that remains civil, at this point?

I am so glad that we can disagree but still remain Boundless, together. As sappy as that may sound

[Stormsoul]

@Marrash

I will concede that the ability to hot-swap entire specs would be a significantly faster process than using cleanse points. But if a full reset makes it into the game as has been suggested potentially ‘could’ in some form by @luke-turbulenz in this very thread, doesn’t the ability to have a unique character defining build stop being a valid argument against skill specs?

I’d like to see alts used as unique characters in the way they are played, role-played. Recognize them for their actions, in their way, and not just exclusively by their skill-set.

All I’ve been trying to say, is that for me, personally, skill switching on my ‘main’, the character that I feel is me, would allow me to do just this.

[Stormsoul]

@Cstpn00

I think that everyone who doesn’t want alts should get their way. I also think everyone who wants an alt should get their way. I was thinking about making an alt for this thread so I could argue both points, but I decided I wanted to argue both points with the same name…

i can’t begin to tell you how much I love this reply!

[seorin]

@Stormsoul

I just want to add something here, overall, about the community here.

How many MMOs could have a thread like this, that remains civil, at this point?

I am so glad that we can disagree but still remain Boundless, together. As sappy as that may sound

I was thinking this exact thing yesterday. I’m pleasantly surprised at the overall civility and quality of discussion, especially compared to most game communities. Thank you for being the one to say it out loud.

[Stretchious]

We’re all passionate about our ideas what we believe will make the game we all enjoy better, and there’s never any reason not to be civil about that

---

@Stormsoul

I’d like to see alts used as unique characters in the way they are played, role-played. Recognize them for their actions, in their way, and not just exclusively by their skill-set.

I just want to inject a little background into the conversation, as to why we have alts in the first place…

Originally we only had one character to play with, but there were legitimate concerns from players that they wouldn’t be able to experience all the game had to offer (but mostly because there were people that just wanted to play solo). There were requests (and still are) for there to be no skill cap, so players could eventually earn enough skill points to be able to do everything with one character. Obvious reply to this (which is still the case afaik) is that “if everyone can do everything, it diminishes the diversity of characters that make up the Boundless world and eventually makes it… well… boring”.

As a compromise to this… Additional character slots were introduced… “Alts”.

This enabled those that wanted to experience everything in game, or to play solo, to do just that, without being singularly over-powered and without it completely compromising one of the main premises that the game was designed around… Community. At it’s core, Boundless always was (and still is) intended to be a community driven game.

I have absolutely no doubts that there would still be community interaction, even with everyone equally over-skilled (the Boundless community is awesome after all ), but for me, in allowing a single character to swap between all the skills freely, it loses a piece of that overall vision I bought into. It takes that big step backwards to just allowing one character to unlock everything again… thus negating the need for alts in the first place.

---

@seorin

You’re not really talking about role-playing the character you want, you’re talking about forcing other people to role-play characters whether they want to or not, and that’s not a view I can sympathize with.

You’re not forced to do anything. You still have a choice in the skills you choose to play. As I said previously, my 2nd characters skill set is pretty much the same as my first. I’m not being forced into a hunter build just because my 1st character isn’t one … I believe I can do just fine without it and still hunt just fine as a generalist.

@seorin

Being able to have multiple skill sets in no way prevents you from being TeapotTom the master builder, Bobcat the master tool crafter, or SlimJim the seasoned hunter. In fact, I’d argue that those identities become much stronger when they are not forced on everyone.

The difference here is, you become TeapotTom the master builder, master tool crafter, seasoned hunter. So does everyone else. That’s a definite weakening of an identity to me.

---

Sorry, I know this is another long post, but in closing…

@Marrash

And as an unrelated point of curiosity, were you dissappointed (I know that I was), when the idea of Professions slowly went away?

Yes… yes I was
which is another reason why I don’t want to see the idea of players specialising in a profession (or 2-3 depending on how the spend their skill points) diminished further.

[Graham-B]

ok so a lot has been said on this, i read a lot but never came across this factor -

Skills used to be Refundable i personally would say to bring this ability back (where it costs 1 SP at level 2 to respec >>> and then gets exponentially expensive (accumulatively?) for those who only want one character and hate alting…

I also agree with the fact it can be very confusing to who is who… example… you friend someone and they are not on for days… (the character you freinded) but yet you see a green person on the compass, and KNOW that your friend is not online… you go up to that person and say hey, how are we freinds? I don’t even know you! and the reply you get is Sure you do man… its Bob… this is my alt/main etc

I only make alts when my main gets boring to play (it akes ages and ages leveling from 22 >>23 i would hate to see what 49 >>50 is like)

[ctrl-64]

Sorry to necro a post that has gone away from the topic I wanted to focus on, which is the actual “cost” of switching.
Perhaps this should go into the What turns you off playing Boundless? thread but anyway.

I don’t know how many times I’ve ported to sanctum to switch alts only to just run straight through the portal as soon as it loads.
I know many people agree with me.

So, since we have access to the character select button while in world, and the “play with this character” button is there… can we please press it from in the world and then meditate to go to the sanctum and then appear in the sanctum as the other character?
I would be eternally grateful.
I wouldn’t mind even waiting another couple seconds.

[ComplexRogue7]

I have run straight through the portal so many times

Totally agree with you. It would be awesome to be able to do that.

[Jeffrotheswell]

yup I do that all the time

[Oggieogham]

You peoples are funny and made me laugh. Glad I’m not the only one who does that. How can I forget why I went there in only 10 seconds?

[Jeffrotheswell]

it’s the devals cabbage! always makes me forget what I’m doing!