How many... ? how active?

[Jay alAvid]

OK,

In light of the 'Dupes' post; it is worth asking what everyone thinks about the 'alts' in the game.

How many is too many?
Is it dependent on WHERE the characters are (ie. the city?)
Is it dependent on how well other players are doing?
Is it different if each character has a 'personality'? (ie. image?)
Should they be in different 'clans'? .. how many? balanced?

[Mat Cauthon]

I say no more then six i have hade six full time players with different personalitys at the same time...

[Hugh Longshanks]

I generally keep it to 2 or fewer in any one clan. But I really don't care - I've never "alted" as we used to call it, and I don't object to other people doing it. I only get angry with people if they're better than me.

Ultimately, the only effect of alts is to inflate a players number of wins - money and level cannot be affected, and talismans are always available if you're in a half-decent clan. They can't make a player better.

Now, I'll address each issue individually.

1. Number - I've never been able to handle more than three while keeping them in reasonably good repair. So I'd want to cap it at, say half-a-dozen. Honestly, though, there's no such thing as too many. So long as you're actually playing the characters yourself (without benefit of automated systems) it will be a self-limiting thing.

2. Location - It doesn't really matter, although I personally would want to spread them around for realism's sake.

3. Other players - If you're making alts purely for the sake of populating an area, they should be balanced to be roughly the same strength as the "real" characters in the area. Otherwise, I don't think it matters - as good as they can be.

4. Personality - I think every character MUST have a personality. Nothing annoys me more than a character with no profile picture or character information. I want to know WHO you are....Even if you're an alt of a different player. It's an RPG, for goodness' sake. Character creation and development is what this game is all about.

5. Clan membership - It depends. My characters have always ended up in Clans, either my own (as grunts) or else in others. Unless you plan on having an actual character for each of your alts, they won't end up in any clans anyway - certainly not in one of mine. If they are characterless creations (like most of Jay's in the test version) it is best to leave them clanless as training dummies for everyone else, or else create yourself an "Alt Legion" to keep them in.

[kaldar]

Well , I don't have a problem with people playing multiple legitimate accounts , I just have a problem with how they use them. Using alts to pad a character's wins count is the main problem i have with the use.

The win board used to actually be a source of pride for a few people because it was seen as a "toughness" list ....... ideally the people at the top of the list are just there because they are harder to beat and defend more.

Although , I do agree with Hugh as well and win % is a great indicator as well.

[mvn]

I started out playing alts from the beginning for a couple of reasons; one is for learning purposes in the different areas of skills. Plus, the other was that initially the 30 rounds went by too quickly. I have played them all independently for the most part, except to try different talis at different levels.

As for the avatars, I agree with having them, but the issue is mine never seem to stay loaded. I think it is the operator in this case. I never seem to find a dependable site for avatars.