Character Count

[ChyldeMyst]

<.< Call me selfish, but 30 lots ISN'T enough. I say this for 2 reasons.

1.) My favorite part of this game is interior decorating. It's one of the two big reasons I never found a new MMO to call home when LIVE shut down. However, to get the space to do a good interior, I need to use a large structure - the item limits on smaller structures keep biting me in the lekku. Most large structures take 5 lots.

2.) 2-3 of my characters at any given time are crafters. Even if I buy my resources elsewhere, higher-end crafted items require factory-crate parts. With a 30-lot limit I'm forced to choose between my favorite in-game activity and the economic viability of my characters. With a 50-lot limit I have enough lots for each character to have a large structure to decorate, and still have the factories I need for my crafting components. I'm perfectly happy to buy my resources on the economy, but it's much harder to find, say, a crate of jewelry settings.

[jwyork]

I think this should have been sorted/agreed before launch to be honest. Some people including myself could end up loosing chars, if a change was implemented .

I love playing alts and at one point on live had five accounts running, I know this is not for everyone and because there slots available it does not mean you have to use them if its not your thing.

Which would I choose to delete? I couldn't say to be honest

I think off the top of my head I have eight active chars at the moment and they have been online at some point today or will before I logoff.

To a point yes, I'm self-sufficient but even with eight chars I can't do everything and do buy and trade with others when I can find someone willing to craft/gather for me.
I rolled an ent my first week here due to one being online and out of my time zone, for a few weeks I was the only one after they quit. Would I like to delete her, no. I rolled a doc as there where two active and both again out of my time zone, I wouldn't to delete that either....All my chars are used, I could go on but I won't.

Each to there own I guess

Well bottom line unfortunately is this really isn't our decisions ... I think Ed is doing us a favor by letting us weigh in.

[RickyL]

I think 10 characters is a great option to have, a person would have to have a lot of time on there hands to play 10.... Self sufficiency is important, especially if the population drops. I would rather craft things myself than pay ridiculous prices to some greedy multi-server corporation. Stockpiling resources is sometimes necessary given the time between decent spawns of certain resources. One character slot must be left open for a Jedi, so 9 other slots to grind up.... years of work, not going to be accomplished by many. 8 slots would be ideal but 10 is a great option. --- Thank you to all those responsible for keeping the game up. It is getting better!

[MisterNudd]

Well bottom line unfortunately is this really isn't our decisions ... I think Ed is doing us a favor by letting us weigh in.

Totally agree, but he's asking so I posted

[BigQEd]

Those mentioning economy, that is a very important point. Also, individuals being completely self-sufficient is not a great thing. Additional, look at it from the standpoint of player cities (3 people can essentially make a full city)... hopefully everyone knows there are limited slots for cities.

Yes, on Live you could have 10 characters, but that would have cost $60/mo (at minimum) and most of the players did not do that.

[Anomaly]

People saying 5 or 10 characters is fine because its hard work are not getting the point of what is going to happen here.
docs buffing in s tarports.
smugglers slicing.
an active social cantina
resource markets...
all these things and many more will slowly disappear
because so few people will need them.
why would someone be a buffer when everyone on server logs
on their doc for 3 minutes.
more than 2-3 characters means every support class in thr game will become useless in time.

I truly worry about the long term future of a server that becomes a single player system that you play with others.
as opposed to the rich diverse dependant economy that we all loved in live.

[Onikyto]

I voted 5, more than that just seems excessive. I'm not even against the characters, per se, but the number of allocated lots. it would be great to be able to set the number of lots on a per account basis, but that may be beyond what is realistically possible with the current build of the server.

The economy of our server suffers because crafters don't have to buy resources because they have almost 100 harvesters down, and hoard the resources. There are a few player cities that are propped up by nothing but a few accounts full of alts, who do nothing but own a house.

but what to do with the people who already have more than 10 characters is a big question.

[BigQEd]

Another thing to consider is that you can only play 2 at a time (that would never change btw)... the active characters online at a time would not change.

[darriandm]

People saying 5 or 10 characters is fine because its hard work are not getting the point of what is going to happen here.
docs buffing in s tarports.
smugglers slicing.
an active social cantina
resource markets...
all these things and many more will slowly disappear
because so few people will need them.
why would someone be a buffer when everyone on server logs
on their doc for 3 minutes.
more than 2-3 characters means every support class in thr game will become useless in time.

I truly worry about the long term future of a server that becomes a single player system that you play with others.
as opposed to the rich diverse dependant economy that we all loved in live.

A thousand times this.

People like the idea of having the freedom to do what they want but they aren't fully grasping the whole picture. They say people "won't have the time or won't put in the effort" to manage all those alts, but there are plenty of professions that don't require a lot of maintenance passed the initial grind. Smuggler for example. Over a long enough period of time, there wouldn't be a reason for anybody to not have a smuggler alt they could just hop on and slice anything they need, or crank out some spice. Spice isn't controlled by quality, they don't even need good resource for it.

Too many characters will hurt, and the longer we have that many slots the more people are going to be upset if we reduce it.

[Hefeweizen]

I went with 3 (but 5 would be fine as well...)

10 and 8 are just way too many... for most of the reasons already cited (less dependency, resource hoarding, harvester blight, etc.)... they are great for promoting growth and testing on the EMUs but with 80-100 lots, they kill interdependency.

after suffering NGE Death, 1 or 2 are too few (all eggs in one basket) once you've been able to dabble in half a dozen thanks to the EMUs...

I can live with 3 (combat, crafter, healer), if I had 5 I might add a 2nd crafter to have 2 hand surveyors going at all times, and maybe work 2 combat mains (melee and ranged, or bounty hunter and ranger, etc.)

The interesting thing will be in the implementation if the number is reduced... folks will have to make sure they gather up all of their belongings, structures, trade with soon to be decommissioned alts, etc. and find room for all that stuff... I foresee an upsurge in storage vendors... and many, many, many Master Merchants to max out the number of items....

[Wodaz]

Well I'm gonna wait to see what happens before wasting my time grinding alts if this is going to change, no offense, but if this server doesn't maintain its population over time then will all be at the demise of the monopoly of one or two players and that my friends is NOT a healthy economy. I just wish they would've started off this server with 3 and increased, but its not my server and not my decision. :-\

[jasonh]

I voted 10. Too many? Maybe. Bad for the economy? Perhaps. I think there are pros and cons to each of these arguments; however, I don't see the lack of armorsmiths and weaponsmiths being a result of self-sufficiency. I still hear requests for doctor buffs, and, other than a select few, ent buffs as well.

To me, the bigger issue is that this is a decision that should have been written in stone before launch. Easy to go up; much more difficult to go down. The reason I came here is to avoid my time investment being wasted. I don't have 10 active toons, but I feel for those who do.

Since it's a technical issue and if we're talking about long-term stability, then that's another story and not a community issue. I imagine/hope we all seek a stable server. If so, it's best to go ahead and pull the Band-Aid off, and very soon.

[Cynar]

Current live accounts would more than likely been grandfathered in if any such changes were to take place. I originally argued for 8. Someone else took it upon themselves to change what was originally agreed to by the staff.

[MisterNudd]

I do agree with a comment above though, that the decision should be made sooner rather than later as I'm looking at my screen thinking should I do any more work on this char or not.

[geordiebruce]

I find that i play during off-peak and still struggle to get mind/doc buffs. I think 8 is good as you still can not find stuff you need i been playing a month now and still waiting to get some good comp armour/droids/Harvesters/weapons

[MisterNudd]

Current live accounts would more than likely been grandfathered.

Not a saying I'm aware off, I have seen the reference here a few times. What does it mean?

Nevermind, google told me

[rand0m411]

I choose 10. I was so disappointed of only having 2 characters in the original live release. I never felt like I got to explore and try new things without the risk of losing weeks if not months worth of work. I would love to be able to mess around and try all kinds of different combinations of stuff just to see how well it works together. Not all of us are elite players that can grind out 4 professions in a day. Normally takes me weeks, if not longer, and I rarely even use macro's.

I like to feel like I am immersed in the game and not rush grinding through everything, because to me that is not actually playing. I like to actually play (with the exception of surveying lol). Other people have mentioned people making toons to just take care of themselves. Well yeah, that is going to happen, but it's the same eilte players who will do that, that already only hunt by themselves and rarely do anything with anyone anyway, they are already out soloing end content and either don't or won't let other people join them anyway. I would (as I feel most of the other players would) use the other toons to be able to try new things. For example, yeah it would be nice to have a master entertainer, and maybe use him/her to buff myself, but I would still use it and play it for other people in the community, immersion is what I like about the game. I have zero wish for isolation. I love the idea of having options, please don't take those options away.

Thank you.

[Marros]

Too many character slots leads to some people having too much influence over the economy of the entire server. I get that many of you just want to make a bunch of characters to have fun with, but there are others that will use all 10 characters and 100 lots to monopolize markets. In the current state of the server, it is very hard for new crafters to break into the economy and sell things because of how well established others like Qin and Syph have become. I buy stuff from them too, but it would be great to see more healthy competition in the future. You can't really go anywhere without seeing fields of harvesters controlled by the same small group of people.

Bottom line, I don't think one person should be able to craft and sell things from all professions at their vendors. They should be made to pick areas of specialization and collaborate with others in the community. Having a more reasonable number of character slots and/or structure lots will accomplish this.

[jwyork]

How about this grandfather in 8 characters .... so if you have 10 chose 2 to lose ... reduce lot consumption to 50 per account. Any new accounts limit to 5 characters 50 lots. People who have 10 can give a little and we can all give up 2 characters if we had 10. I'm not sure what the real reason is .. economy .. database or both. if it is database it's ab ig concern to me

[anjel]

What is the real issue here? Is this a technical database problem or a game economics issue? Are lots the problem or is it having the characters and their info themselves the issue that's affecting the DB? I think this is what Ed is really concerned about here. Or am I wrong? I can see how both could be related but are we talking about reducing characters for the sake of DB space or saving a fledgling economy that hasn't really had time to get off the ground?

If we need to reduce for the sake of the database then yes, by all means, lets cut the characters back now if it'll mean a more stable server in the long run. And as a consequence if that helps with the economy, great. I could handle cutting back to 5-6 characters. It would hurt since I play 9 but I'd survive. So if this is a serious consideration then let's do it quick before I get any more attached to my toons.

Ugh, this topic is giving me anxiety. I have 4 toons I play currently and in a matter of a week or something, ive mastered profs on all of them. I like to do everything the game has to offer. I do crafting, entertainer, pve, pvp, and did jedi during live. I love all the different aspects of playing this game. Id be sad if we were limited, but Id understand if it was necessary. Especially if it is a database size issue. As for the economy, I think having multiple toons actually stimulates the economy. Sure you can become self sufficient to a degree, but in reality there is only so much time in a day and it would require a crazy amount of work to support all of your toons off your own efforts to grind money or resources. I think that is why the harvester/lot # could be an issue, if there is one here. I would much rather see lot number reduced, than to see character number reduced. I would feel like Id have to give up certain aspects of the game, because a pve toon is not the same build as a pvp toon. If you choose to have both, then you may not be able to do crafting or something else you enjoy. I have been having a ton of fun this week and doing all different aspects of the game. Id hate to see that change. If its the economy we are worried about, I vote for lot # reduction. If its the database, then I support whatever the dev team believes is sustainable with the projected growth. Id hate to be limited, but the server population growing with new players is far more important than me having more toons and using up all the database space.

Like it was said before, I hope a decision could be made fairly soon, before we get too attached to characters and have to lose them. I voted for 10 (with or without the lot# being reduced, because there is still many types of characters Id like to try without giving some up). If 10 is too many for database, 8 would be ok i suppose. 5 would kind of hurt and any less than that would make me depressed.