Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The idea is to give CCP an easy way to track the players instead of the characters, so they would be able to have a measure on this and also to maybe give some benefits for those who contribute to the game having many alts, and lowering entrance barriers in the game.

Also this would make easier to manage characters, and to manage the account. Possibly making people more willing to invest more "resources" in the game.

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Initially 3 things would have to change: How PLEX and Subscription works, The Character Selection screen, and the License tab in the character screen.

---- PLEX ----
The plex is an item bought with real money that once used add 30 days to the subscription of the account.

The new PLEX would add this time to a Pool, (Could be in time like it is today, or maybe could be the AURUM as there is a direct constant relation between PLEX an AURUM) and as the time goes by the pool would be consumed.

The monthly subscription would add the time to the pool as it add to the subscription account. No difference.

---- License Tab ----

The license tab would show the amount of "Time" or Aurum in the Account pool, and some more information related to the consume of this pool, estimated time left and also some link to EVE site to buy more PLEX, or change the subscription method.

---- Character Selection Screen ----

First the 3 slots for character should be changed into a List that would allow all characters and alts to be shown and selected.

For character creation purpose, the maximum number of characters slots would be tree times the number of active training characters, that has been training for more then 30 days. So after this change you would end up with exactly the same number of possible alts in the account then you have in the sum of all your accounts today.

Also there should be some option to activate / deactivate the training of the chosen character. For every character with the training queue active, the pool would be drained. (There would be an option to make for example a 10% discount for the second active, if CCP want people to have alts.). Also, there would be a 24h period of cool-down on the deactivation of the character training, to prevent abuses.

There should be an indicator showing what character have skill training active and what character is logged in.

In the login, it would be allowed multiple clients in the same account, but this would be limited by the number of active training queues in the account.

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For the first month or two, I think CCP could give a Free Account merge option so people would join their account into 1. And after this time people would have to use the old method. Character transaction using plex. (This part was proved a big money giveaway, so no free merge...)

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I hope you guys like this Idea! (And I also hope that someone from CCP run a serious statistical analysis on the viability of this project. And only apply if having a good payout!)

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Well... Close enough!
http://evenews24.com/2013/05/10/dual-character-training-live-on-sisi/

TL;DR version:

Allow players to merge all accounts into one and log on them with no problem.

The idea is to give CCP an easy way to track the players instead of the characters, so they would be able to have a measure on this and also to maybe give some benefits for those who contribute to the game having many alts, and lowering entrance barriers in the game.

in other words: Help in statistic, that are base for decisions. and maybe will make people activate more alts and give more money to CCP, so they will hire more DEVS and develop a better game faster.

CCP already has this, it called IP and MAC tracking.

So let me get this straight..

I can make 15 scout alts, log them all on, and not pay anything as long as they don't have a training queue active?

And I can just buy a fully trained character(s) on the bazaar with the necessary skill set for what I want out of an alt, log that in too, and pay nothing because stopped training queue?

tl;dr is:

OP wants a way to be able to use 2 chars from the same account at the same time. So is suggesting CCP change it to a 'pool' of chars.

ie.

account A has characters 1, 2 and 3.
account B has characters 4, 5 and 6

At any given time he can only login one of 1, 2 or 3 and one of 4, 5 or 6. But wants the ability to login 1 and 2 at the same time.

Unfortunately this would probably be a nightmare for CCP to manage.

1. When you are at your online account limit (lets say 2) and login a 3rd character... which of the first 2 gets disconnected?
2. One of your accounts expire, which 3 characters become unavailable?
(could be overcome by the system retaining the current account setup I guess)

While the idea itself would benefit me and I sort of like it, I'm not really in support of it.

Looking at my own accounts it just feels like it'd be overpowered.

Sounds like an interesting suggestion. It doesn't force players to use the new "super accounts" but gives them some benefits if they do. Plus what Katran said about botters.

This is an interesting proposal, one that i am not in support of.

It makes training disposable/situational alts quite a bit easier.
Makes offline item storage (alts in industrials) a lot easier to manage

If i plex four accounts for thirty one days, which is eight plex (4.8 b) i get access to 12 characters, which i can train in any configuration. once they have reached the level of sp that i desire, i can stop their training.

With two concurrent accounts i still have access to 6 additional characters even though they are not training.
if i were to live say a wh or null, i could store many more things offline then i could normally, and have them all instantly accessible to me.
or run PI off 12 characters and pay for two (six but without the hassle of having to log off both mains).
~ one character who does all the manufacturing and cycling 10 alts to trade PI materials at a poco in a wh.
which while easier, is a huge passive materials faucet.

Cyno chain logistics, are easier as with two or three active training ques on an account with 30 alts, can stage cyno ships where ever is needed and pay 1/2 - 1/3 - 1/10 they would normally
for the cost of two plex you get 3 characters in perpetium.

I know i would take this deal and spend the ~20 bill for the extra 54 characters
(current plex ~550, ((20 b / 550 = 36) /2 = 18) x 3 = 54)

and then only pay for two training ques, after those two months are up.
you never know when you might want an alt somewhere

or need to fuel a pos chain in a wh.

Lets say i pay to train 6 characters for 30 days. Let say 5 trade alts and a 'main char'.
After that I just keep paying my main char since after 30d my trade alts have all the skills i need to be effective as traders.
It just takes 6 months until I actually start to save subscription money to maintain all this characters.

Anyways I still have 12 open slots so I make an effort to fill it with handy characters. It can be very quick to have a cyno alt, neutral hauler, salvager, prober or other mini-profession alt. Lets suppose all this characters get a total of more 6 months training time. Now the scenario its like:
1st month: I pay to train 6 characters for 30days. Thus enabling 18 characters slots.
2nd month: I pay to train another 12 characters on average 15d each.
3rd month: I just pay to train my main, at this point I have a total of 18 characters. I already started to save subscription money to maintain all this characters.
12th month:I paid a total of 22m worth of subscription over the first initial year to maintain all my character(including the initial investment to make then useful). A huge discount over the 72m it wold cost in the 'old' model. Also its less than the 24m worth of subscription I was willing to pay n the 'old' model.
24th mounth: I take the time to raise my characters slots a bit more and now i have 21, but I actually paid less than 50% of the cost i was willing to pay in the 'old' model.

And something like that its what most, if not all, players will do. More alts available for the same/lower cost its to big a advantage to not exploit. The end result its that CCP will have more workload and less subscription income, with several awful side-effects.

I'm very much in support of this. EVE is a game that lends itself well to running multiple accounts, so why not cater for it.