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Do all serious players have alts?
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Karle Tabot
State War Academy
Caldari State
#21 - 2013-03-19 15:40:57 UTC  |  Edited by: Karle Tabot
Editing to add that no, you do not need more than one character or one account to be a serious player, at least not in my opinion.

I think alts are definitely beneficial. But what you may really need to consider is whether you need more than 1 account. I think they are even more beneficial.

For every account you have you can only have 1 character training at a time. So if I have 2 accounts, I can have 2 characters training 24/7 instead of merely 1.

If I plan out my skill training (see Evemon) I can maximize the training efficiency so as to be able to do more things, better and more quickly. I can train 1 character on one account to take one path and train the other on another account to take another path, and I can plan it so they each specialize in different areas I am interested in.

Add another account and you could have 3 characters training 24/7 and etc.

Most computers these days can handle two accounts or more playing on them at the same time. In addition to being able to double, triple and so forth the number of skill points you can train over the same period of time, and in addition to skillfully planning the training of each to max your effective return (aka productivity, etc), you can use 2+ accounts playing at same time to work together and double your productivity, etc. In fact, you can achieve efficiency greatly than twofold with 2 accounts, because of such things as one being an Orca pilot booster and the other being a miner.

You can have an alt on one of your accounts you do not necessarily train, but whom you use to watch the market in a market hub like Jita. That alt can do your market and price checking for you.

You can think of additional uses and benefits.
Kimimaro Yoga
School of Applied Knowledge
Caldari State
#22 - 2013-03-19 23:40:56 UTC
Agree that having more than one character is extremely common. The reason for this is that Eve is a really big place, and it can take a long time to get from one place to another. The market alt is the obvious example, you leave one of those in a major market hub while your "real" character goes off and does stuff. Similarly the PI or manufacturing alt is easiest to leave in the vicinity of its planets, for many people doing that on their main is very inconvenient. These are pure utility characters though, you train them for a few weeks so they can do one thing well, and then never do anything else with them. And you can easily have such chars on a single account.

In some ways having a second account just increases the uses of utility chars. If you have a low-SP scout alt on the second account (free medclones), it's easier to scout your main through dangerous places than if the scout is on the same account. However, having a second account generally means having a second "real" character that you train for many things, and if you have no reason to do that it's probably not worth having a second account. Well, you could use the second account to create characters to sell, but that's getting a bit fancy.

The thing to realize is that RP isn't popular in Eve, at least not in the "what Empire are you from?" sense. So most people don't really evaluate that when they consider the value of more characters/accounts. I would argue that there's a different sort of RP that is quite common in Eve, which is that people develop corp/alliance identities with sometimes quite distinct cultures they're part of. That sort of roleplay doesn't necessarily correlate with the sort of identity development you seem to be seeking though, it's more of an organic thing.

Now recruiting: http://dogfacedesign.com/index.php/Recruiting-Posters/recruiting-poster-patr3
Disastro
Wrecking Shots
#23 - 2013-03-20 01:04:29 UTC
Sundiata Arran wrote:
I'm just wondering. From reading the forums people are constantly talking about their alts. Are there any regular experienced users of this index who play it "straight?" I'm attracted to the roleplaying side of RPG. It feels very gamey to me to have an alternate character around who's sole purpose is to spring traps at gatecamps or slave away for isk, while the main character buys ships and stuff.

I guess another question is: Is it possible to enjoy a PVP/PVE career without the added isk?


The game is definitely playable without alts. That being said there are many reasons why people make them. Some of those:

1. Bearing alt for a PVP char. If you want money to pvp sometimes its nice to have another char to do the earning during down times. This is especially true for chars who fight in low sec and earn a -10 sec status.

2. Market alts - similar but sometimes people want to keep a toon in a market hub all the time.

3. Cyno toons - if you own a capital you cant move without one. Or a super capital for that matter.

4. Spotters - gate camp pvpers need eyes

5. Spies - good pvp alliances meta game to ensure winning more often than losing. It might not seem fair. Its just how it is in this game.

6. Awoxers - spies people use for tackling people in a hostile alliance for the purpose of creating tears. Nothing pisses people off more than losing capitals to being tackled by someone in your own alliance or blue to you.

7. AFK pve - some folks are just lazy

Of course there are hundreds of other reasons to have alts. Whether you need one or not depends on what you intend to do in eve. No one has to have one.
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