EVE General Discussion

So it occurred to me earlier some of the potential dangers that come with alpha accounts and a lack of consequences for them when something bad happens. (Might I remind people that consequences are a vital part of this game)

Don't get me wrong I'm not against alpha's being introduced, But it needs to be done correctly. It has the potential to lose CCP a fair few subscribers who will probably earn them more than any alpha could.


So my point is simple for those of us who subscribe if we do bad thing intentionally or accidentally it sticks, you earn a reputation.

Known Ganker, Awoxer, Thief, Pirate, Scammer. Awesome FC, Alliance leader, Funder of major wars - With that you do you earn a reputation, Good or bad. That sticks.

Okay you could create a new account, but you lose some of your SP (Not as much as you used to due to injectors),Standings with empires, you may lose assets.
For a lot of people its a fair bit of stuff to lose. Plus the RL cash you have invested into the account
And if you want to take skills with you, then be prepared to stump up cash to do so.

However for an alpha, that's disposable.
It opens up ways for people to come in do anything they want from the list of actions that can get you a bad reputation and simply create a new account for free and lose very little SP. There is no consequence to the person using the alpha. It could result in:

war-decs = Create new account
kill-rights = Create new account
-10 standings = Create new account
The list go's on and on


I understand that any of us who subscribe could do that, But it'd be a lot to lose for us I'm not prepared to lose 40+ mil SP, and even less prepared to stump up £50+ to take it with me

An alpha doesn't have that to worry about, they cant extract skills anyway, so just create a skill plan and start again, be done within 15 days.. Anyone dedicated to cause trouble could just create 2 accounts at a time so they have a backup for when one has to be disposed of, then setup another whilst using the spare. Bang problem solved.


It seems too abusable for people and could only serve to damage the community in the long run. I'm also fully expecting to see people creating disposable accounts just to be throwing around, Sexist, Homophobic, racist, Etc... references anywhere is space.

And before people suggest doing IP bans to people that to that, All I would have to do is call my ISP to get my IP changed. (Might be different in other countries)


Apologies for a wall of text but I feel it needs to be said, And not in a thread that it'll be lost in just to keep people quiet.


TL'DR As subscribers we have things to lose if we want to do bad things on our accounts, An alpha won't they can just create a new account if anything goes wrong and lose next to nothing.

This an interesting idea of how it "could" go. Abused mechanics (mostly) get changed by CCP once they are a hindrance to the overall development of the game though.

good to think of these things, but making your own thread and not just adding this into the official thread means i expect this to be locked.

good thoughts, wrong place.

I expect it to be locked too. However it would be hidden in amongst loads of comments in the other thread and barely acknowledged. Here people can be made aware of the situation, If it gets locked then I'll take it as they don't care about feedback.

Here's the thing. Nothing what so ever stops a person from starting hundreds throwaway Alpha accounts with Gallentean characters in them, set them to train every skill allowed to an Alpha to excel at Catalysts and just wait the 2 months or so it takes for them to train up.

After that it is just a matter of biomassing the characters and cycle through them so the ganker has always a new character with fresh standings to gank with at zero cost. There's not even an ISK cost involved since it takes them about thirty minutes doing opportunities and career missions to get everything they need.

This is the bit that mainly concerns me. Being able to just cycle alts by training one and playing the other then adding new ones each time you chuck and old one out.

All I have to do is change the MAC address setting on my router and it gives me a new IP address. Many ISPs actually have dynamic IPs but you reserve the one you're on for a short time and the internet is always connected so it looks static. Change the MAC connecting to it and you don't get the reservation anymore so you get a new IP. There's other ways to ban people, using machinekeys and the like, but none are foolproof.

Because you're analysis is so important and so original, it deserves its own thread.

/sarcasm.

Its not so much a list of baddies, Just a list of things that can get you a reputation that's not all too great. Its easier to avoid that reputation if your an alpha as it can just be cycled account after account.

I know what you mean with them being less that the amount of trial SP, its just the fact that when I setup an account I can do 2 an (Hopefully little graphic explains it)

Account > Playstyle > Bad Rep > Throw acc > New Account > Playstyle > ......
Account > Train skills > Switch to account > Play, Bad rep > Throw > Train new > .....

Hope that gets the point across, With a trial you cant do that as you are time limited.


Edit: I may have originally misread your comment slightly but have amended my reply.

I know what you mean, However you can currently create unlimited trial accounts on one email and I doubt anything will change there.

And with regards to limiting only 1 alpha online, People have already figured ways around it using virtual machines. Not everyone will do that.
But my point here isn't about multiboxing, its about unlimited throwaway accounts that can be lost and not bothered about. The minute I deem one to be having too bad a reputation then I just throw the account, use the standby character, then setup a new one to train whilst that one is being used.

You can get a good 4-5 T1 gank cats for the price of a T2. You'd certainly be able to do it cheaper with multiple T1s than with a T2. People will multibox them regardless of whether or not there are limitations, just like people multibox trials, trials however have a limited time before you have to pay, alphas won't.

Seriously, your idea of a bad reputation is different from mine.
Now i know some of us like to crouch backwards into the future in a permanently defensive posture, cringing from even the threat of one of life's slaps or stings, but you have the option to DROP TROU and sprint merrily into the fire waving a hatchet.
I mean the choice is yours.

The amount of evil one of these alphas could get up to isn't worth hiding from.
Cycling catalyst derps to pick at hisec warts is lame, like most things that happen in hisec, lame and paltry.