EVE General Discussion

Objectively incorrect. "Free" is always subjective and, in common parlance, is generally used to mean, "Offered without cost to the consumer." In practice, this actually means, "Paid for by the provider, or a third party."

And, again: Quit lying. You can absolutely utilize the exact same service, at the exact same service-level, as non-paying players.

Uh, I'm not implying - I'm flatly telling you, as would anyone with an IQ exceeding room temperature, that Alphas have a cost to CCP. Bandwidth isn't free, customer support staff and GMs aren't free, etc. There's even potential for lost revenue from people who might have otherwise maintained a subscription, but instead opt to go Alpha.

All of these are effectively marketing costs, and could potentially be regarded as a "loss leader".


Christ, you probably think the minerals you mine yourself are free.



The assertion that you lose access to anything that non-subscribers receive is a lie. You do not lose access to anything. You maintain the exact same access to Alpha clones that a free player has.

This is incorrect. Minor point, but the Alpha queue only allows 24 hrs of skills, and the Alpha skills aren't longer than a few days, so if you AFK for 6 months you'll have only a couple days worth of skills trained on the Alpha. In fact, you have to log in your Alpha every couple days or so, to check the skill queue and re-add to it.



NOBODY can field a "second" Alpha. The simultaneous login rule states that once an Alpha is logged in, no other accounts can be logged in at the same time, Alpha or Omega. You are asking to give Omegas a feature that nobody has, currently.

And if you look at the history of the Alpha / Omega feature, and the player comments to it, and the CSM comments to it, you will see that "no free alts" was a feature possibly requested by the players. In fact, CCP was going to allow simultaneous logins, originally, but they changed their minds. Look at the first dev blog and second dev blog on the subject, and you'll see.

So with all the convoluted logic and appeals to being rational, ultimately you're requesting a feature that has been removed on purpose, and would be detrimental to the game, in my opinion, and more importantly, in CCP's current opinion. So, NO.

Seriously dude you have to try to think a little bit harder instead of just opening the floodgates of your mind and letting it dribble out onto the forums time and time again.

You can still have an Alpha Clone if you want, set up an account and get stuck in.

You just can't add an Alpha Clone to your existing Omega Account.

An Alpha Clone also can make extra accounts if they want, but cannot train multiple Alphas on the same account.

There is no service the free people get that you as a paying player do not also get if you choose to.

Yes - we're all conspiring to prevent the game from turning into a big, ****** mass of f2p scouting alts.

Wrong.

As you aptly pointed out, there is currently no limit to how many Alphas can be created.

There is nothing preventing a player creating a mass of Alpha scouting alts.

I can create an Alpha to sit at every single gate in this entire game. For no cost.

Associating an Alpha with each Omega account, as I suggested, in no way, shape or form restricts this existing potential.

And using them would be against the EULA. It's not surprising that someone as morally challenged as yourself would advocate cheating.

There is no cheating in creating hundreds of Alpha scouting alts.
It is entirely legit and within the rules.

I can make an alpha scout for every single gate in this game.
Hence, your argument of alphas as unfair scouts, is refuted.

There is no moral decrepitude in it either, especially not in EVE.

You also argued that Alphas cost CCP.
Well, if that where so, then why do they allow the potential to create an infinite amount of Alphas.

The only moral decrepitude here, is in the responses to my suggestion, as vested in ulterior motives and offensive language which all ignore the actual point I was making (which was rational).

It does not make sense, that a paying account loses access to a free service.
The issue of only being able to log one Alpha at a time, is commensurate with only being able to log paid Omegas simultaneously. However, since Alphas are free, it makes sense to allow each single Omega account to run a free alpha simultaneously. You can argue about the mechanics and exploitation of that, but it is a fiscal/equity fact nonetheless.

Im paying.

There is nothing free about my subs.

The only free element, is Alphas.

As a paying customer, I should be able to fly a FREE account like others, (and yes, it is free to all) simultaneously with my PAID account.

Also, I love how you ignored the nails I drove deep into your side, so as to focus on an immaterial and easily refuted line of argument. Weakness.

To clear up any confusion, "scouting" means flying ahead of the main ship, at the same time as the main ship. You cannot do "scouting" with Alphas, because you cannot log in multiple Alphas at the same time.

Your version of "scouting" is actually just parking a character in a spot, so you can log in and check something and log off. That's not scouting.

You can, if you want, park a whole slew of Alpha alts in space at every gate between Jita and Dodixie. And you'll be able to log in, one at a time, each one of them to "check" for enemies. As soon as you log in your transport to haul the goods, though, assuming that the way is "safe", 100 CODE players can string themselves along the route and wait for you. A live, fleeted scout will detect them. Your 100 Alphas parked in space didn't.

Otherwise, YES there are ulterior motives. We have ulterior motives. CCP has ulterior motives, too. They're providing the Alphas as a way to entice people to subscribe. If they don't see results, I'm willing to put money on a bet that they will disable / remove the Alpha program completely. Ultimately, the convenience of being able to play the game for free does not matter to a business whose purpose, like all businesses, is making money.