Hydaelyn Role-Players
Multiple Chars - Printable Version

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Multiple Chars - Charity322 - 09-28-2016

I've been playing FFXIV for a few months now and I think I've screwed up. Due to all the stuff I wanted to see and do I've ended up making 4 different chars and I'm now finding it hard to give all of them play without feeling as if I have to schedule specific days of the week for each char. Plus it gets confusing. DX

My brain is trying to persuade me to ditch them and start again, which is a really bad idea 'cause I really don't want to have to do MSQ a million times.

How do people with multiple chars handle them all?

RE: Multiple Chars - Virella - 09-28-2016

I get you. I really do. I wish there were more hours in the day, so I could RP my other chars just as much as Ave. Currently I got only two characters who I roleplay. Ave was meant to be my get away character, but became my main. Virella is being used my secondary character. That said, I don't purposely try to make many new contacts on Vi outside people who already know me on Ave, as I don't want them to feel left out ect.

At the moment, I only roleplay Virella for FC plot related thing, and some attention to her IC husband (who in turn also has a new main, who Ave interacts with).

I'm of the personal believe, to maintain healthy roleplay relationships, you simply can't derp constantly on a heap of characters. Unless people are fine with offscreening a lot, if not being semi neglected in favour for another character they prefer roleplaying at that time and place. I'm personally not okay with this, and I don't expect people to accept such either.

If people have one alt? Fine, I don't think its unmanageable if they have a 'get away' character. If they got a heap, I'm really, really hard-pressed to pursue meaningful relationships with their characters beyond basic interaction. You never know when they might just drop you after all, if they suffer from severe altolism. Call me an asshole, but no thanks.

Of course there are exceptions, but I've seen too many people using their alts as "Eh my relationship on x character got boring, they are taken now, what is cheating or drama, so lets make another char to do some new spicy romance xoxox with, and ignore everyone else but my new ERP target of choice (◕‿◕✿)"
(Also the Romance Altholics tend to end up being massive drama lamas when one of their relationships goes to hell IC, and drag EVERYONE into it OOC.)

BUT. At the end of the day, so whatever you want. I got alts just levelled for extra rooms. MSQ isn't that bad if you just go blank mind mode on it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

RE: Multiple Chars - Charity322 - 09-28-2016

I think I originally made several chars 'cause there were lots of classes I wanted to try that my first char was not interested in. Which, I suppose, would again be a problem if I cut down.

RE: Multiple Chars - Valence - 09-28-2016

First of all, you really souldn't bother creating alts for just trying other classes. Just unlock them on your main and play them here. You will get all the benefits of your main: GC seals unlocked so easy access to GC gear for leveling, no need to get back to the MSQ again, access to more roulettes since all is unlocked too, and just not to have to switch chars and stay on the one with all your contacts and all is kinda handy. It's also never lost since it makes you actually unlock a lot of cross class skills that are very nice to have on the main class(es) you play, or just outright mandatory (*cough* healer swiftcast *cough*).

NEVER EVER ditch your main character, or a character above lvl10-15. You will lose all progression you made on it. Since you can rename them or use fantasias, all the stuff/gear and skills and progression you made on them is irrelevant and independent to the character itself. Keep them. Maybe someday when you will have done everything you want to do on your main, you will get back to them with more fun and pleasure.

I started leveling an alt slowly a bit before 3.4 hit (I have always been a single character player in most MMOs that allow me to unlock all the classes and stuff on the same char). I had a lot of pleasure to get back through the 2.0 MSQ again. I liked it a lot more than I did the first time, now that I am more versed in the lore and universe. I notice that a lot of the things shown here are not immediately obvious for people that never played 1.0 for example (they don't go through lenghts to make you -feel- the story). 

My advice is to do one at a time. And then for RP, as Virella said, it's another debate/story.

RE: Multiple Chars - Charity322 - 09-28-2016

I tried doing a class that my char wasn't interested in once and she spent the entire time whinging inside my head. XD I guess I'm still adjusting to FFXIV; the previous game I played was 100% IC and your class/es were linked to your RP and involved in your RP. Any PvE was also done IC and incorporated into your char's story, which I find very hard to do here.

RE: Multiple Chars - Kilieit - 09-28-2016

I keep track of my alts' progress using an extensive spreadsheet:

[Image: 57a6333031.png]

It looks scary but it's actually just an exercise in note-taking.

The reason I do this is because I find it difficult to remember everything I'm doing on, you know, ten characters (eight of whom are on Balmung). Especially when it comes to repetitive quests like seasonal turn-ins. But... I often get bored of what I'm doing on my main character and want to do something else. Having it all written down in a clear format exactly what I'm supposed to be doing next on each character:

[Image: e49cf5fc2c.png]

Makes it much easier to decide what to do in a given day if I'm fed up of looking at my main's face, since I can easily flip through the sheets and find something that doesn't seem boring to do.

I try not to fuss about which alts are "behind" others in-game progress-wise. As of a couple of weeks ago, all my Balmung alts are level 30 with mounts; before that, all of them were about level 23 because I'd progressed their MSQ until it was time for them to pick up their retainers. I consider that a reasonable "resting point" and it's what I'm aiming for on my non-Balmung alts - once they're there, I won't feel bad about leaving them until I feel like taking them higher.

At that level they have the capability to sell stuff, 350 extra inventory slots, and can travel most anywhere in ARR if I'm careful with how I approach aggressive mobs. Doubly so if you push them to Sylph-Management and do your first GC hunting log entry for a mount. After that, I see additional PvE as a means to two ends - additional fun, and additional fashion. If levelling a given alt won't achieve either of those things, it tends to get left... since my alts exist primarily to give me a variety of faces to go to IC parties and the like with.

While they probably can't camp out in the wilderness of Northern Thanalan for a roleplay, there's plenty of people who are brand new to the game and can't do that, either, so most RP venues are friendly to the low-level player. I've been on a few RP outings with most of my alts and haven't struggled overmuch to get to where I want to be yet.

As the others say, keeping track of which of your alts knows who and how knowledgeable they are about other PCs' storylines is another matter - I recommend judicious use of the "friends list group" function, which I utilise to label RP friends based on whether I've met them ICly on that character yet or not... and maybe more note-taking. Or perhaps that last part's just me.

RE: Multiple Chars - Gegenji - 09-28-2016

I mainly work it by - as people have vaguely touched on here and there - having a "main" character and the alts are, well, alts. The main is the one I focus the most attention on and default to when doing stuff, while the others just sort of idle about unless someone asks me for them or I'm in the mood for that particular character.

That said, I have a bit of an oddball situation where my "PvE main" is not my "RP main." Though, that could mostly come from the fact that Gogon and Chachan used to be on different servers (Zalera and Balmung, respectively), and helped set the pattern of how I do things in this setup.

First and foremost, I tend to login first with Gogon. Then I do whatever PvE stuff I want to knock out for the day - usually weeklies (basically just raids at this point - was VArk and Weeping, now it'll probably be Alex again) and my daily routines (Trial/Mentor/Expert roulettes, couple of beast tribe dailies if I'm feeling sassy). During the wait or before/after the queues, I check my retainers. Once I've knocked all that out, I logoff him.

Then I switch to my RP main in Chachan, and usually just idle around looking for RP or chatting over LSes. With the new patch, I might do a couple roulettes and stuff with him again just to "update" his gear set should it be needed, but usually when I'm on him I'm looking for/in the middle of RP.

That said, Gogon and Judge are still available for RP... I'm just not actively looking for it for them. It's usually a case of people asking to RP with them - or me being in the mood to RP them over Chachan for whatever reason - and then I switch over to them. Otherwise, I just focus mostly on Chachan. Relegating the other two to "on request" definitely helps me juggle running three characters - and I'd probably do the same if I ever decided to use any of my placeholder characters too, like the geneologist half-Hellsguard, half-Sea Wolf Unpronounceable Name.

RE: Multiple Chars - Ritsu - 10-03-2016

I have a lllllooot of alts.

But with having <Berry> and time constraints. I focus on two characters the most. While slowly leveling the others. I don't get into super meaningful relations on my low tier alts, it just isn't fair to other players. Most are used for plot devices ect. I have my villian character, while fun she isn't the most user friendly. Others are funny to dally on, but outside FC folks - they don't get into much. Ritsu and Chi are my main focus. I find splitting time between them not bad as they are fairly different characters.

RE: Multiple Chars - Aden Dellebecque - 10-05-2016

I've got a bunch of slots filled, but I RP Aden leaps and bounds more than anyone else. For me to play an alt I have to have a story I want to tell, a personality or a concept I want to explore. I've been working on one lately (after the last alt fell flat due to something I should've been more cautious about) that I think will capture my interest, but no matter how many alts I have I'll always focus on one character.

RE: Multiple Chars - John Spiegel - 10-06-2016

(09-28-2016, 05:45 AM)Charity322 Wrote: How do people with multiple chars handle them all?

I have three characters.

First off, my company and circle of RPers know I have three characters, two of which they see regularly. I take advantage of not always being in demand as well as RPing over a pearl with either character on one character. The third character, admittedly, is a background character that does a lot of off screen stuff. Whatever.

The trick is to 1) Not get heavily invested in multiple plots with different people as different characters.

2) Realizing you don't always have to be on GO! all the time. Tuck someone away for a bit, especially if it's feeling like a chore. Stories aren't meant to be churned out in rapid succession.

3) Just have fun!

RE: Multiple Chars - SicketySix - 10-06-2016

I currently have 3 characters as well.

Savona Drake who is my RP main and the on who gets most of my attention game wise. Also my PVE main though I don't so much care about raid content anymore.

I then have U'khoa Ohhbi and Emoni Yaegar who I consider RP alts. I currently am open to contacts with them but they are pretty involved in Discord RP only with a friend of mine.

RE: Multiple Chars - Yuella - 10-14-2016

I have 1 main (non RP) and 3 RP characters (an Ala Mhigo Highlander refugee who becomes a sellsword in Ul'dah, a Gridanian Elezen archer and a sunseeker student in Limsa).  Due to time constraint, i only have time for my main and my Elezen archer.  I completed the other 2's beginning scenario.  I planned to make my 3 RP characters First Lieutenant of their respective GC but couldnt find the time.