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Eight Character Limit Appeal


K'nahli

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Hello ^^   First off, I apologise if this is better suited for the off-topic forum but I think here works(?)

 

Some time ago I made a thread on the official forums requesting a possible increase of the maximum allotted character slots per server, though unfortunately it didn't get a lot of attention at the time. With the help of Clover however, we're hoping to make this second attempt a lot more promising. She has made a Tumblr post linking to the new topic on the forums in an effort to gather support and I was hoping we might be able to do the same here.

 

I am not ignorant to the fact that 40 characters in total and 8 per server is actually quite a generous offer on SE's part, though our argument is that most people who do wish to exceed that amount won't want to stray away from their home server for a variety of very valid reasons, and as an "altaholic" and RP'er both, I would absolutely murder to have more slots per server made available to me since it should have no negative impact in any way, shape or form as far as I can tell.

 

So with all of that said and regardless of whether you personally see a need for it for yourself, we would greatly appreciate if people would offer support in the ways up upvoting the official thread, replying and adding your piece to keep it alive and kicking, or reblogging Clover's Tumblr post to try and give the topic more coverage.

 

I realise that this request might be a bit of a niche feature, but when accounting for it lack of impact and even potential revenue gain for SE should they take the Additional Retainer route, I am hopeful that it is still a possibility if enough voices add to it, and it is my hope that RP'ers in particular will have a lot of support for this idea.

 

 

Thank you for your time and I hope this thread was okay to make!

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Well, let's take Balmung as an example. That server is pretty full already. Is it because of the many players or the many characters that's on there? I have 2 characters on there and I can't seem to make any alts join the server, so I am to assume that it is so full because of the many toons people have made on there.

 

So to give people the opportunity to make MORE alts than the 8 that's already on the same server is rather unfair to the rest of the community who can't even get a single one on it.

 

8 is a generous number. Maybe even too much. So I'd rather that won't change.

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I can't help but think, do we really need even more competition for already severely limited housing, when altaholic RPers and others can't help but figure that they need a house for each of their personalities? As these same people are currently plotting and planning how they want to snatch up what is likely to be limited apartments(at the expense of people who have yet to get any), because "this" alt doesn't have one, even though their main, and 1/2/3/+ of their other alts do?

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I barely use the slots I have, unfortunately. I have three characters I play with any sort of regularity and three more alts that I made during the small open windows after maintenance in case I ever needed them. And I've yet to touch the latter beyond getting them to 15ish - I can't even be bothered to log onto them to do the Mini Cactpots at the Saucer. :blush:

 

So, my hat is off to those that can juggle more than a couple characters and keep them all going on various plots and whatnot. I just don't think I can split my time that many ways. I do have some questions, though, that I think may be important for pushing for this sort of change.

 

First and foremost: How many slots do you feel you need? I note that you have the idea of allowing people to buy more slots, as a way to incentivize it for SE as a new source of income. However, there would likely need to be a cap somewhere, right? So what upward cap would you want to have? 15? 20?

 

Which is important based on the second question: How many people do you think would partake in this process? There's a lot of reasons for this question, which weigh on both sides of the spectrum. If there's not enough interest in having the extra slots, SE may not feel it's worth the effort to add that level of functionality to the game when large percentage of players don't need more than the set amount (especially considering the "one character can be everything" setup, which could mean this matter is mostly for RPers - and then a smaller subset of said RPers who can successfully juggle 8+ characters).

 

If there's a huge amount of people who want to do this, then the cap would have to be set at something that won't unintentionally cause unforeseen problems. After all, if it's a popular enough thing, you could have thousands of people utilizing it adding thousands of new characters. Which very well COULD lead to an impact just from the extra character data being stored - and the changes needed to be made to allow for the purchase/addition of more character slots.

 

And there are the other, less seen factors. The housing one that immediately got brought up is a good one. If there's not a "per player" limit on housing (I don't believe there is), then that's going to tax an already strained resource - especially on servers like Balmung where it's already hard enough to get yourself your own little plot of land. And there could be other factors - maybe allowing that many more characters to run through the MSQ and dailies could flood more gil into the market or something. Or it could be abused by gil sellers who spend chump change in order create more characters to farm more gil for more cash. Not saying these are actual problems that could arise, but there might be difficulties and factors we don't currently see by adding the the character count.

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I wouldn't mind cash shop character slots that increase in cost as you go beyond 8, maybe up to a maximum of 16 or something.

 

I mean. I wouldn't mind. But I'm pretty sure my wallet would.

 

(context: a level 59, a level 41 and six level 30's, plus at least two lv17 alts "overseas" that I never play because they aren't on Balmung.)

 

I do wish they'd implement a per-player housing thing, though. They said they won't, "because roleplayers might want a house that suits each alt", but honestly I think most roleplayers - being as most roleplayers are on Balmung - are struggling to get one house and I don't think it's fair that someone with fast internet, a good PC, a flexible work schedule, and good luck can theoretically own up to sixteen houses (one per alt and alt's solo FC) and most people, especially those without all four of those things, can't get one.

 

Make alts on the same world automatic tenants in the house, and allow personal rooms for tenants in personal housing, and IMVHO you're good.

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Well, let's take Balmung as an example. That server is pretty full already. Is it because of the many players or the many characters that's on there? I have 2 characters on there and I can't seem to make any alts join the server, so I am to assume that it is so full because of the many toons people have made on there.

 

So to give people the opportunity to make MORE alts than the 8 that's already on the same server is rather unfair to the rest of the community who can't even get a single one on it.

 

8 is a generous number. Maybe even too much. So I'd rather that won't change.

 

To my understanding, creation restrictions were related to the number of online players and not the amount that exist on there. Though even if what you are proposing were the case, I imagine that should be something that they could consider re-evaluating at the same time. After all, eight characters on one server isn't much different from just the one when considering that only one can ever log in at any given time surely?

 

I can't help but think, do we really need even more competition for already severely limited housing, when altaholic RPers and others can't help but figure that they need a house for each of their personalities? As these same people are currently plotting and planning how they want to snatch up what is likely to be limited apartments(at the expense of people who have yet to get any), because "this" alt doesn't have one, even though their main, and 1/2/3/+ of their other alts do?

 

Unfortunately I can't fault you for thinking like this as your concern is very valid >_<  Certainly the most convincing argument I've heard against the idea so far, haha ;;;;

 

 

So, my hat is off to those that can juggle more than a couple characters and keep them all going on various plots and whatnot. I just don't think I can split my time that many ways.

 

Ahaha ;;;;  I must admit that while each character does have their own story behind them, I am a highly inactive RP'er considering that I extremely rarely participate in it publicly and don't find the opportunities to play many of them in private very often at all. Though that doesn't stop me from enjoying their concept, taking screenshots of them, simulating scenes in the same sense, grabbing new glamours for them and simply trying new job classes - as I only level one Job per character.

 

 

 

First and foremost: How many slots do you feel you need? I note that you have the idea of allowing people to buy more slots, as a way to incentivize it for SE as a new source of income. However, there would likely need to be a cap somewhere, right? So what upward cap would you want to have? 15? 20?

 

I'm going to be honest here and admit that beggar's certainly cannot be choosers. Any increase at all would be highly welcomed and I'd understand the desire for an upward cap. Fifteen to twenty are actually fantasy figures to me, I think that would be an absolutely outstanding result if we got that many from it, but I would welcome as many as they were willing to offer us really. If you need a figure though then I think at least twelve would be fantastic, though I'd never dare rule out more for who knows what further down the line.

 

 

Which is important based on the second question: How many people do you think would partake in this process? There's a lot of reasons for this question, which weigh on both sides of the spectrum. If there's not enough interest in having the extra slots, SE may not feel it's worth the effort to add that level of functionality to the game when large percentage of players don't need more than the set amount (especially considering the "one character can be everything" setup, which could mean this matter is mostly for RPers - and then a smaller subset of said RPers who can successfully juggle 8+ characters).

 

If there's a huge amount of people who want to do this, then the cap would have to be set at something that won't unintentionally cause unforeseen problems. After all, if it's a popular enough thing, you could have thousands of people utilizing it adding thousands of new characters. Which very well COULD lead to an impact just from the extra character data being stored - and the changes needed to be made to allow for the purchase/addition of more character slots.

 

I cannot answer that because I do not know how many other people on here and elsewhere feel about alts nor how many they have created - just that a few of us have reached the cap and would certainly welcome more. Frankly, my RP scene is not the healthiest thing to look at so you could almost argue that I am not doing this for RP purposes even if my intention would be to give them stories and designs all the same. I do know that many people love FF's models and have a lot of fun with character design so I would hope that the desire for such a thing branches far beyond just mere roleplayers.... though I wouldn't dare suspect that it was as popular as I'd like.

 

The fact alone that SE offered us a staggering 40 slots to utilise in total - despite the setup where you only really need one character - is part of what gives me hope. What reason they could think such a bizarrely, high number is justified is honestly beyond me, but I choose to see it as something hopeful. Surely if they feel that the cap is fair in being set so high, then requesting that more of those same 40 slots can be implemented on the same server without increasing the total cap wouldn't be the most outlandish request there has ever been.

 

And there are the other, less seen factors. The housing one that immediately got brought up is a good one. If there's not a "per player" limit on housing (I don't believe there is), then that's going to tax an already strained resource - especially on servers like Balmung where it's already hard enough to get yourself your own little plot of land. And there could be other factors - maybe allowing that many more characters to run through the MSQ and dailies could flood more gil into the market or something. Or it could be abused by gil sellers who spend chump change in order create more characters to farm more gil for more cash. Not saying these are actual problems that could arise, but there might be difficulties and factors we don't currently see by adding the the character count.

 

The housing argument is certainly a sad one that I cannot counter because it is a potential risk and I won't pretend that people would refrain out of the goodness of their hearts. The rest of your comments are, as you admit, speculation on the possible conflicts of interest it could bring about and truthfully I acknowledge and accept that. The thing is that this is an "issue" that has never been brought up before with the Devs as far as I can tell, so even if they refused the idea it would still be comforting to know that they at least have legitimate reasons for it and that it's not something that will never happen only because we never tried.

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Here's the thing about possibly having to pay extra for more slots.

 

At some point, it'd just be cheaper to make another Square Enix account and buy a copy of FFXIV when it's on sale. (I've seen A Realm Reborn as low as $8. And I've seen it free with some Humble Bundles). Assuming that cost of another character adds up, wouldn't it almost be cheaper then to get the game when it's low and pay for the an additional 8 characters worth of service? (Should batches of 8 characters be a thing).

 

Doing it that way, you could then theoretically balance which account you were playing off of more often. Maybe there's a big RP arc and you'd only need one account active. Or if you want two of your characters online for something. (You can technically dual-box the game. Multi-boxing for gathering/crafting/breaking gameplay is bannable though).

 

edit for math:

 

As a refresher, the standard subscription costs for non-legacy people are:

30 days: 14.99

60 days: 13.99

180 days: 12.99

 

So another 8 characters with it's own account would still be cheaper than adding 8 slots at $2 each for 30 days, assuming retainer prices.

 

The same caveats would still apply. You'd need need to transfer them to Balmung, which bunches of new players already are doing. It'd at least offer you the chance to temporarily unsubscribe from an account of all the characters you were currently playing were on one account as well. (Assuming veterans awards are not a concern).

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Problem with that is I live off savings - I prefer larger one-off costs to having to maintain multiple subscriptions, because they're more manageable from a financial planning point of view.

 

Plus you'd have to repurchase anything off the mogstation that's "one per service account", and build up your veteran rewards again...

 

But that's just me. xD

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While I personally am more then content with the character slots I have (most are either supporting characters for RP, content characters, or those used for storylines), I do know some who would enjoy having the extra slots.

 

However, given how servers like Balmung are currently? I don't see this getting a lot of support until they fix a number of other things first. Namely the server congestion and how hard it is to make alts even after a person is established on the server whereas in other games once you're in? You're in.

 

I do hope this gets the support you both want though! Best of luck <3

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An entirely new account would require the repurchase of each expansion and lock me out from logging in on a particular character even if it's just once for the whole month for a particular event quest or screenshots unless I paid a whole month's worth of a subscription. I don't really care about Veteran rewards myself but I'd also be unable to claim account-wide purchases or the double chocobo mount and I'd be relying on my friend to also go through such insane lengths.

 

The double account prospect sounds incredibly enticing to have my own characters appear simultaneously for screens but certainly not worth that much, haha.

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So, my hat is off to those that can juggle more than a couple characters and keep them all going on various plots and whatnot. I just don't think I can split my time that many ways.

 

Ahaha ;;;;  I must admit that while each character does have their own story behind them, I am a highly inactive RP'er considering that I extremely rarely participate in it publicly and don't find the opportunities to play many of them in private very often at all. Though that doesn't stop me from enjoying their concept, taking screenshots of them, simulating scenes in the same sense, grabbing new glamours for them and simply trying new job classes - as I only level one Job per character.

 

*snip*

 

Which is important based on the second question: How many people do you think would partake in this process? There's a lot of reasons for this question, which weigh on both sides of the spectrum. If there's not enough interest in having the extra slots, SE may not feel it's worth the effort to add that level of functionality to the game when large percentage of players don't need more than the set amount (especially considering the "one character can be everything" setup, which could mean this matter is mostly for RPers - and then a smaller subset of said RPers who can successfully juggle 8+ characters).

 

If there's a huge amount of people who want to do this, then the cap would have to be set at something that won't unintentionally cause unforeseen problems. After all, if it's a popular enough thing, you could have thousands of people utilizing it adding thousands of new characters. Which very well COULD lead to an impact just from the extra character data being stored - and the changes needed to be made to allow for the purchase/addition of more character slots.

 

I cannot answer that because I do not know how many other people on here and elsewhere feel about alts nor how many they have created - just that a few of us have reached the cap and would certainly welcome more. Frankly, my RP scene is not the healthiest thing to look at so you could almost argue that I am not doing this for RP purposes even if my intention would be to give them stories and designs all the same. I do know that many people love FF's models and have a lot of fun with character design so I would hope that the desire for such a thing branches far beyond just mere roleplayers.... though I wouldn't dare suspect that it was as popular as I'd like.

 

I just want to touch on these two points here if I may. You mention that you're not actually using these characters for RP - mainly just for setting up pictures and for visual reference for glamours and the like. So, I pose to you this question: if they're not actually going to interact with other RPers, why do they need to be on Balmung?

 

The locations, the gear, all of that is a constant across servers. The only difference is if you're looking to set up a scene with a specific character or personal/FC housing locale that is specific to Balmung. In fact, you might even want to be on a lower population server if you're just going for nice scenic shots - less players to accidentally run in and ruin the shot, and housing is much more plentiful so you could farm up enough gil and have your own house purely for background.

 

Of course, doing that has its own issues. On those other servers, you can't be in LSes or send tells to your friends over on Balmung. However, you can also work around that by using Discord or Skype.

 

I just get the feeling that - if you want SE to allow more character slots per server - you'd probably want to be using them for more than popping on for a couple screenshots.

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I use my alts for RP!

 

I have three... no, four additional OC's in the wings (an Ishgardian with PTSD, a reformed lalafellin bandit, a hellsguard black mage, and a sea wolf scholar) who I could definitely stand to bring to Balmung, plus two non-RP characters that my friends want me to bring (canon clones...) that I wouldn't have space for until I'd stuffed as many OCs as humanly possible onto my roster.

 

I love and develop all of my existing characters, even though I admittedly go through month-long phases of only focussing on one at a time, and I'd be pretty chuffed with the opportunity to expand my repertoire without having to use a fant/namechange every single time I want to roleplay something different.

 

I'm happy with the variety I have now... but I'd be more happy with a bigger one. x_x

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I mean, do you really need the others when you've got that reformed bandit? ^_~*

But more seriously, the game is already kinda not designed around having alts, so I'm amazed there is even this many slots. That being said, I don't think Square will add more.

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I wouldn't care normally, but right now housing is per-character and not per-account; FCs are getting screwed out of houses they should be able to afford as it is. Even if we're optimistic with apartments being however many per ward and not per server, Balmung is just too big. Anyone can already make 8 characters on another server and pay to transfer too, being able to do that with 10/12/16/etc. is just another problem.

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I have two characters. One is my main for content and RP. The other is an RP alt who still isn't through the HW MSQ since I paused post-Vault since at the time, I had no idea what I was doing when it came to playing MCH properly.

 

I work from home, on a flexible schedule, and I still hardly have enough time and attention for both.

 

While I understand and respect that not everyone plays the way I do, considering Balmung's issues with server congestion, locked character creation, and the perpetual cauldron of repressed RPer rage that is the housing market, I really can't get behind this idea.

 

You said yourself that you'd primarily be using extra characters for visual reference and screenshots. To echo Chachanji, they don't need to be on Balmung for that - if you're just getting a nice shot of X character, roll them on another server.

 

Tl;dr - We're on the most populated server in the game, so...yeah, no.

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I'm gonna post this monstrosity I made because college football impacts my ability to have a life outside of work. And I spent a fair amount of time having Excel open for it.

 

Disclaimer: I'm a bit snippy currently.

 

8wcKE37.png

 

Savings by planning a budget/buying in advance makes a pretty big difference. Now imagine if the cost per slot was more than $2.

 

 

 

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I'm gonna post this monstrosity I made because college football impacts my ability to have a life outside of work. And I spent a fair amount of time having Excel open for it.

 

Disclaimer: I'm a bit snippy currently.

 

8wcKE37.png

 

Savings by planning a budget/buying in advance makes a pretty big difference. Now imagine if the cost per slot was more than $2.

 

 

 

 

Hooray accounting! -cheers-

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