Eight Character Limit Appeal

[K'nahli]

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?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.

 

I do actually play my characters too, haha ^^a   They're not just random models for the occasional screenshot. I am too shy to RP in public and my friend is seldom available to RP and is generally uncomfortable doing so in English to begin with.

 

The reason they need to be on Balmung beyond the obvious factor of wanting to keep in contact with my friends on there(that Skype alone would not really satisfy) is simply because it is my home. I love how populous it is, I love how busy and alive the streets and cities are, I adore how it's madness and celebration when events roll around and the place is overloaded with everyone coming to spend some time in the festivities. I went to Gilgamesh once a long time back when it was more popular to test a character or something and the place was a ghost town ;   It was horrible considering that was supposedly the second-most congested server on the Data Centre. I really don't want to be in such a bland and empty server and I'd happily pay upwards of the cost of an expensive mount per extra character slot if it meant staying on Balmung.

 

As for the housing issue... while people may have multiple houses, I really doubt that anyone here really believes that there are people out there with a personal home on all 8 characters and can further exploit it by getting additional slots. Any damage alts can do to housing can already be done. It's simply impossible for that to be exaggerated any further on Balmung.

[Kilieit]

Yeah, I'd still rather pay for additional slots on the same account.

 

I've multiboxed before in WoW. It sucks. It requires SO much faffing about compared to having characters on the same account; you end up regretting not having this character or that on the same account as each other so you don't have to spend so much time and effort logging over, re-earning account-wide rewards, and so on. I haven't paid for my second account in years, despite it having several (what used to be) level-capped characters on my preferred servers, and also being a game where having alts is actually supported in gameplay terms.

 

I'd gladly give SE extra money to be able to avoid all that faff. ._.

 

Like... I'd basically be paying to avoid the inconvenience. I'm fine with that.

 

And if you wouldn't be, well, you can just make another account!

[K'nahli]

I wouldn't dare suggest this should be high priority feature or that bigger things be pushed aside just to satisfy this one little element for a rather obvious minority, but it was simply my hope that it would not be the most difficult thing to implement and I wished to get Dev feedback at the very least.

 

In any case, thank you all for your contributions so far ^^

[Branson Thorne]

I'm all for increasing the number of characters allowed per server, per account.

 

And frankly I don't really see the concern about how it makes it harder for everyone else to get on the server. Do what most everyone else had to do, pay for a transfer.

 

It's really as simple as that.

[Faye]

Normally, I'd be all for raising the amount of character slots, but not with housing how it is now on Balmung. FFXIV really needs to get it together and fix the housing issue. And yes--server restrictions are set based on the amount of online users (hence why every now and then, you can sneak a character in before/after maintenance or after a server crash) and not the amount of players in general, or individual characters on the server, so log in times would not suffer, nor would it add to the problem of the server being constantly closed.

[Swanmay]

I would have to say "why not?" For this. I've not come close to meeting the character limit since I can only sensibly juggle a few characters at a time but if people can have more than 8 I don't see why it would be an issue. Guild Wars has extra paid for character slots and they function just fine. 

 

In fact, FFXIV could really take a leaf out of GW book and put the cash shop in-game too! It's so inconvenient to have to log out and log in every rim I Fantasia and name change. You could also preview the outfits and stuff. But I digress. The point is, other games have this feature and it works. 

 

The only issue is housing, which is ridiculous as it is. They need to fix this, perhaps by instancing it so you might have several versions of the same ward. So ward 1a, 1b, 1c and so on and so forth. I am personally not too bothered about having a personal house now that apartments are coming. I would never be able to put enough effort into decorating the darn place for starters. But an apartment is manageable and if they do things right I am more than happy with that.

[Kilieit]

Still holding out for "any new personal houses which are purchased are now per-account, also each alt which can access them does so as if they were also the owner of the house, and also can make a personal room in the house".

 

I mean, I'm not hopeful. Devs are like, but roleplayers might want a house that suits their alt!, and I'm like... this roleplayer would just like one house, please, I'd be happy with that, and Balmung folk with multiple houses "because it suits my characters" are actively preventing me (and countless others) from doing so.

 

But what I'm holding out for would solve the "alts are ruining the housing market!" (well, a gil-rich asshole can already own 16 houses per account per server... I'm not sure how making that 18 or 20 will make the problem massively worse) and also the "um, so I bought a personal house and it's literally the most restricted thing ever compared to FC housing, I am sincerely regretting not making a 1-person FC and purchasing it under that" problem too.

[K'nahli]

*nods*    Say what you want about the housing issue as I am certainly inclined to agree, but I really have my doubts that there is anyone on Balmung with 8-16 houses on a single account, let alone one wishing to increase the number further should more slots be introduced.

[ExAtomos]

1. We don't know if the character creation closure is due to how many active characters are on the server at any given time or the total number of characters ever created on that server, active or not. If the first, then why worry over alts on one account? They can only play one at a time, so aren't clogging up the server any more than a "one character only" player. If the latter, why be angry at your fellow RPers? Be angry at the scores of bots that are running around (remember, they get banned, not deleted, so allll their character info is still taking up space.)

 

2. Limited housing availability seems to be the primary complaint I'm seeing against this. If this was a non-issue, would you still be annoyed at someone's request to play more than 8 characters? Will having over 33k apartments per server help?

[Charity322]

I can't say that I care about raising the char limit. I'm struggling enough to level up 4 chars. Thanks SE, for making it so we have to complete the entire main plot to access Ishgard. DX

 

But I also wouldn't care if anyone else had more than 8 chars as long as yeah, it doesn't affect things like housing and/or number of people who can get on the server.

 

I seriously think that it'd be weird to make the restrictions on Balmung per char rather than per player, because you can only play one char at a time that actually takes up space on the server (ok char data, but I didn't think that would make the server lag if it wasn't currently active). Housing, it seems, has needed an overhaul for ages, as I hear lots of complaints about it and it currently doesn't seem fair, even without extra chars. One house per player and one FC house per player seems fair.

[Berrod Armstrong]

http://i.imgur.com/VSQmpBp.png[/img]

...the eight character limit is a necessary prison that keeps me from the madness...

...IF I AM UNSEALED ONLY HAVOC CAN ENSUE.

 

I always moan about wanting more character slots (six of those toons are 60, with the other two being 50 and 51), but ehhh...it's good for now. I know they tend to do things in multiples of 8 anyway and 16 seems like so much! 

 

...me with 16 character slots

 

r a g n a r o k

blob:http://imgur.com/3977b757-b835-46f5-881b-6d2dd86de29c[/img]

[ExAtomos]

(six of those toons are 60, with the other two being 50 and 51)

 

Nice! :thumbsup:

[Unnamed Mercenary]

The reason so many things are done in 8s (or really, powers of 2) comes down to how the packets of data are set up and handled. Interested parties can see how this works by looking up private servers for other games.

 

But the basic gist of how a MMO works is it's a collection of data packets that contain an instruction code, some pointers to characters or other objects, and then subpackets of more data.

 

In an oversimplified view, a packet might look like this:

[move command][character_ID][optional additional data]

 

Then it's sent from the client to the server to be sent to EVERYONE on that map. (This is why 1.0 was slow and laggy and 2.0 is instanced all over the place. Less people = less data to send = faster responses).

 

But when that data's packet up, it's still basically in binary. So a character ID could be something slot accountID_serverID_slotNumber. ...and those are all 1s and 0s. And it only takes 3 bits to give 8 slots. 4 bits would give 16 slots, etc. (So why did SE gives us 40 slots? Who knows. That was likely arbritrary, but it doesn't affect server-level stuff in game).

[Momo]

I have 16 slots on Balmung, and I can tell you, even at my most active, unless you do not care about game content AT ALL, you can't get anything done. Your alts would suffer, and they wouldn't have a wide variety of armors they can't get or places they can't go for long starting periods, nobody wants to friend or invite you that many times when that could take up room on their limited lists, and to be honest, good luck playing that many characters and not having at least some of them seem similar.

 

There is no need to uncap the limit, and even if there is, almost every other thing they haven't fixed or need to figure out a smarter way to do, should come before it~~~ just sayin'

[Kilieit]

good luck playing that many characters and not having at least some of them seem similar.

 

Try me:

 

1) vivacious young man with a secret; tradesman by day, rogue by night

2) stoic no-nonsense healer in a love-hate relationship with the Elementals

3) kind-natured orphan, estranged from his twin sister by political differences

4) ""archaeologist"" (tomb robber) with more of a nose for trouble than is strictly profitable

5) peppy huntress who keeps getting distracted from her job by pretty girls

6) sardonic demonic who isn't actually demonic, they just want to seem scary so people won't touch them

7) sad dad with a drinking problem, wants to find his son

8) smart-ass mage with too many puns and not enough years left in the world

9) child abuse survivor who turns to body mods and blowing stuff up as a coping mechanism

10) child soldier who becomes a mercenary with the strictest code of conduct she can still turn a profit on

11) noble's daughter, actually mixed species, who struggles with the decision to continue hiding her family secret - i.e. herself - after they're all killed in a war

12) overly eager apprentice to #2, might actually be a six-year-old girl

13) PTSD-riddled veteran who cannot bring herself to admit the war is over

14) wide-eyed teenager way in over her head with some pretty nasty magic

 

This was the size of my roster of WoW alts... sans a handful of characters who were pretty WoW-specific. All of them had fully fleshed-out backstories and all of the ones listed would be completely portable to XIV if I had the room. Only 1 through 8 made it.

 

Some of them have threads in common, but I think if you picked any 8+ characters, no matter who was writing them, that would be the case. By that logic, it's not worth there being more than a few character slots on the server full stop, right? Because some of them would be similar to each other?

 

I wanna be able to make my own bad decisions, okay??

[Momo]

good luck playing that many characters and not having at least some of them seem similar.

 

Try me:

 

1) vivacious young man with a secret; tradesman by day, rogue by night

2) stoic no-nonsense healer in a love-hate relationship with the Elementals

3) kind-natured orphan, estranged from his twin sister by political differences

4) ""archaeologist"" (tomb robber) with more of a nose for trouble than is strictly profitable

5) peppy huntress who keeps getting distracted from her job by pretty girls

6) sardonic demonic who isn't actually demonic, they just want to seem scary so people won't touch them

7) sad dad with a drinking problem, wants to find his son

8) smart-ass mage with too many puns and not enough years left in the world

9) child abuse survivor who turns to body mods and blowing stuff up as a coping mechanism

10) child soldier who becomes a mercenary with the strictest code of conduct she can still turn a profit on

11) noble's daughter, actually mixed species, who struggles with the decision to continue hiding her family secret - i.e. herself - after they're all killed in a war

12) overly eager apprentice to #2, might actually be a six-year-old girl

13) PTSD-riddled veteran who cannot bring herself to admit the war is over

14) wide-eyed teenager way in over her head with some pretty nasty magic

 

This was the size of my roster of WoW alts... sans a handful of characters who were pretty WoW-specific. All of them had fully fleshed-out backstories and all of the ones listed would be completely portable to XIV if I had the room. Only 1 through 8 made it.

 

Some of them have threads in common, but I think if you picked any 8+ characters, no matter who was writing them, that would be the case. By that logic, it's not worth there being more than a few character slots on the server full stop, right? Because some of them would be similar to each other?

 

I wanna be able to make my own bad decisions, okay??

 

I more meant in the nuance of actual word play rather than character backgrounds and motivations. Because lots of characters can be different from one another, but writing styles don't change, and the amount of dialogue and action in an RP setting causes dissimilar character reactions to that of a narrative written by only one person. Not to say you can't, just to say that most couldn't and most don't have the time to fully develope that many characters much less give them the time needed in a game where alts are gimped automatically by MSQ completion.

 

Mind you if I quit my job, or severely limited my hours, maybe I could use those slots, but 16 fully developed and useable characters is a stretch. (Unless a majority of them wore lower level armor, and or rarely ventured away from the main city, and maybe acted as side characters)

[Dat Oni]

The only way I could foresee them doing this is with an additional fee, and probably only if they feel the major servers aren't crowded enough. Balmung definitely leans towards being that.

[Virella]

I don't get how people can roleplay more then one character at the time, maybe two. I'd be feeling terribly fucking shitty if I had RP partners in whatever shape or form on all of them, and just gone 'its my time and money, let me go RP with another char and person now until I feel like rping my other char again. Bye bye~' And while people are completely in their right to do that, I find it... selfish in a way for the other parties involved? I'd be upset if someone pulled that off on me.

 

That said though, that comes from someone who roleplayed only three characters 'legit' beyond some detour odd once per month on an alt to NPC for friends, or progress storylines. (I never really RPed them at the same time either. I've always been a one character type of person.) On FFXIV I'm very much the same. I only really roleplay Ave. I'm sometimes still on Vi, but I simply can't just... leave my roleplay partners hanging on my main.

 

So no, I'm not lamenting this, because I still firmly believe you can't possibly develop your alts as much as your main, and I don't want to disappoint roleplayer partners. Maybe if you do a shitton of out of the game roleplay, but that was never my interest. Surely, it does suck for making alts for NPCs ect, and I really wish Balmung was more open, but that's from a storyteller type of view, not as an RPer.

[K'nahli]

All of my characters do not need to be at end-game, geared to the most basic level or even RP'd to have a lot of worth and value to me. It cannot even be said that I 'really' RP with randoms considering I must have done it a total of five times at best. Plenty of my characters have remained little more than concepts waiting to be realised for a variety of reasons - largely for the fact that I am dependant upon my RP partner who herself is often very busy with other things. Regardless, that doesn't stop me from playing them, enjoying the aesthetic and posting screenshots inspired by their many individual stories - played or not.

 

While I wouldn't begrudge anyone their own opinions or decisions regarding my request, it seems odd to me that anyone would bluntly refuse to offer their support because such a request wouldn't personally suit their own gameplay and RP habits. Were the reason simply that "this has no benefit to me and so I will not support it", then I could understand. Albeit I am not sure why the people who are interested are being held to your own personal standard. It's an unusual stance to me.

 

Perhaps anyone in this topic does meet your criteria and it is that approach which you disagree with, though your post come across as a general and sweeping statement to me.

 

In any case, thank you once again for all of the responses.

[Aaron]

I have no opinion on it, if that's what you want go for it imo

[Momo]

Basically this is another try at telling the game what to do for RP ideas which...just no. Like sure you can want the game to cater to you all you want, but the easier and more obvious thing to do is drop the attitude that says: "The game should cater to me out of all the other people on the servers." and read more like: "If I really want what I want, how can I get it myself?" which is to get rid of one character you don't use often, and open up a slot that you can mess around with all the time. OR, if you want to do this that badly, get everyone together on another server and use all the slots to do things, there are many solutions to this if you are willing to give just a little.

 

Next let's make a thread about changing the job lore to our liking, or altering the course of the story because we didn't agree with the end of Heavensward. We get 8 characters per account on each server, that's quite enough, and if you need more, time to shell out more money!