To Alt or Not to Alt- That is the question...

[Nanapariri]

Now that we all know that it will cost 3 dollars for every alt and getting a free storage character who still wants to have one?

 

Once I'm in the position to play I wonder if I'll be able to afford the 2 alts I'd planned so I think I might just have one now. The problem is to decide which of the 3 I have in mind to go with. lol.

 

Anyone else changing plans in regards to alts?

[Kylin]

I also originally planned to create 3 main characters. Unfortunately, there's no way I can go through with that now with the pricing. This puts a pretty big dent in my RP plans since I had put a lot of planning into all 3 characters. I guess I'll just focus on two now and wait for the second one to be killed off eventually (because I have no doubt that the psychotic lalafell will certainly make a LOT of enemies >.>). Then I can bring in the third character to replace her.

 

I'm not going to try worrying too much about it right now though. I plan to focus heavily on my main for awhile anyway before bringing any other characters into the fold.

[Aveline]

I always had a "disposable" mule in each city that I could use for minor storage and for speedy AH/regional vendor access, and for a time I had a 2nd character that I used as an alt for leveling and RPing, but I decided I didn't like long-term management of two more permanent characters.

 

If I were to get a 2nd character slot, I think it would be for temporary minor characters that I could delete after the arc was done. Even so, I'm really not sure I want to spend an extra $3/month on the slot. We'll see though.

[Eva]

I think it's just going to be Eva, and no alts. Not even sure I'm going to bother with Ora for $3, but we'll see - I know I promised some RP time with Ora to Varov and I really need to give it some thought. It's possible that Ora might wind up being Eva's retainer - that would certainly be amusing. I never really understood the fascination with playing a lot of alts. In XI I had several 'mules' and I RPed a little bit on a couple of them, but more as a break than anything else. They were mostly part of a pretty elaborate means of moving ingredients, supplies and goods between AH's and used OOCly for profit more than anything else. For those that knew him, Constable never even had a character slot for him until well into that particular story arc. It seemed silly to have a nemesis character who could never be on at the same time as my 'main'. I have no qualms about the $3/character since I doubt I'll take advantage of it.

 

I think most of my storyline NPC's will retain their 'N'.

[ArmachiA]

I have altitis, even in FFXI I had 6 characters. In FFXIV I'll have 3. I like playing different races in different cities, see if anything changes.

[Kashemia]

I usually have several alts, but maybe it will be good for once being forced to focus almost completely on one character. Both for level and roleplay progression. So I guess that means I'll be focusing just on Seraj.

[Arzy]

Well, grinding one character/class can get boring at times. Alts are a good way to blow some steam and confuse your friends by stalking them with an alt, after all, you know their dark secrets ... hehehe.

 

Not sure I want to fill their pockets +3$ just for an extra char ... not sure I've ever seen that in a game before...

[Eva]

For $36/year or potentially several hundred dollars over the lifespan of the game, I would want to be able to play my alt at the same time as my main. I don't foresee S-E allowing this, though. And I just don't think it's worth it. Call me Vanilla McBlandy if you will, but I don't need that kind of variety.

[Satrina]

I've never really been fond of alts, I usually just devote all my time and resources to one character to go above and beyond. I never really saw a need for alts as well on FFXI other then my single mule I used to store all my random gear, food and crafting mats.

[Faust]

I have no intention of using alts, but if I do end up making one, I'll just make them a retainer-- no different than any other mule.

[Akashi]

I am really torn on this. I love alts. Creating different character concepts and spreading my time and RP across different characters is what helps me stay interested in MMOs. The only time I have ever been satisfied with one character was on Final Fantasy 11 and Star Wars Galaxies before I got into Role-Play, at which point I turned around and saw that being a jack-of-all-trades as my progression would suggest was rather bland and unimaginative in a story sense.

 

Thus, even though we have the ability to do everything on one character, I will be doing only 1 class per character and filling up all 8 slots. I will most likely require a second account if they release more interesting classes. Like others have said, the $3 per character PER MONTH really bothers me. It is not so much the cost as much as it is the prinicple, I can't see them justifying it. Server space is a one time fee for them, why not for us? Quite crooked.

 

Even though I love the setting, the graphics, and SE's ability to blend everything up into an immersive experience I may end up not getting FFXIV if they either A: Continue with this pricing model B: Do not release more interesting classes (Alpha was very dry) or C: Discourage replayability as much as they did in FFXI. I really.. don't want to go through job raise quests, city missions, sky, and sea access equivilents on 8 characters. CoP was a nightmare.. :frustrated:

[Satrina]

Even though I love the setting, the graphics, and SE's ability to blend everything up into an immersive experience I may end up not getting FFXIV if they either A: Continue with this pricing model B: Do not release more interesting classes (Alpha was very dry) or C: Discourage replayability as much as they did in FFXI. I really.. don't want to go through job raise quests, city missions, sky, and sea access equivilents on 8 characters. CoP was a nightmare.. :frustrated:

 

 

C:There's nothing forcing you to do something like attune quests for all 8 characters. That's your choice in the long run really, because you have chosen to focus on 8 characters instead of 1. They do have to make room for the saving of character information and such on their side so that would probably be why the restriction is there. Even a game that was not as graphically intense, aka WoW only had a set amount of character slots per server. Perhaps it will be 1 slot per server for FF14, but I can see the reason behind this. B:

 

B:Hop on board when the game goes for PS3 then. The original FFXI was nothing like it is today, or even what it was when RoZ came out. Remember that FFXI came out for PC first, in Japan and was later released to PS2 with RoZ, which introduced a lot more zones, additional classes and story missions (Original FFXI only had a few city missions and that was it.). What you'll see in beta tomorrow and leading up to release will be a large building block for what is to come class-wise.

 

A:The pricing model is great imo, but I think that way due to my belief in raising a single character. I don't need multiple alts because if I RP, i'll just stick to the one character RPwise and PvE progression wise. The overall monthly fee is less then WoW, for a game that is shaping up to be much better in comparison (And how old is WoW? Or other games that charge 15+ a month?).

[Akashi]

Unfortunately, my super beast desktop is away being repaired and this laptop can barely handle WoW.. so I won't be able to play the beta until much later :lol: just lurk on the general discussion forums in the test site and see what I am missing... :study:

 

I did play FFXI briefly before RoZ was released then picked it up later on after it hit with the NA release on the PC. Honestly I did not feel as disconnected with the classes there as I did with the classes in the Alpha.

 

It may seem I am being a bit harsh with it all but I am a completionist, alternative characters being no exception. I realize that I would have to work extra hard to progress through the non-leveling content on my multiple characters as opposed to someone playing just one.. I am comfortable with that in WoW. Every one of those characters will be RPed, leveled to the maximum within 1 job and used in endgame activities. I just want to be able to do that without losing my mind ala FFXI.

[Seraphine Felstar]

One thing I learned on FFXI is that I HATE crafting on my main character. If I could go back and do FFXI again I'd get to 100 crafting on a mule first, do a craft on my main just to say I have it, and keep my inventory space to myself. Even with retainers having a lot of crafting materials and having to shift them around on a main character every time you want to craft sucks imo. If it hasn't changed I'll be forced to have at least two characters.

 

However I will say this, even though it's a bit off topic... at the launch of FFXI you could get all crafts to 100 (the same as now in FF14). Later they decided to change this and you could only have one craft to max level. Only one person on my server has two 100 crafts because they got them both to 100 before the change. Just something to think about.

[Aveline]

However I will say this, even though it's a bit off topic... at the launch of FFXI you could get all crafts to 100 (the same as now in FF14). Later they decided to change this and you could only have one craft to max level. Only one person on my server has two 100 crafts because they got them both to 100 before the change. Just something to think about.

 

Hm that is interesting, I didn't know that about FFXI formerly having no level cap on crafts. I -may- make a crafting mule, still not sure though. It would be kind of fun to have character that has never leveled up a physical or magical job class and have a craft at 100 :3

[Zhavi]

I am pro roleplay. My friends are. . .well. . .very NOT roleplay. I foresee at least two characters: Viko, my miqo'te, and probably a Riktentia or Korinshina for my gamer buddies who have known me by those tags. I don't mind paying for the one extra, since that bumps the sub fee up to what I've paid for other games.

[Faust]

Well, some potentially good news today. Word is that retainers will be able to do equipment repairs somehow, so if you want to RP a retainer as some kind of crafter alt rather than just a shopkeep or servant, looks like that might be an option for you. I'm wondering if this means you'll actually be able to raise crafts on retainers somehow or if they'll somehow use your main's skills.