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Is it cheating to create an org of alts?


GaugeWraith

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I have been following the larger orgs since I am not in one atm and I noticed that there is a new one called IBF (International Banking Federation). This has grown at a rate of about 10/day or accounts that at the start had just created their accounts and had neither profiles nor descriptions. After a couple days, the people joining switched to being names of people all in the same format with a picture of that person. I suspect foul play. (there are also a few accounts once the IBF got bigger that I suspect are real, like SongofStorm & Jamar_ )

 

This creation of a org starting base by one person spamming alts seems like some kind of cheating or at least breaking the spirit of the community to me because now new people are more likely to move to the org that spammed alts than the many other awesome and honest orgs that are now smaller.

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Once release hits they will all dissolve, but we could use a better solution. Does each account require email verification? If not then it should, it won't stop it, but could slow it down. Also inactive ones should be removed after a period of time, but that's just my opinion.

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Oh this conversation is so controversial. Well here's the deal. You shouldn't.

 

If you do decide to give your organization alts as it's playerbase, then they likely won't be in the alpha or beta, let alone in the finished product. Not only is it against the terms of service, but it also does no good like some expect.

 

Unless you harvest a whole ton through alts but even then, you're out of luck if NQ figures out. 

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In EVE it's believed that at least half the population, if not more, are alts. You get three slots with one account and only one of them can skill up at any one time for payment of that account. If you want more than one slot skilling up, you pay for it. Or, you sub more than one account. A lot of people in EVE have 2 or more accounts. I know one guy that has 10 paid accounts but that's a bit extreme. Does this bother anyone in EVE? Not really. Most people make alts to cover skills not handled by their main. I have two accounts (6 slots) and of those slots 2 are used and the rest make up corporations I formed to provide a 'place' for my main and 'main' alt to be as the situation requires. Consider a 'tax break' maneuver of sorts.

 

Many corps in EVE explicitly state whether alts are acceptable as applicants and it is possible to determine the characters of a given account through the API and such. At the worst an active corporaton will purge inactive members from time to time, so players with little used alts will lose their membership. Corporations filled with alts often are used by losec pirates to provide a 'cover' their own alts so that all of them can be 'blued' or ID'ed as friendly as a group yet not be officially connected to said pirates. I mean, someone has to haul that loot into more secure (and patrolled) space, right?

 

There are uses for it definitely. 

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In EVE it's believed that at least half the population, if not more, are alts. You get three slots with one account and only one of them can skill up at any one time for payment of that account. If you want more than one slot skilling up, you pay for it. Or, you sub more than one account. A lot of people in EVE have 2 or more accounts. I know one guy that has 10 paid accounts but that's a bit extreme. Does this bother anyone in EVE? Not really. Most people make alts to cover skills not handled by their main. I have two accounts (6 slots) and of those slots 2 are used and the rest make up corporations I formed to provide a 'place' for my main and 'main' alt to be as the situation requires. Consider a 'tax break' maneuver of sorts.

 

Many corps in EVE explicitly state whether alts are acceptable as applicants and it is possible to determine the characters of a given account through the API and such. At the worst an active corporaton will purge inactive members from time to time, so players with little used alts will lose their membership. Corporations filled with alts often are used by losec pirates to provide a 'cover' their own alts so that all of them can be 'blued' or ID'ed as friendly as a group yet not be officially connected to said pirates. I mean, someone has to haul that loot into more secure (and patrolled) space, right?

 

There are uses for it definitely. 

Yeah, the only real use I can see for alts in DU, is for "running under the radar" kind of thing, for people to go to markets without being immediately tagged by people for a bounty on their heads. I mean, I would not bother either way, I welcome free content. But sometimes, I'd like to just chill without having a bunch of people knowing I'm online, either corp or buddies.

 

However, since there's no Jita ran by NPCs, you'll have to deal with a person sooner or later if you plan on freightering with an "alt". And people have ways of finding out who you are claiming you are, or where you claim you are from.

 

Plus, let's be honest, low-sec and hi-sec pirates do the Alt shuffle to avoid being rekt by all the wars they start with high-sec PVEr corps. Going to Jita with an a toon that's flagged for war, is suicide. And since there's no space po-po in DU, I can't really see your alt beign any safer near "highly patrolled space" than with your infamous main who may have a rep for "taking things to the extreme" so people know to give you a wide birth upon seeign your ship's name. In fact, your alt who nobody knows, will be picekd right off, since "guy's a nobody, let's just explode his ship".

 

DU devs really have gutted the worst parts of EVE so far, and I am glad about it. No server-side industry, no automated mining and hopefully, no wardecs, since no Concord :D

 

Now add cross skill-training bonuses and we defuse the "I train 5 alts, one for combat, one for logi, one for mining, one for industry and one for trade", thus making investing skill-training on ONE toon more important for veterans.

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I'm with twerk here

 

In eve you need alts because of how mechanics work and for certain tasks it's just more convenient to have one (WH scouting, mining, industry toon, neutral hauler in Highsec,...) and because of one thing: Even low end machines can run 2 clients at once. Plus the controls in eve support multiboxing, because it's 3rd person with automated orbits, follow and such.

 

I don't see multiboxing being a thing in DU because of first person and the needed hardware.

 

The only benefit you have will involve

- Infiltrators

- Neutral chars for stuff

- mule/lua chars

 

We don't know the EULA yet, so maybe NQ even forbids multiple accounts - who knows

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meh.  I don't see a point in being a part of any org prior to release.

 

This isn't to say that others can't or don't have good reasons... just that I don't.

 

I don't have any idea really what activity I'm going to most enjoy doing or what will need an org to help organize it... Until I actually get to play the game.  I don't know what will actually be a viable play style... if say a person could never leave a town... provide crafting services... sell wares... and issue quests for crafting components... and whether doing that would be fun.  Or if I'll find a loner asteroid miner or other such thing more to my liking.

 

I expect most orgs made now won't survive long.  The only thing I think could have some value (for me) would be some sort of pre-release social club that closed to new membership after release... except for adding your alts... so people who have been around from the beginning could hang with each other. 

 

I'm an alt-aholic in most games.  I make characters with certain character traits in mind... even if I don't partake in any overt role-playing... There is an element of role play in every character I make... they aren't me.  And I tend to split my time between them evenly... I'm not sure if I can do that in this game.  And the idea of having a main character... a representation of me for the long term... the years it may take for the civilization within the game to grow and expand ... for my character to stick around in an org... is sorta weird to me.

 

But the Op was taking about artificially inflating your organizations membership numbers in order to attract members...  Yeah that's clearly something you shouldn't do.

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meh.  I don't see a point in being a part of any org prior to release.

 

This isn't to say that others can't or don't have good reasons... just that I don't.

 

I don't have any idea really what activity I'm going to most enjoy doing or what will need an org to help organize it... Until I actually get to play the game.  I don't know what will actually be a viable play style... if say a person could never leave a town... provide crafting services... sell wares... and issue quests for crafting components... and whether doing that would be fun.  Or if I'll find a loner asteroid miner or other such thing more to my liking.

 

I expect most orgs made now won't survive long.  The only thing I think could have some value (for me) would be some sort of pre-release social club that closed to new membership after release... except for adding your alts... so people who have been around from the beginning could hang with each other. 

 

I'm an alt-aholic in most games.  I make characters with certain character traits in mind... even if I don't partake in any overt role-playing... There is an element of role play in every character I make... they aren't me.  And I tend to split my time between them evenly... I'm not sure if I can do that in this game.  And the idea of having a main character... a representation of me for the long term... the years it may take for the civilization within the game to grow and expand ... for my character to stick around in an org... is sorta weird to me.

 

But the Op was taking about artificially inflating your organizations membership numbers in order to attract members...  Yeah that's clearly something you shouldn't do.

I agree that the most of the organisations created now won't last for long. Some don't because elements they expected to exist won't work or just simply because they are just dreaming without doing something for it.

 

I also agree that joining an organisations this early doesn't make sense for some people, but for people who actually know their playstyle, joining an organisation may help them find a group to help each other early in the game.

 

Most people in this forum should have a plan tho.

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Most people in this forum should have a plan tho.

Goh, I dont see why we should have a plan.

Besides no plan survives first contact.

 

On the subject of alts, I'm a 1 character kind of guy. Playing alts doesnt really do it for me. In all my years of playing MMO's I've only made 1 alt, so yeah.

 

If it doesnt conflict with NQ's vision I would like a function to tag my character offline, for when I want an hour to myself.

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Goh, I dont see why we should have a plan.

 

Ah well, maybe it's just me, but I expected that most of the people who are pretty interested in the game are trying to plan things through.

 

Me as an example.

 

- Ryzekanzler

 

I like rice

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Ah well, maybe it's just me, but I expected that most of the people who are pretty interested in the game are trying to plan things through.

 

Me as an example.

 

- Ryzekanzler

 

I like rice

 

I'm very interested and involved but I have no plan...or clue. Because to me you can't plan ahead like Falstaf said, and Beta is more fun if you just try out every aspect of the game without bias or regulations from your org. You can't fight what you don't understand..... ;)

 

So yeah, just roll with it, and don't be too disappointed when things don't work out as planned

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I'm very interested and involved but I have no plan...or clue. Because to me you can't plan ahead like Falstaf said, and Beta is more fun if you just try out every aspect of the game without bias or regulations from your org. You can't fight what you don't understand..... ;)

 

So yeah, just roll with it, and don't be too disappointed when things don't work out as planned

You surely can plan ahead. Pretty far actually. You just have to avoid planing things that arent guaranteed. Or if you have to plan with unguaranteed things, you just have to plan many different ways to nearly guarantee the wished outcome.

 

Theory is the way to go to ensure a good start. I can't even have no plan even if I wish to have none, I am creating one as soon as I start thinking about the game.

 

Obviously, Beta isn't something you will use any plans in. Maybe some minor plans like what to try out first, but that's it. But at the end for me the beta/alpha is just to work out my Major plan for the release. :D

 

 

-Ryzekanzler

 

Rice really is the best

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You surely can plan ahead. Pretty far actually. You just have to avoid planing things that arent guaranteed. Or if you have to plan with unguaranteed things, you just have to plan many different ways to nearly guarantee the wished outcome.

 

Theory is the way to go to ensure a good start. I can't even have no plan even if I wish to have none, I am creating one as soon as I start thinking about the game.

 

Obviously, Beta isn't something you will use any plans in. Maybe some minor plans like what to try out first, but that's it. But at the end for me the beta/alpha is just to work out my Major plan for the release. :D

 

 

-Ryzekanzler

 

Rice really is the best

 

There are too many plans there involved. Do as you wish - all I can say on that matter is: I've seen many many groups and people fail in betas because they expected something else. Then the whining started and accusations and it was a mess. Bad PR for those games followed, only because some dudes were too eager with their planning instead of waiting for beta and THEN making plans, based upon mechanics and actual gameplay. Been there, done that - never, ever again.

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There are too many plans there involved. Do as you wish - all I can say on that matter is: I've seen many many groups and people fail in betas because they expected something else. Then the whining started and accusations and it was a mess. Bad PR for those games followed, only because some dudes were too eager with their planning instead of waiting for beta and THEN making plans, based upon mechanics and actual gameplay. Been there, done that - never, ever again.

I may be stupid, but I am not a fool.(lol)

 

I know what you mean, but as I said: I am not a fool(And hopefully not stupid either). :D

 

Some fail, some succeed... I have been the second type most of the time. :D

 

-RiceChancellor

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