Limitation of Alpha Accounts to Veterans & Omega Account Holders

[MB_ThePhotographer]

@Syzygium

the company would be well advised to address that issue.

Fixed it for you! Sorry, just an old habit… That’s their problem, not mine. Can they pull it off is my question. Can CCP’s/FU UK team pull it off?

[mecrotic]

@Syzygium

It becomes a massive problem if players have 30 Alpha accounts

Just wait till you find out how many PAID alts some ppl have…lol

[Sonder_Majus]

Off-topic

New thread discussing abuse of unlimited free Alpha accounts.

Alpha account abusers:

@mecrotic

The “elegant” solution is the one ccp already came up with. One per physical person online at a time. And if you feel someone is abusing this; then feel free to report…

Edit: I wonder what valid/desirable aspects of the game would be hurt if Alpha accounts were restricted to only one active Alpha account per individual player. If there are less negatives, than there are benefits, then:

-- Players can own multiple Alpha accounts.
– Activating one account would deactivate the other.
– Activating an account could take time, let’s say at least 18 hours. Also, activation could happen at the end of a cycle, similar to how Armour reps work.
– Inactive accounts would be frozen, they wouldn’t accumulate any SP and so on.

The point would be to have a cooldown on how quickly one can jump into Alpha account, reducing their utility considerably. Cooldown could be longer than 18 hours. Freezing activity truly limits Alphas to “only one Alpha account online”.

#RoastMySuggestion

[mecrotic]

Why do you keep spamming the thread if its off topic…? lol you think thats gonna protect you? RIP…><

[Kane_Carnifex]

Technical Stuff…

I will ignore all comments about Technical Solutions.
Nobody from you have or are allowed to share Fenris insight about it.
And i am not disscussing a Black Box.

Technical post counter: +11
I stop counting from here.

I recommend you check out Jobs like " Data Scientist " and the Topics of Data Mining to get better understanding what is already possible.

@Sara_Seraph

At first glance, restricting Alphas to Exordium seems to be a good idea.

For example, I am a 20 year omega and by chance I am at Fanfest and forget to pay my subscription, now what?

How do you perfom a mass action like a skill farm with a Single Account?

I don´t see an issue here.

@Glenduil

This isn’t illegal. They simply cannot be logged in simultaneously. This is allowed and approved- skill up as an Alpha up to the limit. Nothing wrong with that according to CCP.

Yes, which also would be ok to my solution.
If you use it to train up for an XYZ Capital Account no issue.
If you start creating a Skillfarm you get banned or a Negwallet.

@Syzygium

I tried to explain that. It won’t be a problem if an omega Player had another Alpha account to try out things here and there. Or dip into another activity, meeting other people etc without using his main character or related other chars for that.

It becomes a massive problem if players have 30 Alpha accounts to passively sit in strategic locations to give them instant access to presence there. Plus the option to have logged out Omega tools on Alpha chars for free that they keep basically maintenance-free and totally invincible. Which they still can log in anytime and either hand them over to omega characters that just have to sneak in with a shuttle or by just giving the Char omega status ‘on demand’ with a cheap ‘Fleet Weekend Pack’ or some PLEX.

And all that is already done on a massive scale by big alliances. This is not what Alphas were designed forr and the company would be well advised to adress that issue.

I sign this. Skillfarms get chased out on Free Omega Weekends.

@Anna_Dyneaux

There’s no elegant solution, but that doesn’t change the fact that alphas are an issue. EVE is unique, and I love it, but I don’t think anyone can argue that making a hundred trial accounts to hide warships in various wormholes in case you need them in the future is a strategy we should be endorsing.

Is it clever? Absolutely. Is it unique to EVE? No doubt. Is it good that this is a thing? Very much not.

That would be under my solution a bannable action.
Beside this is very easy to track.
Alpha + Wormhole + Same Account Holder + No real game activity on these chars

@Sonder_Majus

Edit: I wonder what valid/desirable aspects of the game would be hurt if Alpha accounts were restricted to only one active Alpha account per individual player. If there are less negatives, than there are benefits, then:

– Players can own multiple Alpha accounts.
– Activating one account would deactivate the other.
– Activating an account could take time, let’s say at least 18 hours. Also, activation could happen at the end of a cycle, similar to how Armour reps work.
– Inactive accounts would be frozen, they wouldn’t accumulate any SP and so on.

The point would be to have a cooldown on how quickly one can jump into Alpha account, reducing their utility considerably. Cooldown could be longer than 18 hours. Freezing activity truly limits Alphas to “only one Alpha account online”.

#RoastMySuggestion

Is an alterntive approach but mostly affects skillfarms.
I don´t mind having people skill up their Alts for Capitals with the magic 14 instead of rushing with Omega. Will note it down as it actually is a diffrent approach and we have a lack of these in this thread right now. Thank you very much.

Essence so far

There is a strong beliefe which this is technical not possible.
How many Omega & Alpha Storys do we have in EVE which got banned?
Apperently one public via reddit which would mean its an edge case and if you trim the 5% Top / Bottom the case is gone.

I would like to frame the Alpha Account ussage as the following:

To give beginners a chance to explore New Eden
To give Veterans a chance to comeback to the Game and see the changes
BUT NOT
any acctivite which generates ISK, INTEL or is not related to “discover” NEW EDEN.

[Gerard_Amatin]

So the intended goal of limiting the number of Alpha accounts is to stop strategies like:

• seeding wormholes with Alpha characters
• skill farming Alphas with short-term Omega like weekend pass

Would it not be possible to come up with mechanical solutions to these problems?

I mean, instead of continuously spending dev time doing analytics on players who do something that’s currently innocent but slightly unwanted seems like a waste to me if this time could be used to analyze bots, RMT and imput broadcasting instead, i.e. real cheaters with a much bigger negative impact on the game.

For example a mechanical solution to Alpha skill farms is to lock skill extraction for Omega characters that haven’t been Omega ‘long enough’. Define a minimum time of two weeks and people suddenly need a full month of Omega to extract instead of a wekend pass or a free week gained from CCP, making this strategy for ‘free ISK’ far less economically attractive.

And the other issue of wormhole seeding: what if for example CCP sends all Alpha characters that are in wormhole space and have not logged in for a month or more randomly to one of five designated wormhole systems? Hard to exploit, and suddenly seeding is far more work.

I’m not saying these are the exact solutions we need, but I much prefer such mechanical solutions that reduce the value of additional Alpha accounts for veterans than any ‘rule’.

Mechanical solutions like these have my preference over ‘account limits’ because not only does this not forever eat valuable ongoing dev analytics time once implemented (as these are fire-and-forget solutions), they’re also much less prone to accidental false positives banning parent and child playing Alphas in the same household.

TL;DR: I agree that Alphas should not be exploited by veterans, but I prefer if CCP patches the exploits away rather than creating hard-to-enforce account limits.

[Kane_Carnifex]

@Gerard_Amatin

So the intended goal of limiting the number of Alpha accounts is to stop strategies like:

• seeding wormholes with Alpha characters
• skill farming Alphas with short-term Omega like weekend pass

To stop any ISK Farming activities by Veterans.
Thats not the intened playstayle for Alphas.

If you have 500 Alphas… and 3 Days of Omega to cash out.
You will use Scripts to automate this process or you have an island talent.
So this goes hand in hand.

[Gerard_Amatin]

Alphas already have reduced ISK income compared to Omega characters.

No T2 ships, no higher tier missions, limited skills, no multiboxing, no PI, little industry etc.

The Alpha ISK income is never going to be reduced to 0 without neutering the ability for new players to learn to play the game as Alpha.

@Kane_Carnifex

If you have 500 Alphas… and 3 Days of Omega to cash out.

Yea, I addressed that further down in the post you quoted.

[Geo_Eclipse_Oksaras]

Our group only has 20 some alphas just for arcs. Outside of that they dont get used

[Kane_Carnifex]

Which would be totally fine.
In special if you need to get grounded what beginners can do with their Ships.
Thats why i use Meta Vexors with EVE Uni Pilots to run the PVE Event.

[Drake_Iddon]

@Kane_Carnifex

Technical Stuff…

I will ignore all comments about Technical Solutions.
Nobody from you have or are allowed to share Fenris insight about it.
And i am not disscussing a Black Box.

Technical post counter: +11
I stop counting from here.

I recommend you check out Jobs like " Data Scientist " and the Topics of Data Mining to get better understanding what is already possible

Its not really for you to dictate what people can suggest to CCP mate, its also server and software engineers to create the endpoints, not the data scientists

[Kane_Carnifex]

@Drake_Iddon

ts not really for you to dictate what people can suggest to CCP mate, its also server and software engineers to create the endpoints, not the data scientists

I can´t discuss over something which i have no knowledge.
If you want to discuss about a black box feel free.
But my point stands which it woulnd´t help to discuss on a fictional base how it get technical invented.

But if you really want my 5 Cents if this can technically be secured.
Than it is a clear and simple → Yes, it is technically possible and was already 5 Years ago.

[mecrotic]

you signed the tos bro?

[Syzygium]

lol.

[Asveron_Durr]

tos does not allow for emails never used to connect to the game company to be tracked and identified and tied to a personal id. thats my issue…it doesnt matter if you play the game…if you have multiple emails…more than 1 and one day decide to use one of the xtras …adn you suddenly get banned for doing so…that means the company was tracking every email you have/had irregardless of connecting to their system. In my mind that is illegal, it is cyber terrorism, CCP/FC are not a goverment agency like in my country the FBI, CIA, DHS, etc…it has no legal authority to do this.

[mecrotic]

Well if your getting banned for using another e-mail then your probably trying to circumvent tos in the first place?

[Asveron_Durr]

yes i am.

I have nothing better to do than to start litigation on a memer of the ISD if find that i have teh ability to do so. at the very least im going after them in house by asking for them to be punished for failure to moderate properly..ie as in removal from teh ISD team

[Asveron_Durr]

tos does not say yo u cant have more than 1 email.

and we know for several yrs now that if you put all your characters on 1 email…then you get bonus subscription options to pay cheaper than other ppl on those accounts.

[mecrotic]

@Asveron_Durr

if you have multiple emails…more than 1 and one day decide to use one of the xtras …adn you suddenly get banned for doing so

but you said?

[mecrotic]

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